POV: Percy

Location: Hunters' Camp, Pine Barrens, NJ.

Where in Hades have I seen that girl before? I somehow knew that it was Artemis, goddess of the Hunt, yet at the same time, I don't remember ever meeting her. That time with the council doesn't really count, as all of the Gods were voting on whether or not to kill me. With Zeus threatening you with death, you tend to block everything else out.

I mean, I looked at her once, and it felt like my brain was being shrink wrapped then boiled. Don't tell me that just happens when you meet someone for the first time.

I then realize that everything around me is black. Wait, my eyes are closed, of course I can't see anything. I try to open my eyes, but they don't budge. I then try to move around, but find I can't either. Then, it clicks.

Great, I'm unconscious. I mutter mentally, not even sure how I could have possibly done that.

I'm then bombarded by a series of random images, all without sound. Well, ok there was sound, but it didn't match any of the pictures at all. It was like watching one movie, but listening to a completely different one.

"Do you, Perseus, swear to uphold the Oath of the Guardians?" A voice rumbles.

A quick flash of light. A giant throne room. Eleven vacant seats. The throne room of the Gods. Three people. Zeus. Artemis. A person in a pure black cloak kneels before Artemis. Silver highlights on the cloak.

"I swear." A semi-deep voice responds.

Another flash. Woods. Bottom of a mountain. Summer. Artemis. Black cloak guy appears. Kneeling in front of the goddess. She growls. Another flash.

"Repeat that Oath." The voice rumbles again.

Flash. A camp. Silver tents. Girls. Girls with bows. Hunters of Artemis. Artemis approaches. The cloaked man follows. Hunters point bows at man. A quick conversation. The bows lower. Cloaked man nods. Runs off to the side.

"I, Perseus, swear to honor the code of the Guardians. To protect the gods. To ensure the future of Olympus."

Flash. A group of men. Swords and armor. The campsite. Fire. Hunters flushed from tents. Blur of black. A fight. One survivor. Cloaked man surrounded by dead bodies. a wave of the hand. Water doused fires. No Hunters dead.

"I swear to protect my assigned god, no matter the situation, even if it means my own death."

Flash. A girl. Hunter. Woods. Crying on the ground. Cloaked man. Kneels in front of her. Tips face up. Says something. Two stand up. Walk off.

"I swear to always act honorably. I will never take any action which my Charge would disapprove of. I swear my loyalty to my Charge."

Flash. Two men. Lion skin. Black cloak. Lion skin man on ground. Bruises. Cuts. Battered body. Shifts. Cloaked man kicks lion skinned man. Moves no more. A glint. Bronze sword. Cloaked man picks it up. Sword shrinks. Disappears in folds of cloak.

"I swear to provide mental support to my Charge, providing advice and support in trying time."

Flash. Three people. Cloaked man. Man with bow. Girl, Hunter, on ground. Hunter 's clothes torn to shreds. Cloaked man holding bowman off ground. Punch one. Punch two. Drops bowman. Kicks bowman. Once, twice, thrice. Picks up bowman. Elbow to face. Another person. Goddess. Artemis. Bow appears. Arrow flies. Bowman drops. Dead.

"On this Oath, I swear my life, my soul, and my blade."

Flash. A fight. Monsters. Artemis. Hunting knives. Moving quickly. Cuts through monsters. Many fall. Cloaked man. Hurricane. Destruction. Many monsters fall. All in vain. Too many left. Surrounded. Eyes widen. Cloaked man moves quickly. Dives right. Three arrows. Poison. Wave of energy. Emotion. Anger. Pain. Monsters vaporized. Artemis and cloaked man. Death.

I audibly groan and shift. Wait a second, I moved. With some difficulty, I open my eyes, only to shut them as I happen to look right into the sun. More carefully, and with more control, I open my eyes again. This time, a face blocks out the sun. Her features are silhouetted and her hair cascades down around her head.

"Ow..." I groan, "What happened to me?"

I recall being unconscious and seeing flashes of scenes, but I can't seem to remember anything about them. There was a voice too, and a bunch of words, but I can't seem to remember those either.

"Why don't you tell me." The girl says as she helps me sit up. I look around and find myself in a semi-large tent. Medical supplies litter the entire place.

