About two months have passed since the battle with Kronos.

He had been spending even more of his time with Calypso. The previous gaps in his daily schedule where Percy had found himself alone were now filled with him helping her garden, or the pair taking a dip in the lake.

Spending time with her was nice, but he still didn't feel that connection that he felt with Annabeth with Calypso like he was hoping. He wasn't really surprised though; it took Annabeth getting kidnapped to realized how much he cared for her and that was after knowing her for a few years. At least time wasn't something he had to worry about, Percy had all the time in the world.

When he wasn't with Calypso, he was with Aphrodite training. Training had resumed the day after Percy's horrible hangover.

It wasn't going as well as he would have hoped. Percy figured that he had almost been done practicing charmspeak, he couldn't have been more wrong.

Apparently picking the emotion he was feeling the most at the time and focusing on it while he charmspoke wasn't enough.

Percy was sitting across from Aphrodite in another fancy restaurant, waiting for the waiter to come over so he could charmspeak him.

Aphrodite broke the silence. "Give me your hand," she requested.

He looked at her questioningly. "What?" he asked.

"Give me your hand," she said again.

He mentally shrugged, deciding to comply. He reached his right hand across the table, and she took it in hers. Percy marvelled at how soft and smooth her hand was, it was like silk.

She stared at his hand for a second before shaking her head and turning it over. Aphrodite opened his hand completely then set it down on the table. Before Percy could react, the goddess made one of her hands into a fist and brought it down on the tip of Percy's pointer finger.

He gasped in pain and instantly pulled back his hand. "Hey! What the Hades!" he yelled.

"Problème?" a male voice called from behind the demigod's shoulder.

Aphrodite responded before he could. "No problem, my boyfriend is just a bit clumsy. We are ready for the check," she told him in French.

Percy glared at her and the goddess smiled innocently in response.

He wasn't surprised in the least that she called him her boyfriend, over the past month they had been using that as a cover so it would be less weird whenever the pair went to some romantic restaurant.

"Monsieur," the waiter called, getting Percy's attention from Aphrodite. He made the move to hand the demigod a check.

Before he could Percy cleared his throat, getting ready to charmspeak. His throbbing finger possessed most of his attention, so he focused on that, thinking of his anger. He then proceeded to tell the waiter that they already payed.

The waiter merely laughed, and gave him the bill anyway. The man then walked away, thinking it was all some kind of joke.

Percy frowned, turning to Aphrodite he asked, "Why didn't that work?"

"What emotion did you focus on?"

"Anger, it was very abundant," he said with a pointed glare.

"And there's your problem. Some emotions aren't suited for certain situations. Would you lead an army while crying? Would you try to cheer someone up while you're already sad?" she asked him. "No," she said answering herself, "That would have a negative effect. The same thing applies with charmspeaking. That's why I hit you, anger is better used in battle situations, when giving orders, when striking fear into people."

Aphrodite picked up her glass from the table and took a sip. She licked her lips before continuing, "If you were to have ordered the waiter into giving us a free meal instead of instead of trying to convince him we already payed, you would have had a better chance. How you word your charmspeak is very important."

Percy crossed his arms. "You couldn't have just told me that?" he asked.

The love goddess grinned, "Now where's the fun in that? besides, you know how much I love surprises and first-hand experiences are the best way to learn anyway."

"That hurt though and I didn't think that charmspeaking had so many rule" he groaned.

She let out a sigh and held open her hand. "Give me your hand," she commanded.

Percy's eyes widened, naturally he did the opposite, placing both hands behind his back. "Nuh uh," he shook his head. "I'm not falling for that again."

Aphrodite gave him an annoyed look, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

He hesitantly brought both his hands in front of him, placing his right in Aphrodite's. What she did next surprised him greatly.

The goddess of love brought his hand to her mouth and lightly kissed it. Her lips were soft, like feather-filled pillows, they were gone before he knew it. With them vanished the pain that previously resided in Percy's pointer finger.

