Notes:
I wrote a bunch of chapters for this so expect a few more before I inevitably end up slowing down. I'm writing this as a short series that doesn't really have a defined ending yet.
Aphrodite
She was late.
She had been late before of course. Being fashionably late was just her thing. Never when an Olympian had just been murdered though.
When she arrived, Ares shifted, greeting her softly. She smiled at him.
Across the room, her husband eyed her arrival before focusing back onto the arguing Gods.
"She has corrupted my son! Whispering in his ear, words that her mother must have taught her!"
"Your spawn is the one with the power Poseidon. Perhaps we should be questioning just how he has gained such power? Controlling ichor is not something we can allow. Can you do that as well?"
That shut the King of the Oceans up for a moment. Curious. Seems that Percy really did discover some new power for himself.
She knew of course that the relationship between the two Godkillers was much more delicious than that.
It had started off innocently enough. A Smart, jaded girl with experience and a rough past, clueless handsome boy with raw power and a trusting complex. She didn't put much thought into it at the time. She only really got into it more when the boy had made her lover bleed with that sword of his. Any boy with the tenacity to beat Ares had some potential.
And then Rachel Elizabeth Dare had shown up and she couldn't help but throw in more feelings into the mix. The mortal girl was beautiful and accomplished, someone who could be a perfect choice for Percy and help him balance his life in the mortal world and Camp. A great crossroads, a love triangle worthy of the old legends. Add in Percy's own status as the Child of Prophecy and, well, who could blame her for adding in a few false leads and moments of doubt and intrigue?
And then he had beaten Kronos. The boy would ascend to Godhood, his love story would transition to a tragedy with so many paths to tread. The mortal girl he first fell in love with and perhaps the last? A god who never takes another lover. A love story so strong that it transcends time! Or perhaps he would spend eternity chasing blonde girls who looked exactly like her even long after her death, a god brought low by the memory of his first love. Perhaps he would petition for her to be made Immortal, fighting Zeus with all his might in the name of love? Dionysus had made a similar arrangement for Ariadne.
And then he had said no.
Gods what a delicious love story. He said no to immortality. "For his friends" of course, but she could feel what he truly felt. Not tragedy, triumph. "Love is worth any price, even mortality" was a great lesson to learn from a good love story. It would be one of the great stories that she could shelve and pull out whenever she felt nostalgic, right up there with Orpheus and Eros and Pygmalion!
And then the next great prophecy kicked off. Alone and afraid. He could intimidate gangsters and police officers with a single glare and the one word in his amnesia-ridden mind? "Annabeth" He knew not his own name, but he remembered hers. Love transcending the magic of the Gods! Amazing!
The girl was beside herself at his loss. "Where is he?" She had stormed into Olympus and stared down the Gods for his sake. What is there to fear when fighting for the most important person in your life?
Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase was the Love story that just kept on giving.
Tartarus. Her hubris brought her low. His love brought him with her.
How must she have felt? To know that this man would jump into the deepest pits for her?
How must he have felt? To know with such surety that she was the one for him, that there was no one else?
Their story was tragedy once more. Two lovers killed as they fell into Tartarus.
She had genuinely cried. It was a love story fitting for the most legendary of heroes. Her shelves would have to be re-arranged. No love story could be placed above theirs
Then, from the jaws of tragedy, triumph. The two lovers brought each other out of Tartarus. Broken and beaten, and all they had was each other?
She had cried even harder.
It would take decades, no, millennia, to find a greater love story than those two. If it was even possible to find a greater one. If she was being honest, had she faded at that moment she would have been completely content, having witnessed the greatest love story she would ever witness. It was like her purpose as an Immortal was complete. All other loves were like small morsels compared to the buffet that were the star-crossed lovers, the offspring of immortal enemies.
And now? Broken and beaten from the place where even Gods dare not roam, they felt betrayed. What right did the Gods have to put them in such a situation? What right do the Gods have to put demigods through this? Hatred and Love blossoming at the same time. All they had was each other, their hate directed outwards, their love directed inwards. They were as one being.
They were broken. They used each other. She was his anchor, his compass. Without her he would be adrift. He was her sword, her shield. Without him she was defenseless, powerless. They used each other, and they both knew it.
