AN: Go check out "Crown of Slaughter", prequel to Ascension of the Fallen, this story, it's up on my profile.
20 cookie points to anyone who spots the massive references in this chapter.
The Alded
Ascension of the Fallen: Chapter 23
"Uh…hi?"
"Mars." Juno intoned coolly, her face and expression unreadable. The god of war scanned the Olympians warily. Did they know? Were they here to kill him for his crimes? It was eerily awkward having the entire council of Olympus simply stare at him like mummies; it was unnerving.
But he didn't care. He was Mars, the god of war, and he looked right back at them. The tense silence in the next few moments was deafening, and
Quickly, Mars slipped into his mask, calming his features and projecting the face of a calm general who was in control. Although he was the god of war, his domains required employing tactics and strategy, and he was no stranger to the intricacies of politics that had played out in Ancient Rome.
"Hello Mother, what brings you to New Rome? I hope you are enjoying your stay. Have you seen Apollo for anger management yet? You look quite red in the face."
The god internally smirked, holding in a chuckle as a vein seemed to pop out on the goddess of marriage's forehead at the question.
Juno was about to snap back when Jupiter held up a hand.
"Relax, dear."
He turned towards Mars, casting a stern eye towards him, but the god of war was undeterred. Perhaps when he was a mere godling, or even before Deus came back would he have been intimidated.
Now though? Not so much. His father's attempts at intimidation had nothing on his brother. Deus terrified him, so much so that he had grown resilient to all types of glares, excluding Deus's. That, he could never get used to.
"Mars, you stand accused of heinous crimes against Olympus. Conspiring and plotting against Olympus with an exiled minor god, among other things. How do you plead?"
The god of war let out a dark chuckle devoid of any real humor.
"Heinous crimes? Conspiring against Olympus, or your throne of lies and deceit? Deus himself? A minor god? Please father, be reasonable. You of all gods understand Zeus. His words are coming out of your mouth."
Mars began strolling on the Field at ease, his hands behind his back.
"My loyalty to Olympus remains steadfast. Not your throne. Olympus. I am simply reinstating the rightful king of Olympus. One who we all thrived under, even you, father."
He spread his arms, even as the stormy skies darkened and rumbled, "Deus is coming. And there is nothing you can do to stop it. He is… inevitable."
Mars crushed the black ball in his right hand, darkness exploding outwards and surrounding him.
The gods of Olympus had to shield their eyes from the black plumes. When they opened them, the god of war was gone.
"Atlas, can you stop fucking smoking?"
Perseus snapped his fingers loudly to clear the air in the room again for the fourth time in the hour.
The titan waved his hand lazily, completely disregarding the fuming god in front of him. "No. And for the record, it's not smoking anymore. You told me to stop that, so I did," he smirked at Perseus, "This is something else. It's called vaping." The infuriating titan grinned right in his face, blowing random fumes of air in the room.
Perseus looked to Hades hopelessly; his brother only chuckled humorously at his plight. For all Percy tried, the bigot of a titan wouldn't give up smoking, or vaping, or whatever it was.
A shot rang out and a bullet struck Atlas' head, knocking it back, although it did no serious damage.
All eyes turned to Mars, who was blowing a smoking pistol with some cliché sunglasses sitting on the frame of his face, perfectly making him look the part of a badass.
Atlas groaned in pain, finally coming around as a massive bump made itself visible on his forehead. Chuckles rang out around the room as the titan glared at the smirking god of war.
"Finally someone shut that buffoon up. I just wish it had been me," Thalia sighed dramatically. Zoe lazily gave her the side eye and then proceeded to randomly shove her, hurling her out of her chair as it tipped over.
"Unprovoked?" the daughter of Zeus cried out, dramatically playing dead on the floor.
"You were being too arrogant," Zoe shrugged noncommittedly, "so I decided to knock you down a few pegs."
"I've been wrongfully assaulted! Arrest this rabid woman!"
Celyn rolled her eyes while Phoebe couldn't help but crack a slight grin at her antics. Perseus grabbed her by the arm and vaulted her into her chair while smacking her lightly atop the head.
"Alright, let's start now." The god cleared his throat, all eyes on him, "As all of you know by now, my wily father, in his pitch to Thalia, showed her a vision. Now, neither Chronos, nor I, nor my father, can see far into the future, only the present and the limited past. Manipulation of the strands can get you perhaps into the 'near' future, but not very far. Time is a fickle thing; although the domain of time belongs to me, glimpses of the future are only allowed through the will of the Fates or Ananke herself to the sun god and his oracles. Ananke has allowed the titan of time a vision, and the Crooked One has made a crucial mistake in allowing Thalia to see it."
"Does this mean we are only to gain two protogenoi on our side?" the lord of the seas spoke, his hand reaching up absentmindedly to scratch the scruff of his beard.
