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A Plan Worthy of Athena
Perseus POV
"He will be... well he'll survive at least," My son said wincing a little bit at the less than stellar report but continued nonetheless "He will of course make a full recovery, but he will be in great pain for at least a month or two," Prokopios said gravely while guiding his father down the newly created cave tunnel to his uncle. "He is currently stable though he needs rest so don't make him do anything too strenuous" Prokopios tried strictly but it was a little lackluster.
I had noticed my son's attention and approval seeking behavior towards me and while it was at times amusing to see how he tried to impress me(even though he already had my approval) though, in all seriousness, he needed to be discouraged from that because I couldn't hold his hand throughout his long immortal life and he needed to understand that. But I couldn't worry about that right now because my brother is in critical condition. After all, he went after that storm giant like an idiot.
I absently noted Prokopios backing away from me once we arrived at Zeus's resting place. I silently moved up to the prone body of my brother. Zeus looked like he was one of those dead kings from the south with ichor stained cloth tightly wrapped around his body. His face looked to be healing faster than the rest of his body because he was already gaining bruises all over his face and neck. Zeus's eyes slowly fluttered open looking around before settling on Perseus.
"P-Perseus is that you?" My twin asked slowly. "Yes, brother it's me. Do you remember anything?" I said in a soft voice. Zeus glanced yet again around the 'room' with furrowed eyebrows. "I-I think... but I don't know what's real or just my imagination." Zeus finished while staring at me questioningly. "Well ask me what you remember and I will see if it's true or not" My brother nodded shakily and started "Alright I remember something about a storm giant that was making its way to Mount Olympus..."
I listened as Zeus continued to state what he could remember about the last two to three months. I noticed and pointed out a few discrepancies but he remembered largely what happened which would have been good if he believed his memories were reality. He adamantly stated that my interrogation was a hallucination and that he was losing his mind, which wasn't exactly what I had hoped for but he hadn't at least lost his memories so that was a plus.
Zeus eventually tired himself out and drifted back into sleep letting his body heal under Prokopios' ever-watchful eyes. Prokopios decided that Zeus was healthy enough to be transported back to Crete so with a careful manipulation of their combined powers father and son teleported the unconscious deity back to their current temporary headquarters.
A week later
The more healthy-looking deity sat beside his brother at the head of the stone table silently observing his gathered family members. This time it was Perseus instead of Zeus who took the lead in the meeting with Zeus silently observing from his side. The meeting was held in the original temple of Perseus in the shadow of Mount Ida.
It had been about a week since their attack against Typhon and while Zeus was barely able to get out of his bed at this time, they had already heard rumors of a storm running rampant on the shores of Chalkidiki slowly moving its way southwest and yet again in the direction of Mount Olympus.
This monster wasn't like the other monsters and creatures made by deities because they weren't close to threatening even a minor deity, instead, the storm giant had already managed to defeat one major god with his symbol of power and a following of mortals who gave him strength. So they needed a plan to defeat him and that's what they were currently discussing.
"I think the answer is obvious!" Poseidon shouted in frustration. "We should all attack him head-on with all of our might and eliminate the nuisance once and for all" Poseidon wasn't known for his intellect and while he had his moments, he was often a one-trick pony with brute force being the only choice in his mind.
Perseus sighed tiredly. "No, we have to be smarter than that. We can't just attack it we all saw how that went" Poseidon looked a little confused "I don't understand, you almost won, why can't we just attack it in greater numbers and put that rabid dog down?" Perseus thought about that for a moment before gaining a confident edge to his handsome features "Because that's what they assume we would do, and the one thing you never do in any kind of conflict is to do what the enemy expects you to do" Came the quiet but strong voice out of nowhere cutting Perseus off.
Zeus rose from where he had been observing with a nearly unnoticeable grunt. "We will kill this beast with cunning and shrewdness" Zeus looked at every one of his fellow Olympians' eyes before continuing "I'm in support of any plan as long as it isn't what the Titans expect and it involves the storm giant getting imprisoned under a mountain. Irony you see" Zeus said after a moment completely serious.
