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If Percy was years younger he would make a comment about everyone and their mother showing up in his kitchen.
The thing was Percy wasn’t younger and, more importantly, Percy had been expecting a god to show up. Hermes had given Percy back his memories but he was still missing things. Honestly, it was driving him insane.
(It wasn’t like missing your car keys. Yes, you need your keys and once you noticed they were gone you would likely drop everything to find them. But your car and it’s keys aren’t a part of you.
You can’t feel their absence. You can’t feel pain from your mind.
There was words for it that fit better than missing your keys but Percy couldn’t remember them.)
Aphrodite didn’t have grey eyes; no, they were brown. She didn’t have blonde hair that was buzzcut or grown out with curls messy from hands running through them. Her dark hair was shaven though. This wasn’t a goddess actively taking on the physical appearances of people Percy had been attracted to over the years. It was a goddess taking on the physical appearance of the daughter who was hated by the king of Olympus and, likely, most of the Olympian council. It was Aphrodite claiming her daughter despite her actions.
It made Percy ache, like a bruise someone had pressed on.
“How are you?” Percy asked, the reason he came into the kitchen completely forgotten at the sight of goddess.
Normally, Percy wouldn’t have small chat with Olympians. The thing was Aphrodite wasn’t other Olympians. (Percy wasn’t nineteen any more. He wasn’t feeling that level of self destructive he had been in the wake of the quest of Triton’s conch shell.) Percy was wary of her even when the goddess clearly was grieving.
“My daughter is going to die. How do you think I am?”
There was so much Percy wanted to say. Some of it would be kind. Some of it was cruel things to say to a mother clearly mourning the death of a child that had yet to befall the child.
Percy breathed out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in. “I’ll burn her shroud with you.”
Because they both had been parents to Lily. Because there would be no one to mourn her after her perceived betrayal. In order for Lily’s actions to mean something no one could know she was a spy. Even after Lily died - whether it be from the cancer eating away at her or through someone killing her - Percy couldn’t say anything about it because it would jeopardize any information Lily had passed onto him.
“No, we won’t.” Aphrodite’s words were sharp. “She’ll be buried and I will have a Tachrichim ready for her.”
Percy didn’t know what a Tachrichim was but he could make a guess.
“She’s giving her life for us then the least I can do is give her the burial she wanted.” Aphrodite said the words sharply as though daring Percy to question her.
Percy froze at her words. Giving her life? Aphrodite knew then. How much did she know? Was it Lily who had told her or was this the other god Percy had given his memories too?
“You know.”
Aphrodite hummed. Her face - Lily’s face - was pensive. (Was this how others felt when Poseidon took on Percy’s appearance? Percy had always looked like his father but over the Poseidon had taken on the features Percy had inherited from Mom.) “I do know. Not everything of course. You didn’t let any of us know everything. Too many eggs in one basket if you gave all your memories to one god.” A moment passed and then she added, “That and if you were betrayed the damage to your memory would be limited instead of all encompassing.”
Phantom limb.
That had been the word Percy had been looking for earlier.
His missing memories wasn’t like having misplaced a car key. It was like experiencing a phantom limb.
Aphrodite wrinkled her nose. “I was right all those years ago.”
Percy raised an eyebrow.
“You’re not suited for peace.”
There were objections Percy could make. Percy knew they wouldn’t be true though.
When Percy spoke it was bitterly. “I was raised in war. Of course y-“
His words were interrupted from laughter. It was probably a good thing no one was home but him.
“Do you know how many were raised in war and failed to learn lessons from it? Many fools would have ignored dreams and said your grandfather couldn’t rise because it was unpleasant to heed.” Aphrodite told him, her voice demanding attention be paid to her.
Percy would have swallowed if his throat wasn’t dry.
“Not many would take the time to establish a spy before the war even began but, no, you want to pretend that you could thrive in peace. You want to pretend that Luke did not teach you more than sword lessons but you learned from him.“
(Kronos turned to him and made a crooked smile on Luke’s scarred face. “You’ll have to excuse my incompetent help, Percy Jackson. But it doesn’t matter. We have you know. We’ve known you were coming for weeks.”
He held out his hand and dangled a little silver bracelet with a scythe charm - the Titan Lord’s symbol.)
Percy wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t understand what Aphrodite was saying. He knew exactly what she meant. Camp Half-Blood had never attempted to have spies in Titan Army. Luke, meanwhile, had taken time to convince at least one person to communicate their plans to the Titan Army.
Would Beckendorf have lived if-
“Luke groomed Silena into a spy and then years later you barely attempted to convince my daughter to not-“
Percy didn’t give a damn about not pissing her off. He interrupted her without any regret or hesitancy. “If you think my grandfather will not step over Lily’s warm corpse if she had stayed at camp-“
Aphrodite narrowed Lily’s eyes. “I’m not arguing about that, Perseus.” She sounded disappointed in him.
There was silence between them as Aphrodite seemed to weigh just what to say to convey whatever message she was trying to get him to listen to.
It was a minute before Aphrodite spoke. “I would have thought Mars would have straggled that self deprecation that festers in you but apparently not. Let me say this clearly. If you want to lie to yourself about how bad you are at war then do it until it becomes a problem but do not lie to me.”
Percy forced his anger down. He needed his memories. He needed Aphrodite as an ally not an enemy. “Okay.”