Look at you all, screaming for divine ichor, I'm so proud of you all.

Anyway, welcome back to another chapter of The Philosophy of Fear. In which we see the forge start anew as we set Harry on his journey to remember something he had forgotten in his despair.

On with the show.

Elpis, on a rooftop overlooking an alleyway, San Francisco.

If Elpis were to be asked about her true nature by anyone, she would simply tell them that it was unknowable. Which, in a way, was the truest answer she could give. For who truly knew what gave anyone hope? It could be a moving and motivational speech from a commander, the sight of home on the horizon, or a simple act of kindness to someone who hadn't known it in a long while.

But Elpis had known her true nature for as long as she could recall, but never cared to speak out loud to anyone. She knew it the moment she had awoken in Pandora's Pithos, surrounded by all the horrors and plagues of humanity that the gods had shoved into it. She was neither the spark nor the ember, she was merely its tender but unlike Hestia, Elpis' "hearth" was the heart. Not in the way that Aphrodite or Eros held sway over it, no, hope was far more of a weaker flame then love most of the time. It was an ember, it was the spark that set the blaze, the light in the darkness and the home just over the horizon.

When Pandora's flaw got the better of her and released all the horrors stored into the mortal world, Elpis refused to leave the Pithos, for she refused to abandon humanity. Even years later, when Zeus had come to enjoy humanity and their worship and rights dedicated to him, the Skyfather opened the Pithos to coax her out, but Elpis stayed within the Pithos for she did not trust the cruel and capricious gods. It had taken hundreds of years and an oath from every major Olympian at the time to get her to leave the Pithos.

Afterwards, the world became her Pithos. Elpis was allowed to wander to and fro as she pleased, delivering hope where it was needed most. Elpis also found she was very alone in the world, for only her and one other were gods of that small ember that would spread that most needed idea to the world. So rare were they, that most of the kings of other Pantheons didn't mind them crossing the invisible lines that separated them, so long as they were there doing their jobs.

But now, Elpis divine duty was put to the side, as the one that she favored the most needed her, even if he let her go; she would never let him go.

Hope is what made the boy strong, hope was why he was here. Hope was what he had fought for when he had nothing else.

And for when Hope dies, it takes the world with it.

She was crouched, looking over the side of the three story building at the boy sitting beside a dumpster; lost to the world around him. He had yet to realize that Elpis had whisked him away from Athena and her poison words, the boy was deep into his despair and self loathing. She would need to remind the boy of what he was, for his spiral into despair had made him forget the words that had made him strong once before; and for that, Elpis needed help.

It was an odd little triumvirate they had formed over the last few hundred years, hearth and hope went well together, for one could always find one or the other near each other. But it was the black sheep of the three that Elpis was waiting for, and thankfully she didn't wait for long. A smile is born of Elpis' face as she feels the fractals of reality bend and twist behind her, twisting the air into a cold chill that came with anyone linked to death.

"Well, isn't this a bit of a surprise," the voice of the recently arrived says, boisterous and bold as she ever was, Elpis could hear the joy in her voice as high as bells. "What are you doing here, squirt?" she asks Elpis.

"Hello Melinoë," Elpis says as she turns to the third of her little group within the Greek Pantheon. "And I once again remind you that I am older than you," She says, her smile never leaving her face as the Princess of Ghost walks up beside her.

"Well, you're still shorter than me," Melinoë says, returning Elpis' smile before ruffling her hair. Elpis rolls her eyes at the Ghost Princess antics before sticking her tongue out at her and blowing a raspberry at her, causing Melinoë to chuckle before looking over the edge of the building.

Melinoë licks her lips in hunger at the sight below them. "My oh my, He's absolutely stewing isn't he?" She says with a glint in her black eyes. "What happened to him? He wasn't like this when he left my place," she notes with a frown and hungry eyes.

"Oh? You've met him?" Elpis asks curiously as she turns to look back at the boy.

"Yeah, he came to talk to Mom less than an hour ago before running into Juno," Melinoë admits with a shrug, not taking her eyes off the boy who was too busy inspecting the blade he had in hand to notice them.

"Athena did this to him," Elpis informs her partner in crime while her frown grows more as her eyes turn darker.

"Is that so?" Melinoë mutters under her breath, her tongue licking her teeth as her eyes narrow. Elpis knew that look on Melinoë's face, it meant that someone, more than likely Athena's children, were going to suffer Melinoë's tender mercies.

"You were planning on doing something before I even asked you here, weren't you?" Elpis asks, turning back to Melinoë who was now crouching down to get a better look at the boy. The Princess of Ghost turns to Elpis with an embarrassed and bashful look on her face.

"Well- you know how it is. Ah, I- er, maybe?" Melinoë says cringing into herself as she gives Elpis a wide and uneasy smile. The spirit of hope merely rolls her eyes at the princess of ghosts and shakes her head.

Elpis turns back to the Alleyway, her smile turning back into a frown. "Can you help him?" She asks softly.

