Ch. 26 – The Mask of Zeus
From atop the wall of Ilium, King Cygnus listened as his daughter made her announcement.
"My people, heed the words of your Queen!" she cried when Hector had finally managed to get everyone's attention. "Cease the work of death among these heathens! I am inclined to show mercy for sake of Captain Coby, who fought his own to return our Princess to us. You have him to thank for your lives, Navy scum! But know this! You and the officials of your government will be treated as wanted criminals from here on out. You have until the sun clears the horizon. Any of you caught dawdling will be executed with a swift and terrible vengeance."
"Hmph, what a waffler she is," grumbled a 9-foot tall, grumpy faced, silver-haired woman from Cygnus' side. She had a young face and voice, but her attitude was that of one who had lived far past her time. "It's a wonder she keeps the people on her side at all. She changes her mind with the winds."
Cygnus sighed, but decided not to engage the Sybil in an argument. It wasn't worth poking the bear. "Well, it would appear I won't be needing this," he said of the mask he held at his side.
"No, you won't," the Sybil snapped. "You're an idiot."
"I may be many things, but an idiot I am not," Cygnus replied with a wry chuckle. "Go back to your churros, witch. Your services will not be required."
"Humph, as if there are any churros left," the Sybil sniffed, wiggling her bulbous nose. "The Festival has been completely ruined by this little escapade. Dionysus is not going to be happy."
"Oh, I'm sure we can figure out how to extend the festivities some," Cygnus said with a grin. "After all, one wouldn't want to upset a god."
"Your heretic queen doesn't seem care about that sort of thing," the Sybil pointed out with little delicacy. "Again, it's a wonder her people support her at all. She nothing but trouble."
"Well, you're not wrong," Cygnus said, shrugging. "But if you ask me, it seems she's not the one bringing all of the trouble. She's just the first in a long time who is willing to face it head on. She is merely answering for the shillyshallying of all Ilium's rulers before her."
"Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah," the Sybil whined. "Mark my words, Philosopher King; your daughter will be the downfall of Ilium if she doesn't get her act together."
"Is that supposed to be a prophecy? Or are you just prattling on with your usual insults?" Cygnus asked, trying not to be alarmed. But when he looked the Sybil had gone.
The retired king let out a sigh only to suck it back in again, startled. His eye had just caught sight of a speckling of lights on the horizon. It was another fleet, and a big one by the looks of it.
"Who on earth?" he muttered, "Don't tell me Navy HQ is sending reinforcements now of all times.
He had a telescope in hand, which he had mostly been using to spy on the battle. He brought it to his eye, gazing out over the harbor.
Dawn had just started to show her rosy fingers over the horizon. The marines didn't have long to high tail it out of there, but more to the point, the light helped Cygnus make out a few of the flags flying from the incoming masts.
"You have got to be kidding me," he groaned.
"What in Hades?!" Helena cursed, narrowing her eyes at the incoming ships. "That had better not be what I think it is."
She had descended from her perch in Hector's latest tree platform, and eyed the horizon with displeasure.
"We didn't call for reinforcements," Coby insisted.
"Are you sure about that?" Helena asked, turning to him with an unamused expression on her face. "By their flagships, I'd say somebody called them."
"Who is it?" Zoro asked with interest.
"Those would be the fathers of the Princes you sliced up, dearest," Helena said, smiling sweetly at him, though her tone dripped with ill-humor.
"Hey, you helped," Zoro pointed out.
Helena scowled at him, no longer in a flirtatious mood. "Someone must have tipped them off," she snapped.
"Regent," she, Coby, and Zoro agreed.
"So now they know their sons are dead, and they've shown up with an army to avenge them," Helena went on. "Just peachy. What are your men going to do now, Coby? If the fighting is about to start up again right after I told everyone to stop, I swear to the gods I'll…"
Before she could go on, her father's voice boomed from atop the wall. His face did too. He'd set up a video transponder snail as well as an audio one, apparently.
