What Now?

77 - Not Happy

 

Athena sat on her bed in her new room. Zeus had locked her in an hour ago. Apparently Daddy was entertaining a guest and her presence was unwelcome.

Not that she wanted to be there but she loathed spending time in her room. Zeus had decorated it lavishly for her, a gesture to ease his guilt no doubt. But other then the furniture and few things she had been allowed to bring the room was barren.

She got up and wandered over to her desk. The shelves above held no scrolls and the drawers only a few scraps of paper. She sat on the stool and drew the accounting tray closer. Tick, click, tick. The little stones sounded as Athena shifted and sorted them. But her mind was not on the task. Her mind was turning over her current situation.

This punishment, these INDIGNITIES, were too much for her to bare. There had to be some way of getting out of it. Of course with her sentence common knowledge on Olympus it would take more then a few memory spells, or bribes to set things right. Perhaps she could take a small trip through time...

No. That oaf, Hercules destroyed the Chronos Stone.

The same oaf that destroyed the last of the Hind’s blood. A pity that. If nothing else she could have used it to threaten, or bribe Daddy into overturning the decree that she must be always supervised. Out of the careful eyes of her family she could set things in motion to return to her former station.

Athena growled in frustration and swept her hand across the desktop sending her stones skittering across the floor. Hera’s bastards had painted her into a corner. Every avenue was blocked, every flicker of an idea anticipated.

But she was the Goddess of Wisdom. There was nothing her intellect could not create. She would find a way out, a way to perpetrate her revenge.

Athena smirked and stood up, she took a step toward her bed and almost slipped. The counting stones littered the floor. She gestured at them but the highly polished stones didn’t even twitch. Her eyes narrowed. The first thing she needed to do was to get this damned power inhibitor off. Preferably without anyone knowing. Then she could play at still being captive while causing havoc to her enemies.

She kicked aside the stones in her path, she wasn’t going to crawl around after them. Zeus could clean them up for her in the morning.

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78 - A Bid For Freedom

Athena plotted for two weeks before she had an opportunity to slip away. Zeus was irritatingly vigilant even when presented with the lure of a new conquest. But fortunately for her Daddy soon grew tired of his responsibility and Athena was able to talk him into leaving her to work with only a Muse to watch over her.

A few days of playing nice for the flighty Trips-, Typsa- Athena hadn’t really bothered learning the Muse’s name, and the girl paid her less and less attention. She didn’t even think twice about drinking the juice Athena poured her at lunch, making inane comments about how well Athena was ’rehabilitating’.

After making sure the potion had knocked the Muse out Athena drug the girl over to a couch and made it look like she had fallen asleep while reading a scroll. Athena had to hurry. Hephaestus had come to take that annoying Joxer to the Mortal Realm and would be spending the day in some of his temples there.

It would be her best chance to slip into the Forge god’s temple here and use the portal to reach his underground forge. Athena was sure that she could use the tools kept there to remove the power inhibitors. After all Hephaestus had made them.

After that all she had to do was make replicas from plain bronze and flash back to the work room in Zeus’ temple before the Muse woke up. As long as she was busily toiling away when the dumb girl came to there wouldn’t be anyone the wiser to her little trip.

Athena scurried down the path to Hephaestus’ Olympian temple glad that few traveled this way. Sticking close to the wall Athena made sure there wasn’t anyone wandering around before slipping into the antechamber where the portal was. Moving quickly she crossed the room and stepped through the swirling mists of the portal.

Athena immediately crouched low and ducked to the side behind a storage bin. Cautiously she poked her head up checking that the forge was empty. Finding no one Athena stood up and hurried to the wall of tools. Her freedom was finally at hand, she just had to find the right tool.

Her gaze wander over saws (take too long), hammers (no), and finally landed on a set of chisels. Perfect. Athena ran her fingers over the edges of the blades and picked a small sharp chisel and went back to grab a hefty hammer. She practically ran to the anvil.

Carefully Athena wedged the corner edge of the chisel between her wrist and the bracelet. With a smug smirk she swung the hammer high over head and slammed it down on the chisel.

She didn’t even have a chance to react before her world went suddenly black.

