Chapter Fifteen

Zeus yelled in frustration and threw his master bolt at the wall. It bounced off the wall and back into his hand. He aimed it at his throne and threw it. It clattered on his seat. Zeus breathed heavily.

Percy Jackson was causing him problems. Ever since he rejected his gift, Zeus felt discontent for the boy. Then he strolls through Tartarus, the scariest thing he had been through. Did he think he was better than the Gods?!

Zeus yelled and summoned his bolt back to him.

And now he escaped the prison he had put him in. That's not all, he was being aided by Artemis and Thalia. His own daughters. His own flesh and blood betrayed him.

He couldn't let this stand. He couldn't be made a mockery of! He would have to demonstrate what he does to traitors. He would make an example of them, to prove that he was king, and would continue to be! Yes, he would make sure that for centuries to come, his subjects would know what he did to traitors.

He disappeared in a flash of lightning. He had to find the traitors and capture them. A public execution would set the right example. He reached his senses out to find the Gods of his council. Athena was in her palace, Apollo in a bar in the city. Aphrodite was in a brothel, along with Ares. Hermes was zipping all over the place. Hera in her palace, Hephaestus in his forge, Poseidon in Atlantis. Dionysus, Camp Half-Blood. Demeter was attending to a farm in Texas. Finally, Artemis popped up. In the woods of Montana.

He zipped over there. He appeared in the Hunter's camp in a flash of lightning. It was quiet during his entrance. And after. He waited for applause, but when he received none, he looked around to see that there was no one around. Artemis should've been here, so where was she?

He gripped his master bolt close to him as he crept through the camp. He was slow and observant. He didn't want to get jumped by those girls... those hot girls... Maybe he would be alright with getting jumped by them.

He reached the biggest tent. He paused as he thought he heard noises coming from inside. Then voices.

"Gods, you're annoying."

"HA! Sucks to be you!"

"Didn't he bond to you? You should be supporting me!"

Zeus had heard enough. He entered the tent. His face grew red at what he saw. Thalia, in a bra, was standing by a bag. On the other side of the tent, laying in bed was Artemis and Percy. He gripped his master bolt so tight that his knuckles turned white.

"DAD! WHAT THE HELL?!" Thalia yelled.

"TRAITORS!" Zeus yelled.

"What?! How are we traitors?" Artemis asked.

"You're conspiring with him!" Zeus said, pointing at Percy.

"Conspiring for what?" Percy asked.

"You! You want to overthrow me!"

Percy rolled his eyes and got out of the bed. "I'm just trying to get through the day. You think I want your throne?"

"Of course!" Zeus said. He raised his bolt. "And I'm going to stop you!" He fired the bolt.

Percy went flying and tore a hole in the tent. He landed against a tree before falling to the ground. He got up. There was a circle of soot on his shirt where the bolt had hit him. Zeus jumped out of the tent.

Artemis got out of the bed and went to Thalia. "Get your bow." She told her before summoning her own. Thalia nodded and left for her tent. Artemis took aim at Zeus and let an arrow fly into his back.

Zeus paused to pull the arrow out of his back. Percy took the chance for Venom to take over and tackle Zeus. Venom grabbed the master bolt and tossed it away. Zeus grabbed Venom's head to keep it from biting him.

Venom's tongue licked Zeus's wrist which caused him to let go of Venom. Venom bit into Zeus's neck and tore a chunk of skin off. Zeus threw Venom. Golden ichor dripped down Venom, contrasting the black.

Ichor dripped down Zeus as well. He stood up. He grimaced in pain as he felt the wind blow against his exposed muscles. His arm was pretty much fucked. He could barely raise it.

Venom got on all fours and charged at Zeus. Zeus squatted like a football player preparing to be tackled. At the last second, Zeus jumped over Venom. Only to get shot in the arm by Thalia, who had come back with her bow.

Venom came to a halt. It stood up, kind of pissed. Zeus had played him like a bullfighter does to a bull. Zeus ripped the arrow out of his arm. He switched his bolt to his other hand and aimed.

He saw red as he saw his daughter with her bow. He aimed at her and fired. Thalia went flying back as she was blasted with about a thousand volts of electricity.

Percy's anger took control of Venom. The black symbiote stayed covering the body, but Percy was in control. Venom was scared, this wasn't supposed to be possible, and yet here it was, happening.

Percy grabbed Zeus' head and bashed it against his knee. He brought his head back up only to smash it back onto his knee again. There was a crack as Zeus's nose broke. Ichor flowed from the broken nose and splattered on the ground.

Percy lifted Zeus up and threw him as far as he could. Venom finally regained control and retreated back into Percy. The look on Percy's face was murderous as he approached the groaning God. he paused to look back to see Artemis tending to Thalia. The sight made him turn back to Zeus.

He stepped on the God's neck. "You shouldn't have done that." He said as he applied a little bit of pressure. "You have anything to say?"

"She... deserved... it... traitor."

Percy's face hardened as he lifted his foot off of Zeus's neck. Zeus breathed a sigh of relief. Then Percy's foot came down on Zeus's head with a sickening crunch. His foot broke through the skull and obliterated the brain. Gold coated his shoe as he removed it.

Lightning started to strike the dead body of Zeus. The body rised into the air and started to glow gold. The light grew so bright it looked like the sun, then it exploded. Golden dust fell like snow.

The king of the Gods was dead, and wouldn't be coming back.

