A/N: Yay chapter. I'm feeling much better now that I can, like, just write what I need to. We're heading back into some somewhat familiar waters this chapter, and I'm quite happy to be doing this mini-arc specifically since Athena and Samson's relationship has always been a favorite of mine, even if I don't write them interacting a great deal. It's for the best really, as much as having Athena be a driving character she's always been, to me at least, a more subtle force pushing someone in a certain direction. Especially with Samson. We'll get more interaction with them this chapter, and finally a good sit down conversation between them. Anyways, enjoy the chapter, it's much more dialogue driven but the two primary speakers in this chapter were literally born from thoughts. Expect talking.

The room is quiet as Samson walks in with Mori's bag and the freaking goddess Minerva right behind him. He sets the bag down and pointedly looks away from Minerva, never meeting her eyes as she periodically glances his way.

Samuel was moved to the couch on his demand so he could watch television while bedridden, much to Hylla's annoyance as they do in fact have an infirmary designed specifically for situations such as this. Deciding to be nice to Samuel for the time being, she kept her reservations to herself and let him have this small comfort.

Minerva's presence is one not many mortal know how to react to. Hell, not many gods do, either, Samson can testify to that from a small conversation he had with Apollo at the Winter solstice over forty years ago. The Olympian looks over Samuel's form, grey eyes sharp in an indescribable way. She nods at Mori, and the nervous sorceress continues using some form of magic to heal Samuel.

Hylla looks between Samson and Minerva, noting the similarity between them, not just in features but also in general temperance. Both are quiet with eyes that always seem to be in thought. Both stand up straight and proud and trail their eyes from interesting thing to interesting thing, like they can never keep their focus on one thing for more than a few moments at a time.

"Lady Minerva?"

Her eyes snap to meet Hylla, and for a second she can sense a warning signal flare up in her demigod instincts. The intense warning signal dies down quickly and the narrowing of the goddesses eyes turns warm once again.

"Athena, dear. Now, my Son and I must be off. Don't worry about Samuel here, he's in no state to assist me."

She snaps her fingers, and in a flash of light Samson and Athena vanish completely. Mori breathes a sigh of relief and snaps her fingers, causing the black bag Samson left on the floor to hover over by her side.

Hylla nods her hide, silently agreeing with Mori and kneeling by her side and gently pets Samuel's head. He gives her a weak, cheeky grin before passing right the fuck out. Hylla rolls her eyes, but continues kneeling next to Mori as she does her... voodoo business.

"Honest to Gods, I have no idea how Samuel is still going," Mori blurts out, snapping Hylla from her silent remote silence, "Seriously. He gets attacked with one of the most painful curses one can receive, basically overdoses on the ridiculously powerful painkiller I gave him, proceeds to get infected with a wasting disease from a vampire, is cured by a powerful divine blessing that should have caused liver failure because of compatibility issues with leftover magic in his system, breaks his fucking ribs fighting a dragon and only now collapses, still alive and certain to make a complete recovery in only a few days. Hylla, what the fuck did you marry?"

She looks down sadly at her godson, "What did the world do to turn him into... this?"

Hylla sighs sadly, remembering full well what happened to him in her time knowing him, and how he was already fucked by that time anyways. Should she spill the beans to Mori? Samuel is certain to bitch about it when he wakes up but... sometimes you have to push someone to make them get better. Samuel is so stubborn that it becomes detrimental to his well being, even if he thinks it's not.

Damn what he'll say, this is his godmother for Bellona's sake!

"Samuel's been through a lot, Mori, even before he met me he was already in pieces. I think that he was likely born different from most kids, and not because he's a demigod, too. I think he might've inherited Discordia's natural state of darkness. She's the goddess of bloody conflict, after all. Maybe if the war with the Titans never happened he might've had the chance to learn to control it, but his time with Saturn really is what did him in. After he never was able to really hold his nature back until just recently, and that's with the two of us doing serious work to help him become a fully realized person. He's made leaps and bounds, but his anger is still a problem especially since he tends to pair it with his incredible stubbornness."

The immortal daughter of Hecate sighs and lets her eyes drift to the floor. She's made many mistakes over her years of life, and now that she's back where she started she can finally see that, in no small part, she definitely had a hand in how Samuel turned out. If she wasn't so obsessed with finding Samson she would've stayed with Max and been there to protect him and Samuel. She probably could've helped him become well adjusted but... then there wouldn't be Samson. He would've been locked away for decades, centuries, maybe even millennia. Samson is the man she loves for all of eternity, it would've killed her if she just gave up on him. She knows for certain that if things were reversed he'd spend ever ounce of money he inherited and earned to find her.

The whole situation is complicated and even though self pity is something everyone can fall trap to, 'what if's' are never something to let yourself be possessed by. In the end, she left Max on good terms, both understanding she's not Samuel's mother and not responsible for every second of his life. Max wanted Samuel to be raised as normal as he could, which was perfect for Mori to make her exit from his life.

Even if she was there, Mori's presence alone would certainly draw monsters to Max's home and further endanger Samuel.

So no, even if a small part of her wants to blame this on herself, it is incredibly unfair to do so. Max wouldn't blame her for what happened, she knows, and even if Samuel and Eris do logically she's just a scapegoat. Damn that fucking bitch, Luna! She forced Mori to lose her mind and kill her best friend! None of this would have ever happened if that Titaness just let her do her business in Tartarus in peace!

