Third Person POV
The room remained in silence for minutes before anyone could even form a response. Finally, it was Thalia that responded first. "You. It's you. Come here to taunt Lady Artemis again or maybe brag about how weak the rest of us are". Percy merely raised his eyebrows at this, but appeared largely unaffected, Alastair, better known in the mortal world as Alastor, however was enraged.
"YOU DARE INSULT THE PRINCE YOU PUNY DEMIGOD. He has more power in his finger that you will ever have in your whole body. I should boil your insides where you stand for your disrespect" Alastair all but screamed. He brought his hand out and a double bladed axe appeared in his hand. The aura it emited almost crushed the people in the room, only Khione and Percy remained unaffected. The dark metal of the axe seemed to easily blend in with the ebony handle and somehow made the blade even more terrifying. Fortunately, just as he was about to rush forward, Percy raised his hand, and in an instant, Alastair stopped. He looked at Percy with a questioning gaze.
Percy said, "Peace Alastair, she is merely a demigod with a father complex and an ego that has gotten to big for its foundation and is about to collapse on itself. much like her legs right now". As the words escaped his mouth, everyone turned to look at Thalia whose face greatly resembled a tomato. She seemed unable to form a response, and yet Alastair was unsatisfied.
"Please my prince, she has insulted your honour. Allow me to be the one to return her to her mother, perhaps then she will learn some humility" came the voice of Alastair. As soon as these words escaped his mouth, all colour drained form the face of Thalia, and yet, the opposite happened to Jason whose face became red with anger.
He shouted, "Who do you think you are to judge her on her actions. You're a monster, and if you don't leave, your going to be a speck of dust on the floor!".
All occupant in the room stared at Jason, but it was Percy who was the first to respond. "You are one of many of Jupiter's children, and that makes you weak. The more children a god has, the weaker they become, so what is to say you even have the power to smite Alastair. All he has to do is raise his finger and you will be in his personal torture cell awaiting what I'd assume to be hundreds of years of torture. But by all means, if you truly believe yourself to be above the Grand Torturer of Hell, then do try your luck". That seemed to shut Jason up as he glared at Alastair as hard as he could, but as soon as Alastair set his white eyes on him, he flinched and stopped. Percy looked at Piper, and his eyes softened a bit, and he said, "Piper McLean, free the goddess from her cage".
Piper was shocked that Percy knew her name, but she did not question it and she immediately ran forward and using her dagger, Katropis, to slash away at the cage and found Hera to by laying asleep. Piper found it hard, but she managed to pull Hera out of the cage and as soon as her body was out, Hera's aura started to gradually increase. Percy nodded and Piper made her way back to Jason and the others. As soon as this happened, Percy spoke. "Now that we're finished with pleasantries, I will return you to your camp". With a snap of his finger, shadows enveloped Thalia and Hera as they were transported to Camo Half Blood and Olympus respectively.
As soon as this happened, he turned around and quickly gave a nod to Alastair who opened up a portal and quickly walked through it. Percy looked at Khione for a few seconds before replying, "Mother, it has been a while, but I am glad to see you are as well as ever".
Khione was at first surprised by the formality in which her son spoke, but recovered quickly enough. "Percy, you sound so different, is it your father or maybe Alastair. I knew he was a bad influence on you.".
Almost immediately, Percy's cheeks gained a hint of red before he quickly replied, "Mom, come on. You're always complaining about them. You should try to get to know Alastair, he's not too bad when you get over the torturing souls for millenia part and catch him at a time when hes not senselessly break the bones of a person."
"How can you say that with a straight face Percy. DO you hear what you're saying now", responded Khione.
"Well excuse me for making friends with him, it's not like there was much to choose from down there, you should know by now" came the exasperated voice of Percy.
Khione looked to be fuming, which was a strange look on her, but she calmed herself enough to reply, "Don't use that tone one me young man, don't think I don't know what you and Aphrodite every two weeks instead of visiting me".
"For the last time, nothing happens and besides we're just good friends. I don't know why you keep bringing that up" Percy all but whined.