"You've got some nerve showing up here, you cockered half-faced poltroons," he snarled, "Your sons are dead, I will confess; slaughtered, even, in my hall. It may surprise you to know that they wasted these two years courting a married woman."
He looked all the more fierce with the wicked scratch mark on his face. He hadn't had time to clean the wound, which made it all the gnarlier. Helena didn't dwell on it though; not in light of what Cygnus had to say:
"Yes, her husband has returned, and reeked vengeance on your miscreant brood, but you should be thanking him. Had they lived to carry out their murderous plot on Queen Helena's life, I would not have hesitated to summon the powers of our gods to turn every last one of your countries to ash.
"In fact, I have called upon those powers now. Your ships will never reach our port, so help me Zeus…!"
He lifted a large mask into view, and Helena gasped.
"No, Father! What have you done! That's…"
"…the Mask of Zeus," Zoro observed with her. "Helena, if he has that mask that means…"
"…a thousand of our most loyal men," she murmured. "Hector…"
The General had just anchored the Navy's ships into port as she had asked. He turned to her, but did not appear worried. "I have always been prepared to die for the crown, Your Majesty. I am not afraid."
"But we can drive them off without the gods help!" Helena insisted.
"Not without ruining your image," Hector pointed out. "You've changed your mind once already, Majesty. If we start fighting the marines again, you'll seem weak and indecisive. Even more after your last big escapade shutting off and reopening the temples. Your Father is making the right choice."
"NO!" Helena cried. "I won't have you or Ann or Paris or Achilles, or ANY of you sacrificed in this way! And I won't have Father returned to being a cripple, either! Zoro, can you stop the ships?"
Zoro looked out at the ocean with a calculating gaze. "Probably," he said, then added begrudgingly: "With that short idiot's help I could probably do it fast enough to keep your Father from being rash. We'll end up sinking the Navy too, though."
Coby's face turned white beneath the blood and bruises. "No, please! Not after everything we just…"
"Relax, Coby," Zoro said, "I don't think it's going to come to that. Look." He shifted Kuina in his arms so he could point out to the ships. They had started to turn around.
Helena wasn't mollified. "He's not putting the mask down," she said in a harried voice.
"Huh, you're right," Zoro agreed. "If that's the case, then I suggest you better run, Coby."
"What? Why is that?"
"Because dawn is practically here, and that mask can selectively rain lightning down from the heavens," Hector replied. "He took out ten battleships on buster call with it before, no sweat. Your men would be easy pickings."
Coby's eyes bulged and he took off running. As they watched, he started hurrying the rest of the Navy onboard the anchored ships, organizing the other captains as he went.
"He's not boarding any of the ships himself," Hector observed after they had watched him for a while.
"Yeah, he's probably making sure the rest of the men get on safely," Zoro replied. "That Coby's a good guy. He's sure come a long way, too."
"I think you're forgetting the matter at hand here!" Helena exclaimed, gesturing at the large screen image of her father holding the Mask of Zeus. "He still hasn't put it down!"
"And he hasn't put it on either," Zoro reassured her. "Honestly, after what happened last time, I bet he's bluffing."
Hector grinned. "You're right," he said. "Anyway, I've noticed something a little fishy about that mask."
Helena narrowed her eyes at both of them, angry that they could both blow it off so lightly. But then Hector went on:
"See, I saw him wear the Mask of Zeus before. It was made of bronze and sort of glowed and crackled with power. That mask…I think it's made of wood."
"Hey, yeah," Zoro observed. "When Helena use the Mask of Apollo, it was a lot more…shiny."
Helena turned her narrowed gaze onto the screen and gasped. Hector and Zoro were right. "That's a festival mask from one of the stalls!" she said.
"Shh!" Hector shushed her with a wink. "Don't let any of them hear you say that."
Somewhere on the streets of Ilium, a girl with bandages around her multicolored hair stumbled to hide in an alleyway, her face awash in tears. Loud, angry voices followed her, and she prayed they hadn't seen where she had gone.