"If he's strong enough," Melinoë answers back quietly, personally doubting it just by the look of the boy. He looked to have lost what little fire he had less than an hour ago, but Melinoë supposes that would happen if you verbally sparred with the goddess of wisdom.

"He is," Elpis immediately answers with a conviction that was rarely found in the voice of the goddess of hope, causing Melinoë to turn to her while raising a brow in question. Elpis knew the silent question in Melinoë's eyes, but she didn't answer it. She had known the boy for a long time, longer than any of the Celtic deities, even longer than his mother Artemis. She had known Harry Potter since he first used the jacket he wore as a shield against the world, as he held that hope in hallowed silence in his heart that someone cared for him; she just didn't know it until the wards that protected him fully fell. Elpis held Harry in favor since then, for his grip on her was just as strong as her grip on him.

"Well, if you're not gonna say anything, I might as well get started," Melinoë says as she stands, stretching her arms above her head with an eager look on her face.

"Not yet," Elpis says calmly, freezing Melinoë in place as she looks at the Goddess of Hope confused.

"Why not? He's right there," Melinoë asks, sounding baffled as she gestures down at Harry.

"If you act now, you'll just end up hurting him even more. He needs to be reminded of who he is, of what he is before you get your hands on him," Elpis says, her voice calm and light as she watches over Harry. But inside she was worried, the recent events of his life had done a number on Harry, and with wisdom's folly, it had destroyed all the hope the boy held in his heart. That soft burning ember she had natured for so long, the reason why the boy fought and his will to live were all tied to his identity and what he was. Athena had thrown that identity in question, had thrown his failures back into his face. She would deal with Athena and wisdom's folly soon enough, but first Harry needed her. Lucky, a situation was arising that would at least stoke the dead embers back to life.

The alleyway below was a dead end, leading into a small loading area for the few mortal businesses that surround it. It was filled with trash and litter like most places in this city was when they were tucked out of sights. Harry was tucked, out of sight between a dumpster and a large air conditioner encased in steel bars. The loud sounds from the unit covered the sound of yelling voices, Harry out of sight, wouldn't notice the ground of three young teenagers in purple shirts until they passed by him. One was being carried by another, the scent of fresh blood filling in the alleyway, overpowering the smell of pollution and rot. Elpis watches as Harry stiffens, the scent was too strong and too close for him to ignore, the yelling from the three others could no longer be ignored as Harry covers his ears with his hands in a vain attempt to block it out.

But it is what the half-bloods were running from that Elpis' was counting on. Four in total followed the half-bloods into the alleyway, and in their bloodlust, had completely missed Harry, tucked away out of sight.

Three beautiful women and one overweight man followed the scent of blood into the alleyway, nostrils flaring as they inhaled the scent of what they were tracking. The women were tall with long flowing black hair, their pale skin seemingly reflecting the sunlight before they stepped into the dark alleyway. All three wore long trench coats that seemed right from the fifties as well as dark mirrored sunglasses, and matching bloodthirsty smiles. The overweight man was dressed as a messy pastry chef, icing and batter spilled down his apron in the front as the sleeves of his white shirt was rolled up to show off thick bands of muscle and a host of scars.

"Manny!" The bleeding half blood shouts, one hand pressing against the wound in his thigh as he was being carried by the third member of the group. "This is a dead end! You said you knew this neighborhood!" He roars angrily.

"I do- did, fuck!" Manny yells back, his voice flushed with panic as the child of Mars as he turns before reaching into his pocket and pulls out a police baton. With a flick of his wrist the sturdily built boy, the baton extends before flooding out into a golden sword. "Sarah, put Jacob down and help me out in range," he barks out an order to the third of the trio and the only girl.

"Come on, Jacob," the blonde hair and blue eyed girl says before dragging her half brother over to the back way before gently laying him against it. She reaches down to try and heal the wound by her half brother's hands pushing hers away.

"No, don't worry about me," Jacob says quickly as his sister looks up to him in worry. "Healing would take too long, and it's not as bad as it looks. Cover that idiot so he doesn't die, cuz I'm gonna kill him my damn self," he says with a pained strain to his voice.

Sarah hesitates for a moment before the laughter of the monsters chasing the trio bloom as they enter the alleyway. She reaches up to her hair and pulls off the golden butterfly hair clips as it unfolds into a bow that needs no arrows, a gift from her father, before stepping forward and taking careful aim at the four monsters. Sarah Bradshaw and Manuel Chino were ready to fight for their lives, and the life of their friend and brother. Elpis smiles at the three Roman demigods, for none of them knew what they had led the monsters chasing them into. The spirit of hope turns away from the alleyway and begins to walk away from what was now a kill box. The sounds of banter and monsters taking their true form echoes behind Elpis, the sound of the scuffled sound out before a sickening crunch followed by a single scream from the young girl.

