Daughter of Olympus - [Leo Valdez xF!Oc]

I'm Straight-Up Not Having a Good Time

"Hold it!" Annabeth says. "How can he be the son of Zeus? The Big Three... their pact not to have mortal kids... how could we not have known about him sooner?"

Ara scoffs. "I'm not even surprised."

"The important thing," Rachel intervenes, "is that Jason's here now. He has a quest to fulfill, which means he will need his own prophecy."

Someone brings a stool and helps her sit. A green, familiar mist surrounds Rachel's body. "Child of lightning, beware the earth," she starts in her oracle voice. "The giants' revenge the seven shall birth, The forge and dove shall break the cage, And death unleash through Hera's rage." 

"Is that normal?" Piper blurts out. "I mean... does she spew green smoke a lot?"

"Gods, you're dense!" Drew rolls her eyes. "She just issued a prophecy—Jason's prophecy to save Hera! Why don't you just—"

"Drew," Annabeth stops her. "Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy definitely isn't normal. If breaking Hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death... why would we free her? It might be a trap, or—or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She's never been kind to heroes."

"That's not true," Ara tries to be the voice of reason. "Prophecies are misleading, it could be talking about a god—"

"You mean Hades?"

"Maybe, or some other minor god. We have to be careful, you know what happens when we take a prophecy too literally."

Jason stands up. "Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can't just not help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."

Nyssa stands up. "Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly."

"Real ugly," an Aphrodite kid mutters.

"Shut up! Anyway, we've also got to think—why beware the earth? And what's the giants' revenge? What are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"

Behind Ara, Annabeth and Chiron have a silent conversation. Ara's seen that too many times, and right now she doesn't want to, she wants to get things done.

"It's Jason's quest," Annabeth sighs, "so it's Jason's choice. Obviously, he's the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose his companions... but our Strategus must greenlight the whole thing. Ara?"

The girl rolls her eyes. "Like I would say no to saving the queen of Olympus! I allow Jason to take this quest, and I'm going with him."

Someone else adds: "Well, obviously you too, Annabeth. You've got the most experience."

"No, Travis," Annabeth makes a face. "First off, I'm not helping Hera. Every time I've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy." 

The girl looks at Ara with a hint of annoyance mixed with pity. She's upset Ara can't help, the gods are her priority whether she likes it or not, but at the same time... Ara chose that.

"It's connected," Piper insists. "You know that's true, don't you? This whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance—it's all connected."

"How?" Drew scoffs. "If you're so smart, how?"

"You're mouthy today," Ara replies moodily. "If the big prophecy's happening, who do you think will be a part of it? Surely not the boy from the last one, that's too obvious!"