Chapter Text
“Hey Annabeth, quick question; How familiar are you with the concept of polygamy?”
“Why…?” Annabeth replied slowly, glaring at her boyfriend suspiciously out of the corner of her eye.
“Because something’s about to happen and I need to know what you know.”
“Polygamy,” Annabeth said with a sigh, turning to face Percy. “Is when a person has more than one spouse. It’s often confused with polyamory in most Western countries, where the two members of a relationship agree to an open relationship, provided that they both adhere to the guidelines they set, since true polygamy is outlawed.”
“Oh good, I’m glad I didn’t have to explain it since I would’ve gotten it wrong. Now, the reason I brou…”
“I don’t, by the way.” Annabeth interrupted.
“Huh?”
“I don’t agree to an open relationship. My boyfriend is my boyfriend, just as I am his only girlfriend.”
“What if…” Percy held up his hands when he saw Annabeth’s eye flash with anger. “Hear me out. What if said boyfriend told you that THE maiden Goddess appeared to him in a dream and mentioned a prophecy?”
“Then, ‘said boyfriend’,” Annabeth bit back sarcastically, “had better hope Artemis comes down here and stops me before I cut off his prophecy penis.”
With this, she brought out her dagger and stabbed it down towards Percy’s crotch, imbedding it between his legs as he barely managed to dodge.
“Annabeth, stop.” Percy pleaded, jumping up and backing away, as Annabeth yanked her knife free and lunged at him. “If… you’d… just… let… me… explain… what… Artemis… said…”
Each word was separated by a grunt as Percy frantically dodged Annabeth’s slashes, ducking, weaving, and jumping backwards as he tried to reason with his girlfriend. Suddenly, Percy and Annabeth found the whole of the cabin area consumed by a blinding white light, as one of his jumps backwards carried him much further than it should’ve.
When the light subsided, Annabeth looked up to see Percy perched gracefully on the roof of Cabin 8 wearing an oddly familiar outfit that he hadn’t been in before. Though, before the rational part of her brain could question how he got up there and where the coat came from, she went to chase after him; only to be stopped by a dull THUNK sound as a silver arrow landed between her feet, followed by another THUNK, and another, as she found herself being surrounded by a ring of silver arrows.
She saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at it, spotting a teenage girl standing on top of one of the cabins. She turned again, doing a full 360 as more girls appeared on the roofs surrounding her, all of them wearing the same white parka and hunting gear that Percy was; and all of them aiming more of the silver arrows at her. She eventually turned back to her boyfriend on the roof of Cabin 8, and saw that he was now joined by two more Hunters. One that looked like a child with auburn hair, and another that looked like a teen with jet black hair adorned by a silver circlet.
“Lower your weapon, Annabeth Chase,” the girl called down from the roof, matching the glare Annabeth was shooting up at her. “The boy speaks the truth… and has done as you requested.” She added as an afterthought.
“Thalia,” Annabeth said, turning away from the child to address the dark haired girl, tears of anger and sadness welling in her eyes. “How could you do this to me? Why are you just standing there as she tries to take him away from me?”
“Please, Annabeth.” Thalia pleaded. “Just let Artemis explain. You know as well as I the immense idea she would entertain if it wasn’t necessary. Prophecies can’t be avoided, especially ones as old as this, and…”
“Enough,” Artemis interrupted. “Matters such as this should not be spoken about where there is a chance they may be overheard. Hunters,” she raised her eyes to address the other women on the cabin roofs, “do a sweep of the cabins and make sure they’re empty. Any campers that you find are to be transported directly to the Big House, they will not be able to reenter this area until we are done talking.”
A small group of Hunters jumped down and went into the cabins who’s roofs they’d been perched on, while the majority of them remained with their bows trained on Annabeth. Annabeth saw flashes of silvery-white light coming from several of the cabin windows before the hunters reemerged.
“All cabins cleared, My Lady” a short but muscular ginger girl reported. “There is no one around that you have not permitted. These campers didn’t even seem to notice we’d arrived, or even the commotion these two had been causing. Even my siblings were unarmed, and we might as well have been born with weapons in our hands.” She turned to Annabeth with a sneer. “How is it that any one of you survived a single battle, let alone the multiples you claim to have won.”
Annabeth made to start towards the hunter but was once again stopped by a weapon materialising out of thin air; or at least that’s how it seemed the knife got in Phoebe’s hands, and its point under her chin, to Annabeth.
“Thalia,” Artemis addressed, as if there wasn’t almost a fight happening down below. “Go retrieve Chiron and bring him here, I feel he may be needed for corroboration despite the fact this information is coming from the mouth of a Goddess. He will be able to pass through my barrier if accompanied by one of my hunters.”
Thalia nodded curtly to her mistress and, after shooting one more look of sympathy down at Annabeth, started running across the cabin roofs towards the Big House.
“As for you, Annabeth Chase.” Artemis started, finally looking back down at the girl held at knifepoint. “We are here only as a favour to Perseus…”
“It’s just Percy.” He protested
“As a favour to Perseus. ” She repeated, shooting him a glare. “However, should you attempt to attack one of my hunters again, they are no longer instructed to stay their hand. The wording of prophecies are ambiguous, and you being made to resemble a porcupine may well be what it was referring to. I may even instruct that outcome anyway, depending on how this conversation goes, as what is one life when compared to…”
“Artemis! ” A dark voice growled from behind the Goddess, a voice that set free memories that Annabeth had spent months trying to repress. Memories of a blood red sky. Memories of knowing she was with her boyfriend but being unable to see him, unable to reach him no matter how close he got. Memories of a pitiful woman in rags writhing on the ground as she was force fed her own poisons while Percy stood above her with a manic look of pure unrestrained rage on his face. The memories came and went in an instant, but they were enough to send a shiver down Annabeth’s whole body and cause her knees to start shaking. “ Stand Down.”
