Artemis's pov-
The night wind blew against my back, but it doesn't bother me. The cold of a mountain's cliff wasn't nearly enough to affect me.
I smiled while looking at one of the pictures in my hand.
It was one of me and Atalanta when she was still a baby. The picture was taken in secret when she was three days old, while I was still recovering from giving birth. Which wasn't helped by having to go to the Olympus a couple hours after giving birth.
My daughter was so small and weighed so little back then. She was a vulnerable new life, brought into this world by me. But just looking at her was enough for me to know she was perfect.
It made the nine months I spent hiding my pregnancy worth it.
For the first time ever, I had a child that belonged to me alone. Unlike my hunters, I was her true mother, and her development would be shaped by me from the very start.
Now Atalanta is going on her very first quest, it makes me feel so proud.
For eight years, I've watched over my daughter's growth, seeing her develop from a defenseless baby to a brilliant young maiden.
I know that she'll only grow more brilliant in the future.
She has inherited my appearance and mind after all. A child of mine can only be brilliant, in spite of the influence of her inferior father.
Poly may be one of the few people I would trust my daughter with, but his influences on Atalanta have only dragged her down.
From Atalanta's words, she's been having dreams from her soul's past incarnation. It must be Poly's influence, that's the only explanation.
I know that Atalanta would be happier if she didn't have to deal with her past life.
Atalanta wouldn't be able to reach her full potential when she's being held down by her soul's past incarnation. Nor will she be able to be happy.
And with how little she wanted to talk about her dreams, they must've been horrid.
What was the past incarnation of her soul?
Were they a little girl murdered before her time?
Or was she slightly older, dying after living a life of abuse?
In the end it doesn't matter, they've died and are now free of their pain. Her suffering has been rewarded through the rebirth of her soul into my daughter. In doing so, she would forget all the pain and suffering she went through and be given a new chance at life. That is the process of reincarnation that separates mortals from gods.
Finding a way to remove the influence of Atalanta's past incarnation will be my way of honoring them while helping my daughter embrace her true nature.
Wouldn't that be best for everyone? If those dreams are so painful, why would you want to cling to them?
I sighed and looked at another picture.
It was a picture of me and a startled two-year old Atalanta clinging to my leg. She was dressed just like me.
"She was so funny when startled," I muttered to myself as I stood up.
"What's so funny, lil'sis?"
I instantly turned and glared at my brother.
"Apollo!" I hissed in anger.
This fool! He went behind my back and told Aphrodite details about our family! And he thinks he can just waltz up to me! He's lucky I don't rip his throat out.
"Woo there, sis! What's wrong?" Apollo asked while taking a couple steps back.
"Don't act like you don't know what you did! Why did you share secrets about Atalanta?!" I seethed in anger.
"Oh that! You should be thanking me," the blonde fool smiled as if he didn't do anything wrong. "I was able to protect your baby daddy by handing of some info of."
"Explain."
How does giving Aphrodite details about us protect Poly?
"Oh nice, you calmed down," Apollo whistled in joy. "Aphrodite cornered me and demanded info, but I wouldn't sell out my little sis like that. No big brother would ever do that."
"You have five seconds before I break your arm, little brother."
"Tsk you're being so prickly today, sis. Aphrodite promise not to harm Poly if I gave her some info. I know I know, pretty cool of me, huh. Now lil'anta won't end up fatherless."
"Do you know what Aphrodite did with the information you gave her?" I calmly asked my brother, anger bubbling up inside me.
"No, but it's not like I told her anything of importance, like Poly's real identity," Apollo waved off my concern with ease.
"Aphrodite tried to destroy my relationship Atalanta, brother!" I yelled while walking towards my brother. I was slightly taller than him in our current forms. "Atalanta rightfully rebuked her, but now Aphrodite has set her sights on my daughter. All because of you!"
That disgusting love goddess never had a chance to damage my relationship with Atalanta, much less destroy it. Unlike her children, my child isn't an easily swayed fool… but hearing my own daughter say she loved me despite my flaws hurt, and I don't know why.
I know she meant every word; Atalanta truly loves me; she is without a doubt my most loyal follower. Yet, her words felt as if Zoë suddenly came back from the dead and called me a failure.
"Why are you being so serious, sis! Even if something happens to lil'anta, it wouldn't be the end of the world," Apollo callously remarked.
"Apollo, what are you implying?" I asked while steadying my breathing.
"Lil'anta may be a fun kid to mess with, but she's not a god. Half-bloods like her have a short shelf life," Apollo shrugged. "Why does it matter if she dies a couple years early?"
