War of Fog

Ascension of the Fallen: Chapter 24

A white, frothy cascade of water fell into a plunge pool, with rocky outcroppings and moss... slippery rock and lush grasses, plants and flowers. Mist and spray were made from the roar of the water, little rainbows created from the sun and the gentle billowing breeze of the winds flowed past.

Hestia paused in her place, sensing a presence near her. Her feet touched the cool grass as she padded towards the water, admiring the scenery.

"Hestia."

The hearth goddess whirled around. Soft, hazel almond eyes met her brown ones, both taking in the sights of each other. Wavy, caramel curls cascaded towards her slim shoulders, falling gracefully and lazily atop them, beautifully framing her elegant face. She had high, regal cheekbones adorning her face as if she were some sort of princess, and her lips were upturned into a soft smile.

"Calypso."

The goddess of the hearth and the titaness locked eyes with each other, both frozen like deer caught in headlights. Neither had expected to see each other in this specific clearing, away from distractions.

"Why have you come here?"

"I- I'm aware of your arrangement with Perseus," Hestia admitted, eyes blazing slightly, "I-"

"And I'm aware of your predicament," Calypso stepped towards her, her white toga blowing slightly in the wind, "But I'm wiling to try."

Hestia was taken aback by Calypso's frankness, "I-"

The titaness merely smiled, "You did not expect me to be so honest, no? Truthfully, I mean you no harm. I'm willing to try this."

Hestia nodded, although her red lips were still set in a slightly thin line, "I am willing as well."

"Then there is no need to go about it like jealous schoolgirls, is there?" Calypso arched an elegant eyebrow, hands on her hips.

Hestia nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing.

"And who knows? Perseus is a king so great he needs several queens... but when the king isn't around... who will satisfy the queens? Perhaps each other?" Calypso winked at the hearth goddess, licking her lips sultrily.

Hestia turned into a blushing, stuttering mess as the titaness sauntered away.

What game was she playing at?

---

The daughter of Zeus moved towards the woods, her movements fluid. She kept to the shadows, crouching so that she wasn't seen. It was after curfew, after all. It wouldn't do to be caught by Chiron, not while she was trying to contact Perseus.

She stepped outside the camp's borders gingerly, and, after holding her breath for a moment, released it. The woods were quiet; the coast was clear.

Quiet... almost too quiet.

The hair on the back of Thalia's neck stood up, and she instantly dropped to the ground, claws passing over her head.

Could she get just a week of rest?? She'd been attacked by that weird, silver-haired man just a few days ago, and now this? She was fed up.

She dodged the next slashes and moved to put distance between her and her opponent, her can of mace becoming her spear. Her bracelet turned into her shield, but it didn't faze her opponent.

That did it. Her shield was a copy of Aegis, with Medusa on her shield. Everyone flinched at it. Her opponent was either a feral beast, or a psychopath.

It lunged at her in the moonlight, and she got the first glimpse of her opponent.

It was half beast, half man at a towering eight feet tall. It had jaws and rippling muscles, but also an uncanny, unnatural intelligence that glinted in its eyes. Thalia narrowed her eyes, generating electricity.

Bolts of lightning were sent out from her spear, probing. It merely ducked its bolts with a quickness that shouldn't have been possible for a beast of that stature. Thalia narrowly avoided a lightning fast kick to the stomach, but the wind that rushed by her due to the miss sent her off-balance, and the thing landed a punch to her chest.

Her sternum cracked, and Thalia flew further into the woods, rolling before slamming to a stop at a tree. She wasn't even given a moment to breath.

The thing was on her in half a second, Thalia painfully ducking and using the tree as cover. The thing split its claws through the tree, bisecting it and Thalia kicked it away, or, at least, tried to. It didn't even budge, and it slammed a kick into her shield. Despite holding as best she could, Thalia was pushed back.

She shot a massive bolt of lightning from her spear, finally catching the thing off guard and managing to fry it. It was smoking, but other than that, the attack seemed to do little to no damage at all. Thalia tapped her necklace twice, before receiving two vibrations in return.

Fuck. Two minutes. For two minutes, she had to hold off this thing until Perseus could help her.

She was well and truly fucked.