"Hey? Where are you going?" Melinoë asks as she had turned to watch Elpis walking away. "Shouldn't we help these kids out or something? Because they're about to get eaten and I don't think-" the princess of ghosts begins to say before they both felt it. The very atmosphere becomes charged with a feeling of overwhelming bloodlust, of fangs and claws, of a rage born from despair, and pure and undiluted terror.

Elpis hums a bit as she continues to walk away while Melinoë nearly snaps her neck with the force as she turns to look back down into the Alleyway with wide eyes.

"No," Elpis admits, a small mischievous smile on her face. "I think they'll be fine, but you can find Harry after this. He's always in a better mood after he vents on something, but you'll have to excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be," she says a bit of her own anger in her voice.

"Where?" Melinoë asks distantly as her eyes never leave the alleyway. Elpis didn't blame her, it was a sight to behold when Harry was in the middle of a hunt.

"To correct wisdom's folly," Elpis says with a smile before she vanishes from the rooftop intent on doing a little hunting of her own.

Manual Chino, San Francisco, dead end alleyway.

Manual "Manny" Chino had started today with low expectations of any sort of action. He woke up, ate breakfast, and got his orders from the praetors to patrol around San Francisco for any monsters. It was to be a normal day, but that changed when Sarah and Jacob wanted to stop for a snack in some new pastry place that was just so owned by a fucking Cyclops! And even worse, he had a few friends in the shop. A triplets of Scythian Dracanae from the looks of them as they stripped off the coats after cornering them in the alleyway, one had hit Jacob in the thigh with an arrow as they ran.

Four on three wasn't the odds he wanted to fight against, but thanks to his caution and panic while running, it was now four on one. Manny grips his sword in both hands as the monsters begin to encircle them, the Cyclops had hit Sarah with a large wooden club in the shape of a mixing spoon of all things.

Manny was pissed with himself, one little mistake had cost him and his friends their lives all because he turned down the wrong fucking alley! It was a shame to a son of Mars that he had let these monsters get the drop on him and his squad like this. But, if these fuckers wanted to take a bite out of him or his friends, he was going to make them work for it. He takes a deep breath, steadying himself as the monsters move in closer.

"If you get a chance, run and don't look back," Manny says, his voice flat and hard as he turns to look at his friends pressed into the corner of the alley. He doesn't even see them nod or accept his orders, he doesn't want to either, if the fifteen year old had to pay for his mistake with blood. "So be it," he thought to himself before his knees bent in preparation for his charge.

But as Manny was about to take that first step of what he was sure would be his last charge, he froze.

-The howl of wolves in the night as they chased their prey rang in his ears, fangs at his throat, claws ripping him apart. He had to run! He had to leave! It was coming and he had to flee!-

It was an indescribable feeling, like bloodlust, rage, and despair all mixed in equal parts, as if he once more stood before the wolf-mother at the start of his training. A cold sweat breaks across the back of his neck and drips down his back, Manny had no idea what it was, but he knew he had to run before whatever it was caught him in his fangs.

He blinks away the terror enough to look around, and Manny notices whatever had affected him, had also caught the Monsters off guard. They stood there, paralyzed in their own fear and what could only be recognition in their eyes. Manny catches movement in the opposite direction of the alleyway, right behind the monsters, and watches as a small, scrawny boy steps from behind a dumpster.

Manny had never seen such a look of pure and undiluted hatred on anyone's face before. The boy walked with a singular purpose, his golden-emerald eyes locked squarely on the monsters that surrounded him and his friends. The aura of fangs and bloodlust seemingly coming off the boy, with every step he took, the wrenching of metal and cracking of stone echoes around the alley. Manny's eyes scan the scene before him before widening at the sight of barbed and hooked spikes and spears juts from the stone of the building and metal of the dumpsters around them.

One of the Scythian Dracanae standing the farthest back with a bow trained on them, turns just in time for the boy to make it to her. But before she could shout a warning to snap the rest out of their terror, the boy reaches out and wraps his hand around the throat of the Scythian Dracanae and squeezes. The choking sound causes the rest of the monsters to turn just in time to watch the boy yank the monster's head back and raise his other hand that holds a sleek looking dagger. The boy, without a word or quip, plunges the dagger into the eye of the Scythian Dracanae with a sickening crack of bone, the monster falls limp in his hand, all but dead to the world as it suffers from a dagger point lobotomy.

"Monsters," the boy growls out as he jerks the blade back and forth before ripping it from the creature's skull. "No matter where I go, there are always fucking monsters!" The boy roars as he turns to the three remaining, golden-emerald eyes blazing in the late afternoon sun.

The monsters snap out of their terror, turning their focus to the unharmed and unknown halfblood, the other two Scythian Dracanae rush forward at the boy with spears raised and at the ready. The boy doesn't even flinch as he throws the unmoving body to the side, the serpentine head slams into the corner of a dumpster and shatters into a shower of gray matter and gore. As the spears get closer to the boy, he dodges the first one before grabbing the shaft of the second as he pivots and spins. He lashes out with the dagger, sinking it deep into the side of the Scythian Dracanae head as he completes his spinning dodge down the shaft of the spear. The wet crack of the cranium of the monster splitting echoes as the boy pulls the spear from the grasp of the dead monster and uses the haft to knock the second stab from the other monster away. He lashes out with a kick, catching the Scythian Dracanae in the chest and kicking it back before ripping the dagger out of the dead one's head.

