Percy POV
The next day all I could think about was the call from the Underworld. Children of Hades, like any other child of the big three, are powerful. They could summon entire armies in seconds when they get old enough. While it is their domain, children of Hades are not encouraged to stay in their father's domain for longer periods. If you don't believe me, please, ask a therapist; is it really a good thing to stay in a place that is dark, depressed, filled with devastation, and occupied by dead people and see what they say.
The ghost was also a red flag. After living as long as I have, you notice that most heroes are not heroes. No, most of the better people in history are just the lesser of two evils. Lesser evil, more evil, evil is still evil. Worse or better, people throughout Greek mythology are just, for the most part, horrible, and some are more or less so compared to others. After a while, instead of just choosing the lesser of two evils, I stopped picking them altogether. But that ghost, this spirit was an evil, a cruel man of the likes rivaled the most tyrannical rulers the modern world has ever seen.
But what was worse was that this ghost was trying to convince a boy, who was his prince by right, on the way to bring the dead back to life. Life for life. It was an ancient law that existed even before the fates, but it was not supposed to be twisted in a way like this. The only gods who could even attempt to pull something like that off are Hades, the god of the dead, and Zeus, the king of the gods. (Technically, he wasn't really the king of the gods, and neither was Kronos, the king of the titans, but that's an argument for another day.)
It was draining to think about it. Even worse, the Apollo kids healing Silena said that the wounds were worse than they thought. While the cut didn't look too deep, and she didn't lose enough blood to make it difficult for them to save her, there was something they didn't predict. Poison, more specifically poison magic. Hard to detect but harder to deal with. The Apollo kids could reattach limbs; mine is not included since I cauterized my own wound and practically made it impossible for them to reattach the thing, but poisons made by the monsters of Hecate is a tall order, and Will Solace was working double-time to keep her stable just for five of his siblings to make small progressions in saving her.
When I heard her life was in more danger than they thought, it was safe to say I was angry, but mostly, I was desperate. I didn't want to leave her side and the only times I did were to vent my anger on something strong enough to take a punch from me at full force. Safe to say, I will be having to send a few thousand drachmas to camp for damage repairs. The times I was away, Beckendorf was there. He was there just as much as I was.
All this was swirling in my head when lunch came. I was sitting with my cabin at our table. I sacrificed some of my food to Poseidon and Athena and asked them to help me figure out what to do. While I was sitting, Chiron came over with Grover and volun-told, he pretended to volunteer but it was really like telling or ordering him, to sit down with me.
"Why did he do that?" I asked Grover as my siblings started doing a food fight. Little Margey, the daughter of Zeus that didn't get all Uno reverse card and joined Kronos, was sitting with us and playing with one of my sisters. It broke many, many rules, but you were an idiot if you tried to say that to what is currently the most powerful cabin in the camp.
"Chiron is trying to get you to convince me," Grover admitted.
"Convince you what exactly?" I asked. When I said that, someone else walked beside and sat down Annabeth.
"I'll tell you what this is about," she said. "The labyrinth."
"Annabeth, you aren't supposed to be here," I told her.
"Neither is Margey, but here we are," she returned. I was going to reply that she was a child and that she was sitting by herself, but then the Athena in me already came up with what would be her answer to that. If we bend the rules for one person, when do we stop bending them for others? We should already be teaching her the correct way to do things. Besides this is more important than rules. She smiled at the fact she won our unspoken argument. Stupid goddess of wisdom genes, why do you have to make other people bright too.
"Why do we need to worry about a thousand-year-old death trap that has a body count almost as high as my Sea of Monsters?" I asked her.
"Grover is in trouble. The only way to find Pan fast enough would be going through the labyrinth," she said. She looked over to the Ares cabin, where I noticed Clarisse was staring back as if she knew what we were talking about. "You can go anywhere you want in the world. The labyrinth is so large now that we can go all the way to Greece now."
"It's a death sentence," Grover countered.
"Clarisse survived!"
"Barely, and the other guy-"
"Went insane, not dead." Annabeth countered.
"Oh, yes. Being brain dead or insane is so much better than being actually dead," Grover countered.
I thought that was a controversial. Some people might actually want to be alive even if not functioning mentally but I kept that to myself. "What do you mean Clarisse went into the labyrinth?" I finally interrupted.
Annabeth went on to explain that last year Clarisse went on a secret quest for Chiron. Which, in hindsight, was perfect because I don't want to see Clarisse get in an argument with Zoe or Thalia during our around the winter solstice. The more powerful the godly parent, the more outspoken the child usually is, and all three of them are pretty powerful. Oh, gods, if Aphrodite and I have more than one daughter at a time, we may cause World War III ourselves if I get them the wrong nail polish.
Back on track, curse my ADHD; Annabeth told me the reason it was secret was that Clarisse found Chirs Rodriguez near her mom's house in the desert. She brought him back and tried to nurse him back to health, but he was insane and kept on babbling on about string. From what they got from him, it turned out that Kronos's army and whoever was the new leader of the demigods was interested in the labyrinth. From what they got from Chris, they needed the string to get through the maze.
We tried to convince Grover that this was the best course of action, but...well...satyrs don't have good opinions on anything dark, cramped, moist, devoid of green, plant life, or vegetation; basically, they don't do anything that is antinature. Annabeth was forced to leave soon after. I was thinking for a bit longer before Grover left to speak to his girlfriend.
