All rights belong to Rick Riordan.
I Make Zeus Angry, Again
(Lilith)
For a being that was supposed to be purely defined with my own flaw of Lust, it was quite amusing to think I was the one in this relationship. Who was not currently engaged in wanton sexual activities at all times of the day and night?
Sure, I was unaware of what exactly was transpiring on the other side of the world, certainly with the whole 'Harmony' situation, I had seen the look of Lust in Artemis's eyes back in Leto's chamber. The former goddess of maidens was desperate to jump poor Percy and prove that title was a thing of the past.
Despite my current form and gender and even my actions to the contrary, it was impossible for me not to feel jealous of my other self. If anything, it was exactly because of my form that it was inevitable. My appearance itself was defined by my own 'Lust' for her after all. It was no accident that I looked how I do, I may have given off the impression that I was distinctly 'Perseus-sexual' initially but that was only partly truthful, it had certainly worked to get rid of Wrath after all.
Yet now it was clear that act was not going to fulfil any further uses with the remaining idiots. So whilst I thought about ways to deal with Envy and Greed I had opted to assist my future 'mother-in-law' with a request as a means to distract myself. This was a lot more productive than shutting myself in a room and desperately feeling myself up in a futile attempt to make myself feel better. How many people could claim they were able to basically possess the body of their dream partner and do with it as they wished?
Fortunately for me no one had found me curled up on the floor with my hands in my underwear, else the goddess may have reacted as to be expected. Just because the injuries did not stick does not mean they did not hurt, however the euphoria of Artemis herself doing it helped to distract me from that. I knew it was a fucked up situation in so many ways but it was situation I found myself in.
Back to the situation at hand though, if I was caught doing anything risqué it would probably have some fervent religious mortals attempting to stone me to death. Unlike Leto my understanding of Islamic teaching was basically limited to what I learned in Civics at school and from watching the news. The main thing I knew as an American 'Woman' was that I needed to draw as little attention to myself whilst alone in a country that we Americans had been occupying for the last eight years under rather questionable circumstances. Still whilst open hostilities had generally ceased it was not uncommon for guerrilla actions and terrorism to occur semi-regularly.
As a kid who grew up in New York I thought I knew what it was like to walk around in dangerous neighbourhoods. But here in the suburbs of Baghdad I was being rapidly taught some humility as I walked past streets littered with the signs of warfare, burned or even bombed out cars. Homes that had been strafed with volleys of gunfire and had destroyed walls.
And yet even amongst all of this, people went about their business trying their best to live as best they could. Children played with one another in the street even as armed Coalition patrols walked among them. Their parents eyed the troops with mixed looks of distrust or resignation but the children cared little as they attempted to play with the foreign soldiers.
However, when they would pass me, I would simply pull my head wrap around my head and look away. The awkwardness of having to explain the situation of why an American 'woman' who does not exist was something I could do without.
Even so I was not here for any of these mortal affairs of state, I were merely sating my own curiosity about this country we had invaded whilst I was still in fourth grade and probably couldn't even point to this country on a map. Sure, I had soon had to deal with my own conflicts and wars soon after that but these were ordinary people going about their ordinary lives in extra-ordinary circumstances.
Still for two days I had wandered around these streets trying to pinpoint my objective of why I was here and yet so far, I was no closer than I was when I got here.
Oh, I suppose I might as well explain what I was doing here.
You see I guess it could all be traced back to Chronos's insane ramblings. The Primordial had mentioned that he was thirty billion years old which would probably explain his insanity, but as far as I and the rest of existence was concerned this entire planet was only supposed to be four and half billion years old. And I was fairly certain that Gaia came before he did.
Now this was all fine and could be taken as the final ramblings of a madman but upon further reflection and speaking to Leto it was quite clear that something was wrong with the timeline. By that I mean the entire global timeline. The problem was there were multiple Pantheons of gods interacting with Mortals at the same time. In the smallest example was the familiar Greek and Roman divide where the gods were changed only a little but still enough to cause them to gain alternate aspects with different domains and personalities.
But even before them were the Titans who were supposed to rule the world after Gaia and Ouranos until their defeat by their progeny. All this was fine and well as it left a clear-cut timeline of succession. Creation through to around ten thousand years ago was the Age of the Primordials, The Titans ruled the next six thousand and then finally the age of the gods began which is where we were now albeit the Titans were back thanks to yours truly.
