Where there's smoke // L.Valdez

Chapter nine

To say Jason looked lost, was an understatement. He looked absolutely clueless, the centaur was getting at something but not even the Athena cabin looked like they knew.

He looked to Piper, whom Persephone saw give him a nod of encouragement and a motion of a coin flipping.

The blonde did so, tossing it into the air, and when it was in his hand again, it was a spear. A golden, seven foot spear.

A collective gasp ran through the amphitheatre, Annabeth and the redhead, whom Persephone now learned as Rachel, stepped back to avoid the sharp tip of the weapon.

"Wasn't that... I thought you had a sword." Annabeth's eyes were wide.

"Um, it came up tails, I think." Jason said. "Same coin, long-range weapon form."

"Dude I want one!" Someone yelled from the Ares cabin... again. Though Persephone couldn't help but nod. It certainly was something.

"Better than Clarisse's electric spear, Lamer!" Another agreed with his brother.

Jason muttered something to himself. "Back away." With that warning, Annabeth and Rachel backed away, thunder rumbling through the sky. Persephone could feel the pressure in the air shift, the hair on her arms sticking straight up. Lightening flashed down and travelled to the tip of Jason's spear and hit the campfire with a force worthy of the title explosion.

Persephone's ears rung, and she blinked her eyes rapidly, the flash seemingly engrained into them. Smoke cleared from around him and there stood Jason, in the middle of it, cinder raining down around him.

"Um... Sorry?" She couldn't help but grin. This guy was going to cause a lot of trouble.

"A little overkill, perhaps, but you've made your point." Chiron stated, brushing coals out of his beard, grimacing. "And I believe we know who your father is."

'I wonder...' Persephone rolled her eyes, but the grin stuck on her face.

"Jupiter, I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky." There it was again, the Roman names. The camp broke into chaos, once again, however Annabeth wasn't having it this time, and raised her arms.

"Hold it!" She called out. "How can he be the son of Zeus? The Big Three... their pact not to have mortal kids... how could we not have known about him sooner?" Persephone was pretty sure with herself, Percy Jackson and now Jason, The Big Three didn't really have a valid pact anymore.

"The important thing." Rachel said, "Is that Jason's here now. He has a quest to fulfil, which means he will need his own prophecy."

Persephone watched, wide-eyed, as the girl seemed to faint, two people rushing to grab her, a third popping out of nowhere to bring her a stool to sit on. Thanks to Jason, there was no longer a fire, so the darkness from the night claimed the amphitheatre. Green mist started swirling around Rachel's feet, her eyes were glowing when she opened them, and the same green smoke flowed from her mouth. The voice that followed was ancient, raspy, overall quite creepy:

"Child of lightening, beware the earth,

The giants' revenge the eight shall birth,

The forge and the dove shall break the cage,

And death unleash through Hera's rage,

Death shall meet her enemy soon,

The curse she lands may be her doom."

With those cheerful words, Rachel slumped over, her helpers catching her, and leading her to lay down away from watchful eyes.

Now, Persephone was no genius, but 'death' sounded very familiar, and she was guessing it wasn't Bianca's quest.

White noise was all Persephone could hear. Realisation struck her.

"It's me." She choked out quietly. Only a few heard. "It's me!" Silence followed. "I'm the daughter of death, it has to be me." When she glanced up, she noticed Leo stood up, a little away from her, studying her.

She didn't need to prove her point, but she decided to anyway. "Death shall meet her enemy soon? That could only be me, I'm the only surviving daughter of Hades." She gulped. "The curse she lands may be her doom... I'm going to die." Silence followed.

"Hey, it says 'may', it 'may lead to your doom', you could survive whatever curse your enemy gives you." Jason tried to reassure, but his face wasn't exactly convincing. She knew the odds weren't in her favour.

"Jason, you only need to choose the fourth member of the quest. Usually it's only three, but this prophecy sounds different. The dove-"

"Oh, absolutely." Drew was on her feet and flashing Jason a smile.

'Oh my gods,' Persephone whined to herself. 'I'm going on a quest to die and I'll have Drew to watch.'

"The Dove is Aphrodite. Everybody knows that. I am totally yours."

"No." Piper smoke up.

'Oh thanks Hades. I could survive with Piper no problem.'

"Oh, please, Dumpster girl. Back off."

"I had the vision of Hera; not you. I have to do this." It was like watching an aggressive game of table tennis, head moving to Piper, to Drew, to Piper again.

"Anyone can have a vision. You were just in the right place at the right time."

'likely' Persephone wanted to growl.

Drew turned to Jason. "Look, fighting is all fine, I suppose. And someone has to get their hands dirty." She turned to Leo and looked him up and down. Then she smirked at Persephone, "And as long as I'm not the one dying, then it's fine. But you need charm on your side. I can be very persuasive. I could help a lot."

'She could help a lot, who knows what might happen to us, and she does seem very persuasive.'

"Well... given the wording of the prophecy-"

"No!" Piper shouted. "I'm supposed to go!"

'She has a point, she was the one who had the vision. She should be the one to go.'

"Get over it!" Drew snapped at everyone. "What can Piper do?"

This seemed to stun the girl, not finding an answer to Drew's question. Piper couldn't lose like this, Persephone couldn't stand Drew.

"Well, I guess that settles it." Drew smirked.

But as she said that a reddish glow surrounded Piper, and she was... beautiful. Though Persephone could tell the girl hated the white dress, and gold armbands, and gold flakes... Yeah, looking at it, it seemed a bit much for Piper. The poor girl looked extremely uncomfortable.

But, that meant-

"Oh god, what's happened?"

"Beautiful," Jason cut in. "Piper, you... you're a knockout."

Persephone closed her eyes and sighed. Boys.

"No!" Drew cried. "Not possible!"

"This isn't me," Piper protested. "I- don't understand."

Chiron bowed to the girl, Persephone watched as the campers followed his lead, and bowed, herself.

"Hail Piper McLean," Chiron announced, a grave undertone to his voice. "Daughter of Aphrodite. lady of the doves, goddess of love,"