reason she knows that is because her mom has twitter. Ares laughed again. "Nothing makes me happier than a good old-fashioned, burn-it down fight." He texted one last message and set his phone done on the counter with a thud. "Ah. Okay, done."

There were four large burgers and a large plate of fries in front of them on the table. The four of them sat on the side of the booth opposite of Ares. The man sighed. "So, your quest..... is going to fail. Ask me how I know." He stated bluntly. Percy gave the god a look of annoyance. "It isn't gonna fail." He muttered. "Why would you want us to ask you if you're already telling us that?" Eurydice questioned the man.

The man just scoffed. "Sure it is. Also I like to keep a little mystery." He laughed. "For starters." Ares pulled out his phone, showing them a video of Percy's stepfather on it. "Wait, is that—" Percy looked at the phone in disbelief as they watched Gabe's victimization of himself on the screen. "Percy was always troubled. But I never thought he was capable of something like this." They heard the man pull out a voice of fake emotion.

Grover looked extremely confused. "Wh- Who's that?" He asked Percy in confusion. Eurydice sighed. "That's Percy's stepdad." She muttered with a shake of her head. "What's he doing?" Percy asked the war god as the news continued in the background. The man just smiled. "Wait for it." He grinned. They were asking Gabe abour Sally's disappearance, and if he agreed with the notion that Percy had something to do with it. "A kid that messed up? What wouldn't he do?" The man expressed fake emotion for his 'loving wife.'

Eurydice's blood boiled. "That son of a b—" Ares interrupted her. "Wild, right?" He muttered. "The FBI is already spreading your pictures around. Both of yours actually." He pointed at Eurydice. "Wait, what? Me too?" She muttered in shock. Ares nodded. "Yep, they think he's blackmailed you into helping him or something." The god of war shrugged. The interviewer asked Gabe something else. "It's a Camaro. I really—" He corrected himself. "We really loved that car." His audacity made her blood boil.

She rolled her eyes at the man's fake whimpers. "So much." He faked sobbed. "I'm gonna kill him." Percy muttered in frustration. "I knew I was gonna like you." Ares smiled. "But hold on there kids, cuz I am not done!" He singsonged. "You, little lady." He turned to Eurydice, who's stared at him in confusion. "Need to see this." He muttered scrolling through his to get to another news interview.

Eurydice could feel her face pale significantly as she saw the familiar face of her mother on the screen. Some faceless reporter was asking her mother something behind the scenes as they filmed her. "No, I don't believe my daughter would do anything like that. Yes— she knows Percy but there's no way either of them could have done that. They're good kids!" Her mother insisted frantically with a shake of her head.

Ares chuckled as he pulled the phone away from them, ignoring the stricken look on Eurydice's face. "Hot mom, by the way cousin." He muttered with a thumbs up. She stared at the man in disgust. "Wh- Hey! That's my mom!" She complained. "Ah, ah, ah, ah. Technically I'm not related to her if that's what you're worried about." She glared at him. "Are you kidding me—" The man shut her up. "Anyways. Listen."

The interview continued, another reporter asked her mother on her stance regarding whether or not Eurydice and Percy were criminals. "No, my daughter is not a criminal. Neither is her friend- She is a child— I will not be answering anymore questions." The woman insisted, clearly frustrated and angry at the reporter for even suggesting something like that. "My daughter and Percy Jackson are good kids. I have no clue what's going on, but they would never—"

The video then stopped before her mother could say anything else. She stared blankly at the screen for a second. Completely stunned. "That's your mom?" Annabeth asked her. She nodded silently. "....Yeah." She went quiet. She didn't realize how badly she missed her mom. She couldn't imagine what she was having to deal with back home. She bet the reporters wouldn't stop hounding her until they got a story they liked to see. Grover patted her on the shoulder comfortingly. "Your mom's gonna be okay."

That thought didn't comfort her, as she was still worried what would happen when they got back home. Ares cleared his throat. "Safe to say the chances of you four idiots hitchhiking the rest of the way to L.A without getting arrested are slim to none." Annabeth stated at the man. "Why are you still here then? If you're supposed to be looking for the master bolt too, shouldn't't you be out there looking for it?" She asked him without any hesitation. Ares seemed to sense that.

He hummed in some thought. "Hm, there's no fear in you, is there?" He questioned. "Doesn't matter. Whether the bolt's retriever or not." The man said. "Zeus is going to war to with Poseidon." It was quiet between the group for a second. Percy looked confused. "No, the oracle said if we return the bolt there wouldn't be a war." He muttered. Ares looked at the four of them. "Is that what she said? Or is that was Chiron said she meant?" He challenged.

When neither of the demigods or their satyr answered Ares hummed smugly. "Yeah. You're new to the family, the two of you. So lemme fill you in on how we work." He said, like he was about to sprout some wisdom onto her and Percy in some way. And Eurydice wasn't sure if she even wanted any of this information. "See, years before I was born. My grandpa Kronos ate my aunts and uncles. Yeah, and then my dad made him puke them back up." He sounded so casually about it.