So where did other non-classical Pantheons fit into this mix? I had personally met people who had connections to the Egyptian gods who predated Olympus and existed at the same time as Kronos's Golden Age. And even they were predated by the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia and Sumeria which existed here six thousand years ago. The first recorded great work of myth originated here with the Epic of Gilgamesh. Which was why I came here first in the hope of starting at the oldest and working my way forward chronologically.
So where did all these other Pantheons come from? Leto had told me that me that the Titans were unaware of these other groups despite only being a few thousand Miles away at the furthest. Despite the fact that Helios and Selene would surely have passed over these civilisations, on their daily commute across the sky. Unfortunately, I could not ask either of them personally now that they had faded but I could not imagine them simply just ignoring other clusters of civilisations below them. I or rather Leto had asked Lelantos but he admitted to rarely leaving Sicily's airspace and never ventured this far east. Leto had actually called him a bone-idle excuse for a hunter who should probably take lessons from her own daughter.
And to complicate matters all of these factions had different stories about where Mortal Humans came from. For obvious reasons it was a little hard to believe the myth that Prometheus created the first humans, when these other groups were well on their way to making their first landmark structures by the time he had supposedly done so.
If anything, it was not until a significant amount of time after the Titanomachy that the groups would start to acknowledge and begin to interact with one another, which inevitably led to them attacking each other. A situation that would eventually result in the present-day belief of Hellenistic Western Civilisation supposedly coming out on top.
Now I already knew that was some remnant at least of the Egyptian Pantheon residing in Brooklyn so obviously they had also moved with the times and come to America. But what of the gods of this region? Well if we followed the usual pattern of how the groups seemed to move they were probably living it up in the Hamptons. Or they were still here in their original homeland which unfortunately had instead suffered us bringing modern America to them. Whether they liked it or not.
Still as eye opening as this was in relation to seeing what the United States and Allies peacekeeping applications were out here, it was complete a wash for me so far in terms of my own objective.
After all I had no proof that they if had not faded already, moved elsewhere or even actually existed in the first place. So then why did I just have natural instinct that I was close to something all the time? It was not unlike my ability to detect other beings, on that front I was registering nothing of interest apart from maybe a few possible demigods or Legacies amongst the coalition forces occasionally.
However if I climbed higher this feeling subsided somewhat or even disappeared.
So was it possible whatever was here was beneath my very feet?
(Pride)
"So, let me guess this straight you do this on a daily basis willingly and you don't get bored out of your mind how?" Chrysaor complained from the rooftop next to me as we looked down at the Hunter's residence.
"Well normally 'I' would be allowed inside with the goddess and that would provide most of my amusement, keeping an eye on the girl scouts was just something that came with the package. Occasionally it is intriguing to ask the older one's stories about the lives to find about them, but a lot of them are newbies and as such are boring as sin. But then you have the likes Jeanne d'Arc's little sister and the Pendragon girl that are actually quite interesting if you can get them talking." I admitted watching through a window as Reyna pulled the curtains open in her room as Thalia coiled up into their previously shared duvet in an effort to bury her head in the fabric and stay asleep. I wonder what the goddess would have thought if she found out that her Lieutenant was slacking off in her absence.
Speaking of which we were now on the third day since those three had disappeared, without another word or sign from any of three of them to anyone since. So, either they were actually taking that whole act mortal thing seriously or they were engaged in some seriously kinky shit.
"So how do you reckon that works, like do you think they take turns or…" I asked idly before realising I was asking aloud as Chrysaor looked at me with a grin on his ugly face.
"You sound almost jealous, are you just now realising that maybe if you stopped acting like a violent child. Then you too could stand a chance with the goddess or maybe even both of them if you played your cards right. I mean seriously Artemis now that she has grown up is basically as close to a natural perfect ten as you can get. Then there is the fact that she comes as a package with basically a twin sister who is just as gorgeous, kind of seals the deal. Cause I tell you what if she lost some of the hormonal irrationality, I would be jealous." Chrysaor admitted laughing.
"But as to your question, I reckon they are probably running him ragged one after the other, with a low but not impossible chance they actually start acting on each other. Is that incest, twin-cest or self-cest? Whatever way it was I would totally watch…ouch." He fantasised before getting struck with the flat of a scythe blade around the back of the head.
"They are still my Fiancée technically, besides no way in hades that Artemis would do it, although Diana… anyway let's get off this subject before it becomes any more uncomfortable. What time is Valdez due here again?" I asked crossing my legs to hide any sign of my growing discomfort.
