*PercyxArtemis*
Summary: During the final days of the Second Giant War, Percy loses the one he loves and his purpose for living. So he asks the gods for a task, to challenge him and give him a new purpose. Unfortunately for him, a certain man hating goddess and friends are going to be gaining a new Guardian. Post MOA. Pertemis. 18/9/22 Currently in the process of re-writing the early chapters
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9514800/1/Titan-of-the-Hunt
Word count:812k
Chapters:124
Chapter 1
Bug Stomping
(Percy)
Despite of the fact that I had just fallen feet first into quite literally hell. I had not found myself splattered all over the stone floor despite all the mortal laws of physics stating that I should have the consistency of a pancake.
Of course, knowing what had resulted in this unplanned stop on our journey I was given very little chance to thank the gods for this miracle. After all I was now in the place the gods themselves did not like to visit.
Looking around myself I found myself in what seemed a dark dimly lit cave with an invisible ceiling however recent event told me otherwise, I spied some blond hair a little away beginning to stir.
Scrambling hurriedly over to her I helped her sit upright leaning her body against my own as she coughed up no small amount of dust and debris.
"Annabeth are you ok?" I asked worried once she seemed to have finished.
"Other than being in Tartarus in the middle of a war, after fighting the mother of all spiders, fine really Seaweed brain." She said taking stock of the situation quickly, however despite the strong front she was trying to portray I could feel her body shaking against my own.
"No need to get sarcastic wise girl" I teased trying to distract her from her thoughts. Now having a fear of spiders, I thought was an irrational fear, we had killed or defeated beings who were or equals to actual gods. So a small creature that predated on flies and other insects was not something I was afraid of. However, a half-human spider the size of a pickup was more acceptable to be feared even in my humble opinion.
"We need a plan if we are to survive this and meet up with the others at the doors" Annabeth stated simply already focusing on what we needed to be doing, even if we had no idea how we were going to do either of those things.
Even on our quests we had been given at least a few resources and hints on where to go. This time we had nothing but the clothes on our backs. No food, no directions and no chance of a friendly god passing by and lending us a hand. We were truly on our own.
"Well last I checked we don't own a map of the pit, which means we either wing it or we have to deal with the locals, who just happen to be most of the worst monsters known to Olympus, who already hate me for putting them back down here in the first place" I complained with a sigh
"Not everyone is as well 'liked' as you are, hopefully for us. Most of them will be in the real world now that the doors are open or are guarding them for Gaia" Annabeth said with a soon to be short lived tone of optimism.
As if answering Annabeth's hopes a pile of boulders nearby began to rise and shift revealing one injured and very pissed Arachne who was looking at us with eyes full of hate. The mother of spiders had clearly seen better days, her human left arm was broken in such a way that a piece of bone was coming through her forearm. As well as this her front leg on her right-hand side missing completely, as if physically torn off her torso in her fall. However, if either of these were bothering her badly she was doing a good job of not showing it.
"You were saying" I couldn't help it, resulting in Annabeth looking at me as if to say now is not the time. 'It's not my fault some people get scared, I get sarcastic' I thought to myself.
"Like mother like daughter both try to take everything from me, but now I will my revenge on you both. By killing you and ridding my nemesis of her favourite daughter." The spider spat hatefully.
There are few things that truly annoy me: betrayal, hurting women and most of all threatening my friends and family. So as soon as she was finished talking, I interposed myself between Annabeth and Arachne drawing Riptide as I did. The polished Celestial Bronze blade our only real defence.
"Oh yes the son of Poseidon the mistress has plans for you, I'll capture you for the Earth Mother… after I deal with Athena's spawn" Whilst it was good to know that she only wanted to capture me and not kill me. The same could not be said about my girlfriend behind me.
"Percy, I have plan" Annabeth whispered quietly sticking close behind me as the monster's head swayed about as if trying to look past or through me to Annabeth.
"Anytime is fine, our favourite spider here seems to have the patience of one and hasn't move anything apart from her mouth so far, but I can't see that lasting much longer" I criticised, just tell me what you want me to do and stop overthinking this for once.
"I need you to attack her left legs while I go invisible and attack her right ones, she already injured so if we can incapacitate her, we should be able to escape."
"Why not just kill her?" I asked confused.