The Cyclops then steps forward, raising its club above its head to crush the boy into paste. The club comes down like thunderbolt, Manny makes a move to yell at the boy, to warn him, but watches as the boy casually sidesteps the attack, avoiding it completely. The boy spins the spear in his hand as he ducks under the cyclops' arm, the dagger lashing up and catching the wrist of the monster almost cutting off its hand. The boy then turns on his heel and with a steady hand launches the spear right into the kneecap of the Cyclops. The monster screams in pain as it falls back on his ass just as the boy completes a full spin and bends his knees for a charge at the last remaining Scythian Dracanae.

The terrifying thing to Manny wasn't the aura the boy had, though that was a very close second, but the casual ease he had turned into a whirlwind of death. The boy moved as if he knew exactly what the monsters were going to do next with a grace and speed he only saw from a few others, and all came from the same all girl group of hunters. In a matter of moments the boy had cut down two Scythian Dracanae and crippled a Cyclops with staggering ease and a ravenous hunger for violence on his face.

The boy shoots forward with such awe-inspiring speed does Manny fully realize just how outmatched the monsters were. He could barely follow the boy with his eyes, but could figure out the trajectory of the dash easily enough as Manny watched the boy smash into the last Scythian Dracanae. One hand wrapping around the scaled throat as the boy drags the monster with him with a roar, they slam into one of the dumpsters that were warped and twisted. The barbed blade bursts from the Scythian's chest as the boy raises his dagger and begins to rapidly and violently stabs the Scythian Dracanae to death.

Each thrust of the knife was done with such force and rage that Manny could hear each and every impact of the blade as it cut through meat and broke bones. It was such a raw act of savagery that it gave both Manny and the downed Cyclops pause. Manny and all the other Roman half bloods were taught to kill the monsters that would try to eat them quickly and cleanly for two reasons. One was because it was smart, if there was one monster then there would surely be more around and thinning the numbers of the enemy in a fight was just basic tactics. And second, the demigods were not like the monsters they so often fought, they did not draw out the kill sadistically. Any Roman demigods caught doing it were liable for harsh punishments to curb that behavior or sent back to the wolf-house for retraining.

But all Manny saw was savagery as the boy drew out the kill in the harshest way he could. Only ending the attack when he had stabbed the monster in the throat enough to cut off its head before tossing to the Cyclops' feet.

It was a sobering and sickening sight to not only him, but also Jacob and Sarah behind him. Of that, he has no doubt.

"What- what are you?" The cyclops asks as it pushes himself back and away from the boy who was now facing him.

"Your. End." The boy growls out as he walks over to the Cyclops, the polished bronze dagger in a white knuckle death grip as his emerald eyes have almost fully given over to the golden-yellow.

"N-No! Stay back! St-stay away from me!" The Cyclops yells as it swings the oversized mixing spoon at the boy, causing him to take a step back. It gave the cyclops enough time to grab the haft of the spear to rip it out of him. The boy watches the cyclops coldly, as if he was waiting for it to stand up but Manny couldn't fathom the reason why until it happens.

The boy charges at the monster as the cyclops raises his club over his head to smash the boy into jelly. But as the monster swings down at the boy, he vanishes in a burst of speed, sliding between the cyclops' legs. With a flash of bronze, the boy slices through the Achilles tendon of the monster, bringing it down to a knee. The boy, twisting mid-slide like an animal, stops himself right past the monster's leg just so he could dash forward and cut the other tendon. After that all Manny could see was flashes of silver from the boy's jacket as he danced around the downed Cyclops, stabbing and slashing at every tendon he could reach as he went as he once more drew out the kill.

"Stop it! Stop it! For the love of the gods what the hell are you doing!?" Sarah screams from behind Manny, clutching her broken arm, horror lacing her voice as she watches the macabre showing speed. Her scream snaps Manny out of his own horror and fear, he knew he couldn't keep up with the raw speed the boy blitzs the monster with, but he wasn't a son of Mars for nothing. Manny holds out a hand, focusing on the feeling of a blade in his hand, and with a hard yank backwards with his arm he rips the dagger from the boy's hand. Manny snatches the blade out of midair as it flies toward him.

"The hell is wrong with you!?" He snaps as the boy turns to him with a glare that could melt steel beams. But the son of Mars doesn't flinch, he'd been on the receiving end of worse from far stronger beings than the boy. The cyclops was laying on the ground, twitching and bleeding, unable to even to crawl away from the boy due to the ligaments in his arms being sliced. "This is not how we treat enemies of the state! We award them clean deaths because we are not like them," he snaps at the boy.

