A/N: FINALS WEEK HAS CONCLUDED. I survived. Quite shocked about that fact… I was sure my Chemistry final was going to do me in, but alas, the Gods were kind.
Sorry this was late. It's been insane getting home and having to deal with family. Also, its really freaking hot where I live.
I'm kind of nervous to how you're going to take this one. Hope you like it! :\
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Rick Riordan, friends…
/
Chapter Six
In Which Zeus Gets Blasted in the Face by the Arctic Ocean
Amphitrite held Percy on her hip, the dark-haired baby watching solemnly as Poseidon grabbed his trident and rolled his shoulders to steady himself for the trial of patience yet to come.
It was time for the Winter Solstice yet again, and the first time he would be seeing his brother in person since Zeus had murdered Sally. While his anger had calmed — somewhat — he was nowhere near over her death. With Amphitrite's insistence he had managed to stop wreaking havoc on the surface world. For now, anyway.
"Be careful," Amphitrite pleaded as she shifted Percy to her other hip, offering the sleepy baby a tender smile and a kiss on the top of his head. The poor little guy was only half-awake, woken from his slumber by Triton and Poseidon's argument.
"You cannot attack him, father," Triton reminded Poseidon, his fierce scowl not managing to hide his worry completely. It still shone clearly in his eyes.
"I am not foolish enough to attack him, Triton. Have a little faith," Poseidon said dryly, bending to kiss Percy on the forehead. Percy smiled sleepily and snuggled into Amphitrite, swiftly returning to the slumber he had been pulled from.
"What about Percy?" he pressed, looking between his father and his baby half-brother. "You must remember the plan. Do try not to let your temper interfere, Father."
Poseidon signed. "I'm going to be late," he pointed out, glancing upwards, "and I am not about to tell him that Percy is still alive. I know the plan. Percy being alive will remain a secret until the time is right. It's the only way to keep him safe."
Triton's shoulders sagged as he jerked his chin downwards sharply in a form of acknowledgement.
Amphitrite rubbed Percy's back and nodded. "Good luck, my lord," she said softly.
"I will see you soon," Poseidon promised, offering them a faint smile before dissolving into bubbles and vanishing from sight.
/
Olympus was bustling with activity, the Gods pouring in for the Winter Solstice. Poseidon materalized in the center of the throne room moments after leaving Atlantis.
"So, Uncle P, you gonna tell us why you've been having an epic hissy fit for the past five months?" Apollo wondered as he gracefully swept his cloak aside and took his seat.
Poseidon did not answer, settling himself in his own throne and watching with cold indifference as the rest of the family did the same. He shared a brief look with Hades, quickly hiding the flash of surprise at the understanding that shone for a millisecond in his older brother's dark eyes. Of all the Olympians, Hades was the sole among them who knew the source of the Sea God's violent anger.
"Uncle P?" Apollo pressed, ignoring the warning looks Hermes and Hestia were shooting him, as if to suggest him to shut up before he got blasted by a piece of the Arctic Ocean.
"What, Poseidon, not going to take the opportunity to whine about whatever it is that has you in such a pissy mood?" Athena mocked, crossing her arms and leaning back with a smirk on her lips.
"I am in no mood for your games, Athena," Poseidon said coldly and without even looking at her.
Shocked, Athena stared at him. She did not know what she found more surprising, his clear anger or his use of her actual name.
There was silence in the throne room as everyone fidgeted, not quite sure what to do without the classic opener of Poseidon and Athena launching insults at each other.
In his usual dramatic flourish, Zeus appeared in time with a clap of thunder and bright flash of lightning, staring down his nose at his seated family. He said nothing, merely stood there and glowered at them as if wishing they would all eat voltage.
Poseidon turned slowly to face Zeus, his eyes and expression betraying nothing. "Well?" he prompted in an icy tone. "Get on with it, you good-for-nothing Air-For-Brains, and pull the lightning rod out of your rear end while you are at it."
Hades' lips twitched into a grin he quickly smothered as the throne room fell silent once again, shock permeating through them all.
Zeus drew in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, a little surprised by his brother's attitude. Normally, it was Hades who was mouthing off about everything and Poseidon sitting there in stoic silence, somehow managing to mock him without saying a word or twitching his expression in anyway whatsoever.
This winter solstice was apparently going to be different.
Evidently, his brothers had at some point decided to switch roles.
Without a word, Zeus sat on his throne and stroked his master bolt reverently while he formulated a response.
The entire throne room was quiet, all eyes on Poseidon, who had his cheek resting on his left fist and his right curled around his trident tight enough for his knuckles to be white. About him was an air of fury, yet at the same time indifference, as he showed absolutely no outward reaction to the intense scrutiny of his entire dysfunctional family.
"Yo, Uncle P, did you just call pops a Good For Nothing Air-For-Brains?" Apollo exclaimed, his eyes wide with awe. "Like, no one, does that."
