{ ' WE VISIT THE GARDEN
GNOME EMPORIUM ' }

004. . . ( aunt em's )

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...        𝐓here was an undeniable tension in the air as Pandora stared at Percy like she wanted to murder him violently. She was known for getting riled up easily when a man was talking down on her, it was one of Aphrodite's traits that was undeniably passed down — the fear of rejection, embarrassment. Pandora would never do something if she knew she wasn't perfect at it. It was perfection or failure.

"You guys smell that?" Grover spoke up, walking forwards slightly, nose up in the air.

"Grover, we're not joking around." Percy's volume heightened again.

"No, neither am I. Just shush." The satyr cut his demigod friend off. His sniffed around again, making his friends look at him oddly. "Hamburgers." He weaved in between his friends, walking ahead, and Pandora was quick to follow, wanting to put as much distance in between her and Percy as possible.

"You gotta calm down." Annabeth mumbled, noticing her change in behaviour.

"I am calm." Pandora rolled her eyes, continuing to walk ahead.

"Somebody's making hamburgers in the middle of nowhere, on a satyr path." Grover explained his ideas, before they came into a clearing, where a 1950's gas station was held, clearly abandoned and unused. "Whoever it is. . . They're from our world."

"Oh, come on." Annabeth groaned, looking around at her surroundings and catching on easily.

"What?" Percy asked, without a clue as to what they'd just walked into.

"Aunty Em has a garden full of petrified stone folks." Annabeth elucidated. "Yeah this is someone from our world alright. Anyone wanna guess what the 'Em' stands for."

"Mother Meddy." Pandora sang, skipping along towards the array of frozen, grey statues.

"Oh. . ." Grover realised, looking at his friends guiltily.

"Let's get out of here, please, while we still can." Annabeth stepped backwards, making her friends follow along.

"What if she's not the enemy here?" Pandora gulped harshly, looking at the returned figure of Alecto, who stalked closer and closer, preying on them.

Percy shoved his cardboard box into Grover's hands and pulled out his sword, holding it up defensively.

"You should've accepted my offer when you had the chance." Alecto hissed, looking at Pandora menacingly.

"Offer? What offer is she talking about." Percy asked, observing the way Pandora's jaw clenched.

"Not today friends. Not on my doorstep." The sound of heels clicking and a sickly sweet voice forced Alecto to shield her eyes with her wings.

"Shit." Pandora whispered, forcing her head to look at the ground, as a cream coloured dress came into view, with a matching hat which covered the woman's eyes. Pandora looked up discreetly to see Percy still staring, and grabbed his cheek, forcing him to look away.

"If you have something to resolve, why not come inside? And I'll help." She offered, the sound her heels clicking getting louder. "Alecto! Will you be joining us?" The fury cowered more into the cover of her wings. "No. Well, I wouldn't think you would. She won't bother you as long as you're with me. But it isn't as though she'll leave either, not if it means reporting that she failed to retrieve the son of Poseidon."

Percy's head tilted in her direction slowly. "How did you—" Pandora pulled it back down again, seeing his eyes getting too close for her liking.

"A forbidden child has been claimed. How long did you think that secret would keep?" 'Aunty Em' asked, tilting her head at the way Pandora protected the boy, she was intrigued, it was a point of manipulation. Perfect. "It's a pleasure to meet you, son of Poseidon. I'm Medusa."

Percy's eyes followed up slightly out of the corner, making Annabeth call out, "Percy don't! She's a monster."

"We all choose who we make our monsters, but right now, that one wants to tear you limb from limb. . . and I'm offering you lunch. The choice is yours." The sound of her footsteps receding filled the air and the demigods stood up straight.

"I'm starving." Pandora immediately admitted, looking at the small bungalow Medusa resided to. "So I say we trust her."

"I think we can." Percy nodded, agreeing with the blonde and smiling at her. He looked to see if his words had any effect on her, but she kept a straight face.

"What?" "Dude!" Annabeth and Grover exclaimed simultaneously.

"I can't explain it, I just—" Percy stammered, holding his hands up.

"Well, I can." Pandora rubbed her stomach, signalling her intense need for food. Everyone looked at Pandora funnily, to which she innocently surrendered.

