Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. Thanks to Rick Riordan as I've borrowed some of his characters and taken some liberties of my own. I own nothing.

AN: Sorry for the delay in chapters! I've been so ill it's been ridiculous. But I've been thinking all week about this chapter. It's a little shorter than I meant for it to be, but that's only because otherwise it was going to be twice as long as the other's. So it'll be a two parter. Part two hopefully coming to you soon! As always, thanks for reading and for all the comments. I really appreciate it. It keeps me motivated to know others like it. :)

Tempting the Fates

Chapter Ten

The Difference Between Love and Loyalty

Piper

The look in Annabeth's eyes had said everything.

She had fought, before. Monsters and deranged gods and though she hadn't seen battle the way the older demigods had, the daughter of Aphrodite had still fought. And in her blade she had seen battles, some past and some yet to come. But the fear that she saw in the steely grey eyes melting them into paralysing distress… that was a look she had never seen.

And it was aimed directly at her.

Piper had tried to apologise then through her tears but when she reached out for the older girl, her thin body launched itself towards the corner of the wall. Standing on the bed, the daughter of Wisdom was reduced to clawing at the wall and screaming like what she saw— Piper— was too horrific for her own eyes.

"Please, Annabeth. Please! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to work like that. I didn't even know I could do that!"

But she kept crying out for the others. Anyone who might save her.

Jason all but flew into the room then, though his feet were still most definitely anchored to the floor. Frank wasn't far behind him. The wild look in Annabeth's eyes prompted Jason to usher his girlfriend out of the room and down the hall to her own room. Just a few doors down and the shrieks stopped only to be replaced with the sound of wretched sobbing. Frank's gentle voice rumbled from the other room and soon even the sobbing stopped.

"What happened?" He tried to question her but Piper said nothing. Each time she wiped at her eyes, her vision was blurred only seconds later by tears that just wouldn't stop.

Is that what my power is? To force people into doing things that they don't want to? To take away their will and their choice. Mother, is that what this is?

And not for the first time she thought less than pleasant things about her lineage. Not about her father, bless him, who would never hurt a soul, but who just didn't have time. But her mother, well, a girl always needed her mother. In demigod situations such as this a halfblood really could use their godly progenitor to help guide them through the equivalent of power puberty because there had to be some kind of regulator switch to make sure she didn't do such a thing again.

The darkness rolled in her gut once more and restricted her throat.

"Baby, please. Tell me what happened Piper?" A strong hand undid the braids in her hair, freeing them, and combed through the strands. She fell rather than sat on her bed, legs turning to jelly as she was overcome with exhaustion. And still, her throat was tight. She just couldn't make herself answer.

Piper, dispassionate to all that happened around her, turned inward. The son of Zeus spoke but her own inner monologue was too loud to follow another verbal one. Blankets were pulled over her and she curled up under them. However long passed and eventually he left and the daughter of love fell asleep not thinking on the day but fearing what she might be capable of— after all, it wasn't the first time on a mission her path went so wayward.

Shadows encompassed her and the air— it wasn't right. It was both too thick and too thin at once leaving lungs overworked without ever knowing satisfaction for a full breath. It was darker than twilight, the lack of light made it preposterous for eyes to adjust. Eyes needed some light and this place, there was none. It felt wrong— wrong as in heavy, and thick, and pressing. Everything about her felt restricted— her ability to see, her ability hear, her ability to move. Nothing would focus and yet there were presences all around her. That tingling up the back of her neck, the one that made hair on end, shot through her nerves like the static electricity of Jason's touch after a heated make out. Okay, there was nothing suggestive about making out down here.

Danger surrounded her but she couldn't speak. There was no where to move to and like a channel tuned to the wrong station or a radio not quite set to the right frequency, something started to happen but it was filled with crackles. The hazy static of white and black snow filled her head. Something was happening— something moving ahead.

Two figures. They weren't defined but she knew they were there. They were moving— down. That direction was down. Down they went and… others came. Other shapes, approaching quickly and threatening. Fighting? Were they fighting? One fell. And a larger figure… he came, too.

Then it changed. The station flicked off and another dial turned. This time there was no picture puzzle impossible for her to work out but blackness. A feeling of hopelessness filled her. The voices were not for her, she knew that, because the fears were not her own. But the sadness— it froze her to her core. They spoke of loneliness, of giving up, of hopelessness and standing apart in a way one could never fit. She wanted to scream and tear her own hair out.

Soft at first and then brighter, light pulsed in the distance. It came closer, the crimson beating, a sound whooshing passed her ears. At first Piper thought maybe it was better than the quiet, the thoughts in her head, all the sadness. But it grew louder and it got closer and she knew in her gut that this… it was a heart. And the sound was lungs. The breathing changed and surrounding her she could hear laughter.

I wake, puny one. I wake and I will take them. They cannot survive except for my amusement. You know who they are and you know what I will do to them.

Give up. You know who awakens and you have seen what she will do. Leave these children to me, Piper McLean, and maybe I will spare you.

The voice boomed in her head and thought she slapped her hands over her ears, she couldn't quiet the sounds. The laughing. It wouldn't stop. It didn't stop and the ground beneath her feet shook and then split as earthen hands reached up for her ankles pulling her under. Clay filled her mouth and her nose and her lungs… she died slowly unable to cry for Jason.

