Chapter 88: Understanding

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A/N: Artemis takes a chill pill. Probably for the best because Percy is still burning hot.

-x-X-x-

Artemis barely has time to try and figure out who Bruno was, because a moment later and the power of Atlas fully settles within Percy Jackson. Which has some rather immediate consequences given that the young man was already in the process of ascending to godhood from the Ophiotaurus' selfless sacrifice.

Golden power greater even than what he'd shared with the others back when the fight with Atlas and his soldiers had just been getting started now blasts out in all directions, blanketing the area and leaving most to collapse to their knees in sheer awe as a new god is born.

Artemis doesn't blame either the female demigods or her huntresses as they fall to the ground. She doesn't even blame Percy, necessarily. A brand new ascension like his is unwieldly and incredibly heady.

However, what she's not expecting… is the effect that his rebirth has on HER. She's a Goddess after all, and one with thousands of years of life and experience ahead of Percy Jackson. So there should be absolutely no reason that she should feel even the slightest urge to kneel before him in supplication.

And she DEFINITELY shouldn't have to deal with the overwhelming urge to swear herself to him right then and there either!

With that being her first impulse upon his ascension, her second is fairly understandable in Artemis' opinion. Once she wrestles down the urge to proclaim her fealty to Percy Jackson and name him as her King right there on the spot, her next urge is an overwhelming desire to inflict bodily harm on the new god.

Her silver bow, crafted by Hephaestus himself, is still in her hands after all. Shooting Percy would be easy… and perhaps even for the good of the world. The desire to shoot him, to maim him, is very, very strong indeed.

… But she resists that urge as well and is glad that she does because barely a handful of moments later, the oppressive feeling shrinks back as Percy turns away from Atlas and looks honestly horrified by what he's accidentally done.

The golden presence of godhood and kinghood that was washing over the area an instant before abruptly recoils back into its master, filling Percy Jackson even as his expression scrunches up into one of concentration as he exercises supreme self-control in order to completely and utterly contain his new godhood.

… Artemis is begrudgingly impressed by this and for more than one reason at that. First, for a new god to be able to restrain themselves like that is unheard of. Normally, Percy would have to spend the next several years learning to control himself, either up on Mount Olympus, or in his father's territory, or in some other completely empty location where no mortals dared to tread.

For Percy to just naturally have that self-control wasn't just impressive, it was insane. He makes it look easy, something that Artemis can't help but feel a little jealous of when she remembers her initial years as a younger goddess trying to learn similar restraint.

Second though, most new gods wouldn't even bother trying to restrain themselves. Ascending to godhood didn't happen often, but the Expansion of Ego was a well-documented phenomenon among those mortals who managed it all the same. A mortal who became a newborn god tended to believe themselves all powerful and on top of the world.

Usually it wasn't until they ran into an older god and were smacked down a few times that they realized there were still bigger fish in the sea and their egos became tempered by such experiences.

Percy Jackson though… if Artemis didn't know better, she would say he didn't have much of an Ego at all. If anything, he seems to be lost, swaying on his feet like a leaf in the wind despite the immense power that Artemis KNOW now coursed through his form.

Licking her lips, Artemis looks between the stone statue of Atlas' remains and Percy Jackson's swaying figure. Her grip on her bow has never been tighter, but she keeps it at her side all the same, not raising it up even a little bit. She would… she would try talking first. It was possible that Percy was not in fact a danger to either her or the other women upon this mountain top.

"… Percy Jackson?"

Slowly, his eyes move over to her. Despite his self-control, they glow with golden power even now. But that's to be expected. He's not mortal anymore and he never will be again. Still, Artemis can't just leave this alone. She needs to know…

"What did you do to Atlas, exactly?"

Percy turns back to the kneeling Titan, or rather the statue that has taken his place. His Nemean Lion Coat gleams and glistens in the sunlight as he does so, making for quite the fashion statement. For a long moment, Percy just stares at the statue. Finally though, he breaks his silence.

"I did what they wanted me to do."

Artemis furrows her brow, but fortunately Percy isn't done.

"Kronos came to me first, you know. In the guise of a woman, he invaded my dreams and tried to turn me down this path before they even captured you. He told me of a way to ritually take the divinity of goddesses and thus claim it for myself. He wanted me to bind Aphrodite, Hestia, and Athena and strip them of their domains and power, make it my own."

A shiver runs down Artemis' spine. That would have been bad. Especially since she knew full well that all three of those goddesses were hopelessly entangled with Percy. Even Hestia, oldest of them all, had become taken with the young demigod. If he had allowed Kronos to lead him astray, tricking and capturing them would have been easy for the young demigod. Too easy.

"And then, here and now… Atlas wanted me to do the same to you. Or not me, but one of us. He didn't really seem to care whether it was me, Thalia, or Bianca. Just so long as one of us took your divinity and ascended to godhood."

This time, Artemis shudders, eyes flickering to the stone remains of Atlas. Yes, that was their plan, wasn't it? And they'd come perilously close to succeeding. If it weren't for the caliber of demigods in this party, then… she would be dead.

Artemis had met dozens of demigods from the loins of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades over the centuries. Not all of them were good people. In fact, most of them weren't. In that way, Kronos and Atlas' plan wasn't as foolish as it seemed on the surface. The problem that the Titans ran into was one of detail more than anything. They couldn't fathom the individuals they had to convince.

