Chapter 10

A/N: Hey, guys, I have computer/internet access! Yay! Oh, and I'm sorry if I made it seem like the story was over. It's not. By the way, don't worry if you didn't get the "secret" that was revealed at the end of the previous chapter. You're not stupid. Anyways, here's the chapter!

Still in shock, I ran to get the others. After I rounded them all up, I told them what happened. "It's Aphrodite," I told them. "She's the traitor."

I watched their faces as I told them this. They all looked stunned. "But . . . why?" Annabeth asked.

"She wanted to make our relationship . . . uhhh . . . more interesting." We both blushed as I said this.

Annabeth mumbled something unintelligible under her breath, probably cursing the love goddess. Warily, I looked up at the sky, hoping that Aphrodite wasn't paying attention.

Grover cleared his throat, the sound cutting through the awkwardness. "So how do we get to Olympus without Argus?"

As soon as he said this, the scene around us dissolved and reformed into the throne room of Olympus. I sighed. I was getting tired of these constant changes in our surroundings, like someone was playing games with us. With a jolt, I realized that that was exactly what was happening. Stupid love goddess.

All of the Olympian gods were in the throne room, in giant-god form, sitting on their thrones. Zeus saw us and glared down at me. "Why are you here?" he asked us.

Nervously, I stepped forward. "We discovered the traitor," I told him, my voice shaking slightly.

All of the anger left Zeus's face, but he was still wary. "Who is it?"

My stomach twisted in anticipation. What would his reaction be when he found out it was Aphrodite? Would he even believe us? "It's . . . well, it's Aphro . . . Aphrodite," I told him, choking over my words.

Zeus had a look on his face that appeared frequently whenever I was around, letting me know that he wanted to incinerate me on the spot. "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE HER?" he boomed. "WE WILL ALL BE DESTROYED IF YOU DON'T FIND THE REAL CRIMINAL!" His voice reverberated all throughout Olympus.

From her throne, Aphrodite cleared her throat. "Percy is correct," she said. "I messed with the immortality process."

Shock crossed everyone's faces. Even my friends looked surprised. Annabeth frowned. "So you're not making this up?" she asked me.

It was my turn to frown. "Why would I make this sort of thing up?"

"Well . . . I didn't think that you made it up. I just thought that you were mislead." She turned to Aphrodite. "I didn't know you were a schemer, Aphrodite." Despite the annoyance, it was hard to mistake the respect that was in both her face and her voice.

Aphrodite smirked. "There is much you don't know about me, child," she said gently.

It was fun to watch the spectrum of different emotions play out on Zeus's face. For once, it seemed like he had completely let his guard down. All of his emotions were right there, where everyone could see them. Each expression would cross his face for less than a second before being replaced with another one. First came shock, then anger, suspicion, disbelief, worry, acceptance, more anger, and finally fear. Yes, fear. The Lord of the Skies, god of thunder and lightning, king of the gods, supreme ruler of all, was afraid.

I could kind of sympathize with him. He trusted Aphrodite; she didn't seem like much of a threat. She even seemed to be on his side. Yet she risked all of the gods' existences for an interesting love story. If she was capable of that, who knew what the other gods wee capable of, once they set their minds to it? If he wasn't careful, he could have a full-fledged war on his hands: gods realizing what they are capable of, them plotting to gain power, fighting amongst themselves for a higher spot in power, and eventually causing mass destruction because of their thirst for supremacy. Not only would they destroy most of the world and risk the rise of the Titans again, but everyone would blame Zeus; he's supposed to be the most powerful god, the one who has the power to prevent this sort of thing. Just by watching his face, I could see this all play out.

"Aphrodite," Zeus said, calmly and carefully, the emotionless mask back on his face, "why did you do this?"

Aphrodite laughed, a light, calm, casual sound. "Don't worry, the gods were never in danger. I just made Athena think that. Once Athena says something, everyone believes her."

Annabeth was even more impressed now. "Wait, you managed to fool Athena?"

Aphrodite nodded happily, and Athena looked murderous; however, she said nothing.

Zeus looked from me to Annabeth and said, "Well, I suppose now you want her to be made a goddess, am I correct?"

I knelt at his feet, bowed, and said, "Yes, sir."

"Well, in return for your help in discovering the traitor, she will be made into one. We would normally have fed you a special kind of ambrosia to turn you into a god, but someone had apparently manipulated our minds, causing us to forget that alternative." He shot Aphrodite a glare, who merely smiled. He continued. "Well, better late than never. Annabeth," he called.

She came over, knelt beside me, and bowed, too.

"Rise, heroes," he told us.

As we got to our feet, he handed us a square of golden ambrosia. I mean, it was literally gold. It was a shimmering light yellow, making the throne room look like it had been dunked in pure sunlight.

"You two," Zeus pointed to Grover and Tyson. "I believe Argus is right outside the Empire State Building. He will take you back to camp."

"Bye, Percy and Annabeth," they said sadly.

As they turned to leave, Zeus called, "Wait." They looked up at him, and he pointed to Grover. "We are in desperate need of a new Lord of the Wild." He then pointed to Tyson. "And you would make the perfect God of the Cyclopes. That tree nymph, Juniper, would be a fantastic Goddess of trees. Are you three up for the challenge?"

They nodded, walked over to Zeus's throne, and he handed them each their own square of ambrosia. He snapped his fingers, and Juniper appeared. As soon as Zeus explained his offer, she nodded eagerly, and got her own square of ambrosia.