"Listen closely brother, Atalanta isn't just some kid for you to mess with, and she isn't going to die soon. My daughter is going to stand by my side till the end of time. Know this, if something hurts her before that time, and I find out your responsible, I'll never forgive you."
My foolish brother looked shocked at my cold demeanor. "Wow wow wow! Why don't you take a chill pill? I knew you cared about her this much, I would've gotten Aphrodite to promise not to hurt her. But oh well… what's done is done. Let's talk about something a little more fun."
It took all of my willpower not to sock my brother in the face.
Out of all the gods, I thought that Apollo would understand my love of Atalanta. But he doesn't, he's just treating Atalanta as a toy for our amusement! Even now, he doesn't feel bad for putting Atalanta's life in danger by drawing Aphrodite's gaze to her.
I've always treated his children as my niece and nephews, showing them some favor over other half-bloods. But now he refuses to do the same for my sole child, his only niece!
And how dare he act shocked by my anger!
"How about we talk about these pics," Apollo laughed, bringing me back to reality.
In Apollo's hand was a series of pictures.
I looked down to see nothing in my hand. He must've snatched the pictures from me while I was trying to comprehend his stupidity.
Before I could do anything, Apollo started to run away. "I think I'm gonna go wake Mom up! I can't wait to see her face once she learns you have a kid!"
First, he insults my daughter, now he's trying to bug Mom!
"Do you really think I'm going to let you bug mom with your stupidly!" I growled.
"As if you could stop me," Apollo laughed as he ran.
I'm going to make sure he suffers!
Poly's pov.
I handed another beer to David as I took a seat next to him. We were sitting in my kitchen, the tv was on but muted leaving us in silence.
"Thanks," the father of Atalanta half-blood friend said as he opened it. "Aren't you going to have one?"
"No, I'm a really lightweight drinker. Even a single beer could probably knock my lights out," I laughed.
"Then you shouldn't get in drinking competition with Aphrodite, that girl can drink," David shook his head.
I'd rather never meet Aphrodite again, much less get in a drinking competition.
"Well, placing a human against a god isn't really fair," I remarked as I spun my seat to the left and right.
David smile. "I guess that's true, though I don't think the divide is that great."
His words made me grow serious.
In my first life, I grew up during the era where gods where far more active, and their full strength was on full display.
A normal human swings a sword and they couldn't even cut through armor. A god does the same thing, and they wipe out an army.
With a single movement, a god could send a disease capable of wiping out an entire city.
"You should be careful, that comment would probably get you smited," I seriously warned him.
"Don't you think your being a little paranoid?" David asked as he took another sip of his beer.
"No, I think you're not being paranoid enough. To a god, humans are insects, weak creatures they could smite with a thought. Their pride wouldn't allow such disrespect, and I don't think I have to tell you how they would respond to such an insult."
"Poly, I admit I don't know a lot about the Greek gods, but I've met Aphrodite a couple times and I've never felt like my life was in danger. I mean… Are you scared that Artemis will kill you every time you meet?" David called Artemis by her name without fear.
"I don't think that she'll kill me, or physically hurt me. But only because she holds some respect for me, and am the father of her kid," I said dryly.
Even if she wouldn't admit it, I know that Artemis still holds a little respect for me, at least enough to trust me with our kid.
And now Atalanta herself stops Artemis from physically attacking me. Atalanta loves both of us equally and wouldn't let her mother kill me or even physically hurt me. Meanwhile, Artemis would rather die than hurt our child.
But I'd rather die then let that situation play out. Atalanta cherishes both of us, relying on us for support, and I think that such an event would destroy her both emotionally and mentally. My little moon would blame herself, and retreat inwards. Once that happens, I don't think Artemis or myself could get through to her.
"Physically?" David repeated after a moment, his slightly drunken gaze looking over me. "What do you think she'll attack you spiritually or something magic light that."
"No, but she can be quite mean, being berated for anything you do can get frustrating after a while. And it feels like she truly means every single insult, unlike say Atalanta whose jerk insults are far less hateful. Though lately she's been insulting me less, it feels strange…"
I don't know if Atalanta picked up her ability to randomly insult anyone from her mother, or the influence of her past life, but it always felt less hateful than Artemis's insults. My little moon's snide remarks always came from a place of care and love, that didn't make it ok for her to insult me but I never seriously tried to stop her attitude from coming out when we're home.
I knew that was probably a losing battle from the start, and I'm honestly luckily, she holds me in such regards. Seeing her mother constantly insult me at every turn, it would've been natural for her to act like her mom and lose respect for me. But that never happened, instead she's always viewed me as her mother's equal, no matter how much that isn't true.