Perseus's eyes lit up in humor then narrowing with thoughtfulness before finally settling on a confident light. "I have a plan. We only need one misplaced letter to get it in motion, here's what it will read..." The others didn't even question him and agreed to follow his plan like the inexperienced deities they were.
Two months later
The island of Sicily was a very beautiful and comfortable location if you overlooked the rugged terrain and scorching temperatures. With only some sparsely littered trees for shade on the eastern coast, it was a truly difficult place to live when Helios paid special attention to it if you weren't a local or familiar with such unnatural warmth.
Two men were walking with purpose along the countryside, both clothed unsuspectingly in some light rugged tunics. One of the men who looked to be the youngest was limping slightly, though he didn't look injured besides his unique gait. "Do you think they took the bait father?" The younger one said questioningly towards the older-looking man.
"Yes, I am positive. They wouldn't send their attack dog if they didn't" Came the confident reply. Silence emerged for a couple of minutes before the younger deity eventually broke the silence again "Then how long until it arrives?" They trudged along a faded goat path with dry shrubbery stinging their legs at every step. "A week at most, though probably less say a couple of days. You can already see it" Perseus vaguely gestured to their right. Hephaestus followed the hand and saw the ominous flashing clouds in the distance completely contrasting the clear skies above them.
"Why did you even drag me out here anyway?" Hephaestus eventually whined. Perseus turned his head around and shot him a look to suck it up before replying tersely "We have to see if the plan is even eligible, to begin with, can't you feel it?" Hephaestus looked around in confusion "No, what is it that I'm looking for?" Perseus stopped, sighed, and turned to face his son "Not with your eyes! Can't you feel it under us?" The god of smithing did just that and realization and embarrassment emerged onto his face.
"Ohh, so we weaken him and then... what?" The younger deity asked. "Now you are getting it, anyway yes we weaken him and then with this imprison him. And this feels promising, don't you think?" Hephaestus slowly nodded in reply while looking around the slightly arid landscape at the small villages littered around the area. "What about them?" He pointed around at the aforementioned villages. Perseus gained a slightly pained look before answering somberly "They will be relocated"
A couple of days later
The Olympians were lined up on an idyllic beach on the island of Sicily facing towards a giant storm cloud that stretched from the shallow waters to high up in the sky. At the head of them were Zeus with his crackling thunderbolt in hand, Perseus with his sword in one hand and an obsidian spear in the other, and Poseidon with his trident. The daughters of Kronos and grandchildren stood in a circle cradling a giant sphere of divine energy between them producing a captivating light show for any potential onlookers. Aphrodite had two curved knives in her dainty hands which may have led a non-experienced opponent to think it a joke until they looked up at her blazing kaleidoscopic eyes which were moving quickly around her and her loved ones. The only ones absent were the god of smithing and the god of The Underworld.
The giant slowed down once he saw the flickering lights below him. He looked a little confused at the lack of action before mentally shrugging and continuing his slow walk out of the shallow water. He suddenly felt a sharp shot of pain from his neck and tried to understand what had happened. Though before he could turn around he was accosted by the until now unmoving Olympians. He was hit all over his upper body by a combined volley of divine energy, an obsidian spear who was way too sharp to be a non-divine construct, a burst of high pressured water, and finally a blinding thunderbolt which hit Typhon in the middle of the head.
The combined assault was a bit overkill but the Olympians didn't want to take any chances this time and before long Typhon was half-submerged in the now quite high shores of the island. The Olympians surged forward with murderous intent and nearly made it to the downed giant before a wall of stone sprang up on the edge of the waters. The Olympians collided with the construct in a very painful-looking way. Some of the Gods tried to flash past the wall but were rebuffed and sent flying backward.
Poseidon managed to find a little puddle and disappeared in a burst of water before reappearing on the other side already trying to catch the rising storm giant with water lassos. This was unfortunately quite ineffective and the storm giant managed to get up to his feet yet again. The now murderous Typhon began to send lightning blasts everywhere trying to fry anyone who was in the waters below him. Poseidon managed to separate himself from the water before the lightning hit the water, making a dry spot around him. His until now invisible brother wasn't quite as lucky and screamed for a second before shadow traveling out of the area via Typhon's own shadow.