"My mom used to tell me her story." Percy sighed, looking between his friends and the house. "And the point was always that she isn't what people think. And I definitely trust my mom. So I'm going in, you guys do what you want."

Without wasting another second, Pandora sped forwards, skipping up the pavement and into Medusa's house. The gorgon sensed her immediately, and called out from the kitchen. "You're beautiful, you know? You look just like your mom."

"Thank you." Pandora smiled, although the woman wouldn't see. She examined the paintings on the walls, and ran her finger across the wallpaper. "You are too, well, you were— I mean!"

Medusa let out a chuckle and shook her head. "Don't you worry, I know exactly what you mean. At least someone knows the truth about my story."

The short conversation came to an end as Grover and Percy walked into the dining room too, the latter offering the blonde a short smile, to which she didn't reply and turned away. He sighed and closed his eyes. Grudges. Pandora's favourite thing to hold — other than a new makeup brush.

The dining table was littered with savoury snacks and sweet confectionaries of all kinds, the smell moulding together to make Pandora's mouth water.

"You must be hungry." Medusa guessed, sensing more than one presence in her home. "I left snacks on the table while I get something proper going."

"You think it's safe to eat." Percy whispered to Grover, but the sound of Pandora groaning in pleasure gave him an answer. The two boys looked at her, and saw her divulging in a vanilla cupcake with rainbow frosting on top.

"Percy, I'm not going to lie to you, I'm really hungry, and I'm ready to take that chance." Grover sighed, looking at the way Pandora enjoyed her cupcake. "And 'Dora's loving it, so. . ." The satyr pulled up a chair and picked out a pastry.

"Thanks for coming." The son of Poseidon said, nodding as Annabeth entered the room.

"This isn't the same for me as it is for you." She reminded, looking around at the dining table.

"Why?" Percy asked.

"You're concerned I would hold a grudge against you simply because you are a daughter of Athena?" Medusa noted as she walked in, filling the glasses with orange juice. "You shouldn't be, we're not our parents after all. Besides, I don't hold grudges, that's someone else's job. You and I might have more in common than you think."

Pandora furrowed her eyebrows as she felt a little targeted. It was a well-known fact that, while Aphrodite was loving and sweet, she was also ruthless and sometimes violent. The blonde went to lift her head to question the gorgon on her statement, but Percy grabbed her cheek and forced it away. Oh how the tables have turned.

"Please, sit and eat." Medusa offered, seeing the way Pandora was still standing and slowly eating her cupcake.

She and Percy each pulled up a chair besides Grover whereas Annabeth shook her head.

"So you're not a monster, what are you then?" Percy spoke up, uncapping a jar of jam.

"A survivor." Medusa answered. They were not expecting to hear that.

"You must be a little more than that." Pandora shrugged, grabbing half a sausage roll and breaking it in half. "There's a fury outside that seems terrified of you."

"Because she knows what I think of her." Medusa softly laughed, scraping a chair back and sitting on it. "I don't like bullies. When one shows up on my doorstep, they end up spending a lot more time there than they planned for—"

"I'm sorry, but this is so good!" Pandora groaned, her mouth full of pork and pastry. "Do you have a cook book or something?"

Medusa chuckled at the girls love for food, before denying politely. "The gift the gods gave me is that I cannot be bullied anymore."

"What my mother did to you wasn't a gift." Annabeth snarled, making the gorgons smile drop. "It was a curse."

"You are loyal to your mother." Medusa noticed.

"Yes." Annabeth answered obviously.

"You stand by her?"

"Always."

"You love her?"

"Of course I do."

"And so did I." Medusa revealed, adding a whole other side to the story. "So did I. Do you know the story of how I cam to be this way?"

"I do." Grover spoke up, raising his hand.

"Do you?"

Grover looked around at his friends, "Do I?"

"Athena was everything to me." Medusa began. Her voice was incredibly soft spoken, and Pandora reckoned (if she was tired enough) it could send her to sleep. "I worshipped her, I prayed to her, I made offerings. . . She never answered. Not even an omen to suggest she appreciated my love. I wasn't like you, sweetheart — I was you. I would have worshipped her that way for a lifetime. . . in silence. But then, one day, another god came, and he broke that silence: your father."

