Changing the Future

Chapter 28

"Don't give her anymore; she'll burn up," I heard someone say above me.

"Look, she's waking up!"

"That's impossible."

I groaned as I sat up, holding a hand against my head. I was sitting on asphalt, various different lines painted on it, like we had stopped on the side of the highway. It wasn't until I saw a couple of planes that I realized we were at Crissy Field.

I looked around, feeling the blood rush from my face as I saw Atalanta and Zoe laying motionless on the ground. Atalanta's face had been covered by her parka, her hands folded over her chest, hiding the wound she had sustained. As for Zoe, Artemis was standing over her, crying as her lieutenant was slowly dying from Ladon's poison.

"Woah, there," I heard Percy say. "Don't try to get up. You've been through a lot these past few days."

"I don't care," I muttered, forcing myself to sit up despite every muscle in my body screaming at me to lay back down. I got out my bag and rummaged through it, trying to find that pesky vial I'd gotten from Salina years ago. "I need to give this to Zoe."

"You're going to turn her into a tree?" Thalia asked, recognizing the vial in my hand.

"Wait, what?" Percy asked, staring at the vial. "You were the one that turned Luke and Thalia into a pine tree?"

"Yes, but that's not important. And, no, this won't turn her into a tree. It's a cure to Ladon's poison."

Thalia's eyes widened in surprise. She took the vial from my hands and ran over to Artemis, letting the goddess force the medicine down Zoe's throat. I watched as Zoe's body convulsed, initially rejecting the medicine, before she relaxed, sitting up calmly and pressing a hand to her side, clearly surprised when her hand didn't come back stained red.

"But what about the prophecy?" Percy asked as Zoe, Artemis, and Thalia returned back to where I was still struggling to stay sitting. "I'm very happy that you're alive, Zoe, but who is the one who perished by a parent's hand?"

"Atalanta, I'm afraid," I said, gesturing to the fallen Huntress. "The man in the body armor had been her father."

"How do you know that?" Artemis asked, her eyes shining with unshed tears about the loss of one of her friends.

"I was the one that brought Atalanta to you, my lady. I found her on the streets, asked if she wanted to go to a safe place, and once she told me about her abusive mercenary father, I led her to you. After I knocked him out, his mask fell off, and I recognized him from a picture Atalanta had shown me."

"Thank you for telling us," Zoe said. "But for the love of gods, please pass out again. My Lady has told us about your strength and resilience, but you're still mortal. No one walks away from the sky without some token."

"Like that?" I asked, gesturing towards Percy.

"What happened?" he asked, patting himself down like he'd expected to grow an extra limb or something.

"Your hair!" Thalia gasped. "It has a gray streak now!"

"We can discuss this all in due time, I assure you," Artemis said, "but I must get going. The winter solstice meeting is about to begin, and I must be there. I'll send for transport."

Artemis hopped into her moon chariot, flicked the reins, and her dozen deer took off, leaving her as a silver blur in the night sky. Behind her, little pinpricks of light seemed to fall from the chariot. Once she was truly gone, I stared at the new stars in the sky, smiling sadly after I figured out what Artemis had done.