Chapter Text
Athena managed to get to the palace gates on Olympus on her own feet. She stumbled at the last step and fell into the main hall when the magic ornate door opened. She tried to catch herself by the wall but wasn't fast enough. She fell onto her knees and yelped in pain as her tired legs hit the stone floor. She was exhausted, weak... She almost felt her tiredness pulling her back to the floor like some dark tentacles. She caught herself by one of the columns that held the hall's ceiling up and pulled herself back on her feet. When she straightened her back and pulled her wings closer to her body, she felt a sharp sting in the wound on her side. She quickly covered that spot with her hand and cursed, after she felt blood spilling out of the wound and onto her tunic once again. She had to get together and get to Hestia as fast as possible. She knew Poseidon's trident was a Godly weapon - and that these weapons were powerful enough to kill Gods.
She took slow steps, stopping every few meters to catch her breath. Drops of her blood made a path behind her, turning into golden puddles the moment they hit the floor. The hall was silent. No nymphs, nobody in sight. It felt like she was alone in the whole building. She got to the stairs to the upper floors and her head spun. She relied on the wall and squirmed desperately. No, she must keep going. She has to get up there, she has to-
"Well, who do we have here?" echoed some voice from the other side of the hall. Athena instinctively covered her body with her healthy wing but didn't turn to the voice.
Her brother Ares came from the opposite direction than she did. He stopped a few meters away from her, not close enough to notice how beaten up she was. He leaned onto the wall and crossed his arms on his chest. He tossed his dark hair which was tied up in dreadlocks away from his face and his flaming red eyes sparkled, the same as the glowing red tattoo that wrapped around his right arm. It almost looked like his dark skin was a solid stone that was cracking and revealing boiling lava underneath, that was flowing down his arm in beautiful spirals. "What, are you hiding from me, Athena?" he scoffed. "I heard your favorite mortal got his ass kicked-"
"Shut up, Ares... Will you?" She turned his head to him. And he froze. He saw the bruise on her forehead, her tired and desperate eyes. He saw her pain. His eyes widened and suddenly, all the evil shine in them was gone, as they wandered to the trail of golden puddles on the floor. Puddles, that were crimson red just a few seconds ago, before the palace's magic turned it into pure gold. Blood. Athena's blood.
"'Thena, you're hurt-" he got out of himself and rushed to her. He managed to catch her just before she collapsed completely. He kneeled on the floor with her and gently pressed her against himself, making sure he didn't touch her injured wing. "By the Weave of existence itself, you're shivering..." he gasped. His plan original plan was to bully the hell out of her (and probably end up with a broken nose afterward), but all that was gone the moment he saw her like this. He caressed her cheek and cursed again when she started to close her eyes. "No, sis- hey, you stay awake for me," he said urgently and shook her shoulder, but was careful not to hurt her. She opened her eyes again.
"You're the most... annoying sibling I could've had..." she whispered weakly before she coughed. She spat out an unsettling amount of blood and Ares gasped in fear.
"Yeah, you too," he told her back before he picked her up into his arms. Athena squirmed and caught him by the upper arm, but then she placed her head on his shoulder and hugged him with her healthy wing, so it wouldn't be in the way. "I'll get you to Hestia, everything's gonna be fine, sis. Okay?" he kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were hurt..."
Athena snuggled into him a little more. "I'll... Slap you anyway..." she chuckled a little, but coughed again, this time a lot more.
Ares did not hesitate. He ran up the stairs to Hestia's room and kicked it a few times because he couldn't knock with Athena in his arms. "Hestia! We have a problem, open up!"
The last thing Athena remembered was Hestia's worried face when she opened the door and Ares' heavy breathing from how afraid he was. She felt her weakness catch up with her - and then everything went black.
...
"Why would he do this?" asked Hera, after she was done going through Athena's recent memories to understand what happened to her and sat down on the bed next to her. Her daughter was still asleep, burning up with a fever from the hypothermia she must've gotten. She sat there next to her, holding her hand, while Ares was kneeling on the floor and caressing Athena's hair. Hera hadn't seen them this close in a long time and was very close to shedding a happy tear when she saw how concerned for Athena Ares was.