The landscape morphed once more. The black shroud of night wrapped its arms around her and no matter how she tried, she couldn't shake it's hold. Every hair stood on end. She stood on the banks of a river, wide and steady, the soft sound of water lapping against the shore just inches from her feet. Brown eyes gazed down stream, the water moving more swiftly downhill. In the distance there was a soft red glowing— another river, but this one molten. Liquid fire. Fatally, the two rivers entwined and where they joined steam erupted forth; Piper had never seen anything like it. It was both sad and beautiful at the same time.

Piper's attention snapped forward when the bubbling became more of a murmur. In front of her, the water rose, shapeless at first but growing taller. Grabbing the dagger at her side, she prepared herself for an ethereal battle she knew from experience would leave her gasping and waking with wounds real. The river flowed forming a graceful cloak draped across narrow shoulders flecked with little things resembling tadpoles, she stepped forth with sandals made of lily pads and water softened pebbles, her eyes were deep pools and her hair was long delicate tendrils of the weeds that grew at river bottom and sometimes tickled little feet who dared to swim too freely. Words were caught in Piper's throat and so she did the only thing she could: stood there staring with her jaw slack and her eyes bugging out of head feeling small and insignificant.

"Who comes to visit my banks?" A brooke bubbling softly came to mind, the words tickled her ears so gently.

"P-piper. Piper." She attempted again more confidently.

Standing before her, the woman from the water, stood unmoving. It was clear in the way she held herself that this answer was not acceptable. She had not meant for her name but rather her heritage. Not for the first time, she blanched and bristled feeling less than warm and fuzzy. Fighting the brief wish to bury her dagger in the smug river lady's face, she took a deep breath.

"Daughter of Aphrodite."

The laugh that filled the silence was absolutely frothing like the base of a waterfall. Piper rolled her eyes. It wasn't exactly the first time she'd gotten that reaction.

"Daughter of Love," the goddess sneered. "What does Aphrodite know of love? Tell me, little half blood, what have you learned from your mother of love?"

Seething, her fists were balled at her sides and she lashed out at the woman, smart decision or not. "I may not have learned it from my mother, but I know plenty about love!" And she did, after all, she loved Jason. They'd fallen in love and she knew he would do anything for her.

"Oh do you?" She mocked. Stepping forward, she surged with water, the uncontrollable white rapids capping across the whole of her body. "Tell me, Piper, what do you know of love? What does any child of Aphrodite know beyond falling in love? Beyond wrapping men and women around their fingers and stealing their will? Anyone can fall in love, Piper. But when has any offspring of Aphrodite demonstrated the capacity to remain in love?"

The words pierced her mind and her heart like frigid torrents tearing past a dam. The thought had crossed her mind before. How many of her half siblings from back home had changed partners as frequently as they changed shampoo or lip balms? How many doting admirers had followed any number of her brothers or sisters at a time? How often had they bent them to their will to forget about them just as quickly? And hadn't Piper just demonstrated the casual destruction of will just that very night?

Reaching out, the woman made of water, caressed the demigod's cheek and in its wake left no more in the way of liquid than was already there; her eyes were streaming.

"Tell me, little one, what do you know of love? Love is nothing without loyalty. Anyone can fall in love but to remain in love… that is a choice one must make every day. Choices come with consequences. So tell me, what do you know of love?"

Piper remained silent clutching her dagger but she no longer wanted to bury it to the hilt into the goddess before her. Her stomach twisted inside of her and her thoughts drifted to a time not long ago when she had betrayed those closest to her in her own best interest.

What do you know of loyalty? a tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind.

"I know of love and loyalty." Pacing around her, her movements were fluid just like her constitute and yet, there was no denying that she was fiercely powerful, if not the most powerful presence that Piper had ever stood before. She could feel her skin prickling in the way it did for demigods when their heroic senses kicked in— the fight or flight response.

She wove a story then of gentle waters warming. Loving and knowing all the consequences but choosing to love anyway and the consumption— being burnt up to nothing. Being completely consumed, erupting like the steam before them. "

And then the war came. I was ethereal then, without enough energy even to manifest beyond a mere shadow. But I was first to come to Zeus, to pledge myself to him. I asked for nothing in return but I was first to pledge what little strength I had left to him. Zeus bestowed upon me a form once again because what good is a soldier who cannot wield a weapon? Others followed of course but when the fighting ended, the Olympians successful, Zeus rewarded me."

Her smile was wistful and when she turned back to Piper, she held both a nurturing and terrifying beauty. She gave life and she took it. She was both soft and harsh, depending upon this bend or that curve.

"He let my waters flow through the world, side by side with my love and down stream he let them join for all eternity. And I was whole once more. My word because the ultimate oath, for swearing on me is to declare the most grave vow of loyalty. So, daughter of Aphrodite, tell me, what you know of love?"

Right then, she had to admit, that she knew nothing.

Piper's eyes flew open and her body threw itself forward, bolting upright in bed. She was damp, the sheets around her felt wet. Just as quickly she scrambled out of bed, waking Jason (who must have returned at some point to check up on her and had fallen asleep next to her). She broke down then, a chill radiating from her core.

"Only one of them is going to make it back, Jason. Only one of them will come back."

Because she'd spoken to Styx and she knew what was in store for their fallen friends.