Lord of the Eclipse

5 | Plans

As he held out his arms, a young woman, no more than eighteen, ran to him.

"I thought you were dead," Artemis sobbed, clutching her younger brother like a lifeline. The hunters reached for their bows, recognizing their mistress in the arms of a man--a man who had just sent a Titan back to Tartarus.

Zoë stepped forwards menacingly. It did not matter if the man had saved their lives, but how dare he touch the maiden goddess? As she opened her mouth to yell, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"No, Zoë, let them be. He is family." said Apollo. Normally, the lieutenant would shove him away and ignore him, but something in his voice made her hesitate. His eyes which were normally a sky blue whilst it held a trace of sorrow were now as bright as a summer day, true joy alighting in them.

He let go of Zoë's shoulder and ran to his brother and sister. Surprising the hunters, the unknown man opened his arms again to welcome Apollo, the three gods laughing and crying in joy.

Finally, Artemis pulled away, a completely different expression on her face.

And she slapped him.

"Why did you leave us! How could you be so idiotic?" she screamed angrily.

Perseus looked at her sorrowfully, "I did not plan to be defeated, nor did I plan to be taken from you. Forgive me dear sister,"

The hunters gasped. Was this another son of Zeus?

Finally, the three gods noticed they had an awestruck audience. After giving Artemis and Apollo another hug, he turned towards them. "Who are these girls, sister? Are they your priestesses?"

"Who do you think you are, boy, to not recognize the Hunters of Artemis?" snapped Phoebe, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"That is enough Phoebe, he is my brother and he is to be respected." ordered the goddess.

"But Apollo is your full brother and you tell us not to respect him!" cried another hunter.

Perseus stepped forward, silencing anymore complaints, "Maybe because I am Perseus, son of Zeus and Leto, God of Heroes and Lord of the Eclipse."

———————

"How did you come back?" demanded Apollo, while sitting at the Hunter's campsite. The hunters were busy with their chores, but occasionally they would throw glances at the dark haired stranger.

"I did fade. Or at least, come as close as possible to fading, because Mnemosyne had removed me from history. I would have faded completely, but she made a mistake. Allowing you to remember me gave me strength to barely hold on,"

At this he smiled, "Every time you forced an eclipse to form, you lost energy remember?"

The twin archers nodded, catching on.
"I was taking your power to return. Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"It doesn't matter," Apollo laughed, "I would do it in a heartbeat, if it meant saving you."

"As would I," agreed Artemis.

There was a quiet but peaceful pause until Artemis broke the silence.

"Now that Mnemosyne is reforming, will they regain their memories?"

Apollo looked thoughtful, "I believe they will remember, but it will take time for centuries of changed memories to return."

Perseus and Artemis both blinked.

"Did you just say something smart?"

As Apollo grumbled, Artemis finally called her hunters over, sensing their increasing curiosity.

———————

"I would trust him with my life, as would Apollo. You will find he is one of the only acceptable males, with no doubt." Artemis finished, leaving her hunters in awe.

Here was a forgotten legend. All of the myths they knew were wrong. Even though they trusted Artemis' word, it was still hard for them to trust a man they had just met, considering the last time Artemis trusted a man, Orion happened. Artemis seeing the distrust and unease, said, "I swear on the Styx he can be trusted,"

At the immediate change in the mood of the hunters, Perseus knew Artemis had just sworn an extremely dangerous oath to prove his loyalty.

"What is this swear on the Styx sister?" he asked Artemis, confusion and curiosity taking over. Why would she swear on that river goddess?

"Little brother, we have so much to tell you." laughed Artemis; her first real laugh in centuries.

As they talked through the night, the hunters chiming in at different intervals, Perseus slowly learned about the fall of Greece, the rise of Rome and Camp Half-Blood for the demigods.

Although when a hunter stated that Camp Half-Blood was the only other safe place for demigods besides the Hunt, he did catch the nervous glance between Apollo and Artemis. He chose to ask them later.

As dawn arrived, the siblings became of aware of their dilemma. Allowing her hunters to sleep, Artemis led her brothers out to the surrounding forest. "Should we head to Olympus now? Our family needs to--"

"No,"

Both siblings turned to Perseus in shock.

"Why not, brother? They should remember you soon enough," Apollo asked quietly. Perseus only smiled sadly at the sun god, "They will remember, but not yet. I say we give it a year and allow me to visit your camp for heroes,"

"Camp Half-Blood?" Artemis and Apollo shared another glance. If Perseus wasn't a god, he would have never caught it.

"You're hiding something," he declared, "And don't lie, I've known you since we were little godlings."

Sure enough, they blushed at being caught.

"We talked about Rome and how our names changed, but that's not all that happened." Apollo said hesitantly, "Our personalities and domains were altered, Rome had such a large influence as Greece had, that it was impossible for it not to still be a part of us. On the other side of America, is Camp Jupiter, where Roman demigods live."

"So the gods don't really change all that much with creating children?"

"No, no they don't." Apollo said almost too cheerfully.

"And the hunters will not tell the gods or campers of who you are if I wish it, so don't worry brother." Artemis reassured him as well.

"Give me a moment to decide, two adventures and you tell me to pick one? This is hard," Perseus smiled.

"And don't worry about my appearance, I will change it. I thought you had more faith in my abilities than Apollo's," Perseus smirked, guessing Artemis' second question.

"Hey!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry about the late post, I had finals.

So if it weren't obvious, you get to choose which camp he goes to, Roman or Greeks

And also good news, PixelUp is going to try and pursue a writing career and self-publish an original story. YAY!

Dedicated to @KillOctivan great name XD

See ya later!