Abandoned- a pertemis story Ψ ☑️

Shooting Star. Chapter 15

Well. How do you like the HQ of the Rouge Demigods? I tried to make seem a little bit... uh, what's the word?, temporary. Like they could move at any time, though obviously it's still under construction. Anyway, I hope you like- Internet Head.

ΦArtemisΦ
I had zero clue what was happening. The Rouge's base of operations was overwhelming in many many ways. They just... hung like that? It was so unsafe... it was like they were taunting their mortality. I didn't understand how they could just... do those things.
I shook my head and watched our guide pick the lock.
"Are you.. allowed to do that?" Percy asked him, his ballpoint pen in his hand.
"Allowed to? I can do whatever I want as long as I don't get caught doing it. Dakota won't mind." Carmen answered without looking up.
"As long as you don't get caught doing it? What does that mean?" Alexus asked, her eyes shifting from something that moved to another. Her eyes looked blurred because there was something moving basically everywhere.
"It means that I can pick this lock now.." the door popped open "and make fun of his weak defenses to his face later." Carmen strode through the door. We cautiously followed him as he waltzed right up to a desk that looked rather worn and uncared for. A half destroyed name tag sat upon the desk, still smoking.
I heard a rustling sound and immediately took a defensive stance, my spear at my side.
Wolves made of swirling sand snarled from either side of us. Carmen didn't seem concerned with them. The wolf to the left of me lunged so I quickly stabbed it in the face and it exploded.
Thalia and Nico dispatched the other one, Thalia shooting it in the foot and Nico slicing its head off immediately after. I dusted off my hands but kept my spear close. I didn't know how many more enemies were here.
Carmen rummaged through some copy papers, even burned a few scrolls, before he seemed to find what he was looking for.
"Hmm. Really? Of course that's where he is..." Carmen sighed and folded the paper up, pocketing it.
"What? What does that mean?" I asked, leaning on my spear and glaring at him.
"He's in LA. Apparently he decided to take a Vacation. I'll have to go see him." He explained, looking annoyed.
"You can just... take vacations whenever?" Thalia asked, looking skeptical.
"Well no." Carmen said "he's not supposed to. He's never really been one for the rules anyway."
"So we have to go to... LA now?" Percy said with confusion.
"Not all of us." Nico said.
"What do you mean?" Carmen asked the boy.
"Some of us can stay behind. We might be able to find other sources now that we know these Demigods exist. Maybe we can shake some information out of them." Nico shrugged like he didn't actually think it was a good idea "I don't know."
"I don't think you really understand us..." Carmen said "you can't just shake us down. You can bargain... you can fight and win, you could even steal the information, but shake us down? No. Most of us are specifically trained to resist intimidation." He explained, looking a little disappointed.
"But we could potentially get the information from other places besides Dakota?" I spoke up.
"Yes, you could. But who would be up for going around the U.S to steal and or trade for information?" Carmen said, giving me an apologetic look. We looked at Nico.
"Yeah alright. But someone has to go with me... I can't do it alone." He grudgingly admitted. Thalia raised her hand and slapped him on the back which made him look more uncomfortable.
"Well deathbreath. I think I'm up for the challenge..." she said with a grin. Nico looked around.
"Anybody else?" He pleaded.
"Nope. Your stuck with me!" Thalia said, happy with his discomfort.
"Well that's settled." Alexus said, slipping her hands into her jean pockets.
"Before this goes on... let's go see the board." Carmen said "it'll be easier with their blessing."
"The who?" Percy blinked as though he couldn't believe it.
"The board Percy, don't be daft." I swatted his shoulder and walked out the door, leaving him confused and sputtering. That does put a smile on my face.