I manage to get a good look at the girl. She has a lean face and tan complexion, like she spent her entire time outside doing stuff. Then I remember where I am. I'm with the Hunters of Artemis. The girl has deep brown eyes and wavy red hair.

"I wish I could tell you something." I mutter, "But I have no idea what's going on. Sorry, who are you again?" I ask her politely.

A look of disappointment appears on the girl's face, but vanishes so quickly it must've been a trick of the light.

"My name's Catania." She says, "And you are?"

"Who me? Percy. Percy Jackson." I say.

"Percy...as in Perseus?"

I look at her warily, "The only people who use that are generally trying to kill me. So unless you plan on doing that anytime soon, please call me Percy."

Catania grins, almost as if she was waiting for me to say that, then says, "Sure thing Percy."

"Catania, I hope you are not proving to be difficult to our patient." Another voice calls out from the other side of the tent.

Catania pouts, "Come on Zöe, it's not like you weren't waiting for him to wake up either."

"Wait, how long was I out?" I ask frantically.

"One day, three hours, twenty-seven minutes and...ten seconds." Catania rattles off, creeping me out a little bit.

"Ok, aside from the very creepy accuracy of that, why exactly were you waiting for me to wake up?" I ask, "I mean, I'm nothing all that special."

The two look at me in disbelief, then look at each other and begin laughing.

"What?" I cry out indigently.

Oh, nothing." Zöe is the first of the two to recover, wiping a tear out of her eye.

"And as for why we were waiting for you, Lady Artemis has some questions for you. We are very interested in how you will answer." Catania smiles.

I start to internally panic. I knew from the stories that Artemis had a nasty habit of turning males into animals, then sicing the Hunt on him. I quickly run through a list of everything I've done in my life, trying to find what I did wrong.

Zöe laughs, "I missed that look. Don't worry, you are not in trouble."

POV: Artemis

Location: Empire State Building Lobby, NY.

I'd teleported myself to the lobby of the mortal Empire State Building. I always found it a little uncomfortable to teleport directly into the throne room. I walk up to the reception desk.

"Six hundredth floor." I say smoothly.

"No such thing." The guard says, distracted by his book.

"You sure about that?"

He looks up, and I smile sweetly at him.

"My apologies, Lady Artemis." He says, flustered, "Here you go, I assume you know how it works."

"Thank you Jarvis." I say, and place a drachma on the desk.

I get into the elevator, making sure no one got on with me, then I insert the key into the opening. As I turn the key, it disappears, only to be replaced by a red button with the number six hundred under it. I press the button and the elevator begins to rise.

I brace myself for the inevitable, ear splitting, horror that is elevator music. Surprisingly, it doesn't come. Instead of the usual Neil Diamond [A/N: I apologize to any Neil Diamond fans, but I don't like him, So he is by default the crappy elevator music] that I would expect, a more appealing song comes on: "Hero" by Skillet. I recognize it only because some of my most recent recruits, especially Katherine, daughter of Apollo, are a little obsessed with music. I won't deny that it's not a bad song though, and mildly appropriate, considering the information I'm about to reveal to the council.

The elevator reaches the top just as the song ends, and I step out of the cramped elevator and into the open city of Olympus. I walk swiftly through the city, waving in greeting to some of the minor goddesses. Many of the minor gods stay away. I smirk, remembering the time that Eros had tried to flirt with me, only to be blocked by Percy. No minor god tried that afterwards.

I'm drawn out of my musings by the giant doors to the throne room. I push them open, and enter the throne room. At the present moment, only my father, Zeus, and Athena were in the room. Zeus notices my presence and nods.

I grow to my full height of twelve feet and take a seat on my throne. Zeus slams his master bolt on the ground, summoning all of the other Olympians.

"Awww, come on Zeus, I was in the middle of a very nice date." A very pink goddess whines.

"I'm sorry Aphrodite, would you like some cheese with your wine." Her a snaps at the love goddess, who perks up.

"Oh! Yes please."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. The sad part was that Aphrodite wasn't being sarcastic; she was actually that dumb.

"Silence." Zeus thunders. (Ha, thunders.), "Artemis, I believe you have news pertaining to the monster nest.

"Well, not exactly." I say, "But the information I do bring is considerably more interesting."