"He just did," Athena pointed out, rolling her eyes.
Apollo grinned, the light blinding the goddess of wisdom for a moment.
"I knew Uncle P was my favorite for a reason!" the sun God chirped.
"Apollo," Zeus thundered, ramming his bolt against the ground. "How many times have I told you t — "
A blast of freezing water to the face cut him off mid-sentence.
All eyes spun to Poseidon in shock, who had not shifted or altered his position or expression in any way. He hadn't even twitched.
"Oops," he deadpanned. "My hand must have . . . slipped," he trailed off with a smirk, raising a challenging eyebrow at his younger brother.
The silence was broken by Hades, who abruptly started to snicker into his hand at the expression of shock on Zeus' face. His expression was quickly morphing into anger, which Hades found impossible to take seriously given his brother currently resembled a drowned rat in a pinstriped business suit.
Apollo quickly followed suit, Hermes a half-beat behind, as Ares snorted gleefully and Aphrodite had to bite her lip to hold back her own giggle. Hephaestus blinked, a clear sign of shock for the stoic God. Dionysus almost fell off his chair, his mouth gaping open like a fish while he clutched his can of Diet Coke. Even Hestia, only one half of her face visible given the way she was turned while she sat by the hearth, cracked a smile.
Only Athena and Hera showed no outward reaction other than Athena's cheek twitching faintly and Hera's eyes narrowing dangerously as Demeter blandly suggested Zeus would feel better if he ate cereal, a comment the room at large ignored.
"Poseidon," growled Zeus, resisting the urge to point his master bolt at his older brother, "is this the moment when you tell us what has been causing your epic hissy fit of the last — "
Another blast to the face, colder this time, and with enough force to make Zeus's face sting.
"Oops," Poseidon repeated blandly, "must have slipped again."
"POSEIDON," Zeus thundered as real thunder cracked above them, shaking the throne room.
It did not impress his brother in the slightest.
"So, Zeus, have you ever slipped and blasted people to bits?" Poseidon said flatly, a hint of the anger he was feeling flashing in his eyes.
Across the room, Hades abruptly straightened, studying his brother the Earthshaker with calculating eyes and wondering to himself if his blockheaded stubborn-as-a-mule brother would choose now of all times to pick a fight with Zeus. With his eyes he silently conveyed that now was not the greatest time, while at the same time pondering what his brother's end game was.
Poseidon ignored him. "Oh, forgive me, I forgot — how could you ever make a mistake, you are the almighty God of Olympus who needs no one save himself and who never makes mistakes because you are oh-so-perfect."
The rest of the Gods and Goddesses shifted uncomfortably at the implication, eyes flicking between the two brothers. Not even Apollo dared to crack a joke, seeming to realize at the same time the rest of them did that Poseidon's anger was not a random stroke of his temper, and that this was very serious: Zeus had angered him in a big way, and the last time that had happened had not been pretty.
"Did you just insult me?" Zeus wondered in a soft tone, his eye twitching madly as he gritted his teeth in anger and clutched his master bolt like a lifeline.
"Of course I did, you nimrod," snapped Poseidon, gripping his trident still tighter as he abandoned all pretense of indifference and glared at his brother. "Tell them, brother: tell them how you struck down two women and three innocent children, simply because you could."
Zeus' shoulders stiffened as he stared at Poseidon with a mixture of anger, surprise, and wariness.
"Well, go on," mocked Poseidon, waving his hand dramatically towards the rest of the throne room.
Zeus' teeth were clenched so tightly his face was turning red, but he stubbornly remained silent.
Poseidon's eyes were teeming with rage, the air around them picking up as storms started to roll in on New York yet again. The seas began their angry churning one more, the angry waves assaulting the shores of New York with no mercy. "Tell them how you murdered my child and his mother, murdered Hades' two children and their mother, and yet two of your demigod spawn walk the Earth safe with their mother."
Deafening silence filled the throne room.
Hades' eye twitched at the reminder.
"Your child was dangerous," Zeus said, finally, hating that he felt like he had to explain himself to his bloke of a brother.
"My child was a baby," Poseidon growled, half rising from his chair before forcing himself to sit back down. Even though he knew that Percy was safe in Atlantis being guarded by Triton, all the anger and pain from that day skyrocketed back to the surface of his mind and was working him back up into a rage. "He was guilty of nothing, he barely even got to live!"
"He had to be stopped." Zeus shifted in his chair, glaring at his older brother. "Especially considering what happened last time . . ."
Poseidon lost it. "You have no right to go around murdering our children," he bellowed as he leapt to his feet, taking great heaving breaths to regain his control, "especially considering that Hades and I do not go around murdering yours!"
"Not without lack of trying," Hades growled furiously, ignoring his family as they abruptly swiveled around to look at him. "Your living children will have a lifetime of hardship, Air-For-Brains, mark my words."
