It didn't take me five months to update this time! Aren't you all so happy? XP

PPOV

"My lord Zeus, I beg of you to please allow Perseus Jackson to succeed in his quest to find the fountain of Corinthos."

I looked around, only to find myself looking down on the throne room of Mount Olympus. All of the thrones were empty except for Zeus', which was occupied by none other than the king of the gods himself.

Zeus looked rather annoyed, to put it lightly. Tiny lightning bolts were crackling restlessly through his beard, and his eyebrows were furrowed together. "Aphrodite, you want me to let Percy Jackson succeed on his quest again?" he asked, sounding slightly incredulous at the very idea.

For the first time, I noticed Aphrodite was also in the throne room. She was kneeling in front of Zeus, clad in a white flowing gown with a slender wreath of calla lilies woven into her hair. "My lord, I wish it to be so," Aphrodite replied earnestly, clasping her hands together. "Please let him succeed, I beg of you."

Zeus' eyebrows shot up, and he looked confused. More miniature lightning zapped through his beard as he gave Aphrodite a suspicious look. "Why do you want that impudent boy to finish his quest so much?" Zeus asked bluntly. "He's already completed far too many in so short a time without failure— it isn't healthy to let him think that he's invincible."

"Well, he did bathe in the River Styx, so technically he is invincible…" Aphrodite murmured, sounding almost apologetic.

"Silence, Aphrodite," Zeus commanded irritably. "You know what I mean."

"Yes my lord," Aphrodite agreed meekly.

This was so out of character for the goddess that it wasn't even funny. Why was Aphrodite being so docile all of a sudden? She usually always had to get her way.

"My lord, it's just that Percy is on a quest concerning true love, which is my field of expertise as you know," Aphrodite continued, looking innocently up at Zeus. "And I just wanted to help him a little teensy bit."

Oh. That was why she was acting this way. Aphrodite was feeling guilty about her son screwing with Annabeth's head.

Damn straight.

"He's already defeated eight of the ten monsters," Zeus grumbled. "I don't see why you would feel the need to help him at all. And I have decided he needs to fail a quest, to poke a hole in that overinflated hero's ego he has acquired."

Aphrodite looked alarmed. "But sire, not this quest!" she cried. "If he doesn't succeed, he loses his true love forever!"

"Well, that was your son's fault to begin with, Aphrodite," Zeus snapped back. "I forbid you from interfering with Percy Jackson's quest. You may not help him."

Aphrodite bowed her head dejectedly. "Yes my lord," she whispered.

I sat bolt upright on my mat, instantly awake. "You have got to be kidding me," I groaned out loud, running my hands through my hair. I had gone through all of this crap, gotten sliced up by four different monsters in that many days, and now I didn't even get to succeed no matter what? After my box of trophies, my fights with all of the fountain's guardians, and the wounds that refused to fade even after they were fully healed? After Annabeth hated me and loved Travis Stoll?

I don't know about you, but that kinda pissed me off.

"I can't believe this," I muttered, flopping back down on my mat. "Gods suck."

There was a warning rumble of thunder in the distance for my rebellious insult, but I paid it no attention. I was not in the mood to apologize right now.

"Why does my life suck so much?" I muttered. My voice was mostly muffled, due to the fact my face was buried in the mat, so I wasn't expecting an answer.

But it was still an answer that I got.

"Heroes always have hard lives, Percy," a quiet voice replied. I sprang upright again, staring around wildly for the source of the voice. The monsters didn't have much in the way of security measures, since they were- well, monsters. They were monsters on a magic island who could regenerate in ten minutes if killed. They were perfectly safe without so much as a picket fence.

I, on the other hand, had only one life to play with. I prefered to die on Corinthos killed by something that was actually related to my doomed quest, not by some random midnight intruder.

Wow. That was a depressing sentence.

I shook myself out of my thoughts, focusing instead on finding the speaker. It wasn't any of the monsters: Frio and Trest and Enry spoke in deeper, more gravelly tones, while KaRino had her feline purr, Ruli a lower, clearer sound, and Klian a distinctive, slippery drawl. This guy's voice —it was obviously a dude speaking— was musical, charming, grand, and hinting at a handsome visage, all at once.

So of course, I immediately knew it was Eros.

Without thinking, I flung myself from the mat and rolled into an attacking position, Riptide somehow unsheathed into sword form as I glared at the god. "What do you want?" I growled.

Eros lolled against a tree at the edge of the forest, seemingly unconcerned with the sword in my hand or the anger in my voice. "Whoa there, tiger," he drawled. "I'm here to help your sorry mortal ass, so don't go trying to attack me with that pretty little blade."

I narrow my eyes at the god as I processed this, refusing to lower Riptide even a fraction of a centimeter. "You sent me on the damn quest to begin with by shooting Annabeth," I pointed out. "Why would you want to help me?"

Eros grinned lazily, picking himself up off the tree and walking towards me. The two quivers were still strapped to his back, black and red feathers poking over the top of his right shoulder. His bow was nowhere to be seen, but I assumed that he didn't particularly need it right now. Or maybe he could do that nifty trick like Artemis' Hunters, where their bows materialized in their hands whenever they wanted them.