Percy turned around and ran into the tent. Thalia was laying in the bed. Her bra was hanging on by threads. Her pale skin was matted with soot.

"Hey, how are you?" He asked her.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "I'm fine Kelp Head. I'm his daughter, electricity can't hurt me, remember. It was pretty shocking that he would do that though." She said with a grin. She waited for Percy to get it, which didn't take long.

Percy couldn't help it. He laughed.

Olympus was in an uproar. The throne of Zeus had crumbled to rubble and the rest of the council didn't know what to make of it. Some speculated that they were being invaded and challenged by some other power, while others were just plain confused. Dionysus just wanted to know if he could drink now.

One God was missing from the chaos, and that was Artemis, who was having an archery competition with Thalia. Percy stood to the side, cheering for both of them. He didn't cheer for one specific side, as that would lead to him being put in the doghouse.

Artemis breathed in as she let loose her arrow. Perfect bullseye. Thalia bit her lip before getting to her target. She knocked an arrow and breathed in.

"ARTEMIS!" Someone yelled.

Thalia yelped and let loose the arrow. Third ring, a win for Artemis. Thalia turned around to see Apollo standing there. "Godsdamnit Apollo, you caused me to lose!"

"HA HA, you lost!" Artemis teased.

"Artemis, we have a dire situation. Father... he's..."

"Dead?"

"Yeah. wait, how'd you know?"

Artemis nodded to Percy. "Who do you think killed him?"

Apollo turned to Percy. "So you finally did it?"

Percy nodded. "He fucked up, and that's all I need to say."

"I think it's best you come to Olympus."

"What, for another trial? To send me back to Tartarus?"

Apollo shook his head. "I don't know what will happen. But I just think it's best. But no matter what, I have your back. After all, you're good to my sister." Apollo winked.

Percy sighed. "Fine, but if anyone tries to send me back, I'm eating them."

"That's fair."

Artemis grabbed Percy and Thalia's shoulder and flashed them to Olympus. They appeared in the throne room. Their arrival was covered by the chaos of the Olympians. Artemis sighed and pulled out an arrow. She aimed it at the ceiling and fired. It flew for a second before exploding into a firework.

The room quieted and looked at them.

"Everyone, you all remember Percy, right?"

"Of course we do. Why wouldn't we?" Aphrodite said.

"Just making sure. Anyways, he is the reason for that pile of rubble."

"Are you saying that he.." Ares asked.

"Yeah, I killed him. Boom, mystery solved. Can we go now?" Percy said.

"You killed our king! Of course you can't leave!" Athena yelled.

"Please, like any of you are actually going to miss him. He was a terrible God and was an even worse king."

"Blasphemy!"

"Against a dead guy?!" Percy yelled. He almost laughed. "Demeter, he gave away your daughter to Hades, without asking you. Hera, he cheated on you with literally everyone. Dionysus, took away your wine."

Apollo smiled. "Hey, Ares. Remember when he verbally abused you after Troy?"

"Don't need to talk about his mistrust of Dad." Percy said. "Hey, Artemis, didn't he throw Hephaestus off Olympus after that coup?"

Artemis nodded. "Yeah, yeah he did."

"Speaking of the coup, didn't Athena support it?"

Apollo nodded. "She didn't get punished though because she was Zeus's favorite."

"Aphrodite, remember when he forced you to marry Hephaestus without your permission? And of course we don't need to talk about what he caused Hera to do to Artemis and Apollo's mother." Percy paused. "The point is, he has wronged everyone of you, and some of you sit and defend him. Why?"

Many stared at him thinking over his words. And after a couple of minutes of a very awkward silence, no one could think of a reason.

"We need a king though." Hera said.

"Do you? What did Zeus actually do as king? Use his status to make every vote swing his way? Besides, with an uneven number of Olympians, you won't get any ties on votes."

"Actually, we need twelve." Apollo said.

"What, why?" Percy said, turning around.

"It's kind of a sacred number. Twelve Olympians, Christianity has twelve disciples, Odin had twelve sons. Sumerian had twelve major gods, and stuff like that. So we'll need one more."

Poseidon raised his hand. "What if we made it Percy? He can take Zeus's place. After all, he is the reason we're missing one."

"I second that." Artemis said.

Percy looked at her. He had a questioning look on his face.

"Give us a moment." She said before dragging him out of the throne room. Thalia followed behind them.

"What's wrong?" Artemis asked him.

"I don't want to be a god. Much less an Olympian."

"Why? You don't want to be immortal? With us, forever? With me, forever?"

Percy grabbed Artemis's hands. "It's just, this is new. We can't trust that it'll be this way forever. I know, it sucks to hear, but it's what I've learned. I don't want to make such a huge decision when we've only been dating a month."

Tears started to well in Artemis's eyes. "Are you saying that we should-"

Percy's eyes widened. "No! Gods no! I just think that we should wait on the immortality until we know for sure that we're gonna last. All of us." He said, looking at Thalia.

Artemis seemed to calm down a little bit. "So what do we do?" She said, voice shaking.

Percy looked down as he thought of an idea. "Two years. We make it two years, and I'll become immortal. For you."

Artemis took a deep breath and nodded. "Let's tell them. We can handle an imperfect number for two years. And if we can't-"

Percy let go of one of her hands and placed his on her cheek. "You will. And if not, then we'll all go off the grid, eh? Live in the woods, moving around?"

"Like we already do?"

"Yeah, but without the stupid council meetings."

"And unnecessary fighting."

"Yeah, without that."