The Brother of the Hunt

10

A/N: and here it is, finished. There may be typos as I literally wrote this in the last hour or so but wanted to get it out for y'all and was struck with inspiration. I hope this is closure enough for everyone and that you like it. I think this is my favourite chapter even though it's a little sad. And by a little I mean quite a lot. Sorry and enjoy!

Percy didn't know what to do, every thing had been going so well only a month before. They had won the war, he had friends he could depend on, he had parents that loved him and finally had no war to be fighting. And then Hypnos happened. Apparently he had managed to anger the sleep god at some point. Grover had laughed and said it was because of how little he slept, - the was before Grover turned too.

Hypnos had targeted the people he didn't know well first, and had changed their memories during their sleep to think of him as the bad guy. And slowly but surely got everyone at camp, until on Chiron was left. He suggested Percy go home for now while he sorted out everything going on.

He arrived home in Manhattan a day after leaving camp, with one last glance behind him at the demigods trying to find and kill him. Annabeth, Leo and Grover looked confused while they searched his cabin, as if they didn't quite understand why they thought he needed to be eradicated; but when they spotted him watching them, their faces turned to one of anger and hatred as they started charging up the hill. He ran, and didn't stop running until he returned home.

He slowly walked up the stairs and to his apartment, grabbing the spare key from above the door frame and let himself in. What he saw destroyed him.

Blood everywhere, splattered across the walls and floors, three dead bodies to accompany it - his mother, Sally, her husband, Paul, and their one year old daughter, Estelle. He ran over to his sister, checking her neck for a pulse, but found her cold, with her tiny tummy ripped to shreds. He scrambled over to the phone, to call the police, only to find the wire cut and a message on the wall.

You must pay Perseus

Tears streamed down his face as he fell to his knees beside his mother and sister, screams of dispair falling from his mouth like roars from an enraged lion. The neighbor must have heard as he came running in to find out what happened.

"Hey, I heard screams, is everything o-oh my god!" He exclaimed, turning away in shock. "Percy, is that you?"
"Call the police, whoever killed my mum is going to pay for it." The man from next door - Percy remembered him to be called John - called the police quickly and explained what he had seen. It wasn't long before officers where flooding into the apartment and tearing a crying Percy away from his family.

His mind was made up - he couldn't solve this without help, he knew it, but he could solve the dilemma he was going through - he was going to go to Olympus and demand a meeting with Artemis. She was the only one he could think of that would be glad to kill him quickly. Quickly being the operative word.

Before the police could stop him, he had ran from the room, John chased him down the stairs to check on him but he only stayed ling enough to say he was going to find a friend. He ran to the empire building, pulling out his sword and demanded to go to the 600th floor. In fear of being stabbed, the lady handed over the key card and he ran to the elevator. It wasn't long before he reached Olympus.

When he did, he got smacked with a wave of nostalgia, as if he had walked this path a hundred times but he could only remember being here three times. And he had never gone looking around, nor been to Artemis' palace, so how he knew where it was confused him, but he waved it off. He walked inside, without knocking, and called out for her.

It was ten minutes before she appeared, concern in her eyes betraying her otherwise annoyed looking face.

"What do you want?" She demanded. "What could you possibly want with me to the point that you stormed into my palace and ran around like a mad man demanding my presence? That is not how this works, boy. We are not at your disposal." She growled out her rant, but the concern was still evident in her eyes.
"Kill me." Percy said blankly.
"What?" She was clearly taken aback if the suddenly confused face and shaky step backwards was anything to go by.
"I can think of a hundred God's and Titans, Giants and Monsters, people even, that would want to kill me. You, of that list, were the only one I would want to end my life. And I feel it is time I move on. There is nothing left for me here."
"What of Sally?" She asked, fear brimming her tone. She had only met the woman once, when returning Percy to her, but the woman was lovely, and she couldn't have asked for a better woman to raise her child.
"How do you know my mother?" The Goddess faltered for a moment, before coming up with a lie.
"Thalia speaks fondly of her."
"Well, she's dead. And so are Estelle and Paul."
"Estelle and Paul?"
"Her daughter and husband. My half sister and step dad. Whatever you want to call them. Someone murdered them brutally and used their blood to write a message to me on the walls. I fear the only way to keep camp - who right now are trying to murder me too - is to die. So, I revisit my earlier statement; kill me."
"I can't do that, Percy."
"Why not? I-I thought-"
"You can't ask me to do that. It is not fair to me."
"But- you, you hate men. You hate me!"
"I do not hate you my boy." His face morphed into one of confusion and heart ache. There was no way he remembered the nickname, and yet it struck him somewhere deep inside and made him look at the girl in front of him in a new light. "I could never hate you. I hate what they forced you to become, and forced you to do, but I could never hate you."
"What do you mean?"
"My son-"
"Son? I-I'm not your kid. I-"
"The memories you have as a child are fake," he tried to remember one solid thing from his childhood, but everything other than the forest was hazy, "replacements for what really happened, my child." He tried to remember anything, but all that he could think of before going to camp half blood was a vibrant green forest and the feeling of wet grass beneath his bare feet.
"What are you doing to my head? Why can't I remember anything?" She looked at him in pain, knowing he was hurting.
"Sally may have been your mother, but she is not who raised you Percy. Try and remember." She said gently, aware he probably had the biggest head ache of all time. "Remember who you are."
"Mama? It hurts." He cried out, grabbing his head and falling to the floor.
"I know my boy, just remember." She stroked his hair gently, like she had when he had trouble sleeping as a child. "Remember and you can join us again." And without another word, he collapsed unconscious.