So for some reason I can't see the reviews. I know they're there, but I can't read them because it says 'no reviews' when I click on them. But please still review, because I get them through on email. I'll post them here and answer them when they decide to stop hiding from me.
Because of the rapid response, here's the next chapter.
Chapter 2
As Poseidon stepped forwards to his death, he contemplated the many ways that Kronos could kill him: setting him on fire; throwing him down the mountain; turning his bones to dust while they were still inside his body; impaling him on his scythe and ripping his intestines out. The possibilities were endless (and most of them absolutely terrifying).
"Could he squash you?" Ares asked.
Poseidon frowned. "Well, I suppose it would depend on how old I am, since we don't know that yet."
Hades seemed a lot calmer than Poseidon as they stopped as far from Kronos as they dared.
"Clever," Athena remarked as everyone tensed expectantly, waiting for the first words from Kronos.
The throne room was a lot like the corridors, with Greek fire torches and Corinthian columns around the room. The thrones – twelve of them for the original Twelve Titans – were positioned into the capital of the Greek letter lambda, with the end of the arms of the 'Λ' level with Poseidon and Hades. At the junction of the 'Λ', sat two thrones – Kronos and Rhea. Only one of all twelve thrones was currently occupied, although from the different temperatures around the brothers they could tell the other Titans had been in there recently. It was probably why Kronos had sent Hyperion, because he was too busy for them – as always.
"I think little Poseidon wants Kronos' attention," Hera cooed. "How amusing."
Poseidon shot her a glare. "This version of me apparently considers him as a father, even if he doesn't act like it."
Poseidon risked a glance at his father, cold gold coolly returning his look. Good, he thought, Kronos' eyes weren't black yet.
Percy exhaled in relief. "Dam, that's good."
Thalia snickered and high-fived him.
Hades took a deep breath before he started to speak, but couldn't even get a word out. Poseidon glanced at his brother to see his hands were trembling at his sides. Poseidon was shaking too. Kronos' divine power lashed angrily around them, so he wasn't completely calm.
"We do seem to be rather young," Hades said curiously.
Poseidon nodded in agreement. "Yes. But how young?"
"Hades trembling?" Apollo asked in amusement.
Hades glared at him. "Evidently, I have a rather good reason to."
"Just what did you two of you hope to accomplish by stepping into Oceanus' domain?" Kronos asked sharply. "Please, enlighten me. I can't seem to comprehend why you would disobey a direct order and one of the Ancient Laws."
"I'm pretty sure he knows why," Athena stated. "He's toying with the two of you already."
"To be fair, disobeying an Ancient Law is really stupid," Hermes said helpfully.
"You said the Laws are just guidelines," Poseidon said helpfully.
"Okay, that's not a good start, Poseidon," Demeter said. "Really?"
Poseidon stared open-mouthed at the book. "Oh, what am I doing?"
The air whistled past his ear, causing him to wince. He could just imagine that it had been a whip-like extension of Kronos' divine power lashing by his head, a force which could crush columns and boulders and would surely splinter his head into dozens – if not thousands – of small pieces.
"Probably was," Zeus growled out.
"Father," Hades said before Kronos could snap out an answer. "Poseidon was just curious about what Oceanus' domain was like."
Poseidon nodded gratefully to Hades. "Thank you."
Hades snorted. "Saving your ass as always."
"Curious enough to risk death by the Ancient Laws, which is certainly no peaceful death," Kronos rumbled, golden eyes flashing with anger. His hair – which was inherited by Poseidon – looked ruffled, the black curls falling to just below his ears. "Are you aware that Chaos knows when someone breaks the Laws? Not only that, but he keeps count."
Everyone turned to look at Poseidon, who shifted slightly in his throne.
Poseidon swallowed. "No, I didn't know that."
"And you also likely didn't listen when I told you in the past – repeatedly, may I add – that the deity of the domain you intrude upon has every right to slaughter you where you stand." Kronos' hand fisted against the armrest of his throne as he leant forwards slightly. "And Oceanus has demanded retribution."
"Shit," Jason said. "The two of you are dead."
"He did it!" Poseidon yelled, pointing at Hades as Hades yelled the same, but pointed at him.
