Percy Jackson, Angel of Chaos

Chapter 21: Oh not much just assassination

Past Artemis' P.O.V

~ 500 years in the past ~

A terrible pain struck my heart as Percy uttered those words. The more sane part of my mind yelled at me that he was right there; sitting in front of me, but somehow the agony two words created overruled that.

And so I asked myself; why do I care?

I had always had a soft spot for Percy, knowing that he took the sky for me and earned my dearest Zoë's respect. She now resided in the skies with her beloved stars, at peace with herself because she knew that Anaklusmos now served a worthy master, a great hero.

And that was what he was; a great hero- the greatest in fact. He achieved bigger and better things than any that preceded him, yet he still had his modesty.

Never once had he undermined me or viewed me as a weak female who was unable to care for herself. No, he respected me for the huntress I was. Whenever I saw him, I felt indescribably...happy.

So when he told us he had died, I couldn't help the tears that gathered on my cheeks. I scolded myself for crying over a mere demigod- a male at that. I was the great goddess Artemis, one to be feared by foul men and worshipped by innocent maidens. I stuck terror into the hearts of my enemies and brought victory to the Olympians. I was the eldest twin of Leto and Zeus, a force to be reckoned with.

So why was I crying over a boy?

"What?" Poseidon choked out breathlessly, his eyes wide and feral.

"I died. Passed on. Snuffed it" Percy summarized with a shrug. Each word carved into my heart like a white-hot dagger.

"No...No, y-you can't h-have.....no..." Poseidon denied, shaking his head, his lip trembling slightly.

"I'm sorry-" Percy started but he was cut across by my future self.

"Don't you dare apologise Perseus Jackson! It is no-one but their own faults you died and they should suffer the repercussions." She/I glared at him angrily.

I looked around the room, just to see how people were truly 'suffering' as I so aptly put it.

Poseidon looked on the verge of either attacking someone or committing suicide. I had no doubt that several storm and tsunamis were ravaging the world. Tears streamed down his wearied face as stared at his son.

The immortal campers wept as they clung to each other for comfort. I silently smirked as I saw their pain, knowing it was nothing compared to Perseus'. They kept whispering heartbroken apologies, but they knew that nothing would be sufficient; nothing could ever make up for what they did.

Annabeth had something akin to madness in her eyes, as if something deep inside her had finally snapped as her heart poured out of her mouth in broken wails.

They gods and goddesses, including myself, looked down guiltily, knowing we could have done more. If only we had paid more attention to our heroes, if only we had the decency to maybe even check up on what they were doing, then maybe we could have prevented this from happening.

I looked to my father and saw something I had never seen on his ancient face; shame. Zeus never accounted for his actions, never admitted his wrongs and definitely never gave up his pride, but somehow this demigod seemed to do the impossible once again. He had made the arrogant king of Olympus show humility. Looking at my father, I saw a flicker of something. Something that led me to think that maybe, just maybe we could change our ways after all these years.

But at an awful cost.

Athena, with a pained expression, spoke up. "But surely you did not truly die? Did your heart stop for several minutes, but then you were resurrected?"