nobody's soldier, percy jackson

5. a goddess, two demigods, and a satyr go on a quest

"The oracle has confirmed what we expected," Chiron told the campers that had been gathered together at one of the camp pavilions "that this quest will proceed toward the Underworld, where you will confront the god who has rebelled against his brothers. Hades. The entrance to Hades' domain lies under the city of Los Angeles."

He, Dionysus, and Percy were standing with each other, since Percy had been accused of stealing Zeus' master bolt.

"This is where you will journey to. Time is short. I have selected our most compelling candidates, from which you will choose three to join you on this quest and ensure that we succeed."

Percy looked over at the young goddess, who wasn't gathered in the pavilion, only there to look at the water, which was surprisingly close on accident. Though, it wasn't entirely accidental.

"Annabeth."

"And Venus" Percy said, loud enough for her attention to be broken from the world surrounding her.

She looked over, an extremely confused expression on her face, but Percy just gave her a small smile.

"Customarily, one waits to at least hear a name or two before choosing. Are you sure you don't wanna hear more?" Chiron asked Percy.

"This thing, Zeus's master bolt, we need to get it back, right?" Percy asked.

"Yes."

"And it's gonna be hard to get, yes?"

"Extraordinarily."

"And if the mission required someone to push me down a flight of stairs for it to succeed, you'd want someone who won't hesitate when they do it" Percy shrugged.

Venus knew he was talking about Annabeth, since she had been surprisingly kind to him.

That made her realise that she was letting her father, Ares, down.

Clarisse was right.

She was soft.

She needed to be worse, to be rotten, to be cruel.

Venus saw Clarisse looked over at her with a scowl as she started to approach them, clearly wanting to speak to Percy.

"The first quest-mate shall be Annabeth Chase! The second, Venus!" Chiron announced.

"Now, on to the other candidates."

"Grover" Percy said after a few seconds of thought.

"Very well," Chiron sighed "the third shall be Grover Underwood."

Venus still had a small idea of who Grover actually was. He was the satyr from the Big House, that was all she knew.

The rest of the campers then disbanded, breaking off to go back to whatever they had to do, or wanted to do.

Then Dionysus and Chiron left as Venus went onto the pavilion, stopping Percy before he could leave.

"Percy— Percy, what was that?" she asked quickly "why would you choose me?"

"I'm figuring that out, Venus" Percy sighed.

"You shouldn't call me that," Venus sighed, crossing her arms "I find it disrespectful."

"It's your name" Percy reminded her.

"Mhm. But you call Dionysus Mr. D, so don't call me Venus" she shrugged.

"Ve—"

"Vee works" Venus smiled before turning around and making her way to cabin ten.

"That's not what I was—" Percy started before sighing "fine."