Laughter erupted around the throne room at the two brothers. "Just like children," Artemis said in amusement.
"Excellent," Kronos said in satisfaction, causing them to frown. "As both of you evidently assisted the other, I will have to ensure both of you receive a punishment."
"I think he got you there, Uncle P," Apollo frowned.
Poseidon nodded. "Of course. He was probably just waiting for that."
"I tried to stop him," Hades protested. "I went with him to stop him from being killed!"
Poseidon sighed. "I'm an idiot so far."
Kronos smiled thinly, not looking very amused. "Evidently that is a lie. If you had really wished to stop him, you would have informed me as soon as you heard of your brother's scheme instead of running after him yourself. Your foolishness – you too, Poseidon – could have resulted in both of you being killed."
"As if he cares," Poseidon ground out.
Poseidon ground his teeth. "It's not as if you'd care about that," he shot back.
"Exactly," Poseidon growled.
Kronos leaned back. "Be that as it may, it would also cause Rhea to loathe me even more. Yes, I care little for your lives, but you should know by now that I dislike foolishness and stupidity in any form. As such, you will both be assisting Oceanus for three weeks."
Percy winced. "That's not gonna be fun," he mumbled.
Hades' eyes widened. "What? But he wants to kill us!"
"As you have likely realised, the sea is conflicted. You two will help Oceanus, and may just discern something about yourselves in the process. Now, I believe your mother has returned. Go bother her instead of me for once," Kronos said pointedly.
The six children of Rhea and Kronos shot up in their seats, instantly more alert at the mention of their mother.
"They were raised by mother," Zeus breathed incredulously, jealousy obvious in his voice.
Poseidon may be young still, but he knew that was Kronos dismissing them. He'd have to be stupid to not realise that. Beside him, Hades nodded his head. "Yes, Kronos," he mumbled, Poseidon breathlessly doing the same after he was elbowed in the gut.
The five children of Kronos and Rhea refused to call Kronos 'Lord', and definitely refused to call him 'Father', since he'd never been a father to any of them. It was one of their few little rebellions that Kronos found amusing and not irritating.
"Oh, how fun," Hades grumbled, "relegated to amusement for him."
Once the two were out of the throne room, they visibly relaxed, no longer feeling every inch of the Titan King's divine power focused on them.
"Why only three weeks with Oceanus?" Poseidon asked curiously, used to punishments that ranged from assisting the cooks for a month to being confined to his room for a year (that had been horrifying, even more so because Rhea had refused to go against Kronos' orders and had actually insisted on them); granted, Poseidon had caused utter havoc by 'accidently' knocking a statue of Theia over and into a column, which had then had the domino effect of knocking over several other columns (and squashing some nymphs in the process).
Zeus laughed. "Oh, I'd have loved to see his face at that!"
Poseidon nodded in agreement. "Definitely."
Hades shrugged. "I don't know, but it's probably going to be bad enough."
"He said the 'sea is conflicted'. What the Tartarus does that mean?"
"Language, Poseidon," a voice said warningly from behind them. "I thought I raised you better than that!"
"Mother!" Poseidon cried, spinning around and flinging himself into her arms with Hades close behind him. "I've missed you!" He paused to take a deep breath. "Kronos is being mean and making us 'assist' Oceanus for three weeks but we did nothing wrong and it's so unfair and I'm terrified of Oceanus and-"
Hestia smiled slightly. "So carefree, despite living in Othrys."
"Poseidon," Rhea said softly, a smile on her face, "it's no use complaining to me."
"Huh?" Zeus asked. "Why not?"
Poseidon pouted. "Please?"
Hades snorted in amusement. "Kronos has beaten us again, Poseidon," he grumbled. It was one of the very few games Kronos indulged in – who could tell Rhea their version of the story first. "And he's cheated again."
"A game?" Leo echoed. "He played a game with you?"
"I think the most important part there is that he cheated," Poseidon grumbled.
"It's unfair!" Poseidon groaned. "He's not allowed to do his telepathic thing!"
Demeter smiled and shook her head. "Complaining won't help."
Rhea shook her head. "Come on," she said, standing up, "let's get away from here." She took their hands in her own, starting back towards the big room her and her five children shared. "I really hope you didn't cause many problems for Oceanus. He has enough of them trying to keep the sea monsters under control."