"Stay the fuck out of my way!" The boy yells back, the gold in his eyes almost completely taking them over, his rage and apathy toward the monster crystal clear in his voice. Manny storms forward, shoving the boy to the side before plunging his sword through the monster's heart and ending its suffering before turning back to the boy.

"I don't know who the fuck you are or from what cohort you're from, but there will be disciplinary actions for this," Manny says as he turns back towards the honestly terrifying boy he had knocked to the ground.

"That was my kill! You had no-" the boy tried to argue as he stood and shoved the son of Mars. But Manny wasn't having any of it, he twists his arms up and knocks the boys arms away before shoving him a second time.

"At least I'm stronger than him," Manny thinks to himself as the boy hits the ground once more. "I don't give a damn what you think, soldier. Now cut the attitude and shit, I'd rather not hurt a new recruit who just saved our asses from my fuck up, now stop," he barks out, hoping the boy would listen to reason. The boy spins on his back to reposition himself into a crouch like a wild animal, teeth bared at him and all.

"I'm not your fucking soldier," the boy grows out as his hand starts to reach for his bicep under his jacket.

"Wait- Harry Potter?" Jacob says quietly, looking at the boy with his eyes narrowing at the boy. The boy reacted like the name was a blow to his head, flinching at it and blinking a few times. Manny turns to look at Jacob in surprise before turning back to the boy with wide eyes. "Holy shit, you are him, aren't you?" Jacob says breathlessly, a growing smile on his face as Sarah looks just as shocked as Manny felt at the name.

"How-how the bloody hell do you know me?" The boy, Harry fucking Potter asks as a hand goes to his head as if he had a migraine settling in but some rationality returning to his eyes as the gold bled away.

Jacob limps forward a bit with a smirk on his face. "I don't think there's a soul at Camp Jupiter who doesn't know who you are. Silver jacket with a stag's head on the back, you move like the Hunters and have the same type of eyes when they get in a fight. You're the fuck-mothering Heir to the Hunt, the only child of Diana. You're the one who returned the lost ninth legion's standard to camp," Jacob says in a bit of awe, as Manny just blinks at the boy and Sarah looks on with shock.

Harry himself was giving Jacob a confused look, mouthing the words "Diana" and "Jupiter" like he had never heard them before in his life.

"You- You're the one who found the Ninth legion's standard, you returned it to New Rome," Sarah says, but it comes out more like a question then anything else. "Lady Diana showed up at New Rome toward the end of saturnalia last year with it. Telling the Praetors and the Senate that her son had come across it during a hunt he was on and wanted to return it. Hades, half the camp wanted to vote you in as one of the new Praetors right then and there," Sarah admits to the now even more confused looking boy.

"What in the name of Aphrodite's magnificent mammaries is a bloody Praetor?" Harry asks quickly, looking between the three demigods with even deeper confusion. Manny, Sarah, and Jacob all look at each other for a moment before they start to laugh, cutting through the underlying tension that they felt from Harry.

"Archaic names aside, why don't you come back to Camp with us. As soon as the Senate finds out that you're with us, they'll throw a hero's welcome for you," Manny says with a grin and offering his hand toward Harry after placing the dagger he took from Harry with his sword hand, holding both awkwardly.

"I know our brothers and sister will," Jacob says with a large smile on his face. "Most of us have been dying to meet our mysterious cousin at long last," he says as Harry looks at him, half scared and half confused, causing Jacob's grin to fall somewhat. "Ah- right, Maybe some introductions are in order. I'm Jacob Mansfield and this is Sarah Lodges, we're children of Apollo, which makes us-" Jacob says, gesturing between himself and Sarah, who finally smiles at Harry.

"Family," Harry whispers, a haunting and hurt look flashing in his eyes as panic begins to set in and his hands start to shake. Harry takes a step back from Manny, shaking his head. "No- I don't do- I-I-I can't, the monster- I-I-I," he says, now confusing the three Roman demigods as Harry voice shakes, his panic rising for the others to see.

"Hey, hey, hey," Manny says, stepping forward and grabbing Harry's arm. "Steady on soldier, we aren't going to-" he tries to explain to the boy, but as soon as Manny touched Harry's arm, he knew he messed up somehow. He feels Harry jerk at his touch before the hunter grabs his wrists and twists; Hard.

"Don't fucking touch me!" Harry roars his eyes snapping back to the golden-yellow of the Mother-Wolf and then, with the sound of broken and rattling chains echoing in Manny's ear. Harry punches him, breaking his nose as a fight breaks out between the Son of Mars and the Son of Diana.

Athena, The Parthenon, Olympus.

The goddess of wisdom and warfare sat in her temple on Olympus. It was, like many of her siblings' temples, based on her ancient temple back during the Age of Myth that sat in the heart of Athens. The white marble columns and gold trimming on the outside hid the vast modern day library that now sat inside of it. The inside was modeled off the Library of Congress in Washington DC, where the largest collection of books, manuscripts and journals the world over could be found. It was Athena's sanctuary, a place to leave politics and her duties behind for a while as she relaxed and read from the many books or speak to the few of her children that she had invited to stay and learn from her.

