The Real World || Percy Jackson Olympians Fanfiction (2)

Chapter 19

After my weird vision thing, I found out that we were a lot closer to the top of the mountain. In fact, we had only a few minutes before we would be there. Nico stopped and waited for us, but the bad mood between the three of us never left.

"I think we should contact Chiron, let him know what's happening," Nico murmured quietly.

"Go ahead," I shrugged, turning my back to Nico and staring out down the path we had come up.

"Whatever," Nico unzipped his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water. Slowly, he started to pour a small trickle of it onto the ground. Once it had caught the sunlight just right, creating a rainbow affect, he thew a golden drachma (demigod/god/goddess money) into the rainbow and started to chant.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering."

I stared at the water for a moment, after watching the coin disappear into the rainbow. Just then, the water shimmered and an image of Chiron appeared. The room behind him was dark, obviously because of time differences, but he was alone which was the good part.

"Libellus, Nico, Leo, it's good to see you. Are you all alright?" He asked.

"Yeah we're fine Chrion," Leo answered. "We just wanted to let you know that we're almost at the top of the mountain, where we think Aphrodite may be."

"Oh yes, yes, okay. She probably won't be in her right mind, so the three of you could try to tie her down or secure her to something, and then contact one of the gods for further assistance. I'm sure they would provide you with some safe travel back for all of your hard work. Just be careful, and don't underestimate Aphrodite."

"Okay thanks Chiron. We'll see you soon," Nico said, whilst waving a hand through the water. The image of Chiron disappeared.

"Come on then, let's go."

We all set off to finish the last part of our journey. The day was calm, as if the world didn't dare to disturb what was about to happen, as if it were "the calm before the storm".

My breath came out shakily as I mentally prepared myself to face the goddess. Hope (my sword) was held in my hand, just in case there would be any fighting. I saw that the two boys had also armed themselves, which was relieving.

The path ended in three large steps, which took us up onto the flat bit of land. We carefully made our way up them, and climbed onto the top of the mountain.

The view was breath taking. All round us, the world stretched far below our feet. It was mildly worrying that we were so high and there was nothing to stop us from falling over the edge, but I only had a brief amount of time to think about that. The view wasn't the only breath taking view on the mountain though, because the woman in my "vision" stood in front of us.

She looked even better in real life, and power radiated from her frail figure. Her back was currently to us, so we assumed that she was unaware of our presence... We assumed wrong.

"Yay our guests are here!" Aphrodite spun on her heels and faced us, a grin lighting up her features. "Lucie, come see!"

The other girl that had been in my vision, Lucie, stepped forward and looked us up and down. Her face contorted into a look of disgust, but she didn't say anything.

"Please, come come! Join me," Aphrodite motioned for us to stand closer. "Oh Libellus, how wonderful it is for us to finally meet."

"I wouldn't exactly call it wonderful," I spat, glaring at the goddess.

"Now now, no need for that kind of language!" She tutted.

"Ha, there was no need for you to bring us on a quest that killed a little girl, but you did that, didn't you?"

"Oh yes, what was her name... Willow! Now that was a shame, I was hoping I could make her one of my latest minions. Lucie has had to do for now, though."

"Don't talk about her like that! She was pure, and beautiful and kind... Nothing like you, you're just a monster!" I shouted, now only meters away from the goddess.

"Let's not lie to each other, sweetie. How about a bit of honesty, please."

Aphrodite started to circle our little group. Leo stood to my right and Nico stood next to him, all in the middle of the circular land that we were on. Lucie stayed in front of us, watching her master move.

"Maybe we should start with a bit of honesty from Nico first!" Aphrodite giggled and clapped her hands, like a child with a new toy.

Nico was about to say an obviously rude comeback, but Aphrodite stopped him with a snap of her fingers. He stood for a moment, as if in a daze, before walking over to me. I watched as an internal battle seemed to happen behind his eyes, before words came tumbling out of his mouth.

"I have a crush on you, and I have had one since back at camp. It pains me, how much I hurt you... But it's true that I gave you the books and the necklace, and I never went to the campfire since you showed up because I stood outside your cabin trying to get the courage to talk to you!" He took a deep breath as his body started to shake. "I act so horrible to you because I see the way you look at Leo and I don't want to compete with him. No matter how much I resent him, he'll still be my friend. And, Libellus, I think you are absolutely beautiful, and... And..."

Nico ended in a fit of coughs, before Aphrodite snapped her fingers again.

"Now wasn't that interesting! But enough of that, it's Leo's tuuuuuurn!" She sang, giggling again.

"What did you do to me, you-" Nico croaked out before being cut off.

"I said enough!" The goddess shouted, suddenly becoming angry. "Didn't you hear me? It. Is. Leo's. Turn."

She looked away from Nico and stood in front of Leo. He looked like he wanted to protest, but allowed her to snap her fingers in front of his face. The same shivers took over Leo, and he moved to come closer to me.

"I hate Nico for how he treats you, because I'm jealous of how he can kiss you and be close to you when he wants to, but then he just insults you and makes you sad! I want to be the shoulder for you to cry on, because I wouldn't know what to do without you. Before you came to camp... I was just a suicidal teen who had no one... But then you came and you literally changed my life and I can't live without you!"

Leo stopped talking and made a move as if to hug me, but then Aphrodite clicked her fingers again and he just fell to the floor. I stood there, eyes wide, staring at him. What would I say to that? Two boys had just made huge confessions to me, and there was no way they could be false because the goddess of love herself had made them say everything...

"You monster!" I growled, turning on a laughing Aphrodite. "How could you do this to them? There was no need for that!"

"Language!" She screeched, covering her ears. "It was going to come out sometime, they both felt that way about you wihout my help!"

I held my sword up, preparing to deal with Aphrodite. Lucie stepped forward as well, pulling a dagger out from behind her back. She took up a defensive position, as if to protector her master.

"You're no fun," the goddess pouted. "Lucie, deal with them."

Aphrodite walked to the side and started playing in the snow, as Lucie came forward and held her hands up, like she was warding us off.

"You expecting mercy or something?" Nico snorted.

She didn't reply, because she didn't have to. Instead, she just separated her hands and held them out to her sides. At the same time that she moved, so did Nico and Leo. They were both lifted into the air and flown to opposite sides of the mountain... Where they were dropped.