Pandora looked up at Percy and they made eye-contact for a brief moment, before quickly looking back at their plates, not noticing how their cheeks were matching shades of pink.

"The Sea God told me that he loved me." Medusa continued, constantly, silently, making notes on the children's body language. "I felt as though he saw me in a way I'd never felt seen before. But then Athena declared that I had embarrassed her and I needed to be punished. Not him. . . me." Her voice cracked as she finished her sentence. "She decided that I would never be seen again by anyone who would live to tell the tale."

"That isn't what happened." Annabeth conflicted, her arms crossed over her chest defensively. "My mother is just, always."

"The gods want you to believe that, that they are infallible." Medusa nods sympathetically. "Even Aphrodite herself has her flaws. . . no doubt that she passed on to her off-spring."

Pandora was beginning to get really sick of Medusa's passive aggressiveness, and her hand gripped the arm rest of her dining chair tightly. It was no secret and there was some rivalry between the goddess and the gorgon, for the latter had once owned a beauty nearly comparable to Aphrodite's. But no one could compare to the goddess of love. No one.

"But, they only want what all bullies want. They want us to blame ourselves for their own shortcomings."

"That is not what happened. And you are a liar." Annabeth declared, her volume raising in protection of her mother.

The aura of room shifted, as Medusa failed to give an answer. "Something's burning. Would you give me a hand in the kitchen? I think lunch is ready."

Percy looked to his friends, who reluctantly let him leave, and Pandora noticed his lingering stare on her from the corner of her eye.

"Grover, 'Dora. . ." Annabeth whispered in a warning tone. "Get ready to run."

"She's going to betray you. Sooner or later, people like her, people like her mother, they always do. . . you will be an easy mark for her when the time comes. I see the way you look at her. She's not far from her mother, they share the same eyes, the same hair, same face. They're practically identical. I don't doubt their brains are too. Beauty over everything, holding grudges for the rest of eternity, making people fall at their feet and then poof! on to the next one."

Not even a minute later, Percy ran back into the dining room, trying to silently usher them out of the house, only to find the front door locked. Grover slid Luke's shoes on quickly and then they scrambled around the house until he found a cellar door, and they all jogged down the stairs. The room they ended in was unilluminated, and cold. Pandora brought her zip-up closer around herself as she shivered, sticking close to her friends in fear of losing their location in the darkness. It was so quiet that she could hear her heart pounding viciously in her rib-cage, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breathe from all the sporadic moving she had just done.

As the door creaked above them, Pandora felt her breathing quicken even more, if that was possible, and she squinted her eyes closed, shaking her head and trying to think positively. This whole situation was a nightmare. Every limb felt like it was on fire, while her skin was cold to the touch. Her clothes felt too tight, and it was like the room was closing in on her.

"I'm right here." A voice whispered in her ear, as she felt a presence behind her, Percy.

A fire sudden lit down the railings on the stairs, following the bottom wall trim and scintillating the room slightly. The wisps of burning orange proceeded to outline the room, giving the quartet a somewhat clear view of what occupied the basement.

Percy let out a shout of surprise as he walked back into a statue, making Pandora elicit a short scream, which was quickly muffled by Percy's quick reflexes. He placed his hand over her mouth.

All of Medusa's victims had been hidden underground, as the 'bullies' stayed on land. A false sense of warmth and kindness, was what the gorgon had given the demigods, and now they were trapped in her basement, with the possible chance of meeting the same fate as all her previous victims.

The cellar door creaked and then closed. Now they really were trapped.

"Come on." Annabeth whispered, jogging and weaving through the statues, venturing further into the room while her friends followed behind.

"There's four of us and only one of her." Grover reminded, coming up with a plan. "If we split up, she can't be watching us all at once."

"I don't think it'd be that simple." Annabeth sighed negatively.

"It could be." Pandora shrugged as Grover held up an optimistic finger. "Here's the plan, I'll get in the air, I'll draw her attention. As soon as you guys here me say 'Maia' you guys start—" The mention of the name had caused Luke's shoes to kick into flight mode, levitating Grover into the air and up away from their sight.

