Amongst the Hunted Moons

Notes:

Ladies and Gentlemen, readers of all ages, welcome back to A Midsummer Hunt, and it's the chapter we've all been waiting for.

It's gonna be a showdown.

It's gonna be a throwdown.

It's gonna be a hoedown!

It's the Lieutenant vs The Heir!

On with the show!

Zoë Nightshade

The silver sword stabs down, piercing the brain of the Acromantula that Zoë had pinned to the ground, putting an end to it.

The boy had saved her.

Looking around the Den, Zoë's eyes scan for anything spider-shaped still moving, but she sees none, "Clear!" The Lieutenant calls out before the call of her sisters answers her back, repeating her word and she knows the hunt is over, all that was left was to go collect the boy's body, for she knows the monster that had crawled out of the hollow. The Scorpio, a creature created by Gaia herself to kill Orion when he had gone mad with the Hunt, slaughtering all living things around him for her Lady could not bring herself to kill him herself. For if the monster could kill one of the greatest Hunters that had ever lived, the boy, in her mind, stood no chance against the hunter's bane.

The boy had saved her.

Zoë looks back toward her Lady who was already moving across the Den toward where the Scorpio and the boy had disappeared, Zoë isn't shocked to see her sisters enter the Den from the other side, the fetish carrying the boy on her back, using the boy's own weapon to brace him on her back, the boy was unmoving, head lulling off to the side with his right arm hanging at an odd angle and looks like he had stuck it into a burning hearth. Her Lady makes it to them quickly, worry evident on her face, and Zoë prepares herself to comfort her soon-to-be grieving Goddess, but is surprised by what she hears.

"He's alive, Lady Artemis," Sophie tells the leader of the hunt, "Crazier than a bag weasels, and hurt, but he's breathing," the mad hunter says, her rifle slung over her back with a smile on her face.

"Phoebe!" Artemis calls out, and the daughter of Apollo leaves the hunter she was helping with a bite wound to the Nymph handmaidens as she runs over to the Goddess and the boy before nodding to Artemis and walking up to the boy before placing her hand on the boy's forehead and whispers a haiku under her breath in the form of a pray to her father, Phoebe glows golden for a moment before the light passes over the boy and Phoebe gasps. She pulls back her hand, shock and horror etched on her face before it morphs into confusion and she looks over to the Goddess of the Hunt who raises her brow at the medic.

"What is it?" Artemis asks, her eyes narrowing.

Phoebe's mouth opens and closes a few times, her eyes flickering between the boy, the Goddess, and Atalanta who had a worried look on her face, before she finally speaks.

"He's…Alive," Phoebe says, but it sounds more like a question to Zoë's ears, "He's just unconscious at the moment, he has three broken ribs, a dislocated elbow, his ulna and radius bones are broken, and both ACLs' in his legs are torn, he'll need bed rest for a few days but I'm confident I can patch him up," Phoebe says before giving Lady Artemis a look to which the Goddess nods slowly at.

"And the Scorpio?" Artemis asks, her hand gripping her bow tightly as her eyes scan the tree line, looking for the threat, and what the fetish says next shocks Zoë.

"He killed it," Atalanta says, a smile on her face, "its spoils are back behind us," the shine of pride in her eyes could not be missed by any hunter with eyes themselves.

"Oh man, Lady Artemis, you missed the craziest shit that Harry had just pulled off," Sophie says with a mad grin, "he tricked the fucker to sting itself in the head giving him a clear shot to drive his spear right through the fuckers face," She says, excitement leaking into her voice, "it was mad!" The hunter exclaims, almost jumping on the spot.

Artemis' eyes go wide before looking back over to the boy, before they soften and she smiles at him, "Always so full of surprises, huh, Harry?" She says softly before shaking her head fondly, "we will collect his spoils later, but first we must treat our wounded and get back to camp," Artemis says and the hunt calls out in acceptance of her order and Zoë watches from the side as she sees many of her sisters look at the boy with concern, but not about him, but for him, eyes soft with fondness and thanks that he had survived.

Zoë can't help but to feel like the odd one out as she watches on from the sidelines, her festering hatred pulsing like a painful wound in her chest.

The boy had saved her life.

?

He felt like he was floating, he didn't know who he was or where he was, but he felt safe as if he was wrapped in a warm blanket sleeping soundly in the never-ending darkness around him, he had a feeling that it didn't happen often. He drifted in his slumber, up and down, rocking back and forth in ice-cold arms that held onto him as if he was the most precious thing alive, the soft humming filling his ears like a lullaby or a dirge. Before long he feels his head laying on something firm, yet soft, as hands run through his hair slowly and carefully, it was a comforting rhythm meant to soothe him, and it did. He didn't have the strength or want to move or even open his eyes, he just lays there enjoying the comfortable darkness hidden behind his eyes, he sighs out contently just before the sound of a high chime-like giggle breakthrough the quiet darkness.

"You know," a voice says in what had to be a soft whisper, "We really have to stop meeting like this," the voice sounds more amused than anything else, "And how often we do, do you remember? Those long nights in the cupboard, where you would be hanging by a thread in the dark, drifting in and out of uneasy sleep, do you remember when I used to comfort you, hmm?" The voice asks, but he didn't remember, what was the voice talking about? What cupboard?

"Mi.t.. Po..er,"

"Of course you don't, you never do," the voice sounds sad, mournful almost, he wanted to apologize, he wanted to tell it that he didn't mean to, it was hard to remember the dreams that didn't wake him in a screaming fit, "shh, don't worry about it, I've already forgiven you," the voice says, "I'll always forgive you, no matter what," it says, and he swears he could hear a smile in its voice.

"Mi..er Pot..r,"

"Ignore that for now," The voice insists, "Let's just enjoy what little time we have together," the voice then giggles again, "What odd little concepts you mortals create, Time, what is time? Time is an artificial construct. An arbitrary system based on the idea that events occur in a linear direction at all times, but here? Here we have all the time in the world," he could feel the grin on its face, "But sadly, it's not time for that yet, but the clock moves closer with every minute of every hour you come closer to being mine once and for all, and when that happens, I won't let go of you again," the voice speaks and he feels the back of an ice cold hand caress his cheek in an almost loving way, "My Harry,"

"Mister Potter!"