Percy's cheeks tinted red; he nervously brought his hand back to his side. "W-why did you do that?" he asked, embarrassed. The whole exchange reminded him of when he was little and got a cut, his mom would always be there to kiss it better.

She ignored his question. "Better?" she inquired.

The demigod scratched the back of his head and nodded sheepishly, "Yeah, how'd you do that?"

The love goddess winked playfully at Percy, "Maybe my kisses are just magical." After a slight pause she added, "Or it may have just been that I was drinking nectar."

Percy shook his head at the memory.

Percy didn't believe, but eased up his efforts of finding out once a month had passed and he still had not obtained any useful information.

Currently he and Aphrodite were seated in a limo, heading god's, or goddess in this case, knows where.

The demigod was genuinely excited, after two months of practicing charmspeaking, today would be his last. Aphrodite had said that she had only one more thing to teach him and that it would only take a day to learn.

Originally Percy didn't think he would have spent so long just polishing his charmspeaking skills, but apparently mortals were much easier to charmspeak than other demigods or monsters.

In order to compensate for this, he had to learn which emotions were best to use in certain situations, if possible, using more than one at a time. He had to learn the best way to word his sentences when charmspeaking with different emotions.

It was a long process, but Percy was on the last lap. He was excited for what would come next.

The limo pulled over in front of a large building.

Aphrodite gave him a small smile, "Ah good, we're here."

Percy still didn't know where here was.

Aphrodite opened one of the back doors and stepped out, heels clacking on the pavement. Percy quickly followed her, closing the door behind him. As soon as the door shut, the driver-less limo took off down the street.

They were in the more modern part of Pairs, where the streets were paved with tar instead of cobblestone and there were a few small skyscrapers.

The goddess moved towards the building, wind blowing her hair back as she did. Percy hurried after her, not knowing anything else to do.

The pair pushed through the revolving glass door and walked into the lobby.

Aphrodite, still not waiting for Percy, walked over to the receptionist's desk on the right.

By the time Percy caught up to the goddess, he only managed to catch a few words of their conversation: something about the 16th floor.

She turned to him, grabbing his hand and leading towards the elevator.

As they approached the pair of iron doors Percy asked, "Where are we going?"

She didn't respond until they reached the elevators. "Up," she simply said, pressing the up arrow in between the two doors.

The one on the left opened almost instantly, Aphrodite quickly stepped in, pulling Percy with her. She pressed the button for the 16th floor, which happened to be the top floor.

The Champion of Love shook his head as the doors closed with a ding. "That's not what I meant," he said. "I meant, what are we doing here?"

She smiled cheerfully, "Why didn't you just say that?"

When she failed to explain further Percy asked again, "So . . . what are we doing here?"

"Training," she said simply.

Percy went to run his hand through his hair, but stopped when he realized it was still linked with Aphrodite's. He hadn't realized she hadn't let go, it just felt so natural.

Percy decided against mentioning anything, bringing attention to it would just make the whole situation even more awkward. Besides, it felt kind of nice.

He let out an annoyed sigh, "I know that. I was trying to ask why we were training here; you've never taken me into this part of the city before. And you still haven't told me that last thing I had to learn about charmspeaking yet."

The goddess smirked at him, clearly amused at his annoyance. "You should really learn to word your questions better Percy." She turned to look at Percy, continuing after a slight pause. "But . . . I guess now is as good a time as any to explain myself. The building we are in now is just a front, a cover for their real business."

"What's the real business?" Percy asked.

Her jaw clenched and the hand that was gripping his tightened painfully. "Sex trafficking, the biggest in Paris," she growled, venom laced in her words.

There was a high-pitched ding, the elevator doors separated.

Aphrodite marched out of the elevator, releasing her grip on Percy's hand.

Percy hesitantly stepped out after Aphrodite. He had only seen her angry once before and that was when she was yelling at Hephaestus. Even from just that one experience he knew he never wanted to be the one her anger was directed towards.
Directly across from the elevator, at the far end of the room, was a large wooden double door. Off to one side of that was a small desk with a young blonde woman seated in it, currently talking with Aphrodite. On the right side of the room there was a pair of love seats facing a large 50+ inch flat screen TV.