The rest of the deities stuck on the other side of the stone wall had begun to slowly walk backward fending of never-ending attacks of earth-born and other enemies who were successfully managing to hold their attention. Well, they nearly managed to hold everyone's attention because Perseus had raised his signature clay soldiers who were rushing against his opponents. With his breathing room, he began to figure out how to get the stone wall down quickly which was after a few tries easier said than done.
He still retreated backward convincingly following his fellow Olympians but he was privately more focused on the wall and his current position in regards to their trap. The wall wasn't that hard to get rid of if you got the time to think about it. Perseus sent some blasts at the ground in front of the wall and with a few more well-placed and a foot stomp which created a mini earthquake the foundation of the wall fell into a newly appeared sinkhole making it disintegrate once it lost its connection to the ground.
Once the wall fell the slowly retreating Olympians were faced with a quiet one-sided fight between Poseidon and Typhon. While Poseidon was at his strongest in his domain, he couldn't connect with it because every time he tried Typhon sent some blasts of lightning through his snake legs who were truly horrifying to look at up close, to say the least.
Zeus sent a strong lightning bolt at his now archenemy making the storm giant stumble for a moment before settling again and sending a bolt right back. Zeus tried to divert the attack while arrogantly and stubbornly standing stock-still before his eyes widened when he noticed the lack of thunderbolt diverting and jumped in the nick of time to his side. Zeus seemed a little shaken before finally letting his no-good pride leave him. He began to back off and eventually jogged towards the hill a mile or two behind them all the while clipping his earth-born opponents with his lightning bolt sending them flying and oftentimes dissolving on the spot.
The other Olympians followed his example and as one sped up behind their king. Perseus held the rear guard raising thousands of clay soldiers and having them make a defensive perimeter behind the retreating Olympians.
Typhon noticing that his enemies are trying to get away not even once wondering why they were running and not either flashing or even flying away from him, followed them towards his demise at least that's what the Olympians hoped. Though he was still walking in his lumbering fashion so he didn't catch them before they suddenly stopped at the top of the hill a mile inland. His support seemed to abandon him because the earth-born suddenly dissolved and he was left alone with the descendants of his half-brother. He unfortunately for him didn't think anything about it and tried to slap them with his gigantic arm.
They didn't react other than a little flash when his hand passed them seemingly waiting for something or rather someone. If Typhon had been a little more observant he would have maybe noticed the circle of ancient symbols around him glowing dimly, the lack of sound inside the aforementioned circle, and the quiet mumbling of Perseus and a now visible Hades. He fortunately for the Olympians didn't notice anything of those mentioned things and was completely baffled when the hilltop suddenly surged upwards all around him.
For anyone outside it would have completely baffled anyone who wasn't informed of the plan. It was a volcano suddenly sprouting up from the non-conspicuous hill of eastern Sicily. After only a few minutes the volcano had incapsulated the small hill already sprouting smoke. A group of now gorgeous men and women appeared outside inexpensive chitons were watching the show while nodding in a satisfied manner, before disappearing as suddenly as they appeared with a little flash of blinding light.
Perseus POV
"So what now?" Came the eventual question after the Gods of Olympus arrived into their temporary war room. "We have to of course take back our capital!" Came the excited reply from Zeus. Though he had already turned his attention to one of the masterminds of their last successful mission. I let them stand in silence for a few moments before catching my niece's grey eyes. She didn't reply in any way so I took that as a confirmation that it wasn't a bad idea.
I slowly nodded my head before interrupting my twin before he could recklessly flash out without any plan. "We need a plan and information because we don't know if there's anyone there or not already so we need to be prepared, understood?" I let my sweep my gaze over my family receiving nods in reply. "Alright as I said we need a plan, but we can't do that without any information so call back all of our allied Titans who are available and see if they know anything about it," I said confidently.
"We will take an hour recess before resuming the meeting with our assembled allies" The Olympians nodded again before either flashing out or just walking out of the room. I was eventually left with my wife and son. Aphrodite silently strode up to my side seeing my confident facade crumbling showing my fatigue. Hephaestus looked a little unsure if I was available or not and I gave him a little nod making him make himself to where I was now seated.