"About five minutes ago to be honest before you started fantasising about the gorgeous auburn goddesses your other half is probably being run ragged by in long… passionate…" It was at that point that the Latino god appeared between the pair of us and almost immediately lost his head to the blade being swung at my laughing half-brother who had leapt back instinctively. Even so with me turning the blade quickly he still got slapped by the shaft and almost thrown of the roof.
"What the hell Amigo." Leo complained as Chrysaor grabbed his tool belt and pulled him back securely onto the roof.
"Yeah, sorry about that, I meant to kill him not you, besides even if you died you would have just gone to Tartarus." I admitted putting the scythe away before Leo asked too many questions about it. I still needed to retrieve Excalibur at some point from the goddess when they returned.
"I don't want to die and I certainly don't want to go down there. I am not as crazy as you."
"You keep asking goddesses out on dates, that are either already married, eternal maidens or just generally hate you. So yes, you are as loco as I am."
"Meanwhile the half-monster is perfectly sane and well adjusted." Chrysaor chipped in grinning.
"If I make you a new mask will you wear it?" Leo asked nervously. I had long since gotten used to my brother's hideous visage.
"Why does my face make you feel uncomfortable, because if so, maybe I should introduce you to my mother?" Chrysaor proposed and even I had to gulp. I had got the confirmation she was indeed back yesterday when he had received an Iris message from her and had swiftly made myself scarce before she was aware I was there. Despite the fact that she was only the third monster I ever killed she still scared me in a way that the Minotaur never could. I survived because she took it easy on me not through any great feat of my own.
"Errm. Forget I said anything… So what did you want to see me about?" Leo asked nervously.
"Well remember I promised you a new ship or to try and repair the Argo II? Well, I also made a bet with this idiot that I would get him a new boat as well. So, well I am proposing two birds with one stone, he gets the ship he wants and you can do whatever you want with it mechanically."
"Sounds Ok, but the Argo was no small piece of engineering, it took our whole cabin half a year just to finish it and even then, we barely fit half the features into that we wanted."
"First of all, time is not an issue we are all immortals in case you did not notice, second we are talking about a two hundred and fifty meter long battleship displacing seventy-thousand tonnes, you are going to have plenty of room to tinker and that is before I start throwing things overboard. Lastly I wouldn't be surprised if even your dad wants to jump on board with the plan." Chrysaor said impatiently.
"Did you say battleship? But none of the surviving ones even the Iowa's are that size… Oh right Percy can rewind time, which means we are going for a wreck… Yamato or Musashi are the only ones that fit the bill right?" Leo deduced eventually.
"Yamato apparently, he is quite insistent on it. It has to be her." I confirmed, though I still had no idea why he was so adamant on which of the pair we were going to salvage. From my research into the pair since he had told me what he wanted to do, it seemed strange that he wanted to go for the one that exploded into many pieces.
"Ok but even if we repair and raise her where are we going to keep it, we live in a world of spy satellites and aircraft let alone parking in San Francisco harbour or off Long Island. People are going to notice something like that."
"Good for us then that I know of a really convenient blind spot the mortals can't see then. There is even one of your dad's forges there already." Chrysaor joked wrapping an arm over Leo's shoulder.
"The Sea of Monsters." Leo finally deduced.
"I can't wait to see if Charybdis can take an eighteen inch salvo to her face, she has already cost me two ships in the past. I would like to see her try and eat this one." Chrysaor laughed sinisterly as Leo futilely tried to pull himself away before finally being released.
"See we have thought out a lot of the details already and are even considering replacing the boilers with something more… modern to make her faster and not constrained by fuel issues as she was originally." I explained as the Latino teen considered what I had said before understanding kicked in.
"So, you see why we need someone with mechanical expertise, unlike the navies of the past we are not being constrained by budget or treaty so we can do whatever we want with her. So, are you in?" I asked the younger god who was seemingly become very excited.
"Yeah sure thing…" Leo responded but it was becoming clear that he was distracted by something behind me as I turned to have a look myself.
A quick glance through a window was enough to recognise that Reyna had finally succeeded in rousing Thalia from her bed and the girl was donning her clothing for the day. Even so we were still presented with a brief view of her nude backside as she pulled up her fresh set of underwear before walking out of our view.
Well I had seen Artemis naked and Thalia frankly had nothing on her older sister so the sight didn't bother me to much but it was a reminder that Leo was the only single member of the seven now that Nico and Annabeth had been revealed as a secret couple.