But that night was when something interesting happened. Quintus wanted to do a challenge. He gathered us all around and told us that we would be in teams of two that have already been chosen. We were supposed to find golden laurels hidden in the forest, but there was a catch. There's always a catch. These laurels were tied to the backs of monsters, giant freaking scorpions.
Remember when I told you that there is one thing above all others I hate with a burning passion in each lifetime. It wasn't so long ago that it was scorpions. Don't ask why but I will tell you it had something to do with honey, a really angry legacy of an Egyptian god (I know the Egyptian gods are dead, but their legacies have powers for many-many generations), a taco, one of those jumping teeth toys that have feet, a laser-guided missile launcher, and a lemon that was inside a tennis ball. Notice I didn't say anything about the scorpions because they come in later into that story.
Annabeth and I were on one team, and Tyson and Grover made up another. That is such a bad idea since they are both terrified of each other. Tyson is scared of the horns and fur. Grover is afraid of the...well... everything.
Sadly, I couldn't bring Aperio or Aioniotita. Something about having giant, godly, lions as protection and help is considered cheating. Once Annabeth and I went out inside the forest, we ran into Juniper. I shouldn't be surprised since nymphs can't go far from their source of life. In this case, Juniper can't go far from her juniper. She tried to convince us to make sure Grover didn't go on the quest with us into the labyrinth. I wanted to say that we wouldn't let him, but with Kronos' army going into the labyrinth and the fact he needs to find Pan, he kind of has no other choice.
Before we could continue speaking, Juniper disappeared in a green puff of smoke. Before we could ask why a stinger came by and stabbed into my back. I was launched forward and went face-first into a tree.
I was dizzy and began seeing double. If it weren't for my black Neiman lion's fur coat, I would have a stinger going through my chest. I slowly steadied myself and got up and saw Annabeth drawing her dagger to face the enemy; no, make those enemies.
"All six scorpions! That's impossible. The forest had six go in, and all of them packed together and found us. The odds are just...that shouldn't be possible!" Annabeth screamed as if the fates would change what was happening because it shouldn't be the case.
The monster scorpions were as giant as elephants, well, all except one. The largest one was at least twice the size of the others. Their bodies were as black as night as if they stole the light from the surrounding area. Their pincer-like claws were bigger than me. Its spiked poisonous tail dripped with acidic poison that burned the ground below.
Annabeth dodged a strike of the stinger and rolled under a giant claw. The other scorpions began to move forward, but the largest of all was standing back as if waiting for the others to kill Annabeth. She jumped behind a tree to avoid another stinger. A giant pincer wrapped around the trunk and squeezed; it turned the tree into two separate pieces when it shut its pincer.
Before another scorpion could get to Annabeth, I rushed in blinding speed and tackled it down. It was like an eighteen-wheeler going faster than several hundred miles per hour. The scorpion was tackled down, but since it was so heavy, it barely budged. I punched it down and caused the ground to shake due to the force of the blow.
Another scorpion tried to stab me with the stinger, but my fur coat saved me from the deadly tail. I opened my hand, and Olethros flew forth from my pocket like a coin and turned into a spear. I twirled it around several times and continued to look at the threats. Five of the six scorpions were surrounding me, and there was no way to escape them.
I parried one strike with my spear and twirled it behind my back to block three stingers from striking the only vulnerable part of my back, my neck. Then I quickly stabbed my spear into the ground, causing a bolt of lightning to surge to the ground. It obliterated everything within a thirty-foot radius and caused all the land around me to melt into lava. The explosion from the lighting caused earth and rubble to go upward. The scorpions that were too close were forced to take a step back.
Then I turned Olethros into a sword and rushed forward to a scorpion. I cut off two of its legs and rolled under the pincer coming towards me. The stinger came from nowhere and nearly hit me in the gut if it weren't for something I couldn't see blocking the attack. I then realized it was Annabeth, now invisible, who grazed the stinger with her knife enough to avoid the stinger from dealing a deadly blow.
Not wasting time, I held Olethros as it turned into an ax. With both hands on my large ax and holding it as if ready to block an incoming strike, I pointed it at the scorpion that had its legs cut off. A beam of pressurized dry ice smoke forced itself out of the metal ax head and fired at the monstrous scorpion. Quickly the scorpion was reduced to an ice statue.
I ran towards it as lightning arced from the ax head and danced around my metal arm. I leaped dozens of feet into the sky and slammed down on the ice statue in a large explosion of ice and lighting. Lightning short fourth dozen of feet and illuminating the dark night. The lightning showed my face in a light electrical blue tint. My scowl and eye patch could have made a resident of the Underworld scared to death.
The air grew colder as the longer I held Olethros, the more I lost myself to its power. It had grown more powerful than I could withhold now. Power that surpassed power. A power of unreachable depth and unknowable mass that seemed more enticing the longer I held it. Olethros was now too much for a god, let alone a mortal pretending to be one, like me.
A scorpion ran forward, and I thought it was coming towards me, but I was mistaken. It smacked something into a tree, and it took too long for me to realize what or rather who it was. I stabbed Olethros into the ground, causing an earthquake and causing trees to fall and be uprooted. The scorpions were forced back, and that gave me time to go to Annabeth.
"How could they see you?" I asked. "You were invisible."
