Cortex the Assassin

Prologue (AKA The Betrayal)

A/N Hi Charlie here, I just want to say I am redoing this epilogue. Like, I'm adding more details and actually what's going on. Same idea that he gets betrayed like every other fanfic, just making it different from the original. Anyways you didn't come here for me to ramble you came for the story so lets get on with it shall we? Oh and before I go, all rights go to Uncle Rick (as we all know) and the original author of this story shade_slayer123. I do own some parts of this story though. Just know I'm not stealing anything. I adopted this story. Now, on to the actual story.

*Percy POV*

Pain. That's all I feel as the tears fall freely from my face and the branches from the angry trees scratch at my running body. I keep repeating the mantra I've grown to despise over the past month in my head. I didn't do it. What is it I didn't do, you ask? Let's go back to when my "far superior" half-brother showed up "half-dead" being followed by the minotaur at the foot of Half-Blood hill.

*Flashback named Jerry*

A scream jolted my attention away from the younger campers trying (and failing) Luke's disarming technique. I dropped what I was doing with a, "keep practicing," and ran to Half-Blood hill where Annabeth also joined up with me. We saw a kid around the age of fifteen running from the Minotaur. He had dark brown hair and really bright green eyes. You could see his eyes from the top of the hill. Annabeth and I looked at each other and silently agreed that she would get the boy and I'd take care of old beefhead. It was easy, really, and we ended up having to carry the boy to the infirmary because he passed out. Now, this next part I'm just going to summarize because I don't want to cry more than I already am. He woke up, told us his name was David, got claimed by Poseidon, started vandalizing shit and blaming it on me, all my friends (minus a select few we will get to later) believed him and left me, Annabeth cheated on me with him, Poseidon disowned me stating I was just a tool to guarantee the safety of Olympus, and I was basically shunned from camp, so I packed my shit, and ran away. Let me just say, David burned a couple of trees down and blamed it on me thus turning Grover, Juniper, and every other nature spirit against me. That is the only reason I'm so scratched up from the branches. They keep moving to hit me on purpose. I stopped trying to dodge them the moment I realized they were aiming for me. Suddenly, the grief becomes too much and I collapse in the middle of a forest that hates me and sob. I don't know how long I sat there with my knees curled into my chest and face dug into my knees, sobbing, before I heard the voices of a bunch of girls. Girls I know very well, and know they hate the likes of men. 'Maybe they'll kill me if they see sobbing in the clearing they're no doubt going to use for the night,' I thought as I continued to sob, pretending I didn't hear them. I do that a lot, pretend I don't hear people, or act dumb. I could hear their chatter come to a stop as they finally got close enough to notice me. Thalia gasped, recognising me almost immediately but stayed silent, probably motioning the others to do the same. All those who know me circle around me, silent, but I could still hear. I heard Thalia kneel down next to me before she quietly asked, "Percy, what happened to you?" I raised my head, slowly to look at her. She grimaced and put her hand to my cheek, where there were tears, scratches, bruises, and no doubt scars from past treatment. The other hunters gasped lightly and I replied, "Why don't you ask everyone at camp? They seem to think I would do such horrible things as burning down trees, burning Athena cabin's books, oh yeah, cheat on Annabeth." I put my head back into my knees. No way were these girls going to watch tears come out of my eyes. Thalia told her hunters to set up camp right there, the younger girls were confused as to why they were being nice to a boy, but I knew Thalia gave them the, "if you don't listen to me I will skin you alive and send you to Artemis" look while saying, "Percy Jackson, the only male Artemis respects as an equal." I shoot my head up in disbelief. I got Zoë killed and she still respects me? Thalia rolled her eyes, "I know what you're thinking, Percy. It's not true." I scoffed and dug my face into my knees again. I could feel her roll her eyes as she said, "You took the weight of the sky from Lady Artemis so you guys had a chance at defeating Atlas. Zoë died fighting Atlas and protecting Artemis. She died how she wanted to. None of it is your fault and no one, especially Artemis and Zoë, blames you. Understood?" I heard a couple of newer hunters gasp at that knowledge before making a sort of acknowledging sound seeing as tears started to well up again and I don't want them to see me crying. Thalia sighed, "I'm going to call Artemis, ok?" I nodded my head from it's position and she got up giving orders to her hunters as she did so. After five minutes, I could tell that their camp was set up. I heard the noise of a god flashing in and knew Artemis arrived. I pretended I didn't notice. The girls stayed a good distance away from me, not because they hate me, but because they know I need my space right now. That was good for when Artemis walked over and sat next to me. "Perseus, look at me please." I did as told and raised my head slowly to meet her gaze. She was in her 20 year old form to be closer to my age and when she saw my face (my eyes were probably the most startling difference) she cringed slightly. "What did they do to you?" I looked away from her as the tears threatened to spill once more, "You can go through my memories if you'd like, Milady. All of them. To understand why what happened hurt as