"Not exactly." Nyx spoke, as the others leaned forward to listen to what she had to say, "Ananke holds the strings of fate, yes, but individuals such as yourself who are at the level of a protogenos are much too powerful to be influenced by her machinations. She only has minor influence over what will happen and is only able to predict the marginally more likely outcome out of millions. Much like how many gods can do atrocious things to mortals with the snap of their fingers, but nothing to immortals and somewhat demigods. For example, Poseidon could kill a mortal by controlling their blood-" Nyx was interrupted by shouts of the sea god proclaiming that he would never do such a thing, and Nyx rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Hypothetically, theoretically, technically, of course. But it is next to impossible for Poseidon god to control the ichor of a god."
"Thank you for your wonderful speech, Nyx." Perseus flashed his signature grin at the primordial goddess, who unwittingly began to sport a slight silver tint on her cheeks as a result.
Pallas leaned forward with a slight smirk, already making Perseus scowl in anticipation, "And what do you propose, King Perseus?"
"No, no, shut up with that. But this vision is volatile; even Ananke's own visions are prone to change with us immortals, especially with protogenoi in it. Thus, we have several plans of action."
To no one's surprise, Mars spoke up first, the tactical gears in his head churning, "One, we could allow the prophecy of the Fates to take hold, and allow the Crooked One to assault Olympus, and swoop in afterwards, claiming the remains. That way, we would have more numbers when the protogenoi descend upon us."
"That is a less than viable option, considering it is unnecessarily cruel to the demigods." Hades blushed bright gold as the others turned their scrutinizing eyes upon him, "What? I don't have a dislike for demigods."
Atlas cleared his throat, drawing the room's attention. "Two, we could simply destroy the Olympians and the Titans at the same time, and then fight the protogenoi."
"We'd be more worn down and less fresh, however." Poseidon butted in, his sea green eyes gleaming in anticipation and excitement, "The better option would be to finish off the Titans and their backers, Tartarus and Gaea."
Low murmurs broke out at that, wondering if they could truly take down two protogenoi, and with time constraints at that.
"Although I do appreciate the ambition, brother, I have to say that's a negative. The only thing we can do for now is play it slow, to play our cards 'close to the chest', as the mortals say. Obviously, we won't simply sit everything out, but we will defend the demigod camps from the shadows."
His tone brokered no room for argument, though it was obvious from the permeating silence in the room that not all of the immortals agreed with his decision to spare the demigods. Try as he might, there was still a superiority complex that some of the minor gods and Atlas had. They saw them as mere pawns to be used on the board, to be expended. Yet, even pawns had power; best of all, they had true potential, evidence being those who had lived during the Age of Heroes.
Atlas finally broke the silence, "Perseus, the demigods, although innocent, are standing in our way. At the end of the day, they are simply collateral damage. It would be much easier for us to simply march right through them onto Olympus. Please, allow me to take New Rome for you."
Perseus narrowed his eyes at him, shadows creeping along the edges of the room dangerously, as strands of time began appearing all around the room. The god stood up, rising to his full height of six four. His eyes blazed golden in fury, flashing between gold and deep black rapidly, as he stared down the titan of strength. His low, dominating voice resonated throughout the room as he spoke.
"This game is not yours to win, Atlas. It's mine. Just because you're more valuable to me than a pawn, does not make you a player. Everything is already in motion. All you need concern yourself with is your ability to act when I tell you to."
Atlas had gone as white as snow in fear, and the others in the room were either staring at him like he was chaos himself or like he was the Pit himself.
"Council dismissed."
Jupiter cringed for the thirtieth time that evening, massaging his temples as Zeus raged inside his head.
Another traitor! If you won't find Perseus, then I WILL!"
Zeus! Get a grip! We don't even have a clue where Perseus is!
Which is exactly why we should find him!
"Are you alright dear?"
Jupiter glanced up from floor to see his wife looking at him. Despite his singular affair with a mortal by the name of Beryl Grace, Jupiter still loved his wife, and had eventually patched things up with her. Zeus, on the other hand…
The king of Olympus was jolted out of his reverie by Zeus screaming in his head once more, and Jupiter groaned in pain.
"It's Zeus again."
Juno instantly nodded her head in understanding, "Hera's been like that for the past hour as well. Fortunately for me, she shut up eventually."
Jupiter was too occupied with the irritating Greek god of thunder that he didn't reply. Strangely enough, none of the other Olympians were reporting migraines from their Greek counterparts.
Maybe Zeus' council wasn't as unified as he thought it was.
Jupiter locked eyes with his wife, Juno understanding exactly what he was implying. No words were needed, not even a mental message.
Juno nodded before turning away, as the Roman king of the gods focused inwards.
"Zeus. Admit it. Taking over Olympus was such a great idea."