Before he could even make it to Aphrodite, the love goddess finished talking to the women and made her way to one of the seats. Percy followed her lead and sat on the other one.

She crossed her legs and faced him to the best of her ability. "Alright Percy, we only have a few minutes before he will see us in," she said in a hushed tone, probably to keep the receptionist from hearing. "The man who is in charge of the whole operation is a son of Apollo, his name is Alfonso Marlou. This will make him your hardest challenge yet. And that's why we're going to use him to teach you the last lesson of charmspeaking."

Percy's eyebrows furrowed. "What's the last lesson of charmspeaking?" Percy asked in a tone similar to Aphrodite.

"In life you will find that it is easier to convince people to do something they want, instead of something they don't. For example, it would be easier to try to convince you to swim in a lake instead of flying on a plane. The same thing applies for charmspeaking," Aphrodite said. " This is where Alfonso Marlou comes in. Since he is a son of Apollo, he has a pretty big ego. You can use this to our advantage."

"What are we even doing here?" the demigod questioned.

The goddess flashed him a sinister smile, "That's simple, you're going to destroy his business."

Percy's eyes widened a little at that. "How am I supposed do that?" he inquired.

"Use his ego. Tell him to give all his money to his girls. Tell him doing that would make people think he was a hero."

"Why would we want him to give his money to the girls who work for him. Aren't they a big part of this whole thing?" Percy asked.

She shook her head. "Percy you got to understand most of these girls didn't have a choice. They were broke, nowhere to go, no way to make money. This was their only option. Well this or starve and don't be surprised when I tell you this, but most people don't find starving very pleasant."

"Il va vous maintenant," a feminine voice call from behind them, telling the pair Marlou was ready to see them.

Aphrodite stood and Percy followed her lead, thinking about the extremes he would go through if he was in a similar situation and had to take care of his mom. He would do whatever it took, no matter how vile. But he couldn't help but grow angry at how a man could take advantage of girls like that, surely there was other ways he could let the girls make money other than prostitution.

They headed towards the wooden door. Before they were about to open the goddess leaned down and whispered in Percy's ear, "Remember, make him think he is a hero."

And with that both of them walk in.

They were greeted by a man with blonde hair and blue eyes, he couldn't have been much older than 30.

The room itself would not be what you would expect from a supposed CEO's office. There was a ping pong, fussbol, and pool table towards the enter. On one side there was a small desk with almost nothing on it and the other hand a large leather couch facing a TV even larger than the one outside. Around the rooms hung picture of different cars and women. It looked more like a bachelor pad than an office.

He beckoned them over. "Come in, come in," he urged in perfect English. "Don't mind if I speak English, do you? It's my native langue, I'm originally from America."

Percy shook his head and Aphrodite answered with a fake smile and, "That will be perfectly fine."

The man grinned, "Perfect." He reached out his hand and shook Percy's and Aphrodite's. "Name's Alfonso Marlou by the way, but most people just call me Al."

"Percy," the son of Poseidon responded.

"Vanessa," Aphrodite said curtly.

They all ended up by the pool table, Al on one side, Percy and Aphrodite on the other. The blonde-haired demigod started to rack up the balls. "They tell me you're here to do some big business, must be some big order if you have to come here personally. How many candles you gonna need?" he asked, not diverting his attention from the table.

"We aren't here for some candles," the goddess answered. "We're here for your real business."

That got his attention. He immediately looked up from the table at her. Al narrowed his eyes, studying her, "You don't say." The son of Apollo straightened up; he made his way over to the other side of the table. His hand went to his collar and he pulled, ripping off his clip on tie, "Wish you would have told my receptionist that, would've saved me the effort of putting on this damn suit." Al slowly walked around Aphrodite, eyeing her up like a prized horse. "You seem kind of young to be in my business. Buttttt," he said gesturing towards the goddess, "With a body like this I think I can let it slide."