This was one of the greek myths that she actually did remember. But Ares commentary on it was... interesting to say the least. "Then chopped him into a million pieces and chucked 'em into a bottomless pit. So that kinda set the tone right outta the gate." He stopped rambling intensely. Thinking about the fact that Kronos is technically her grandpa too gives her an utter headache.

Wow, who knew the god of war had this much anger issues. "Olympians fight. We betray. We backstab. We will push anyone done a flight of stairs to get ahead." He continued even more intensely than before. "And that's why I love my family so much." Eurydice blinked in confusion at that one. "Seriously?" She muttered, completely stunned.

The man nodded. "Yes, I am very serious about that little cousin." Eurydice winced. "I still find that weird." She muttered underneath her breath. "Anyways," The god continued. "My dad knows he's not getting this bolt back with quest or goose chases. He knows there's a war coming. And in reality, I think he's okay with that. I think he feels it's just time for a war. So we're gonna have a war." The man smiled, inhaling deeply. He looked like he was about to cry of sheer happiness. "Isn't that great?" He asked them.

Eurydice muttered sarcastically. "Yeah, sure great." Ares just smiled in response, ignoring that she rolled her eyes at him. "Ah! I knew I'd like you too kid." He ruffled her hair slightly. "Ow—" The man just chuckled in response. Percy stared at the man in more annoyance now. "We're completing this quest. We're stopping this war." He insisted. "You said you can help, Can you?" He narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion.

The man shook his head. "Okay, so here it is. There's an amusement park up the road." Eurydice stared at the man in confusion. "I'm sorry, so you're telling me that an amusement park is how we're gonna stop a war?" She asked the man, completely dumbfounded. How would going to some stupid amusement park help them at all? Seriously, none of this is making any sense.

Ares just snorted. "Chill out cousin, I'm getting there. Anyways, I left my shield there. You get me my shield back and I'll get you to the Underworld by lunch tomorrow with a plan to invade your dear old Dad's palace. Isn't this family fun?" He grinned at the girl, who just grimaced in response. Annabeth stared at the man. "You left your shield? Like, forgot it on the merry-go-round?" She questioned.

Ares now looked annoyed at the daughter of Athena. "Okay, the chirping was funny to me for a minute. But it is getting old." He shook his head at the girl. Annabeth narrowed her eyebrows at the man slightly. Ares huffed. "So do we have a deal or am I killing all four of you so I can eat in peace?" He muttered intensely. Eurydice's eyes widened slightly in fear. How could this guy be so scary yet absolutely stupid at the same time?

She looked over at Percy, who was trying to process his words. He looked back at the others and nodded slightly. "Okay." He muttered. Ares face immediately turned back to that goofy grin he had on his face earlier. "Great! One catch." He said. "I really do need that shield back." Eurydice stared at him. "Pause you didn't say anything about a catch—" He interrupted her again. "I'm gonna keep the satyr here as collateral so you three don't run off." He announced.

Annabeth shook her head. "What? No." She disagreed. Eurydice was about to say the exact same thing until Grover spoke up. "Okay." He said, seeming fine with doing what was necessary for the quest. The three demigods stared at him in shock. "What? But Grover—" Eurydice started. Percy shook his head at their friend. "No way. We don't split up again." He muttered.

Grover sighed. "It's okay." He reassured them, looking back at the war god. "If he wanted to kill us, we'd be dead by now." Grover was right in a way, he would have done that ages ago. Ares then gave him a look. Grover cleared his throat slightly. "Can I just walk them to the door?" He asked. The god sighed deeply, but nodded. The four of them walked back towards the entrance.

Eurydice sighed deeply. "I have a bad feeling about this Grover." She muttered nervously. Grover patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. I promise, I'm gonna be fine." He reassured her. Annabeth sighed. "Okay, fine. Grover, look. Don't engage with him. He'll wanna get you riled up, get in your head and you can't let him." She warned him.

Grover nodded. "It's okay, really." He smiled at them. "I know what I'm doing. Go, get the shield. I'll be right here when you get back." He smiled at them reassuringly as they left the diner away, leaving Grover alone with the god of war.

█⠀⠀⠀. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ RAI SPEAKS!! . . .
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Next chapter is the ride of love baby 🤭 Can't wait for David Guetta's song to jumpscare them. That chapter is gonna be a longer one and be very funny to write. This whole chapter was Ares basically gaslighting and having boarderline anger issues with Eurydice, Percy, Grover and Annabeth. He's low key got personality disorder lmfao (I mean technically all the gods do but him especially) This chapter was very silly to write.

Double chapter release woohoo!! That doesn't happen every day, celebration for that! I cackled so hard at Ares calling Alison hot, it just seems so in character for him to do 😭 I hope the shock value you all got from that line was worth it lmfao. I can confirm Aphrodite would absolutely agree with him 😭

I literally can't wait for the Lotus Hotel episode just so I can make a joke based off Lin Manuel Miranda playing Hermes. But anyways, I hope you all enjoyed reading this chaos.