"So, we're gonna need a new plan." Annabeth said disappointedly, turning to face her two friends.

"We are not our parents until we choose to be." Medusa's voice rang out, forcing the three demigods to speed walk further into the seemingly never-ending basement. "You three, have chosen."

"You're hat!" Pandora quietly exclaimed, clapping her hands as the idea came to mind. "I can lure her in, while Grover's being. . . well, Grover, and you sneak up on her, place the hat on her head, I can kill her with an arrow and Percy will slice it off!"

"That's not a bad idea." Annabeth pondered on it, pulling the hat out of her back pocket and placing it on her head. "See you in a bit."

"That's a really good plan, 'Dora." Percy praised, giving her a nod and a smile.

"I'm pretty, Perce, not stupid." Pandora rolled her eyes, before placing her hand on his chest and shoving him behind a wooden crate.

"A daughter of a self-righteous mother, who chose self-righteousness for herself." Medusa teased, the sound of her heels clicking as she approached. "A daughter of a stuck-up, pretty privileged pulchritude, who chose to be adulterous and humiliating."

Pandora breathed in and out as she held a three-spiked candelabra, rising from her hiding space and throwing it at the gorgon, not caring whether she hit her, or spooked her. "You're just jealous that she's more beautiful than you'll ever be!"

The sound of a throat clearing came, and it seemed as if Medusa was trying to hold back retaliation. "And you, you could have shown your father what it means to stand up for someone you love. You could choose to save your mother, instead of doing your father's bidding. If neither of you will help teach these lessons, perhaps you should be the lessons. When I ship your statues to Olympus. . . maybe that will get my point across even better. Stand up; let's have a look at you." Her tone became more and more threatening as she spoke.

Percy rose from behind the crate, eyes squeezed shut, holding his sword with both hands tightly, short and fast breathes escaping him as he relied on his other senses.

The sudden sound of wings flapping and Grover yelling came as he crashed into some crates. "I didn't really think this through."

That was enough to distract Medusa, as Annabeth placed her invisibility cap on her head, pointing at the head. "Pandora, now!"

Pandora, jumped over a wooden table and loaded her bow, quickly firing and watching smugly as the arrow lodged itself into Medusa's head, a hiss coming from her snakes as they died out. To finish the job, Percy swung his sword into her neck, slicing her head off successfully.

The blonde duo made their way over to the sound of a light thud, while Annabeth helped Grover to his feet. Percy groaned in disgust as he managed to pick Medusa's decapitated head off of the floor.

"You found it?" Annabeth checked, making her way over.

"I hope so." Percy chuckled nervously, his fingers uncomfortably moving as he gripped the head.

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...        𝐏ercy and Pandora continued on to go upstairs, while Grover and Annabeth stayed in the basement, searching for anything that might be useful or any information at all. The tension that lingered was so thick that it would've had to be cut with a steak knife, as the pair walked side by side, Percy holding the invisible head of Medusa.

"Make sure it's pointing in the right direction before you take the hat off." Pandora mumbled under her breath.

"Good tip." Percy nodded, pursing his lips as if he had something else to say, until he did. "I'm. . . I'm sorry about what I said on the path. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, or talked about your mother like that. And, about the lie. . . I shouldn't have expected you to be so open and honest when we've only known each other for a few days. I'm sorry, 'Dora."

Pandora sighed, opening her mouth and closing it, unsure of what to say. So she didn't. She unhatched the front door, and held it open for him. "Don't die." She whispered, placing a quick kiss on his cheek and strutting off back towards the cellar.

"I'll try my best." He muttered, watching as she skipped off, his lips curling upwards into a smile.

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... 𝐖hen Percy returned, he saw Grover and the two girls huddled around a singular statue, Annabeth had a comforting hand on the satyrs shoulder, while Pandora rested her head on his other, rubbing his back soothingly.

"What's wrong?" Percy spoke up, joining Pandora's side.

"Uncle Ferdinand." She whispered for Grover, listening to him swallow thickly.

"Oh, no." Percy sighed, hanging his head.

"Grover, I'm so sorry." Annabeth shook her head, rubbing her thumb on his shoulder blade.