Harry Potter

Harry wakes with a gasp before it turns into a groan of pain as his arm feels like it was dipped in hot wax, he squeezes his eyes shut and hisses as he tries to reach out and pull away the hot wax before someone grabs his arm and forces it back down.

"Mother Magic so help me, Mister Potter, if you try that again I will use a sticking charm and MAKE you lay still, understand me?" Says a voice Harry prays yearly to never hear, but always seems to visit at least once a year, Harry groans again before opening his eyes to see a very familiar blur.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Harry asks, confused, the last thing he remembers is driving his spear through the face of the giant scorpion.

"Glad to see your mental facilities are still working, if barely," The school nurse snips at him, "One month Mister Potter, it hasn't even been a month since I last saw you, but in the middle of my summer vacation I get a floo call from Albus asking me to come back to the castle to help an injured guest," she tells him as she walks around the room? Tent? Packing things away in, what Harry thinks is, a black bag, "and to my non-existence shock, I find out that guest is you," she lets out an aggravated sigh before turning to the side table next to his bed and puts his glasses on for him, oh he was in a tent, and Madam Pomfrey was looking down at him with a very stern look on her face, and Harry gulps.

"What do you have to say for yourself young man?" She asks him, her voice sharp and in the tone of not taking any of Harry's normal antics.

"Er, …Sorry? Won't happen again?" Harry says with a grimace.

The nurse just sighed again, pitching the bridge of her nose before shaking her head and turning back to look at him, "I had to mend a few bones, pop a joint back into place, and repair a few torn ligaments, which was easy enough, but then you went and stuck your whole arm into curse fire, how you had managed that one I have no idea, Albus wouldn't tell me, I had to deglove your arm before slathering it in the essence of dittany and skin regrowth poultice, it's going to burn for a while so in my mercy, I'm leaving some dreamless sleep potion behind so you can sleep through the worst of it," she tells him as she turns and finishing packing away different bottles in her bag before turning around and placing a vial of a soft purple potion next to his bed before looking back at him with a glare.

"If I get one more floo call about you, or if you show up in the hospital wing with anything worse than a bloody nose in the first three months of the next school year, Mister Potter, I will stick you to a bed in the Hospital wing, permanently," Madam Pomfrey tells him with a scowl and Harry quickly nods to the scary head nurse of Hogwarts, because he did not doubt in his mind she would do just that.

Madam Pomfrey turns and picks up the black doctor's bag and begins to leave as the tent flap opens and in walks the Headmaster and Artemis in her adult form.

"Ah, Poppy, how is your patient doing?" Dumbledore asks with a smile, but it soon falters at the look Madam Pomfrey gives him.

"He'll live if that's what you're asking, Albus," the nurse says in a firm voice, "He should be good to go by the morning with a functioning arm, now if you'll excuse me, Albus, I have the rest of my vacation to enjoy, isn't that right, Mister Potter?" She asks Harry her head snapping to him with a glare, and Harry flinches back nodding his head vigorously before she humps and leaves the tent.

The Headmaster and Artemis watch her leave before the Goddess speaks up, "That has to be one of the most frightening mortals I have ever come across in all my years," Artemis says in her normal bored tone of voice with her brow raised.

"Lady Artemis, there is a rather short list of people I fear the wrath of if I should cross them in any way, Poppy Pomfrey is at the top of that list," the Headmaster admits before Artemis turns to him with a raised brow, and Dumbledore just smiles at her, "as she once told me when I made myself sick on too many sweets, Albus, I have spent over forty years learning how to put a body back together, don't think for a moment I don't know how to take one apart," he says with a smile and a shake of his head as Artemis snorts in amusement before they both turn to Harry laying in the bed.

"You gave me quite the scare, my boy," Dumbledore says with a smile, "When Lady Artemis had informed me her hunt had come to a closed but you were injured during it, I may have, as the muggles would say, jumped the gun and contacted Poppy for her expertise and accidentally insulted Miss Phoebe own expertise," he tells Harry as the boy grimaces at the pain of his wrapped arm.

"Oh, ah, thank you anyway, Headmaster," Harry says, shuffling in his bed as best he could without disturbing his arm.

The man himself chuckles a bit, "Think nothing of it, My boy, but for now, I think I have trespassed on Lady Artemis' hospitality long enough, but, before I take my leave, a gift for you, My Boy," He tells Harry before he reaches impossibly deep into the pocket of his robe and producing something Harry had only seen once before in Flourish and Blotts, a magical camera. Dumbledore turns to Artemis with a bow of his head, "Lady Artemis, please pass along my apologies to Miss Phoebe once more, and tell her I'll send her those potion manuals as soon as I can, I am interested to see what she can make of them myself," the Headmaster says with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Of course Albus, you are free to leave on your own, I wish to speak to Harry for a moment before he takes his sleeping elixir anyway," the Goddess tells the aging Headmaster who bows his head once more before taking his leave. Artemis waits till the Headmaster is gone before her form shifts to what she normally looks like, before, with a wave of her hand, conjures a simple silver chair, for saying she didn't like opulence, Artemis sure did like her silver. She sits down and leans forward, her arms on her legs with her hands clasped, if it wasn't for her eyes, which were currently looking over his arm that was wrapped in conjured dressing, she would almost look human.

"I'm very proud of you, Harry," Artemis says as Harry's eyes snap to her and widen a bit, "Not only did you do your job for the hunt perfectly, protecting the Nymphs and getting them to the trees safely, but in the face of a great monster, you neither hesitated nor did you let some foolish notion like pride stop you from accepting help from others when you fought it," Artemis says with a soft smile, and Harry swallows as he feels his face become flushed with embarrassment, "Do you know what you fought this night, Harry? And why it is so impressive?" The Goddess of the Hunt asks, and Harry blinks.

"Umm, …a giant lava scorpion?" Harry asks, because honestly, he didn't know, Atalanta had covered Giant Scorpions in their talks about what they hunted, but she never once said anything about something like what had emerged from the hollow of the Acromantula Den, and Artemis chuckles at his answer and shakes her in amusement.

"No Harry," Artemis says as she looks at him with a soft smile, "You fought and killed The Scorpio," she tells him, and Harry, once again, blinks.

"Like the constellation? Like the monster that killed…" Harry trails off, Artemis didn't talk about Orion much, and when she did, she would get this sad faraway look in her eyes, like she was watching the event play out again in a detached state of mind.