The goddess of beauty innocently smiled and batted her eyes, "Oh no. I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough, but Percy here," she said pointing to her champion, "Is here to talk with you about your business."

Al's gaze shifted from Aphrodite to Percy. He laughed, "Horny little bastard aren't ya? I can respect that. Want me to get you a scrap book with all my girls in it? I can let you choose which one you wanna bang."

Percy swallowed and forced himself to smiled. He knew what he had to do. He focused on the emotions he was feeling before charmspeaking, "Actually I'm here to make you a hero." OK, maybe that wasn't the best way to say that.

Al laughed again. "A hero you say? How are you planning on doing that kid?" he asked. He then proceeds removed the triangle from the pool table and line up his first shot.

The Champion of Love faltered, he didn't expect that to have no impact on the other demigod at all. "I um-you have to give all your money to the girls who work for you," he said weakly.

Al missed the cue ball completely. He started laughing and used the pool stick to lean on it. "Look kid, I don't know what you're on, but you're crazy. Why in Zeus' name would I do something like that that?" he asked.

Percy couldn't afford another slip up. He steeled himself and focused solely on his anger towards the man in front of him. "You will give all of your money to the girls who work for you," he commanded, making sure it sounded like an order as much as it could.

It seemed to be working because Al's eyes started to glaze over.

"This will make you all of their heroes," Percy continued. "All of them will be forever grateful, they will never forget what you did for them."

"Never forgotten," Al murmured seemingly to himself. He then looked directly at Percy, "I like the sound of that kid."

"So, we got a deal?" Percy asked nervously.

The son of Apollo walked over and shook his hand, "Sounds like a plan kid."

~ Αλλαγή γραμμής ~

Aphrodite:

Percy and the love goddess sat at a small cafe back in the older part of Paris. They were celebrating a job well done and the completion of the first part of Percy's training.

It was well past noon, at least four o'clock. The sun shone so brightly it seemed that Apollo was joining in their celebration, praising the justice done on his sick son.

She smiled at Percy, "I wish I could stay longer, but I must get going."

Aphrodite truly did, she immensely enjoyed spending time with the young demigod. To an extent that was almost unprofessional. She new what had developed, it had all started when that idiot had decided to kiss her, she just hoped it passed quickly like all the other men she had fancied. The goddess couldn't afford to have her first time at being a patron being ruined by feelings that would surely soon vanish.

He grinned, "Me too, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

She stood up, went over to the other side of the table where Percy was seated, bent down and kissed him on the cheek. She savoured the feeling of his soft skin on her lips.

She straightened back up and winked at him before leaving him to deal with the check once again.

As she walked out the door a feminine voiced called out to her from her right, "You know in all these years I don't think I've every seen you kiss anyone on the cheek before."

Aphrodite turned towards the direction of the voice, "Hera," she growled.

There stood the goddess with her chocolate coloured hair. She had her arms crossed and a smug smiled plastered on her face.

"You know," the queen of the gods said, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you have a little crush."

"What are you doing here?" the goddess of love asked hostilely.

"Can't I just stop by and pay you a visit?" Hera asked innocently.

It was Aphrodite's turn to cross her arms. "You never have before," she muttered.

"Fair enough. If you must know I'm actually here to see Percy."

The goddess of beauty narrowed her eyes, "What do you want with him?"

Hera's smile grew even bigger. "My, my, a little protective, aren't we? I guess that much can be expected now that you're his patron, unless you're something more." she said in a way that made it sound like a question.

"What do you want with him," Aphrodite repeated, bringer her arms down to her sides and clenching her hands into fists.

The goddess of marriage sighed, "If you must know it has to deal with the next great prophecy."

"The next?"

"Oh, you don't know?" Hera said smugly.

"I've been a little busy," Aphrodite said, annoyed.