"Where'd that Navy brat disappear to?" someone shouted.
"You sure she was Navy?" another voice asked. "She seemed like such a nice kid."
"Sure I'm sure," the first voice replied. "Her mother is Captain Circe. That brat helped the witch turn me and the rest of my unit into cattle."
Nausicaa's head throbbed, her memory of what had landed her here coming back to her in unintelligible fragments; a princess, a fox, a goose, wolves, her mother. She needed to find her mother. Mom always knew what to do.
"Hey! I found her!" a kid shouted, appearing around the corner of the alleyway. He picked up an empty can and tossed it at her. He had really good aim. "Go to Hades, Navy witch!"
"Like, you're grtting my clothes all dirty!" Nausicaa cried, though she couldn't really vouch for the state of her clothes before his garbage assault. "Oh em gee, leave me alone!"
Despite her pleading, the kid picked up more trash from the street. Soon a few more children joined him, pelting her with litter before their parents caught up with them.
The adults, including the Iliad soldier, looked a lot more dangerous than the kids. Nausicaa screamed at them and put her litter litter power into effect. A whirlwind of the very trash they'd been chucking at her threw them back into the street behind them. It picked her up out of the alleyway, and she guided it to dump her on the other side.
"Find her!" the soldier shouted. "The sun's practically over the horizon now. Take her to the execution square!"
Tears weren't the only thing blurring her vision. The head wound made it hard to think straight. She took to running, stumbling as she went, and constantly checking over her shoulder for her pursuers. It was like this that she ran straight into someone large and solid.
"Miss Nausicaa?" a big, dumb voice asked.
She knew that big, dumb voice. "Bruce!" she cried, looking up at the lumbering fool. He was probably the most inept marine in her mother's unit, but Nausicaa's tears fell all the harder as relief spilled through her. "Bruce, I don't know where I am! Everyone's totes trying to, like, kill me! Where's Mom!"
"Uhhh, your mother's in bad shape, Miss Nausicaa," he said. "I came back to, uhhhh, find you. We've, uhhhh, got to get out of here before it's too late."
"Like, Oh Em Gee, Bruce! What do you mean she's in bad shape?" Nausicaa demanded. "Leave before it's too late? Like, why…? Did we lose?"
"Cap'n got stabbed in the back. I got her on one of the, uhhh, ships out," he replied, "Uhhh, the Queen's called a temporary, uhhhh, truce, but we only have 'til the sun clears the horizon. Some of the, uhhh, people don't want to wait til then, though."
Nausicaa didn't know how to process what she was hearing. She buried her face into Bruce's chest, sobbing uncontrollably. The marine stared at her, completely at a loss as to what to do until Nauscaa's pursuers turned the corner behind her.
"Time to, uhhh, get out of here," Bruce said, grabbing her by the wrist. He pulled her until she started running again, downhill toward the lower wall.
Racing the clock, it seemed like an eternity passed before they ran into the wall. –literally ran into it. Bruce hadn't been watching where he was going, and Nausicaa was too dizzy and disoriented to realize what was happening until she felt her powers temporarily sucked out of her by the sea prism.
An Iliad soldier wearing razor sharp high heels spotted them. He had medals decorating his bare chest; apparently he didn't think it necessary to wear more than a cape and pleated bronze skirt. Whether he pierced his chest or used glue to keep the medals on was anyone's guess, but Nausicaa suspected the latter.
Her powers still hadn't returned, or she would have called another litter cloud to her aid. Bruce pulled out his rifle, but lowered it as soon as the soldier spoke.
"Woah, careful there. We have a truce, remember?" the soldier said. "You two had better hurry. You're almost out of time." He turned to call over his shoulder: "Hey, I found a couple more!"
"Aye, Lieutenant General," came the response.
A moment later Nausicaa and Bruce had been shewed through the main gates toward where the last of the navy ships were boarding. A marine captain with rose colored hair and a bloodied face waved at them frantically from the broken port, shouting at them to hurry.