"I may have upset a pod of killer whales and disrupted the migration of a group of blue whales. But it was an accident! I swear!" Poseidon finished hurriedly, desperately trying to get his point across.
Poseidon groaned. "I caused utter havoc!"
"Poseidon," Rhea sighed, "what am I going to do with you?"
"Since it was an accident you can get Kronos to take back the punishment!" Hades offered excitedly.
Rhea shook her head. "Not a chance, young man."
"But that's so unfair!" Poseidon cried out, causing several heads to turn their way. The young immortal noted that Koios was in the corridor, making him instinctively pull his chiton closer to him in preparation for the freezing temperature.
"You've gotten off lightly, Poseidon," Rhea said sternly, sudden warmth emanating from her – she'd seen Koios too. "I wouldn't push your luck. But by all means, you're welcome to take it up with your father."
"That's not going to happen," Annabeth said helpfully.
Poseidon hurriedly shook his head so fast he thought it was going to fall off. "No, no. I'm not doing that."
Rhea smiled. "I'm sure he'd consider it."
"He'll consider it," Hades agreed, "but he won't agree."
"If you put forwards a good argument then he might," Rhea said.
"Might isn't will."
They walked in silence until they reached their floor, one of the highest levels in Othrys.
"Poseidon, Hades!" a voice cried as Rhea opened the door to their room. "You're alive!" Hestia bounded over to them and hugged them, looking pleased that they'd survived without the four females to keep an eye on them.
Poseidon grinned over at Hestia and nodded slightly.
"Hestia," Poseidon said with a wide grin. His oldest sister was ten, while he was merely four, and he loved her as much as he did Rhea. Hestia was the protective older sister, and after having lived in Othrys for ten years, she knew how to survive Kronos' periods of anger and somehow, Kronos didn't hate her as much as he did the other four. Poseidon wasn't entirely sure how that was the case, but it meant that Hestia could probably lessen his punishment, if only slightly.
"He didn't hate her?" Percy asked. "I thought he hated all of you."
Hestia slowly nodded. "So did I."
"I'm only four?" Poseidon asked incredulously.
"By Chaos," Demeter said suddenly, "I've just realised we don't even know how long is between the six of us."
"Obviously, Zeus is at least four years younger than me," Poseidon said smugly.
Hades was already one step ahead of Poseidon. "Kronos is angry with us because we stepped into Oceanus' domain and may have messed some things up, but it was an accident."
"And you want me to talk to him," Hestia said in amusement. "Sorry, Hades, but breaking the Ancient Laws usually needs a worse punishment than three weeks with Oceanus."
"But I don't like the sea!" Hades protested. "And it's Poseidon's fault!"
Hestia rolled her eyes. "It's yours too, Hades. If you want your punishment lessened, you'll have to speak with him yourself."
"Hestia," Poseidon groaned.
"And hope you don't die," Hera added with a smile.
"And of course you'd love that," Poseidon grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's so unfair!"
"Just deal with it," Demeter called from where she was lying splayed across the bed.
"And the five of you are all there," Athena said.
The room they all shared with Rhea was large – large enough to have their five beds scattered around and still enough room for Poseidon and Hades to wrestle and run around the room screaming their heads off at four in the morning, something which Rhea didn't really enjoy. But she couldn't complain, not after knowing what could have happened to them. She knew eventually they would have to know, but for now she was content for them not to know why they weren't allowed in the same room as Kronos.
Poseidon and Hades looked slightly sheepish, while Zeus' eyes narrowed. "I think we know why we're not allowed in the same room as him."
They didn't have to know the reason for his intense hatred of them – or what he'd been about to do – until they were older. Hestia already knew, since she could remember waking up to see him standing over her, being lifted up by him – and then him stopping, but she didn't know why he'd stopped. Even Rhea didn't, and she also didn't know why he seemed to like Hestia more than the others. A decade after that night, and yet she still hadn't managed to find out why he'd stopped.
Hestia's eyes widened and she stared at the book. Zeus frowned lightly. "Hestia, do you remember that?"
Hestia slowly nodded. "Yes. But I don't remember him stopping. I'd woken up from… something. I'm not sure, and he was just standing over me."