Huh… I wonder if Atalanta viewing Artemis and myself as equals is why she always treated Artemis's insults as a joke, or if simply growing up around it made it seem natural to her.
"Oh, man up!" David drunkenly said as he slapped me on the back. "We're both basically single father, and I don't know if your clear sighted like me or what, but that's some strange stuff out there, let me tell you what. And our daughters look to us as symbols of strength, rocks of stability, who can't let some petty insults bother us!"
I just sighed in response.
It seems that some things never change, no matter the era.
It's not like I haven't put up with Artemis dropping by and getting my parents killed, then forcing a baby on me in the aftermath, and then dealing with her insulting me for years.
I hope that one day me and Artemis can return back to the way we were before that night… friends. That's why I've put up with her disrespect for years, I know she's a good person and she'll eventually comes to her senses. I hope…
It's not like I can do anything else, I'm a mostly regular human, and she's a god of Olympus, the divide in power between us is simply too great… hoping Artemis naturally gets better is quite literally the only thing I can do short of using Atalanta to manipulate her mother.
But that is something I refuse to do. I refuse to drag my little moon into this, forcing her to manipulate her own mother would hurt Atalanta's already fragile mental state.
Especially when she believes so heavily in the bonds shared between our family, thinking they're enough to overcome even Orion. Such a pure belief is something that I can't bring myself to taint.
And truth be told, after feeling the pain familial bonds can bring, I want to see the miracles they can cause. Even if it's the last thing I see.
AN:
Hello, everybody! Hopefully everyone's doing great.
This is just a short chapter interlude for this month, the reason being that there won't be a full chapter this month.
The goal for this month and next month is to focus on the following things:
1)Rewriting and improving the old chapters.
2)Finishing the next chapter of Heroic Saiyan
3)Finish the next chapter of Code of Justice.
These things will be the major focus, which leaves little time to work on a full chapter of a Moon's reflection, especially with collage starting again.
Also, any opinions of any changes y'all thing should happen need to happen now. Speak now or forever hold your peace.
Though, it should be noted that not all opinions will be able to work, especially since there can be contradictions between advice received. In short, I choose the opinions that make the most sense, and work best for the story. While at the same time trying to understand the underlying reasons for the contradictory opinion. This seems fair to everyone.
On to this chapter/interlude:
When thinking about what to do an interlude on, I decided it would be best to use it to address some of the issues people bring up in regards to Poly and Artemis's relationship, while also showing Artemis's form a love for Atalanta.
Before getting into that, I still haven't read the trails of Apollo, so I don't know all the details about the innerworkings of his personality. But the idea that he finds Atalanta as a fun mortal, while not getting overly attached makes sense to her given that he's a god who's had countless children and lovers die. Plus, it would make sense for Apollo to not treat Atalanta as her own person, but as either a source of happiness for his lil'sis, or a small Artemis that's unable to fight back against his antics.
Artemis meanwhile truly loves Atalanta with all her heart, but her godly nature makes it not only possessive but dangerous for who Atalanta is.
As for Poly and Artemis relationship, I used this as an opportunity to clearly show how unhealthy it is, while also pointing out again how it isn't a joke. Polys basically stuck with Artemis, who was someone he truly trusts and still cares about, but who has become abusive. Not only that, but there is literally nothing he can do about it, after all Artemis is a goddess, there just isn't anything he can do about the way Artemis treats him, there is way too much of a power imbalance.
Also, I tried to show how Atalanta's teasing wasn't nearly as bad as Artemis's abuse, but he didn't truly mind it in the end because he knew it didn't come from a place of hate, but love.
And there were hints at how Atalanta has really never thought of Poly and Artemis's relationship as abusive since its what she grew up, even before she regained her memories. That's just the way she thinks the two of them interact. Plus, its not like her memories as Shirou Emiya would do good at telling her what a normal relationship between parents is. She mostly suppresses the memories of her original parents, and her other parent was Miyuverse 'I'm going to get my son to sacrifice my daughter' Kiritsugu… so he wasn't exactly a good role model.
Like think about it this way, how many people here read Artemis and Poly's interactions from Atalanta's point of view, and just treated them like typical anime relationship? We all know the ones were the female partner is either physically or mentally abusive towards the male partner, but not thinking about the underlying abuse.
Anyway, the part with the pictures was an idea made in the spur of the moment to show how Artemis's hypocrisy will come back and bite her. (Remember, she didn't want Poly taking pictures of her and Atalanta because they could be embarrassing, but now she's getting embarrassed due to her own secret photo's getting out.)
Ok enough talk, hopefully everyone has a great day!