A deafening silence came from inside his head. No thoughts, nothing. Jupiter listened with trepidation, waiting for Zeus to declare him a traitor to Olympus much like he had done to Mars under Zeus' orders.
For despite being the more levelheaded one, Zeus had always controlled him. The Roman may have had superiority in public, but in his head? Zeus was always stronger than him, wrestling control of his decisions and taking control of his persona from the beginning.
But no more. Jupiter wouldn't take his brash, irrational, and frankly idiotic decisions anymore.
"If we don't hunt down Perseus, or Deus, we will be exterminated by the Titans or Perseus!", Zeus fumed.
"There is no 'we' in this, Zeus."
Jupiter could feel the permeating shock from his counterpart's side. Zeus was genuinely shocked. He'd grown complacent, content to sit upon his 'throne of lies', as Mars had called it. And he wasn't far off; it was Perseus' throne, and he'd been a fool to not resist Zeus. Over the centuries,
"What are you trying to say?"
"Zeus, for too long you have controlled and presided over my decisions as if they were my own. You are an utter tyrant, even trying to control your Roman counterpart. I am my own person," Jupiter declared boldly.
The Roman god pushed Zeus out of his head with all of his might, meeting little to no resistance, due to Zeus being frozen in shock.
That shock only lasted for a moment, unfortunately for Jupiter. The Greek god began pushing back almost immediately. If Jupiter split from him, it would mean losing influence over all of New Rome and the Roman Olympian Council.
It was a battle of wills.
The two stood on a floating platform of steel in the blue landscape of sky that was their collective mind.
Here, their powers and status as the god of the sky didn't matter.
Jupiter launched himself at Zeus first, catching the off-guard god with a fist in the face.
Zeus stumbled, but the god recovered quickly, tanking Jupiter in the stomach. Jupiter shrugged the hit off, retaliating with a kick to Zeus' chest which slid Zeus backwards several feet.
Zeus roared in anger, retaliating with a ferocity that caught Jupiter with his pants down (figuratively of course).
A boot to the hip sent Jupiter stumbling, and a follow up uppercut to the face sent the roman reeling in pain. Jupiter put his hands up to try and stop the beating, but Zeus gave him a jab to the face.
Stars were swimming in Jupiter's vision, and he couldn't recover as Zeus hit him again, and again.
Soon he was backing up against the edge of the platform when he jolted back alive.
He had a feeling if he slipped and fell off, it would be the end of him. Adrenaline was the best drug.
Jupiter ducked under Zeus' next punch, rolling to the left into a sprint that put distance between the two of them.
Jupiter bounced on the balls of his feet, invigorated as he charged back in.
Juno paced the room worriedly. Hera hadn't put up much of a fight, too surprised to even do anything.
Her husband though, had a much tougher fight. It looked like he was in utter pain, writhing and squirming in the bed as he muttered incoherent gibberish.
She put a wet towel on his forehead, gently cooling his body and wiping away the sweat.
"Please wake up."
Caught off guard by his ferocity, it was all that Zeus could do to backpedal and block his blows.
Jupiter feinted towards his left, and delivered a ferocious slam to Zeus' right side, cracking his ribs.
Another kick to the head left Zeus reeling this time, and Jupiter held his counterpart on the ground in a submission hold.
Zeus kicked upwards, breaking away from Jupiter's hold in an instant.
The Greek launched a roundhouse kick, but it didn't connect. Jupiter retaliated with a spinning back kick, sending Zeus onto the ground.
The Greek god got up shakily, but Jupiter kicked his chest again, and Zeus struggled to maintain his balance.
Jupiter strode forward, empowered with confidence as he grabbed Zeus by the scruff of his collar.
"You no longer control me. From this day forward, I am the king of the Roman pantheon, not you. Begone."
He shoved Zeus off the platform as the god screamed, watching as he fell into the void that was the mind below.
The Alded stood up, rising to its full height. It was finally ready.
Its makers had prepared it for this moment, and it would not fail.
The flaming man on the left spoke, "Are you sure this… thing will work?"
Its mistress patted it and stroked it, earning a sound of satisfaction, "Let's give it a test then, hm?"
The flaming man leaned forward, his eyes lighting up in eagerness and anticipation.
"Bring the girl's hair."
His brother in arms, the gray haired man, brought a hair lock to it, and the Alded took it and examined it before giving it back to the gray haired man, giving a nod
"Track down and bring us Thalia Grace."
AN: How'd you like it? I did my best to show the less "anti-Zeus" aspects of the Roman sides.
Did you end up finding the references?
Comment, review, favorite, follow! We just hit 700 follows on this story on Fanfiction, so I want to give you all, my readers, a huge shoutout! All of this helps keep me motivated to write more. Also expect at least another month before the next update, since I'm getting extremely busy again.
Until next time,
-thann3