Prologue
Thirteen Years Earlier...
Dionysus's POV
I only met the little thing once. And I hated the fact that it was a girl.
She was sitting at the kitchen table with her brown baby hair up in pigtails high on her head. She had on overalls over a brown long sleeve shirt. Her boots had teddy bears on them. She was at least two. I raised an eyebrow when I noticed she was eating grapes. Maybe her mother, Lynn, knew I was coming and purposely gave her grapes, or it was a matter of coincidence, but I knew all too well that daughters of Apollo didn't have coincidences.
Oh yes, I can remember clearly when Apollo screamed at me for impregnating his daughter. Not like he cared for her, though. He called her Lindsey, giving me proof that he didn't care for her and had never met her. In my defense, she came onto me, and I haven't been allowed that kind of fun in years. Lynn had long blonde hair and blue eyes, like any normal Apollo girl, but now she just looked tired.
I was in my younger form, brown shaggy hair and wild purple eyes. I wore my tiger print t-shirt and a pair of black pants. I leaned against the door frame in the kitchen, smirking. Lynn hadn't even noticed I was there as she washed dishes. I noticed she didn't have a dish washer like most sensible people. Then again, this was a run down apartment with leaks and cheap rent.
The little thing noticed me, though. She's sitting on her knees in the lawn chair that was being used as a chair for the kitchen table. She picked up a grape between two of her small fingers, looked at it, looked at me, and then threw it at me. I wasn't that far away, so I caught it playfully between my teeth. The girl giggled and clapped her hands.
Lynn jumped, scared out of her wits, right before she saw me. "You-"
"Hey, Lindy," I smirk as I wag my fingers.
She rinses her arms and hands and throws the hand towel down. I raise an eyebrow as she storms towards me, ready to smite me where I stood.
"You bastard!" she yelled. "Getting me knocked up and kicking me out of Camp Half-Blood, leaving me out here with no Child Support and-"
"It's good to see you as well," I muse.
And I get slapped. I guess I might deserve that.
"What do you want?!" she yells again.
The little girl stood and pointed a tiny finger at me. "Whut you want?!" she repeats from her mother. I laugh, and even Lynn cracks a smile. The girl, looking confused as to why I'm laughing, folds her arms, pouting. I walk over and sit in the chair by her.
"What's your name, Cutie?" I ask.
She eats another grape. She's a grape-a-holic. "Vi-let," she says.
"Huh?"
"She's saying Violet," Lynn informs as she sits in the third chair. "Violet Stone."
I laugh. "That's punny."
She punches my arm playfully. Violet lays on the table, kicking her legs and propping her head in her hands, watching me. "Who he?"
"This," Lynn says as she rests her hand on mine, "is Daddy."
The little thing frowns at me before she shrugs and shimmies off the table. She pokes me a couple of times, as if seeing I'm real. I laugh and pick her up, holding her in my lap. She giggles a little. Lynn smiles a little at us.
Suddenly thunder shakes the apartment. Violet screams and holds on to me, crying. Lynn grips the wall. I sigh.
"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT I GOT IT!" I yell at the ceiling. The thunder recedes, but Violet is still shaking and crying. I awkwardly rub her back. "Shhh, baby girl, it's alright..."
I hand her off to Lynn. "That's my 'You're busted' cue." I kiss both of their heads. "I'm really sorry, Lynn." I notice she has tears.
"For what?" she mutters as she holds our child.
"For not being able to help you raise her. But here." I pull an envelope out of my back pocket and set it in front of her. "Use it to help take care of her."
She sets down Violet and stands, pulling me into an embrace. I carefully hug back for a moment and then pull away.
"You know I can never come back."
"I know."
"Be careful, Linda Strong."
"Lynn Stone."
"Whatever." I smirk and turn to Violet. "You gonna take care of Mommy for me?"
The little thing nods. I grin and pat her head.
"I love you, Lynn. Take care. Goodbye, Violet." I bow my head. "Until we meet again, Princess."
She giggles and runs in the other room, blushing. I give Lynn one last smile before snapping my fingers and appearing outside her door step. A homeless man stood outside muttering, "If I can get the kid I can sell her for thousands..." while looking at the door. He pales when he sees me and begins to scramble away.
I glare at him and think of the torturing father used to let me do when I was younger. Suddenly he begins to claw at his throat and fell on his butt, rocking back and forth.
Whoops.
I push on my sunglasses and snap again, this time going to Camp Half-Blood. Chiron is waiting for me at the table in front of the Big House. I walk up and sit in my chair.
