Disclaimer: Go to chapter 1, 4, 5, 7, or 12.

Zeus and Hera sat in the throne room. They were silently waiting for the rest of the gods to return from the party. Poseidon, Hephaestus, Dionysus and Demeter would not be joining them for the aftermath of the solstice. Poseidon needed to return to the sea, Hephaestus had a project to finish, Demeter had crops to grow, and Dionysus did not trust leaving Chiron alone with the campers for allotted periods of time.

Athena was the first to come back. She acknowledged Zeus and Hera and sat down in her throne with a smug look on her face. About thirty seconds after she sat down, Artemis and Apollo appeared. Apollo was finally happy. His sister was back and he did not want to tell her this but he actually missed her. Apollo and Artemis were having a discussion about what had happened back on the mountain. The twins were back together and very content at the moment. They both took their seats and went back to whispering. Hermes, Ares, and Aphrodite were the lat to come in. Aphrodite and Hermes were glaring at each other. The three gods sat in their thrones and the glaring continued. The throne room had an angry vibe flowing through it. Artemis, Athena, Hera, and Zeus were the only gods that were not affected by it.

Zeus cleared his throat. "I have noticed that Olympus is still here." He said. Hermes and Apollo rolled their eyes in response. "We never received any complaints from any of you. Obviously, you were up to something but I've yet to figure out what you did. I would ask you, Athena, but I have a feeling that you were a part of whatever it is that you five did." No one answered him. The gods stared at him, waiting for their father to continue.

"None of you have anything to say?" Zeus asked as he skeptically looked at the faces of each of his children. He did not like how Aphrodite was glaring at Athena. Aphrodite sighed angrily. She would have spoken up but that would prove that she and the others had gone against what Zeus had said. Aphrodite decided that she would speak after Zeus and Hera left the room.

Zeus expected that at least one of his kids would crack. However, the gods had thousands of years to perfect their innocent facades. No one spoke up. Artemis looked around the room. Confusion was etched around her face.

"What are you asking about?" She asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Hera and I went on vacation for a few days."

"A few days?"

"Yes a few days." Zeus nodded.

"You trusted leaving those five," Artemis gestured her hand towards her siblings. "Alone on Olympus for almost a week?" Her voice was rather calm. Artemis was surprised that the gods hadn't bothered to look for her. Her siblings had been on Olympus doing nothing for a week and no one went looking for her. They probably figured that she could get herself out of the mess she was in.

"No, not necessarily." Zeus said. "Do you honestly think that I didn't set my usual guide lines?"

Artemis raised one of her eyebrows.

"I simply said that they were not allowed to bother either of us." Zeus said. "I implied that Athena and Ares were not allowed to fight, Hermes was not allowed to steal anything; Aphrodite was not allowed to bother me about any blemishes that occurred to her, and Apollo was not allowed to complain to me about everything that happened to him."

"That's funny." Apollo said.

"Very funny." Athena added in agreement. She figured out where Apollo was planning on going with his comment.

"What is so funny?" Hera asked.

"Neither of you mentioned not helping out with the half-bloods' quest." Apollo answered with a chuckle. He had finally reached where the conversation needed to get to.

"Excuse me?" Zeus and Hera asked at the same time.

"Well you see..." Hermes began. Aphrodite glared at him. He returned the glare.

"Aphrodite, if you keep frowning like that, you'll get wrinkles." Hermes pointed out.

"It takes more muscles to frown than to smile." Athena added.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Aphrodite growled.

"We don't want you to get frown lines." Athena said.

Zeus shook his head. His children, yes he still saw them as children, were always extremely random.

"Yeah." Ares spoke up. "We wouldn't want your beautiful face to get frown lines."

"And the growling," Artemis piped in. "that is oh so un-lady like." Aphrodite rolled her eyes at her "siblings" and forced a smile on her face.

"That's better." Apollo said.

