✶ ✶ ✶

On the walk to the amusement park it had gotten dark awfully fast. It also wasn't so far away, leaving Drea to wonder why Ares requested they retrieve his shield instead of doing it himself.

The three approached the ominous looking plot and stopped at the entrance. Above was an arch that read, 'WELCOME TO WATERLAND'.

"Hey, waterland! 'This your second home?"

Percy couldn't help but grin at the joke.

"You know, I haven't seen a lot of horror movies, but this seems like exactly the kind of place they'd suggest to avoid."

Drea agreed with him. The park had little to no light to illuminate the paths, no sign of human life anywhere, and was too quiet. It seemed entirely abandoned. But sure enough they began to make their way inside.

"I've never seen any kind of movie. I'll have to take your word for it." Annabeth commented.

"Never?.. what do you mean "never" like, "never-never"?"

"Is there another kind?"

"Oh when we get back I am so making you watch a bunch." Drea butt into the conversation. "Sure, we could start with horror, but you give me the vibe like you'd enjoy period pieces or- oh oh! Psychological movies!"

"Well, if none of us are dead in a few days, we really ought to get together and have us a movie marathon. You're missing out."

Annabeth gave Percy a look. A look of "really? you're encouraging her?"

"In the meantime, we should probably get this over with, though."

Ahead them was a long row of revolving doors made of metal, the only way into the park. Percy took the step of going first but Annabeth hesitated, making Drea also hesitate.

He began pushing against the gate to get inside when the noise of metal grinding echoed in the door.

"Wait, Percy, stop!"

Following Annabeth instructions, a chomping sound began to ring out, making everyone's eyes turn to a contraption working above his head. Nobody could confirm what it was, but it seemed to be dangerous.

Drea murmured,"What the heck is that?"

"What just happened?"

"Just hold still." Annabeth instructed.

"Wait.." Drea stepped closer to be able to see the mechanism better. "Is that..that's Celestial bronze. Isn't it?" She turned to Annabeth for confirmation. The girl nodded.

"Oh, fascinating. You guys, what is happening right now?" Percy spat out nervously.

"It's the stuff your sword is made of. Owen taught me about it. He said that it doesn't do anything to humans, it passes straight through them. But for a monster or a demigod.." she trailed off awkwardly. "You know.. it can pass through them too but it definitely doesn't do nothing."

She cursed herself for panicking at a time like this, but telling a bad joke somehow comforted her brain in times of crisis. It relieved the sensitive feel of stress, even if just for a second.

"Well, what's it doing there?"

"That's a great question." Annabeth wondered aloud. "Safe to say, this is not just some amusement park. A god built this."

Even more nervous than before at the news that a god set up the trap, Percy replied, "What kind of god builds amusement parks?"

Having just thought about Owen, the answer came right to Drea's mind."Hephaestus."

It was a bad time to think about it, but Drea wondered if Owen would like to see the park. A work of his dad's. She planned to tell him all about it when she got back.

"Why would Hephaestus build an amusement park?"

"..maybe he finds them.. amusing?"

"That's really not funny, Annabeth."

"It's a little funny." She stammered.

"You'd find it hilarious if it was anyone else inside." Drea stated.

"Yeah but I am the one inside!"

Raising her voice she answered, "Okay, relax! You won't be for long, we'll figure it out... Annabeth?"

They both turned to her to see Annabeth completely enamored by the machine. How it worked, how it was built, how impressive it was.

"oh.. oh, look at that.. that's cool."

"Annabeth!"

"Okay, I'm on it." She replied, coming out of her trance.

"Okay. I get this.. just.. push through it."

"..push?"

"Yep."

Percy turned back around to do so. But he was entirely too scared to try it, so instead he turned back around to talk back in a sassy tone.

"'Cause weren't you guys the ones this morning who were all, "The Fates say two of us are gonna die and we should take it really seriously"?" Percy spewed out all in one breath.

Drea switched to a different tone. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"Just do what the genius said. Push already."

