Prologue
(A/N: its so good to be back. And I stayed up all night to review the prologue)
"Grover, did you see Percy? I'm looking for him." Annabeth said from behind Grover, startling the Satyr into the bush he was busy picking several leaves off for lunch. "Annabeth, I told you not to scare me like that! Did you take on the characteristics of your hat from wearing it too much?" a clearly annoyed Grover said as he pulled himself out of the bush. "and no, I did not see Percy. Try checking the arena he may be there." Annabeth nodded and left Grover chewing on his plants.
Walking over to the arena Annabeth was met by sight of Percy demolishing multiple bronze mechanized dummies. There was a sort of ... anger in his swings that made people avoid him and just safely watch from the other end of the arena. Annabeth walked over to Percy. "Percy?" Percy stopped swinging and looked at her. "What is it?" Percy asked coldly. Annabeth was concerned. "Percy why are you so angry?"
Percy stabs his sword into the ground. "What do you think? Past few weeks you have been declining and rejecting me whenever I offer to take us on a date. Not to mention you missed our weekly date twice already." Oops. So, Percy apparently did have a reason to be mad. "It's not like that Percy I was busy."
"With what? I Iris-called Lady Athena earlier today and she said that you weren't working on any projects at the moment." Percy said angrily. Annabeth stood there stunned. Mother, why did you tell Percy I was not busy? I thought I told you to help me cover up our meetings. Annabeth thought to her mom. Erm, about that, I was engrossed on reading a book and did not realise what he asked until after he finished the Iris call. Athena apologetically said. Annabeth groaned internally and opened her mouth to speak to Percy. Percy held a hand up. "Save your excuses Annabeth. I really thought that you love me. If you want to break up just say it directly to my face and sneak around like Aphrodite."
Oof. That hurt. Annabeth could only watch sadly as Percy takes Riptide from the ground and walk off. I am sorry daughter; I will gather the other goddesses and the Hunt. Athena said as she left Annabeth's mind.
Annabeth was in a daze when she walked over to the Aphrodite's cabin and knocked on the door. Drew answered it and frowned slightly when she saw Annabeth's partially near-breakdown face. She sighed. "Percy?" She asked quietly. Annabeth nodded. Drew nodded as well. "Ok meeting tonight, I will see you there."
Athena sighed as she left her daughter's mind and returned to her body in the physical world. Going over to her Iris messaging fountain she pressed several buttons. "Iris override code Alpha dash two seven four. Send this out to all concerned parties. Disable recording devices." She waited for a few moments. A light turned green. "Override code enabled, recording devices disabled. Please say your message." A robotic voice said. Athena smiled. Equipping an override device straight on Iris' personal messaging device allowed her to bypass Iris' listening system and stop the goddess from listening in on her was incredibly useful. "To all who is listening. Emergency situation. He is getting suspicious. Meeting tonight. I am Feather. I have spoken."
At the Hearth, while the throne room was quiet and empty, Hestia amused herself by using her hearth to watch videos on what the mortals made and called YouTube. (If the gods can Iris message and all that they sure as hell can use the Internet). Noticing a small flashing light underneath her hearth she paused her video and sent a localised burst of her power around her. She was not the oldest of the gods and goddesses without some hidden tricks of her own. Her power burst was like a sonar pulse to her, finding the heat from anything around her and sending back the position of where the person was. It was very handy especially when Poseidon and Hades went through their puberty stages in their father's stomach and tried to peep on her and her sisters bathing. It was near impossible to detect and near impossible to hide from.
When it came back empty, she pressed the flashing button and listened as Athena's message was played. "This is Flame. I have heard. See you tonight." She switched the small communication device off and set it to its normal setting which was to remain on standby and activate and record any nearby conversations that did not have her voice in it. Looking at the time she saw that she still had several hours. Settling down on her knees again she continued to watch cat videos on YouTube.
Aphrodite was busy touching up on her makeup to make it look as perfect as she wanted it to be. Noticing the blinking red light under her mirror she pressed discreetly and continued touching up her makeup. After hearing Athena's message, she frowned like she had spotted a smudge on her face and proceed to wipe all her makeup on her face. Pretending to look closer at her face in the mirror she leaned in close so any eavesdroppers would not hear her. "This is Love. Heard your message, I'll see you guys tonight." she leaned back and looked thoughtfully in the mirror. Something is going to happen tonight; I am sure of it.