"Yes, the same one that had killed Orion," Artemis says with a small sad smile, "It, like all the constellation creatures, are rare hunts and powerful monsters that had carved their own legends so deep into myth the stars themselves remember them, and you killed one," the Goddess smile grows as the rare emotion bloom in her eyes, pride, pride in what Harry had done, pride in Harry. The boy in question looks away, a blush on his face and something he couldn't quite understand growing in his chest, it was happiness, it was his own pride, and a warm feeling he never really had before and he doesn't understand why he feels any of it so all Harry does is nods at her words while looking away from her.

They sit in silence for a moment or two before Artemis begins to chuckle and says, "We really are quite bad at this, aren't we?" She was talking about the odd relationship they had with one another, they both were, relatively, simple beings, and both were bad at emotions and understanding them, bad at receiving compliments without snarking in some way or form. But both knew the other well enough to understand that neither was big on any of it either, a simple head nod and straightforward answers were all that was really needed, and a good hunt.

"Yeah," Harry says, "I guess we are," he smirks a bit before saying "But at least I don't tell others they're just curiosity to me," his eyes turn to the Goddess who, honest to goodness, blushes and sputters.

"Harry!" Artemis says, "I've apologized for that, you accepted it, will you never let me live it down or perhaps," but whatever she was going to say stops short as she noticed Harry trying to hold in his laughter, she soon deflates with a sigh, "Ah, you were teasing me, I see," she shakes her head, a kitten in a mirror indeed.

"Sorry," Harry says, "it was too easy, even I'm not that bad with people," he says with a shake of his head.

"To be fair, you are also not a god, young man," Artemis tells him, and Harry shrugs, she had him there, "Take your potion, Harry, and we will discuss what you wish to do with your spoils of war in the morning," she tells him as Artemis stands.

"My spoils?" Harry asks, confused.

"From the Scorpio, when killed it leaves behind its carapace, or have you forgotten my first message to you, young hunter?" Artemis says, stopping before the tent flap and turning back to him with a raised brow.

"Err, …" was Harry's perfectly intelligent response.

"Oh, to be cursed with such a forgetful child," Artemis sighs dramatically before throwing her head, placing her palm against her forehead, "To think you would forget the first words I had written you, why, I bet you don't even remember mine own birthday," she says as Harry rolls his eyes.

"Do you even know your own birthday?" Harry asks, and watches Artemis blink a few times.

"That is not the point, Harry," she quickly says, putting down her arm and looking at him with a glare, Harry just smirks back, "Just take your elixir, Harry," Artemis huffs out before leaving the tent with her nose in the air choosing to ignore Harry's chuckles as she goes.

Artemis

"That boy, I swear," Artemis thinks to herself while she shakes her head as she walks away from the medical tent, nodding to the hunters celebrating a successful hunt with the mead dropped off by the friendly half-giant for the celebration, she really had to think of a way to thank that man, which is just a weird thing for her to think of. On the way to her tent, she only stops once to inform Atalanta that Harry was fine and will be free in the morning after he was cleared by Phoebe, which brought a smile to the ancient hunter's face and a cheer from her hunters around who had heard.

As she walks into her tent, she wasn't surprised to see two of her hunters waiting for her, "Zoë, Phoebe," she greets them both with a nod which both of them return with a "My Lady," from both of their lips.

"My Lady," Phoebe says, "We need to talk," the medic says in an ominous tone of voice to which Artemis raises a brow too as she sits down at her normal spot in her tent.

"About?" Artemis asks looking to her medic.

"About the malicious soul shard stuck in Harry's head," Phoebe says, her face set in a grim look, Zoë eyes snap to Phoebe, wide with shock.

"Ah, that," Artemis says, toneless and uncaring, "What about it?" She asks the sun-touched hunter.

Phoebe blinks, shocked, before speaking, "You've known about?" She says in a horrified whisper.

"Yes," The Goddess says, unbothered by it all, "I've known it was there since I first met the boy, what of it?" She asks.

"Why haven't you done anything about it?!" Phoebe says, toeing the line of disrespect by raising her voice.

Artemis narrows her eyes, "and what am I to do about it, exactly? I have no access to a domain that COULD do anything about it Phoebe, and I would suggest you watch your tone hunter," the Goddess warns her hunter, she understood where Phoebe's indignation was coming from, but that did not mean she would put up with such blatant disrespect.

Phoebe blushes, realizing what she had done, and bows her head, "I apologize, My Lady, I didn't mean to speak to you like that," Phoebe says but Artemis brushes it off, she hates groveling.

"It is forgiven, Phoebe, but do be mindful," Artemis tells her, "I understand you wish to put your patients first but that doesn't mean you lash out because I can do nothing about it," the Goddess says, and Phoebe nods.

"Could, …could you not partition Lord Hades to help?" Phoebe asks, careful with her tone and words.

"If I had thought it would help at all, I would have already done that," Artemis admits, "But not only does my Uncle hate Demigods as much as Queen Hera, not even he could help in this, the soul shard is protected," she tells her hunters as they both gasp.

"By another divine or…" Zoë asks, trailing off already knowing the answer.

"Prophecy," Artemis says with a nod, "Even as powerful as my Uncle is, not even he can overturn the machinations of fate," she tells them, a sad look entering her eyes.

"Do, do you know what the Prophecy is?" Phoebe asks.

"Yes," Artemis answers, "but it does not matter, it has been put on hold for now, for a lack of a better term, when it does become relevant again I will inform Harry myself of its contents," she tells her hunters, and both nod, "Phoebe, it should go without saying, but the fact that the boy has that shard in his head doesn't not leave this tent, I do not wish to cause him any more distress in his life right now, I will tell him myself when the time comes," the Goddess orders her hunter, and Phoebe nods her head, knowing an order when she heard one, Phoebe stands bidding good night to Her Lady and to the lieutenant before leaving.

Artemis then turns to her lieutenant, "What is bothering Zoë?" Artemis asks, knowing something was indeed bothering the girl who had served by her side faithfully for untold years.

Zoë sighs, "The boy saved my life,"

It was late into the night, and most of the hunters had laid down to sleep, all within camp slept soundly, grouped up snuggling with one another, enjoying the pleasant buzz of mead and a satisfying hunt flooding their bodies, all but one that is.