He sighed dramatically as a form of complaint, but turned around nonetheless knowing that he had no better idea. As he pushed against the gate, the gears started to clang against the metal again and he made sure not to take too long as he leapt to the other side. The mechanism didn't touch him at all.

As Percy stood on the opposite end, a distinct ding! rung from the top of the doors. Checking for the source, Percy founding an arrangement of numbers. 000 that switched to 001 after he stepped inside.

"What was that?"

"The machine isn't designed to hurt us. It's meant to scare us. It's a test."

"Ooh! Me next!"

Drea slipped past Annabeth and bolted inside the revolving door. She stared up in awe at the gadget above her, making sure to soak in every detail. Coming out the other way, she stared at the number alternating to 002.

"Cool."

"Cool? I could've died."

"Hey! Annabeth started it." Drea mentioned how Annabeth admired the machine with the same phrase. "Plus, death can be cool."

Annabeth approached the gate and pushed herself through, making the tally of numbers finalize at 003.

"Hephaestus wanted to know any time one of us came poking around his playground. I guess now he knows."

She sighed as they began to walk away from the gates. They were going to have a rough time in the park if they had a little trouble with the entrance.

ϟ

Not quite sure where to be looking, they decided to just start walking through the aisles of unoccupied rides and abandoned attractions. They approached a tall ferris wheel and what looked like a kiddy-roller coaster.

"Oh, wow. Look at that. Tell me the god of craftsmen didn't build this."

Annabeth admired the ride not just because of its unique nature, but its intricate designs on the carriers and its theme.

"Do you think they have any leftover snacks? Or, like, prizes? At the game stands, you know?"

Percy snickered at her, "I don't think this park was actually ever opened."

"Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Beginning to question the circumstances, Percy asked, "If it belongs to the god of craftsmen, what was the god of war doing here? Aren't they enemies?"

He looked to the girls to confirm his ask, and then he continued, "Then why'd he split without his shield?"

Drea wondered, "Does he bring that thing with him everywhere? Who comes to a theme park with a big bulky shield?"

Shaking her head, Annabeth sighed, "If I'm guessing, Ares has always had a thing with—

"Aphrodite."

Percy pieced the clues together.

"She's Hephaestus's wife." Then he was suddenly very repulsed. "Oh, you're kidding. He met her here? In her husband's park? That's so wrong."

"After one conversation with that guy, I could've told you he'd do something like that." Drea sneered in disbelief. It didn't remotely surprise her considering this was the guy who was father to Clarisse.

"They got caught and he had to leave in a hurry." Annabeth groaned. "One thing Ares was telling the truth about.. this family is a mess."

They approached a larger ride that looked alike to all the other attractions. Beginning to wonder where they might find the shield, something quickly grabbed their attention.

A random illumination appeared with an eerie carnival song played as some random machinery activated. They stopped in their tracks to read the glowing label, "THRILL RIDE O' LOVE" with a tiny heart above it to match.

A silence fell on them until Drea blatantly stated, "Yeah, no, I'm not getting on that."

"We have to." Annabeth insisted. "The shield must be in there. We just gotta go get it."

"Then you get on if you're so brave."

"Oh, I'm brave, but I'm not stupid."

In a desperate attempt to get either of them to do it instead, Drea pointed out, "Isn't this your quest?" She poked Percy. "You do it."

"Fine, but you have to come with me."

She seemed complete shocked and started stammering out lame excuses until he interrupted her, "Weren't you the one who said you can't stay away from watching me get into trouble? What better way to watch than with a front row view?"

Drea wanted to argue back that it was just a saying she told him to comfort him after being beat up by Clarisse. But she couldn't. Annabeth wasn't going to get on, and Percy couldn't go alone.

"Okay, I will. But exactly like you said, I'm merely watching. I'll be superglued to that seat while you grab the shield."

Percy sighed, "Let's go on the scary ghost ride, then."

Just as they approached, the lights ominously flickered. They groaned in synchronization.