"Your children are dangerous!" Zeus protested, having momentarily forgotten everyone in the room save his two older brothers. The other Olympians watched the exchange with interest, eyes bouncing back and forth between the Big Three as if watching a tennis match.
"As are yours!" Hades snapped, jumping to his feet as well and moving to stand at Poseidon's side. The significance of his movement was not lost on the rest of the Olympians. "Your children are even more powerful than ours at times, and have been just as destructive, if not more destructive, over the centuries!"
Zeus' eyes narrowed to electric blue slits. "You swore an oath on the River Styx, an oath that you broke," he reminded them coldly.
"I broke no such oath!" Hades protested hotly, glaring at his brother with pure hate as Poseidon protested on Hades' behalf in a much louder tone.
"YOU broke the oath first, Zeus, and you punished those involved purely to cover your own mistakes!" Poseidon growled. "You murdered our children, took their mothers from this earth violently with your master bolt." He slammed his trident to the ground between his feet. "Remember this, brother: everything that happens from this moment on, everything that will cause you frustration and pain, you brought down upon yourself."
"Is that a threat?" Zeus shouted furiously.
Hades sneered at his brother's ignorance as Poseidon sharply jerked his chin up in a signal of defiant affirmative.
"The only reason I have not yet declared war is to spare the innocent demigod children who will be caught in the crossfire," said Poseidon tightly, gripping his trident in his hand and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Hades. "They do not deserve to pay for your idiocy."
"But give us a reason," Hades finished darkly, "and it will mean war."
Silence fell in the throne room as the master bolt crackled, the air thick with tension. None dared to say a word, wide and frightened eyes darting between the three brothers. Never before had the animosity between the three been this thick, and never had Hades and Poseidon sided against Zeus in such a fashion. Never before had the brink of war, the possibility of destruction for Olympus, loomed so close.
Poseidon and Hades shared a look, and with one last nasty look at their little brother, sneered and vanished from the room, leaving the Olympians in stunned silence and Zeus in a state of pure fury.
/
Amphitrite's nerves grew as she sensed the seas change to anger yet again, a clear sign that Poseidon had lost his temper. She bit her lip and struggled to focus on Delphin's reports, but as time wore on and the seas continued to rage, her nervousness and worry only grew.
Delphin seemed to sense this and bobbed his head gently. "Go to him, my lady," he said quietly. She was moving out of the room before he finished speaking and hurrying as fast as she could back to the throne room.
Triton was there, seated on his throne with Percy cradled against his chest, fast asleep. He was sprawled comfortably, one leg thrown over the armrest of the throne as he foot jiggled restlessly, while his other foot rested flat on the ground. His head was tipped back and his eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
"Father is furious," he said as she moved towards him, rather unnecessarily and more as a way to speak what was on his mind. Amphitrite could feel the sea's anger just as well as her son could, but she understood her boy and knew it was a way for him to vocalize his gnawing worry without actually having to say it.
"I can feel it," she assured him, moving to sit in her throne beside him. "Your father knows what is at stake. He knows how important it is to keep Percy's existence a secret."
"Do you think Zeus will try to kill him as soon as he makes it to Camp?" Triton wondered, unconsciously lifting his right hand to cup the back of the baby's head. It was a protective gesture she knew well, for Poseidon did it several times a day.
"I doubt he will risk open war with your father." Amphitrite sighed and smoothed the fabric of her dress over her thighs as she struggled to voice her own concerns. "Though he has been foolish in the past, Triton, so I simply cannot say. He will be furious at your father for keeping Percy from him, but at this point, I really do not believe your father cares."
"He does not," Poseidon confirmed as he appeared before them, looking angry and relieved all at the same time.
"Well, it could not have been that bad, seeing as you were not pitched into Tartarus," Triton drawled as he straightened slowly, careful not to jostle the baby asleep on his shoulder.
"It is done," Poseidon said gravely, leaning on his trident and releasing a slow breath. "Zeus remains blind to the fact that Percy is alive."
"So he is safe," Amphitrite sighed, sagging against her throne in relief.
"He is safe," he agreed, reaching down to clasp Triton's shoulder.
The three adults left the second part unsaid, but it hovered on the edges of their minds all the same.
For now.
/
E/N: And there you have it, the Zeus vs. Poseidon showdown, added in by popular demand. I wasn't originally going to put it in, but as it turned out it's going to help the plot in the long run.
Hope this held up to people's standards . . . tried really hard to keep the Gods in character for what little they were mentioned. I figured Ares would get a kick out of the whole scene because he loves war and isn't particularly fond of Zeus.
I have also gotten a lot of reviews asking if Percy will be going to Camp — and he WILL! And let me tell you friends, I am rubbing my hands in glee and cackling madly at all the fun I will have when I get to writing those scenes.
Anyway, drop me a note, let me know what you think!
REVIEWS ARE LOVED AND MAKE ME WRITE FASTER!
:D