Mori's just glad that the Roman bitch was reabsorbed by Samson and subsequently transformed back into Selene, a Titan that everyone likes. Unfortunately... that's not enough for Samuel, and she can't blame him. Even now she struggles with accepting that she was also a victim in this nefarious affair. Hylla sympathizes with her, which helps quite a bit, but like she said, Samuel is stubborn.

At least he hasn't shot her in the head again. That really hurt!

"Thank you, Hylla, I-I appreciate you opening up about Samuel like this to me... I just, I'd like to make things better, in some small way, if I can."

The Amazon queen is silent for a second. Being all... gooey and emotional like this is new to her, but now that things are finally becoming calm in the world she can let herself be more, well, normal. Also, right now, she's not being a queen to a group of warrior. She's being a friend to her husband's family member.

"Just give it time. Samuel's a hard man to work with, but he's still a smart man, just highly emotional. All I can say is, just be persistent. If you're actually in the right, he'll come around eventually."

Samuel doesn't say anything, just listens carefully to Hylla and his Auntie Mori descend into simple small talk. It's soothing, and after just a few minutes actually falls asleep.

Reality flashes back into Samson's eyes. He's seated at a nice table in a small, cozy, and eerily familiar fifties styled diner. His mother is seated across from him, hands folded neatly together resting on the table and an undecipherable gleam of thought in her eyes. Two cups of tea appear on the table, steaming hot with a wonderful scent of Ryokucha. He gently picks his tea up and sips from the cup. Hot, very hot, but very smooth, high quality.

He looks out the window, but can't make anything of the outside. The windows themselves are clean, just that the outside word is foggy, smudged-like, as though this place were literally a foggy memory.

Of course, he's pretty certain that's literally what this place is. The familiar decor, the familiar setting and aesthetic. This is the diner Samson talked to his father, Katsuhiro in that led up to his father's death at his mother's hands.

He... doesn't know how to feel about this. The diner itself was torn down decades ago, and even if he had fond memories of the place he was glad to see it go.

Samson enjoys the familiar atmosphere as best he can for a few minutes, savoring his tea and desperately trying not to cry. He looks back to his mother, meeting her expectant gaze. He sets his tea down and folds his hands on the table, a mirror image of his mother across the same table.

"Mother."

"Son. Do you know where we are?"

Samson scoffs, "Don't patronize me. I can never forget a place like this. The diner where everything that I came originates from. This is... this is where father told me the truth, and the place where his death was decided."

She's quiet, eyes still expectant. Samson thinks about it for a moment. She wants more from him, an elaboration it seems, "This is where my destiny began? Yes, I can see that. Everything began with Father's death, after all. We're here as a reminder. That something important for the future revolves around events of the past. Something old affecting everything old? Mother... what is going on? Not just with what's happening to Apollo, but Samuel and myself too. I can't believe the cult is done for, nothing in our lives are ever that easy."

Athena's eyes seem to speak a thousand joys. Samson feels his heart beat just a little faster. All children of Athena jump in joy practically when they make Athena proud. As toxic as the relationship is, they all bend over backwards and are very happy with it, regardless of everything they've done before.

"You do not need me to answer questions you already hold the answers to. Samson, you've become the brightest child of mine in centuries. As your father said, never stop questioning the world, even if you're never given the answers. You remember the world of broken glass, yes? The one you saved your Moroiaca from."

Samson's gaze sharpens. Athena continues, "In the age of ancients the Primordials trapped something in there following the defeat of the Crooked One. Negativity, raw, human emotion was given formlessness, born from the collapsing of an age. I suppose you could call it a curse with a body. Everything that ever hated us channeled those emotions which threatened the balance of the world. It was sent away into the broken world and left to rot. Now, our age stands in a tipping point, barely holding on by a thread. The entity is thrashing against the liminal barrier, hoping to burst free and spread its cursed form across our world. Out of all the beings in this world, only you and Moroiaca have traversed its depths. My peers find it a none issue to deal with this entity, but we're creatures of thought. Our dear fellow Prometheus is worried, and so to am I. Traverse the glass world, defeat the entity, and I shall grant you my wisdom. One question I deem worthy of an answer."

Eyes closed in thought, Samson exhales deeply through his nose. Never is a conversation with Mother one that answers things in any easy, sensible way. And now he has to go back into this bizarro world again? He never fully understood what that place actually is, but he does believe his theory is the most right, at the very least. Then what about this entity? His Mother describes it as a curse give, form, born from negativity of a violent end to an ageless era. He compares them to an Arai demon, only more 'general'. Arai curse the individual responsible for a death, whatever this thing is seems to be the embodiment of hate from the end of the Golden Age.

Can he even fight something like this? Well, if it was impossible he wouldn't be sent after it like a butcher by his Mother in the first place. She always pushes her children to go beyond themselves, but never asks for the un-doable. Well, maybe. Sometimes he can't tell if people succeed because the Fates will it, or if it was in their capabilities the whole time.

Well, he can only think about things so much without actually doing anything.

"Mother, I'm ready. Send me to the world."

Her eyes suddenly make him question himself, as though she's saying 'Are you really ready?'. He curses himself for being so arrogant, and before he can try and gleam any more information from Athena, she snaps her fingers, sending him back into the unknown.