She walks through the camp, as quietly as a cat to not wake her sisters, questions rolling in her head about a boy who had challenged her beliefs. Not even her talk with her Lady had settled the feelings of shame and hate in her chest, it had only made them worse. Why? Was the question rolling in her mind, he should have left her to take the blow, to cheer when she had died, it's what she would have done. But the boy had saved her life, even after speaking to him about his mortal parents, to spit such hatred and vile things about the people he had never met, but had always wanted to.

He had still saved her life without a second thought, and then had gone on to kill the same monster that had brought down Orion.

So as the hunter pulls the flap of the medical tent to the side and walks in, she looks at the sleeping form of the boy who had won the respect and love of her sisters like he was one of them, they had accepted the boy, they had hunted, ate, and laughed with him. Something that turned her stomach with hate whenever she thought of it, they should shun the boy, turn him away, let him hunt and die alone; but they didn't.

She walks over to his bedside, his face peaceful as he sleeps, she leans down, hand reaching out for his throat, it would be so easy. To crush his throat, to watch him die gasping for air that wouldn't come, it would make her happy and the hate that burns in her tells her to do it, it would be so easy.

But then she would never know.

Gasping his shoulder she shakes him, "Boy, Boy! Wake up!" She hisses, but all the boy does is mummer before his head lulls off to the side, so she releases his shoulder and grabs his wrapped arm, and squeezes hard. The boy's face twists in pain and his eyes open with a hiss of pain, and the hate sings in joy to see the look on the boy's face.

But the feeling of shame is stronger.

The boy awakens, head rolling about as if the boy was drunk, he makes sounds but none make sense as she releases his arm and grabs his face, forcing it to face her, his eyelids droop and she shakes him to keep him awake.

"Boy, why did you do it?" She asks, "Why did you save me?" She needs to know, she needs to make sure. But as the boy slurs out his answer like a drunk and a lush, her eyes widen, hate and shame mix in equal measure inside her as she drops his head and storms from the tent as the thoughts and feelings of hate and unworthiness that she had for the boy turns inward to herself.

And she hates herself more than any male demigod for the first time in a long time.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter had no memories of his late-night visitor and the question she had asked, nor the answer that he had given her. He had awoken in the morning with Phoebe going over supplies in the medical tent before she turned to see him awake, concern deep in her eyes, as for why, Harry couldn't say and didn't comment as she unwrapped his arm and looked it over with an impressed look on her face. She had done a couple of tests to check his strength and reflexes, why she had said he was weaker than a normal demigod, but his reflexes were extremely impressive, and she had given him a clean bill of health so he could leave.

He had grabbed Dumbledore's parting gift before he left, intent on using it to its fullest during his last few days with the hunt. He had spent the day helping out around camp, laughing and taking pictures with the girls. Harry and the handmaidens in the mess tent cooking for the hunt, Daphnis, Cecilia, and Him hanging out by the fire as Cecilia read from a book, a few of the hunters and him shooting at targets, Brittany trying to teach him how to fish, Atalanta, Sophie, and him all posing on the spoils of war of The Scorpio, he was sitting on the top of the carapace, Atalanta leaning against it, Sophie had placed a foot on the claw posing like an old fashion hunter from the 1900s, smug look and all. Harry even got one with Artemis, it was a simple one, they stood a foot away from each other both with small polite smiles with their hands in their respective jacket pockets, Hedwig sitting on Artemis's shoulders and the Hind standing beside Harry. And many, many more pictures with all the hunters and handmaidens living their lives in the hunt, Harry had one picture left, and he wanted to get one of them all.

It was around dinner was winding down two days after Harry had left the medical tent, Atalanta, Sophie, and Brittany were all going to take a bath, so Harry had got up and started off to his own tent, intent on doing the same thing before bedtime when he was stopped by Artemis.

"Harry," She calls out to him, walking up slowly, her face set in a sad serious look that made Harry stop.

"Everything okay?" Harry asks, and Artemis' lips pressed into a thin line before she sighs, that wasn't a good sign.

"There was a…request," Artemis says, "made about you," the Goddess informs him with some emotion flickering throw her eyes that Harry couldn't make out as if went by too fast, "It was made by someone I, …that I can't turn down for a few reasons," she admits with a shake of her head, before gesturing him to follow her, Harry, a bit wary, does what she asks and follows as they leave camp and walk through the waxing moon lit woods.

"Who made the request?" Harry asks after a few minutes of walking.

"You'll see," is all Artemis says.

They walk in quiet for a few more minutes, "Is it another god? Am I going to be smitted? Smitten? Smotted?" Harry asks, unsure on how one says that.

"No," Artemis answers quickly, "I wouldn't let that happen to you, ever," she whispers into the night air, and continues on for a few more minutes before they come to the edge of a clearing and Artemis stops and turns to Harry, "Do you trust me, Harry?" The Goddess asks flatly, stopping Harry cold.

Did he? Did he trust Artemis? He had just followed her out to the middle of the woods, she had let him join her on a hunt, rocky start notwithstanding, she had cared for him in her own way, and she had shown that she cared for him, she had shown him that he had family that loved him, that accepted him, more so than his actual family.

"Yes," he answers, "I trust you," Harry says, the only answer he really could give.

"Then trust that I would not let anything happen to you if it's in my power to control," Artemis tells him, "and try to remember that in the heat of what is to come next," she says before turning around and walks into the clearing, Harry following quickly behind her, confused.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asks, "What's coming next?" He says, unsure what she was talking about.

Artemis stops in the middle of the clearing, turning to look at him, "This is where it all began," Artemis says, a sad look on her face, ignoring Harry's questions, "This is the clearing that your parents summoned and bound me in, to ask for a boon, to ask for you," she tells Harry, stopping the boy dead. Harry looks around the clearing with wide eyes, taking it all in as the ghosts of the past play out in Artemis' eyes, Harry stops looking around when he spots something on the other side of the clearing, well, someone rather.

Zoë Nightshade stood on the other side of the clearing sans her silver moto jacket and tiara, her silver sword in hand, and a grim determined look set on her face.

"And this is the place where it might end," Artemis whispers sadly as Zoë charges the Boy-Who-Lived.

"No, absolutely not," Artemis answers immediately to her Lieutenant's foolish request, "To think I would ever allow it, are you mad Zoë!" She hisses as her oldest friend.

