Chapter Text
All stayed calm, the stillness in the mornings as normal as people. Birds chirped over the stone houses, each holding a different family. Each had one window, one door. The store stalls stood empty in the early hour, no audible sound.
Then came the wind, a soft wind that became so strong the trees bent and cracked. The dirt underneath seemed to rumble in anger. The sound of a tree falling over on a stone house awoke the citizens from their sleep. The ones in the house that the tree broke through were silent, dead on impact. Clouds started forming in the sky, first a fluffy white before darkening to grey. Clothing lines and flags were torn from their spots and flew past civilians as they ran in chaos. One clothesline wrapped around a man's throat and, with the force of the wind, cut his head clean off, with a circular slice inside the line. Another man was flattened by a falling block from the temple of Zeus. Women ran with their children beside them, the smell of ozone growing stronger and it started to rain. Rain came down in a force stronger than a bullet, and all of those who had no shelter were splattered with the drops. Lightning struck a tree a bit away from the line of temples, and then the ground split apart, craters opening and lines growing, releasing smoke from the ground. The waves on the beach became larger, crashing down on anything it grasped. The docks were ripped clean from the ground and into the sea.
Preachers screamed prayers to the gods, but they were busy. Zeus grabbed another one of his lightning bolts and aimed towards Poseidon, who had his trident against Hades' Stygian Iron blade. Hades stepped back as the lightning god released his bolt and Poseidon barely avoided it, his beard singed in some places. Hades put on his Helm of Darkness and charged towards Zeus, who was grabbing another bolt from his waist. Poseidon slammed his trident against the ground, causing a tremor to rock the throne room.
The other gods stayed away, trying to keep themselves in one piece as the three raged on. Ares smirked as he watched from the doors to the throne room. Athena scoffed before vanishing to her home, where she worked on a few charts and maps. Aphrodite disapeared to her apartment on Olympus to fix her hair from the start of the outburst. Hestia sat calmly at the hearth, in the form of a brown haired tanned nine year old, her hair in a ponytail and wearing a simple flower dress, as her warm eyes flickered with the flames she tended. Hermes stood to the side of Ares, making phone calls for the Hermes Express as both of his snakes argued on the antenna. Artemis had dissolved to her Hunters, readying for the next hunt. Apollo stood to the other side of Ares, playing his lyre a bit before grabbing the ukulele. Dionysus was serving his sentence of a hundred years helping the children of the gods to mature, but he mostly was the grumpy sober god who walked in the woods and around trees and bushes, while Chiron was the trainer. With each Olympian was a different set of actions while knowing of what the Big Three were doing.
"You dare betray me?!" Zeus bellowed as he threw his bolt at Poseidon, who in turn raised his trident and water shot out of the tip, the lightning bolt now just a piece of metal on the ground. Hades started to attack Zeus when Poseidon again slammed his trident in front of him. The tremor created fissures along where Hades had been about to step, and then the floor fell into the abyss that now lay underneath.
"I betrayed no one, Brother!" Poseidon shouted over the thunder. Hades had regained his footing and, now 20 feet away from Zeus, stomped his foot against the side of the cliff rock of the abyss. Undead soldiers crawled their way up and started to surround Poseidon, who in turn blasted a dozen of them with his trident and threw another 2 dozen into the crevice below.
"I have no one to betray, for all have betrayed me!" Hades opened his hand and a spear appeared, cold Stygian Iron radiating death. His Healm of Darkness had fallen off of his head at some point, so Zeus saw when Hades threw the spear straight at his chest.
It struck him in the side and he screamed, the sky darkening forevermore than before. He pulled it out and snapped it in two before throwing the spearhead at Poseidon, electricity crackling off of the dark Iron.
"No! Father!" Poseidon turned and saw the daughter of Zeus flash like her father's lightning, and then he turned to see the speeding spearhead crackling towards him. Before he could do anything to protect his champion, the head flew straight towards Poseidon's heart.
Before it could hit its mark, a shadow, as fast as a lightning bolt, jumped in front of him. Zeus roared, the electricity in the air growing. The unwanted sound of impact froze everyone still. The figure, that had been struck in mid air, fell to the floor on its side, the sound of popping filling the silence.
The smell of charred meat filled the room, but not the sweet and tasty kind you made on the grill. It was the kind people avoided, the one of disaster and death.
Poseidon turned silently and looked at the small figure. She had only been so young, and she had her life ahead of her, so how had she wiped it all out? She found her way in through the storm and flew to Olympus, right at the worst moment possible. She was kind to everyone except her enemies or anyone who bothered her, and now this happened. She was unlike any other child of Zeus there ever demigod followed the signs of danger and adventure until finding a satyr, who then took her to Chiron to train her, back when there was a camp. Strong willed and muscular, not buff but stronger than it, smart mouth and wise mind. She was special, one of those demigods that did the right things, even with others going the wrong way. Poseidon named her his champion secretly after she had become a Hunter of Artemis. She had smiled at him and accepted, humbly receiving her blessings.
Now he looked at her long black hair spread across the marble floor. He lightly turned her to face the ceiling, and he saw the wound. She jumped too high at the last minute. The spearhead was embedded into her chest on the left side, right in the center of her heart. There was no way for her to survive, even more with her skin charred around the spearhead. Her electric blue eyes stared back at Poseidon, relief and yet also sadness in the corners of her eyes.
"Poseidon," she rasped, and he didn't dare correct her. She raised her now pale right hand, instead of her tanned skin, and he gripped it with his right hand, her hand smaller than his yet more calloused.
"Why, child? I am immortal. Nothing your father threw at me can kill me." He saw the rush of different emotions: joy, sadness, fear, worry, hope. Hope. Always hope.
She squeezed his hand, the hope in her eyes small. "I had to." He became confused by that, and she reiterated. "I chose to." He looked at her with burning question. "You said we follow our fate, not make it. I knew it was time that even the 3 most powerful gods had to come together, and its the only way. " She took a long moment before speaking. "It is my time."
Poseidon shook his head in anger. He knew Zeus was watching, and he just wanted to destroy him with the rage of the oceans. He knew she would never approve of it. "Hades shall make sure you come back. It is Zeus' fault for this, but Hades must keep his end of his duties."
"No, I don't want that." She squeezed his hand before answering. "Let me go in peace. I want to see the fields again." He nodded at the longing in her eyes, and his anger diminished. She managed a last laugh. "Say goodbye to them for me." He nodded again before she closed her eyes, taking one last rattling breath.