Percy wasn't just another Son of Poseidon. Thalia wasn't just another Daughter of Zeus. Bianca wasn't just another Daughter of Hades. They were each individuals with their own codes, their own lines, their own honor.

Privately though, Artemis suspected that Thalia and Bianca might have gone along with things if Percy had been willing to side with the Titans. She can tell just by looking at them that they're far too attached to the new god than they should be.

Then again… Artemis was also forced to acknowledge that Percy was far more worthy than the vast majority of men she'd had to put up with over the course of her very long life. He was truly one in a million.

"I don't know if it was because of Bruno's sacrifice or because it simply wasn't all that difficult to figure out… but somehow I knew what to do. I knew how to turn their plans around on them and I knew how to take everything that made Atlas who he was… and make it mine instead."

Oh, Bruno was the Ophiotaurus. She probably could have figured that out. Still, Artemis licks her lips at his words. She has her suspicions about how Percy was able to do what he did so easily. As Percy's godhood settles further into place and his prodigious self-control keeps his power in check, she's able to determine his domains far earlier than normal.

Usually, it could take weeks, months, or even years for a newly ascended god's domains to settle. Of course, usually it was also just one domain. This was not the case for Percy Jackson. Artemis could tell that he had at least two domains already right off the bat, with the potential for more to surface in the coming days.

The first and strongest domain is definitely God of Kings though. Percy isn't quite the King of the Gods like Zeus was, but he's definitely a God of Kings, or maybe Kinghood. His second domain, meanwhile, is God of Endurance. And Artemis is pretty sure that the first domain might be what allowed Percy to take on the second.

He took Atlas' power via rite of conquest. As the God of Kings, he would have such authority, perhaps. At least combined with the power of the Ophiotaurus anyways. After all, if the Ophiotaurus gave the power to topple Mount Olympus, that same power was almost certainly immense enough to topple the Titans right back.

A shiver runs down Artemis' spine and she licks her lips as she watches Percy stare down at Atlas. The Titan of Endurance was no more. He was just as dead as Zeus at this point. The only way that Artemis could see to resuscitate Atlas now would be to kill Percy and send the stolen power back into the statue. And that would only work in this moment and likely never again once Percy's new godhood settled into place and his position as God of Endurance fully solidified.

Of course, Artemis didn't really care about Atlas. From what she could tell, there was just enough strength left in the statue to keep holding the Sky up for a long, long time to come. Long even by the standards of the gods. So not only was that taken care of, one of the Crooked One's greatest allies was removed from the board completely.

It was a win-win situation, as the mortals liked to say. However, there was a third facet to all of this. Percy might have refused to sacrifice the Ophiotaurus with his own hands… but then the Ophiotaurus had sacrificed himself to give Percy his power. And that meant Percy now had the power to destroy Mount Olympus, just as the Great Prophecy forewarned.

… What was Artemis supposed to do with that? Once upon a time, she'd advocated for Percy Jackson's death on the grounds that he was much too close to rising up and becoming a threat to all of them. Of course, she hadn't advocated too hard, mostly because Hestia, Poseidon, and Hades had already killed Zeus to protect the mortal and Artemis wasn't inclined to truly get on any of their bad sides.

But now… now their worst fears had come to pass. What happened next… was up to Percy.

"What are you going to do now, Percy Jackson?"

Turning back from Atlas and looking at her, Percy frowns and furrows his brow. He's gaining some life back to him… but then rage fills his eyes once more and he snarls.

"Now? Now I find out where the failure truly lies."

Before Artemis can ask what Percy means by that, he whips around and stomps over to their single, solitary prisoner in all of this. Luke Castellan, pinned down by first Thalia and then by Percy's awe-inspiring Presence, looks up with wide eyes as Percy towers over him.

More of the new god's essence slips out, pushing Luke down a few more inches as the traitorous demigod gasps in pain.

"… How did Atlas capture the Ophiotaurus, Luke? How did he get ahold of Bruno?"

Grunting, his face a grimace as he trembles under the weight of Percy's Kingly Gaze, Luke clearly tries to resist… but in the end, the words spill forth anyways.

"You… never escaped us back at the museum. We simply… let you think you got a-away. Instead… we f-followed you. Atlas… saw you interact w-with the Ophiotaurus. He… watched you hand it off to those r-river nymphs. And… once you were far enough away… that was when he struck, killing the nymphs and securing the Ophiotaurus."

Silence hangs in the air as Percy digests this news, his hands curled into fists and trembling at his sides by the time Luke is done.

"Then the failure was mine."

This causes the other women in the vicinity to immediately speak up, from Thalia to Bianca to even Artemis' own Lieutenant.

"What?! It wasn't your fault, Percy! You did everything right!"

"You couldn't have known, Percy, you can't blame yourself!"

"You saved the Ophiotaurus from my arrow, Percy. The actions of my monstrous father afterwards are no fault of your own."

Percy doesn't respond though. Instead, he continues to stare down at Luke Castellan… and in that moment, Artemis realizes he's considering whether or not to kill him. On the one hand, the Council would no doubt consider it a gesture of goodwill if Percy turned Luke over to them for judgment. On the other hand… Artemis stays quiet, curious to see what he will choose without hearing her advice.

His next actions might very well be precisely what she needs to see in order to know what type of god Percy Jackson will truly be.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Percy executes Luke here and now - 16%[X] Percy lets the Council of Olympus decide Luke's fate - 84%

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