Category: Greek Mythology
Rating: M
Couples: Athena/Thanatos, Ares/OC, Apollo/OC
Warnings: AU, Blood (read: war), hints of Lemon
Chapter: 12
Copyright: Characters & places © By Whoever owns Greek Mythology, Plot & OC´s © by me
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"Zeus did that?" Andronicia demanded in horror, gently cupping her mother's cheek, looking her over with worried silver eyes. The stench of burnt flesh wafted up to her nose.
"He most assuredly did." Thanatos walked past her to one of the empty lounges where he laid Athena down gently. "Because she had had enough of Apollo's talk."
"What?" Eirene looked up at hearing the name of the God that had been courting her for years now.
"She lost it after you ran." Thanatos was starting to get himself under control again, his flesh returning to his bones. "She attacked him with the intent of doing serious damage. Zeus protected him with one of his thunderbolts."
"Thunderbolts?" Andronicia echoed, horrified. "He used a thunderbolt on Mother?"
"Yes." Her father snarled. "And no one stood up to protect her."
"But she is his favorite daughter…" Eirene breathed. "Why would he do that to her?"
"Because he agrees with Apollo of course." Andronicia frowned, arms crossed in front of her chest. "They all do."
"Not all." A voice said from the door-opening. "I do not."
Ares had followed them shortly after his tirade, being more worried about his sister than about how his family would react to that particular tidbit of information.
"You are about the only one." Thanatos flapped his wings, feathers sprouting from the bone.
"Sadly, yes." Ares briefly greeted the two mortals, before squeezing Andronicia. "What will you do?"
"They went too far." Thanatos stated. "Olympus will feel my wrath over this." He gestured to his still unconscious wife.
"Not only yours." Eirene stated. She was the gentler of the twins, but the sight of her wounded mother awoke another side in her: the protective one. "They proclaimed you unworthy of Mother. The worth of two is measured at the power of their child. I will show them mine."
Ares remained silent, knowing that this had already been decided: humanity would suffer under never-ending war until Eirene was appeased. The question was when would she be?
"Not only yours." Andronicia held Ares' hand. "The battlefields will be littered with dead."
Ares closed his eyes briefly. Had they any idea what exactly they were condemning the mortals too? Then again, had the Gods ever had one with every war they started? Had Athena and Hera thought of the lives lost when they unleashed the Trojan War?
He glanced over to his sister. Already he could feel the wars brewing now that Eirene had voiced the intent to punish the gods. Could she too? He wasn't sure.
"Then it will be as you wish." He whispered, looking over at Eirene. "If there is no peace, there is war. On the cities you turn your back to, I will unleash my rage."
She looked so much like her mother now: her silver eyes burning with the same rage he had seen in Athena's not half an hour ago. Her wings were shining with power, the silver lines sparkling in the light of Helios' sun.
He looked at Thanatos, still standing at Athena's side. Remembering what Zeus had done had unleashed his anger once more: the newly formed feathers were falling off once more, covering the ground around his feet. His flesh was melting, but this time his skin remained, revealing a dried up corpse standing the chambers of a mortal house.
The two mortals were taking it relatively well, though the mother had pulled her youngest on her lap, hiding the child's face in the crook of her neck. Considering the look of her step-sisters' father, that was quite understandable. The father – named Leander, if he remembered properly – had one hand on the girl's head, soothingly rubbing the brown locks. Neither had said a word since he appeared, but their eyes revealed their every thought to the God: they were upset about what the two younger Goddesses had just proclaimed. No doubt they feared for the safety of their small city, or the safety of relatives living in the bigger cities. He faintly recalled a mortal brother of the Twins living in Sparta. And Sparta would no doubt be one of the main players in this… mess. Chaos, he really did not want to be a Judge in the Underworld right now: they'd have no peace either.
He glanced at the woman still holding his hand: Andronicia, the Soul-collector of the Battlefield. He had yet to go to war since she came into her powers, Athena having begged him to not reveal the powers of the 'mortal' handmaiden, since even a fool could make the connection between her domain and Thanatos'. He had obliged his sister, but he could not do so now. No war was fought without death, and the upcoming brewing battle-pit the Mediterranean was doomed to be was no exception.
His dreams returned to him in full force, reminding him of massacres to come that were even more useless than his father a womanizer. And he was in no position to stop them. He, Athena and Eirene were meant to balance the others: the absence of the younger goddess meant the presence of the two elder ones and vice versa. And right now Eirene was nowhere to be found, so to speak.
"I feel the wars starting." He softly said. "It has begun."
And he dreaded every second of it. He sensed the start of Athens' involvement, he saw with his inner eye the fleet of Sparta set sail, he heard the cries of the first wives whose husbands were called to battle, he felt the tremors of moving war-machinery and he smelt the stench of a battlefield after a battle. The wars had begun, dooming Greeks and others alike.