"Wasn't that Jason's sister?" Leo asked almost hyperventilating as he turned bright red and looked ready to burst into flames.
"Yes, yes it was, however couple of quick points I want to make first before you get too excited. She is also Artemis's Lieutenant which still means no men, second, she is really not interested in men if you catch my drift and thirdly, she is basically like a bratty sadistic little sister to me. Although technically I suppose she is now my legal sister-in-law. Actually, come to think of it I am now your uncle, wow this family is messed up. And lastly and most importantly she is biologically fifteen for all of time."
"So, you are saying I shouldn't try and ask her out." Leo inquired nervously.
"He is saying that the only thing that uses the pronouns she or her you are going to be getting inside anytime soon is a boat on the seafloor. Speaking of which how well can you swim?" Chrysaor told him grabbing him by his ear and turning his head away from the window where he was probably hoping that Thalia would come back and show him some more skin instead, he got a face full of demi-gorgon.
"Oh well this could be more fun that I thought then."
"So anyway, as it stands, I have to wait for my counterpart to return before we get this show on the road, because if I leave them unattended my life is basically forfeit to Artemis." I told Leo as I pulled myself up from the roof edge.
"Wait, where is Percy then? Shouldn't he be here with Artemis?"
"Where he is not a clue? But the issue is he is probably inside Artemis if you catch my drift." Chrysaor teased as I launched myself at him tackling him to the ground.
"How is this fair? Why am I the only single one out of all of us? It doesn't make sense." Leo complained as I fought my way on top of Chrysaor summoning my wings, the extra weight provided pinning him to the floor no matter how much he struggled.
"Stop trying to punch above your weight and settle for around a five and you might actually get somewhere; even this idiot didn't immediately go for the top shelf goods. Although that Oracle is looking pretty good nowadays, shame Apollo is always hanging around her whenever she is at camp." Chrysaor told him, I didn't have the heart to tell them that was because Rachel was dating Apollo.
"I mean seriously what is up with that, what is your secret? Annabeth was/is hot, Rachel is hot and Artemis is….." Leo said before stopping as he began to tremble and turn pale.
"Go on…"
(Percy)
Despite what my counterparts may have thought, it was not completely smooth sailing for me.
After more than two continuous days and nights of sex with Harmony I was glad that the goddess had finally fallen asleep and not just to give my groin some time to recover. Slowly as not to wake her up as I extracted myself from the bed covers and slid away from her. Pausing only briefly when the goddess reached out likely to trying to embrace me, before grabbing a pillow and snuggling up to it instead.
I would have said she looked cute as she did so, but the word cute did not cover Harmony, the only words that suited were beautiful, radiant, transcendent or just Perfection Incarnate. Still, it was a shame I did not have a camera because I could have used this as blackmail in the future.
Still despite everything there were still so many questions that needed answering, the goddess herself had no idea why she was as she was and though the Fates had answered some questions they had created just as many.
Besides we still did not know if this was permanent or not, it was clearly not supposed to happen in the first place after all. Judging by all the safeguards that had supposedly been placed on her by fate itself. But the question was why would such a supremely powerful being be created in the first place if you were going to try your hardest to seal said power away in the first place. Unless of course Harmony herself was the safeguard in the first place, but in that case to what purpose?
Every question led to another question; I was getting better at answering questions about a lot of things in the last year despite what a lot of people said about me. It had been a few days so hopefully the new triumvirate system was starting to progress nicely with the Demigods. Then again short of a nuclear weapon going off outside we would not have noticed anything outside this room.
Taking a final quick look at the sleeping figure I slipped out of the room. Artemis herself was quite inherently lazy when given the opportunity to slack off and would spend a lot of time sleeping if given the chance. I was rather hoping Harmony would have inherited this gene from her constituent parts. Because as previously shown she could also be extremely irrational if she woke up and found me gone.
But well, that was a risk I was willing to take, it wasn't as if she had got significantly more powerful since she smashed Zeus's front door in. Oh Wait…
Ten minutes later found me freshly showered and clothed as I stepped out of my bedchamber in Orthrys barely giving my two sleeping aspects a second glance. Whilst I had considered what we could do to get rid of them at least they generally behaved for lack of a better term, they stayed put and I could not fault the pair for that at least. Still didn't mean they were not a headache waiting to happen.
Besides I was short on time and waking them up would have just been wasting it I rationalised as I disappeared again into shadows.