Tartarus took pieces of them and the only way they could fill the spaces left behind was with each other.
"The course is clear. Kill the boy. Without his power any rebellion is rendered inert. I can convince Annabeth to stand down."
"Idiotic! The girl is the real target. Without her everything falls, and I can convince Percy to stand down and any forces he has convinced, aim them at any malcontents."
"Or at any of your enemies, uncle?" Apollo chimed in before Poseidon fixed him with a glare.
"You're not making very good points brother." Zeus rumbled. "For all that Athena's girl might be the architect behind this rebellion, your boy is the power behind it."
The fighting had been going on for a while now.
"Ares. Athena's council is useful, but her daughter being one of the two rebels is noteworthy. You're my other God of War. Your advice?"
The council looked to her lover and Aphrodite wondered what he was going to say. He had been uncharacteristically quiet so far.
"Athena's right about Jackson being the power behind this. But Uncle P is right in that the moment Chase is killed Jackson has no direction." He started off carefully. "Clarisse was right in her analysis. He's like a dog and she's his leash. A willing dog, and a willing leash, but a dog and a leash nonetheless."
The description was crude, and she'd dispute the accuracy in that description of the relationship between them. Clarisse. She remembered her. Ares had asked for her love life to be something simple, no big upheavals or great surprises. He didn't usually ask for favors from her like that. She knew the girl was her lover's favorite Half-blood. The Hermes boy she fell for had a quiet existence. They were happy together last she checked. The girl likely hadn't described it that way, more that her father had taken her description and put his own interpretation on it.
"I say we try to separate them first. Kill either one and the other get less effective. Doesn't really matter who dies first. But I'd still kill both of them. Leaving either alive is just asking for trouble."
So, it came to this.
Either the two were killed, their tragic love story ending with failed rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the Old Order and instead they would die in each other's arms as their uprising was put down.
Or…
The great love story continues, Love overthrowing even the greatest of immortals. Gods and Olympus torn asunder by the two lovers in an attempt to bring about a new world. Love conquers all, even the Gods and the Ancient Laws.
If the end of Olympus was going to be Love Story, she could very well see herself rooting for the two.
"I would agree with Ares for once. The two of them are dangerous. My hunters can start tracking them down as soon as possible." Artemis spoke up.
"If I should find that the seas are a safe haven for them, you shall find Atlantis under threat brother." Zeus threatened and thunder rumbled.
Poseidon glared right back at his younger brother.
Hades had been quiet for the entire time she had been there. He was just staring at Dionysus's seat.
"I can't find him."
The bickering gods turned to him in silence.
"I don't know if he has a soul or not, an essence that can be saved or reformed. He just… died. Almost like Pan." Hades finished quietly. He sat on his throne, the one that Percy Jackson had asked to be given to him.
"Then he is truly gone?" Demeter asked her son-in-law with a whisper.
Hades just nodded grimly. All around the room paled a little.
"Then they are true threats to Olympus. True threats to this council and all Gods." Hera spoke. "They must be killed as soon as possible."
Poseidon grew sullen. Athena seemed flustered.
"Aphrodite. If we can get them separated, could you trick the boy?" her nephew asked, the King of the Gods leaning forward, worry clear on his face. "If he is committed to following the girl, you could lead him to a preferred battleground where Ares can face him."
Her lover grinned, no doubt excited at the prospect of a rematch between the two.
The Goddess of Love hesitated for a few moments. "Perhaps Athena would be better suited at impersonating her daughter."
"I could." The Goddess of War nodded.
"The moment Percy touched you you'd just attack him." Apollo pointed out. "You could trick him for a while, but I doubt you could play his lover."
Athena thought about it for a few moments before she relented. "Perhaps. But if the situation called for it, I could."
"But Aphrodite would be better suited." Hera finished. "Aren't they a personal project of yours?"
Artemis shifted. "Perhaps it was why you were late. An Olympian is dead and you were too busy gawking at the love story between his killers."
Aphrodite gave the Huntress a cold glare. "If you must know, I was consoling Ariadne."
