Clockwork

2

"Are you sure no one is going to find out?" Percy heard Annabeth ask worriedly as he opened his eyes. "I'm positive babe. You trust me?" Percy recognized Adrien's voice. Annabeth was about to respond until she noticed Percy was awake.

"He's awake," Annabeth told Adrien, who turned and looked at the beaten son of Poseidon. With a crooked smirk, he turned around and gave Annabeth a disgustingly slow kiss, and Percy scowled.

When they pulled apart, the son of Aphrodite turned and bent down next to him, his rather boring blue eyes looking into Percy's angry sea green ones. "Did you see that Jackson? Looks like you're not special after all." He said. Percy paid him no mind and turned his attention to Annabeth, his wife, the mother of his child.

"You know, despite everything we've been through together, I wonder why I'm surprised." He said. "You never did look at me the same way after Tartarus." It was right there in front of him for years.

The vacations that she decided to stay at school for during college while he returned to camp, the fact that she held off their wedding for so long, why she was so nervous when she found out she was pregnant with Kenneth. Percy sighed. He even remembered that look on her face when she saw that his eyes matched mine. Relief? Disappointment?

"I'm sorry Percy it's just-" "You're a good for nothing monster, controlling people like that, being just like the gods." Adrien spat, venomously saying the word 'gods'. "That means so much coming from you," Percy said to the son of Aphrodite. He said it in his utmost most insincere voice.

"Watch your tone. It's your choice if this ends quickly or not." Adrien said, a smile spreading across his face before he took a small dagger from Annabeth's hand.
~
"Once again, I thank you for you doing this," Artemis told Percy. Percy nodded, knowing that as long as she thought he was genderless he didn't have to worry about being a target of her manhating nature. "Of course milady," Percy responded.

"So respectful. You know, I'd like you even more if Hephaestus fixed your voice." Artemis says smiling, placing her hand on his shoulder. 'Fixing his voice' as in changing it to a woman's. Percy nodded to her, and she flashed him to a small secluded cabin. The area around it looked deserted and unkempt, vines stretching across the earth and curling around the cabin. A daughter of Demeter.

Percy circled around the cabin, checking to see if there was anything to look out for. He saw nothing, but he still kept up his guard, Riptide springing into sword form. He kicked in the back door, not being discrete and wanting all attention on him for what he was about to do. As expected, he was immediately confronted by three middle-aged men, all too drunk to put up much of a fight.

From a behind a closed-door he heard the words, 'hide the girl' and he knew he was doing well. They were leaving her unattended just like he hoped. Another man opened the door and was only met with Percy's metallic arm. Percy stepped into the room and noticed a door that was wide open.

The room itself was small and cluttered, destroyed furniture everywhere, broken jagged pieces of glass covering the floor and vines scattered about. There was a mirror, completely untouched, the only thing in the room not broken.

Percy rolled his eyes. These guys really thought he was an idiot.

He looked right at the mirror and reached his hand out and into the mirror, grabbing the first thing he touched. He pulled out a young boy, not who he was looking for. He had midnight black almost blue hair and piercing brown eyes. The boy looked horrified out of his mind as Percy placed him back on the floor and watched as the boy scurried to a corner.

Percy reached in again and pulled out two small girls, one blonde and gray-eyed, and one with green eyes and light brown hair. Both looked equally scared to the young boy, and Percy reached in again, this time pulling out something-someone-heavier. A middle-aged man flashed his yellowing teeth in a mocking smile as he raised a gun and pulled the trigger.

Percy felt the bullet lodged into his mechanical skull, protecting his brain, and he looked at the man before quickly disposing of him with his other hand, also known as Riptide. He did it quickly, consciously aware of the three children behind him who all were under the age of ten.

The people who lived here were legacies who made money off of demigods. He was only aware of the daughter of Demeter, which was who he was sent here to get. Surely, Artemis would take the Athenian.

He wondered what to do with the boy. It's not like Artemis would take him into the hunt. He finally turned around to the three, the daughter of Demeter and the Athenian child cowering behind the boy who still looked fearful but looked at him defiantly, holding up his hands in front of him in a defensive stance. Percy was then hit by something, something hard.

He was surrounded by some green bubble, and while whatever just hit him was strong, the bubble popped with one slash from Riptide. But it left no question if the boy's heritage. "Your mothers sent me. I'm here to bring you somewhere safe." Percy told them, making his voice as human-like and kind as he could. "M-my mother?" The Athenian asked. "Yes. Your mother." "Th-that's what they said. That our mothers sent them to us." The daughter of Demeter said, and Percy realized the little girl was becoming angry.

"Th-they came into my home and killed my grandmother and my aunt and they took me away. Why should I care about them?" The vines on the ground began to knit themselves back together, slowly slithering towards him. Such hate for the godly side of her family reminded Percy of someone.

"I understand completely. You can go ahead and stay here and maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get mauled by a hellhound, or maybe torn apart by the minotaur, eaten by a cyclops, or, my personal favorite, you might run into an empousa. Do you know who or what that is?" Percy asked, honestly about to leave the kids to fend for themselves when he noticed that the daughter of Demeter stopped resurrecting vines and was currently crying her eyes out.

She wasn't getting comforted, because the boy was standing there, eyes widened in shock while the daughter of Athena was having a mini panic attack. "So are you coming or not?" Percy said, not trying to sound nice anymore. The boy immediately nodded his head and looked back at the girls. The daughter of Athena, presumably the youngest, sniffled before nodding also.

The daughter of Demeter stood and joined the other two, not responding, but Percy knew her answer. "Good, because we've wasted enough time."

That's the end of Chapter two. Hope you liked it,
~DemonsFromAbove