"No, My Lady," Zoë answers, looking into the Amber eyes of Artemis with a resolute look locked upon her face, she would not be dissuaded from this, she would not be cowed by her Lady's anger, she needed this, "I need to know My Lady, this is the only way I know how to find out," Zoë tells the Goddess of the Hunt.

"Can you not just speak to him, talk to him, let him tell you how he feels," Artemis tells her lieutenant, who stubbornly shakes her head.

"No," Zoë says, her time firm and a hair away from disrespectful to the shock of Artemis, "I can't…I won't, I…I hate him, every time I look at him it feels like a knife twisting in my guts, the memories of my fallen sisters who were lost to the hunt, some who I had to kill with my own hands, flash through my mind every time I look at him, he's an insult to them," Zoë admits, "it's the only way I know how, please Lady Artemis, I need to see for myself,"

Artemis leaned against a tree just outside the clearing watching two of the most important people in her immortal existence try and kill one another. She watches on with a dispassionate, detected, and almost bored look on her face as the two hunters dance around each other, stabbing and slashing at one another both intent on drawing first blood. Harry weaves in and out of Zoë's masterful swordplay, trying to gain some distance to build up speed to try and blitz his opponent, but for every step back he takes, Zoë is taking a step forward always keeping on top of him to stop him as he blocks every blow as he tries to dance like that infuriating Goddess of Death.

It really does rub Artemis the wrong way that the boy chooses to emulate Scáthach's own fighting style, but she could not argue with the results, after all, she had fought Scáthach herself and could speak of the effectiveness of the spearwoman's fighting style, it's graceful movements, the fluid way it flowed from a thrust to a slash. In Harry's hands, it was only deadly because of the boy's insane speed and spacial awareness granted by the Hunt, but if the boy couldn't build up speed, it was useless, and Zoë knew this. Zoë was unlike the other Hesperides she had once called sisters, while the other Hesperides sang, danced, and tended to the garden, Zoë was its defender, taking more after her father than any of her other sisters. With the Anaklusmos, she was an unstoppable force, which is why it was such a high crime for her to help someone steal from the garden.

First blood goes to Zoë, the former Hesperide strikes Harry across the face with her elbow when the boy tries to dance and roll across her back to get behind her, only for Zoë to lash out, hitting the boy in the nose, and knocking him to the ground. Zoë raises her sword with a roar, and Artemis' immortal heart stutters in fear of losing the boy she had to care so much for, but the boy was always so full of surprises. He kicks up, using his arms for extra leverage to kick Zoë in the wrist, knocking the sword back, only taking a minor cut on his leg for it. Zoë had committed too much to the stab and loses her footing just enough for Harry to capitalize on it as he lashes out with his spear, causing Zoë to jump back but the boy still catches her with his slash across the stomach, not deep enough to end the fight, but now Zoë was bleeding and the timer started for her as her golden blood spills out onto the ground.

Harry spins in place, getting back to his feet and jumping back with a grin on his face as the hunt begins to bleed into his eyes. He finally had his space to build up speed, and he knew it, he charged at Zoë, moving faster with each step till he met her with a clash knocking the former Hesperide off-kilter before following through with it and began to dance a dance of Death and Shadows once again.

"And what? Do you expect this fight to give you some hidden understanding of the boy?" Artemis asks her lieutenant, "something I haven't already told you myself, Zoë?!" Artemis growls out the last part, her temper finally reaching its boiling point with her fool of a lieutenant.

"No," Zoë admits, not looking at Artemis.

"Then what?!" Artemis yells, eyes burning with rage, "What would you get out of this, as far as I see it I either lose my oldest friend or lose the only being that I can call a son, who shares a piece of my soul, if I let you go through with this, why should I allow it!?" The Goddess of the Hunt yells, standing as she does.

"Because I need to know what is more important to me, my hatred for him and all of his kind," Zoë says in a soft sad voice, "Or my loyalty for you and the love of the hunt, All of the hunt," the girl admits.

Harry had the advantage now as he danced around the former Hesperide, slashing and stabbing at seemingly random places, but Zoë had not been alive for over three thousand years without knowing how to defend herself from a faster opponent and Zoë is showing just that as she dances with Harry, defecting and parrying each blow and dodging what she couldn't. She watches and waits, defending herself all the while, small cuts along her arms and legs leak golden ichor as she does, Artemis can see the desperation building on Zoë's face because all three of them knew Zoë could not last forever, but then again, neither could Harry.

"Harry! Zoë! Fucking stop, now!" Comes the cry of Atalanta charging from the tree line quickly followed soon after by Sophie and Brittany. Harry pauses in his assault to look at the lioness in surprise just before Zoë knocks the blade of his spear away and kicks him in the stomach and away from her before charging him once again.

"Halt," Is all Artemis has to say to stop her hunters from trying to break up the fight, the three turn and look at her in shock, not seeing her in the shadow of the tree when they first arrived.

"My Lady!" Atalanta says, "You have to stop them, they're trying to kill each other," the lioness says, worry thick in her voice, for both her sister and the one she saw as a little brother, but all Artemis does is shake her head.

"No," the cold Goddess of the Moon says in a tone that does not betray her own worries and pain at letting this fight happen.

"Why not!?" Atalanta asks, hurt lacing her tone.

"Because Zoë needs this, she needs a way to move past her hatred of the boy, to move past the pain from her past," Artemis says, keeping her eyes on the fight, watching as Zoë kept Harry from gaining the ground he needed to outmaneuver her.

"If she needed that stick from her ass by force, then I'll do it myself," Atalanta says, drawing her bow, but before she could load the bow of promised calamity with an arrow, it's ripped from her hand and flys over to open and waiting hand of Artemis.

"No," Artemis says once again, this time far harder and more forceful than before, her own emotions leaking out, "No one will interfere," the Goddess says and her hunters shiver at her tone, "Zoë isn't the only one who needs this," she whispers softly.

"I hear them," Harry admits in a soft, weak voice, "I hear them every time she speaks to me, like an echo I can't get rid of, every time she calls me boy, every time she says something, it's like Uncle Vernon yelling at me, but, ...but I don't, I'm not afraid like, …like I am with, with them," he says as he hugs his knees to himself, eyes distance as he looks into the silver fire.