"Because I feel guilty of her, my mother made her like this simply because of jealousy, I saw her works in Rome and they truly are as good as mothers" Annabeth admitted and I really wanted to groan in frustration at her good heart.
"Fine on three then 1…2…"
Just as I began to move forward, stepping to my right as I began my charge. Annabeth herself began reaching for her magical Yankee's hat. However, before she could do so she suddenly found herself covered in spider web that Arachne had spat at her causing her to stumble and fall to the ground, giving Arachne a chance to attack.
Seeing Annabeth helpless caused me to start to see red as I charged at the spider queen. As soon as I reached her, she swung at me with her remaining left foreleg, but I had already sidestepped to her right through the blind spot created by the missing limb whilst bringing Riptide down in an arc severing her three hind legs at the hip causing the lopsided Arachne to stumble and scream, but I wasn't finished as I proceeded to sever all of her left at the first joint, before ignoring her screaming and returning to the fallen Annabeth.
The thread entangling her was like steel forcing me to use Annabeth's knife which had fallen to the floor to sever the threads around her legs and chest, the thread cut easily by the celestial bronze blade. Riptide would have been equally capable, but the shorter blade was better suited for this finer work, and not accidentally impaling my girlfriend whilst I was doing so.
"Percy…thank you"
"You know me, I never could ignore someone in distress, loyalty is my flaw rememb…" I replied just as Annabeth cut me off by kissing me, which left me gaping like a guppy as always.
"Close your mouth seaweed brain you'll catch flies, now let's deal with Arachne and get out of here" She said confidently taking the lead this time. The maimed spider no longer a major threat unless she tried to shoot her web again.
However, it was abundantly clear as we approached the writhing spider that even that risk was minimal as she seemed to be slowly crumbling into dust as her wounds must have been fatal causing Annabeth to shake her head in dismay.
"All you had to do was let us pass, I truly am sorry this had to happen, what my mother did to you was wrong you did not deserve this fate to be stuck forever as a monster" She said with genuine tears in her eyes. However, that look of pity was lost on Arachne whose own look of blind rage only seemed to increase with the pity she was receiving from her enemy's child.
"I don't want your sympathy; I want your head but if I can't get it myself I will curse you. When you think of yourself with a hope of victory, you will lose everything to be cut down in place of those who you call dear, child of Pallas Athena, I swear this on the Styx." She spat as she tried one last attempt at lunging at us with her one remaining arm only to impale her torso on Riptide and crumble to dust leaving a ball of silk in her place.
Annabeth had a shocked look on her face at the death of Arachne.
"But why... I don't understand why she would do that?" Annabeth questioned regretfully as she broke down in tears.
"Annabeth its ok she chose her own fate; her words were the rambling of a mad woman." I tried to sound sincere, but I wasn't so sure myself it was the rumble that had seemed distant like an echo of thunder when she had sworn on the Styx that was worrying me, but I swore to myself to protect Annabeth no one was taking her from me'.
"Come on let's get out of here" I said looking at the white ball of spider silk to which she nodded limply as we walked further into the unknown darkness of Tartarus
We walked around for what felt like days but was only a matter of hours the permanent low fog and ambient darkness that covered the landscape causing the time to feel longer. Even so the two of us continued to walk, there was little more that we could do. We had nothing to survive on and sleep was not something that would come easy in our situation even if the opportunity presented itself. If one of us tried to rest the other would have to stand guard and then the other, it would have resulted in a self-defeating situation of neither of us being rested and only killing time. So instead, we kept walking encountering little in the way of monsters apart from the occasional hellhound or empousai who would immediately attack us and fall prey to Riptide or Annabeth's knife, she still seemed shaken by the experience with Arachne muttering to herself as if trying to find understanding in her actions and fate, every time I questioned her, she would deny any problems.
"So, you have any idea who we could ask for directions in this place" I asked hoping to break her out of her trance.
'Well, we have to hope we don't find one of the usual mindless drone monsters with a death wish as this place answers only to one master and that is the primordial god Tartarus, but I would rather avoid him and his followers personally" Annabeth said simply.
"Why wouldn't he help us? After all, its Gaia who is the enemy and she is a Primordial as well" I asked optimistically.