"Well, this is awkward." I muttered nervously as I looked at pair of divines who were clearly in the middle of getting a bit touchy feely with one another. Still the tinge of Ozone in the air was rapidly becoming unbearable.
"Seeing as this is saving me a trip, here is a great idea. I don't tell your daughter that you are using her chariot like a hippies love wagon if the pair of you can meet me at Artemis's cabin at Camp Half-Blood in ten minutes." I told the pair of secret lovers already wishing that I could bleach what I had already seen out of my memory. No one should have to ever experience walking in on their in-laws acting like college kids in the backseat of a car.
"Perseus!" The king of the gods growled through his teeth.
"Here is the thing; your daughter kicked the Fates literal front door down and walked out with them unable to do a damned thing. If that doesn't make it clear the literal shitstorm you will suffer if she finds out about this, then well it will be literally your head she claims. So, pull your trousers up and ship your ass down to camp."
"Hi Percy." Leto commented her face beet red in embarrassment. Hey I was not one to judge on who she wanted to go on dates with. Even if I did question it a lot in what she saw in him, although I had seen some of it in a way I never wanted to and I was still fighting the urge to vomit a little. If it was not for the pair of them Artemis would never have been born and I would not be here in the first place.
"Why Artemis's cabin of all places."
"Because of the three places on this planet that she may think twice about erasing off the map, that is the only one currently unattended by either her or the Hunters. And because the thought of you two bumping uglies where I sleep sometimes is making my skin crawl the more, I think about it. I am going to need to Lysol everything up here when I get a chance." I told them before going to grab the last member of this impromptu meeting.
One quick Iris message told me exactly where to look.
"Sorry Rachel I need to borrow this idiot for a few minutes to have a little family chat, I would say you could come but I don't think you can take an anti-matter arrow as well as we can." I told the redhead apologetically even as I Apollo's arm.
"Yeah I guess we humans are a little more squishy when it comes to that sort of firepower." The Oracle joked even as I dragged Apollo out of his chair.
"Bro whatever you have done to Arty, I want no part in it." Apollo complained weakly. It was not like he could resist otherwise I would just freeze him in time and take him anyway.
"Hopefully she will not find out if all goes to plan, now come along your parents are waiting." I derided as I encased the pair of us in shadows.
"Ok what gives, why are we all gathered in Arty's cabin and why is dad glaring at Percy like he wants to murder him at any point." Apollo instantly asked after arriving and spotting the other two occupants. Leto was sitting on one of the beds whilst Zeus stood against a wall glaring daggers at me.
If he wanted me to feel bad about cock-blocking him, then boy was he was going to be disappointed for a long time. If anything, I got a quiet satisfaction out of ruining the god's day for all the times he had ruined mine. Besides all I had to do was tell Hera and I could sit back and watch the fireworks and that was before telling Harmony herself.
Whatever happened then today was shaping up to be a good day.
"He knows." Growled Zeus clearly not wanting either of his children to hear about what I had interrupted. Despite the rising tinge of Ozone in the air of the room I simply did not care, I so thoroughly had the old man by his unmentionables and nothing he could do would be able to ruin my day.
Actually, nothing could probably ruin my day today. It started off next to a naked goddess and chances are it was going to end the same way. Well technically it was probably going to end under a goddess to be precise. She liked being on top after all and I was not arguing.
"Anyway, you are all probably wondering why I dragged the three of you out here on such short notice? As you can probably guess it relates to Artemis and Diana." I began to explain only to be interrupted by a grunt of annoyance from the elder god.
"Everything I hear about nowadays relates to your relationship, so unless you are here to tell me this was all just a big ruse and part of an elaborate prank, get to the point." Zeus complained bitterly.
"No such luck I am afraid." I responded holding my own hand up, the simple appearing silver band clearly visible on my own ring finger. There was probably no need to explain to them what it really was. At least not at this point anyway.
"Hmphh."
"Congratulations dear, but I get the feeling you did not specifically bring us three here to show us that. You mentioned something about The Fates earlier and Artemis?" Leto said trying to get us back on track whilst playing peacekeeper.
"Wait what could Arty have to do with The Fates?" Apollo asked suddenly acting worried.
"First things first, have any of you ever heard the name Harmony as relating to anyone in mythology, any mythology?" I asked the three of them trying to judge their reactions.
Zeus appeared to act offended at the thought of other Pantheons.
"I know a stripper in New Jersey if that counts?"