"They were more like regular scorpions than I thought. The non-magical ones have terrible eyesight. They sense vibrations in the earth and sky to hunt."
"You never fooled them," I realized. "We can't win this. I could handle a them for a while, but these scorpions are too dangerous to face without help."
"You're practically a god. You have the power to kill them," Annabeth told me.
I looked at Olethros before answering. Yes, I drank the vials to make me stronger, but Olethros has grown too much in power since the beginning of this lifetime and killing and absorbing three titans made it too powerful for me to control. "I know," I replied.
"Do you think we have a chance if I leave you to fight by yourself?" Annabeth asked, scared of the answer.
I thought about what she said. With a dozen demigods holding some of the scorpions off while I took them down one by one, it would be easy. That would be the best bet. But sadly, we don't know how far the other campers are and we don't know who is the closest to us. I then had an idea.
"Zeus' Fist, go there. You might be able to climb and scout for others from the top. Or you might be able to find cover; rock is harder to destroy than wood," I replied.
Before Annabeth could counter the idea, a stinger came close to hitting us, but I caught it with my metal arm. I pulled the stinger towards me and pulled the entire elephant-sized scorpion towards me. I spun around and caused the scorpion to turn with me, and then after several spins, I threw it into a tree.
I picked Olethros from the ground as power surged forward from me. I threw it on as the fire raged off the blade and pierced the exoskeleton of a scorpion but did almost nothing. Four of the remaining five scorpions came forward to face me. A stinger shot forward towards me, and I was barely able to dodge. A pincer wrapped around me and was going to snap me in two. I used all my strength to hold the pincers open. I struggled, and slowly the pincers were overbearing and beating me.
Then with a final use of all my strength, I opened the pincer and broke the exoskeleton. I jumped down and punched the scorpion up into the air. I extended my hand, and Olethros flew towards me, still attached to the other scorpion. While flying towards me, the scorpion froze, and with the frozen scorpion statue, I hit the scorpion with the broken pincer. The ice statue exploded in contact with the secondary scorpion. With the scorpion with a broken pincer in the air, I jumped up and slashed the ax into the body of the scorpion.
I grabbed onto the ax and pulled down with all my might slamming the scorpion into the ground. Two stingers came, and both bounced off my black fur coat. But before I could counter-attack, a tail wrapped around me and threw me into a tree. I was dazed and confused but was able to make out one of the scorpions rushing towards me.
I opened my hand, and Olethros turned into a spear and flew into my hand. I placed the butt of the spear on the ground and with the spearhead facing the scorpion. The scorpion, unable to slow down its speed because it was running full force, was unable to dodge the spearhead piercing through its head due to running straight towards me and into the spear. Then with the spear sticking through its head, I used all the fire and lightning the spear could manage and held it with my metal arm.
The power of the spear was so much that it would have ripped my regular arm off and vaporized it, even if I did drink the golden vial of Egyptian gods. Then with a bright blinding golden light, a beam of golden, fiery plasma shot forth from the spearhead, through the skull and exoskeleton of the scorpion. The beam vaporized a hole through the scorpion and shot into the two other scorpions that were attacking.
The beam of light vaporized the area behind the scorpions in a wide range. The two other scorpions were vaporized in the large beam of fiery plasma. The ground was now molten, and anything that wasn't magma was now ash. The further away from the scorpion corpses one was, the wider the damage was. All that remained was the most giant scorpion that was bigger than twice the size of an elephant.
I was already tired, and my golden-platinum blood was coming from my forehead. I was still seeing double. This is ironic since I only have one eye. It was made even worse since some of my hair was covering my eye, and I had pushed it to the side just to see the foe before me. I looked at the carnage around me while struggling to get up. The dead scorpions already dissolved as the giant scorpion slowly walked towards me.
I rose from the ground with the Olethros as a sword. The scorpion snapped their pincers several times. We looked towards each other as lightning arced from my sword and began dancing around my body to illuminate my face.
In blinding speed, I jumped towards the scorpion. My Olethros sword growing closer to piercing the scorpion's head as lightning shot down from the sky and was going to hit my sword as well to do more damage and kill the scorpion in a blinding explosion. But the scorpion hit me with its pincer and sent me towards Zeus' Fist. The lighting hit the ground, causing a blast, but it did nothing to the scorpion.
I didn't hit the fist itself, but I slammed into some of the surrounding rock formations. I was sent into a large rock nearly eighty feet tall and twice as thick. When I slammed back fist into it, I made an indent and cracked some of the stone. I tried to get up but couldn't. Then I saw something. A stinger was coming from my face. I moved my head to the side fast enough to dodge, but that didn't help much.
The stinger broke through the entire rock, and the giant boulder fell on top of me. The boulder broke apart and collapsed on me. The boulders fell onto me with so much force it broke some of my bones. Rage filled my heart. Olethros was close enough to me that it was clouding my judgment too quickly. I usually checked my Spartan rage, but I couldn't regain control of my emotions with Menoetius being absorbed into my Olethros. The Wrath of Sparta would be unchecked. The scorpion began to walk away, thinking I was dead. That was a mistake.
A bolt of lightning came from the sky and obliterated the rubble holding me back. The scorpion, hearing this turned to face me. I was standing tall with lightning dancing around my body and as rain fell from the sky. The rain and the water fell on me, and my wounds slowly began to heal as if it never happened.
