"Where could they have gone?"

I looked up from my book as we sat in the cabin, with me watching Luke pace around out in the living room, the look of pure frustration on his face. It has been 3 weeks since anyone has saw Percy or Amber, and although we were doing fine on our own, the rest of us were a little weary of not having either one of them with us right now. "No one has seen them for almost 3 weeks, where the hell would they be?"

"Luke, calm down." I said as I stood up, placing my book face down on the table, a move that had made Luke pause in his steps as he looks over at me from underneath his hood, his eyes showing the mixed emotions he felt inside. "They are fine, both of them are. If we've learnt anything, is that they tend to be able to look out for each other." I said as I walked towards him and rest my hands on his shoulders, giving them a firm squeeze. "That means that we can calm down, and focus on the task they've left for us. And that's defending the camp."

Luke seemed to hesitate for a moment before he nodded, making me tilt my head a little at his reaction. Now that I've thought about it - this wasn't the first time the two siblings had gone missing. Before this, he was super nonchalant about it all. Now though? For some reason, Luke seemed to be more on edge then usual. It could be nerves...but something tells me it was more then that. Leading him towards the main room, I waved my hand and a glass of water appeared before him, which he took quite happily. "You're overthinking it, buddy. We're going to be fine." I said simply with soft smile on my face, to which he nodded slowly as he took slow sips form it. "Y-you're right...I'm overthinking it." He admits after a moment of thought, causing me to smile as I picked up my book again after I left him sitting in the dining area. "Glad you finally see it."

He opened his mouth to say something more when something whirled on top of us, making us both look up on confusion, just in time to see a portal opening up above us and two lumps falling from it. Moving away just in time, I winced when the clear sound of a pained groan came from the lump that landed on the desk, the smaller one landing right on top of the bigger one. "Oomph."

"Commander!" I exclaimed in shock whilst Luke immedaitely went to Amber's aid, seemingly to not notice Percy still laying on the ground as he checked a softly smiling Amver in concern. "Yeah, great to know you care, Luke." Percy manages out as he slowly got up with my help, a hand seeming to be rubbing along his chest as Amber gave him a concern glance. "Amber, remind me to never trust Dad with the portals again." He said simply, to which Amber just nods with a giggle, not even minding how Luke seems to be fretting over her. How odd...

"Thank God you two are alive!"

Selina came from her room when she heard the commotion propbably, pulling them both into a hug as Percy chuckle softly and hugs her back as well with a warm smile on his face. "Sorry, mum, we wouldn't leave without your permission ever again." He said as she gave him a look. "You better keep your word. Son of the Lord of Chaos or not, if I have to, I will kick your ass into shape myself." She huffs with a scowl, checking them both over as Percy winces softly and rubs the back of his neck in a bashful manner, nodding his head understandingly. "Yes ma'am."

»»»»»»»»»

"Do you think Luke likes Amber?"

I almost spit out the mouthful of water I was drinking from my bottle when I heard Jason's words, looking over at the male with wide eyes. "What the hell? How am I supposed to know?" I asked in shock, my eyes narrowing a little at the idea of someone having a crush on my younger sister. "But why does it even matter? I have no control over them anyway." I sighed tiredly, looking down at my bottle again. "As long as he takes care of her and makes her happy, who am I to have a say in her relationship. Even if I did, I doubt she'd listen to me and will go behind my back."

"Who will go behind your back?" A voice spoke out from behind us, causing both of us to stare at each other in shock before to catch Amber's violet eyes staring back at us in confusion, a soft tilt of her head. "Nothing." I said swiftly, both Jason and I sharing a look - we are not going to risk getting our asses beat for talking about her love life behind her back. She just gave us a look before she shakes her head a little, making her way towards my free side and settling down beside me. This cause Jason and I to squirm awkwardly, but being the asshole he was, he got up and made up some half ass excuse and ran off, leaving me with my sister.

I scowled at his retreating figure before I looked back at my sister, who was more focused at the sight of Apollo driving the sun chariot across the sky, indicating the end of the day. "Earth is weird." She said simply, causing me to chuckle as I took another sip from my bottle. "Tell me about it." I said and leaned back into my hands, looking over at her with a raised eyebrow as she glances away from me in thought. "Why did you want to look for me?" I asked her curiously, to which she seems to pause in thought before she faces me again. "Percy, do you ever think that one day I might die?" She asked out of the blue, her words causing me to sit up straigt again as I looked over at her with a serious look on my face. "Amber-"

"It's just a if, Percy." She said with a smile, but that didn't reassure me anymore whilst I watch her tuck some hair behind her ear. "But what would you do? If I died in battle, due to some weird poison? I mean, it has happened once - the only reason why I am even alive now is because of Lee." She reasoned, causing me to grow slightly awkward at the scenario, reaching over to grasps her hands in mine as I met her eyes head on. "We are going to be fine. There is no way I am going to let anything happen to you without me causing a scene." I told her sincerely, to which she just laughs softly and squeezed our joined hands. "Percy...as amazing you are, sometimes there are just things that are out of your control."