"This is as far as he got on his quest." Grover's voice was shaking and trembling. "We aren't even to Trenton. But look at him. He's not like the others. He. . . he doesn't look afraid."

"That's because he was a very brave satyr." Pandora lightened the mood, smiling at the boy. "Just like you."

Grover smiled appreciatively before clearing his throat and sniffling. "You use the, um, you used the head to get rid of Alecto?"

"Yeah." Percy confirmed, looking at his friend sympathetically.

"Good, that was the right move." Grover said, wiping his eyes and ridding them of any unfallen tears. "Um, we probably should get going. It'll be dark soon."

"What are we going to do with the head?" Percy mentioned, turning to look at the table it laid on. "I just took down a fury with it, and I wasn't even trying. We can't just leave it for someone to find. Leave the hat on and bury it in the basement, that ought to keep it safe."

"Sure." Annabeth reluctantly agreed, the thought of leaving her mothers hat behind wasn't very appealing. "Now, can we talk about the bigger issue here?"

"What bigger issue?" Percy furrowed his brows in confusion.

"You could have saved your mother?" Annabeth quoted Medusa from earlier. "That's what she said to you like you discussed it already."

"Is your mother still alive?" Pandora gasped, turning away from the statue of Uncle Ferdinand.

"She's with Hades." Percy revealed, "But, I appreciate your concern."

"Guys, just please stop." Grover begged, his voice quiet compared to their volumes.

"Oh, I'm concerned." Annabeth spat, glaring at Percy. "What are you actually doing on this quest."

"And why did we have to hear about it from Medusa?" Pandora added, making sure Percy was understanding where he went wrong.

"Okay, while we're at it." Percy stood up straight, looking Pandora dead in the eyes. "You should have accepted my offer? What's that about, do you think? And why do we have to hear about it from Alecto?"

"Oh, I cannot believe I forgave you for even a second!" Pandora yelled, throwing her hands in the air angrily.

"Enough!" Grover shouted, startling the arguing trio. "The hat was a gift from her mother, it's the only thing she's ever possessed that connects them. That ought to matter to you."

"Okay, but how are we going to make sure this thing is safe?" Percy argued.

"It's the head of a gorgon, it's never going to be safe as long as we have it." Pandora muttered under her breath, addressing the obvious.

"I'm not up to that yet!" Grover spoke over Pandora, making her twist her head towards him, seething. "And you, really? His mom's alive. Can you imagine how confusing that must be for him? Feeling like he may have to choose between the fate of the world and the fate of the only person who's ever cared about him!"

"Why are you talking like this?" Annabeth softly asked.

"Because all day, I've been trying to keep this quest on track without upsetting any of you!" Grover panted heavily, his frustration finally showing. "But maybe things need to get a little upsetting before they move forward. She asked you a question back in the woods and you've never really answered. What are you so afraid of?"

"What are you talking about?" Percy deflected.

"You heard me." Grover stuck true to his words.

"I don't know." Percy's eyes moved between Annabeth and Grover, before falling on Pandora, who refused to look his way.

"I think you do." Grover pushed, urging him to answer. "You've been fighting with her, you've been fighting with me, you've been fighting with 'Dora, for gods sake, and I see the way you look at her—"

"Because the Oracle said one of you would betray me, okay!" Percy blurted out, his voice cracking as his eyes glossed over. "You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend and you shall fail to save what matters most in the end. That's the rest of what she said to me."

Percy looked to Annabeth before speaking again. "I chose her, because I can't imagine we'd ever be friends." He then glanced to Pandora. "And I chose her, because she's powerful and, yeah, so what, if I look at her a little differently. Can you blame me?"

Pandora frowned deeply at his statement. Perhaps he meant it in some other way, but his words rubbed off the wrong way, making her dislike for him grow even more. She was praying that he would shut up. After last night, when he had comforted her and made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, just for him to contradict everything today.

"And I chose you because I thought, if I could count on anyone to be on my side, no matter what: it was you." Percy continued, not pausing for air and his voice cracking in multiple places as his eyes glassed over. "And now I'm feeling so alone. I don't know what to think or who to trust."

Pandora inhaled sharply, leaning back against a tall crate and chewing on her tongue.

