Chapter 14

Artemis POV

I was shocked about what Enceladus said "What was he talking about?" I pointedly asked Grey.

"I don't know." Grey said smoothly.

I don't know why but something told me she was lying "Enough of this Phoebe call Apollo!" I snapped she nodded and left.

I turned back to Grey "I know you're lying about something and I'm done with all these mysteries we helped you save Silver now you're going to give us some answers." I said just as Apollo flashed in.

"What is it Arty?" He said and I jabbed him in the ribs.

"I called you here because of them." I said pointing to Silver and Grey "And don't call me Arty!",

"You caught that Silver dude?" he asked

"We rescued him actually." Percy said. "Much classier."

"Then what do you want me for, my daughter could take care of him?" Apollo said

"I called you her because I want to ask his friend Grey here some questions and I need to know that she's telling the truth." I said

"I didn't know you could work as a lie detector!" Percy exclaimed "That's pretty dang cool."

"Ok, ask away then."Apollo said ignoring Percy's outburst

I turned back to Grey and said "First is what Enceladus said true, are you from the future?"

"Whoa!" Apollo shouted "Back up what about the future and since when is Enceladus back I thought he died?"

"He's apparently reformed." Percy informed him.

"And your daughter overheard him say that Silver here is from the future." Artemis added, Apollo turned his attention back to Grey

"Well are you from the future?" he asked after a moment

"Yes." Grey said in a resigned tone.

Apollo's eyes widened and before anyone could react he fainted "I honestly didn't see that coming." Thalia said.

It took a full ten minutes to wake Apollo up during which we shook him, slapped him (the hunters really enjoyed that one), and dumped water on him. When he finally woke up it took him a bit to remember what was going on. "So was she telling the truth?" I asked

"Yes" Apollo said.

It took everything I had not to freak out right there. I mean even for a goddess people from the future were a lot to take in. Up until now most gods thought it to be impossible. I turned back to Grey and calmly said. "Who are you, why are you in the past, and how did you get here?"

"I can't tell you who I am?" she responded calmly.

"Why not?" Phoebe demanded

"Because even if I'm in the past I'm still an illegal born. If knowledge of my existence and where I come from gets back to Zeus I'll be dead the day I'm born no matter where my loyalties lie." she said

"She's telling the truth." Apollo informed me.

"Fine then I won't make you answer that one but answer the other two and Apollo just tell me if she starts lying" I said.

Grey sighed and moved to a sitting position"Ok as for how, Me and Silver are here because the Fates sent us." She said. "The reason that they sent us here is kind of a long story so you all may want to sit down.".

We all did as she suggested except for Percy who was on watch duty but he stayed close enough to hear. Grey cleared her throat and started talking "before I start you need to know that I'm going to leave out the specifics like dates and names because this is the future and you're not supposed to know about it at all." I nodded and motion for her to continue

"Ok in the future Kronos will start another war in an attempt to regain his throne. I know not a big shock, but this time it's different." Grey said.

"How so?" Apollo asked

"Because before the war started the Fates gave Kronos a prophecy. I'm not going into the wording but basically it say's that if he wins the war he not only gets his throne back but he will never again be dethroned he'll rule the world for the rest of eternity." She said flatly.

There were a lot of uneasy glances exchanged at her words "What's the other half?" Apollo demanded"With something like that there's always a risk to match it.".

"There is" Grey said "if he were to lose the war Kronos would be forced to fade, the equivalent of death for immortals. So Kronos did the smart thing, he spent years planning and gathering his army's. He made a deal with the Giants offering them domains in his kingdom should he win in exchange for their help. He also managed to get a copy of the book where the gods keep a list of their demigod children." she said.

"You guys have a book of us?" Percy asked

"Yes we do." Apollo replied "if we didn't it would be impossible to keep track of all of you now shut up I'm trying to hear." Percy huffed but did as he asked.

"Kronos used the book to judge whether or not his army was big enough and when it was he attacked, from how well he had planned even Athena said that we would probably loose. But both Kronos and the gods well most of the gods were surprised when we started winning against them and do you know why?" Grey asked

"The illegal born children." Percy guessed

"Exactly." Grey said "Our parents and grandparents knew that we would be killed if Zeus ever found out about us so our names were never put on the list or incomplete information was given. Kronos couldn't plan for us because of that. There were 8 of us in total.."

