Son of the Moon

20

-Bianca-

It had been almost five months since she had left Percy and the Son of Artemis had vanished without a trace. Almost every camper had turned to try and find Percy after they found the clearing he destroyed, believing it had been caused by some sort of monster that only their greatest Hero could defeat until Chiron explained that the power released was from a demigod…a specific demigod. The moment Chiron had revealed that Percy was the source of the anguished scream and the waves of power Nico had grabbed her arm and dragged her off along with the rest of the remaining Septem, Thalia, and Tyson before he demanded to know what had happened.

Nothing had ever made her feel worse than when she had to explain to the others what she had the others what she had done to their friend. Tyson had been confused, not fully understanding the implications of what had happened due to him being still a baby in Cyclops standards. Will and Beckendorf looked at her with complete and utter shock that she had done what she had. Clarisse and Amanda gazed at her with looks that were a mix of anger over hurting their brother and sadness when they realized why she had done it. Nico's reaction was the second most painful, he looked at her with only pity as he pulled her into a soft embrace while she cried onto his shoulder. But it was Thalia whose reaction hurt her the most even though she knew it would happen, in the eyes of the daughter of Zeus was shock at what had happened mixed with a look of victorious glee as the daughter of the king of the gods was no doubt planning on how to win Percy's heart.

Within an hour Artemis herself had shown up at the camp and demanded to know where her son was. The group had led the goddess to the big house and explained to both her and Chiron what had happened and why. Like Nico Chiron had gazed at her with nothing but pity but Artemis was enraged and, for the first time, she was able to truly see why the gods of Olympus were feared by both man and monster. The aura the that was rolling off the moon goddess was palpable and suffocating in its power as Artemis' eye began glowing with a harsh, angry, silver while the aura pooling from the goddess shot forward and connected them. The moment the silvery aura engulfed her she felt it pervading her essence, invading her very being by pouring inside her through any opening they could get be it her mouth, her nose, or her ears as she found herself reliving everything that had happened since Thalia had been released from her tree. At first she thought this was going to be her eternal punishment from the goddess Artemis, to be forced to witness her greatest pain and what caused it over and over again till the end of time.

To her surprise the reliving ended when it caught up with the present the aura receded and, as the last wisps of Aretmis' power left her, she collapsed to her knees, sobbing at having to experience her suffering a second time, every emotion she felt as powerful as when it first occurred and only added onto her current pain. When she heard footsteps coming towards her she expected for Artemis to pass judgment, to smite her for daring to harm the son of the goddess of the hunt…but she was wrong. Artemis kneeled down next to her and pulled the sobbing and heartbroken daughter of Hades into her arms as they both shed tears over the one who meant the world to them.

By the end of the week something felt lost to all the demigods in the camp, even Annabeth, and nobody could quite place it. Eventually it was decided that the feeling was just them missing their leader, although Annabeth vehemently denied this fact, and they tried to press on with their lives albeit with changes. Every day Nico, Clarisse, and Amanda would search as far as they could, with Nico shadow traveling them back to camp when the sun set and taking them back where they left off the next morning and the trio using the evenings to regain their strength. While the triad rested Bianca and the hunt scoured the country for Percy, under Aretmis' keen gaze as she roared across the heavens on her moonlit chariot. The Hunt had been furious with her at first before Aretmis had shared with them her memory of what had happened, allowing them to understand her pain having felt every emotion she did over those few weeks. Tyson and Thalia had been kept at camp much to their anger but Chiron refused to let Tyson or Thalia leave without more training.