"Yes, you're definitely good friends because friends' faces turn red when you 'accidentally' hold each others hand. You're friends who somehow stare at the faces of the other for over a minute straight without blinking. You're friends wh-".
"OK, OK. I get what your point but please, stop interrogating me over that, and it was only one time. I've seen you with dad when you visit, so you can't talk to me about that when you're clearly worse" came the intelligent reply of Percy.
Khione was almost at lost for words, but managed to reply, "Nuh uh, I am nothing like you, and besides, I'm way older than you so you wouldn't understand". Percy could help but groan, but decided against it and chose instead to give her a glare that would send battle hardened soldiers running for their lives, but on Khione it did little to nothing. She raised her eyebrow and after a few seconds said, "Fine, I'll stop, but at least ask her out or something. Honestly, it's getting boring for me and Nyx to watch you two struggling over words when you're with each other. You'de think it'd be funny, but after a month it gets really boring".
"MOOOOM!"
"Fine, fine. Honestly, kids nowadays don't appreciate good advice, even when its slapping them in the face".
Percy could say nothing so instead, he chose to do the one thing he could, and that was escape and leave like nothing happened. Before his mom could continue, he melted into the shadows, quite literally, and disappeared from where he was, the only indication of his presence being the small black speck of ice on the floorboard. Khione continued her ranting, unaware of her son's disappearance, and once she noticed he was gone, she only shook her head but flashed out.
Percy had appeared on a sun filled beach where children and adults alike looked like were having the time of their life, and while it wasn't uncommon for Malaga in Spain, it was a strange sight for Percy to behold having spent a year an a half with his father Lucifer in hell, where only the constant of scream of tortured souls could be heard. For once, Percy chose to do the normal human thing, and chose to sit where he was and watch as life revolved around him appreciating the sights before him, and yet, as if fate itself was laughing at him, thoughts raced past his mind. If the Giants had awoken, then that meant that Gaia's evil person had temporarily taken over, and it'd be likely that the same happened with Tartarus. That was worrying, but they'd be able to reign in their counterparts within 6 months, so Olympus won't sustain too much damage, but that still left whether he should help or not. Other than Aphrodite, he didn't really have any relations with the Olympians, but from what he heard, Hermes was ok, although he forgot to do things quite easily due to the constant work as the messenger of Olympus, Apollo was overly happy most of the time, but he cared about his children, claiming them often within a month or 2. His sister Artemis though, was too arrogant and had an opinion too high of herself. Ares had lusted too much for war, a reason why Kronos had been able to convince him to help him when the master bolt was stolen, but he did tend to look after his children, although it was often in strange ways. Athena, although a virgin, had children through her brain, but tended to neglect her kids at the early stages of their lives. She did start paying attention to them when they were around 10 or so, but by then, quite a few of them were killed by monsters.
Dionysus was largely irrelevant, and his slight hatred for demigods and heroes was understandable considering what his wife Ariadne experienced at the hands of Theseus. Hephaestus was largely introvert and rarely had human interaction, and the few times he did, it was with mortals with whom he often had kids, although he tried to help them out by providing a natural affinity to any one of his domains, and sometimes even sending some machines to guard them. Aphrodite didn't really do much of note, but she did look after her children, normally claiming her kids within 2-3 weeks. Hera was very scornful and hated most demigods in general, but understandable from the fact that she was forced into a marriage by Zeus, and then said person was unable to be faithful to her. Demeter was a mixed case. She was petty and prideful, yet she was caring and motherly, looking after her children much better than most Olympians, and would defend them to the very end. Poseidon was puzzling. He was prideful, petty and on occasion arrogant, but he did care for his children, and often left the mother of his kids enough money to live a comfortable life, but not too much that they'd be able to spend as much money they wanted on anything they wanted. And then there was Zeus. Words couldn't even begin to describe how terrible he was. Replacing Hestia, the most important and most powerful goddess in Olympus, with a drunkard by the name of Dionysus, although it wasnt his fault, just so he could have more power on the council. Constantly having affairs, multiple offenses of rape reported, and even threatening others in order to ensure they did his bidding. Although he wasn't as bad as Kronos, he wasn't better by much, and if Hestia replaced him, or the council became a true democracy, the world would be a much better place.