ϟ

Now on a small stream of water in a dimly lit tunnel, it was awkwardly quiet. The two weren't expecting a crazy raft ride, but they also didn't expect a boringly silent attraction.

For a moment the lights seemed to flicker and then music cued. It seemed to echo throughout the entire hall. Neither of them recognized the upbeat song, but it didn't stop Drea from laughing.

"What is this song?"

Her laugh made Percy laugh as he said, "I feel like I've heard this before. I think, from an orthodontist's office maybe?"

"Can you imagine the look on Ares and Aphrodite's faces when this started playing?"

Their giggles cut short as a sudden bright light zoomed down the tunnel, lighting their faces up with a stream of reds, blues, and purples. The colorful wave had intricate designs on them and suddenly had shadowed animations appear inside of them.

They spotted a woman with a crown, twirling around, with a little boy inside of her body. Suddenly he was born from his mother but immediately rejected away.

"Wait, I know this."

"What, the mythical legend of a boy whose mother never loved him?"

"It's Hephaestus's story."

She took a closer glance at the motion picture happening in front of her and Percy was right. The man's entire life in events were playing out for them.

"Rejected by Hera. Rejected by Aphrodite."

"Sheesh."

"My mom told me these stories all the time. I remember this. She said.."

Percy stopped himself, leaving Drea to turn to him and ignore the tale of Hephaestus's depressing life.

"What'd she say?"

"She said this is what the gods are like to each other. This is the kind of family they are." He enunciated as the shadows showed another instance of Hephaestus being neglected and ignored.

"Why was that so hard to get out?"

He paused but eventually answered, "She was trying to keep me away from you guys."

Drea couldn't find the right words to say to him. If she'd known everything that would happen once she left home, maybe she would've stayed away too.

"Percy.."

"Maybe you guys were right. Maybe she should've been preparing me better."

"Maybe she always was."

He looked to her, confused.

"The way you talk about your mom.. she sounds like such a smart woman." Taking a breath to look Percy in the eyes, Drea continued, "Maybe.. she was always preparing you. By telling you how crazy the gods can be, she was teaching you not to idolize them but to be better than them."

Percy seemed to have a different look in his eyes, a different expression on his face.

"I wish someone did that for me." She cleared her throat as to not get choked up. "Told me I don't need to worship my dad. That I shouldn't be like him."

"In ways, I think you're better prepared than I am." Drea declared.

He looked to her like she'd said something absurd. Percy wanted to know more about what she meant, but suddenly the lights of the animation cut out. They were left in the dark while the boat continued floating down the stream.

Both about to ask for clarity, they suddenly faced the rides climax. It reached a cave with glowing crystals and a very steep slope down. The boat traveled at an intense speed as the two let out yelps and screams of surprise partial terror.

They continued down a crystal lit cove, water splashing all over them. It wasn't even a minute long but it felt like an hour. Occasionally looking over at each other for confirmation they were both still alive, the raft finally slowed down.

Still on the stream, they spotted an opening to the left of them, a very large room with an intricate gold statue that glowed. In between its hands, it held up a shield.

"There it is. Ares's shield."

The pair were already panicked, but looking ahead of them was a dead end. Thunder roared as the boat in front of them was destroyed into pieces and sunk below. Equally concerned, they knew they had to get out.

"Jump!"

Leaving the boat behind, both leaped into the water beneath them. The water was intense. It pushed them both back and forth with such intensity that it allowed neither of them to get themselves to the statue.

Drea panted once her head came back above water, but only for a few seconds. She fell back underwater and spotted Percy. He was also fighting against the current with no avail.

The feeling of Drea's lungs burning up from being flooded with water ached in a unique way. It only fatigued her more in a time when she needed her energy the most.

Percy eyed Drea and made his best efforts to reach her. They weren't so far apart, but the strong force of the water pushed them away from each other.

Their hands reached for one another, desperate.

Drea called out for Percy, catching a mouth full of water. The gap only growing bigger and bigger between them, Percy felt helpless.

