Almighty (Daughter of Olympus III) - [Leo Valdez xF!Oc]

I'm Ready to Fight God AND Die Trying

As soon as Ara gets home, Percy attacks her with an endless stream of questions. She answers but it's all very disappointing.

"...To top it all, Meg is a beast!" Ara says. "She's so hard to keep in place and fights people no matter their age or power or—"

"Oh, so you got a taste of what it was like to be Mike and me?" Percy smirks. "Good luck keeping that hurricane under control."

Ara would be excited about it, but instead she's pretty sure it's a matter of time before she taints the girl. "I'll have to skip cheer practice tomorrow and see what I can do to the Prius before I go back to camp."

"I won't commit the same mistake twice and assume your former crush on this guy is influencing your actions," Percy sits up and puts his manual aside. "But we should still have it out, right? It would give me peace of mind."

Ara leans on her headboard. "What do you need to hear?"

"That you won't let this guy trick you into seeing him as the god you had a fat crush on when we were younger. Or worse, as some kind of Mike."

She scoffs in disgust. "I snapped out of it when Leo and I went to see him at Delos. It was disappointing, he wouldn't help until he saw he could get something out of it, he was ready to play the victim for the rest of the war regardless of how desperately we needed him."

"And how was he acting once you got him into camp?"

"As you'd expect a god to act," Ara rolls her eyes. "Disinterested in the missing campers, selfish, and wanting all of our resources to be focused on his welfare. I almost ran him through with Almighty."

"What happened to not being rash?" Percy raises a brow. "A dead god isn't a good look on you, it would make next solstice pretty awkward."

"If there is a solstice at all," she wrinkles her nose. "We barely got one last December, I doubt I'll get one this summer. And you know what? Good. I have a lot to do here and in camp. Just to think of tomorrow's activities..."

"Yeah, I'm thankful I didn't have to play any of Harley's twisted games while I was a camper," Percy snorts. "That's another mini you, and he's got a chokehold on camp just like you had at his age."

Ara doesn't answer right away, a bit lost in thought. "Lily thinks I should mentor the younger campers."

Her brother has nothing to say against that. "So?"

"I can't, I'm not the right call," Ara admits. "What can I tell them that they don't know already? Prepare for what's out there, get experience on the field... they know that. Besides, I've made so many mistakes so far, who would want to follow my example?"

"Whenever I was with Beckendorf, or even the one summer Luke was a nice guy to me—that meant something. I felt..."

"Safe," Ara finishes, shaking her head slowly. "But I'm not them."

"Exactly," Percy says. "You've fought and won. But you know, if it feels like another weight for you to carry, then don't do it. Everything is getting weird and that thing with the maze—"

"Ugh, don't even," Ara sinks into her mattress. "Just thinking about having to go back in there... the only reason I agreed to use the maze was because Harley demanded it. And I couldn't make his beacon work, so this was the best next thing. This is why I don't think I'd be a good mentor, I care too much about seeing the children happy instead of making sure they stay alive." 

She feels severely disappointed, she would add heartbroken to the list, but it's not even that anymore. The longer it takes for Leo to return, the more the void in her chest becomes a block of cement, leaving no room to feel a thing.