Nausicaa would have kept running til her lungs burst if necessary, but her gaze snagged on another small group of people standing near the frantic marine. One was General Bunny, er Hector. One was the Queen herself. But the one holding the sleeping Princess she definitely recognized as Roronoa Zoro, even if he'd put his mask back on. Why would a good looking specimen of a man like that feel the need to do that?
"Hey!" he called out to her, and she felt the color rise to her checks.
"Oh em geeeee, he's talking to me!" she squealed to Bruce, grabbing his arm and shaking it. "Oh em geee, I'm gonna faint!"
Zoro raised a brow quizzically at her. "Uh, thanks for saving my kid," he said. "You did me and Cygnus a solid. We owe you one."
A dam inside her broke at his words, and the memories came rushing back in. In horror she remembered that she had openly defied a Navy Captain and had helped the enemy's princess escape capture.
Dropping Bruce's arm, she backed away from the small cluster of people standing by the final boarding platform. Bruce looked back at her for a moment, but then just shrugged and boarded the ship without her.
"No, no," she stuttered. "I, like, can't go with the navy now!" she exclaimed. Then she turned to see the soldiers at the gates, "But I can't stay here either! ZOMG, I'm gonna die! I don't wanna die!"
The Marine Captain with the pink hair placed his hand on her shoulder as she started to hyperventilate. "You're Circe's daughter, aren't you? You rescued Ilium's Princess?"
"I went against my mom because she was acting like a monster," Nausicaa sniffed. "But I wasn't thinking! Now I have nowhere to go!"
"You have a place on my crew if you like," he said.
"No!" she screamed, slapping his hand away. "I don't want to be a marine! Ever. I'm so woke now to what the marines are like. They're all so totes awful!"
"You hear that, Coby?" Zoro asked, raising a brow at the Captain, who smiled wryly. "'Totes,' even."
"Well, if you don't want to be a marine, what do you want?" Coby asked her gently.
"Like, not to die," Nausicaa replied, hiding her face in her hands.
"Alright, aside from that," Coby said, "What's your dream?"
"I don't know! I'm only sixteen, ok? Get off my back!"
"Only sixteen," Queen Helena put in, chuckling. "By sixteen I had already faced Mihawk. Twice."
Zoro nodded. "I started training to be the World's Greatest Swordsman by time I was eight."
"Captain-San is only seventeen years old. He's the youngest Captain on record," another man put in. He had long, blond hair, a cleft chin, and a pair of thin sunglasses. "He and I started training with the marines over two years ago."
"No need to brag about it, Helmeppo-San," Coby replied modestly.
"Thanx, guys. Now I feel, like, tons better," Nausicaa sniffed, rolling her eyes.
"There must be something that you want," Captain Coby insisted, squeezing her shoulder.
Nausicaa flushed. "It's stupid," she said.
"Can't be more stupid than declaring your husband will the first man who can defeat you with a sword," General Hector put in, only to let out a loud, "Oof!" a moment later when the Queen slammed her elbow into his ribs.
"I…like cooking," Nausicaa said sheepishly. "Like, special foods for people with, like, food allergies. Dad can't have gluten, see, and Mom thinks he's just faking it. Es Em Aytch. I want to open a specialty restaurant."
"Wait, do you know how to make dairy free cheesecake?" Helmeppo exclaimed suddenly.
"Totes," Nausicaa replied. "I can even make, like, dairy free cheese!"
"Coby, we have to hire her!" Helmeppo insisted, "My lactose-intolerance demands it!"
"You know, the marines are a good place to get your start," Coby told her. "I'm sure the cook in my crew could use a pair of hands if you're interested."
Nausicaa blinked at him.
"Don't judge the whole of the marines for the bad decisions of a few," Helmeppo added. "My Dad, Captain Morgan, was a basket case, let me tell you."
"But even if I, like, totally wanted to consider your offer," she said, trying to maintain a stubborn front. "Why would you hire me after I, like, defied orders?"
