I'M SO SO SO SORRY TO ALL WHO HAVE THIS STORY ON ALERTS/SUBSCRIBED/FAVORITES! I promise I won't upload a chapter so many times! Here is the completely finished chapter. ENJOY!!!
We walked towards the center of the throne room, to the area right in front of Zeus's throne. All the party guests had lined up against the walls, wanting to see what this council would be about.
Once every god and goddess was sitting in their respective thrones, Zeus began. "The reason I have abruptly ended our celebration is because some little hero," he glared menacingly at me, "thinks he can get whatever he wants because he saved our seats of power."
My father looked at me curiously. "Percy, what do you want from us now?"
"Father, very recently I have come to terms with something, I don't want to live without Annabeth. When Lord Zeus offered me immortality I wasn't thinking straight, I didn't consider having to leave behind my friends, my mother, or Annabeth."
"Can't we just turn him back into a mortal and be done with it," asked Demeter, clearly bored with this whole debate.
"It is not possible," growled Zeus, "The boy has done nothing to provoke us taking his immortality back."
"Can we consider the possibility of making Annabeth into a goddess?" asked Aphrodite.
"What has she done to deserve immortality? Why should we give her the greatest gift a demigod or mortal could ever receive?" asked Zeus.
"My daughter has accomplished so much," Athena, said incredulously, "She has helped Percy recover you master blot, helped retrieve the Golden Fleece, held the weight of the sky, fought valiantly for our seats of power and Camp Half-Blood!"
"She has only helped do many of those things, she hasn't done them herself."
"Lord Zeus if you please," I yelled over all the gods bickering, "Annabeth did more to save Olympus that I did! She was the one who shocked Luke back to consciousness, all I did was hand him a knife!"
He made an odd face while considering this. "How bout a vote to determine this young lady's fate? All in favor of making this young woman a goddess raise your hand."
My father, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, and Hermes raised their hands. "It seems," Zeus said, a smile playing on his lips, "That we are at a draw; this young lady must remain mortal."
"Wait," screeched Aphrodite, "How can we break up two whose love is so pure? This young woman has done so much for us, we must reward her!"
"We have daughter, we are letting her redesign Olympus." Said Zeus.
"Then how about a compromise," she said. She looked over at us with the same look on her face as when she told us that she's "just getting started with the 'help'."
"What kind of compromise," asked Zeus curiously.
"Oh I agree, Daddy, how about three?"
My hand was going to fall off Annabeth was gripping it so hard.
"A vote father?" said Athena slowly.
Zeus nodded and spoke "Who believes this young lady, if she completes three quests, shall be made a goddess?" Hera, Hades, Demeter, Hephaestus, Ares, Zeus and, Athena raised their hands.
Zeus spoke in a very commanding voice.
"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, step forward." Annabeth walked forward and knelt at Zeus's throne. "You may rise," she stood up slowly.
"It is settled, if you wish to pursue immortality then you must complete three quests, do you accept?" I know Annabeth, she is many things but she is not a coward, and if she turned down their offer now she would be considered a coward.
"Lord Zeus, I accept your quests."
He smiled, "Excellent."
Annabeth spoke up, "May I take my friends on these quests for help?"
He considered this for a moment then spoke to the other eleven gods, "any objections?"
Aphrodite (of course) spoke up, "As long as they don't complete the quest for her then it should be fine.
Zeus nodded and said, "You may take your friends but, like my daughter said, you must complete the quests, not them.
Annabeth bowed, "Thank you."
I wanted to punch Aphrodite who looked like she was going to burst with excitement.
"What shall my daughters quests be father," said Athena curiously.
"We shall give her the next one when she completes one, but what shall the first be?" he answered.
"How about she finds a Phoenix feather? Those are rare, really hard to find and magical," said Aphrodite, obviously trying to be "helpful". "Really, a phoenix feather sister? Even I, who has traveled the wild and hunted almost every magical creature in existence hasn't seen a Phoenix in a long time, they are probably extinct," said Artemis, smiling down at us. At least one goddess was on our side.
"Nope there still out there," said Hephaestus lazily.