The others remained silent, seeing that she was upset thinking about it as she tended to the hearth.
Rhea glanced out the slit in the black marble that served well as a window, an invisible barrier of energy around the gap to stop rain or anything else from getting inside, and watched as the sun finally slipped beneath the horizon, casting shadows across the room and the land ruled by the Titans.
She turned to face her five children. "To bed, all of you."
Hera groaned. "Please no."
"Aww, Mother!" Poseidon protested. "Can't we stay up?"
Rhea smiled fondly. "Not if you don't want to miss breakfast in the morning."
Poseidon's eyes widened. "No!" he cried hurriedly.
Hades grinned as he sat on the edge of his bed. "We're growing boys. We need our food."
Demeter smiled. "You need your cereal," she agreed.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "Bed. Now."
Poseidon grumbled, but sighed and did as she said, mumbling, "Hestia, tomorrow you're going to talk to Kronos for us."
Hestia just smiled and shook her head. "Do it yourself, Poseidon. You have to learn how to be able to get him to not be angry every time you open your mouth."
"To be fair," Hera said, "it's just Poseidon. I get annoyed whenever he opens his mouth."
"And I get annoyed whenever you open yours," Poseidon shot back.
Percy covered his laughter up with a snort. "You two really don't get along, huh?"
"Stop arguing," Demeter said. "Is it really necessary?"
"Yes," Poseidon and Hera said firmly.
"Don't copy me!" Hera snapped out.
"Mother," Poseidon called, "Hera's being mean!"
Hades rolled his eyes. "Really, brother?"
Poseidon sighed. "I'm four. You can't blame me."
Rhea turned her senses away from where she could feel Kronos stalking down the corridor several floors below them, in a foul mood as usual. She supposed that it was because of Poseidon and Hades earlier and Oceanus pestering him, and admittedly gave him some credit for waiting for the two to leave the throne room before allowing his anger to seep out. Poseidon and Hades hadn't really realised how close they were to him turning his divine power on them, and he could crush their bodies with a mere thought.
Poseidon and Hades winced. Athena looked up at them, "You two should be more careful," she advised.
"This is a book, Athena," Poseidon said pointedly.
"Hera, Poseidon, go to sleep," she stressed, putting a slight amount of her own divine energy into her words and instantly making the two sleepy.
It took several more minutes, but eventually only Hestia was awake. She looked up at Rhea with fiery golden eyes, similar to the eyes of Kronos, but far more caring. "Father's angry," she said.
Rhea nodded slightly. "Yes," she agreed. "Hopefully, Poseidon will learn soon just how easy it is to tick him off. Now, go to sleep, Hestia."
Hestia swallowed slightly, her eyes darting to the door. "Will you…" she hesitated, slightly sheepish with asking the question.
"Hestia?" Zeus asked. "You're scared of something."
Rhea smiled sadly before waving her hand, the enchanted bolt on the inside of the door sliding across and locking in place. "You don't have to be afraid, Hestia," she said softly. "He knows I'll kick his ass if he dares to come anywhere near any of you."
"Kronos," Annabeth murmured, realising what had Hestia so terrified. "If she'd woken in the middle of the night to see him standing over her… I'd definitely be terrified too."
Oh yes, Hestia knew what he'd been going to do.
"I don't think him knowing what you'll do will stop him," Hestia said sadly.
Rhea reluctantly nodded. "Don't worry. I'll stay up until he settles down."
"I would have loved to know her," Poseidon sighed.
"I did," Hestia said finally. "I knew Father too, at least both of them until three weeks after my birth. Then I woke up in the middle of the night… and he ate me."
Hestia relaxed. "Thank you, Mother."
Rhea wordlessly kissed her on the forehead. "I'll always keep you safe, Hestia," her eyes landed on the other four. "All of you."
"And that's the end of chapter two," Athena announced.
"Mother really loves us," Hera murmured sadly.
"Something must have happened while he was about to eat you, Hestia," Athena said. "Something which – for some reason – changed his mind."
What do you think of Kronos? He's very entertaining to write and hopefully I've got his character right (considering what we know from Rick's books). As for Rhea, well Kronos and her will get pretty entertaining later on.