bad you need to know everything. Just promise it stays between us?" She tilted my head so I was looking at her again, "I swear on the River Styx it stays between us unless you tell me otherwise." Thunder rumbled above us and she continued, "We should go to my tent for a little bit of privacy." I nodded to her and she led me to her tent. I sat down in one of the chairs and she sat across from me. I nodded to her, and she took that as her sign to start looking through my memories. She closed her eyes and I felt her presence enter my mind. I allowed her access. After about five or ten minutes, I'm not good with time, she got done with my memories and broke out with a gasp. Tears started forming in her eyes and she crushed me in a hug. Now before you get any ideas, I am not EVER going to be dating Artemis. She is a maiden goddess, and I respect that. I see her more of a motherly figure anyways. Plus, I'm pretty fucking gay. Anyways, I hesitantly wrapped my arms around her waist (not her hips, that gets confused a lot) and kept my hands just above her lower back as she cried and said she was sorry for everything I've had to go through. I just kept quiet and waited for her to compose herself while drawing circles on her back to help calm her down. I understand why she's so upset. Gabe, war, Annabeth never really loving me (abusive relationship you could call it), more war, Annabeth not really loving me again, Tartarus, then the betrayal. It's a lot to take in without crying, let alone going insane. Once Artemis did compose herself, she let go of me and wiped her eyes saying, "I'm sorry for that, it was just, really intense. I didn't expect some of that." I just nodded and pulled my knees up in the chair and hugged them. Instead of digging my face into my knees, I rested my chin on them and watched as Artemis sat down across from me. She asked the question I dreaded most to hear, "What are you going to do, now?" I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "When I heard your hunters I honestly thought they were going to kill me before Thalia spoke to me. That's as far as my plan went. Run away and get killed by something." She sighed, "Perseus-" I interrupted her, "Can you call me Percy please?" Her face softened and she nodded before saying, "Percy, you didn't deserve what you got, but you also don't deserve to die. Whether you currently see living as a punishment for what you think you did wrong, or death as the punishment, you don't deserve to die." I nodded, knowing what she was doing, "You know, I thought since you went through my memories you'd be able to tell that I'm smarter than that." She sighed, "Yeah I didn't think that would work. What I said still stands though, you don't deserve to die. Your life can and will get better." I buried the bottom half of my face in my knees and she continued, "Percy, I want to bless you. You'll get half immortality, enhanced senses (not that you need it), enhanced speed, and perfect accuracy with a bow, as long as you train. What do you say?" I looked up at her, using only my eyes and asked, "Why would you want to bless me? I got Zoë killed. Not to mention I would be the first and only male you bless." She sighed and looked at me in a soft motherly way, "Percy, you are the only good man in the world. I want to give you my blessing because I see you as a son, and as I'm unable to adopt you, that's the closest I can get to having you as a son." My eyes watered and I simply muttered out, "Oh," my voice cracking as I did so. Artemis looked at me expectantly and, since I didn't want to risk my voice cracking again, nodded to show her that she could give me her blessing. She did so with a smile on her face. I glew silver for a bit before it died down and she said, "I'm going to go out and talk to the girls, explain a little to them, do you want to come?" I shrugged, let go of my knees, and stood up saying quietly, "Sure." She smiled at me and put her hand on my shoulder, guiding me back outside. She called all the hunters to her, her hand still on my shoulder, slightly calming me down. Thalia ran over, seeing as I probably looked worse, and wrapped me in another hug. She let go as the other girls gathered around and Artemis spoke, "Percy will be staying with us for a bit. We will not be going to Camp Half Blood until they get their act together. Unfortunately the gods aren't going to be much better. I expect all of you to treat Percy with respect, like he's one of you. He technically is." Thalia looked at Artemis confused, "What do you mean Milady?" Artemis smiled proudly, "I blessed him, much like I have blessed all of you." Most of the girls who didn't know me gasped and Thalia smiled, "Welcome to the family, brother." I smiled a very small smile and said, "I doubt I'll be able to stick around for long. Seeing how Poseidon is treating me, I'm kind of scared to see how Zeus feels about me right now." Artemis sighed and said, "Speaking of Zeus, he just called a meeting. I will be back. We stay right here for now. Percy, you can use my tent." I nodded and averted my eyes as she flashed away. I opened them and came face to face with a bunch of very confused girls. I sighed and just walked back to Artemis' tent, not wanting to talk to anyone about anything. I sat on the floor next to one of the chairs and pulled my knees to my chest, thinking. Gods, my life fucking sucks.

A/N: Hello my loves. Yes this went a bit off script but, well, it's my story now and I was given creative liberty. Anyways I hope you like it so far. It was getting a little long so I cut it off, and I don't know when I'm getting the next chapter out. It's most likely going to be titled "Prologue Part 2" cause I'm lazy and we all know it. Anyways I love you all and thank you for reading. TATA

-Charlez OUT