Thalia snarled, thrusting her spear three times in quick succession, but they only scored thin lines of blood along the thing's fur as it dodged out of the way. It swung at her with blinding speed, and Thalia danced away. Despite it being superior to her in almost every way, she could still outpace it in speed, but just barely.

She turtled behind her shield as it struck it in some sort of martial art, and she made the mistake of lifting her head.

Its jaws almost snapped her head off, and she bent backwards in a display of flexibility before flipping away from it. Crying out, she summoned a bolt from the heavens, dropping it on the thing's head. It crackled and spread throughout its body, electrocuting its nerve endings and frying them.

It froze briefly, before continuing towards her.

Thalia cursed. She was out of options here.

She painstakingly crafted a weak dagger of darkness, sending it towards it. The monster hissed in pain when it struck, but proceeded to pull it out and bat it away.

It boosted, leaping at her, claws outstretched. Thalia was too slow to react.

Perseus manifested in front of her, catching the thing's claw in his hand. The thing brought its other claw around, but Perseus caught that too. Blades of darkness exploded from Perseus' palms outward, piercing into the thing's palms. The monster cried out in pain, and the god kicked it in the stomach, sending it flying into the trees.

"Thalia, I will flash you to my base. It is not safe in Camp Half-blood anymore."

"B-But-"

"No, Thalia," Perseus looked stern for once, "I have too many enemies now, and by extension, you. I didn't want to do this, but I have no choice."

He snapped his fingers, and Thalia was sent away in a flash of gold.

Perseus turned towards where the beast was, intending to finish whatever that... thing was.

There was a flash of gold in front of him.

The god of darkness instantly ducked, and not a millisecond later, a spear impaled itself in the tree behind him. Perseus rolled, blocking, and parrying the next thrust, before slamming his boot into her stomach.

"You're only here to protect your favored daughter hiding in the trees, aren't you, Athena?"

The stormy gray eyed goddess narrowed her eyes at him, choosing not to speak.

"Oh, speaking to good ol' Perseus? No begging and groveling for forgiveness like the Huntress? Oh, what happened to you... so high and mighty, and powerful, and I was proud of you... Even when you stabbed me in the back, I was proud, for it was not of your own volition! But afterwards... so, so many sins Athena... Medusa... Arachne, just to name a few. You have grown more prideful than ever, and pride clouds one's judgement, for pride deceives the heart, and hardens the mind. Very unbecoming of a wisdom goddess, don't you think?"

"Shut up already," she snarled, aggressively pushing. Her spear flashed like lightning, the pure speed of her jabs blurring her weapon. Perseus deflected it all casually and with ease, slamming his boot into her chin and causing the wisdom goddess to stumble backwards. She thrust again and again, seeking to get any kind of hit on him, but he parried it all with ease, not even batting an eye.

He blew her backwards with a powerful force of darkness. Perseus stalked forward, eyes blazing gold, "I am not angry, simply disappointed in what you have become, Pallas Athena. I would rather die than live to see what Olympus has become."

Athena felt her heart shatter into pieces at that. Her hands were clammy, and she stared at the god before her fearfully. Despite that, the warrior goddess in her refused to give up, and she stood once more, her Aegis shaking slightly.

Perseus batted away her pitiful attempt at a spear thrust, and his symbol of power carved into Aegis, leaving a permanent mark there.

The god flared his true power, bringing Athena to her knees, suffocating her.

He knelt, caressing her cheek gently, softly, his cool touch sending shivers across her body. Athena had unshed tears in her eyes at the motion; it brought back memories... memories of him and her, reading together, him teaching her how to fight. He had been the only one who hadn't ridiculed her for playing the flute... he was caring, kind, compassionate, and righteous, everything that she had strived to be.

"Shhh..." Percy shushed her gently, as Athena let herself be pulled into a heartfelt hug.

"It's gonna be okay..."

After several moments, Perseus noticed something, and he narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

Wisps of time flowed from Perseus towards the monster that had been trying to attack him from behind.

He whirled around, grabbing the thing by the throat as it was suspended in time and space. Without a thought, he crushed the monster, his hand going straight through its throat. He wouldn't take any chances with this one given Thalia had been attacked.

With a crush of his hand, it turned into dust, and Perseus flicked his hand away.

Perseus turned away from the goddess and towards the small child hiding behind the tree. He smiled warmly at the daughter of Athena, "What is your name, child?"

