Disclaimer: We do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians(That belongs to Uncle Rick God of Sass)

Part 1; Arc 1- Growing Up Adena: Ch 1- The Child of the Temple

It had been three months since the Giant war. The word had spread that the gods had won and all the minor monsters went back into hiding. Any traitors were punished and the heroes were rewarded. As everything began to settle down, the gods realized that there were still large portions of Olympus that needed to be rebuilt after the Second Titan war. Annabeth, naturally, had been called in to finish the work.

Now the daughter of Athena had been tired of all godly things after the war, but even she knew not to question the gods. The real struggle was getting all the repairs planned out before the end of senior year. She didn't know if the gods would let her travel to New Rome College if the repairs were not completed. So, she enlisted the help of her mother and the two of them had bonded over the task and their frustration with the other Olympians.

But this isn't the story of Annabeth, her mother, or even the reconstruction of Olympus. No, dear readers, this is the story of someone else entirely. Two someone's in fact. But if it wasn't for Annabeth, this story may never have happened. So let us travel to Mount Olympus, fall of 2010, to see the beginning of this tale:

Annabeth stood in the elevator, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the 600th floor. Even though she had been sprinting to the Empire State Building, it had only taken her a few seconds to catch her breath. She spent the rest of her time thinking about how much work she had to finish today in order to catch up before the weekend. She could just tell that today was going to be hectic. Annabeth had no idea how important this day was.

Ding!

The doors swooshed open to give her a wide view of Mount Olympus. Annabeth was not done with the work, but at least ¾ of the beautiful architecture had been recovered in the past year or two. Without pausing, Annabeth ran up the path, taking a left turn towards the temple of Aphrodite. The previously gleaming marble lay crumbled at her feet. With the help of some minor godlings, a circular patch of vibrant grass was cleared away. Currently Hephaestus was working on new walls for the temple, but not without his incessant grumbling about his wife's promiscuity.

Being careful to avoid the jagged pieces, Annabeth made her way into the desolate temple. Her footsteps echoed slightly, but the sound was lost into the open hole of the roof.

Clunk!

Annabeth sighed, both in relief and frustration, as a piece of marble fell from the ceiling right next to her. She was only glad that Aphrodite had the sense to move her handmaidens to the smaller temple on the other side of Mount Olympus. Finding an expansive area with no crumbling roof, Annabeth took her bag off of her shoulders. Placing it on the cool marble, she pulled out her sketchpad. She scanned the room, attempting to make a visual representation in her head. Just as she had pressed her pencil to the creamy paper, a sound startled her. Cursing the scribble on her paper, Annabeth rose to her feet. The temple was supposed to be untouched in the last year, so who could it be? If a group of Hermes descendants or upstart godlings thought it was a good idea to mess with her, they must have been living under a rock. She rested her hand on her new dagger; one that Leo had made for her after he had returned with Calypso last month. The sound was coming from one of the side chambers. As Annabeth tiptoed closer, the sound got louder. It sounded almost like…. wailing? In one simple step, she turned the corner.

While all of this was going on, Zeus had decided to hold a council meeting with the Olympians that were currently there *cough, cough* not Hades *cough, cough*

Aphrodite rolled her eyes as she received another summoning from Zeus to come to the throne room. Putting down her pink hairbrush, she summoned her son Eros. Looking in her mirror, a small smile graced her face as she saw the sullen face of her son reflected.

"Eros, darling, come sit. I do love the form you have taken, but would it send you Tartarus if you smiled a little bit more? You know that I am the goddess of beauty and it wouldn't be good if my own son was seen sulking around Olympus. That reflects poorly on me, dear."

Eros only scowled further, which made Aphrodite frown slightly. He had taken the young adult form of his father with the large figure and the aesthetic scar across his chin. The wings were the only indicator that he was not the god of war. While she wouldn't admit it to the others, she wished her son was not as dark and brooding as his father. She supposed she was lucky that this one was a god of love, unlike his brothers Phobos and Deimos. She turned around to face him.

"Eros, dear, Zeus has summoned another council. I need you to make sure that no one enters my sacred room while I am gone. Can you handle that, dear?"

Eros grunted, which Aphrodite took as a statement of agreement. She quickly changed into a flowing dress and adorned her hair with small white flowers. Normally, she would have her attendants get her ready, but the meeting had been called very last minute and she had been given a warning about delaying the council. She was already a little late anyway. Before she materialized out of her chamber, she called over her shoulder.

"Eros, dear. If you want to play with Di Angelo's string, please don't go overboard. Otherwise, have fun"

Athena gritted her teeth as she listened to Poseidon and Zeus bicker over whose child had won the Giant war for them.

"If Percy hadn't gotten a nosebleed, then Gaea wouldn't have risen!"

Athena took the pause before Poseidon's answer to interject.

"Father, if I may interrupt, what is the purpose of this council? We have been here for quite some time and yet all that we have accomplished is your argument with Poseidon. If that is the only reason, can I be excused? Unlike some gods, I have many duties to tend to," Athena said, shooting a glare at Aphrodite towards the end.