With his heart beating ever quickly and his pulse racing, his hand pushed forward again. But this time it did something. The water bent to his will. He wasn't sure how it happened. Out of nowhere the current pulled Drea's frame closer to his. The water also grabbed hold of Percy.

It had a firm grip on them both, pushing them towards the statue and eventually thrusting them out of the water and onto the platform.

Both were weakly gasping for air and adjusting to being out of the water. Eventually opening their eyes, they found themselves next to each other and at the foot of the statue.

Only taking another second to catch her breath, Drea called out, "..that was so cool!" in reference to Percy's magical way of saving them.

Percy was still gasping for air.

"Bubbles?"

"No.. I.."

"You—

"Did I?"

She smiled at him.

"Maybe..i'm figuring this out as I go.."

Sopping wet, they tried to stand. They could only settle to balancing on their knees. Above them was a glistening woman holding the shield they so desperately needed.

"How are we supposed to get that thing down?"

Drea noticed the ominous chair sitting in front of the golden woman. She figured they had to be related.

"We already know this guy likes to play games with his machinery. So, this has got to be a machine and this throne-thingy is the game part."

They both stood up and groaned.

"Why's it gotta be some mind game?"

She didn't answer him, but instead thought of Owen again. It was his dad's doing anyway. He would understand what this meant.

Owen had told her that she was better at understanding meaning rather than function. Maybe she could grasp at some meaning here. Engineering was an art after all, and art meant something.

Thinking back to the ride at the beginning, before they crash landed, it told the story of Hephaestus. The story of Hephaestus..

"Hephaestus's chair!" Drea called out before she could even think it.

"..this is his park.. so i'd assume it was his, yes." Percy replied slowly, not getting the point.

"No, Percy. I don't remember the whole thing, but wasn't Hephaestus infamous for the special chair he built that outsmarted all the gods?"

His eyes suddenly glimmered with remembrance.

"Yeah. It was a gift with a hidden purpose. Hephaestus offered it to Hera, but as soon as she sat in it, she couldn't get up. All the gods tried but the machine was too smart. It was too strong. It was too much. Even for them."

"Well.. I don't see her in that chair anymore."

Percy sighed, "Finally, they said if Hephaestus let Hera free, Aphrodite would be his wife." He turned to look at her.

"The chair is the bargain. One of us goes in, the other gets the shield."

Without a word, Drea stepped towards the chair.
She almost sat in it until Percy reeled her back to where she was before.

"Are you crazy?"

"You just said one of us had to sit in it." Drea stated, completely confused.

"Yeah, I didn't say you had to sit in it."

"Well someone has to do it and it's not going to be you."

"And why's that?"

"Because this is your quest, your mission."

Percy rolled his eyes at her. "That's exactly why it has to be me!"

"That's not what I meant! You want me to stand here while you give your life for Ares?"

"Why else do you think you're here?"

She tripped over her own words for a second. "What are you even talking about?"

He took a second to collect himself and went on, "Our running joke? It's more than that. I told Chiron that I needed someone who would stand there and watch me sacrifice myself if the quest required it. He agreed. That was you, Lux."

Percy had even said the words to her earlier when he asked her to come on the ride with him. Drea couldn't believe it.

"You were right, I don't know better than some old ladies. I can't believe it, but the Fates were right."

"No."

"There's no getting around this."

"No."

"We dodged it at the Arch, barely, but..maybe this isn't something you can dodge forever."

"Percy! Every time I stood there and watched you do something dangerous you were never going to die—

"What about the minotaur?"

"I eventually came down didn't I? I always come for you in the end." She couldn't stop herself from tearing up any longer.

"Besides, I wasn't chosen, you were!"

"Stop! It isn't about that." Percy insisted.

"So tell me, all-knowing-genius, what is it actually about if not you?"

"You're better at this than me." 

She couldn't say anything to him.

"You just are. And you know it."

Percy couldn't stand the frown on her face, but he had to convince her.

