Percy finally came back from his swim. He had been out in the Camp Half-Blood lake for what seemed to be hours. I looked at the clock, he's been gone 45 minutes. As he walked through the door to his cabin, he was fully dressed and completely dry, a perk of being a son of Poseidon.
"Hey," Percy muttered. It was easy to tell from his expression that he was deep in thought.
"Hey," I replied, trying to act casual.
Percy flipped down on the bed right next to me and turned towards me. His hand reached out to mine, but I pulled away.
"Perce, we need to talk."
"No, not right now."
"I can't sit and wait until you're ready to talk. It needs to happen now. What happened with Ann-"
"I don't want to hear it Nico. What Annabeth just pulled was inexcusable. I can't deal with her. To say it was fine and then take it back like that is just such a low move that it's not even worth dealing with it's-" he didn't get to finish that though because right as he was about to, a scream was heard from outside. Percy and I ran to see what was going on.
There was a girl on the ground right in front of a smoking motorcycle. Well, to clarify, the whole motorcycle was giving of smoke...or was it mist? I think it was mist, but anyway, on top of the motorcycle was a young adult woman with a whip strapped at her waist. She got up and walked over to Percy, and her black curls bounced as she strode. She was in head to toe leather from her headband to her studded jacket and gloves along with a matching pair of skin tight black skinny jeans; all of it was accompanied by tall black boots that reached her knees.
"Hi boys!" she sneered winking at me and Percy with her eyes fading from red to black and back to red.
"Hey Neeks!" the woman snarled knowing I hated the nickname.
"Now I know I've met you Neek-Neek, but I just have to say it's an honor Mr. Jackson. If you don't know me, which you should, I'm-"
"Nemesis," I finished for her, "the goddess of balance and vengeance."
"Thank you...for that marvelous introduction!" she announced, attempting to glorify and draw as much attention to herself as possible. "I'm back and better than ever, now back to you Mr. Jackson," she stated pointing her finger at him, "We need to talk." It wasn't what she said that made me cringe, it was that she had grabbed his face like she owned him. She drew her long, black nails down his face in such an intimate way that I had a hard time holding back my last meal.
"Come with me hun," Nemesis said teasingly.
"Get off of me!" Percy replied angrily.
All of a sudden, a light purple mist swirled in the center of the crowd. It started to smell like grape juice, and soon, Dionysus appeared where the mist had been.
"Nemesis! Stop it, the child doesn't deserve to be harmed!" He shrieked at her.
"Now how dare you talk to your elder cousin like that? I was born millennia before you, don't think you're above me little cousin."
"Perseus is innocent! He may be a brat, but he's a good kid!"
"What makes you think that you can tell me what to do? Especially after Pentheus! It's my job to enact revenge, not yours. This is my revenge on you. It's also my revenge on Nico for disturbing the balance. All of these are in MY jurisdiction, not yours!" Nemesis screeched.
Her pain was worse than the souls in the River Acheron. It was like she had honestly been hurt, and a goddess of revenge who wants to enact revenge is something to be afraid of.
Nemesis' black curls turned into flames if black and red that sent smoke wrapping around her. Soon, she was wrapped in an aura of smoke. "HOW DARE YOU?! YOU SHALL PAY, AFTER ALL, WE MUST KEEP THE BALANCE OF THINGS." She cackled as she lunged towards him, but before she reached him, a lightning bolt struck her down. Zeus appeared next to his two brothers. For the first time in history, the Big Three were in the mortal world all at once.
"You shall not harm my son!" Poseidon boomed.
"After all, that'd affect my son as well." Hades chimed in.
"Plus we can't forget that my son would have to deal with the aftershock of Annabeth's feelings." Zeus claimed. For the first time since the Second Titan War, the Big Three was in total agreement.
Nemesis backed away and her aura of smoke-mist faded. Her eyes went from red to black and they grew suddenly fearful. She growled, hopped on her bike and lifted off into the sky leaving a trail of her special mist behind her.
I couldn't help but run towards Percy and hold him. He returned the affection and held me just as tightly. No matter what happened, I'd love him.
"Alright boys, that's enough." Zeus said.
"Sorry," we both chimed simultaneously.
"Son..." both of our fathers called. As we let go of one another we grabbed into our fathers. Hades wasn't exactly the warm and fuzzy type, but he still held me.
He whispered to me, "I'm sorry, but I must leave. It was inappropriate of me to come in the first place," and as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone. I turned, and both Poseidon and Zeus were gone as well.
The only people left were Percy, me, Dionysus, and the crowd that'd gathered though it had greatly dwindled after the appearances of the gods.
"Percy, we need to talk. Please, before something else happens." I begged.
"Whatever it is you need, I'm willing." he responded and I could tell he was genuine.
•••
We got back to his cabin after that encounter and had been back for about an hour.
"I'm still shocked..." Percy stated, bewildered.
"See, Percy? It wasn't Annabeth's fault. Nemesis had caused it. If you had stayed when I asked to talk the first time, you would've known."
"I'm so sorry Nico. I should've listened to you, I was just..." his mind wandered.
"It's okay, I probably would've done the same exact thing. After having gone through so much already, I can't imagine being in your place."
Percy just held me after that and sobbed. He wasn't usually the one to be crying, but I was glad by the change in roles. All I could do was hold him, and that was satisfying enough for both me and him.
"We need to talk to Annabeth." I said; he just looked at me, nodded, and went back to my shoulder. Minutes passed, and finally, the son of Poseidon ran out of tears. Soon, he was ready to talk to Annabeth, and that's exactly what we headed out to do.
•••
"Oh my gods! Are you guys okay?" Annabeth cried running up to us right outside of the Athena cabin.
"We're fine. We need to talk." Percy stated.
"Okay, sure! Please! Um, want to come in and sit down?"
"No, it's alrighr, I need to talk to you now. Right here is fine."
"Okay, what is it? Well, I mean, have you made any new decisions or discoveries?"
"All of what you said, I know it wasn't you." Before I knew what happened, Annabeth was squeezing Percy.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so glad you know." Tears were forming in her eyes, and I couldn't tell why. Whether they were tears of joy or tears of sadness was hard to tell.
"Annabeth, what is it?" I asked, needing to know what was causing her tears.
"I...Nemesis didn't force me to lie...I think I love you Percy, which is really confusing because I love Jason too..."
