╔══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╗
—— DUMB BLONDE WAS one of the many names she had gotten back in California. Starting from when Azalea was 6 and in kindergarten she had failed all her classes never being able to pay attention or make out a sentence, she was always the dumbest of the class. After hearing it so much she started to believe it as well. It was to the point of bullying, people would never choose to work with her and as the year went on it got worse and worse until her dad pulled Azalea out of school. Dumb blonde had left an imprint on her heart to this day where she would do anything to feel like people wanted her and that they thought she was useful. At camp she would spend a lot of days trying to prove that she wasn't a dumb blonde and instead a smart girl when the time would come.
Azalea took many shaky breaths staring at the boy. She had come to be very fond over, covered by solid gold. The loud bang of the shield dropping made Azalea jump, her teary eyes moving away from Percy and she slowly walked behind the chair to Ares shield.
It laid silently on the floor, all this for a piece of metal, a piece of fucking metal. Azalea whipped her tears away, crouching down behind the chair, staring at the complexity of all the moving parts. She had no clue what she was doing but Azalea was willing to try anything. The blonde turned in twist almost every gear in sight hoping to find a way to reverse what had happened. No matter what Azalea was not leaving without Percy.
A door opening took her attention away from the gold throne and to a man standing an a walk way above. "Can I help you?" She paid no attention to his words, and went back to figuring out how she would get Percy out of the chair. "Do you need some help finding your way out."
He played a harmony on his flute, rumbling could heard as stairs rows up from the platform they were on. "So of you go."
Azalea turned back to the gears "I'm not leaving with out my friend." She said loudly.
"Yeah that isn't really how it works." Azalea attempted to turn more gears. "It's kind of a one way sort of thing, it can't be undone." The man spoke.
Azalea turned her head to look at him "How do you know?" She wiped her last tear away.
"Because I built it." He said proudly, that's when she realized she was talking to Hephaestus.
"I'm not leaving here without my friend." She sighed "and if you aren't going to help me could you maybe leave me alone so I can focus."
"In spite of what my brother might've told you, I am not someone who'll be pushed around. I know a certain goddess that was displeased with you and your friends recently. We all know how she gets, but this was a lot." The gods words made her pause her action of some how undoing the machine. "Even for her."
Azalea stood up from her spot the frustrations grew in her. Every thing was just a mess and this god was talking to her like nothing had happened. "You walk outta here with that shield and you're a hero. On your way to the greatest glory, all of the gods would be happy with you and everything will go back to being as it always has been. Always will be... as it should be."
"It isn't how it should be! It isn't!" Azaleas blood boiled, she couldn't care less what the other gods thought or that she was a hero, none of that would ever matter to her. "Eat or be eaten. Power and glory and nothing else matters. Ares is that way, Zeus is that way, and dare i say all gods are that way."
She was attempting not to cry in front of Hephaestus but the blonde girl could stop them from coming. "He isn't that way, he's better than that. I even tried to be that way once but I never wanna be that way ever again. I won't be like all of you, I would never let myself be like all of you." More tears fell down her rosy cheeks.
Azalea kneeled back down on the ground staring at the complex machine in front of her. Her head was down while she dried her tears away, the skin around her eyes now raw from how much she had cried in the last few minutes. From above the man watching the saddened girl sniffle to herself, and deciding to blow a harmonious tune on his flute making the machine reverse and the gears begin grinding.
The young girl got up and rushed to the front of the throne watching the gold slowly melt away from his body. When the gold was fully gone Percy looked around spotting an older man at the top of the balcony he quickly got up stumbling to Azalea in front of him. "Everything alright." She whispered to him grabbing on to him gently Azalea scanned his face to make sure he was alright.
"Some of us don't like being that way either" Hephaestus told her. Percy stood slightly ahead of her holding her hand, Azaleas other hand holding on to his arm both of the teenagers breathing heavily from the adrenaline of the situation.
"You're a good kid, Azalea." Hephaestus walked off closing the metal door behind him. Leave the two in silence Azalea turned and gave Percy a bone crushing hug "you have to stop scaring me like that." She breathed into his chest, Percy hummed returning the hug.
—— WALKING INTO THE diner a bell rung above them alerting the room that people were entering. Azalea had Ares shield in her hand while Percy fallowed a few steps behind her. Along the way she had discarded her blue jacket, hating the way the wet material felt against her skin as well as her hair probably being a complete wavy mess from drying up on their walk back to Ares and their friends.
Spotting them at the same table the short girl walked over and threw the metal shield in front of Ares creating a loud bang sound. A smirk filled Ares face staring down the two kids, Azalea lifted her brows at him as if to say 'try me'. "Where's our ride." Percy questioned.
The god of war nodded his head over to the back door, he grabbed his shield and walked over not saying a word to them. Annabeth, Grover, Percy and Azalea gave each other questioning looks before getting up and following after Ares.
Fallowing behind her friends she saw Ares standing next to a white truck "you're kidding" Percy explained. The god of war shaped his fingers and the doors on the back of the truck opened. Azalea nearly face palmed, she felt mad, all that and now she had to sit in a dirty, smelly truck.
"Get in, don't. I really don't care, but in a few hours this thing is gonna be at the Lotus Casino in Vegas. Hermes hangs out there you play your cards right and his personal driver can get you to L.A. in minutes." Ares through a bag at Percy "here, clothes, cash, Drachmas to summon Hermes. I'd wish you luck but what good would it do you."
"We're not going to fail." Percy challenged.
"Don't worry, your dad had plenty of kids he stopped caring about once he lost interest. You'll have lost of company." Ares taunted.
"We're not gonna fail and I'm getting pretty tired of you saying it." Percy walked closer to the god of war. "You think you know who I am, but you don't. And if you aren't careful." They started each other down "you're gonna find out."
"Percy." Grover walked over and warned him pushing him away from the man. "So thank you for the emotional abuse and the cheeseburger, and the ride. We're gonna take you up on that too."
Ares gave them all one more glance as they climbed into the truck the smell making Azalea cringe. "Hey do you think we could get some paper towels or something, it's not that nice in here." Grover asked Ares who had moved to stand in front of the truck. He snapped his fingers and the doors began to shut but before it fully closed Azalea put her middle finger out "yeah, fuck you too." The door shut in her face completely darkness filling the inside of the truck.
"Well... this smells." Percy pointed out walking further into the truck.
"If it gets us where we need to go, that's all that matters." Annabeth reasoned.
"Assuming Ares was telling the truth."
"He wasn't not entirely, at any rate. He was holding something back" Grover budded in. "How do you know?"
"Because I think I got it out of him... I know who stole the master bolt."
╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝
Hi my lovely readers happy valentines to all of you!!!!!
Love Estella