Hera was bored. There were not any meetings she could attend and amuse herself as Zeus tried to get his brothers to listen to him, neither were there any meetings of a fan club she could attend as it was not the day for their weekly meetings nor was Zeus in the mortal world. She could not find him, but his aura was not into the mortal world, that was sure. She realized her bracelet was buzzing, meaning there was a message for her. Sensing no one around her except a bird she listened to the message. When the message finished, she stood up and whispered into the bracelet. "This is Family, I have heard, I will see you later." She was about to flash away when she heard someone speak up from behind her. "It's Percy isn't it?" she whirled around, faster than anyone would expect of the Queen of Olympus, dagger in hand.
A small lightning bolt leapt from the intruder's hand and batted her dagger aside. "Zeus! What do you want?" She asked, her hand forming another dagger in hand as she warily glared at her husband, the King of Olympus. He looked tired, as if he had been running around the USA the whole day. "The 'he' Athena was talking about; it is Perseus isn't it?" he asked. Hera glared at him. "What if it's Percy? I will admit I go to a fan club of him, but it is not like I am cheating with him on you like you do to me. I am a married woman, no matter my feelings about it, I know to just admire and look, not to touch." She snarled hatefully. A small smile appeared on his face. "Good." Hera was surprised. "You are not mad at me?" She asked doubtfully. Zeus snorted. "Of course not. If I were to be mad at you for even just looking that is incredibly hypocritical of me. No. It is good that you have found a loyal enough man. At least this way I can finally divorce you and let you marry him." Hera froze. "What do you mean?" Zeus smiled. "I mean that you can finally be with a man that will be loyal to you, although from the looks of it he will be loyal to everyone in his harem." Zeus said with a smile on his face. Hera's head was hurting. "what the fuck are you talking about?" she demanded. "I married you to protect you as a brother. I realised that due to your beauty many would want you, but none would let you go if you wanted to leave." Zeus said. Hera blinked. "What...?" she was so lost. Zeus sighed. "I will explain to everyone tomorrow at the meeting. I just want you to know that our wedding can finally be over, we will be happier this way, go get the man of your dreams." Saying so, the wedding rings around both of their fingers snapped in half. Hera was stunned. Never did she once think that she would be free from this loveless marriage. Zeus picked up the four halves and with small bolts of lightning he fused them together. He opened Hera's hand and placed both rings on her hand. "For you and him, may you find the love that I couldn't give you with him." Zeus said as he stepped back and vanished. Hera stood there shocked as tears begun to fall down her cheeks. "Thank you, Zeus." She whispered.
Athena flashed straight into the Hunt's camp, startling several of the hunters. "Athena? What's wrong?" Artemis asked. "Girls get back to work." She told some of the hunters who were looking at Athena. "Come Sister, I doubt you would just visit me randomly. Let us talk in my tent." In the tent Athena explained the situation to Artemis who frowned. "I may not be the best person for relationships," Artemis said. No, you would be the last one to go to for relationship advice. Athena deadpanned internally. "But even I know that that'll be a disaster if both of them break up. Yeah, I see what you mean. I will call the girls to prepare." Artemis said as she stood up. Athena nodded and flashed away. She stuck her head out. "Zoe! Bianca! Thalia!" The two recently resurrected hunters were a source of amusement when they appeared as the Fates teleported them straight into Artemis's bed while said goddess was sleeping as it was during the new moon. The two girls were naked as they were bathing in Elysium. So, it was extremely amusing for the hunters to hear yelling from Artemis' tent, pick up their weapons and rush over only to find her wet and annoyed with two other females. Zoe and Bianca along with Thalia entered the tent. "Yes Milady?" The two of them asked. "Emergency meeting tonight. Be ready by 11:30. You know the excuse to give." Artemis commanded. The three bowed their heads and left. Artemis stride over to her bed and lifted up her pillow where a picture of Percy lay underneath. She smiled looking at the picture.