"Believe me, I wish there was another way this quest succeeds. I just don't see it."

She began to murmur, "..i said i would only come down here if i got to be glued to the seat while you got the shield. i-i didn't know what i was talking about but i still mean it—

He didn't let her finish as he looked to his wrist. Percy unclasped the shell-charmed bracelet she'd personally designed for him and placed it in her palm. He then grabbed the pen laying in his pocket and handed it to her as well.

Drea couldn't help but look at him with the most sorrowful eyes. She couldn't accept it, but he made her.

Percy took slow steps in approaching the chair, but spun around to her again. "I need you to promise me something."

Before he could even ask anything, she replied, "I'm not stealing back some stupid bolt before I save your mom from the Underworld."

He smiled at her pledge. "Thank you." Pausing, he spoke again, "I was gonna say, when this quest is done, can you maybe swing back here and try to get me outta this thing?"

The begging look in his eyes stabbed at her heart.

"If you think that I'm keeping this bracelet any longer than I have to, then you picked the wrong person for this quest."

Percy muttered with a grin, "..just making sure."

He walked up the step that led him to the chair, turned around, and let himself slip down into the seat. His hands rested upon the arm rests. For a moment, nothing happened.

But slowly, the sound of machinery creaking and gears turning began to echo in the room from behind the chair.

"This is weird.. it's.. warm."

"Percy, maybe you shouldn't—

Within a second, golden foliage began to sprout from the chair and encrust Percy's legs and arms. It quickly grew over his lower half and began to spread like a disease towards his chest and face.

"Wait, stop! Get up!"

He hesitated to say, "..i can't."

"Percy, please! I'm sorry about being a jerk and just standing around while you fight for your life.
But I don't want this to be the last time, you have to stand up—

"It's okay." He quietly assured her. "I'm okay."

Drea couldn't resist breaking into cries anymore. He was calming her down while the chair claimed his life. His face was now flooded in gold debris.

"I'm okay.... I'm okay." Percy continued to recite the phrase. He tried to once more but just then his entire body was plated in gold. All that was left of Percy Jackson was a statue to show for his life.

Drea stood frozen. The only sound that could be heard anymore was the sound of her cries and sniffling. Until a clang came about, the sound of the shield being released from the woman statue and falling to the ground.

But it didn't matter, not anymore.

She approached his body in the chair and could only stare at him. Seeing his face activated a sudden surge of energy to flourish through her. Determination, rage, regret, whatever it was, moved her to the back of the chair and discovered the golden gearshifts.

She tucked away his pen and bracelet into her pocket and got her hands busy with the gears, trying to figure them out. If there was any way to reverse the deed she was going to find it.

With no results showing but still an immense amount of emotion flowing all about her body, she began to grow frustrated. Beginning to hit the entire board with her fists, she screamed in frustration.

Drea looked to the floor and muttered, "..i'm sorry." It was all her fault. She let Percy come into the ride instead of volunteering to go herself, she left Percy give himself up.

Tears overcame her again as she began to call out for help, "Annabeth? Please, Annabeth, somebody!" Odds were that Annabeth was patiently waiting at the front of the ride, far away where she could never hear her cries. She knew this, but she was willing to try any stupid thing to save Percy.

Just then, a metallic door slammed open. It had come from the top of the room where a tiny balcony lined the rims of the walls.

Drea's head whipped to the sound and found a man appear from the doorway.

"Can I help you?" he asked. "Do you need some help finding your way out?"

"No." She needed to figure out a way to reverse the machine. Her hands found their way to the gears again.

Suddenly he began to play a melody on a flute that summoned a ladder to emerge from the water. It grew to the top of the balcony, serving as an exit for her.

"So, off you go."

"Leave me alone. I'm not going anywhere without my friend."

"Yeah, that isn't really how it works. It's kinda a one-way sort of thing. It can't be undone."

"Oh, yeah? Says who?"

"Me, the one who built it."

Her palms fell down and she stared at him. Hephaestus himself. The man to blame.