I let out a loud scream that sounded similar to my lions. My eyes flashed bright as if the storms of the sea were trapped within them. I looked to my right and saw a large boulder from the enormous rock that the lighting destroyed. I picked it up with little effort, even though it was ten times my size. I threw it towards the scorpion. The scorpion stabbed it with its stinger and stood its ground. The bolder pushed back the scorpion, but it didn't hit it or hurt it.
With its view finally blocked due to the rock, I rushed forward and covered hundreds of feet within a second. I punched through the rock and hit the scorpion in the face, sending it back and then following it up with several more punches causing it to take steps back and be sent backward from where it came.
The scorpion grabbed my metal arm with its pincer and slammed me into a tree, and pushed me down. The legs of the scorpion almost stomped on me several times before I jumped out of the way. I picked up the tree it broke through and used it as a bat to hit the scorpion. I hit it five times, and each time broke the tree more than it previously was.
Then the scorpion tried to stab me with its stinger, but I caught it. That was the deciding move in the battle. The scorpion attempted to kill me with its pincer while I held on to its stinger. I then used its pincer to cut off its stinger while dodging the deadly blow. The scorpion screamed in pain as its stinger was cut off. Then it reeled back in agony.
It tried to attack me several more times, but with its stinger in my hand, I dodged over and over again. I then kicked its head up, climbed on its pincer, jumped towards it, and used its own stinger to stab it in the head, killing it. I collapsed on the scorpion as it quickly slumped down and dissolved. I collapsed and promptly passed out on the ground.
I don't know how much time passed, but I awoke to Aperio and Aioniotita. Growling and protecting me from something or rather someone. Quintus was standing before us. I rose up as the rain poured down from above, and I stared at the sword instructor. I leered at him and opened my hand for Olethros to fly towards me as a spear.
"Athenian. Come to finish off what the other six scorpions couldn't?" I asked.
"All six-faced you? Even for you, that is a tall order. How are you alive?" Quintus asked.
"It is the Spartan way," I told him.
"To die in stupid combat?" he asked.
"To conquer the impossible," I returned.
"Here, I was worried about you. Tell me, Leonidas, how are you alive?"
"I don't know what you're talking about?" I replied.
"I'm not an idiot. The initial fighting style the other day when we fought, the way you carry yourself like the old Spartan Kings, the air of being born of war more than children of Ares. It all adds up. You aren't pretending to be a Spartan or just taking up the old forgotten ways. You were born in Sparta and raised as a king. No better king and non-more known than Leonidas. So, tell me, how are you alive?"
"Just like an Athenian to be curious of things beyond their understanding even if the information should not be learned. Let it be. That is your first and final warning."
"Is that a threat?" Quintus asked.
"No. If it were a threat, you would already be dead. Then I would bring you back to life for you to realize the consequences of your stupidity," I told him in rage. "But I do have my own question. The mark on your neck. What is it?"
"Leave it," he returned.
"The last Athenian to have it killed my son. I want answers," I told him.
"But you aren't giving me any in return? Seems fair," he told me sarcastically.
"You almost had me killed by scorpions, I consider indebted to me, and I want it paid!" I was getting angry. My lions roared and growled in anger.
"Spartan," he mocked.
"Athenian," I cursed. "You were nothing. Athens was nothing for years. Your own philosophers tried to rewrite history to make it seem as though you were important for years. I remember when Plato tried to write that you were the ones to defeat Atlantis and send it into the ground. I remember when all of you lied in, saying you all decided from Gaea's children like your first king. All your kind knows, is how to do is lie."
"Your kind only knows how to rage wars and beat children! You send seven-year-olds into the forests to fight for their lives. Day in and day out, you cause your children to suffer. To what? Make the perfect soldier? Let us not forget that when they turn into teenagers, they are taken to be raised by experienced soldiers to have a more intimate relationship. You Spartans are disgusting!"
"The only reason you're even relevant now is that you helped the rest of Greece beat Persians. Something that was everyday work for us Spartans. You're famous for something we consider child's play."
"Careful. I seem to remember us beating you in several battles," Quintius said smugly.
"We won the war. And besides, what self-respecting adult fights a child seriously. Letting you have a few victories were just us being good sports," I returned.
Before the rest of the conversation could get out of hand. People began to come towards us and revealed that they were looking for Annabeth and me. Quintius said he was looking for me before my lions came forth and were going to attack him. We heard something while we were talking and looked to the side and saw Annabeth coming back from the untouched Zeus' Fist.
They told her they were looking for about an hour, but she told them that it was impossible. She had just left me to the scorpions a few minutes ago. She went on to describe what was in the fist and how deep she fell into it. When hearing this, I looked around for Chiron. With a quick nod, we ordered campers to have around-the-clock surveillance on Zeus' Fist.
"Why are you telling everyone to stay near the rocks?" Mary asked.
"Yeah, why is that?" Adras, one of my brothers, asked.
"We, my friend, just found the most dangerous thing in camp," I said. "The entrance to the labyrinth. The way how Kronos's army could get in."
Chiron told everyone that they were to worry about this tomorrow morning and that we should rest. Great idea. Tell everyone, 'oh yeah. We could all die because of a monster army at any moment. Sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite!'