"Apollo shut up, no one wants to hear what you and Hermes get up to." Leto snapped back uncharacteristically as she continued to consider it for another thirty seconds before shaking her head.
"I am afraid not, nothing I have read about sounds familiar. It has an ancient sounding feel to it that I cannot really describe much the same way like say Chaos." Leto eventually said and I felt my blood cool a little as once again my suspicions were matching with someone who did not yet even know about the goddess yet.
"So then I guess none of you would know about Artemis having any relationship with Harmony then."
"Obviously not, why would my daughter have a connection to some name you just made up?" Zeus bit back angrily and I got the reason why all the sub-factions of this Pantheon hated him so much for his stubbornness.
"Because your daughter is Harmony you idiot." I shouted back impulsively as the god tried my patience.
"I have never had a daughter called Harmony; I may have had a few kids but I at least knew their names." Zeus defended awkwardly as I groaned.
"No, you misunderstand. Artemis is… Harmony. You know how the gods and I guess I have multiple aspects."
"Don't tell me your crazy split into fragments thing has infected sis?" Apollo guessed albeit he had gone the wrong way.
"Just the opposite. From what I can work out currently Artemis and Diana are fragments of Harmony."
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Zeus bellowed as to be expected only to be silenced as I froze his body in place growing weary of his interruptions.
"I know that, you know that but guess what, we are all fucking wrong so shut up and listen or I will leave you like that. Because at some point she is going to turn up and I wouldn't put it past her to make you watch what happens next when she finds out I left her alone to talk to you of all people." I told him before releasing him as we glared at each other.
"So, what Artemis has been like this since birth?" Leto asked concerned.
"Yes and no. Artemis is the same Artemis you have all known for three thousand years give or take. Diana then came later with the Romans as we all know. However, at some point someone at the top of the food chain decided to play around with her fate and began sealing parts of her potential away.
"Like when she used to get pissed and turn golden and her eyes changed colour." Apollo chipped in actually helpful.
"Exactly, which as you may have noticed has come back recently since I broke that curse on her bow and removed that restrictor. Well turns out that was one of several that was placed on her fate by someone above even Clotho and co. As it turns out I may have inadvertently broken the rest of them as well."
"Like what?" Apollo asked curiously as I felt myself blush.
"The second was that she was a maiden goddess, the third is too embarrassing to explain to the three of you." I said coughing into my hand.
"Perseus if you ever refer to sex with my daughter again in my presence, I will electrocute you until only dust remains and then I will do it again for good measure." Zeus said coldly and I almost felt some sort of fatherly anger from the old man. Could it be that he did care for his children albeit only a little?
Shame I was about to crap all over his pledge.
"So anyway, New Year's Eve happened and some people did some things, that they really enjoyed and one thing led to another and another and so forth and then boom final seal broken." I summarised in a way that was still technically following his instruction.
"Eww. That's my sister bro. So, what Artemis has changed her name now?"
"Actually, I think it is more accurate to say Artemis has changed her species now. Artemis was arguably the second most powerful Olympian Goddess right. At present she could probably destroy Olympus with a single arrow if she could be bothered to. I saw her fire an arrow at a building and it didn't explode; it caused the building to implode as if hit by a miniature black hole. I have had the misfortune of meeting (and killing) three Primordials; Harmony radiates so much power she actually makes Chronos look like literally a Casino Bellhop. How else do you think she managed to terrify the Fates and force them to cough up her fate string." I said simply dropping all the information at once, I could feel the oppressive atmosphere closing in and it did not have anything to do with the old god who was looking like someone had just punched him in the gut. The fact I was more powerful probably kept him up at night, hearing what his daughter was capable of had truly broken him.
"Percy but that sounds so impossible, it cannot possibly be true. My daughter is powerful yes but that is just implausible." Leto explained wide eyed.
"Oh I missed the best bit, she also has all of my powers. Wings, Time, Light the whole shebang. Which is why she is currently flying several feet above this building."
"Any questions?" I asked smiling as the ceiling disintegrated into dust as the two gods eyes rolled backwards before they hit the floor, Leto was lucky that she was sitting on the bed as she fell unconscious.
I could only stand in resignation as the beautiful silver winged figure descended through the ceiling. As the last wing tip passed through the hole the roof was suddenly intact again.
"I have a few." Harmony commented before I found myself pinned to the wall as her tongue invaded my mouth.
(Pride)
"Go on." An all too familiar voice asked as I suddenly felt myself hit by nausea as some unknown force assailed every fibre of my being. The other two were not so lucky as they both collapsed to the floor, Leo hanging with his head and one arm over the side of the building.