Aphrodite sent her a glare back, but she ignored it. Apollo on the other hand had the audacity to laugh and make cat noises at her. Being the professional she was, Athena chose to ignore the insult. Looking at Zeus, she noticed he had a pondering expression on his face. Sighing, she waited for his response. Suddenly, she heard a gasp behind her. Athena noticed all the gods slowly turning to the entrance, Dionysus being the only one still occupied. With a slight chill, Athena turned in her throne to see a sight she never imagined she would.

Her precious daughter Annabeth Chase, holding a baby.

Athena was shocked. How could this have happened? Annabeth was always so smart, how could she have let something like this happen to her? It must have been that Sea spawn, pressuring her into doing things she didn't want. Anger filled Athena.

"Annabeth—" she started sternly.

"Mother. This is not what it appears. I found this child among the ruins of Aphrodite's temple. She was all alone and I couldn't leave her there."

Athena's eyes drifted to the child. The baby was very young, maybe less than a month of age. Wisps of black hair covered the child's small head and trailed along her face. Her brown eyes looked around curiously at the large gods next to her. But the most interesting feature the child had was her caramel colored skin, which was very unusual up on Mount Olympus.

The goddess of wisdom drew her eyes away from the baby to glance at Aphrodite. The goddess of love had an expression of confusion on her face but her eyes carried a deeper emotion. Fear.

"Aphrodite, if this child is another one of your demigod children, just send her away so that we may continue our council," growled Zeus.

Aphrodite turned to him, confusion still on her face. But before she could open her mouth to speak, Annabeth interjected.

"I am sorry Lord Zeus, but I don't think the girl is a demigod child."

Annabeth adjusted the girl in her arms and brushed back some of her hair on her forehead. There was a small cut, golden ichor dripping from the cut in droplets. A collective gasp went through the Olympians. It had been eons since there had been a goddess born on Mount Olympus, much less in their new location. Zeus's face turned red with rage. Athena knew her father prided himself on control, and here was a new god that he was unaware of.

"Whose child is this?" he thundered.

No one answered. All of the gods turned to look at Aphrodite, but the goddess of love was speechless. Either she was lying, or she did not birth the child. With her experience, Athena did not see any logical reason why Aphrodite would deny the birth of her own daughter so the child's heritage would remain a mystery.

After eons of silence, Zeus decided to speak up.

"Fine. I vote that care of the child will be entrusted to Aphrodite, since she was found in her temple. All who agree say aye"

All the gods, other than Hephaestus and Ares, said aye. Hephaestus did not trust his wayward wife with raising a child and Ares did not want his 'girlfriend' preoccupied with a young child. Zeus huffed at his two children then turned to address the Council.

"It is decided. The child will be under the care of Aphrodite. Council dismissed."

Many of the gods disappeared as soon as those words were uttered. Athena stayed behind to talk to her daughter. Annabeth was currently placing the baby in the basket she had been found in. After handing the basket to the red-faced goddess of love, she turned to face her mother. To Athena's surprise, she had a look of disappointment on her face. As she opened her mouth to ask why, Annabeth spoke.

"You didn't actually think I'd have a child at seventeen, did you mother?"

Aphrodite carried the cooing child back to her temple. She knew she did not give birth to the baby; that was something she would have remembered. Yet, she couldn't shake a sense of connection to the little goddess. Speaking of which, she would need a name.

Stopping outside her temple, Aphrodite sat down on the fresh grass. She cringed at the way the grass stained her skirt, and quickly morphed back into her green dress. She carefully pulled the baby into her arms. Big brown eyes stared back at her and Aphrodite sighed. No matter where this child came from, she had already done something no man had done in eons: capture the heart of the love goddess.

Incessant gurgling filled the air. The girl attempted to grab Aphrodite's hair causing the goddess to giggle slightly.

"What shall I call you my dear? How does Erato sound to you?"

The small wrinkle of her nose gave Aphrodite all the answer she needed. So she ran through a list of names in her head. Agape, meaning divine love? Priya, meaning beloved in Sanskrit? Or even Chere which meant dear in French, the language of love? Yet the girl declined all of them.

Just as Aphrodite grew weary, a faint glow came around the mountain, lighting up the space around the two girls. An orange blaze illuminated the baby, making her look as if she was on fire.

Fire.

That idea took hold in love goddess's mind quite like a real blaze. Fire was the answer. She ran through fire names before finally settling on one. She brought her new baby goddess up to her face. The child's brown eyes shone with excitement as Aphrodite announced, "I shall call you Adena."

Hey Readers,

We hope you like the start of our new story.

Just some logistics, The Child of Balance and Ship Saturday will be on hiatus until we get this story into full swing. Please check out our profile for more information and to answer our poll. This story will be long, but not too long(about 30 chapters) and we plan on updating every Sunday. Part 1 will feature alternating chapters written by Adena, then Elektra. Also, this story is beta'd by the wonderful blank canvas of me, who writes wonderful stories, so we encourage you to go check her work out afterwards.

Please leave a review if you feel so inclined,

A-and-E Twin Daughters of Fire