Chapter 10: Kronos
Aphrodite's POV
My horrible idea was to go to Kronos. I traveled a familiar path up Mount Tam.
"Here for the second time this week?" A Hesperide said suspiciously.
What's a Hesperide? "Yes."
She looked familiar, but she left before I understood why.
"Aphrodite? It's good to see you sister." Kronos smiled in a charming, yet devilish way.
"So you're the brother who erased my memories?" I asked. "Kronos."
"I guess you've been jogging your memory." He chuckled.
"I want you to do it again." I requested.
"Do what?" He tried to pull the whole sentence out of me.
"I want you to erase my memory again. But this time, keep me away from Olympus." I said.
He smiled even more devilishly.
Kronos' POV
It's working. If I can pull this off, Olympus will be weak, and I can invade again. Those stupid Olympians did exactly what I expected them to do. Reject their most powerful member.
Athena's POV
I wanted to tell Aphrodite about my date, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Dejavu.
"Where's Aphrodite?" I asked a servant.
"She ran into her room crying yesterday, and then she left a few minutes later." The servant seemed a little confused himself.
Now I was starting to worry. I went up to Aphrodite's room to look for clues. I saw her diary sitting in plain sight on her bed. She usually hides it better. And because I was hoping it had a clue about where she was, I flipped through it. A lot of entries made her sound miserable. But the last one took the cake:
Dear Diary, I finally discovered why I would go to dinner alone with Kronos. The Olympians are cruel, and the only ones I can't blame are Athena, Ares, and Poseidon. Even Hephaestus isn't blameless. I saw him kissing Khione. The Olympians made fun of me and called me a whore behind my back. I can't take living like this, and I don't know how I did it these last few thousand years. The only people I'll miss are Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, and Poseidon. And I guess Eros wasn't so bad. But I shouldn't miss Hephaestus. I won't be missing anyone once Kronos wipes my memory again.
There were tear drops on the page as well. Reading that hurt and sickened me. I felt bad for Aphrodite, and I was angry that people made her feel that way. And I had to stop her from erasing her memory again. I ran to the Olympian throne room and summoned everyone for a meeting.
"Why did you call this meeting?" Zeus asked.
The first thing I did was slap Hephaestus. He held his cheek.
"What did you do that for?!" Hephaestus was confused.
"You cheated on Aphrodite." I pointed at him. "And the rest of you made her feel like shit."
"What?" Most of them said.
"Huh?" Eros, Ares, and Poseidon questioned.
"Not Eros, Ares, and Poseidon. The rest of you!" I exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Eros looked serious for once.
Eros was glaring at Hephaestus already. I threw the book to Eros.
"Last entry." I specified.
Eros read for a moment before looking up. "I should kill you all."
"What?!" The guilty Olympians exclaimed.
"In her diary, Aphrodite says that the Olympians were making fun of her and calling her a whore behind her back. Except for me, Ares, Athena, and Poseidon. And Hephaestus cheated on her with Khione. My mother is not a whore!" Eros looked angry.
The Olympians eyes widened and they started to look guilty.
"But I didn't cheat on her with Khione. Khione ambushed me yesterday with a kiss, but I pushed her off of me." Hephaestus defended himself.
He looked like he was telling the truth.
"Either way, that's what Aphrodite thinks. And she left to have her memories erased again by Kronos." I said.
Everyone looked surprised or guilty.
"Aphrodite is not a whore. She just feels to much when it comes to love. If you do something nice, she'll be extremely happy. If you hurt her, she feels depressed. And in terms of spying on other people's love lives, it's her job as the Love Goddess for our sake! She doesn't even have to do it directly, she has access to a library of books that write themselves and record people's love lives." Eros defended Aphrodite. "Now let's go get the demigods and storm Mount Othrys."
"And let's bring out the big guns." I grinned evilly.
Aphrodite's POV
"Have you made sure that you want to have your memory erased? Wouldn't want you to rush things?" Kronos asked as if he didn't care about rushing things.
"I've made my decision. I made it when I came to see you last night." I sighed.
"As you wish." He handed me a familiar goblet of Lethe water.
Just as I was about to drink it, I heard noises.
"Don't do it Aphrodite!" Percy was here.
"Please. You've been begging me for years if you could plan my wedding. How are you going to do that if you can't remember me?" Annabeth tried to convince me.
"And how are you going to figure out that Khione set me up, and nothing happened?" Hephaestus was behind them.
"And how are we going to be best friends?" Athena was here too.
"And how are you going to explain it to your children?" Silena walked in with Piper.
"They're all outside." Piper said.
I looked out a window and saw all of my children dressed in armor, ready to fight.
"I wanted to take you up on your offer of being friends." Ares agreed.
"They're just deceiving you. None of them care about you." Kronos waved it off.
"Please mom, don't do it." Eros started to look much younger than he was.
"You really shouldn't do it. Kronos is just using you to start another war and weaken the Olympian's defenses. Because unbeknownst to most, you're the most powerful Olympian. Love is a powerful, and sometimes dangerous thing. It can make people do crazy things. And because your a child of Uranus, you have a few untriggered powers, and Kronos was hoping to trigger them." A familiar woman explained.
"Stay out of this Rhea." Kronos growled.
"Aside from when you ate most of our children, when have you ever told me what to do?" Rhea arched her eyebrow.
Kronos gulped nervously. "A bit of an unfair question, isn't it?"
"I don't think so." Rhea smiled.
Rhea went up to Kronos, kissed him, and grabbed his arm.
"I'll keep him at bay. Save Aphrodite and destroy the complex." Rhea teleprted herself and Kronos away with a smile.
"Trust me, you don't want that." Bob took the Lethe water and emptied it. "It changed me from Iapetus to Bob. And although it was a good change, it was pretty dramatic."