Some of her fellow Olympians winced. Dionysus's wife was a good woman. Mostly forgotten by the Olympians, which was all the better if she herself was asked. Aphrodite didn't forget her though. She had blessed the relationship after all and been the first to comfort her this morning. It had been a nice, classic love story. Dionysus bringing her up to Olympus to live with him forever. Nothing great for the histories but not every love story could be one of the greats, could it?
"I can't do it." She said with resolve.
Zeus's eyebrow raised. "And why not?"
"No. That was wrong. I can. I just won't." She just shrugged.
Thunder rumbled in the distance as he stared at her incredulously. Ares raised an eyebrow but otherwise remained silent.
Poseidon seemed intrigued and Athena looked puzzled.
"Well, I'm not going to take part in destroying the best love story ever told." She said as if it was the simplest explanation in the world because it was.
"They killed a God! They threaten this council! They would overthrow Olympus!" Zeus stood as he raged.
Ares tensed. She sat with the same relaxed attitude as she had for the entire meeting and shrugged.
"And if Olympus falls to them, the story of our Fall shall be a Love story, a tale that will be repeated for millennia to come. Men and Women shall compare themselves to the two lovers who risked it all to destroy the world order because they loved each other." Her voice took on a tone of wistfulness. "And besides. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to let me live. Recompense for letting their love story take off in the first place of course."
The entire council tensed. She could practically hear their thoughts. Yes, they probably would let some of them live. Poseidon was Percy's father after all, and if Athena decided to forego her loyalty to her own father, then she no doubt would be left off the list of targets. Artemis had interacted with them both positively, and she was generally more concerned about demigods than most of the rest. Apollo was seen in a more positive light than others on the council.
She drew her gaze onto Hestia. The Eldest Olympian had been quiet so far, and there were only a few times where her attention had been drawn at all to the Guardian of the Hearth. She stood to gain the most. After all, if both Poseidon and Athena survived, neither could lead the Council for fear of a civil war, so who better than the Goddess who Percy most trusted? From being off the council to its leader. Quite a jump.
Hestia looked back at her with an emotionless face.
More than a few had gone through the mental workings she had, and their gazes flicked over to the hearth. Zeus and Hera both looked at each other, communicating somehow with just a look. "Sister."
"As the first to be eaten by Father, I believe that family should not turn on family. I feel sorrow that Percy and Annabeth have decided to go down this route." Hestia responded immediately, focused as usual on the hearth. "I shall not act against them either."
Ooh. Lines were being drawn now. It made sense. Gods who thought they stood a chance of surviving were better off neutral than antagonistic. If the demigods lost, they'd feel Zeus's ire for a few centuries which was not so big a deal, but if they won… they stood to gain much.
"Atlantis shall not harbor the rebels, but I cannot constantly watch every drop of ocean for them." Poseidon shrugged. "Of course, I shall alert my servants to watch for them."
It was a statement of non-committal if she ever heard one. The King of the Seas no doubt wanted to do more to help his son, but anything less than the bare minimum of support and Zeus would have good reason to march on Atlantis.
"They are, of course, unwelcome in the underworld." Hades said. "But I cannot lend any aid towards searching for them as of now. Dionysus… passing as he did has caused some problems in my realm that must be dealt with." She wasn't quite sure if he was lying or not, but the third member of the Big Three was as neutral as they come. "However, I would ask that whichever one you kill, you kill the other quickly afterwards. They are both… resourceful demigods. I'd rather not have to deal with one of them trying to get back the other."
Zeus gritted his teeth and was about to speak before Artemis let out a noise of panic.
"They're attacking my hunters!"
The Huntress vanished in a flash of silver.
Apollo looked at her empty throne with alarm. "It's the late-afternoon, my chariot is far to the west of where her hunters are camped."
Zeus nodded. "We shall have to convene again soon, especially those who would work more… diligently at eliminating them." Left unsaid was that Poseidon and most of the others would likely be absent, including her.
"Do you think they have a chance?" Ares asked her, and the Goddess took a moment to think about it.
"They do."
She left her throne empty as she disappeared, leaving a few red rose petals drifting in the wind.