"Mr. D," he muses. "Where did you go? I see you're in your younger form."
I change back into my normal form. "I don't think that is any of your concern, Centaur. Just deal the damn cards."
...
Athena's POV
As all of the Olympians do, I have the authority to do as I please. I do not often indulge myself, none the less, for wars never sleep across the rapidly declining Earth. There is constant work to be done. When I do retreat to mortal households for my own desires, I do not weigh my conscious down with regret typically. For those I take certain affection to, I give at least one visit. These visits never last more than an hour, as more time runs too high of a risk of attachment becoming too emotionally damaging. Sixty minutes is risky, but it is a price I have found mortals will pay. These men fall in love with me, therefore will do illogical and desperate things to persuade me further as they cling to the brief attention I grant them.
For the children I have found myself with after an affair, I cast them to their fathers to do as they please. Time has made me softer toward my offspring, none the less, and I watch over them, whispering words of wisdom is desire situations. They are partially mine, so I do have vague maternal regard for them, but there is not typically much more. I have far too many, and they are fleeting mortals. However, the circumstances do not always end the same in matters I have not complete control over, and occasionally they become an item to be respected, like my Annabeth.
Even more fleetingly in occasion, I find myself feeling higher regard for them. Annabeth and her brilliant minded father were a pair I felt fond of after quite a few centuries, and for this to occur twice in such close proximity was unusual. Perhaps Aphrodite slipped influence in by her charmspeak, but I found myself regarding another one of my children with a more regard than I typically have for demigods.
The fact of the matter has always remained that despite inheriting my intelligence, they do not always utilize it. They become clueless and uninformed of their potential, or their reckless natures end in tragedy. It has happened more than once that they are informed, but they choose to ignore or defy it. These cases are instantly lost in their full potential and I have no intervention in their lives.
I am not foolish enough to ignore the warning delivered to me personally by our Three Fates despite the evidence suggesting strongly I should have nothing to do with her. I shall grant her and her father an hour's visit.
"Athena." Devin stares at me with wide eyes, his mouth agape as he beholds my mortal appearance.
"Hello, Devin." I reach out and adjust his glasses, which have a habit of becoming crooked due to his misadventures in post drinking. "Where is our daughter?"
He is stunned, rimmed with disappointment for my true target, but he points behind himself. She is sitting on his well worn couch, her gray eyes moving rapidly across the pages of the third-grade level book. She is a mere four years old, likely not yet to begin kindergarten, yet she ignores society's expectations even now. She is truly my daughter.
"She can read already, she's memorizing song lyrics, she's already learning how to cook..." Devin shakes his head briefly, seeming entirely astounded in a typical mortal manner. "Sophia?"
She looks up only briefly from her chosen task before returning to it. He sighs and walks over to her, kneeling in front of her and gently setting the book to the side with his thumb carefully saving her place. She glares at him none the less.
"What do you need?" She sighs after a moment.
"Your mother is here for a little visit." He smiles nervously and motions to me as I pull my token for her out of the pants I'm clad in.
"My mother?" She repeats, fixating her glare to me. "I read about you, lady!"
"You have, have you?" I raise an eyebrow, but it seeds a bit of hope within my dry expectations for this child. Perhaps she will prove my theory false, though it is entirely unlikely.
"Yeah! You're one of those ladies who comes in and gets a baby in your tummy, then you give the baby to the daddy when you get sick of them!" Her glare worsens and she clenches her tiny fists. "A prostitute."
"Sophia Marie!" Her father scolds, but I merely shake my head and step closer to our defiant offspring.
"Listen to me as much or as less as you wish, child, but this is important." I undo the clasp on my token as I speak, not allowing our gazes to break.
"My name isn't 'child', lady. It's Sophia Marie Pent." She spits venomously. It would not surprise me if she were the offspring of that foolish, prideful Ares.
"And my name is not lady. It is Athena, and you are very lucky I do not demand respect from the likes of yourself." I sigh upon saying it, putting the pendent around her neck and fastening the clasp. "Keep this token from myself. The failure do so will result in your losing my guidance, and with the future you are setting up for yourself, you are going to need desperately. "
"I don't need guidance from anyone. Not from you, Athena." She growls at me, but she does not attempt to remove it as she yanks her reading from her father's grasp.
She is truly my daughter. Devin looks as if he wishes to speak further with me, but twenty minutes have passed and I have grown tired of their residence. I give him a curt nod and exit. There is much work to be done, and I will not sacrifice it for the likes of Sophia. Not on this night.