"Is it a cute boy?" Aphrodite asks eagerly.

The rest of the council looks at her in disbelief, as I try very hard to hide my blush. Fortunately, it seems to work as no one notices.

"Really, Aphrodite?" Hermes asks, "Why would Artemis summon a council meeting to talk about a boy."

The love goddess pouts, "I would." She mutters dejectedly.

"Getting back on topic." Athena says crisply, "Why don't you explain what happened."

"Well, as soon as the last meeting dismissed, I travelled back to my Hunters and we made our way to the monster nest. When we got there, there was nothing. Someone had already come through and completely destroyed every single monster." I explain, "We found a fresh set of tracks, and followed then, eventually catching up to a male demigod."

"And this interests us why?" Poseidon asks.

"Oh, don't worry, this will interest you especially, Poseidon." I continue through the interruption smoothly, "The demigod was Perseus Jackson, Lord Poseidon's son."

I'm once again cut off, this time by a squeal from my left, "Yay! It is about a cute boy!"

"Stay away from my son, Aphrodite." Poseidon says sharply, causing the love goddess to calm down instantly.

"Ok, and why does this interest us little sis?" My my annoying YOUNGER brother asks.

"Stop calling me sis!" I take a deep breath, "You all remember the Guardians, correct."

"Of course." Hephestus frowns, or at least I think he did.

"Well...the boy I found is my Guardian." I say slowly.

The council room is completely silent. I start a mental countdown at ten. When I reach four, the entire throne room dissolves into shouting.

"Silence!" Zeus thunders (Ha, thunders.).

"Artemis, what makes you think that my son is, was, your Guardian?" Poseidon asks uncertainty, "They were disbanded one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine years ago."

"I am aware of that Uncle." I reply, "But that does not explain how you had two sons, thousands of years apart, that had the exact same name. Perhaps you would also have an explanation for why he looks exactly like my old Guardian."

"Um..." Poseidon is unable to come up with a response.

"Perhaps you could provide us with some proof that they look exactly the same." Demeter cuts in reasonably.

I nod and wave my hand. In front of the council appears an image of modern Percy.

"This is the Percy we found today." I say simply.

I think hard, eventually deciding on a memory from my past. I wave my hand again and that image appears next to the first one.

"This is Percy from the time when we had Guardians."

"Dang Artemis, how did you manage to pull that up?" Hermes says, mildly impressed.

"Maybe it's because Arty here thinks about him more than she has led us to believe." Aphrodite giggles, "Though with a body like that, who can blame her?" She goes back to staring at the image greedily.

I glare at her, and the rest of the council looks at me in confusion.

"Ok, maybe he does pop into my mind every once in a while, so? How many of you think about your old Guardian...s?" I pluralize the term at the last second, remembering that I was the only God or goddess who only had one Guardian.

A few tentative hands go up. Hermes, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia from the hearth.

"My point exactly." I sit back in my throne.

"Ok, enough of that. Athena, what do you think?" Zeus asks.

"Were it not for the two thousand year difference, I would say that they were twins or..." She trails off.

"Or the same person?" I finish smugly as Athena nods.

"Any more evidence?" Hera asks me.

"Well, he did recognize me, despite us never talking before." I say.

"What happened next?"

"He passed out."

The room is silent for a second before Hermes bursts out laughing.

"Sorry." He manages to say in between laughs.

"Well Athena," Hephestus says, "what is your final conclusion?"

"I think..." The wisdom goddess says slowly, "Artemis may very well be right. There are far too many coincidences not to at least consider this as a possibility."

"Something bad must be coming up in the near future for a Guardian to somehow force his way out of the Underworld to protect Artemis." Demeter says.

"Why me specifically?" I ask.

"Well, do you see any of our Guardians around? No. Okay." Demeter responds.

"Not my fault he's too stubborn for his own good." I mutter so that no one could hear me.

Except Hermes (that damned sneak), who flashes me a quick grin and wink. I respond with a very unlady- like hand gesture, which no one sees.

"Keep the council updated on this matter." Zeus says to me, then addresses the entire room, "Is there anything else anyone would like to say?"

"Yes." Poseidon speaks up.

"Ok, then say it." Zeus demands, slightly irritated.

"Artemis, brace yourself."