Amphitrite
The Queen of the Oceans made a gesture and watched as the servants left the room quickly.
"Really mother, could you spare me the lecture this time?" Triton asked her sheepishly as he looked up from the parchment he was reading from.
"This is the third time this month I've caught you 'consorting' with some of the kitchen staff. Affairs with a few mermaids were all well and good before you were your father's Herald. I do hope you don't have the same attitude when you visit the dukes of the seas." She started.
Her favorite, and eldest, child rolled his eyes. "Mother…"
The doors banged open with force, interrupting her son. Her husband entered with a troubled expression on his face.
"Ah. My love, returned from this emergency council meeting already?"
The King of the Oceans placed a chaste kiss on her cheek before sighing as he sat.
"What troubles you?"
"It's Percy."
Oh. The Half-Blood. He was an alright sort. She liked him well enough, even if he left his dirty laundry lying about the guest bedroom sometimes.
And those blue chocolate chip cookies she had learned to make for him were a hit with the Duke of the Southern Sea, she made a batch every now and then for state visits from her husband's vassals.
She saw Triton's face shift into an impassive look.
A far cry from when he had eaten that entire first batch of cookies she had made when she first got the recipe. Her son liked to pretend to dislike Percy, but she could tell he had a soft spot for him.
"What has the Half-Blood done now? Is he in another prophecy? Saved Olympus a third time without us knowing?" Triton joked.
Poseidon was silent for a few moments before he answered quietly. "He is rebelling against Olympus."
Oh.
"That's- That doesn't seem right. He's a very loyal mortal Father." Triton questioned; his surprise evident as he put down the parchment he was reading. "Isn't that supposed to be his fatal flaw?"
She remained quiet as she placed a comforting hand onto her husband's shoulder.
"I believe that Tartarus changed him too much."
When the Goddess had first heard the boy had fallen in, for the sake of the woman he loved, she had let out a sigh and mourned for a few moments. A good child, what a waste. Triton had looked sad for a moment before proclaiming that the mortal had died in a heroic manner fitting for a son of Poseidon.
When they had heard of his escape, she had baked a batch of cookies and sent them to his cabin, although Triton had eaten more than a few. "Of course he escaped! Not even the Pit could hold my brother!"
"Has he truly raised his flag in rebellion?" She asked softly. "Perhaps it was a mistake?"
"No. He's learned skills that he needed to survive down there that have given him power. Too much, I think." Poseidon admitted. "He can control liquids with concentration. That is fine. I once witnessed him lift a can of soda towards himself. Then… he could control blood."
"Blood? Surely not? I doubt I could do that if I tried." Triton said.
"Aye. He can kill monsters with a wave of his hand. Zeus already started to push the idea that he was too powerful, but he had enough friends on the council to stop that at the time. He stopped giving us offerings a few months ago. Last night they attacked Dionysus. Him and Athena's girl."
She lowered her head. Fighting an Olympian? A suicidal notion. "What happened to them? You say they are still in rebellion, so they are alive somewhere. Did they escape from Dionysus?"
"They… Percy didn't stop at blood. He figured out how to control… Ichor."
She couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. "Surely… Surely not. And you can't mean…"
He nodded grimly. "Dionysus was killed early this morning. Hades cannot find a trace of his soul, which means that they managed to force him to fade."
Triton looked like he was about to have a heart attack. She wouldn't bet a drachma that she didn't have a similar expression on her face
"I'm not even sure if he has the support of some of the minor gods. For all we know it's just the two of them against the Gods." Poseidon grew quiet before continuing "And they might just win."
That night, Atlantis issued a call to all the servants of the Sea. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase were not to be harbored or be allowed safe travel under penalty of death. A copy was given to Hermes to show Zeus exactly the type of support Poseidon was giving to put down the rebellion.
Unfortunately, it seemed that many of the missives failed to reach their intended recipients. Delphin, normally a stalwart and faithful ally to her Husband had somehow managed to lose so many copies. It was only because of her husband's long friendship with him that he was given mercy.
Officially. Of course.
Unofficially, she baked a set of cookies and hoped the Fates waved a better ending for him than most of Poseidon's half-bloods met.
Notes:
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