To say that Percy was a tad bit excited was pretty much a huge understatement to say the least.
He and Piper were starting to descend over the city of Miami on the pegasi and despite the apparent damage from the hurricane, the city still stood boldly on the coast. It seemed to challenge the ocean itself, which as ludicrous as that sounded Percy was all too aware of how treacherous the sea can be.
"I'll set us down over there," Percy spoke to Piper who was sitting behind him with her arms around his waist.
She simply nodded before they descended in for a landing in a deserted downtown street. The floodwaters had receded some but the damage of the storm was still there. Trash was dumped all over the street, cars were abandoned all over the place, and the windows of shops had been busted open.
"Blackjack, circle the city and try not to get spotted while we look for her,"
The Pegasus gave a snort in protest but took to the air to fly around the city, Percy just hoped that there weren't any doughnut shops unaffected by the storm, the last thing he wanted to deal with is a Pegasus sugar high.
"Percy," Piper spoke up getting his attention, "If we find this girl, what exactly do you plan to do with her?" Piper asked.
That question made the son of the sea god freeze right in his tracks before face palming himself. How could he be so stupid? Annabeth told him not to come down here so he definitely can't take her back to camp unless he wanted to have his neck wrung by his girlfriend. He still hadn't gotten any word from Poseidon besides what Chiron had told him. That still didn't make any sense to him. Chiron has known Percy since he was 12, he knows that he won't just sit by when Percy has a sister out in harm's way, his fatal flaw of loyalty would not allow it.
"I don't know Piper," Percy responded, "I just hope we can find her and figure out what's going on."
On that note the duo continued their search through the city.
Time skip
After searching far and wide for the daughter of Poseidon, Percy and Piper decided to check out an immigration center near the center of downtown.
Flimsy tents and homeless people who had lost their homes to the storm surrounded the place. Percy would have loved to try and assist some of the people but he had a mission and he needed to stick to it.
After they walked in the door to the building, an employee, middle-aged Latina woman, walked up to the pair.
"Can I help you?" she asked with a slight Hispanic accent. She had a very tired look on her face with lines of sleeplessness under her eyes. She still maintained a smile though which Percy couldn't help but admire.
"Um, we're looking for-" Percy started before he was suddenly interrupted.
"We're looking for a girl with long black hair and sea green eyes, she's my friend's cousin and she lost her parents during the storm," Piper informed the lady.
The lady nodded her head before reaching for a nearby desk to grab a clipboard to look at a list of what Percy assumed were people's names.
"What's her name?" the lady asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Selene," Percy blurted out without thinking. He had no idea what her name was before, how did he suddenly know what it was?
"Ah, here she is," the lady said finding her name on her clipboard, "Right this way."
Piper gave a look of pure confusion and all Percy could do was shrug, no point in dwelling on it too much now. He was about to meet his demigod sister.
They followed the lady down a few hallways passing different people wearing rags and smelling horrible. It was clear that many people were homeless and probably hadn't showered since the storm ravaged the city. Percy could only look at them with sympathy before he returned his attention to the task at hand.
"She's right in here, we had to keep her separate from the others to keep her from scaring the others," the lady said as she swung open the door.
The room itself was average size with a table in the middle surrounded by chairs. However, Percy could care less about the appearance of the room. He was immediately drawn to the cowering figure in the corner.
Percy couldn't make out much due to her being hidden in the shadows but he could make out the noise, the sound of sobbing.
"Selene?"
The sobbing stopped as Selene slowly emerged from the corner.
(Italics are Ancient Greek)
"Who's there?' she softly spoke. She sounded absolutely terrified.
Percy opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a syllable there a golden light appeared in the room indicating that a god or goddess was arriving.
Percy barely managed to shield his eyes and Selene's before the goddess he least expected to see showed herself.
"Mom?1" Percy practically shouted when her mom appeared in the room.
The goddess of love was looking as beautiful as usual with her appearance constantly shifting to many different beautiful women, which did include Annabeth.
Aphrodite gave her normal flirtatious smile towards Percy, "Why hello there Percy, I see you and my daughter have found your sister," Aphrodite spoke with a hint of anger in her voice. This immediately let Percy know that something was definitely wrong; he'd only seen Aphrodite in her happy flirtatious moods. He'd rather not see her when she wasn't either of those.
Before he could say a word, the goddess turned on his sister, Percy immediately stepped in front of his sister shielding her.
"You won't hurt her," he spoke firmly.
Aphrodite only snarled at him before looking at Selene who was still cowering away in fear. Except now, she some how had an even more terrified expression on her face, like she was facing certain death whereas earlier she did took terrified but certainly not like her life was on the line.
"If I had it my way, daughter of Poseidon, I would have you vaporized where you stand or immediately sent to the Fields of Punishment for what you've done but the other Olympians have voted to let you live but I warn you, if you take one false step, I will serve your body to Cerberus myself," Aphrodite finished her speech and Percy was absolutely speechless.
What had Selene done to anger Aphrodite so much? Why hadn't Poseidon told him about any of this? Why did the other Olympians put it to vote on whether or not to spare her?
Before Percy could ask, Aphrodite disappeared in a flash of golden light leaving them with more questions than answers.
Piper, managing to shake off her shock first, walked over to the cowering Selene and took her hands and held them in hers to reassure her.
"Don't worry Selene, we're here to help you, we're going to take you to a safe haven for demigods, a place called Camp Half-Blood," Piper spoke in fluent Ancient Greek to Selene who, while still shaken by what Aphrodite had said, managed to nod her head before waking with the two towards the exit.
Percy felt relief that he would be returning back to camp but after Aphrodite's unexpected visit, he was afraid of what the future would hold for him and his friends once again and he couldn't help but worry about the sacrifices that he hoped he wouldn't have to make.