Athena stood on the shore of Naples, a pale figure who seemed to radiate in the darkness of night. Her appearance of a small girl with silver hair giving her the look of a ghost as she stared down at the beach.
Athena was a goddess of wisdom, and an old Goddess. Her roots predated most of her kin, and even discounting her own personal knowledge, she could still draw some information from the 'Void', the root of all existence which housed all the knowledge of the world. So it was rare for her to come across something where she had absolutely no understanding of what it was.
"It looks human, but Athena can smell steel within it." Athena mumbled to herself as she kneeled over the body of what appeared to be a young man with rusty red colored hair. The boy, if it could be called that was wearing a white shirt with long blue sleeves and jeans, all filled with holes, covered in sand and soaked by the sea. Athena began to poke at the body with her finger. "It is alive, but not for long."
Athena had recently returned to Naples after suffering defeat at the hands of the Japanese Godslayer when she had sensed something strange coming from the beach, and she had followed the feeling to the body she now looked down on. Her intention, to kill whatever being was emitting that power.
The power was of steel. Even at such close range Athena was having a hard time believing that it was not an injured God of Steel she had been tracking. The power coming from him was great, for sure, but it wasn't 'divine'.
The Goddess of Wisdom looked the young man up and down before her eyes were drawn to his left arm. "I see. It is not divine, but has a divine vessel infused with its body... or perhaps not. The soul within the arm is not that different from the soul within the body. Hm..." She stared at the boy for a few more seconds with unblinking purple eyes before saying anything more. "The Steel within it is my enemy. I should kill it."
She summoned up her massive black scythe to her side, preparing to wield the bane of Uranus against the helpless embodiment of steel...
She should kill it, but something felt wrong. Something that she couldn't explain.
As she searched within her connection to the Void to try and figure out what the creature was, Athena was surprised to find herself... attached to it somehow. The Void informed her that it was an irreplaceable comrade who she could not bare to part with. Yet to her own knowledge she had never see this individual in her life. How was it that it was connected to her.
Her mouth twitched from its expressionless face as her eyes moved from the dying face to the left arm. "The knowledge that makes Athena what she is tell her that this arm is a vessel. So long as he has it, he will die shortly." Athena mumbled before frowning. 'He'? Why had she referred to it as a he? Why did the thought of it dying fill her with sadness?
Why couldn't she kill it?
'I don't want him to die. Not when he is so kind.'
The scythe flashed through the air, severing the inhuman arm from the human's flesh. The boy was so close to death's doorset that he hardly more than twitched and gasped as the limb was severed, not regaining consciousness.
"I suppose if it dies, then Athena might never know what it is." Athena said as she leaned over the boy's body, placing a hand on his face. "Live, so that I might gain knowledge of your existence, and by extention my own." A golden glow enveloped the boy's body, and it began to rapidly heal. Fatal wounds closed in seconds and even the missing arm regrow, good as new.
His life had been spared... for now.
Athena's eyes moved from the boy to the pseudo divine arm. She picked the thing up, examining it closely. She could sense the knowledge and power held within it.
Well, one should not let divinity go to waste.
Athena opened up her mouth, unhinging her jaw and began to swallow the severed arm whole.
This is just a intro to one of my prompts to get people thinking. Something a little different then the norm. The full prompt is in my profile along with several others.
Full Summery
(Fate/Stay Night X Campione): Athena's Campione: Shirou washes up in Naples and is found by the Goddess Athena. Athena senses her connection to Shirou through the fact that her and Rider both stem from Medusa, though she doesn't understand it. She cuts off Archers arm in order to save Shirou's life and restores his body to normal (eating the arm in order to absorb some of its knowledge and power). Later when Athena is attacked by Perseus after absorbing the dragon from Campione canon, Shirou fights him in order to repay her. Shirou loses because Perseus is simply too much for him but Athena saves him before Perseus can make a finishing blow. Afterwards Athena offers Shirou the power and knowledge he needs to fully awaken the Unlimited Blade Works and defeat Perseus, but in exchange she will own Shirou's soul. She transfers the knowledge she took from Archer's arm and the soul of the dragon she absorbed into Shirou, giving him the power he needed to crush Perseus. Now Athena has her own Campione and wonders what to do with him.
Not eating Archers arm does not let Athena use the power of the Unlimited Blade Works. I never implied that. so everyone shut up about it! Damn Fanboys/girls.