Greetings viewers! I hope that all of you enjoyed the previous one-shot!
This is the third one-shot and it directly follows the events of the previous two books and the first two one-shots.
If you have landed on this one-shot by chance, please read the first two stories and the two one-shots or else this one-shot won't make any sense and it will also spoil the two stories. Both stories are thirty chapters each and have around 389K words, so give them a try! The stories are:
The Tale Of Perseus: Beginnings(Book 1)
The Tale of Perseus: The Trojan War(Book 2)
Friendship (First One-shot)
Family (Second One-shot)
If you have already read those prequels, I hope you enjoy this one-shot.
All credit for the characters goes exclusively to Rick Riordan.
Zeus let out a tired sigh and massaged his temples to ease some of his tension as he went through a few reports. In the seven and a half decades it had been after his nephew's sacrifice, the world had become much harsher place and its inhabitants had become far more hostile.
The Trojan War had completely ravaged the mortal world and it had not only ended in the destruction of one of the greatest city-states in the world, it had also led to an acute economic crisis in all the other Achaean city-states that had participated in the war.
Along with wiping out hundreds of thousands of people, it had also bankrupted all the prosperous city-states around the Aegean. And the loss of so many people had meant that there was a severe shortage of manpower to fulfill the roles of craftsmen, workers, scholars and all other jobs which were essential to rebuilding society.
To make matters worse, all the food which had been meant for the general populace had been confiscated repeatedly by the remnants of the Achaean and Trojan armies which had led to a series of famines in the past seventy five years, resulting in epidemic outbreaks due to malnutrition and poor hygiene which in turn had led to more deaths, which meant that there was an even larger shortage of manpower.
Compounding all of this was the exponential increase in monster attacks. The combined efforts of Perseus, the Divine Secret Service and the Hunters of Artemis had once led to the near extinction of all monsters in the mortal world.
However, with Perseus gone and with Ares struggling to command the entirety of the Divine Forces, the Hunters of Artemis were constantly overwhelmed and they had lost too many hunters in the past few decades in trying to keep the monster population under control.
This had led to a near collapse of mortal civilization and only a few crucial interventions by gods had prevented humans from going extinct. But they no longer lived in the magnificent and sprawling metropolises constructed during the Golden Age of Peace.
The war had reversed millennia of progress and mortals had returned to living in small hamlets without any large central authority. And the situation was not that rosy in the divine world either.
The dramatic increase in monster attacks had led to life once again becoming very difficult for demigods. Three quarters of a century ago, it was common to see old demigods with children and grandchildren, nowadays, it was rare to see demigods in their mid-twenties. The Hunters were doing their best, but there were just too many monsters for them. And it wasn't like the gods could get too involved into mortal affairs very easily.
The residual energy from the titanic struggle against Tartarus and Typhon had washed over the entire world and had hindered the growth of flora and fauna, turning lush forests and sprawling farmlands into dry, inhospitable deserts.
It had also had the side effect of catching the attention of other protogenoi and if the gods got too involved and left even bigger energy footprints, they would not only disrupt the natural balance of the world, they could possibly even earn the ire of other protogenoi. Especially protogenoi of nature. And they simply could not afford to draw the ire of any more protogenoi.
The sudden and unstoppable drop in mortal population had led to a dramatic drop in worship of the gods, subsequently resulting in their powers dropping. It had also led to a slower rate of reformation for all the minor gods who had lost their physical forms in the fight against Tartarus.
Some of the minor gods had taken a new physical form only a few years ago and it would take decades before all of them were back. And the rest of his fellow Olympians were bogged down by loss of worship as well as the crushing devastation of Percy's death.
The Atlantean Royal Family had been the worst hit. Most of them had taken a break from their duties for a decade and that had resulted in the seas becoming unnavigable, making problems even worse for mortals. His brother especially had taken it very hard.
Poseidon had gone on a self-imposed exile and for a decade, he had not heard a single word from his brother. It was of course in direct violation to his own decree but at that point, the decree had been of least concern.
Thankfully, Poseidon had been much, much better since his return and the seas were slowly regaining a semblance of normalcy although Poseidon had recently told him that the unrest had increased without Percy to constantly neutralize threats and deal with rebellions. And his Olympian family was not faring any better.
Apollo and Hermes had lost their zeal for enjoyment and more often than not, he found them mourning and brooding in bars, in an attempt to get over the loss. Hephaestus had relocated his forges under Mount Etna to keep an eye on Typhon and they rarely saw him on days other than the Solstice meetings.
Aphrodite had lost her characteristic bubbly and optimistic personality and had instead turned into a sombre, bitter shell of her former self. Artemis had become cold and snappy, lashing out at others ferociously even at the slightest infringements. And she was stretched thin trying to eliminate as many congregations of monsters as possible.
Ares had remarkably gained a newfound sense of duty and responsibility, no doubt a result of Perseus' influence and had nearly worked himself to the point of exhaustion in trying to lead both the Divine as well Olympian Forces in Perseus' and Athena's absence.
The constant influx of new, dead souls led to Hades being overworked and cranky as a result. Demeter spent most of her time sustaining harvests, making sure that the remaining mortals didn't perish due to starvation and had no time for anything other than that.