I didn't sleep. I decided to spend my time in the infirmary with my daughter. She was sick but getting infinitely better. Apollo's cabin had worked through the entire challenge and had brought her to the point of being stable. I was sitting down next to her, looking at her chest rising and fall with every breath. It scared me that she was so close to stopping that simple task we take for granted. She was so close to drawing her final breath.
It was then that I noticed something in a bag next to her bed. A golden glow. I looked inside her bag to find something I did not expect. The golden apple of Hera. The one I had gifted my daughter. I looked at it and stared at it for a while. Tempted to feed it to my daughter in her state of illness. She would never have to be brought to this point ever again. She might be angry at me for forcing her into immortality. But give me enough time, I'll get one for Beckendorf as well, and she could be happy. She might not fully realize it, but he was the main reason she did not consume the fruit just yet. The idea of leaving the person you love to mortality is a difficult and sad one, even if you don't know you are in love yet. Before I could even entertain the idea, she woke up.
"Dad," she whispered as her eyes fluttered open.
"My little princess," I rushed over and sat by her side and held her hand. She was too weak to hug, and I might touch her scars. I didn't want to hurt her. Plus, my super strength would not do me any favors. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I lost a fight with a monster," she returned.
"Almost right. You won the fight. You make your people proud, daughter of Sparta," I smirked. She laughed but quickly, it turned into coughing.
"I had a dream," she told me.
"That is not good considering you a demigod," I replied.
She told me it was about an old man and his son. It was also about a king and how he forced the old man to stay in his workshop as a prisoner for helping a boy beat the Minotaur. The boy was scared, and the father promised everything would be alright. It didn't take long for me to realize this was the story of Daedalus and Icarus. Silena had a dream of the labyrinth and didn't even know how important it was to us right now.
"What happened?" she asked.
"A little this, a little that. We found an entrance into the labyrinth. The same one, the armies of Kronos, might use to destroy the camp, but we're trying to handle that. Nothing to worry about for now," I told her.
"Is that all?" she asked skeptically. I could see her sapphire eyes seemed a bit duller. My daughter was weak and tired. I expected it, but it didn't mean it didn't hurt me seeing her like this.
"We have a new sword instructor."
"Shouldn't that job go to you? You've been fighting with a sword before a sword existed. I'm pretty sure you wrote the book on sword fighting."
"I did, but historically I didn't. You'd be surprised at the number of things I did that other took credit for. Do you actually think that Alexander the Great conquered all of his lands himself?"
"I don't expect my dad to sit on the sidelines. It's not something a lover of Aphrodite would do." She smiled when she said that. "So, what of the new guy?"
"You don't need to worry about it," I told her. She looked at me and could tell I was holding something back from her. She looked at me and gave me a look I knew all too well. Aphrodite could do the same face. It scared the ever-loving crap out of me because once I saw it, I could never say no to anything. I hate it so much. It's not fair when dating and fathering the embodiments of love and beauty. You never get your way in anything. I told her everything. My suspicions. My ideas, my history with the previous guy who had the mark Quintus had.
"I didn't know Athenians and Spartans hated each other so much," she revealed.
"Humans don't keep track of history very well. Not very perceptive in honesty. They rewrite their own history all the time and fall for their own rewrites, thinking they are truths. There have been countless societies, countries, religions, pieces of knowledge; almost everything has perished and rewritten with almost nothing like it used to be. Sad, really," I told her.
"Do you think you could get along?" she asked, hopefully. I looked at her and couldn't decide the best answer. I didn't want to let her down but highly doubted we would work together.
"I don't know. You haven't been through war yet. You do not know how painful it is to lose someone so close to you that you lose yourself to grief. As a daughter of Aphrodite, you don't know how important love is or how difficult loss can be, yet at least."
"I don't know how important love is? Mother is the literal embodiment of it," Silena returned.
"True love is loving something more than you love yourself. True loss is losing that thing and not feeling complete. The feeling that the thing you didn't know completed you know leaves you empty in its absence. You don't know true love or true loss because you haven't dared to feel that amount of love yet. When you lose your children...no amount of greatness can fill the void of what is your greatest loss," I told her.
She looked confused and tried to swallow the information I was giving her. She was staring off at something. After following her gaze, I realized. It was a bouquet of flowers made of metal. It was obviously made by a child of Hephaestus and three guesses on which one made it.
"He's a good guy. He cares about you," I told her. She smiled at that and seemed to hug the blanket that was covering her. "I could see the feelings are at least a little mutual," I joked.
"I thought you said I don't know how to love," she countered.
"Anyone who says they do is lying. Love is ever-changing and comes in many forms. There is no perfect form of love, and there are many ways to love someone."
"You know, for an overprotective dad, you are oddly okay with me dating," she told me.
"I've had many kids, and as someone alive for a long time, I consider you an adult. In another life, I would already have married you off to another king to ensure you get to brush your hair with golden brushes. I want you to be happy, and he can make you happy. Besides, your mom is probably moving things around a bit to help you out here. She might say she doesn't like affecting her kids' love life, but that is a bull-faced lie."
"You understand, mom," she contributed.
"Your mother doesn't understand herself. How do you expect me to fully understand her?" I asked rhetorically.
"What do you mean? You've been together for eons. How do you not know her? Isn't a part of relationships to understand each other?" Silena asked.