Hera sighed. "Well this conversation is going no where fast. Hermes, would you please continue from where you started?"

"Before or af-"

"Before you started the frowning conversation." Hera said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, alright." Hermes said with a sigh. His eyes wandered towards where Aphrodite sat. "Well we found it funny that neither of you bothered with mentioning that we were not allowed to interfere with the quest."

"Yeah." Ares and Apollo nodded in agreement.

"Suppose that one of us accidentally helped out with the most recent quest..." Athena began.

"That person wouldn't get in trouble, would they?" Apollo finished.

"You really had to say that, didn't you?" Aphrodite asked angrily.

"What did we say about frowning?" Apollo snapped. Aphrodite rolled her eyes again.

"Yes, yes we did." Hermes said. "Anyways, would we get punished?" Four heads turned towards Zeus.

"Why do you care about that?" Artemis asked. She was rather confused and annoyed with her siblings. First of all, she had no idea about what was happening. Second of all, she couldn't figure out what Apollo, Athena, and Hermes were talking about. Finally, she was annoyed by the way that no one had welcomed her back. She had been gone for almost a week, helped save the lives of a few demigods, and managed to arrive back on Olympus just in time for the winter solstice. It was as if no one had missed her. Sure, Apollo gave her a hug and spoke to her for like two minutes after the solstice but that was it.

"We're just wondering." Athena answered.

"I'm pretty sure that you all understand that none of you are supposed to help with the quests." Zeus said.

"Well, you did not say that we are not allowed to help." Ares chided.

"After thousands of years of me stating that gods are not allowed to help with the mortals' quests, I'm pretty sure that you all would understand that you can not help."

"You interfered though." Hermes pointed out.

"I did not."

"Yes you did." The gods said at the same time.

"I did not."

"You did... how do you think the mortals got away from the skeletons at the Hoover Dam?"

Zeus' mouth twitched for a moment. He was going to deny that he had helped but his kids had caught him red handed. "Well..." He began. "I suppose that I can't punish which ever one of you did that."

"Good." Ares said, hoping that the discussion was over.

"They were up to something." Hera whispered to Zeus.

"I know that much." Zeus replied. "I'm starting to think that they did something to the quest. The way that they are talking..."

"Almost hints that they did something."

Athena cleared her throat. "We can hear you." She pointed out.

"And even if we did help out with the quest," Aphrodite said a little to quickly. "We wouldn't tell you."

"They won't suspect a thing." Hermes muttered.

"What did you five do?" Zeus asked as he stood up from his throne.

"Artemis, none of the things that we have said apply to you. You can leave if you want to." Hera said.

"Nah, I'll stay." Artemis said. "Nothing interesting has happened since I got back."

"Admit it sis, you just want to see me get in trouble." Apollo moaned.

"Maybe I do." Artemis said as she flashed a smile at her brother. "And don't call me sis."

"Deep down, I know that you secretly love when I call you that, little sister.

"I am not your little sister." Artemis said slowly. "Just because my godly form makes me appear as a young girl, does not mean that I am younger than you." She attempted to stay calm. "Besides, we all know that I am two minutes older than you."

"Gods Artemis! You haven't been back for a day and you two are already bickering." Aphrodite complained. "Can't you save the fighting for later?"

Neither of the twins answered.

"As I said before Artemis and Apollo began fighting," Zeus began to speak again. "You five did something; I'd like to know what you did. If you tell me now, I promise that I will not get as mad as I will be when I found out what you did later on this week."

The room was silent. Hera sighed in exasperation.

"Father," Athena said. "We really didn't do anything wrong. I can proudly say that we followed your guidelines. Hermes, Apollo, and Ares have not set up any pranks." She decided to leave out the nail incident. "Ares and I did not fight as much as we normally do. We did not make fun of Aphrodite. Nothing was stolen or broken, and we did not destroy anything. I do not understand why you and Hera fail to trust us. Honestly, I would love to tell you how my week went but Aphrodite looks as though she will attack me... Should I say the wrong thing."