"A-Annabeth."

"Well, Annabeth, it isn't very nice to sneak up on people."

"I-I was just trying to make sure Thalia was okay!" she suddenly cried out, even as Perseus gathered her in his arms.

"Shh... It's good to look out for your friends, Annabeth."

"W-Will she be okay?"

"Of course. Thalia has many enemies now, but I will make sure she is okay."

The girl nodded, taking him at face-value.

"Athena, a piece of advice: you should visit your children more. Bonds keep us gods tied to the mortal world, they keep us humanized and close with our emotions. Change for the better, and do not be so uncaring... empathy is important to have. Rage, like boiling water, blinds us; in a state of anger, one cannot see the truth, and rage is caused by pride. But rage can be calmed by empathy, cooler emotions. Remember this: Pride is the deadliest of all sins."

---

"That insolent brat has been a thorn in our side for far too long," Ouranos declared from his throne, several of the primordial council wholeheartedly agreeing with him.

"We should erase his pitiful existence," Gaea leaned forward eagerly on her throne, "My son Kronos has been gathering forces to overthrow him for quite some time now, and I believe he may just succeed."

"Kronos indeed has potential," the Primordial of the Pit nodded, "If we back him, we will prevent the brat's ascension, and Kronos suspects nothing. Once the titan takes Olympus, we can dispose of him easily."

"No... backing the current Olympians would be much easier," Ouranos boomed, from his seat, his neck length, white hair shaking from side to side, "We only have to defend, and not attack any defenses, so we don't need to take any losses."

"What an astute observation for such a thick, air head," Gaea snarked sarcastically.

"I say we crush all three sides, and get rid of that pesky council of seven while we're at it," Pontus proposed.

"No, you imbecile. None of us are at full power yet from our awakening, and it would be far too risky to undertake such an endeavor," Ourea shot it down instantly, the primordial of mountains looking far too comfortable in a rock seat. Then again, Gaea was also very comfortable in a rock seat, so perhaps it had merit.

Nyx and Chronos stayed silent throughout the argument, choosing to instead share looks.

"And Ananke, what do you say pertaining to this matter?" Erebus asked, darkness flowing off his very form as his eyes seemed to darken.

The old woman looked up from her spinning threads, "Fate must run its course."

"Of course you would say that," the Protogenos of Darkness rolled his eyes, "Such a bore. What about you, Moros?"

The Primordial of Doom had his face set in a stony expression that betrayed any sense of emotion. The room was silent for several seconds as he made his decision. Despite his relatively low power level among them, he was well respected for his domain, and his word carried much weight.

"Doom will run its course as well. He brings doom itself, he is the destroyer. Therefore I will support him."

The room exploded in arguments, knives, rocks, and water.

It took a while for everyone to settle down, and Erebus soon posed the same question to Nyx.

Nyx only tilted her head, masking any expression she had on her face regally, "I believe we should rest before we make any... rash decisions."

"The first decision to make is to remove that pesky council of seven," Aether declared air-headedly, the Protogenos of Light leaning back in his chair.

"Do they even matter?" Hemera dismissed the thought with a wave, "They are only causing chaos for our target, and they only care about our target."

"Don't they hate the protogenoi, though?" Nyx raised a good point.

"Pfffff," the Protogenos of Earth waved a hand, "As if they could do anything to us. We should let them wreak havoc and chaos, before we finish them."

"Well, I still believe we should support Olympus," Ouranos boomed again, scrubbing his massive white beard, his sky blue eyes nervously looking for support among his fellow protogenoi.

"Another reason why we shouldn't do such a thing is because that upstart has the daughter of Zeus, next in line for the prophecy," Gaea supplied helpfully, her green eyes roving over the council for a reaction.

"And?" Ouranos dismissed it, "It is the daughter of Zeus. She will choose to save Olympus in the end."

"No, you shithead," Gaea politely said to her former husband in modern vernacular, "you underestimate the former king's silver tongue; besides, it is even easier for him to convince her given that it is the truth."

"Thalassa, dear? Any ideas?" Pontus gently probed his beautiful wife. Thalassa seemed to snap out of her reverie, her deep blue orbs in thought.

"I think we should support Perseus."

The room exploded for the second time that day.

---

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'til next time!

-thann3