But that made things problematic. Did Percy want to defend a king who was too arrogant to help the demigods he soo deeply relied on, a king who forced himself on women for fun, a king who was so paranoid that he would threaten his own children to secure his rule or did he want to help a group of savage beasts who at this stage wanted to destroy humanity and rebuild it to their preference. As strange as it may sound, Percy found it hard to chose which side was better. Thoughts continued to gallop past his head, but he was snapped out of this when he felt a hand on his shoulders. He turned around to see who it was and he found the face he had dreamed of quite often before him. Currently adorning wavy brunette hair that ended 4-5 inches bellow her shoulders, with a medium tan which gave off a slightly Greek, or even Hispanic, look, along with red plump lips that seemed to endlessly attract your attention and magenta pink eyes that drew you in, was Aphrodite. His heart seemed to have skipped a small beat as he found himself staring at her. She wore a slightly longer than normal pink sundress which ended an inch or two bellow her knees that hugged her body tightly, and gave a good look of her curves. She wore 2 inch heels which gave her a height of 5'11, combined with her bountiful chest that was without a doubt her best asset. For a few seconds, Percy found it almost impossible to breathe, but was able to calm himself down and regained some of his composure.
"So trying out a new look I see" he found himself saying.
A small smile graced Aphrodite's face as she looked at her friend, the friend who was so oblivious to her advances and attempts to make it clear that she liked him. "You've had a new haircut, and you're wearing less formal clothes than you normally do". It was true, and weirdly, she found this new look on him much more attractive. It gave him a slightly rugged and manly look, and the new clothes made the muscles that came with his intense training pop much more than usual. He wore a black and silver body hugging t-shirt that hugged his body tightly, bringing out his sculpted and muscular chest. He wore black pants that were slightly longer than they needed to be. He had also donned black and white Nike Air Max Bolt, and with his silver watch and 2 silver rings, it made it look like he couldn't get enough of it. The normal sunglasses he wore were replaced with silver Ray Bans that blocked out his eyes. Then, there was his haircut. It looked like he had a spiked mohawk, but not the ones you'd see rock fans wearing, instead, his hair had grown out at the sides, and then pulled back, but not completely. It almost made him look sinister, but he managed to pull it off without coming off as evil. However, he still kept his trusty katana by his side, and it appeared as intimidating as usual. The handle looked as ornate and ceremonial as always, while the scabbard remained the same, although, it almost looked darker than usual, and it was, after all, it was dipped in molten Dark Fyre and cooled in the river that sprouted in Hell when Lucifer fell from God's grace.
Percy released a small laugh at her comment, but said nothing as Aphrodite sat next to him. They stood like that for a few minutes, enjoying the silence and peace, with Percy oblivious to Aphrodite leaning her head on his shoulder. "I'm scared Dove. I've heard what Gaia's evil form is like, and yet I can't find it in my heart to hurt her".
"Then don't Percy. It is not your duty do be the world's saviour"
"But I saw what Porphyrion was going to do to mom, and I couldn't stand that. I find myself torn between my loyalty for you and mom and for my love for Gaia. She was always there for me when my moms weren't, and she even forced Ouranos to keep an eye on you while I was away".
"I'm not sure what I should tell you Percy, because even I can't find it in my heart to tell you to side with Olympus."
"Thanks Aphrodite, I really miss our talks, and now that I'm finished with my training, maybe we could go have dinner together today".
For a second, Aphrodite found herself wordless. Was he asking her out on a date? Did he like her?
"Percy, will it be a date?". A small grin emerged on his face.
"I'll leave that to you to figure out" he said.
They both stood up and within the blink of an eye, their lips met, and although they separated within a second, to them both that second felt like eternity. "Bye Aphrodite" and within a second, he melted into the floor and disappeared from view. It took Aphrodite a few seconds to snap out and reality settled in. And so, for the rest of that day, nobody was able to wipe the smile that threatened to split her face off her.