But I was getting off topic.

Eros gave me an appraising look. "I am aware of what I did," he replied finally. "It was foolish of me to toy with my mother's favorite couple, but I didn't really think it through."

Now I was surprised. A god was admitting he had been wrong? Mount Olympus must be imploding as we speak.

"Well, I can agree with you there at least," I muttered. "But why are you here now? Are you going to reverse the whole Annabeth-hating-me deal?" a bubble of hope blossomed in my chest- could I go home today, without having to fight Klian or Enry? I lowered Riptide, letting the blade dangle at my side.

Eros shifted slightly, looking almost uncomfortable. "I can't exactly do that," he murmured awkwardly.

"Why not?" I demanded, anger instantly fizzing through my veins again. "You have those arrows of love, right? Just use one to reverse the indifference arrow you shot Annabeth with!"

Eros raised an eyebrow at me, looking disdainful. "You think love is that easy, Percy Jackson? An arrow or two and you're back to normal?" he retorted. "No, I can't just shoot Annabeth again."

"Why not?" I asked desperately. "Why wouldn't it work?"

Wow. I never thought the day would come when I would be begging a god to shoot my girlfriend.

"My arrows imitate love, but really they're more closely related to infatuation," Eros explained, tapping the end of one of the arrows in his red quiver. "When I shot Annabeth and she fell in love with Travis, she wasn't really in love with him— she was just obsessed. The whole time she's been consciously thinking she likes Travis, but underneath it all she's still in love with you." Eros glanced wistfully towards the food table. "Is there still food over there?" he asked. "I'm starving."

"Go ahead," I murmured, slightly in shock at this whole revelation. "So your arrows don't actually make people fall in and out of love, they just mask the real feelings they have and put a fake set in their place?" I watched as Eros grabbed a slice of pineapple pizza and poured himself some mango juice.

The god shook his head. "No, it doesn't work like that," he disagreed, his mouth full of pizza. Somehow, Eros managed to still look perfectly acceptable, even charming, with his face stuffed with food. I guess it was just a perk of his job.

"Then what exactly do your arrows do?" I demanded, throwing my hands up in exasperation. Would it kill someone to give me a straight answer for once?

"My arrows imitate love and indifference at first, but the longer the effects settle, the more profound the feelings get," Eros explained. "That's why you only have ten days to complete the quest. After that long, the arrows' effects become irreversible."

Well, at least that explained the time limit. It had kind of been bothering me that I suddenly had a specific set of rules for a quest. I don't do well with rules. "I still don't understand why you can't just shoot Annabeth with an arrow of love instead of making me do the whole preordained-to-fail quest deal," I remarked. "It doesn't make sense."

"It makes perfect sense," Eros argued thickly through a mouthful of pizza. He raised an eyebrow at me, looking balefully over to where I stood. "You're just ignorant."

"Then enlighten me," I snapped. "I thought you said you were going to help?"

"Well, Zeus forbade my mother from helping you, so she ordered me to help you instead," Eros replied, finishing his pizza slice and washing it down with his mango juice. "I don't really want to be here. There's a couple of kids in New Jersey who really need to get together, and I need to work on them. But she's kind of annoyed with me for starting this whole shebang in the first place, so I had to obey." Eros shrugged, looking completely disinterested in the topic at hand.

"Just answer my question," I sighed. I followed Eros to the food table and poured myself a glass of juice too. He was making me hungry, standing there and eating all of the food in front of me.

"I already told you that my arrows just imitate love, and really are just extreme infatuation," Eros started, setting down his glass for a moment. "So if I shot Annabeth with a love arrow and set you up to be the first person she sees, she won't really love you again— it would all be fake. I doubt you want that."

"No," I whispered, staring down into my juice. "I would hate that."

"Exactly." Eros waved his second slice of pizza for emphasis. "So I'm basically here just to give you advice on how to succeed on your quest."

"I thought Zeus said I had to fail," I observed, raising my eyebrow at Eros.

He grinned suddenly, those Crest Whitening Strip teeth almost blinding me in the process. "Percy, I'm all about defying authority. The best love stories come about that way," Eros informed me gleefully. "Zeus forbidding success just makes it so much more tantalizing of a goal."

I grinned back at Eros. "Maybe you aren't so bad after all," I remarked after a moment.

Eros snorted, draining his juice and giving me a 'duh' look. "Of course I'm not bad. I'm ridiculously perfect," he scoffed. "Now let's get to work, shall we? You're fighting Enrystyl tomorrow, right? So what you've got to do is…"

And that's how the god of love became my strategist.

Hold on Annabeth, I'm coming.

This was a really quick update. Don't get used to it. =P I'm probably going to go back eventually and revise a couple chapters, because I started this story at the beginning of my fanfiction career, and frankly— the beginning kinda sucks. =D so anyway, what didja think?

Review please! =) I'll try to update as quickly as I can, but remember I have over ten other stories I've been neglecting as well!

~TMI~