"I-I get so, so mad, angry, like I hate her, but I-I don't want to," the boy says, and Artemis looks over to him, sadness in her eyes for passing on her own flaw to him, her temper.

"You're well within your right to not like Zoë, even hate her, I won't ask you to like her because she's my lieutenant, Harry," Artemis says softly, meaning every word, Harry wasn't a part of the hunt like Zoë was, he didn't need to follow her orders or even get along with her.

"I know," He says, "but I don't want to hate her, but I do, and I don't want to," he says, confused at his feelings.

"Why not?" Artemis asks, and smiles softly at the boy's answer.

They fought for the same reason, to overcome their own hatred, they fought because it was the only thing either of them understood how to do. Zoë to defend what she loves, and Harry because he's been fighting all his life, for the love of those who hated him, to overcome impossible odds, to escape the cupboard he was trapped in for so long.

"Zoë's faster than this," Sophie says watching the fight, Harry was finally gaining the distance he needed with a lucky trip he made on Zoë.

"Stronger too," Brittany whispers, just as enraptured with the dance of death of the two in the clearing.

"She's not drawing on the hunt," Atalanta says, horrified before turning to Artemis, "Why isn't she drawing on the hunt!?" She asks the Goddess of it.

"Because she can't," Artemis says, "She rescinded her vows," she informs the shocked group of hunters, because it wasn't Zoë Nightshade, Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis and the right hand of the Goddess of the Hunt fighting in the clearing, but the nameless nymph without a past and future, fighting to prove to herself that she could overcome her own hatred for the sisters she loved.

"And you expect me to what, sit back and watch you kill Harry over the crime of being born male!?" Artemis yells, looming over her sitting lieutenant.

"No," Zoë says, "I fully expect you to kill me before I can kill him, and I will not ask you to kill your own child if the reverse happens," Zoë says as she reaches up and takes off her tiara before shrugging off her jacket, "If I let my hatred for him win, if I come that close to killing the boy who I should love as another member of the Hunt, then it just means that I was unworthy to be a member, let alone your lieutenant," the nameless nymph says as she places bother her jacket and tiara down next to her.

The Nameless Nymph's time was almost up, without her vows, without access to the Hunt, and so far away from the Flame of the West, she would fade to nothingness if she expended too much energy or bleed too much, and she knew it. So she does the only thing she can think of, she runs and leads the boy on a chase, as deep as he was in the hunt she had no doubt the boy would follow her. In the thick woods, speed was worthless, running too fast lands you face-first into a tree, it would slow the boy down enough for her to lead him to where she wanted him to be, but it was a gamble, the woods and forests were Artemis' domain, the boy would be empowered in them, if only a little. But all she had to do was get to the other side and she would have him, he does exactly what she expected him to do and gave chase, the boy may be able to pull more on the hunt than any hunter before him, but he had not mastered it, he could not ignore the impulses of the hunt egging him on to chase down his prey and that will be his downfall.

They exchanged blows a few times in the woods, but she was able to knock him back and escape closer to where she needed to go, she could feel it as she ran closer to what she needed to win, what she needed to kill the boy. They run through the clearing where only a few short weeks ago the boy was saved from the Hunt by his Godfather, although she didn't know that as she jumps and rolls to the left to avoid the boy skewering her through the back before popping up and charging back into the woods, not too long before she jumps over the brush and flips into a roll on the banks of the black lake. Turning around, sword at the ready, she continues to walk back into the shallows of the loch. Before long the boy bursts from the forest, eyes a glow with the hunt and the wild hunger that comes with and she straightens to a stand, caff deep in the dark waters.

"It's over," the boy growls out, somehow keeping his mind so deep into the hunt, a mockery, and an insult to all the sisters she had lost over the years to the domain, "Nowhere left to run," the boy snarls and she smirks.

"Yes," she says to the boy while raising her sword, holding it flat in front of her, "it is, you foolish boy, you let me lead you exactly where I wanted you," and then she begins to draw on the power locked inside of the blade.

"Here, Lady Artemis, take this back, I will use a celestial bronze weapon," the nameless nymph says, holding out Moontide in its dagger form.

"No," Artemis says, shaking her head, "It was made for my friend of many, many, years, and I would sooner renounce all those years before I take back that weapon," she tells the nameless nymph, who nods, tears in the corners of her eyes.

Besides, she would need it to fight Harry, while Moontide paled in comparison to the Anaklusmos in power, it was forged to be a sister to the blade, made in its likeness and only for the hands of her Lieutenant. The blade was forged with a piece of Artemis' divine authority over the moon inside it, the authority over the ebb and flow of the tides, but all water would answer its call once used, and the nameless nymph was one of the very few who could use the power to its fullest.

Harry watches as Zoë's sword begins to glow with the soft light of the full moon, and with growing horror as the water in the black lake begins to rise in the air, taking shape and form of long serpent-like heads with glowing silver eyes, each as thick as a tree trunk. Harry looks back at Zoë, eyes wide as the girl looks back at him with burning golden eyes that glowed as bright as the blood that spilled from her veins.

"One hundred heads of Ladon," Zoë says, her voice ringing with power before pointing her sword at him, Harry charges her hoping to interrupt whatever she was about to do, but it was already too late, "Hero's Downfall," Zoë calls out and the recreation of her beloved friend comes to her aid with the force of a fire hose a hundred times.

The first head hits Harry head on throwing him back, the second hits his left side, knocking him off his feet, the third hits his right, the fourth his back, knocking him in the air, and over and over again, blow after blow rained down on Harry from all sides till it feels like the black lake was drowning him in midair. The one-hundredth blow comes from above, knocking him back to earth with force onto his back. After the final head had dissipated, Harry felt his whole body was one big bruise, he had lost his grip on his spear sometime during getting knocked about in the air, turning his head he could see it laying on the ground not thirty feet away from him, but he didn't have the strength to raise his hand to call it back to himself, and could hear Zoë's stumbling footsteps getting closer.

The nameless nymph was exhausted, without the Hunt, she had to rely on her own power to feed Ladon, and she did not have much on her own, she didn't regain it as the other immortals did from the Flame of the West, after helping Herakles she was cut off from it by order of Zeus, she was destined to fade without it and had to feed off the power directly from a Domain to keep her enviable death away, and that death was closing in fast either way as she grits her teeth and stumbles towards the boy to end this. Standing by the side of the boy and stepping on his arm that he was raising to call his spear back to him, she lifts her glowing sword over her head, one way or another, this ended here. All she sees is him, the man who took everything from her, the man who robbed her of her past and her future, she hated him, and all he stood for, she should have killed him, she should have fed him to Ladon. She drives her sword down at the boy's heart as his eyes widen in fear for the coming end.