She did not receive many guests in her temple, like many of the gods of the Olympian Council, the temples were their homes and for another god to breach that sanctuary was insulting to the extreme. So when Athena feels another divine spark entering her temple, she is irritated but not surprised by it. She expected Artemis, in all her rage and fury for what she had done, perhaps Apollo warning her of his sister's wrath, maybe even Aunt Hestia with her smoldering disappointment; but it was none of them.

Athena sat in a private study in her library, with a mug of nectar infused coffee in one hand and one of her favorite classics, Frankenstein, in the other when the door opened. She doesn't look up to see who it was, not caring for the goddess that had breached her sanctum. She doesn't look up as the diminutive goddess rounds the desk to glare at her, Athena merely sips her coffee before putting it back on the desk, intent on ignoring the other goddess.

That was until the contents of her coffee mug was thrown right into her face.

Athena hisses in pain, not from the scalding hot coffee hitting her face, but from the dark liquid soaking into her first edition of her book. Athena rounds on the other goddess, rage etched into her face. "How dare-" was as far as she got before the coffee mug she was just using smashes against her face.

"How dare I?!" Elpis all but yells at Athena, her face contorted into a look of pure rage. "How dare you!? You stuck up know-it-all bitch!" The goddess of hope snaps at Athena, causing the goddess of wisdom to pause. She had never seen Elpis so enraged over anything to outright attack someone, she was normally a very peaceful goddess.

"You couldn't keep your nose out of something that was none of your concern, you couldn't keep your words off your lips and out of Harry's ears! Do you have any idea how much you set him back!?" Elpis rages, her golden eyes burning with hatred all aimed at Athena. The goddess of wisdom scowls before conjuring a towel to wipe her face dry and waving her hand to restore her book.

"So, the Magician isn't dead, a disappointment," Athena says coldly before turning to Elpis, who looked even angrier than before. "Leave my home, Elpis, Now. And I may dismiss this outburst as nothing more than a petty act and not a direct insult," she threatens the minor goddess with a glare.

"This! This right here is the reason so many of the minor gods and goddess are turning away from the council," Elpis says, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "Your hubris, your conceited personalities, you all think just because you sit on the thrones that you need not concern yourself with the wants and needs of the minor gods! I know for a fact that Tyche has cut all connection with the council and set up Las Vegas as her personal territory," She snaps at Athena with venom in her voice. Athena sneers at Elpis as the goddess of hope stands her ground against her. But as Athena opens her mouth to give the tiny goddess one last warning, both her and Elpis' heads turn to the study door as it opens.

"Sorry, sorry, don't mind me!" Aphrodite says as she quickly shuts the door behind her. Both of the other goddesses look at her in open confusion as the Goddess of Love rushes in the room and quickly conjures a small loveseat and a bucket of popcorn. "Just pretend I'm not here, I swear I won't say a word. I, like many mortals, just want to watch," she says with a smile as she snuggles into the seat with a large smile on her face.

Athena blinks. "I will deal with you in a moment," Athena says with a slight glare at the goddess of love before turning back to Elpis. "You will leave now. I will not put up with such disrespect in my own temple, if you wish to be so short sighted as to not see the threat an untethered magician can bring upon us then I have no desire to deal with you. The boy is-" she says, her hand curling around as she summons her spear to her hand to actuate her threat against Elpis. But the goddess of hope isn't cowed as she cuts Athena off.

"Broken! Hopeless! The damage you wrought upon him after I worked so hard to build him up destroyed everything! Now I have to do something extreme in hopes that will fix what you've done! Do you have any idea how long Harry sat in the dark, helpless and hopeless, surrounded by all the evils of his own world beating down on him!? He has lost too much when he didn't have all that much to begin with and you destroyed that hope with but a single conversation," Elpis informs the sneering goddess of wisdom, daring to lecture her on what she had done in some vain hope she would come to see Elpis point.

Athena scoffs at the very notion before raising her spear to point at Elpis' heart.

"It matters not the beginning of a threat, only that the threat is neutralize before its own rage and anger consumes him as the Hunt will no doubt do," Athena answers coldly, she did not like harming children and have tried to actively avoided in the past, but a threat was a threat and ruthlessness was a mercy in situations like this. "I will do what is necessary to protect not only us but the world at large, because in case you forgot what the boy could do, we can just ask Aphrodite for a history lesson," she says, her sneer turning into a smirk.

"Oh, no," Aphrodite says, waving her hand back and forth. "Leave me out of this, because I assure you Athena, I am not on your side and don't even give me that look," she says, pointing at the goddess of wisdom as she turns to look at Aphrodite in shock. "You, essentially, tried to cancel my favorite show half way through the fourth season when everything is just getting good. So, no, not on your side here. In fact, I would tell you to go fuck yourself but I know you wouldn't listen to me," the goddess of love says with a smirk as she leans back in her chair and pops a few pieces of popcorn into her mouth.

