Child of Zeus {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

TWENTY: Choice One

I decided to straight out ask her what we wanted. I assumed that she'd want to get right to the point. Without hesitation, I introduced myself.

"Hello, goddess Bia. My name is Y/N Y/L/N, daughter of Zeus, this is Johnny Overwood, and this is Diana..."

"Harvard." She supplied.

"You're last name is Harvard? Never mind. Anyway, I beseech help from you." I then proceeded to tell her about the problem and the quest.

"...There, we found out that Epimetheus had stolen the Pithos from Olympus, but Prometheus was actually behind it - fooling his less clever brother to do this for him and forcing him into hiding from Zeus. Because we figured Prometheus would be hiding out back on his old mountain, we asked about that, too. Found out it's in Russia. Obviously, we couldn't get there on our own; we didn't have enough money. So we hopped a train and started heading to LA.

"You see, Hades owes me and Johnny because of something that happened on my way to Camp Half-Blood. Long story short, here's how we decided he could pay us back. Only, when we told him that that's what we wanted, he said we needed a plan on how to beat Prometheus before he even dreamed of sending us there.

"Diana, daughter of Athena, was all like: 'Bia helped chain him there in the first place, let's go to her!' Then we had to figure out how to get over that wall, because there was no way we were getting past Cerberus. So I learned how to fly, and now we're here. So yeah, we need your help.

"See, we were hoping you could give us more of the chain you used to bind Prometheus in the first place - or at least help us obtain some of our own. Then we figured you could tell us how you did it, like a Gabbie Show story time, and give us pointers and tips."

The goddess squinted her obsidian eyes at me, a scowl crossing over her face.

Oh, dear. I'd chosen the wrong approach.

"You march over to me demanding I help you?" Her voice was like venom, and I - against best efforts - flinched.

"No! Well, yes, but it's to save the world. Surely you understand that!" I tried.

Her muscles rippled as she flexed, and Bia was smoking from her ears, comically enough that I almost laughed.

Almost.

"I'm sick of all you demigods." She roared. "All the same! And a child of Zeus, nonetheless. Worse! You're all so arrogant, just like your father, d'you know that? Thinking the world owes you some huge favour. Well it doesn't. And I don't. And I don't need to help you, not you especially."

It had happened again. Bia had said 'you' as if she was referring to someone outside our party, just like Tityos had.

But she'd also angered me. Every shot we had now was our last; if we got stopped somewhere along the line there was no where else to go and we'd be doomed. If she really thought I was going to take her answer just because she was a goddess, she was very wrong.

"Excuse me?" I thundered.

"Y/N!" Johnny warned.

"Who are you to say no? You're right, maybe I am arrogant, but is that so wrongly placed? My father is god of the sky, king of all gods, and you." I felt Johnny's hand on my shoulder, urging me to stop. I shook it off. "I can fly. I might be as strong as Hercules. Heck, I may even be able to control lightning! And what are you? A daughter of a river, however that works, whose only power is being strong!"

"Stop now," Bia grit her teeth. "And I might spare your life."

But she'd got me riled up now, and I realized that I had an onslaught of emotions piled up inside of me that I hadn't addressed, and they were all coming out.

"I was put on this quest to succeed. And you're definitely not going to be the one to stop me. Because every living person on earth still living isn't the only reward I'll get when I do complete it. I'll finally be claimed by my stupidly stubborn father, and I'll be able to confront my parents, and I'll finally feel like there isn't a part of me that doesn't sit right! A week ago, I thought I was just an average kid, now here I am - in hell - with the fate of the world resting on my shoulders. You'll help me. You have to." My voice cracked. My anger seeped away, until I realized that the emotion I'd been hiding was my fear of failing.

Bia, however, still looked ready to murder me.

"I'm going to throw you right into the Styx, how does that sound? Strong, are you? We'll see just how strong you are - nobody's survived the Styx since Perseus Jackson. Your body will evaporate. Then the world dies anyway, and how does that make you feel? Awful? Are you going to cry?"

She lunged, grabbing me by the arm and she threw me over her shoulder. I felt myself turn whiter than she was as she pulled me towards the noxious river.

"Stop!" Diana cried, just before Bia was about to dunk me under. "You're right! You owe her nothing, and she's arrogant, and all those things she just said to you do warrant you to throw her into the Styx." I resisted screaming: hey!.

"But don't! Please, let me talk on our behalf. Y/N will have no more part in it. Just put her down."

Bia's muscle's tightened as she looked at Diana's fierce, stormy eyes. I held my breath, ready for an evening swim to my death in the Styx, when Diana pulled off her magical-bow-and-arrow ring.

"A gift, in trade for the life of my friend. Forged by Hephaestus himself, a weapon with a string so tight that only a strong warrior can wield it. Plus, it would look really cute with that...uh...one-of-a-kind dress you're wearing."

She held the ring out for the goddess, who hesitantly dropped me and took the gift.

Slipping it onto her oddly-slim index finger, she said, "I accept the trade and the terms. Your friend will not talk in my presence," - she shot me a cold and hate-filled glance - "and you will speak instead."

I accepted Johnny's hand to get to my feet, looking anywhere but his blue eyes. How could I ever look at him now that he knew how stupid I was? Challenging a goddess like that. I was asking for death.

"I'd always liked children of Athena." Bia continued. "Smart. Value strength of the mind and of the body. Please, ask what you want."

~

Ten minutes later Bia and Diana had worked out an arrangement that as long as I offered her my food at dinner every night when we got back to camp, built her a temple in the woods there, and never challenged a god unless it was my own father again, she'd give us both the chain and tips.

For the next hour, that's what happened. We sat on the shore in a semi-circle, me being furthest from the goddess, everyone around me discussing strategies - the only response I could give being the nodding or shaking of my head.

We found out things like the fact that Bia had helped Hephaestus make the chains, and that upon a command word the chains magically bound whoever you so wished.

The chain itself was at least fifty feet long in total, golden and shiny like it was new and not from millennia ago. Like she'd said, it had clasps on the end of four trails where a prisoner's arms and feet would be bound. She handed it to me, very much reluctantly, and I put it into my back pack.

Then, when Diana and her new BFF Bia said goodbye and the goddess disappeared back into her mom(?), I flew my friends back over the wall, and dropped them on the other side.

I decided I was going to continue not talking, mostly out of embarrassment, but also because I realized that flying took a lot of my energy. Even our two trips over the wall happening over an hour apart left my muscles feeling like I'd rolled Sisyphus's rock up his hill three dozen more times, my eye lids sagging, and my heart beating fast. Otherwise, I would have flown us all the way to Hades's palace so we didn't have to walk through the Fields of Asphodel to get there.

When we did, Hades was waiting for us back in his throne room, and Diana couldn't wait to give him the news.

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