"Zoë, stop!" Screams Atalanta.

"Goodbye, my friend," she hears the whispers of Artemis in her mind as she prepares to kill the nameless nymph.

"The boy is not Herakles!" Echoes in her head.

"Because you're my sister," the boy slurs like a lush in his sleep.

"Look! Look at what you've done to your brother!" Artemis screams at her from eons past as Daphnis kneels behind the screaming Goddess, blood pouring from his eyes that she carved out, the blood still fresh on her blade.

"Eighty souls pulsing as one,"

Moontide stops short of the boy's heart, the nameless nymph's hands shaking, tears forming in her eyes as she looks down into Harry's face, the soft glow of her sword showing his face, and she watches as the golden hue of the hunt is replaced with a soft glowing silver, the silver of her Lady's, her Goddesses true form. She was about to kill him, in all her hatred she was going to kill him, the son of the Goddess that saved her, she was about to kill her brother.

Harry's leg lashes out, kicking the sword from Zoë's shaking hand, her eyes follow it as it sails through the air as it lands back into the forest, she turns to chase it, to defend herself from Harry. But as she chases her sword, Harry didn't need to even move to gather up his spear, as he lifts his hand and Serpent-Hunter jumped to his hand like a faithful hound before he quickly gets up and lashes out at Zoë's legs, cutting through the tendons on the back of her knees causing her to scream out as she falls forward, golden blood falling to the ground before turning to dust. As Zoë begins to crawl, Harry kicks her over, she feels lighter than when they were fighting like she was losing more and more of herself to something.

Harry raises his spear preparing to bring it down on the girl with the golden eyes, she doesn't flinch or beg, far too proud for that, all she does is close her eyes and awaits her coming end at the hands of the Heir of the Hunt, and with a roar, Harry plunges his spear down.

Eighty souls pulsing as one, come brother, the hunt awaits! One of us! One of us!

The nameless nymph opens her eyes to see the boy standing over her, his eyes squeezed shut as she tries to throw off the hold of the Hunt, the silver blade of his spear sunk into the rocky shore of the black lake. The boy gasps as his body begins to seize up as he cuts himself off from the Hunt, and the Hunt takes from him the price for ending it without a kill in blood and pain, the boy collapses to the ground, finally feeling the toll of the long fight, drawing on to much of the Hunt, and Ladon, the boy's legs give out from under him as he draws in slow steady breaths to ease the pain of the hunt. The nameless nymph turns her head to look at the boy, and asks the boy the most important question of all.

"Why?" The nameless nymph asks, why didn't he kill her? Why was he ever born? Why did she not feel the hate twisting in her guts anymore? Why did he save her? Why did the boy have to be here at all? But she already knew the answer to them all, it was told to her in a slur like a lush, the boy had told her himself as did Lady Artemis. The boy opens his eyes and emerald meets gold as the boy, as Harry pulls himself from the Hunt and Atalanta screams his name.

"Harry! Harry, you absolute fucking moron, how many times do I have to tell you! Don't pull on that much of the Hunt!" The Lioness yells as she runs over to the boy laying on the ground breathing heavily, he doesn't answer, too exhausted to talk.

"Atalanta," says the soft voice of Artemis, "Take Harry back to his tent and feed him some Nectar and Ambrosia, let him rest," the Goddess says as she walks up to the hunters, her son, and the nameless nymph.

Knowing an order when she hears it, Atalanta nods, scooping Harry up into her arms, she, Sophie, and Brittany spare a glance at the nameless nymph before leaving with the boy as Artemis walks over to the downed body of her former lieutenant. Artemis pulls the spear from the earth and looks down at the nymph as she folds the spear back into a swiss army knife.

"So, did you find what you were hunting for, o, nameless nymph?" Artemis asks the girl on the ground, and gold meets amber, and the girl nods.

The once again, Zoë Nightshade.

Laying in the medical tent, looking at the ceiling was, once again, Zoë Nightshade. She had retaken her oaths on the banks of the black lake once the other hunters had left before Artemis had carried her back to camp to get treatment for her injuries, much to the shock of Phoebe, the worst of them was the tendons that the bo-, that Harry had slashed when she had turned her back to him. With Phoebe's help, Zoë would be back on her feet in a day or so delaying the hunt from moving on but Lady Artemis' had not seemed bothered by it and had told her to focus on healing and recuperating her lost power from the Hunt as carefully as she could. Zoë fully intends to do just that, but first, she had one last thing to do, so she lay in bed waiting for the person she had sent Phoebe to collect for her. She did not have to wait long as the tent flap parts and in walked the blind commander of the hunt and the girl who serves as his eyes, Cecilia gasps at the sight of the Lieutenant of the hunt in such a state, but does not comment beyond that.

"Cecilia, may I have a moment with the lieutenant alone?" Daphnis asks the girl, "Perhaps take the rest of the night off, I can always have one of the wolves lead me back to my tent," he tells the girl, who nods.

"Of course, Commander, if you need me I'll be, …" Cecilia's eyes flick to Zoë prone form for a moment, "I'll be sleeping in Harry's tent tonight," she tells the blind hunter, and he just nods.

"That's fine Cecilia, just don't forget your sleeping bag," Daphnis says with a smile before the girl taps his arm once before turning and leaving the medical tent.

Daphnis sighs before moving into the tent, his staff searching for something to sit upon, it was then Zoë speaks up.

"To your left, Commander," she whispers softly, and Daphnis swings his staff till it taps the side of her bed, it takes him a few moments to sit down on the edge of the bed before turning his ear to her and speaking.

"I had heard you and Harry had a dual under the moonlight, that our lady had allowed it upon your request, but to think the boy could put you in such a state, hunt or not, is rather remar-" Daphnis says before Zoë gathers up her courage to do what she needed to do and speaks up and interrupting him.

"Daphnis," she whispers softly, "I'm sorry," the lieutenant says, stopping the blind hunter, and confusion blooms on his face, so Zoë continues, "I'm-I'm sorry for what I did to you, I'm sorry that I hurt you, brother," Zoë says with a hitch to her voice and tears forming in her eyes.