"Yes. As I said, every relationship is different, and there are many types of love. What works for us might not work for others. Plus, if there are many types of love and your mother embodies love, that means there are different aspects of your mother that are more prominent in certain times," I told her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"My dear, beloved, primordial of love is literally one big contradiction. Every action she makes could have easily been the total opposite if she just did it a few minutes beforehand. Love is very complicated and really is just one big pain in the butt. It's worth it, but it's still a pain."
"I'm so glad my dad has such a good opinion on the thing that literally makes up half of my existence," she deadpanned.
"Your existence is connected to the most complicated being in the universe. And you are trying to understand something that you are literally made up of. Let me explain why both love and your mother are so complicated, and then maybe it can help you understand what you feel for the guy that might as well be your stepbrother," I said with a grin. Aphrodite, Silena's mom, is married to Hephaestus, Beckendorf's dad, making them stepsiblings.
"Never, and I repeat never call him my stepbrother again. It feels weird thinking about him like that," Silena ordered.
"Do you know what a divine epithet is?" I asked.
"Not really," she admitted.
"It is basically a title or characterization of a god. It's the part of the god that is being focused upon most. For example, Alexikakos Apollo focuses more on Apollo's ability to ward off evil animals or illnesses. While Phoebus Apollo focuses more on his sun god position. While both are a part of him, they make him focus on different parts of himself, and his personality shifts to fit it."
"Like how they turn Roman?" she asked.
"Sshh, do you want to get us killed?" I asked. "Never speak about the others here even if the other camps suspect them." I warned. She looked scared, but my gaze softened, and I apologized for my outburst. "Yes, they are similar. But the changes between the other pantheon and Greek are a lot more drastic for the gods. Well, for almost all but your mother."
"What?"
"Here in the camp, we worship all Olympian gods since we are demigods and know how important they are as a whole. But back in Greece, you only really worshipped the god or goddess who affected you most. If you weren't a blacksmith, you weren't worshiping Hephaestus. Aphrodite, besides Zeus, was the only one to be universally worshipped by all of Greece. But that also meant something else. Since each area worshiped them differently, each cult focusing on one part of their deity due to whichever part helped them best, this caused many different splits in personality amongst even their traditional Greek forms. Your mother got the worst of it. even if the demigods in the legion did practically worship the main version of her."
"So, even in Greece, mom had multiple personality disorder?" Silena asked.
"Yes. There are many forms of love and, in turn, many types of Aphrodite. That's not even considering her other form that the legionaries worship. Aphrodite's main three epithets were more drastic changes than the other gods. She was practically worshiped like three different goddesses at the same time. All this makes her very confused when she is forced to be all the Aphrodite variants simultaneously. That's what happens now. Since we know all the versions of the Greek gods, they have to force all their variants into one. Not very good when they were worshiped for specific things for thousands of years."
"I didn't know," she realized.
"Aphrodite Urania was the heavenly, divine love. Aphrodite Pandemos was the sexual, emotional love that we usually see her act like. In Sparta, we worshiped Aphrodite Areia, the more war-like aspect of her."
"She's not a war goddess," Silena countered.
"She was with the Spartans, and because of that, she did get some gifts. What can I say? Spartans like strong women. One of the Queens said it best. Only Spartan women can raise real men," I laughed.
"But if there are so many versions of her, how do you even manage? How are you able to deal with not being able to understand love when you are so close to it?" she asked me.
"Isn't that part of the fun? That's what love is about feeling your way through the unknown with another. Being with the other half and learning more about each other than you ever could have separated. Building a relationship on a foundation that makes both halves happier and better together."
"That's annoying, but it makes sense, I guess," she admits. "You're telling me to give it a chance even though I don't know what I'm getting into."
"It's better to learn about love for yourself," I told her. "I'll get Will to look at you. Rest up."
Once I left the room, I felt something. I looked around me noticed that the skies above were roaring with thunder and lighting surpassing that of Zeus himself. The only way that could happen is if a child of Ouranos was losing control of their father's domain. Even if it is not our domain, we do have some sort of connection to our father. But the only two people in this existence there are strong enough to do this, and I am perfectly calm. Aphrodite.
I turned to see that nymphs were arguing and started to fight each other. Other mythical creatures were going to rip each other apart and kill each other. If Aphrodite lost control of her domain so quickly, that meant she was furious. Angrier than she had ever been throughout history, the rest of the world knows of her. That also meant that this was happening around the world as a whole. Love was trying to destroy everything in itself. It wasn't like when she didn't control her domains during her capture, but this was deliberate, passionate rage.
I prayed to her and tried to calm her down. I did for a bit before it got a million times worse than before. Instead of calming her down, now, I had to let this run its course. She needed to vent out her frustrations, and no amount of talking would get her to stop. All I knew was happening was that my primordial girlfriend was trying to beat Ares to near death. War and love were fighting. I don't know what started it, and I don't know how badly Ares was hurt, but the world was brought back to normal after another few minutes.
The following day we had a war council meeting. The war council meeting was in the sword arena, allowing Mrs. O'Leary, Aperio, and Aioniotita to be with us. Usually, it would be just the heads of each cabin, but I told them we needed more people to discuss what we needed to do. Each cabin had to send their head and a second in command. Annabeth brought her brother Malcolm, the Stoll brothers came together as always, Clarisse brought a brother, and so on. I got Adonia, and Margey came with me since she represented the entire Zeus cabin. She asked my younger sister Karina to go with her since she wanted her own plus one.
