Chapter Fifteen: Occurrens in dea
Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan…I'M BATMAN!
Author's Note – Big thanks to CalRedEss! Seriously dude, thank you. If any of you like the Spiritual/Fantasy trope, check out his story Free to Write our Own.
Also, this chapter is a retelling of MoA in first person perspective with a few barely noticeable changes, my own writing will be more prominent in the next chapter since I wanted to make sure my fic was seamlessly integrated into the canon version of events.
Also, in other news, I am monumentally sick again (which I hate) so yeah, sorry if I posted late, I guess.
GodZeus: Man, I know people are gonna be hating on me for the last few lines, but that's just how the cookie crumbles :)
Captain McShizzl: Methinks I just said I'm Batman, so I'm not planning on levelling down my awesomeness anytime soon xD
1234 Booklover: No worries! I love exaggeration and dramatic reviews. Don't worry, I'll probably reunite Percabeth by chapter 25 (hehehe)
Merendinoemiliano: Brief job, but much better review :D
Callum Runchman: Dude chill. Breathe with me come on. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Okay, so Percy isn't gonna not help them, he's still their friend. As for the betrayal thing….we'll just have to see won't we?
Lovebooks 10886: Thanks! I love detailed and specific reviews and yours really hit the mark!
CalRedEss: No need to apologise bro! Read at your own pace. And yup, you got me, I'm actually a demigod. My mom is Calliope, that's why I squander my talent writing fanfiction :))
Read, review, enjoy and promote!
P.S. – Take care and Stay safe!
"Our mind is so full of insecurities and fear that it creates lies we believe."
Annabeth's POV:
That night, I slept without nightmares, which just made me uneasy when I woke up—like the calm before a storm.
Leo docked the ship at a pier in Charleston Harbor, right next to the seawall. Along the shore was a historical district with tall mansions, palm trees, and wrought-iron fences. Antique cannons pointed at the water.
By the time I came up on deck, Jason, Frank, and Leo had already left for the museum. Piper told me that Jason had tried to find Percy this morning for some reason, but he had blown him off, which was unlike Percy since he was basically friendly with everyone.
I knew I was going to have to clear the air between the three of us and I really wasn't looking forward to it.
Piper and Hazel were ready to go but I turned to Percy who was leaning on the starboard rail, gazing over the bay.
"What are you going to do when we're gone?" I asked him
"Jump into the harbor," he said casually, like another kid might say, I'm going to get a snack. "I want to try communicating with the local Nereids. Maybe they can give me some advice about how to free those captives in Atlanta. Besides, I think the sea might be good for me.
While he didn't elaborate, I knew what he meant. He was refusing to look me in the eye and had apparently been ignoring Jason.
I was about to say something when he interrupted me – "Afterwards. For now, just come back."
I gulped, oddly touched that even when he was so clearly hurting over a stupid misunderstanding, he was still more worried about my safety.
I turned back to Piper and Hazel – "Okay ladies, let's go."
At first, we just walked around, admiring the architecture, the columns, the arches. Or at least I did. I had no idea what the others were thinking about.
I was so deep in thought that I did not notice anything amiss till Piper grabbed my arm.
"There." She pointed across the harbor. A hundred yards out, a shimmering white figure floated on the water. At first, I thought it might be a buoy or a small boat reflecting the sunlight, but it was definitely glowing, and it was moving more smoothly than a boat, making a straight line towards us. As it got closer, I could tell it was the figure of a woman.
"The ghost," I said.
"That's not a ghost," Hazel said. "No kind of spirit glows that brightly."
I decided to take her word for it.
As if in a trance, Piper walked across the street toward the edge of the seawall, narrowly avoiding a horse-drawn carriage.
"Piper!" I called.
"We'd better follow her," Hazel said.
By the time we caught up to her, the ghostly apparition was only a few yards away.
Piper glared at it like the sight offended her.
"It is her," she grumbled.
