Shattered

Camp

The Hunters drank and ate and laughed like one big happy family. Zoe sat at the head of the table, like she always did for the past five thousand years. She didn't laugh as much as the others, but she did smile from time to time. Her silver lieutenant's band glittered in the dark braids of her hair. Bianca di Angelo seemed to be having a great time. She was trying to learn how to arm wrestle from Phoebe. The bigger girl was beating her every time, but Bianca didn't seem to mind.

When they'd finished eating, Chiron made the customary toast to the gods and formally welcomed the Hunters of Artemis. The clapping was pretty halfhearted. Then he announced the "good will" capture-the-flag game for tomorrow night, which got a lot better reception.

The hunters trailed behind Zoe as they made their way back to their cabin. Zoe overheard casual conversations, ranging from what the best method was to burn down the cabins, to more gruesome details such as the intricacies of castration.

Mostly normal talk.

When the hunters had made it to their cabin, most simply plopped onto their beds, exhausted with the day's events.

Zoe had attempted to sleep, truely she did, but the sweet lull of Morpheus's realm did not deem her worthy of invitation.

Resolving her mind, she snuck out of her own cabin, making sure that the rest of her hunt did not witness what she had told them countless times to avoid.

Hipocricy at its best...

Zoe slowly strolled about the camp, making sure to avoid the countless harpies as she milled about Camp Half Blood.

The last time she had experienced the events, she had no trouble sleeping before the night where she received the prophecy.

She noticed a figure in the distance.

It had seemed someone else had troubled sleeping too.

Zoe sneaked forward, checking who was out all alone in the middle of the night.

Other than herself that is...

The first detail she noticed was the other person's wind swept, Raven black hair. He was staring off into the distance.

It was Perseus Jackson.

The raven haired demigod was an anomaly. He confused the huntress greatly. He was just... Different. All he had ever known about the opposite sex was coming into question. And that was before he seemed to be behaving completely different from last time around.

He carried himself with more confidence, almost as though he knew that he was strong, but not to an extent that made him overzealous or cocky.

The son of Poseidon was kind hearted, selfless and loyal to the core.

He was effectively the polar opposite of both Heracles and Orion. The reasons of hate of men that her and her mistress held respectively.

Zoe remembered how Percy behaved the last time... Before she was taken back in time...

He was brave and powerful. He was willing to sacrifice himself with the burden of the sky, just so that Artemis could fight Atlas. He literally held the weight of the world for a woman.

Zoe recalled their fight with the Nemean Lion, without the boy's quick thinking, they surely would've been in trouble.

And with the prototype of Talos, he had tried his best to save Bianca but the girl had to ultimately sacrifice herself. Zoe wondered what she could do to prevent that outcome.

She knew that tempering with fate wasn't a great decision, but she had been the reason that Bianca had died... She chose the young, and inexperienced girl for the quest.