Turning around I could only stand slack-jawed as I looked at the goddess in front of me. Any complaint I was about to make was instantly forgotten as I stared at the naked goddess in front of me. There was no mistaking who it was but at the same time she was just so much… more and I was not just talking about her having longer hair.
"uh...uh…Art…uh" I stammered completely unable to put any words together as I looked at the avatar of perfection in front of me. For her part the goddess seemed quite bemused by my stuttering as she regarded me with a sly smile making no effort to cover herself up despite being in the open and the temperature.
"Hmm. If Artemis knew this was all she had to do to keep you quiet, she might have done this sooner." The goddess said stepping towards me and my senses were screaming at me danger and yet I found myself unable to move as one of the goddess's eyes glowed golden, it was only now that I noticed her eyes were both naturally different colours. I was no stranger to watching Artemis's eyes change colour when she was angry normally with me, but that was always temporary this seemed to be quite natural however.
Then there was the fact that she referred to Artemis like she was not Artemis, however I was also aware of the clear difference between the naked forms of both goddesses and the being in front of me was clearly not Diana either.
"Still the things I could do to you right now if I wanted, I wonder if you truly are the same as Percy." The goddess whispered into my ear as I suddenly went wide eyed as she playfully grabbed my crotch.
For the second time in a week, I felt uncomfortable as the goddess manipulated my body and I did not know how to react. Only this time was so much worse as the sight of naked goddess caused my body to react against my control. At the sight of my futile attempt to struggle against the force restraining me the goddess simply giggled before finally letting go as I fell to my knees.
It was only now that she released me that I realised that the being in front of me radiated an aura that seemed to drain your energy. No wonder Leo and Chrysaor had collapsed immediately as soon as she arrived, I knew I was significantly more powerful than those two even in my fractured state and yet even now I could not stop my hands from shaking as sweat formed on my brow.
Even so I normally would have made a comment with the fact I was now stuck at her chest height and was getting an eyeful of her bust which appeared slightly larger than it used to be. Yet for possibly the first time I decided to keep my mouth shut out of actual fear.
"You know it removes a lot of the fun if you don't say anything at all." The goddess asked placing a finger under my chin and making me look up at her. I could now see that her golden eye was no longer glowing like it was earlier. You would think that someone who shared the same trait would have recognised her manipulating time on me but that was so illogical, how was that even remotely possible?
"Who are you?" I asked nervously, finally able to string words together coherently.
"I'm Harmony, beyond that who knows?..." She said smiling serenely before my vision went dark.
By the time I had regained conscious, my senses were telling me it had been a full fifteen minutes since I blacked out, likewise I could not detect the goddess Harmony or whatever Artemis was calling herself now. Even so it was with some reluctance that I opened my eyes before slowly dragging myself upright and looking around.
Sure enough, apart from the two unconscious figures of Leo and Chrysaor we were now alone.
When you would much rather look at the hideous visage of a demi-gorgon than quite possibly the most attractive woman in all of creation in her birthday suit that you knew something was terribly messed up.
Just what on earth had happened to her and why did I think that my counterpart was responsible? While it was a lot more common for me to get us into trouble, this was one quite literal headache he had got me into.
'Still misery loves company.' I thought to myself as I weakly summoned a mass of water over head before letting it fall over us. Unfortunately for one of us, their father was not a certain Lord of the Sea and the mechanic god jumped awake and almost instantly nearly fell off the roof. Only some frantic arm waving caused him to keep his balance and instead fall back onto our side.
"Ahhh. What the hell just happened?" The soaked god complained as he watched as I slowly pushed myself to my feet, the water bath had actually benefited me even if only a little.
"Would you believe it if I said I had no clue?" I laughed nervously. Apart from the fact that the metaphorical truck that had hit us wore the woman I begrudgingly I loved's face. I was as clueless as anyone else. Well that and she had sexually assaulted me and not them.
"No because everything happens because of you nowadays." Chrysaor complained weakly still laying on the floor; I guess not being a full divine like us two he got the worst end of the stick. Chrysaor's power was related more to his inhuman skill than actual shear natural ability.
"I mean we were talking and then suddenly Artemis turned up and she was nak…" Leo began before stuttering as he started to blush, my glaring at him seemingly stopping him from continuing as instead he gulped and kept his mouth shut.