"And how would you know?" Artemis snapped back.
"God of fire, fire bird? Hello!"
"That is a good idea," Zeus mused, playing with his beard, "Annabeth, your first quest is to find a feather from a Phoenix. Now off with you all." He waved his hands in our direction and next thing we knew we all were down in front of the Empire State Building. Annabeth walked over to, then sat down on the curb and put her head in her hands.
"Oh Gods," she moaned.
Annabeth POV
"Oh Gods," I moaned. What had I gotten myself into? A phoenix feather, how was I supposed to find a Phoenix feather? Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods. Percy walked over and put his arm around me.
"C'mon, we can do this!" he said trying to cheer me up. I leaned into his arm,
"How? Even Artemis hasn't seen a Phoenix in a long time, how are we supposed to find one?"
Thalia sat down on my other side, "Lady Artemis hasn't been looking for a Phoenix. We have a Lord of The Wild, a hunter, the Prince of the dead, a blowfish,"
"Hey," Percy protested, she ignored him and continued. "And one hell of a wise girl, we'll be back at Olympus handing over the feather before dinner." I smiled; her words had put some confidence in me.
"Yeah, we will, but where can we start to look?"
"Phoenix, Arizona," said Grover jokingly. I looked up at him, "That's actually not a bad idea. Phoenix's are the birds of fire and sun; they would like hot places!"
"Not that I'm trying to put down the idea but don't you guys realize how big Phoenix is? Because it's pretty big," said Nico.
"Hey it's worth a try," said Percy. "One more question," Nico said, "but how are we supposed to get all the way across the country?"
"We fly," said Percy with a mischievous look. Thalia gave him a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about-boy look. He whistled and a few seconds later three specks flew in from the distance; Blackjack, Porkpie, and Guido swept down.
"Hey boss," Blackjack said.
"Hey Blackjack, can you guys take us to Phoenix, Arizona?"
"Sure boss! Hop on!" Percy helped me onto Blackjack, and then went to go help Thalia onto Porkpie. Grover was already shimmying up onto Guido's back. I looked over at Nico; he was just standing there.
"Hey Nico aren't you going to ride with us?"
He shook his head, "Remember a while ago when I told you Pegasus and I don't have a good relationship? Well things haven't changed much." I frowned,
"How are you going to get to Arizona, walk?"
"Shadow travel, I'll meet you guys there."
"Where are we going to meet you?"
"Chase Field," Thalia said from her Pegasus. "It is in town and it's easy to find, we can decide where to go from there. We both nodded at her. Percy climbed up on Blackjack behind me. "See you in a few Nico," he said then we took off.
We were up at cruising height when Percy wrapped his arms around my waist. I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks; this was something I still had to get used to.
"I'm sorry I got you into this, if I wasn't such a Seaweed Brian I actually would have thought before agreeing to immortality," he said. "Like Thalia said 'Our lives are boring right now' so we might as well fill them with another quest," I joked.
"Or three," he whined.
"Oh Seaweed Brian man up, how many quests have you been on?"
He thought for a second, unwrapped his arms from my waist so he could count. "Um one…two wait! Three official ones and two unofficial."
"Exactly, so what are you complaining about? Especially with you, me, Nico, Thalia and Grover we're going to be pretty unstoppable."
"You're right," he said, wrapping his arms around my waist again.
"Of course I am," I said. At that, he squeezed my sides, tickling me, which make me jump and squirm. A whine came from Blackjack and Percy yelled,
"Sorry!"
I laughed at him and he smiled back. I leaned back into Percy and we stayed like that, just talking for forty-five minutes when we suddenly felt a dip. We dove below the clouds and saw the outline of a big city coming into view quickly.
"Ladies and Satyr I'd like to welcome you to Phoenix, Arizona. First step on the road to Annabeth becoming a goddess," said Percy attempting to sound like a pilot.
Thalia and Grover laughed at his lame joke as we dipped lower and lower until the Pegasus hit the ground. We all hopped off our respective Pegasus and thanked them. I looked at Thalia, who looked a tad bit green, and smiled. No turning back now I thought, we were here.
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