Hera and Hestia did their best to hold their broken family together. And even though there were hiccups every now and then, they somehow managed to prevent their familial relationships to degrading to the way they were before Perseus had reunited them. But his daughter Athena was a complete emotional wreck.
He had hoped that after two and a half decades of continuous mourning, she would be better and that her emotional condition would improve. But it had only gotten worse in the past half century.
She was almost always intoxicated by Nectar, in an attempt to not be tormented by hallucinations of Perseus, flashbacks of their most cherished moments and visions of the future they would have shared.
She rarely slept because that resulted in gut-wrenching nightmares and when she fall asleep due to sheer exhaustion, her screams and sobs elicited all their attention. And she had not stepped out of Perseus' palace on Olympus for seventy-five years.
They had all tried so desperately to try and help her. Aphrodite had offered to block all memories of Perseus from her mind but Athena had vehemently refused to move on. Zeus was not that surprised. The concept of loss was so foreign to full immortals that they simply lacked the maturity and understanding to deal with it. It was only thanks to constant visits by him, Selene and Amphitrite that Athena was even sane at this point.
Twice a week, he found himself next to Athena, sharing Nectar with her while patiently listening to her fondest memories of Perseus and their dreams. And every time, he would lie to his daughter.
He would assure his intoxicated daughter that those dreams would one day come true without knowing whether Perseus would ever regain consciousness again. It pained him to see his daughter suffer so much but he was utterly helpless to stop it.
Zeus himself was starting to feel his age and like some of the other gods, his appearance had aged considerably in response to the turmoil in his domains.
Aeolus and the wind gods still had their plates full dealing with the malevolent wind spirits that had been released upon Typhon's imprisonment and his other responsibilities were taking such a big toll on him that he was starting to wonder why he ever took the role of King of gods. And all these problems, in one way or the other, were a result of Perseus' absence.
"It's unbelievable how much the lack of one person can cause such a great imbalance in the world." Zeus muttered to himself. That was when he heard his wife's voice from behind him.
"Yes, we always took our nephew for granted." Hera somberly stated before giving Zeus a glass of Nectar and sitting next to him.
"Thank you. I needed this." Zeus stated with a sound of relief as he sipped some Nectar.
"I know. We may be gods but you do realise that we do need to sleep as well don't you? You have severely overworked yourself, you need to break." Hera gently admonished.
"Perseus made the world a much better place, Hera. He had the charisma, the intellect and the power to turn the world into a utopia and for the love of Chaos, despite my best efforts, I am unable to find a way to bring the world back to the way it was during his era." Zeus stated with a deep sigh.
"Husband, we may never recreate the Great Peace. At least not without Percy. He made the world such a great place and he was always our wall. Always protecting us from threats. Not only that, he turned us into a family again and he molded the world to conform to his own lofty ideals, at least for a few decades. We never realised how essential he was for the world to thrive and thought his involvement would always be a given. Neither us nor the world ever deserved him." Hera stated with watery eyes. Zeus agreed with her but he did not say it out loud.
"Wife, it is impossible to find someone to replace him and to be entirely honest with you, I feel disgusted whenever the thought of replacing him even crosses my mind." Zeus stated in a low voice.
"He is irreplaceable, Zeus. And you're not alone in that train of thought. No one, myself included, wants to see someone take up Percy's role. Even Ares commands the Divine Forces only as a commander. He refuses to take the title of general. All of us are still reeling from Percy's sacrifice but none of us want to replace him or forget about him, even if it means that we have to deal with some emotional trauma." Hera stated with a distant look in her eyes.
"Who thought that I of all people would become so attached to a son of Poseidon?" Zeus stated with a chuckle.
"In your defense, it was impossible to dislike Percy. If your own maiden daughter could not bring herself to dislike him, you never stood a chance." Hera stated with a teasing smile and Zeus laughed before sobering up at the mention of Athena.
"Hera, what do I do about Athena? We have been trying for so many decades but have failed to to even bring her out of Perseus' palace. We have tried everything but she just refuses to move on. Why is it so difficult for her?" Zeus asked with a sigh.
"Tell me something Zeus, have any one of us moved on? Are we all at a stage where we believe we can function without Perseus?" Hera asked and Zeus nodded his head, conveying his answer.
"You have your answer. All of us are clinging on to the hope that he will one day be back, Athena more so than others. And as long as there is even a sliver of hope, we can never move on " Hera sorrowfully stated.
"Even if not for us, I hope he returns at least for her. They have a prosperous life ahead of them and I would love to play with my grandchildren." Zeus stated with a tight smile which Hera returned and both of them settled into a comfortable silence. They could only hope that Percy would one day wake up. The world needed him. They needed him. Most importantly, Athena needed him.
Hey guys! So this one-shot focuses equally on character development and plot progression. I know that it is a humongous time skip from the previous one-shot but the after effects of Percy's death could only be portrayed after a significant amount of time had passed.
I gave a glimpse into how his death affected the Olympians and the sorry state that the world is in. We have only two one-shots left after this before we jump into the third story!
Read and review, I hope that all of you enjoyed this chapter! Have a fantastic day!