"Why would she consider attacking you?" Zeus asked.

Athena sighed. Zeus obviously ignored her point about mistrusting. "At the moment, I am not sure. You already said that you would not punish any one who may of helped with the quest... Do you mind if I talk to her and the others alone for a couple of minutes?"

"Go ahead." Zeus said. "Hera and I will be down the hall. Come get us when you have reached a conclusion."

"We will be back here before any of you can say lightning if we hear any yelling." Hera threatened as she and Zeus left the throne room.

The remaining gods stood up and walked to the center of the throne room. They were staring at Aphrodite.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"Don't play dumb with us." Hermes hissed.

"Hermes be nice." Artemis said.

"Why is she still here?" Aphrodite asked, throwing a glare at the twins.

"Artemis is here because we trust her." Apollo said. He hated when Aphrodite referred to people, specifically his sister, as he, she, or it. "We know that she won't tell father what we did."

The gods nodded their heads in agreement.

"Back to the subject at hand." Athena said. "Why are you attempting to avoid the subject about what we did this week? As I said earlier, Zeus is not going to punish us for helping out with the quest."

"He definitely won't after he hears that all twelve gods helped out with the quest." Hermes said.

"All twelve of us helped?" Athena asked.

Aphrodite groaned in annoyance. "We did not."

"Yes we did." Hermes said. "Dionysus sent the wave of madness over the manticore's men, Apollo lent them a train, Aphrodite provided Percy with advice, Ares did not kill Percy, Hephaestus killed Bianca, Athena made Percy think, Zeus got the statues to spring to life, Poseidon helped Grover and the Ophiotaurus get here safely, and Artemis saved just about everyone." He paused for a moment. "Then Demeter, Hera, and I voted that we let the heroes live."

"The last three gods mean almost noth-" Aphrodite began to say.

Hermes took a deep breath. "I don't think that Hera and Demeter will like being called 'nothing'... I certainly don't like being called nothing. Anyways, I talked to both Percy and Annabeth before they left Olympus, Demeter talked to Annabeth, and Hera did not tell Annabeth off for not watching where she was going. If you ask me that was more than enough help."

"The quest was did not finish until after the heroes got back to Camp Half-Blood." Apollo said.

"The heroes are safely at camp." Athena added.

"Your point?" Aphrodite asked.

"All twelve gods helped out." Hermes said. "Athena wins the bet."

"She can't win. She wasn't supposed to win."

"What bet?" Artemis asked.

"We bet on how many gods would get involved with the most recent quest. Athena bet on twelve, all twelve of us got involved. Aphrodite is a sore loser." Apollo whispered to his sister.

"Oh," she said. "But why isn't she letting you tell Zeus and Hera about it?"

"Like I said, Aphrodite is a sore loser."

"Hey!" Aphrodite said loudly. Her voice was just an octave lower from yelling.

"Everyone else is fine with Athena winning. Aphrodite, its one bet. You didn't lose a lot of money. Can we just act like everything is back to normal?" Ares asked.

The gods started laughing.

"What?"

"The raging war god is asking everyone to calm down." Athena said. "That is the complete opposite of you."

"Yeah, okay." Aphrodite sighed.

The gods smiled. No matter how many times they fought or got on each other's nerves, they always found a way to forget about what happened and went back to being friends. Then again, that's what families are for.

"I suppose that one of us should go get Zeus and Hera." Aphrodite suggested.

"I'll go get them." Artemis said. She turned around to go get Zeus and Hera.

"No wait!" Hermes called to Artemis' retreating figure.

"What?" Artemis was a few feet away from the door to the throne room.

"I have an idea."

"Not this again." Athena groaned.

"No you'll like this." Hermes said with a mischievous grin.

The gods looked at him in silence.

Hermes took a deep breath and yelled "LIGHTNING!"