I was shocked. It didn't seem like Zeus to be this generous. Juniper didn't even go on the quest! Don't get me wrong, though, I did not question it.

We all bit into our ambrosia squares, and I immediately felt powerful. Extremely powerful.

After a few seconds, Zeus spoke. "May I present to you: Juniper, Goddess of Trees, Protector of Foliage; Grover Underwood, Lord of the Wild, Defender of all Nature; Tyson, God of the Cyclopes, Leader of all One-Eyed Beings; Annabeth Chase, Goddess of Architecture, Overseer of all Buildings; and Perseus Jackson, God of Stupidity—I mean, God of the Waves, Guardian of the Tides."

I felt great—better than I had ever felt for a long time. I felt so powerful, like I could do anything I wanted.

"Your families have all been informed of your transformation. They are all very proud of you," Zeus said.

I looked at my friends, and we all exchanged excited smiles. We're gods!

Epilogue—Thirty Years Later

"Seaweed Brain, how can you do this to me?"

"Annabeth, I swear, it wasn't my fault! Aphrodite made me! Please don't go all Hera on me!"

"That's the lousiest excuse I've ever heard."

"But Annabeth, I love you!"

"Yeah, right."

"Would I have married you if I didn't love you? Would I have had a child with you if I didn't love you? Would I have taken care of you when you were pregnant if I didn't love you?"

"I was doing perfectly fine on my own. I didn't need your stinkin' help!"

"Please! You practically barfed on everything! You even barfed on the incredibly amazing new Olympus that you designed."

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"I swear, it wasn't my fault. I only love you!"

She sighed. "Fine. I love you, too."

It had been thirty years since we'd all been turned into gods, and Annabeth and I wouldn't stop fighting. Most of it was Aphrodite's fault, trying to "make our relationship more interesting." It was more interesting, all right. In a bad way.

Every now and then, I would suddenly wake up and find that I had a demigod child. I would have no memory of ever meeting the mother, but it was always my responsibility to get the kids to camp and claim them. Then Annabeth would get mad, and we'd fight all over again.

Stupid Aphrodite. She never did this to Grover and Juniper. No, they were happily married with one child—Ferdinand, God of Bushes. It seemed kind of stupid to me, but the happy couple was absolutely delighted with having a Bush God named after Grover's uncle. Sometimes, I'm not very sure about their sanity.

Of course, Aphrodite just had to name the one child I did have with Annabeth. I sighed. Annacey. What a dumb name. Although, I have to admit—it has a certain ring to it. Annacey, Goddess of Pink and Sparkles—another "wonderful" gift from Aphrodite. Yuck. But it's starting to grow on me.

Oh, well, at least Annacey wasn't a carbon copy of Aphrodite. She was quiet and serious, and she was very modest, too. Unlike a certain love goddess. Grrrrr.

Tyson was doing fine—leading the Cyclopes was a dream come true for him. He was in heaven.

At least Annabeth and I didn't fight too often. And we always made up at the end. All in all, I'm glad to be a god. And I'm glad that my friends are immortal, too. Despite all the bumps in the road, life is good.

A/N: Awwww, it's over! :'-( I would like to thank my family for being so supportive. I would also like to thank my Language Arts teachers—without them, my writing would be a jumbled mess without any point to it. And lastly, I would like to thank you—all of my readers. I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, everyone who reviewed my story (names written in italics are people who reviewed more than once):

Rihanna, demigod kid, Fanfic Wolf, Assassins Stole My Pants, PinkPrincess4Life, Dakota-Son of Poseidon, courixoxo, shadowpenguin2010, (this person didn't put their name), EmiJStar, momo347, Fanfic Wolf, smileylol, ShadowPenguin2010, Kevin ly, Max8080, Norma Badino, EClare4Ever393, BeastyBoy1Cousin, Paige, Ingrid Roddick, norma badino, Someone who loves you, Who's the mon, Glacion God of Ice, Ceaze, and StarofCalamity.

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bob12324, canadian syrup, CheshireBunny, Dakota-Son of Poseidon, EClare4Ever393, eeddyy, EmiJStar, hellolove98, hudiegleek, inutashagirl, Jack11901, KatKat 376, larkgrace, lwhistoryfan, melandu95, momo347, perceabeth, PinkPrincess4Life, Pjrocks, poseidon'sgirl, ShadowPenguin2010, swimmergirl3, the king sgt, weird-readers, Who's the mon, xoxolover893, .xX, Ashyka0o0o0Gallagher, Assassins Stole My Pants, Carolzynha LF, CheshireBunny, Colossus94, courixoxo, EClare4Ever393, eeddyy, EmiJStar, Jack11901, Karl1234664, KatKat 376, laurencracefan, melandu95, Melbel10, momo347, Naiya vi Britainia, paramorerox813, powerangers339, rowellylovesgryffindor, smileylol, smt256, StarofCalamity, swimmergirl3, trubholls25, TwilightFan59, Who's the mon, and yoru ame.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyonr who added me to their Favorites or Author Alert:

EmiJStar, Formula 1.5, momo347, PinkPrincess4Life, ShadowPenguin2010, EmiJStar, PinkPrincess4Life, and smileylol.

Thanks, everyone! I love you all! Wow, I just realized how cheesy I sound. Oh, well! :D

P.S. Please tell me if I made any mistakes in the reviewers or anybody else that I meant to thank. I promise that it wasn't my fault. Also, if there are any questions you have about the story, just ask me. I promise to try my best to answer your questions.