"So, you know that it can be undone. You've done it before."

He didn't say anything.

"So much for gods being omnipotent." She murmured under her breath.

"You know, if you're not going to do anything, then go away so I can do it myself."

Drea spun on her heel and went back to fidgeting with the biggest gear in the center of the plaque.

"In spite of what my brother might've told you, I am not someone who'll be pushed around."

He expected an answer, but he didn't get one.

"I know about your relationship with your father."

A familiar firey sting ignited in Drea's chest at the mention of her father.

"I know that the tension between you two has been rising, now more than ever."

Drea stood up to face Hephaestus. To her, he wasn't a god anymore, not even the father of one of her best friends. Just a weak man who followed in his family's footsteps because he wanted nothing more than to be accepted by them.

"You walk outta here with that shield.. you're a hero. On your way to the greatest glory. Being loved by your godly parent."

Is he serious? Drea thought to herself.

"Your father will be proud. He may even cherish you. You can continue serving him the way you once were, and all will go back to being as it always has been, always will be.. as it should be—

"No! That is not how it should be!" Drea spoke back to him. "It should not take death, quests, and impossible asks for your parent to want you."

"You people want nothing else but power and control and to be better than the person standing next to you, even if the price is your children."

She knew a way to make him really listen.

"It's how Owen feels."

He didn't say anything, but he said enough.

"He's my best friend and I know that he wishes you weren't the way you were. The way Ares is, the way Zeus is, the way my father is."

Drea took a pause to look at Percy.

"He's not that way. He's barely known that this family was real for a week now and he's already better than anything our parents could ever be."

"So fine," she huffed. "I won't mean anything to my dad, but at least I won't be like him. I won't be like any of you."

Turning away from Hephaestus, she gazed down at the gears. If she looked back at him she may not be able to resist saying something worse.

She heard the same melodic tune he recited moments ago come from his flute again. It seemed to make the machine go again. Machinery was rumbling and gears were grinding.

Rushing back to the front of the contraption, Drea watched as the gold foliage was shimmering again. But in reverse. It was coming undone. It began in his face, unveiling one of his eyes until it fell down to his neck.

Percy seemed to unfreeze. To come alive again.
He dramatically gasped for air and blinked excessively as he realized he was once again here. The feeling of an intense weight being lifted off of Drea's chest was instantly replaced with a tsunami of relief.

It only continued to fall off of Percy as he made eye contact with her. A look of 'is this really happening?' glowed in eyes. Seconds later he was entirely free. He remained in the chair for a second, twitching and breathing heavily.

Percy soon pushed himself out of the chair. He stumbled until he fell into Drea with a broken grunt. His line of sight flipped between her and Hephaestus, whose identity he wasn't sure of.

Drea made sure to steady him when he landed.

"Some of us don't want to be like that either."

Percy was very confused. One moment he was at peace with giving his life for his quest and the next he was freed with a strange man talking to his friend.

"You're a good kid, Andromeda."

She usually despised the use of her longer name, but suddenly it didn't seem so bad.

"I'll put in a good word with your father for you."

He cleared his throat for a moment and then asked, "In return.. would you mind putting in a good word with Owen for me? That I don't intend to be the way he perceives me?"

Smiling at him, she slowly nodded.

He took the answer and slowly turned around to exit through the door he came in.

Once he was gone, Drea didn't waste a second in fishing for a special bracelet in her pocket. She managed latch it back onto Percy's arm within a few seconds. He graciously accepted it back.

Percy seemed to be staring at the doorway that was now shut in which the man came through. He had a clue of who he was, but still, Percy felt like he'd missed a lot in a short time.

"Hephaestus." Drea whispered to Percy for clarification.

"Ah. Cool."

✬ ✶ ✫

Ellie Speaks!

i name the chapter cool and make it a theme all throughout while gracie abrams has a song called cool and i only realized halfway through. coincidence?🤔

this is so freaking long bc there was no good place to pause once they got into the park