Daphnis' face melts from confusion to understanding before a sigh escapes his lips that turn into a smile before he reaches out and gathers her hands into his before leaning forward and kissing them both, kissing the hands that had robbed him of his sight so long ago before speaking again.

"I forgave you of that long ago, Sister," Daphnis tells her with a smile before pulling Zoë into a hug, which she returns with a sob.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter sat at his desk watching the steady bubbling of his pewter cauldron, becoming impatient at the long process it takes to brew anything, he ideally thinks that that was the reason he wasn't very good at potions, he didn't have to patients for it. He wanted to be outside with the hunt helping pack up, to see them all and talk to them all one last time before they all left the following day to head back to the states. But Artemis had told him, in no uncertain terms, that he was to finish ALL of his summer homework before they broke camp and she drops him off at the Weasleys for the rest of the summer. Harry had tried to move too much, his body still sore from his fight with Zoë, none of them had commented on it yet, not Artemis and her leading him into it, not Zoë for attacking him, and not Harry for almost killing one of his sisters. Each content to just let it lay and die, Harry hadn't seen Zoë since the fight, she was either still healing up or was just avoiding Harry and that was just fine with him.

But as the light begins to die outside and his potion is almost done, Harry's stomach grumbles, but he ignores it, he'll go join the hunt for dinner after he adds the minced dried bat liver, and as Harry pulls the ingredient out to start the process, he stops when he hears a sound, clooping, the sounds of hooves striking wood and earth over and over again right outside his tent. Getting up and pokes his head out of his tent to look around, he can hear the sounds of the hunt gathering at the bonfire for their final dinner in the Forbidden Forest, but the walkway that leads to it was empty, but still, Harry hears the sound. He leaves his tent, intent on looking around to find out what the sound was and to raise the alarm if needed.

Looking around, he finally sees what was making the sound, well, someone really, he stood just outside the light of the camp, hoove raised before he strikes the ground, once, twice, thrice before pausing for a moment and doing it again.

"Firenze!" Harry hisses at the centaur, who in turn his icy blue eyes to him, Harry looks around and spots none of the hunters because they would kill the centaur that had saved his life without hesitation if they find him so close to the camp, "What are you doing here!?" Harry asks In a hissed whisper before he watches the centaur turn and walks into the dark, stopping once to turn his head and look back at Harry.

Harry looks around, unsure for a moment, he should go get Artemis or any of the hunters, but they would kill Firenze and Harry owned the centaur his life. So, with a sigh, Harry follows him into the forest to try to get Firenze to leave before the hunt finds him. He finds the centaur standing in a small clearing less than fifty feet from the hunters camp, looking up at the stars with a sad look on his face.

"Firenze, you need to get out of here," Harry tells the centaur in a worried tone, "If Artemis or the hunt finds you, they kill you," the heir says looking back towards the campground.

"Mercury is bright tonight," Firenze says, in the same mysterious tone he often used when he spoke of the stars.

"Yeah, that's nice," Harry says quickly looking back at the centaur, "But you need to leave, and I'm talking right now, you can't be here," he says hoping the centaur would finally take the hint.

"No, Harry Potter," the centaur says, finally turning to him, "I am exactly where I need to be," he tells the Boy-Who-Lived, the same sad look on his face, "and I am sorry, Harry Potter,"

"Sorry?" Harry asks confused, "What are you sorry for? I'm the one who killed your brothers or herd mates, I don't know the right term for that is," Harry admits, but shakes his head, he was getting off track, "But it's okay, you're all good Firenze, I'll forgive for whatever, but you need to leave," he says, but the centaur shakes his head softly.

"I am not apologizing for what has happened, Harry Potter," the centaur tells him, "I am apologizing for what is to come," Firenze says, the sad look deepening on his face.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Harry asks, confused until he hears the snapping of wood from behind him, he turns quickly and sees three shadows emerge from the dark forest, and three more centaurs step into the clearing, led by the hunt master, Bane. Harry turns to look back at Firenze but as he does, something strikes the side of his head hard; His world tilts and he lands in a heap on the forest floor.

"Bind him," Bane says, "Quickly before the parasite finds us, we must make haste," Harry hears him say before his world is consumed by darkness and a sigh.

Notes:

Chapter done! 

A lot of stuff happened in this chapter because im trying to wrap it up by chapter 15, which looks like im gonna, so yay me!

I hope I gave Zoë a satisfactory arc, it feels like I did, but I want to know what y'all think. And speaking of our Lieutenant bitch, let's go over some things really quick.

First off, I wanted to get her over her hatred for male Demigods sooner than canon for things I will be doing with her shortly, so that's why the whole rushed fight about hatred.

Second off, her sword, Moontide. It is a weapon forged by Hephaestus with a piece of Artemis' divine authority over the moon in it, Ya know, the domain that she doesn't use, like at all? The weapon was made for Zoë as a gift for her countless years of loyalty and service to Artemis and enhances her ability to control water making Zoë the most dangerous member of the hunt hands down. It's made to look and handle like Riptide as a replacement for the blade Zoë had lost long ago, and did I hint at Riptide being more powerful than its canon counterpart? Yes, yes I did.

Zoë is an interesting member of the hunt, because unlike some of the other girls who had discarded their names when they join the hunt, she had gained one.

[One hundred heads of Ladon: Hero's downfall, ] is Zoë's greatest technique, she recreates the heads of Ladon the dragon that surges forth to rip everything in its path to pieces, is it super weeby? Yes. Do I care? No. The power of the technique was reduced greatly because Zoë was using it with only her own power, not that of the hunt, at full power it could easily cut through steel. But even weakened as it was it would still fuck up anyone who wasn't Percy. The technique is based on what Zoë thinks she should have done to Herakles when he had stepped into the garden.

Third, she and Harry are going to have an interesting relationship, they're gonna be the siblings that always argue and fight, but as soon as someone else tries to hurt the other, they'll come to their aid and beat the shit out of the person who fucked around and found out.

I don't know if there is anything else, and im fucking exhausted so, if you have any questions ask them and ill send a pm answering them as best I can.

Sorry for not updating be hectic at my new job i got mostly everything settle will try to update once a week again.