'God's seaweed brain you can be ignorant, there may be no love lost between the two of them now, but you forget that the giants are the children of Gaia and Tartarus he may not want Gaia to win but he will not stand against his own children.' She replied matter of fact as I turned red briefly in embarrassment at my own ignorance.
As we continued to walk, we began to hear the sound of water coming from the distance, which being a son of Poseidon to me was an increase in our prospects. After half an hour we could see pale light reflecting of the surface of a slow flowing river, what caught my attention was the debris flowing in the current, stuff I had recognized from my first visit to the underworld back when we were looking for Zeus's Masterbolt. Rubbish like diplomas, flowers and love letters and other detritus of broken dreams cut short by untimely death.
"The River Styx, like the others it flows into Tartarus after leaving the Underworld" Annabeth replied factually as if I wouldn't realize. I had already taken one dip into those waters after all, something few others could claim to have done.
However, her words disturbed a shadow that had sat by the river's edge revealing the form of a man in his late fifties with grey and white hair, slowly the older man began to rise to his feet. However, what caught my attention the most was the fact he was about 10 feet tall easily towering over the pair of us. His whole body was seemingly covered in criss-crossing scars as if he had been sliced apart however finally the fact, he had golden eyes that I had seen before was the final clue. I had never physically met him in person so to speak, but they were without a shadow of a doubt the same as Luke's had been. However unlike before they were not filled with the hate and promises of pain but simply one of weariness.
"Percy, do you know who that is?" Annabeth asked obviously she had not seen the flash of his eyes when he looked up, I nodded to confirm.
'Hello Grandfather' I called to the shadowed figure.
Author's Note: 11/05/21.
Well this is long overdue but I finally bothered to Rewrite/Embellish the absolute sham that was Chapter One in this story. Dear Gods it is was embarrassing to go back and actually re-read this and for all of you that are re-reading this 8 years after it was first written I applaud you for getting through it multiple times as I know some of you have done. To those that are new readers the original will be below this note if you want to read where this stories humble origins began, I am going to try and get through the first few chapters relatively quickly however if you suddenly notice the quality suddenly change for the worse and " being replaced by ' for talking then you have arrived back at the 'old days' when I perceived it was easier for me on a tiny netbook with no T key to write like that. So to any new readers I hope these updated chapters are much more enjoyable to read and do not give you to much of a negative impression of the rest of the story.
Original Draft 21/7/2013
(Percy)
Looking around myself I found myself in what seemed a dark dimly lit cave with an invisible ceiling however recent event told me otherwise, I spied some blond hair a little away beginning to stir.
'Annabeth are you ok.'
'Other than being in Tartarus in the middle of a war, after fighting the mother of all spiders, fine really Seaweed brain.'
'No need to get sarcastic wise girl'
'We need a plan if we are to survive this and meet up with the others at the doors'
'Well last I checked we don't own a map of the pit, which means we either wing it or we have to deal with the locals, who just happen to be most of the worst monsters known to Olympus, who already hate me for putting them back down here'
'Not everyone is as well 'liked' as you are, hopefully for us. Most of them will be in the real world now that the doors are open or are guarding them for Gaia'
As if answering Annabeth's hopes a pile of boulders nearby began to rise and shift revealing one injured and very pissed Arachne who was looking at us with eyes full of hate.
'You were saying' I couldn't help it, resulting in Annabeth looking at me as if to say now is not the time, 'It's not my fault some people get scared, I get sarcastic'
'Like mother like daughter both take everything from me, but now I will my revenge on both by killing you and ridding my nemesis of her favourite daughter.'
There are few things that truly annoy me: betrayal, hurting women and most of all threatening my friends and family. So as soon as she finished talking I interposed myself between Annabeth and Arachne drawing Riptide as I did.
'Oh yes the son of Poseidon the mistress has plans for you, I'll capture you after I deal with Athena's spawn'
'Percy I have plan' Annabeth whispered
'Anytime is fine, our favourite spider seems to have the patience of one and hasn't move anything apart from her mouth so far, but I can't see that lasting much longer'
'I need you to attack her left legs while I go invisible and attack her right ones, she already injured so if we can incapacitate her we should be able to escape'
'Why not kill her' I asked confused.
'Because I feel guilty of her, my mother made her like this simply because of jealousy, I saw her works in Rome and they truly are as good as mothers' she admitted.
