There's Fire // L.Valdez

Leo's brows shot up. 

The woman- her mother- grinned viciously. 

"You're dead. You can't be here. How are you here?" Persephone's hands flew to her jean pockets, the paper crinkling inside. Her fists clenched. "Who. Are. You?"

"Oh, Leo knows," The woman said. "How do you feel about Aunt Rosa, mijo?"

Leo's brows furrowed. Persephone watched as the more he pondered, the more his face changed to express his resentment. He glanced at the motorcycle, tilting his head, before he seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Nemesis." He told her. "You're the goddess of revenge."

"You see?" She turned to Hazel, shooting Persephone a vicious smirk. "He recognises me."

The goddess cracked open another fortune cookie and wrinkled her nose. "You will have great fortune when you least expect it." She read. "That's exactly the sort of nonsense I hate. Someone opens a cookie, and suddenly, they have a prophecy that they'll be rich! I blame that tramp Tyche. Always dispensing good luck to people who don't deserve it!"

Persephone glared at the woman, unable to keep her temper in check from the sight of her mother before her.

"Uh... you know those aren't real prophecies, right? They're just stuffed in the cookies at some factory-"

"Don't try to excuse it!" Nemesis cut Leo off. "It's just like Tyche to get people's hopes up. No, no. I must counter her." The goddess flicked a finger over the little strip of paper, the letters erasing themselves before being replaced by new ones. "You will die painfully when you most expect it. There! Much better."

"That's horrible!" Hazel said. "You'd let someone read that in their fortune cookie, and it would come true?"

Persephone's mother sneered at the young girl. "My dear Hazel, haven't you ever wished horrible things on Mrs Leer for the way she treated you?"

"That doesn't mean I'd want them to come true!"

"Bah," Nemesis resealed he cookie and tossed in into her basket, joining all of the other misfortune cookies. The goddess was really starting to tick Persephone off. "Tyche would be Fortuna for you, I suppose, being Roman. Like the others, she's in a horrible way right now. Me? I'm not affected. I am called Nemesis in both Greek and Roman. I do not change, because revenge is universal."

"Oh, joy." Persephone growled. "I don't suppose you'll tell us what that means and why you're here?" 

Nemesis opened another cookie. "Lucky numbers. Ridiculous. That's not even a proper fortune!" She crushed the cookie and scattered the pieces around her feet, adding to the pile. "To answer your questions, Persephone Rose, the gods are in terrible shape. It always happens when a civil war is brewing between you Romans and Greeks. The Olympians are torn between their two natures, called on by both sides. They become quite schizophrenic, I'm afraid. Splitting headaches. Disorientation."

"But we're not at war." Leo insisted. Persephone grimaced.

"Um, Leo..." Hazel winced. "Except for the fact that you recently blew up large sections of New Rome."

Leo stared at her. "Not on purpose!"

"We know, Leo." Persephone reassured. "But they don't. And judging by what our Roman friends have told us, they'll be pursuing us in retaliation. Right Hazel?" The younger nodded.

Nemesis cackled, causing the daughter of Hades to glare. "Leo, listen to the girls. War is coming. Gaia has seen to it, with your help. And can you guess whom the gods blame for their predicament?"