"And then the pair of you hit the deck like a sack of shit, also Leo I suggest you scrub any memory of that from your mind because when the real Artemis turns up she will probably unleash the entire Hunt on you if you ever mention it to anyone. That includes the Lioness." I told him half-threateningly.
"So she was naked?" Leo giggled like a little girl even as I glowered at him.
"Hey Leo your inner virgin is showing, you are putting the girls across the road to shame." I told him bluntly and watched in satisfaction as he recoiled like he got shot.
"Well I guess that answers the question of whether a god of fire can get burned." Chrysaor laughed pulling himself up to his hands and knees.
"Besides there was something weird about her more than the obvious, she referred to Artemis as if she was in the third person and yet I don't think that was Diana either." I said shaking my head in confusion.
"So who or what in Hades was it then? Because I have never met anyone who could knock me out simply by arriving and I have seen a goddess's divine form" My brother asked trying and failing to standing up. I didn't know the context of his statement but it certainly raised a question for a later date.
"She called herself Harmony before even I got an unscheduled nap. What I can say is Percy is probably to blame and when I get a chance I want answers from hi…" I declared only to topple over backwards as my world went dark. Despite the futile attempts of Leo and Chrysaor to wake me, this time it would be several days before I would regain consciousness.
(Lilith)
Much like my prideful counterpart I had been reduced to a shivering wreck sitting in a corner of a half-bombed house wondering what in Hades I had just seen.
I had been walking through this city's main market when I had suddenly detected the arrival of something both extremely powerful and divine in nature almost right on top of me. Turning around I caught sight of the shocking sight of the perpetrator.
Yet unbeknownst to the hundreds of men and women all around her, the naked goddess had been looking directly at me with narrowed eyes before leaving just as quickly. Even though it had been just a few short seconds she had been there, it had felt like I was being crushed under her gaze alone even though she was thirty feet away.
It had taken most of my strength to get out of there before I collapsed as my legs shook. The last thing I wanted was to collapse and be investigated by the locals.
But even now ten minutes later I still had no idea what was going on with the goddess. Why the mortals had not responded to the goddess's sudden appearance, let alone the fact that she was in her full glory in the middle of one of the quite possibly the worst places in the world to go streaking.
Yet not only did they not react, it was like they were completely oblivious to her presence at all. Whilst I was reduced to a weakened mess they were completely fine, as if they were simply not important enough to be affected by the ambient aura that surrounded her.
The final issue I had was that she had just kicked my own self-consciousness so far down the gutter, they would be fishing it out of the Styx.
Every fibre of my being in this body was modelled on Artemis's own; with the exception of hair and eye colour I thought I was identical. Yet the being I had just witnessed proved that to be a sham, I was nothing but an imperfect imitation pretending to be her equal.
I might as well have MADE IN CHINA tattooed on my body. I thought bitterly to myself as I pulled my knees up to my chest and began to ponder what I had witnessed.
(Greed)
ERROR NOT FOUND
(Envy)
ERROR NOT FOUND
A.N: Well here we are again, well some things happened in the US which us European's are still raising an eyebrow at. As are a significant portion of the US but well we will see how that goes. Thankfully this story is only at the end of Obama's first term so I don't have to account for any of this flustercluck. Well short of bullying Obama into giving Perseus what he wants. Conveniently the USN retired something in 2012 that could be fun for our three wannabe battleship commander to pinch bits off of.
Anyway politics aside, despite Percy's best efforts to sneak out, Harmony knew instantly and is now on the loose. Clothing optional it seems but then again she has enough body confidence that she doesn't care. She knows that she is the most beautiful being in all of creation, besides anyone who can actually see her that is not in some part Percy doesn't retain consciousness for very long.
Also Harmony has appeared in four chapters now and never had a POV, because it is more fun to write other peoples reaction to her. Besides she is more level-headed than Artemis as she does not suffer her constituent parts inferiority/superiority issues, she knows that she is superior, she doesn't know why but it doesn't mean she cant abuse the hand she has been dealt. Also because she is helluva thirsty goddess.
As you can tell Harmony has been very busy in a short stretch of time, so she might have also been to Orthrys and dealt with that situation.
Also time for your suggestion time:
I am looking at introducing two characters into the story soon (Not the kids yet, sorry). One will be a Hunter and the other has a connection to the original Hunters. And I am looking for name recommendations for the pair. The Hunter is not a demigod so it does not need to be relating to anyone in the pantheon but girls (obviously) names deriving from Greek are preferable.