"You know I will protect you till the very end, though." I tried to reason with her, to which she just smiles and nods before she faces the sunset again with a warm smile on his face. "I know." She said simply, causing me to look over at her in concern for a moment as he face falls; like something had came into mind and she was not that happy about it. "I know you saw her." She said after a moment of silence, causing me to tense up as I looked let go of her hands to sit back into my seat, my hands immediately reaching for my bottle of water as I played with it. "I didn't expect her to...ya know, just go to the dark side like that." I admitted, to which Amber nods understandingly, a thoughtful look on her face. "I know...it's weird." She said truthfully before she sighs beside me. "Perce...I have a feeling that it wasn't her."

I turned my bewildered eyes towards her as she looks down at her lap in thought, looking up for a moment to meet my eyes. "I mean - she didn't feel like a real person? Like she wasn't...she wasn't surely there." She said simply, looking into my eyes head on. "She seemed to space out when you call out her name, like she had to think long and hard for a second to even remember who she was." She explains, sighing tiredly as she rubs his eyes tiredly. "It's like she isn't really there."

"You could be right." I said after a long moment of silence, to which I spent it just thinking about her words as Amber shrugged. "It's a big if, but I have a feeling that I am right." She said simply, to which I just sigh and shrug, leaning back to take another sip of my water as I tried to act casual about it. "It doesn't matter though." I said gruffly, to which Amber just turned her unamused eyes to me. "Percy, stop lying to yourself. You have yet to get over her." Amber stated, making me wince a little at how straightforward her words are as I awkwardly played with my fingers. "I don't need to read your mind to know that."

Glancing away from her, I just focused my eyes down on my lap, trying hard to ignore the pair of eyes that were basically staring right through me. "I just...I don't know if I can see her the same way again, if I want to see her the same way again." I admitted truthfully, knowing that there was no reason to lie to her. "Well, Annabeth was obviously your soul mate though." Amber offered, to which I just snorted and uncapped my bottle with an unimpressed look on my face. "I don't even understand the concepts of that bullshit." I tsked in annoyance, making Amber smile softly over at me before she looked back at the setting sun, enjoying the moment even though I was huffing in irritation.

"In his dialogue The Symposium, Plato has Aristophanes present a story about soulmates. Aristophanes states that humans originally had four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces. He continues that there were three genders: man, woman and the "Androgynous". Each with two sets of genitalia with the Androgynous having both male and female genitalia. The men were children of the sun, the women were children of the earth and the Androgynous were children of the moon, which was born of the sun and earth.

"It is said that humans had great strength at the time and threatened to conquer the gods. The gods were then faced with the prospect of destroying the humans with lightning as they had done with the Titans but then they would lose the tributes given to the gods by humans. Zeus developed a creative solution by splitting humans in half as punishment for humanity's pride and doubling the number of humans who would give tribute to the gods.

"These split humans were in utter misery to the point where they would not eat and would perish so Apollo had sewn them up and reconstituted their bodies with the navel being the only remnant harkening back to their original form. Each human would then only have one set of genitalia and would forever long for his/her other half; the other half of his/her soul. It is said that when the two find each other, there is an unspoken understanding of one another, that they feel unified and would lie with each other in unity and would know no greater joy than that." She finished, causing me to let out a long whistle as I gave her a smirk. "You always have the answers." (.)

"Well, one of us has to know what's going on, right?" She replied back with ease, sending me a soft smirk as I laugh at her comment. "Look - I know the while idea of falling in love again scares you and stuff, but one day you are going to have to face this head on." She tries to reason to me, ignoring the silence between us. "Annabeth might be, or still is, your one true love; but that doesn't mean you should give up completely...there are a lot of women out there, and i am sure people would love to get together with you." She said into the silence, making me look away from her silently, not wanting to reply to her. I heard a soft sigh before I felt her reaching for my hand, humming softly. "Speaking of being prepared - here."

I felt something warm but small resting in my palm, making me look away from my lap to see that Amber had pressed an amulet in my palm; the beautiful bow and arrow carved from glass gleaming underneath the setting sun. "It's a talisman. It is believed by many Buddhist believers to hold a small sprit of the Buddha in it. But this one has been modified." She went on to explain, not even deterred by my silence as I picked up up to stare at the amulet, noticing the small traces of gold that seem to swirl around the cracks in the small crystal-like-glass. "I've managed to put a small part of my power inside it. It it isn't much, but it can help you. Use it wisely though, it can only be used once."

"I'll keep it until I am about to die." I said with a soft smile as I carefully put it on, feeling the small amulet pressing against my skin comfortingly as I met her eyes head on. This made her smile widely with a nod before she glances back at the camp, looking more relaxed that she was before. "I think I am going to call it a night. Don't stay up too late." She said as she got up, kissing me on the head gently as I nodded; watching her dust the sand off her as she made her way back to our cabin.

I watch her retreating figure with a soft smile on my face, turning to face the ocean again as I watch Apollo's chariot finally disappearing; the moon starting to rise and casting my surroundings in a peaceful yet. However, the peace was disturbed when I felt a presence appearing behind me. I just let out an indulgent sigh, not taking my eye away from the rising moon as I cocked a light eyebrow.

"Now what is it that I can help you with, Lady Artemis?"