The moment she walked in; all the campers looked. Clarisse's brother gave him a glare. The moment he looked towards her Margey stood behind me, and so did Karina since they were scared of the glare. The moment I could tell they were scared, I stared down at the son of Ares, and quickly the room grew in tension. My sea-green eye, flashing brightly like a sea storm.
I forced my aura out like any other child of the big three. I could see him get worried. I said this before, but the children of the big three are powerful. The instincts of lesser demigods are basically to run away or die. The angrier the child of the big three, the more intimidating the aura. The only way to counter the aura is to be another child of the big three. But I'm also a triblood, so it makes it that much more menacing. My eye patch and black lion's fur coat didn't exactly make me look friendly. Aperio and Aioniotita were roaring inside the arena with us the moment they felt my rage.
Adonia looked similar in her anger. Her sea-green eyes sparkled with rage. Her black captain's cloak made her look like a pirate. Her curly black, untamable hair made her look like the very embodiment of the anger of the sea. The aura of the children of Poseidon is not something to take lightly. The sea is mysterious and terrifying, endless and uncontrollable. You'd be an idiot to anger it, and its children.
"Your brother is really scary," Margey told Karina.
"He's like dad when he gets angry," Karina told her.
Before I could do anything else, I noticed someone else coming through the door. I saw Silena walking in with three other people. She had a crutch and was being helped into the war room. One of the others was Drew Tanaka, her younger sister. One of the others was a son of Hephaestus that was at least six and a half feet tall for a middle schooler. The final person walking in was helping her walk in, Beckendorf.
With all of us there, I could see nymphs and satyrs as well as two demigods from the twelve cabins. All were looking at each other, waiting for one of the others to start the unspoken understanding we all had. Chiron and Quintus were quiet as if letting the new warriors think about the coming battles first. Argus was there, the tall guy apart of security for the camp that has a hundred eyes. That's how I knew it was extremely important; he only shows up when it is essential.
"Luke must have known about the entrance. Then informed the others before Atlas killed them," Annabeth said. I nodded my head, conceding to her that I thought the same thing.
"That's what I wanted to tell you last night. I wanted to warn you and Percy when the scorpions attacked," Juniper said next to Grover. "Luke has been using the entrance for a while even before he left the camp."
"To think a few scorpions were enough to scare the mighty Skybreaker," the son of Ares mocked.
As he said that, the smell of sea salt grew as winds began to form in the room. My almost shoulder length hair was blowing into the wind like I was standing on the bow of a ship. I flipped Olethros several times in my hand as the son of Ares actually looked scared.
"Weren't you the same guy he peed himself when both Poseidon cabin and Zeus cabin nearly went to battle at the creek when the hunters of Artemis came by," Adonia asked rhetorically.
I elbowed her. Clarisse did the same to her brother. We looked at each other and came to an agreement. Right now, we were soldiers preparing for war, not teenagers making fun of each other.
"That's enough," Clarisse warned her brother.
"First mate Adonia, that is enough," I warned. She looked at me as if she was trying to figure out what she had done wrong. Her eyes flared at me since she was angry for trying to be held back from being angry. My gaze matched hers as the room got more dangerous with the sea winds forcing everyone not of big three blood to stare in awe of what we really could do. It didn't take long for Adonia to break her gaze and mutter something about older demigods being more powerful. She looked to once more smirked and took a step back, showing me that I had control of what Poseidon cabin would do in this meeting.
Then my attention turned to Juniper. She jumped at the sudden look towards her. Silena understood what I was asking without actually saying. Her face morphed to a frown.
"You knew about Luke knowing about the entrance and didn't say anything. Now the enemy has a straight path towards us," Silena enlightened.
"I didn't know it was important. I don't like yucky caves," Juniper told us.
"She has good taste," Grover helped out his girlfriend.
"Caves are definitely not my style," Drew added.
"But staying alive is mine," I retorted.
"I wouldn't have paid attention if it weren't...well, Luke," Juniper said with a blush.
"Forget what said about good taste," Grover told us.
"She's dating you, isn't she?" Travis told him.
"I am conflicted," Grover admitted.
"I think we can all agree that Kronos' army would more than definitely use the labyrinth," Clarisse told us. "Whoever is currently in charge has already been sending in scouts, and we know they want this place destroyed."
"You act like we don't know who is in charge of the enemy," Clarisse's brother told her. "It's a kid of Zeus! Come on. They all hated the guy and left to join the army! They know how to take charge and are ambitious. Leading an army of monsters to kill their dad is possible." He then turned to Mary. "For all we know, she could be a spy for them! We should get rid of her now, while we still can."
The son of Ares walked towards us, but the moment he got close to me, he stopped. The pressure of being next to four children of the big three and three of them willing to rip you a new one to protect the last one was enough to cause the son of Ares to panic.
"You said you were going to do something. Why haven't you? She's standing right there," I questioned. "If you're not going to do anything, go back before I sit you down by force. Margey is protected by the Poseidon cabin, and you are already getting on my bad side. You've been a part of this camp for what, a year? And you think you decide who's good and bad? Clarisse is basically your commanding officer, and she hasn't acted yet. What does that tell you?" I asked.
"The girl is in the clear. Get back over here and stop embarrassing our dad," Clarisse finally said.