I squinted at the ghost, but it blazed too brightly to make out details. Then the apparition floated up the seawall and stopped in front of us. The glow faded.
I gasped. The woman was breathtakingly beautiful and strangely familiar. Her face was hard to describe. Her features seemed to shift from those of one glamorous movie star to another. Her eyes sparkled playfully—sometimes green or blue or amber. Her hair changed from long, straight blond to dark chocolatey curls.
I narrowed my eyes. It could only be one goddess.
"Aphrodite" I snarled, narrowly restraining myself from punching her in her godly face.
"Venus?" Hazel asked, her voice oddly squeaky.
I knew why she was nervous. She and Frank had barely spent a month together. Watching what Aphrodite had done to me and Percy, it was understandable why she was skittish.
"Mom" Piper confirmed, her voice totally unenthusiastic.
Said goddess spread her arms as if asking for a group hug. We did not oblige.
"I'm so glad you're here," Aphrodite said. "War is coming. Bloodshed is inevitable. So there's really only one thing to do."
"And what's that?" I challenged, still thinking of all the ways I could dismember her.
"Why have tea and chat of course!" she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
As we sat down, Piper laid a hand on my leg, silently asking me to calm down.
"So which one are you – Venus or Aphrodite?" I asked.
"I am both Aphrodite and Venus. Unlike many of my fellow Olympians, I changed hardly at all from one age to the other. In fact, I like to think I haven't aged a bit!"
Her fingers fluttered around her face appreciatively. "Love is love, after all, whether you're Greek or Roman. This civil war won't affect me as much as it will the others."
Wonderful, I thought. My own mother, the most levelheaded Olympian, was reduced to a raving, vicious scatterbrain in a subway station. And of all the gods who might help us, the only ones not affected by the Greek–Roman schism seemed to be Aphrodite, Nemesis, and Dionysus. Love, revenge, wine. Very helpful.
Hazel nibbled a sugar cookie. "We're not in a war yet, my lady."
"Oh, dear Hazel." Aphrodite folded her fan. "Such optimism, yet you have heartrending days ahead of you. Of course war is coming. Love and war always go together. They are the peaks of human emotion! Evil and good, beauty and ugliness."
She smiled at me as if she knew what I had been thinking earlier about the Old South.
Hazel set down her sugar cookie. She had a few crumbs on her chin, and I liked the fact that Hazel either didn't know or didn't care.
"What do you mean," Hazel asked, "heartrending days?"
The goddess laughed as if Hazel were a cute puppy. "Well, Annabeth could give you some idea. I promised to make her love life interesting. And didn't I?"
I snapped the handle off my teacup. For years, my heart had been torn. First there was Luke Castellan, my first crush, who had seen me only as a little sister; then he'd turned evil and decided he liked me—right before he died. Next came Percy, who was infuriating but sweet, and she was certain that they had been good together, maybe even great. Yet now, only a pale imitation remained, with my mind scrambling to fill in the blanks and his heart rallying to hold onto hope.
I almost slammed her head down onto the table then, and even Hazel looked squeamish and horrified. Piper's voice matched her eyes, hard as ice as she said, "Let's dispense with the pleasantries, Mother, why are you here? And why did you take Annabeth's memories?"
"I love twists and turns in a love story. Oh, all of you are such excellent stories—I mean, girls. You do me proud!" she said, expecting us to be happy at the fact that we were such excellent "stories"
My tea was cold. I hadn't eaten anything, but I felt like I wanted to throw up.
"So you took me from my camp, you wiped my memories, forced me to fend for myself as I found my way to Camp Jupiter and then specifically blocked all my memories related to Percy?" I asked, my voice rising with each word till I was practically yelling by the end.
Her eyes no longer had that mirth. Her features were no longer smiling and happy. Instead, her beauty had suddenly turned sharp, like a razor thin garrotte.