Carmen led us through several secret passages and a chained up Sphinx who was more than happy to be there. She was oddly enthusiastic about it. Finally he led us to a set of double doors where one side was dark with steel and Stygian iron and seemed to draw in Nico. The other door was white with silver and ivory and it was hard to tear my gaze off of it.
Carmen pushed them open and showed us a large circular room with a raised booth and four seats.
Inhabiting these seats were three boys and a girl. Two boys had dark hair with the middle one having light blonde, almost silvery, hair. The girl had auburn hair, like the type I used to often sport when I was Diana.
Their eyes swept over us, an odd shade of sapphire blue, dark brown, pitch black, and stormy green.
"Carmen. Your... back." The blonde boy spoke, seemingly unexcited.
"Yeah. Been awhile, right Zachariah?" He replied, hands on his hips. Zachariah took a deep breath at the mention of his name.
"It doesn't matter. What do you want?" The boy on the far right said, his dark hair almost obscuring his eyes. He looked like an older, buffer, less pale Nico.
Carmen shook his head "why can't I just say hi to my favorite council?" The boy on Zachariah's left waved a hand, his bronze skin a contrast against the light theme of the room.
"Cut the crap. Just ask already." He said with a sigh.
"Please." The girl grumbled.
Carmen coughed "okay. I want permission to track down Dakota and take him back, on the grounds that I get some info and custody of Dakota for awhile." He finished and clasped his hands.
The council looked at each other.
"I don't see why not. You've got my vote." Zachariah said, running a scarred hand through his hair.
"Do whatever. I'm too tired for this." Brown eyes said.
"Who am I to stop you? Go ahead..." the dark eyed boy sighed.
"I don't care either way. But if you do go promise you'll blow something up for me?" The girl asked, her eyes sparkling.
I blinked. This was all confusing.
"So I've got your blessing?" Carmen asked, wincing at his own question.
"Yeah. Just, uh, introduce us to your companions... your, uh, new faction." Zachariah said, eyeing me closely. His blue eyes seemed to glean all information from mine.
Carmen nodded "introduce yourselves." He said earnestly. He stepped back and fell silent. The room felt far emptier and bigger without the voices. Nico stepped forward, not wilting under their gaze.
"My name is Nico Di'Angelo, I am a son of Hades." He stared them down with his cold eyes. The dark eyed one leaned forward and steepled his fingers.
Thalia stood just behind him "I'm Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus." Her eyes sweeped over the council.
Alexus pushed her way past me "Alexus Galyna. Hunter of Artemis." The council didn't look surprised.
"Artemis. Goddess of the moon." I introduced myself, smirking a bit.
The council deliberated a bit on this. They decided that it wasn't all that surprising either.
Percy stepped forward "Percy Jackson-."
"- Son of Poseidon." Zachariah muttered, watching him.
"You've... heard of me?" Percy's eyes hardened.
"Heard of you? Your a legend, Mister Jackson. Almost a myth. The highest rank of infamy." Zachariah said "we all know you. Most of us grew up reading about you."
"What...? Reading?" Percy took an involuntary step back from shock.
Zachariah nodded and then reached into his black and white track jacket pocket. He withdrew a large maroon cloth bound leather book that had a large circle with a symbol burned into the front. The symbol of Poseidon, the trident. The other council members removed their own copies, each one had a different tag on the spine though. One had the Empire State Building. One had a small maze. The next depicted a glowing sword, much like Riptide to my surprise. The last one had an eye, most likely a cyclops'.
Carmen reaches into his jacket and brought out a book as well, it's symbol having two large double doors, partly open.
The titles of these books read as such in small burned letters under the title Jacksonian Pathway followed by a Roman numeral:
The sea of Monsters which was the eye.
Battle of the Labyrinth which was the maze.
The lightning Thief had the sword.
House of Hades read the one with the doors.
I furrowed my brow and started rubbing my temples. I remembered these events.
"We all carry out favorite parts of the Jacksonian Pathway but the entire thing is like- woah." Zachariah exclaimed, handing Percy his book, The lightning Thief which was labeled as the first.
Percy flipped through it and his eyes widened.
"What...? This is... how could you possibly know all this?" He snapped the book shut and set it back on the counter as though it were a deadly snake, his hands shaking.
"Originally they were all word of mouth but once they got written down other things started happening. Some of our group had some future seeing ability, from them we got these or so I've been told." Zachariah explained, putting a hand on the cover.
"So you've been told..?" Nico spoke up, looking at Carmen's House of Hades with a little bit of disdain.
"Yes. These were here long before I was, before the oldest of us was." Zachariah looked at the dark eyed one who nodded.
"When I got here they were already very prominent in Rouge Society." He said.
"Thank you, Hunter." Zachariah said with a nod to his companion.
"Yeah. The Jacksonian Pathway and the Kane chronicles as well as the Magnesian Letters are all prominent figures in our society. It's funny how the work of heroes influences others, isn't it?" The light eyed guy said with a smile.
"Tyler... calm down." The girl scowled and shook her head.
"That's no fair Jasmine!" Tyler complained and Jasmine just glared at him.
"Okay... who are you people?" Thalia asked.
"Well... that's a bit complicated. Tyler here is a combat mage and-." Zachariah started.
"You mean like Carter?" Percy asked. We all stared at him and he shrugged.
Zachariah looked happily surprised "you remember him?" He asked.
"Well yeah. Of course I'd remember an Egyptian combs-!" He was cut off by Nico choking on his own words.
"A what!?" He said wildly.
I nodded slowly "why are you all so surprised? The Egyptians have been close neighbors to the Greeks for a long while... doesn't Thoth hang out in a stadium or something?" I addressed the room.
Zachariah nodded "different manifestations of the same truth. Many different gods exist. Hunter is the son of Thanatos, our Greek representative." Hunter nodded and Nico eyed him with a look of confusion and awe.
"Tyler is a combat Mage, the path of Horus." Tyler smiled and raised a hand. Percy tentatively raised one back.
"Jasmine is Norse, daughter of Tyr." Jasmine swept her eyes over us and it felt like getting attacked with an axe. I would know.
Nico was having a stroke "you mean Norse exist too?" He asked incredulously.
Percy gave him a look "dude. You knew about the Romans before anybody else. Shut up." Nico made a strangled noise but did as asked.
"And you? What are you?" I asked.
"If I knew." His electric eyes met mine and I could see the abyss within them. "I would tell you."