The whole group let out a chorus of hearty guffaws.
"Let's put it this way," Hector said in response to Nausicaa's flushed face. "You're not the only marine to have rescued the Crown Princess today. It would be wise to take Captain Coby-San up on his offer."
"And quickly," Queen Helena put in. "The sun's almost up and you're all starting to make me like you. I'd hate to have to kill you now."
"El oh el, ok," Nausicaa said, though she didn't actually laugh out loud. "You guys seem pretty lit. I guess I can give this a try."
"Good," Coby replied, smiling. "There is one condition though."
"Anything, bae! El oh el."
"You have got to stop talking like that," Coby told her. "I can't understand half of what you're saying."
"Totes, I mean, totally, uh, I mean…" Nausicaa floundered. "Yes, thank you."
Cygnus watched the last of the enemy ships leave the harbor and let out a sigh of relief. He stopped the transponder snails from projecting his voice and image, then turned to inspect the wooden mask in his hands.
"Well, thank Olympus they bought the ruse. I'd hate to have had to put my contingency plan in motion."
He turned and strutted toward a nearby stone staircase, prepared to make his way down the wall. To his surprise he found his path on the stairs impeded by none other than his contingency plan.
"I told you, you can return to your churros, Witch," Cygnus snapped unapologetically at the bowed Sybil. Bent over, she looked almost a third of her size, a tactic she generally used to hide in public. Her hood obscured her face from view. "Your services are no longer needed."
She looked up at him suddenly, eyes glowing silver within the recesses of her violet cloak:
"Philosopher King!" she boomed in a deep, terrible voice that wasn't her own.
"Great Zeus!" Cygnus cried, clutching his heart, "I mean, my Lord Zeus! To what do I owe this honor?"
The Sybil's silver hair crackled with static as she, or rather the god using her as mouthpiece, surveyed the king with a superior air. "We the unfathomable gods have closed the heavens."
Cygnus had to resist the urge to snort. Basically Zeus was admitting to giving them the silent treatment like a petty teenage girl. "Yes, I noticed."
"But the Sybil is and always will be an exception," Zeus went on. "As you are the only pious member of the royal family left, I couldn't let this opportunity to communicate with you pass. You spoke to my daughter, Athena once, and she told you a wave was coming. That Ilium would be destroyed."
"Yes, she told me that a few years ago. I presume this was the moment Helena's marriage to Roronoa was to prevent against," Cygnus said, nodding toward the abandoned battlefront below. "After all, together she and he ended the battle without your help. Is that not correct?"
"The wave has not yet come," Zeus informed him without humor. "Your daughter has lost the support of all the gods but one. Her obeisance to her patron goddess is of utmost importance now. Remind her of who she is and where her loyalties must lie before it is too late."
Lightning sparked, Cygnus shielded his eyes, and when he opened them, the Sybil had disappeared, though for the next few minutes the afterimage of her sparking eyes remained burned into Cygnus' retinas.
"I fear it is already too late, my Lord," Cygnus murmured.
Helena glanced away from the departing ships to steal a glimpse of her husband and child. He stood, straight and strong as ever, cradling Kuina to him as though it were the most natural thing in the world. The child smiled, even as she slept.
Then he yawned broadly, breaking the image of untiring strength. Helena felt the soft smile on her face give way to a yawn of her own. She took Zoro by the hand.
"Come on," she said quietly. "Let's go to bed."
Zoro shot her a wry smirk. "Oh no, I'm not going with you. I'm staying in the guest room."
Helena smacked his arm, scowling. "I thought we were over this. You're staying in your room, with me, idiot."
"Just wanted to hear you say it," he replied, grinning.
"What, that you're an idiot? I'll remind you of that any day of the week," the Queen shot back.
"Takes one to marry one," Zoro retorted.
Helena laughed. "Come on," she said, leading him toward the city gates. "It's dawn. That means there's someone we need to visit."