"You did good son" I interrupted him before he could say anything. Hephaestus reddened a little at the praise before nervously stumbling over his words until he managed to choke out a little thank you. "Though that wasn't actually what I was going to say," My son said nervously. I raised an eyebrow and sat a little straighter with Aphrodite moving a little backward to give the illusion of privacy at least.
"Oh, so what did you want to ask?" I said after sending a thankful look at my wife at her tactfulness. "I-I was wondering about my mo-mother, father," Hephaestus said while bowing his head nervously not daring to meet my eyes. "Do meet my eyes, I didn't raise a little mouse did I? Always hold eye contact when you think strongly for something" I said sternly. My beloved son blushed a little at the reprimand and rose his gaze to meet mine.
My eyes softened slightly "Your mother is a hard subject for me but I will allow you the knowledge, so do you want the truth or some honeyed lies to placate your potential fears and insecurities?" I finished seriously. Hephaestus' eyes widened and eventually stammered out "T-the truth". I nodded seriously and warned finally "Very well, I will tell you the truth but do remember that I and your foster mother will always support you"
Hephaestus nodded again and I began "You are not my biological son, I don't believe you have any biological father only a mother" Hephaestus had sat down on the opposing side of me in a chair and was currently leaning forward nervously fiddling with a conjured hammer. "Your mother is Hera, so you are biologically my nephew"
Hephaestus gained a confused look and I elaborated. "I found you in the shadow of Olympus and with Pan's help heal your horrific injuries. I—" I took a steadying breath feeling my old repressed rage and anger bubble up "—I have strong suspicions that you were abandoned by Hera at birth b-because of your... unfortunate appearance" Hephaestus had also been reddening all the while this time, not in embarrassment but rather in anger.
"Does she know?" Came a strained reply from Hephaestus. At the same time I shook my head, Hephaestus flashed out in anger, and a pit that had been forming in my stomach since the start of the conversation erupted. I was quickly enveloped in a comforting embrace by Aphrodite who while I noticed her shock at the reveal had no bad feelings towards me.
"You should have Persephone talk to him, they were always quite close" Aphrodite seemed a little reluctant to mention her husband's only daughter who was born from his previous relationship but ignoring it in favor of my comfort.
"You're right, it has been too long anyways" I closed my eyes and after a few moments, a beautiful black-haired young woman appeared in front of the couple. Persephone's eyes narrowed a little at their embrace and snapped at me irritably "Yes, what is it?" My eyes showed my sadness at my bad relationship with my daughter and like every time we met tried to fix the situation "You know I don't like our defunct relationship Persephone, but every relationship can't last forever as you know" I weaved my real desire to connect with my daughter while spouting lies about why I couldn't be with her mother.
Persephone's eyes softened like usual before hardening just as fast with resentment. "You never even visit her. I can't see why she ever liked you" And just like our usual dance she crushes my heart. I feel like such a hypocrite for saying to my son to stand up for one's beliefs while not daring to rock the boat and tell the truth about my breakup with Demeter. I eventually repressed those thoughts and answered sadly "Your brother learned something which upset him and I think you could help him cope" Persephone nodded sharply and flashed out.
I sighed sadly while back in my wife's embrace. My last thought before joining Morpheus realm is 'How am I going to fix this?'
A week later
The caution of the Olympians was unnecessary in the retaking of Olympus. It had not been touched at all besides the crushed trees surrounding it from the fight between the twin sons of Kronos and Typhon. The Olympians quickly moved back into their opulent palaces and the war continued as nothing happened with the Olympians pressing against the Titans yet again all over the Hellenic world. This is going to be a long war.
End of Chapter
You may have noticed that Poseidon is quite OOC in this story, and that's because he isn't fully developed as are all the other gods in this story because they are only a couple of decades-old so please keep that in mind if you don't like the OOC personalities.
I have also revisited the older chapters to both get myself caught up to speed and refurbish some of the details so if you want to discover those changes then read this story again before continuing, though the changes aren't very extreme so don't expect a complete rewrite.
I have decided to go with a suggestion from one of my readers to do a more show don't tell writing style for this story, so this is going to be an experiment to see if this works better or not please let me know either way:)
Next: The Second Interlude
Thank you for reading