"I've noticed," The queen replied, putting a finger to her chin. "Perhaps you can get Apollo to fill you in later, all you need to know now is that I've chosen Percy to be part of it. Along with your daughter that is, but if you have been paying any attention to your children you would've already known that."

"Which daughter?" the goddess of love asked.

"The movie star's daughter, Piper is her name. She is," the Queen paused trying to think of the right word. "Different," she finally added.

She certainly was. Out of all Aphrodite's daughters Piper was the only one who seemed to be ashamed of her beauty. She refused to wear dresses, makeup, anything that made her look more appealing.

Aphrodite had forgot she was supposed to be claiming her children once they turned 13 and Piper was well past that, she had been a little distracted these past two months. She made a mental note to do that later.

"What gives you the power to decide who is part of a prophecy?" Aphrodite demanded. "That is well out of your domain."

Hera shrugged, "Prophecies always end up happening one way or another. I am merely just changing the odds in our favour."

"You will not do anything involving them," Aphrodite demanded. "They don't have to get caught up in anymore Olympian affairs."

"I'm afraid your daughter's part has already begun, there is no stopping it now. Besides this involves the fate of the whole world, not just Olympus. Gaea is rising."

Gaea, that very name infuriated her more than anything could have. What she had done to Aphrodite was unforgivable, changing her life forever, for the worse. Her coming back was certainly frightening news, maybe even worse than Kronos, but perhaps it would allow her to get some long overdue payback. It might be too late for her daughter, but she would make sure Percy was not part of it, he had done enough for the world. It was time someone returned the favour.

"I still won't let you drag Percy into this," the love goddess growled, her eyes turning red.

Hera smirked, "I'm afraid you cannot stop me."

Aphrodite faltered, as queen of the gods there was truly nothing she could do to stop her. Aphrodite was powerless.

She desperately tried to think of anything that would stop her. "Surely Zeus cannot be okay with this, he won't want Percy dying," she mustered up as a last resort.

"What Zeus doesn't know won't hurt him." Hera replied, seemingly unfazed.

Aphrodite smiled triumphantly; her last-ditch effort had payed off. "And if I tell him . . ." she trailed off, implying that she would.

Hera's smile didn't waver the whole time throughout this exchange, now being no exception. "Oh, you wouldn't dare."

"And why is that?"

"Because if you tell Zeus I'll tell Percy," the queen of the gods said simply, her smile turning cruel.

"Tell Percy what?" The goddess of beauty asked confused.

"I think you know exactly what I'm talking about," Hera said conceitedly. "If Percy found out what you did to him, he would hate you so much that he would jump at the chance to be part of the prophecy and distance himself from you."

Aphrodite's eyebrows furrowed, trying to figure out what the other goddess was talking about. She had never done anything terrible, unless you count-

"I never did anything to him," the goddess of beauty bluffed.

"Perhaps . . ." Hera trailed off. "But you certainly did not stop what you put in motion."

Hera was right. Aphrodite could have stopped it; it would have been so easy to stop. But she didn't, she foolishly thought that she was doing the right thing, that for once that maybe things would work out how she planned. And look how terrible that panned out. It was the main reason she wanted Percy to become her champion, the goddess wanted a chance to make it up to him.

"How did you find out about that?" she asked, voice wavering, the red previously in her eyes turned yellow. If Percy found out, he would hate her forever.

"Being queen of the gods has its perks," Hera said smugly.

"You wouldn't dare tell him," Aphrodite threatened. But it was an empty threat, and she already knew Hera's answer.

"We both know I would. Now you will give me your blessing to talk to Percy or I will tell him."

"Tell me what?" a male voice called from behind Aphrodite.

The goddess turned and found herself looking into a pair of sea green eyes, speckled with flecks of ever-changing colours. They eyes of Percy Jackson.

Ω Τέλος Ω

A/N:
UH- hi?

Um... Hope you enjoyed I'll see u all next chapter

Thanks so much for over 3k views & 100 followers + 80 favourites!

Comment so I can get the next chap out quicker than this one!

- M