"Whoa hold up you just lied right there." Apollo said.

"Fine there were 9 but I wasn't counting the last one because she was too young to fight." Grey said "Now moving on, at first we just did covert missions like what me and Silver have been doing we'd raid one of their bases level the place and move on. But eventually that wasn't enough and we had to take part in the major battles. Zeus didn't know our parentage but he still wasn't happy to learn that we even existed although he only knew that 2 of us were illegal born. The only reason he didn't kill us was because he needed us for the war, Kronos seeing that he was going to lose played his most desperate card".

"You see Kronos had stolen a special crystal from his mentor Chronous the Primordial of time." Grey said. "This crystal would allow him to travel back in time once and only once to change history in his favor. After he managed to learn the parentage of 4 of us he went back in time to kill our ancestors. Because if he killed them we would never be born. He also decided to kill certain heroes that had managed to survive till then like your lieutenant Thalia here. She wasn't supposed to make it out of that warehouse. It was a trap meant specifically for her."

I looked at Thalia and noticed she was extremely pale. "As the changes in the past caught up with the future we literally watched as our friends were painful wiped from existence. Then the second wave of deaths hit."

"Why would there be two waves?" Phoebe asked.

"That's a little complicated," Grey said "let me put it this way say for example that tomorrow you save your friend Atlanta's life but instead you die today. Because you died today you weren't there to save her life and she dies as well".

Realization dawn on us "So the second wave was all the people they would have save?" I asked.

Grey nodded "Three more of the illegal born died in the second wave along with half of the demigod army. Silver here lost his entire family in it, me and him are all that's left of the mortal side." she said and I felt a fresh wave of pity for the unconscious boy.

"Silver was originally one of the weakest of the 8 but that changed when everyone died.You know its true what Nemesis says the greatest gain comes at a great price, In his anger Silver leveled the entire group of monsters we were fighting along with half the mountain we were standing on. Later the Fates came to us, you see they weren't exactly happy about Kronos changing history so they offered us a chance to fix it by going back in time." Grey said.

"We accepted, the Fates said that they would send us our fellow illegal born to help as we made the necessary changes to bring them back. So far we haven't met any of them but we've been told by the Fates that it's working so we keep fighting" Grey said sighing at the last part.

Atlanta walked over to me and whispered"Milady I hate to say this but we need to go back to camp half blood we're too exposed here and Silver needs someplace to heal. Also after cleaning some of the blood off him I found more of that purple stuff on his right arm." she said

"Ok collect everything we need then I'll flash us back to camp." I said standing up

"Wait!" Grey said.

"Two things first I need to all to swear on Styx not to tell anyone about what I just told you unless given permission from me or him. Second give me a some time with Silver we had made a backup plan in case something like this happened." We all took the oath one by one then watched as Grey reached into her duffel bag and pulled out a necklace with an owl on it and a ring with a ruby in the middle.

"These were given to us by Athena and Ares." Grey explained "They had made this on the off chance something like this might happen. They alter the looks of the wearer and send a message to them with instructions on what to do when we get to camp".

Grey put on the necklace then took of her cloak and mask and stuffed them in her bag. She now had golden hair and grey eyes, over all she looked the same but there were subtle changes from what I could see before. Her cheekbones weren't as high, her nose was a little bigger but one thing was obvious and that was that she looked like a child of Athena, a thought which Apollo voice.

"That's the idea" Grey said "They hide what we really look like and when we get to camp I'll be claimed by Athena as her daughter as per the instructions we sent. Now could someone help me with Silver?".

With Atlanta's help Grey removed Silver's cloak and stuffed it along with his weapons which she collapsed into smaller forms, like Percy does with his sword into her pack, and strapped a small 3 foot bronze sword to his belt. Once that was done she slipped the ring onto his left hand hand. His hair changed from auburn and black to various shades of brown, his face became more grim and his skin less tanned. Looking at him now I would have guessed him to be a child of Ares which Grey confirmed would be the case and with that we flashed to camp.