Her eyes were still beautiful, but now that beauty itself felt dangerous, like a live volcano, waiting to erupt.
Gone was the frivolous goddess of love. Now, we were speaking with the first Olympian, born of Ouranos, Mother of Rome.
"Do not presume to lecture me child. You are not your mother. It would be wise if you remembered who you're speaking to."
And even though there wasn't a trace of charmspeak in her voice, I obeyed. Better to be alive than proud.
And just like that, her demeanor changed again. She was back to the smiling, teasing, frivolous goddess she was a few minutes ago.
"I didn't take away your memories permanently did I?" she pointed out. "Besides, everything else was Hera. I couldn't care less about Greeks and Romans reuniting. As I said, love is universal." She continued.
I decided that respect would be more prudent rather than anger here.
"Could you please tell us how I can get my memories back?"
"Well, my dear, once done, it's difficult to break an enchantment. You'll just have to give it time, I suppose. Or if your mind is put under extreme stress. Though I would recommend waiting rather than forcing your memories."
I sighed. Of course there wasn't a shorter, simpler and faster answer. I forced myself to focus on other pressing matters.
"About the Mark of Athena. It leads to a statue….it leads to the statue, doesn't it?" I asked, confirming what I already knew.
Piper and Hazel looked at me with confusion, after all, they knew about the falling out with my mom, but they had no idea about what I was actually supposed to find.
Aphrodite, on the other hand looked positively gleeful.
"You're much too smart for you own good my dear. Your siblings, the children of Athena, have been searching for centuries. None has succeeded in recovering the statue. In the meantime, they've been keeping alive the Greek feud with the Romans. Every civil war…so much bloodshed and heartbreak…has been orchestrated largely by Athena's children."
"That's…" I wanted to say impossible, but I remembered Athena's bitter words in Grand Central Station, the burning hatred in her eyes.
"Romantic?" Aphrodite offered. "Yes, I supposed it is."
"The Mark of Athena, how does it work? Is it a series of clues, or a trail set by Athena—"
"Hmm." Aphrodite looked politely bored. "I couldn't say. I don't believe Athena created the Mark consciously. If she knew where her statue was, she'd simply tell you where to find it. No…I'd guess the Mark is more like a spiritual trail of bread crumbs. It's a connection between the statue and the children of the goddess. The statue wants to be found, you see, but it can only be freed by the most worthy."
"And for thousands of years, no one has managed?"
"Hold on," Piper said. "What statue are we talking about?"
The goddess laughed. "Oh, I'm sure Annabeth can fill you in. At any rate, the clue you need is close by: a map of sorts, left by the children of Athena in 1861. But as you said, Annabeth Chase, no one has ever succeeded in following the Mark of Athena to its end. There you will face your worst fear—the fear of every child of Athena. And even if you survive, how will you use your reward? For war or for peace?"
I was glad for the tablecloth, because under the table, my legs were trembling. "This map," I said, "where is it?"
"Guys!" Hazel pointed to the sky.
Circling above the palmetto trees were two large eagles. Higher up, descending rapidly, was a flying chariot pulled by pegasi. Apparently Leo's diversion with Buford the end table hadn't worked—at least not for long.
Aphrodite spread butter on a muffin as if she had all the time in the world. "Oh, the map is at Fort Sumter, of course." She pointed her butter knife toward the island across the harbor. "It looks like the Romans have arrived to cut you off. I'd get back to your ship in a hurry if I were you. Would you care for some tea cakes to go?"
"Youngblood
Say you want me
Say you want me
Out of your life
And I'm just a dead man walking tonight"
Author's Note: Are you guys seeing how my fic works in the canonverse? That's primarily what this chapter was for. There is one VERY important detail in there about Annabeth and how she'll regain her memories if you paid very, very close attention. Hint – look in the parts where I'm diverging from Canonverse. There's actually not much need for you to review this chapter since it's like 90% Rick's writing. Still, hope you liked it!