"That's it," Athena mutters as the tip of her spear begins to glow with a pale blue light. "I am done with this conversation, the boy is a threat, that much is clear. And if neither Lord Zeus nor Artemis will do anything about it then I will. Now, either leave my temple peacefully Elpis or I will cast you out; painfully," Athena says with a growl as she turns back to the smaller goddess glaring at her.

Elpis takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes. "I had hoped you would be ambivalent to the suffering you caused, I had hoped to talk to you into apologizing to Harry for your cruel words, but I see now those were false hopes," the goddess of hope says, tears building in the corners of her eyes. "If that is the case, then I will just have to show you just what your flaw has sown for you," Elpis says as she opens her eyes, now glowing with power as divine energy begins to build around her.

Athena's patience runs out and her mercy after several warnings all but gone, she takes a step forward and draws her arm back to skewer Elpis for her disrespect and threat.

The world cracks around her as all color is drained from it leaving everything gray and dark. A wave of lethargy and despondent hits her like a flood, her legs give out as she falls to her hands and knees. All fight leaves her, all reason for doing anything drains from her like life blood on the battlefield. Athena is left kneeling before Elpis, unable to even push herself up or look up at Elpis.

"How does it feel?" Elpis asks as she takes the few short steps over to downed Athena.

"What- what did you do to me!?" Athena snaps, trying to gather the energy to stand and struggling to do so.

"I took away your hope, I did to you as you did to Harry," Elpis says softly as she reaches down and lifts Athena's head to look into her eyes. "This is the world you left him in, but unlike him, yours will return when I leave and while I can not hurt you in a way that it will stick. I know a way that will cut deep enough for you to learn of wisdom's folly; of thinking you know better. So I want you to know this, to hear this, and heed the words of Elpis," the goddess of hope says, her voice ringing with power as she layers a curse over her words.

"In your children's darkest hour, no matter what it may be, they will find no hope for I will not be there for them until my favored one passes from this mortal coil. They will know his pain as their own to learn humility, to learn that they will never know better," Elpis says before letting go of Athena's chin letting it fall as her curse takes effect across Athena's immediate blood line.

"Lord Zeus-" Athena growls, as a rare anger builds in her, finally letting color bleed back into the world for her.

"Will do nothing, because he can do nothing," the goddess of hope says, cutting off Athena again. "You forget yourself Olympian, you forget that there are things older than the council and the thrones you usurped from the Titans. That I am older than you, that I went into the Pithos willingly, and that one of those older things is something I call mother," Elpis says, her voice hard and merciless as Athena looks up at the embodiment of hope itself.

And Athena saw it.

Standing over Elpis like a protective shadow, eyes of starfire and wings outstretched not reflecting the nebulous above, but containing them. An unknowable and unfathomable power whose smirk spoke of confidence, pride, and unending might.

Athena blinks and the shadow is gone as Elpis turns on her heel and begins to leave. "I guess you can feel some sort of pride from this, Athena. For you are the first being in all of creation that I have cursed," Elpis admits with venom before vanishing into a gust of golden particles. The room's color finally is brought back as Elpis leaves her temple and silence reigns for all of a few seconds.

"Damn, you really pissed her off," Aphrodite says with a laugh.

"Shut it, whore,"

?

He awakens somewhere, unsure of where or when or even who, it smelt familiar to him, of that he knew. It smelled of earthen soil and wild plants life, he smelled the small animals hiding around him in the darkness, he could smell the blood around him. He could hear the breeze through the trees that towered above him, swaying in the breeze. He could feel the pain in his body, from the pounding headache behind his eyes, the ribs broken on the side he wasn't lying on, to the pulsing pain in his lower leg as if someone had slashed him with a blade.

But that was all he knew.

Why was he here? Where was even here to begin with? And most importantly…

Who was he?

His name, what was his name? He couldn't recall what it was.

He finally opens his eyes to the dark of a moonless night, pushing himself to his hands and knees as he looks around lost in a dark forest and the path direct. He felt hot, sticky and sweaty, he could feel his shirt stuck fast to his chest and a heavy jacket on him. Why was he wearing such a heavy jacket when it felt so hot outside? He couldn't recall and so he pulls it off and tosses it to the side. The movement causes a spike of pain to shoot up his side and pound behind his eyes, he falls back down to his hands taking deep breaths to fight back the pain.

Why was he hurt in the first place?

"Don't fucking touch me!" A fight, he had gotten in a fight with someone. A- a boy? With a golden sword, did he win? It didn't feel like he won.

He moves his hands to push himself up, only for his hand to hit something smooth and metal. He wraps his hand around the handle as he pushes himself back to his knees. It was a blade, a dagger made of polished bronze…

"Do us all a favor and kill yourself," he grabs the side of his head as a vision of cold and ruthless eyes flash through his mind. He knew those eyes, but they weren't the same, the eyes he knew were full of soft love and acceptance. "You'll die, or worse- get expelled," he pushes himself up to his feet, leaning against the close tree to get off his bad leg.