Zeus was sitting on the chair in front of Hera. He rubbed his face with his palms and sighed deeply. When Hestia offered him a glass of wine, he just politely declined. "Thank you, Hesti... It's alright," he said quietly and smiled at her softly when she patted him on the back. Then he turned back to Hera. "He seemed completely out of his mind," he said. "I... I didn't think anything of it, I mean, he put his trident to MY throat but that's not an unusual experience." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I didn't even consider he would hurt HER..." He looked away from his daughter lying there. He couldn't even bear seeing her like this. "I should've stopped him..." he whispered then.
"It's not your fault, Zeus," said Hestia, but he stopped her.
"No, Hesti. I should've kicked his ass right there in the throne room, the sacred rules be damned." He was silent for a while after this. "We have to find him. We have to find him fast before he does something stupid again."
Hera sighed. She rubbed Athena's hand before getting up and walking up to Zeus. She hugged him from behind and kissed the top of his head. "You're worried for him," she said quietly.
"Of course I am... He's my brother, dammit..." Zeus pressed his back onto her and gently ran his hands up her forearms. "Maybe if I tried to understand him more... I don't know, maybe I could've prevented all of this. On one hand, I'd want to let him kill Odysseus just for us to be over this, but... When I see that she protected him almost to her death..." he looked at Athena and barely held back the tears of guilt. "I can't let him hurt the man. I just can't."
"Maybe it's time you two talked," Hestia said. Zeus looked at her. "What? You two have problems and we all see it."
Zeus sighed. "Would you... Mind talking in private for a moment, Hesti?" he asked then and got up from the chair. Hera kissed his cheek and let him go, so they could talk in the next room. She knew what they were going to talk about, but wanted to give them some space. She just sat next to Athena again and rubbed Ares's shoulder.
"She'll be alright," she assured him. He nodded.
"Where's Dionysus? Shouldn't he know too?" he asked then. Hera lowered her head.
"Probably on Earth... I haven't heard from him in a while."
"Of course he is," growled Ares, annoyed. He was angry at Dionysus for leaving them so often.
"But I'll go get him later today. This is a serious cause. And he usually listens to me the most," smiled Hera then. She stroked Ares' shoulder. "We'll be fine. Don't worry, love. Okay?"
Ares sighed but nodded. He refused to believe anything else. They had to be fine.
...
Zeus and Hestia walked out of the bedroom and into the living room of Hestia's chamber. Zeus leaned onto the wall and stared into the flames in the fireplace. It was quite cozy here. Hell, everything Hestia touched was cozy. Her special power was to calm down almost every negative emotion and she was a brilliant healer. Athena was lucky Ares brought her here.
"Do you know why Poseidon lashed out like this?" asked Hestia, the moment she closed the door behind them. Zeus nodded.
"Odysseus hurt his son, a Cyclops," he answered. "He seemed very... displeased with it."
Hestia rubbed her eyes with her finger. "Zeus, listen to me, you have to talk to him. He won't listen to anyone else."
"And you think he'll listen to me?" scoffed Zeus. "You all share his pain, I don't. I can't even imagine it. And he... Likes to let me know it, you know?" He looked into the flames again. "I can't imagine how terrible it must've been for him... For all of you. I'm the last one he's going to listen to..."
Hestia came to him and hugged him from the side. She placed her head on his shoulder and Zeus felt the warmth from her palms right away. He relaxed his tense muscles and just let her hold him. "The fact that you don't share our pain doesn't make you any less than we are, Zeus," she said. "And... Maybe that's why he MIGHT be willing to listen to you. And to talk to you. He knows we deal with similar things as he does and he wants to protect us from his own pain. By all means, he always wanted to protect us... That's all he ever did." A tear rolled down her cheek.
Zeus hugged her back tightly. He was quiet for a while, but then he kissed Hestia's forehead and smiled at her. "You're right," he said then. "But first, we have to find him."
Hestia smiled back and wiped away the tears. "I'll tell Hermes to get the others. I think there's a time for a family gathering."
Zeus laughed. "Yup... There most definitely is."