Annabeth wasn't sure what had happened when the giant shrimp had attacked them. All she remembers was watching Zöe slap Perseus out of whatever had happened to him. She was frowning the whole time they interacted, their kiss replaying in her head.

A maiden hunter, the lieutenant no less, kissing a male. Did Lady Artemis allow that? Did she know of their relationship? Did she know that her right hand was breaking her oath?

"Perseus!" Zöe's relief filled voice called out suddenly from the quiet that had surrounded the group as everyone woke up in dirt cages in the middle of a monster camp.

Within a few hours time, everyone had woken up, except Perseus. They all watched helplessly while Perseus had slept restlessly, twisting and turning with a sweaty, helpless expression on his face.

They all looked over towards the cage that Perseus was in. He was awake and looked over all of us without replying to Zöe.

"How come a monster could attack The Night Tides?" Artemis demanded with a unknown undertone. Did Annabeth hear fear? Why would a goddess be afraid? Unless there was a reason why there was only one monster attack since they left Camp Half-Blood.

Perseus' eyes had glazed over and he was frowning until about a minute after Lady Artemis' question. "It should be impossible." He looked around the camp. "What happened?"

Annabeth was confused by the confusion he had in his question. Does he not remember what had happened that brought them here. "You don't remember?" She voiced her confusion.

Perseus' eyes went around the cages and the monster camp. He shook his head. "I don't remember after The Night Tides had been hit, causing the whole ship to lurch to the left." His words were genuine, he really didn't know what had happened.

"The boat had been hit-"

"This huge shrimpzilla came and attacked-"

"It was like, roar, pow, kaboom! And we were like, shoot, hit, AHHHHHH!"

"We all almost flew off the side!"

"Lady Artemis came to our rescue before anything bad happened!"

"You mean too bad happened?"

"Shut up!" It was the Daughter of Hermes and the Daughter of Ares that Annabeth had helped with the traps.

"Haley! Tara!" Zöe scowled. Some hunters started laughing at hearing the bickering between the two.

"Then after fighting the shrimp monster for a few minutes, dirt came from nowhere and knocked everyone out!"

"How come dirt was on a ship in the middle of the ocean?" Another hunter, Atlanta, asked.

Silence.

"There was dirt below deck." Annabeth looked over at Perseus. He spoke without facing the other cages, his slumped body and his voice told that he wasn't proud of something. He regretted a decision.

Nico seemed to have the same thoughts as Annabeth. "What did you do?"

Perseus didn't answer.

Zöe caught on. "Thee truly betrayed us?" Tears were started to fall from her eyes.

Perseus still didn't look at anyone, choosing to face away from the group.

"Wait, he actually betrayed everyone in the first war and now he came back to do it again?" Leo asked, confused on what was coming out.

"No." Perseus said with so much truth in his tone. "I may have made mistakes, but I never betrayed Olympus. This wasn't supposed to happen..." He made it sound as if he had said those words to himself over and over again.

"What happened in the first war with Gaea?" Annabeth stated more than she questioned.

Perseus took a deep breath. "It was before the final battle, I was having these demigod dreams that had made me question what the war against Gaea really was. I watched night after night, confused. I watched as Gaea..." Perseus sighed heavily. "I wasn't betraying my friends, my family, I was realizing Gaea wasn't who we thought she was."

"She killed demigods and mortals in that war!" Jason moved forward a little to glare at Perseus better.

"There's more to it than that." Perseus glared right back at Jason halfheartedly. Annabeth noticed his eyes get less icy blue and more sea-green. "Don't assume anything. Gaea has been there for me when I learned that half of Olympus' forces were working for-" He stopped, rubbing his face tiredly.

"For who, Perseus?" Artemis questioned.

He looked at Artemis sadly. As time went on, Perseus became more and more hallow looking. His normal confidence leaving him, a empty shell of a man left behind. "I-" He gasped suddenly, clutching his chest in pain.

"Perseus!"

An evil laughter rose from the ground. Perseus flinched, gasping and withering in pain. "Oh, Perseus, you really shouldn't have done what you did in the war against me. Did you really think I wouldn't be back after you imprisoned me? After you locked me in a puny prison? YOU WILL NEVER IMPRISON ME AGAIN!" Gaea's roared, shaking the ground in anger.

Perseus flinched and curled into himself. "...I swore an oath on the River Styx..." He gasped out through his pants. "...I will not stop so easily..."

Some more laughter of Gaea. She had to have done something because the next thing that was heard was Perseus' screams. They all jumped, even the surrounding monsters stopped what they were doing and looked at the screaming immortal, at the sudden sound. Tears came to Zöe's and Artemis' eyes.

Annabeth never thought she would have heard Perseus scream. He was never the type to. He was stronger than that. Perseus would go days without verbally or physically showing any emotions, he had never showed pain. Annabeth remembers a moment during the month they spent alone where Perseus had left for a few hours and when he came back...he broke his leg, dislocated his shoulder, and had pulled a hip. He made some small noises of pain. That was the first time when they stared into each others eyes and almost kissed. Almost. Annabeth had accidently bumped into his broken leg, Perseus pulled away at that, hissing at the stinging he must have felt.

Tears came down her cheeks as the screams turned broken.

~Keep the darkness at bay, bring the light out to shine.~

The sun was setting. Annabeth could not get Perseus' screams out of her head. It was half a day ago when Gaea spoke...and tortured Perseus. An hour of screaming and silent screams, Perseus passed out. They agreed to keep an eye on him, there was something else to the situation that they were unaware of.

"Lady Artemis?" Annabeth had thought of something and it would be better to break the bad news fast. The only problem was her reaction. Would be it good or bad? Most likely bad.

"Yes?" The goddess of the hunt's silver eyes pierced Annabeth's grey ones.

"I wanted to know why you would trust Perseus so much when he's a male." Annabeth was so nervous, she didn't break the news. How come she was scared about it?

Artemis sent a look to Zöe. Her lieutenant nodded in consent. "Perseus saved Zöe's life. She had been trusting of a hero and he betrayed her by abandoning her once she was exiled. Perseus was around when Zöe and the hero was fighting." She smiled at the still form of Perseus. "He fought and won against the hero. Perseus gave her sword back to her and brought Zöe with him on his travels. He eventually convinced her to join the hunt as he was always around males and knew she needed to be around females who have gone through the samething or understand what she went through. That was the day I met her and she's still with me. Perseus has helped maidens ever since."

"...I was only being friendly..."

"Perseus!" Zöe cried out in joy. "Are thou okay?"

Perseus groaned in response. "...I feel like Death is finally coming for me..." He shifted his back, whimpering when something cracks in a painful way.

Gaea's mocking laugh surrounded the group. "Finally! The day of my awakening is here! And you, Perseus, along with a female will awaken me with your blood. Perhaps I will use the lieutenant's blood."

Annabeth started to shake at the thought. This was the day of the final battle, it was here already.

Two updates in one day to make up for not updating yesterday. I went to a funeral and was tired from cleaning and doing things for a week. I'm not doing anything today except for finishing this book (which will hopefully be done on Saturday) and a few small tasks that I haven't completed yet.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying this book! I know I am from writing this crazy mess! XD

~MsPenguingirl1234.

Published: February 8, 2018.