Handling a Baby [Percabeth fanfic]

Chapter Three

My stomach hurt from nervousness. I ran up to Annabeth and Katie. "What's wrong? You need to tell me!"

Before she could answer me, I felt a chill down my spine. And one person I despised appeared: Hera.

"Aw. Look at your new baby. He, unfortunately, looks a little like you, Annabeth. How sad," she said. Annabeth clutched the baby tighter in her arms as if she would lose him at any second.

"We didn't ask you to come, Hera. So I politely ask if you could leave," Annabeth said fiercely.

"Oh. I'm not going to leave. I first want to congratulate you," Hera said in a cold, soft voice.

"We don't need any thanks from you. Thanks for coming and goodbye," Annabeth replied.

I stood there silently, my head going back and forth between Hera and Annabeth. The others around me were too.

"Do not provoke me, Annabeth."

She whipped her head around back to Hera: "Provoke you? Gods! You're the one that shows up here to 'congratulate' us when all I know is that you're up to something!"

Hera's eyes flowed brighter. "I SAID DO NOT PROVOKE ME."

"I hate you, Hera, and I always have. Leave us alone and never return. We're completely fine without you and definitely your schemes," Annabeth practically yelled. I cringed at what she just said. Something bad was about to happen.

I didn't expect her to charge me, though. But, yep, she did. Hera tackled me, and I struggled to get Riptide out of my pocket.

"Get off of him!" Annabeth screamed. From what I saw, she put Eli in Piper's arms and ran to try and get Hera off of me. The crowd was motionless.

But Hera wasn't punching or kicking me. Instead, she was sucking something out of me. I don't know what it was, and it was painful. I felt my strength leaving me and did a last-ditch attempt to try and summon the creek nearby to aid me in fighting her off. No use. I was defenseless, for the first time in a long time.

I felt someone rip me and drag me away from Hera. I was free and safe. But Annabeth wasn't. Hera turned her powers to her and did the same thing she did to me. It killed me that I could do nothing about it. At this point, I probably couldn't had even stood, much less helped fight her off.

The crowd still did nothing about it, and I could now see why. They were put into a daze, as if they were on pause. I saw the blank expressions on their faces, something I can still remember to this day. But who drug me away?

I turned back to the fight. Annabeth was on the ground, panting. She couldn't move very much either. Hera was done with her. I was so happy, but then my happiness faded.

She had now turned to Eli.

"Don't!" I yelled. Hera shrugged off my comment and proceeded to Eli. I became sick and threw up all that I had eaten. It was too much to watch. Who knew a god could turn into a monster?

Hera placed her hands on him and was trying desperately to take whatever was out of him, but it was a struggle. It was like trying to pull one end of a rope from a pro-wrestler. Whatever she was trying to get of him was being sucked out of him, only slowly, unlike Annabeth and me's fight with her.

The power suddenly broke off and Hera flew backwards. Eli started to cry and the spell on the crowd broke. I looked to where Hera had just been. She had disappeared.

"What happened?" Hazel said to me as she ran up. She helped me get up from the ground, and Frank went to check on Annabeth.

"Hera came here, and things got out of hand. She sucked something out of me, Annabeth, and Eli. I don't know what it was," I replied weakly. Hazel went pale.

"I think I know."