The walk away from the council room felt pretty normal to me but the rest looked like they needed a moment to get their heads on straight.
"Norse..." Nico muttered, rubbing a hand down his face.
"Egyptian?" Thalia said, looking angry and confused.
"I don't even..." Alexus shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I have books." Percy said, the look on his face full of awe and confusion.
I sighed "let's just go."
We continued to go, leaving the Rouge's HQ. Alexus stole us a car ("awww yeah! A Yukon!" "Shut up, Carmen.") and we started heading towards LA. It would be a long ride so we figured that we would rest on the side of the road and in the morning we'd try and shadow travel there. Everybody had fallen asleep somehow except for Percy and I in the front seats.
"Percy..." I muttered, turning to look at him.
"Yeah?" He asked, his hands in his hoodie pockets and shivering.
"I-I'm sorry for how I acted earlier... I shouldn't have said those things..." I said. It felt wrong to apologize like this. It wasn't something that I normally do.
"It's fine... I was pushing it and you put me back in my place." He said, giving me a small smile. He reached over and squeezed my shoulder before hurriedly putting his hand back into his pocket.
"Will you be okay? Without- without... her." I asked earnestly.
Percy let out a long sigh and then he looked at me with a face that showed many emotions. I forgot that Percy Jackson wasn't just the legend everybody thought he was. He was also a person, with feelings and a life. He wasn't unkillable.
"I don't know, Artemis. All I know is I'm going to have to keep going one way or another." He said. He looked tired as he fiddled with Riptide in his pocket. "Sometimes I just have to take a break from the whole 'Legend' and 'Hero of Myth' thing." He said, eyeing the House of Hades in my lap. I'd asked Carmen for it as entertainment. From the book I could see how much he loved Annabeth.
"Yeah. I get it." I said with a small huff.
"Thank you, Artemis." He said suddenly.
"What? W-what for?" I asked, surprised.
"You've stuck with me, even when I'm being stupid. Your... a really good friend." He said slowly.
I realized I was blushing And tried to hide it with the fur of my hood. This was one of the things that irritated me the most about Percy Jackson. He always managed to catch me off guard with comments like that, telling me I Looked good or that I was a good person or that he liked me and was glad we were friends. Every time he managed to surprise me and every single time I was amazed at him. He constantly surpassed my expectations. I remembered Orion and how different he was. He was a male I had respected, I had liked well, but then he did some things that I really hadn't liked. Percy was so much different than him. He hadn't tried to force his wishes on me. He hadn't ordered me around. He more or less relied on me despite my being his servant.
I couldn't believe him. I figured that what I said before wasn't a lie. Olympus was lonely and filled with annoying gods and horribly mean goddesses. The hunt was fun but I could only escape there for so long.
I... wanted to stay human with Percy Jackson and his friends. It was hard to admit but I actually wanted to keep being with Percy, having fun and going on quests such as this. The thought made me flush darker. I hoped he couldn't see it in the darkness.
Percy looked at me, his eyes glittering in the dark "I promise I'll get you back to the hunt as a goddess. We'll figure out a way. I swear on Styx. Whatever you want to do... I've got your back." He said without warning. Swear on Styx... he had promised on Styx the stupid idiot. I couldn't tell him... I couldn't say that I wanted to stay here.
"Thank you Percy..." I said quietly. He reached over and put a hand on my arm.
"Goodnight, Artemis." He said.
"Goodnight, Percy." I replied softly.
He removed his hand and I felt angry for wanting it back. He was so warm...
"Sweet dreams."