"I didn't mean it that way." Percy sighed, realising now what he had said. "'Dora, I didn't. . . I'm sorry."

She shrugged and stood up straight, "Alecto offered to help our quest if I gave you up to her." She admitted, saying it as if it was nothing. She was angry. Hell, even angry was an understatement.

"What'd you say?" Percy asked, clearing his throat and standing up straight.

"I killed her sister." Pandora answered, crossing her arms over her chest, blocking him out.

"Medusa offered to help me save my mom if I turned in the three of you." Percy said, scratching the back of his neck.

"What'd you say?" The Lamansoff girl questioned in a whisper.

"I cut off her head." Percy gestured to the table that held the invisible limb.

"You didn't choose to be demigods." Grover spoke up, scanning the three in front of him. "We didn't choose this quest. But we can decide that as long as the three of us are together, none of us are going to be alone. And if we can't do that we might as well just head back to camp right now. 'Cause we won't make it."

There was a dead silence for a moment, Pandora stared at the ground at her battered converse, while everyone else looked at each other, silently agreeing and apologising to one another.

"I think I've got a better idea what to do with this." Percy announced as an idea came to mind, a small smirk growing on his face.

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... 𝐏ercy and his friends gathered around an old, dusty table. The dirty blond flipped through an old book, scanning the pages and following his finger as it dragged along the sheet. The table had a lot of mindless clutter on it, like dried out stamps and old cartons of ink.

"Hermes express, she ships these things all over." Percy pointed out, looking down at the book and then back to his friends. "Some of it goes to Olympus."

"Percy, you can't ship Medusa's head to Olympus." Annabeth raised her eyebrows in shock at his idea.

"Why not?" He countered, leaning his palms on the table, either side of the book.

"Because the gods won't like it?" Pandora continued, speaking as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"At all." Grover emphasised, nodding his head as he did. "'At all' at all."

"Why?" Percy asked again. Did he ever stop wondering? "That's what you do with dangerous stuff. Like batteries, you just send them back where they came from."

"Okay, look, this is a bad idea." Annabeth said, looking at Percy with concern. "They will see this as impertinent."

"I am impertinent." Percy shrugged nonchalantly, proceeding to pull out a cardboard box and place Medusa's head in it, face down.

"Yes, but we're not." Annabeth sighed, acknowledging his lack of respect for authority.

"Really, very not!" Pandora shook her head.

"Look." Percy groaned, slamming the box on the table. "Medusa tried to derail our quest. She's got serious beef with both of your moms. When you look at it that way, this seems kinda like tribute or something. Doesn't it?"

"And besides. . ." He pulled Athena's hat off of Medusa's head, making sure not to look in the box just to be safe. "This way, a part of your mom's still with us." He handed the hat back to Annabeth, who took it with words of gratitude.

Percy then folded the cardboard box together and grabbed a massive roll of tape, strapping the sides down.

"So, this isn't exactly what I meant. By choosing each other." Grover stressed, the sound of rolling tape in the background. "There are actual dangers involved here that cannot be—"

His words were muted when Percy began clapping, the same tune as the consensus song. Pandora's jaw fell slack and she looked at Grover with annoyance, who shrugged guiltily.

"You're gonna sing the song? Aren't you?" Grover sighed dramatically. Percy only tilted his head in response and began clapping faster. "Okay."

"Oh Golly, the road's getting bumpy. Consensus—"

"Whatever." Grover rolled his eyes in embarrassment.

"Oh, please, for the love of the gods, make it stop." Pandora whined, plugging her ears with her fingers. "I'd rather fall into Tartarus than listen to this."

The group of four laughed out loud as Percy stopped singing and shook his head. The room felt very light-hearted, and all arguments had ceased. They all just hoped it would last for the rest of the quest.

— 𝒋𝒂𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒔

yabbadabbadee yabbadabbadoo
arguments on top of arguments
on top of arguments, folks!!!!

you're all probably thinking that
pandora is overreacting but remember
she said she wanted to prove she was
more than just a pretty face/ a dumb
blonde. also, she's young, character
development will happen. bear with
me yall🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

also these chapters r so flipping long
like wtf this is 4963words.

i just watch episode five and i CANT
WAIT TO START WRITING IT OMGGG