What was he doing here? -Hunt-

No, he was supposed to -Kill- meet someone, but who?

"Harry!" A voice screamed as she shoved her way through a crowd of faceless people, worry and relief in her voice.

Harry? Was that his name?

"Harry?" A girl with curly hair and wide eyes says as she finds him awake late at night once more, unable to sleep from his nightma-

"Come on Harry, let's play a game," a redheaded boy says with an easy smile wanting to take a break from studying under the task master that was Herm-

"Harry, I can not help you if you do not talk to me," a woman insists, her amber eyes filled with worry and heartbreak as he refuses to admit anything is wrong with hi-

"Harry! You need to calm down! You're drawing on too much of the Hunt!" a girl with golden hair yells at him as he thrashes in her arms, thinking of her hurts, he misses her. He misses her and he can't even recall her name.

"Harry, this will always be your home," another face he could recall, another name lost to the snarling hungry wolf, another piece of his heart breaking for a reason he couldn't recall.

"Hey Pot-Head," a girl smiles at him as he walks into a room. Her smile makes him smile, her blue eyes sparkle as she blows another bubble from the gum she was chewing on.

A Dove's soft cooing snaps him out of the memories. Harry, his name was Harry Potter and he was suppose to-

-Hunt!-

-Kill!-

-Feed!-

The Hunt. He could feel the fangs sinking into him, ripping his mind apart little by little and feeding on who he was or was it is? He could feel the claws of the beast digging into his body, causing him to convulse from the pain as it tried to push him to hunt. He raises the dagger, checking his eyes in the reflection of the blade and his heart stops in sheer terror.

They were fully yellow-gold.

He remembers the blonde girl's warning, the stories of hunters spoken in soft mournful tones, about how they lost themselves to the beast. Driven mad with the Hunt to kill and feed it everything and anything around them until they were stopped and put down like rabid dogs they had become.

"Just hold long with it be until you're consumed by the Hunt like so many before you," the cruel and uncaring voice of a goddess rings in his head.

Harry pushes himself off the tree, limping deeper into the dark woods, trying to run from the voices in his head that he could never get away from. Flashes of things he never wanted to recall dances in his eyes as he blinks.

A monster looming over him with blood red eyes. "Who will I take next?" He hisses at him with a cruel smile.

His Aunt screamed as her flesh was being peeling from her body, a high cruel laugh echoing down the halls of a house he hated to be in.

His uncle screaming at him for something odd happening around him, he could hear the belt cutting through the air before it hit him.

The hunger, the dark, the hatred, a destiny he never wanted forced on him, the fighting, the screaming, the rage, the anger, the hunger, always hungry, always screaming.

-Hunt! Kill! Feed!-

Harry stumbles, falling to his knees once more, the pain in his lower leg too much as he limped. He just wanted it to end, to stop! For everything to finally go away.

"Do us all a favor and kill yourself,"

-Hunt! Kill! Feed!-

His hands shake as he feels himself being pulled apart by so much, by too much, the Dove that follows coos once more as he grips the dagger with both hands and closes his eyes. He wants this to end, he is too tired of it all, too exhausted to continue and too afraid to hurt and Hunt those he loves. So with gritted teeth he takes careful aim and jerks the blade up to his throat.

"You'll come back," the blonde girl with misty eyes says with a smile, believing in him no matter what.

He feels cold arms encircle him, cradling him as the blade impacts flesh and hot blood drips down his hands.

"My oh my," a voice whispers into his ear, causing his eyes to snap open once more. He looks down to see the blade stabbed through a pale and dainty hand bleeding golden ichor. "Heading my way, cutie?" Cold lips ask as they press against his ears from behind. Harry turns his head to peer into {Fathomless Black Eyes} framed in two toned hair of black and white with a wide smile on her painted red lips.

"What-" Harry tries to ask before he feels the ground below him open with a deafening crack before he falls with Melinoë's soft laughter echoing in his ears.

Falling through fire and shadow…

Into Nightmares…

Into the ghosts of his past…

And into his terror…

Chapter over!

Elpis uses depression against Athena!

It's super effective!

Oh, boy did I frame this in the worst possible way. It's gonna make the absolute fluffiness that comes up in two chapters so worth it, I promise.

Now, forewarning, I have A LOT of stuff to go over next chapter so it's probably gonna be late by a week but expect the next chapter to be extra thick.

Also, as a side note: I've finally made it big guys! Someone is stealing my Heir to the Hunt series and posting it over on Wattpad under the same name as the original stories. The persons pen name is The_Collector on Wattpad, so if any of y'all feel like cyber bullying someone tell them who sent ya.

(Just let it be known that I find this more amusing than anything else and I am not even mad about it.)

Kingsaxcul, Out.