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79 - Consequences

Apollo was making his way to the Halls of War to talk to Jayce when he felt a sudden heat around his wrist. It took him a moment to connect the glowing charm to the wards set on Athena’s power inhibitors. Apollo immediately flashed away letting the tracking marker guide him. He found himself in Hephaestus’ forge standing over a prone Athena.

Apollo had just knelt to check her when to Ares and Heph flashed in. The Forge god stepped over Athena’s legs to his anvil. There were a few drops of blood smeared across the center. A quick look at the floor and he found a chisel with a speck of blood on the blade, and a hammer. “She tried to remove them.” Hephaestus held up the items for his brothers to see.

Ares smirked and shook his head. “I can’t believe she was dumb enough to try. I mean surely she knew we would have anticipated that?”

“Arrogance, brothers, her biggest fault.” Apollo commented as he stood. Ares snorted and used his toe to flip her hand over. Both bracelets had turned from a shining bronze to dull scorched black - absolute proof of her intent. “Well let’s get her top-side. We’ll let Hera deal with her until a new guardian is chosen.”

“Can’t leave her with Zeus, that’s certain. It’s not even been two and a half weeks yet and the old goat already let her wander off.” Ares grumbled. He and Hephaestus lifted the unconscious goddess and the group flashed out to Hera’s temple.

*******************

“So, let me get this straight- When Hephaestus made Athena’s power inhibitors you two and Hera did what exactly to them?” Strife asked. The four immortals, Ares, Eris, Heph, Dite and Apollo were all sitting around a table in the Halls of War eating dinner. They had been sharing their days when Apollo mentioned the incident with Athena earlier that afternoon.

“We knew Athena wouldn’t just meekly go along with her punishment so we added some precautions to the bracelets. A tracking marker so we could find her if she disappeared, and a warning alarm set to go off if she tried to tamper with the inhibitors. But Hera came up with a consequence for tampering.” Ares paused for a sip of water and Eris took over the explanation.

“We decided that the bitch was either going to behave or that was it, no more second chances. Hera and I imbedded a spell in the metal. If Athena tried to remove them then her own power would attack her.”

“How?” Jett asked.

“Wipes her mind. It’s like she starts from scratch. No inherent knowledge, no memory of her past life, she’ll wake up with the mind of an infant.”

“That’s... harsh.” Joxer looked torn between being relief that Athena couldn’t hurt Strife anymore and pity for her.

Eris shrugged. “She was warned. Hera told her flat out that there would be dire consequences for tampering. Guess she didn’t believe her.”

*********************

“This meeting of the twelve has been called to decide Athena’s new guardian. As some of you know there were protective spells woven into the power inhibitors she wore as part of her punishment. When she tried to remove them the spells activated and wiped her mind reverting it to that of a new born.”

“I can’t believe you did this woman! You’ve gone to far!” Zeus blustered, thumping his hands on the arms of his chair in anger.

“She was warned Zeus. All she had to do was leave them alone and serve out her punishment. Then no harm would have come to her. Instead she snuck away, after drugging the muse that was watching her, and broke into Hephaestus’ forge to remove the bracelets. It’s her own fault.”

Zeus still looked like he wanted to argue. “Think of it this way, husband - it’s a fresh start. When she‘ll not have the shame of her past actions following her. Now, we need to decide who will raise her. The houses of War and Intellect are out, for obvious reasons, myself as well. Who does that leave?”

“She is MY daughter I’ll-”

“Persephone turned out well.” Zeus was cut off by Ares.

“So?”

“I’m just saying that Demeter is relatively neutral concerning Athena. She is not part of the aggrieved houses and had little contact with her otherwise. Her daughter turned out well. Why not let her raise Athena?”

Demeter was stunned, she opened her mouth as if to speak but no sound came out.

“Besides,” Aphrodite spoke up. “Weren’t you just complaining that your home felt empty now that Persephone is married and spends most of the year with Hades?”

Demeter nodded hesitantly, “It would be nice to have a baby running around the temple again.”

“Good! That’s settled then.” Hera clapped her hands. “Apollo and I will revert her physical form to that of a baby in the morning and you can take her home. I wish you luck with her.”

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