All right, DEFINITELY not as much humor as I thought…. well I'll try and incorporate some in the next chapter. I need you guys to review; I'm stuck as to whether I should incorporate Percy in this!! Review review review!!

(Oh and by the way, don't think the title's weird when I was writing this chapter word corrected it itself, and told me to put IS instead of ARE. so apparently the title is grammatically correct. One more thing, sorry it's so long, the only other good breaking point would have made it waay too short.)

(Myeh I'm sick and tired of this thing not letting me do a divider!!! ok from now on I'm stopping writing these stupid little messages, I think you can make the mental leap yourselves.)

Chapter 6: Daddy?? WHERE IS YOU DADDY???

"What do you mean he wasn't here??" I exclaimed, totally freaking out.

"I don't know!!!" shrieked Portia, suddenly hysterical. Then I realized that she was being affected by my panicked nature, and I made an immediate effort to calm down. As I did so, she calmed down too.

"Phew," she breathed, "thanks, I hate being scared like that. Now, where could your father have gone? He can't have escaped, because the door would have been open or unlocked, or else a guard would have noticed him and the commotion have woken us up."

I thought hard. A sudden idea came to mind. "Could Ares have something to do with him being gone? He says he doesn't want to kill us, but there's no way I believe him!"

"Well, if that's true, there are two options for us. Either we try to escape and rescue your father, and that's assuming he needs rescue, or we wait for him to come back.," said Portia, obviously favoring the second option.

I gave her a look. "What, you think I'm gonna just sit here doing nothing when right now my father might be being executed?!?!"

I felt a sudden wave of calm and peace fall over me, but I fought against it, knowing it was Portia trying to wheedle me out of my decision.

She gave up, and instead used her shiny and beautiful emerald-green eyes, sinking into a slouch so that she was slightly beneath me and then puffed out her lower lip, the picture of pathetic. She walked up to me with her hands clasped together, seemingly on the verge of crying saying, "Please don't do it Athene, please! You'll be killed, and so will your father! If you can't save his life then save your own! Stay here until an opportunity presents itself! You can't die, you're supposed to be our queen!!"

I stared into her puppy dog eyes, and a wave of pity swept over me, just as sudden as the calm had. I pushed it away, once again refusing to give in to Portia's scheme.

"I know you're faking it Portia, I'm going and that's final. If it is my destiny to be queen, then I want to be a noble one, not feeling blameworthy for abandoning my father when he needed me. I want to be free of guilt, able to stand in front of my people and tell them with a clear conscience that I'll stand for them and help them when they need me, and I can't do that if I don't do it now."

Portia just stood there, ditching the sad eyes and obviously shocked at my speech.

"I…I can't object to that. Go…But I'm coming with you!"