Aphrodite was about to leave when someone knocked on her palace doors. Curious, she opened them to see Hephaestus. "Yes?" She asked. The deformed smith smiled. "You're off to talk about Percy, again aren't you?" Aphrodite was shocked. "How...?" Her dagger materialised in her hand. The smith held his hands up. "Calm down. I'm not here to threaten you, well maybe I will but it's not about your meeting about Percy." The smith said hurriedly. Aphrodite relaxed slightly. "Then what did you come find me for?" She asked. "Hera has given her approval. We are to be divorced tomorrow at the meeting." He said. Aphrodite frowned. While Hera was another member of the secret Percy Jackson fan club, she had been brushing off Aphrodite's attempts to divorce Hephaestus. "Why...?" She asked suspiciously. The smith shrugged. "How am I to know? She was in a particularly joyful mood just now for some reason." Aphrodite found it odd but did not comment and just nodded. "Anything else?" She asked. The smith nodded. "One more thing." He said. "What?" Aphrodite asked. With surprising speed, the smith pulled out a miniature two-pronged trident and thrusted it at Aphrodite. It enlarged quickly and took her by surprise. It pinned her to her palace walls by her neck. "If you ever break his heart, I'll break your body and hurl their pieces into the void. He has done many things for us gods and I respect him for that. Is that clear?" He demanded. Aphrodite nodded. He pulled it away and she could breathe normally again. "I was planning to vow myself to him anyway." She rubbed her throat. Hephaestus nodded. "Good. Just to inform you, my boy Leo has been asking particular questions on how that girl Annabeth's invisibility cap works. Seems like he is making some sort of scanner or goggles to find her. Best be careful." And flashed away. Aphrodite looked at the time and cursed. "I'll be late." She flashed away to the meeting place before Athena could set up the anti-flashing devices.
Back at camp, the sky had begun to turn dark and the campers got ready for the campfire. Leo sidled up to Percy and handed him a pair of goggles "Here's the goggles you wanted, you sure you want to find out what she is doing?" He asked. Percy gave him a flat look. Leo held his hands up slightly. "Hey man, don't look at me like that, even I know that sometimes the truth will hurt, and that it is better to not know in the first place at all." Leo defended, grimacing slightly. Percy sighed, "I've been kept in the dark about so many things in the past, better to know than to don't, thanks Leo." Leo waved him off. "It's ok, just don't let her know it was me who made this." Percy laughed. "I will try but no promises, she is a daughter of Athena." They fist bumped and Percy headed back to his cabin to prepare while Leo went back into his father's cabin to get his tools to continue working in the Bunker.
As night fell over Half Blood Camp Percy donned a set of dark blue clothes and snuck out of his cabin. Finding a large group of bushes near the Athena cabin Percy hunkered down in them and waited. Finally, he could see Annabeth coming up the path after receiving the Athena cabin's next day schedule. Donning the goggles, he sat down in the bushes and waited.
By Percy's estimate it had been a few hours already and was probably pushing midnight when the Athena cabin doors slowly crept open. While to anyone looking there was no one but to Percy wearing his specially made googles he could easily see the yellow silhouette of Annabeth. Slowly, without disturbing the surrounding vegetation, he followed Annabeth as quietly as he could into the forest.
Emerging into a clearing, Percy hid behind a tree as Annabeth entered it and pulled off the goggles. Peeking in, he was shocked to see Annabeth busy showing what looked like a photo album to a trio of silver wearing girls who he recognized as Thalia by her short spiky hair and near electric blue eyes, Bianca by her olive (but equally sexy in his opinion, though he was not that dumb to say it in front of her) skin and near black eyes and Zoe by the princess look. Risking being spotted he craned his neck out more, he spotted a brunette Annabeth, though on a closer look he realized it was Athena. A woman with lush red hair in a similar manner of dress to Bianca, Zoe and Thalia, Percy assumed it was Artemis. A familiar woman with a brown shawl sat talking to a woman Percy recognized as a slightly de-aged Hera. She had brown hair, but it seemed to glow and shimmer dark red in small patches like glowing embers waiting to get that tiny bit of fuel or oxygen needed to burn bright. With a jolt Percy realized that he was ogling his aunt Hestia (though in his defense Hestia always looked like a child and not a hot mature woman). Blushing he looked around to see if there was anyone else when a flash of light blinded him. When he shook the dark spots out of his eyes, he realized that Aphrodite was standing in the clearing. "Girls clear out! Search the area and someone check if Percy is in his cabin, Hephaestus told me Percy was getting Leo to make a pair of goggles to let him find Annabeth in her invisibility cap!" Aphrodite said.
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