"From Chirs, we figured out they are looking for Daedalus' workshop," Annabeth told us.
"He's looking for the string then," Beckendorf realized.
"How can you navigate a maze to find something to help you navigate it in the first place?" one of the Stoll brothers asked; I couldn't tell which one.
"Why can't we just blow it up?" one of the sons of Mr. D asked.
"Not smart," I returned. "Last time someone tried to do it, that is how the idea of the nuclear bomb was made. Safe to say, the explosion is massive and bad for us. Might even take out the entire camp either way."
"For the Wielder of Olethros and the guy with a book with generations of knowledge, you're surprisingly quiet about the quest itself," Malcolm told me. Everyone looked at me.
"The labyrinth is where my book draws the line. The passed Wilders of Olethros avoided the place like the plague. We didn't have to worry about it if most of our attention was towards the Sea of Monsters," I admitted. "All I know about the place is what you all know, and that's not much."
Clarise then spoke up, "The person who knows the best is...." Clarisse and I both turned to look at Annabeth. "You need to go on the quest. You're the head of this operation."
"But you've worked alongside me the entire time," Annabeth told Clarisse.
"I'm not going back in. Not in a long shot," she countered.
"Don't tell me you're scared," Travis joked.
"You don't know anything. I'm never going back to that place! Never," Clarisse said as she stormed out with her brother.
"I didn't mean to. I didn't know," Travis said, shocked Clarisse was scared of something.
Chiron put his hand on his shoulder. "It is alright. She has been through a great many things and needs time to heal from the wounds opened up by the labyrinth. But that shows us that we must be wary of what this maze has to offer us," Chiron said sagely. He then turned to Annabeth. "It is time for you to meet the Oracle. Keep your wits about you."
Annabeth left, and everyone was now quietly waiting. With everyone weighty quietly, some people spoke in whispers. Juniper chose this time to tell me that Quintus was also snooping around the labyrinth entrance in Zeus' Fist. She told me not to trust him, which wasn't a problem since I didn't from the start.
When Annabeth finally got back, she looked tired. She explained the prophecy, but it didn't sound that good. Especially the bit of it is the child of Athena's final stand. Silena was quick to suggest that it might not be her since Athena had more than one child. At that, Malcolm shuffled uncomfortably. She withheld some of the prophecy, and everyone knew it. Annabeth asked me to come with her. She then turned to Grover and told him about the line that might reference Pan and asked him if he would come as well. She then turned to Tyson, who was sitting in the corner; since he wasn't a demigod, he didn't count as a plus one and came before we even entered the arena.
"Wait, that is more than two champions. The ancient laws speak about three champions. Three is a good number," Chiron informed.
"The last quest had more than three," Annabeth informed.
"That was luck. A fluke," I countered, but in honesty, I have to side with Annabeth. This is the labyrinth. All hands-on deck for this one.
"I'm going to," Silena told us.
"Absolutely not," I told her.
"I'm going whether you like it or not," she told me.
I looked at her and could feel her charm, speaking, sinking in her words even if she didn't realize it. "You're injured. I'm not letting go in there. There is no chance in Tartarus that I'm letting you go there."
"I think we both know that I'm stubborn to a fault. My dad was known for loyalty, and right now, my friends need me. Even if you disagree with my choices, I'm doing it for the people I care about. Besides, a bit of charm speak could help," Silena told us.
"We both know what happened to him," I said, reminding her how many times I have died for my loyalty. "It's easier to die in the labyrinth when you're hurt.
"With a few more treatments by tomorrow morning, I should be ready to go in."
"If she's going, so am I," Beckendorf told us.
"Neither of you are going," I finally said.
"You don't have the final say. It's not your quest," Quintinus told me. I turned to him, ready to cut off his head. "Annabeth has the final say." I turned to her and made it abundantly clear which side I wanted her to choose.
She looked down at her feet. She looked to Malcolm then to me. Finally, she looked to Beckendorf and Silena. "Will you guys come with us?"
The moment she said that, I knew what their answers were. I quickly left the arena as a storm brewing in the skies above. Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. My Olethros coin was covered in electricity. While I was leaving, I could see Quintus speak to Grover and hand him something before thunder boomed, and all that could be seen was the incoming storm.
Author's Note;
Hey, my dear, beloved readers! It's good to see you even though technically I can't. But I'm imagining that I am so that this doesn't sound crazy. I wanted to say thank you for all of the support so far. I can't believe that this book is only 5 thousand reads away from hitting 50 thousand! I honestly never thought I was going to even get 10 thousand and I'm nearing 5 times that number. You are all amazing and I can't thank you enough.
Comment down your thoughts on the Percy x Aphrodite ship. Do you think I'm doing the ship justice? Do you think it's well fleshed out in comparison to other ships with Percy, not Percy x Annabeth? I chose this ship since I noticed it was as common as some others and I had to read a lot on Aphrodite to make sure that I gave her more character than just what is in the books. There is literally only like 3 to 4 chapters of work in the Rick Riordan Universe for Aphrodite, that's being generous since she only has a handle full of lines in each chapter.
Making her a character to sympathies for and love is very hard. What better way to make her sympathetic than to make it so she can't have the one thing she cares for the most, love. Tell me about your thoughts on my version of Aphrodite and if the ship is working well in the story. Please don't forget to vote on the chapter!