'Fine on three then 1…2…'
Just as Annabeth was reaching for Yankee's hat, she suddenly found herself covered in spider web that Arachne had thrown at her causing her to stumble and fall to the ground, giving Arachne a chance to attack. Seeing Annabeth helpless caused me to start to see red as I charged at the spider queen. As I reached her she swung at me with her left foreleg, but I had already sidestepped to her right while bringing riptide down in an arc severing her three hind legs at the hip causing Arachne to stumble and scream, but I wasn't finished as I proceeded to sever all of her left before ignoring her screaming and returning to Annabeth.
The thread entangling her was like steel forcing me to use Annabeth's knife which had fallen to the floor to sever the threads around her legs and chest, the thread cut easily by the celestial bronze blade.
'Percy…thank you'
'You know me I never could ignore someone in distress, loyalty is my flaw rememb…' I replied just as Annabeth cut me off by kissing me, which left me gaping like a guppy as always.
'Close your mouth seaweed brain you'll catch flies, now let's deal with Arachne and get out of here'
As we approached the writhing spider she seemed to be slowly crumbling into dust as her wounds seemed to be fatal causing Annabeth to shake her head in dismay.
'All you had to do was let us pass, I truly am sorry this had to happen, what my mother did to you was wrong you did not deserve this fate to be stuck forever as a monster' she said with tears in her eyes. However the look was lost on Arachne whose look of rage only seemed to increase with the pity she was receiving from her enemy's child.
'I don't want your sympathy, I want your head but if I can't get it I curse you, when you think of yourself with a hope of victory, you will lose everything to be cut down in place of those who you call dear, child of Pallas Athena, I swear on the Styx.' She spat as she tried one last attempt at lunging at us only to impale her torso on Riptide and crumble to dust leaving a ball of silk in her place.
Annabeth had a shocked look on her face at the death of Arachne
'But why... I don't understand why would she do that' as she broke down in tears.
'Annabeth its ok she chose her fate, her words were the rambling of a mad woman.' I tried to sound sincere but I wasn't so sure myself it was the rumble that had seemed distant like an echo of thunder when she had sworn on the Styx that was worrying me but I swore to myself to protect Annabeth no one was taking her from me'.
'Come on let's get out of here' I said looking at the ball of silk to which she nodded limply as we walked further into the darkness
We walked around for what felt like days encountering little in the way of monsters apart from the occasional hellhound or empousai who would immediately attack us and fall prey to Riptide or Annabeth's knife, she still seemed shaken by the experience with Arachne muttering to herself as if trying to find understanding in her actions and fate, every time I questioned her she would deny any problems.
'So you have any idea who we could ask for directions in this place' I asked hoping to break her out of her trance.
'Well we have to hope we don't find one of the usual mindless drone monsters with a death wish as this place answers only to one master and that is the primordial god Tartarus but I would rather avoid him and his followers personally'
'Why wouldn't he help us after all its Gaia who is the enemy and she is a primordial'
'Gods seaweed brain you can be ignorant, there may be no love lost between the two now but you forget that the giants are the children of Gaia and Tartarus he may not want Gaia to win but he will not stand against his own children.' She replied matter of factly.
As we continued to walk we began to hear the sound of water coming from the distance, which being a son of Poseidon to me was an increase in our prospects. After half an hour we could see pale light reflecting of the surface of a slow flowing river, what caught my attention was the debris flowing in the current, stuff I had recognized from my first visit to the underworld back when we looking for Zeus's masterbolt. Rubbish like diplomas, flowers and love letters and other detritus of broken dreams cut short by untimely death.
'The River Styx, it flows into Tartarus after leaving the underworld' Annabeth replied factually as if I wouldn't realize.
However her words disturbed a shadow that had sat by the river revealing the form of a man in his late fifties with grey and white hair, however what caught my attention the most was the fact he was about 10 feet tall, his whole body was covered in scars as if had been sliced apart and definitely the fact he had golden eyes that I had seen before however unlike before they were not filled with the hate and promise of pain but simply weariness.
'Percy do you know who that is' obviously she had not seen the flash of his eyes when he looked up, I nodded to confirm.
'Hello Grandfather' I called to the shadowed figure.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9514800/1/Titan-of-the-Hunt