Chapter Text
Athena purposefully lingered behind as the eleven Olympians dispersed after the meeting. She stacked up and folded her papers of notes neatly and watched the other gods in cautious observation.
As the goddess of wisdom, intelligence and strategy, she had never been one to linger. Every word spoken, every step taken, was always planned out in meticulous calculation. She did not have time to linger. People would think she’s up to something.
So she tried to make it look natural.
She stopped by the hearth to ask Hestia when the next meeting of the knitting and crocheting club was, receiving a surprised but warm welcome and a new pattern for mittens to work on.
Then she nodded along as Hephaestus pulled her aside and jumped into a long-winded explanation of a quantum mechanics concept he'd been researching. She had never seen him so enthusiastic about something and promised to look into it, while mentally imploring him to please hurry up.
Some gods had (understandably) dematerialised instantly to get as far away from their family as soon as possible, while others - namely, Demeter - took a meander around and left out the front entrance for a peaceful walk in the gardens.
Ares seemed to have fallen asleep in the meeting because he awakened with a jerk and a snort, looking bewildered for a moment. He muttered something about needing a smoke while he headed outside. Oh, Athena really hoped he wasn't smoking the leaves of one of Persephone's mysterious underworld plants again; last time he did, he was in a weird mood and accidentally caused the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Eventually only Zeus, Athena and Artemis were left, the latter of whom was staring forlornly at the empty golden throne opposite hers.
Athena glanced at the sun god’s empty throne and then called out to the moon goddess, trying to distract her and get that sad, tired look off her face.
"Hey, Artemis," she nodded at her and gestured to follow her out of the throne room. "So I'm giving a lecture next Monday morning at the amphitheatre. It's about how the development of early agriculture shaped the patriarchy we know today. I thought perhaps you'd like to come along and listen?"
Behind them, still lounging on his throne, Zeus gave an unimpressed huff.
"Oh, yes, sure, thank you for asking," Artemis replied, looking taken aback but pleased at the invitation. "It sounds interesting. I do love to dismantle the patriarchy on a Monday morning."
"Excellent," Athena said brightly, and then paused awkwardly outside the marble entrance archway. "Well, see you around."
Artemis looked at her mistrustfully for a second, seeming weirded out by Athena's unusually sociable and cheerful disposition. "Yes, see you around, Athena…"
After Artemis gave her one more confused glance and dissolved into a beam of moonlight, Athena put her plan into action.
She wove her way down the cobbled stone pathway, her Greek chiton and long dark hair flowing behind her in the breeze. She stopped every so often to smell the sweet honeysuckle flowers, breathing in the fresh air. Further down the mountain, Demeter was chatting to some nymphs, and Athena waved at her cheerfully.
Then she disappeared into thin air. And reappeared back outside the grand entrance to the throne room.
Athena was not usually an eavesdropper. But she didn't trust Zeus.
She glanced around vigilantly and ducked behind a marble Doric column, peering around the corner inconspicuously. She held her breath when she heard Zeus speaking, wondering who he could be talking to, given all the gods had already left.
Athena didn't tend to use her owlish abilities. One time Apollo had whistled so loud that it damaged her enhanced hearing and she could only hear a high-pitched ringing for a week. And another time she forgot she was in her human form and accidentally turned her head 270 degrees around like a possessed doll, making Hades scream in horror. But she was thankful for her slightly freakish owl tendencies now.
Her hearing had always been more sensitive than the other gods’; she could hear a higher range of frequencies and from a longer distance. So she focused in on Zeus’s voice, filtering out all background noise, honing in on the throne room with enhanced precision.
"—A pity," Zeus was saying, his voice a low rumble. "The wound is poisonous and fatal; he’s dying a slow, painful death. It would be such a shame if the infection were to worsen suddenly."
There was a reply from someone else; muffled and intermittent like they were speaking through an Iris Message with spotty connection. Athena strained her ears but caught only one word in an unfamiliar male voice; "—Tarquin..."
"Then get Tarquin closer to him!" Zeus ordered in a quiet hiss. "Why is it taking so long? I want him eliminated!"
Athena leaned forward, careful not to make any sound, narrowing her eyes to observe Zeus on his throne.
The king of the gods was watching a shimmering one-sided projection of the human world below; the image had a kind of blue holographic tinge to it, and was fuzzy around the edges. The figure in the projection was a teenage boy with brown curly hair, sleeping on a medical cot. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully, except for moments when he clutched at his stomach unconsciously, wincing in pain and mumbling something in his sleep.
The teenager looked vaguely familiar, like she'd seen his face recently.
Athena felt a cold fist clenching around her gut, but didn't understand why.
She tried to locate the speaker on the other end of the call, but Zeus was facing away from her and his body obstructed her view. The stranger's voice was nothing more than a buzzing in her ears.
Tarquin, she thought, pondering on the name. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. What business does Zeus have with Tarquin?
"Nero," Zeus whispered angrily, and Athena silenced a gasp. "If you fail, Triumvirate Holdings and everything you've built can be gone in an instant. You can be gone in an instant. Is that understood?"
Athena's mind whirred like the metal gears on Hephaestus's throne, clicking and turning like a well-oiled machine.
Zeus was working with - or blackmailing - Triumvirate Holdings?
What in Tartarus's name was Zeus playing at? How could he be so stupid as to make an agreement with the enemy? Who was it he wanted eliminated?
Athena was missing something important; she just knew it. And if there was one feeling she hated more than anything, it was feeling uninformed and ignorant, feeling left in the dark and one step behind everyone else. The pieces of the puzzle were all scattered and she was trying to put them together but they just didn't fit right.
With shaking hands, she reached into the pocket of her chiton, thankful she had planned ahead and worn clothes that actually had pockets. (Decorative pockets in womens' clothes were a scourge on modern society. When Athena made clothes, she made them with fucking pockets!)
She pressed the record button on the Hephaestus-built recording device, internally slapping herself for not thinking of it sooner, and hoping it would pick up on the conversation. She had told Hephaestus she needed it for recording lectures and seminars, but she supposed what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
"He was meant to be dead already!" Zeus's voice was raised and he slammed his fist down fiercely on the arm of his throne, the boom echoing in the throne room. Athena shrank back at the sound, hiding back behind the pillar. "We had a deal! He is a threat to us both."
On the other end of the call, the emperor Nero’s voice was cool and smooth. The only words she caught were “threat” and “Python”.
"I will only get rid of the snake after Apollo is dead. If it doesn't happen soon, the deal is off!" Zeus growled furiously.
Athena’s eyes widened.
She covered her mouth with her hand and silently slid down the pillar to sit on the floor. Her heart pounded heavily in her ears, so loud she wondered if Zeus could hear it beating like a war drum.
The boy in the projection was Apollo. Of course it was Apollo - how could she not recognise him?!
Apollo was dying, and their father was not just turning a blind eye; no, he was purposefully trying to accelerate the process.
Zeus was actively trying to kill an Olympian god.
She wondered if Apollo’s fall from Olympus was just an excuse to get Zeus’s biggest threat out of the way. The reasoning behind him being disowned and being made mortal had never sat right with her; why was Apollo blamed for his descendant's mistakes, and for a prophecy he couldn't control being spoken? Unless it was not a punishment, but an assassination attempt.
Zeus and Nero were still arguing in low hisses, but Athena couldn't decipher what they were saying over the buzzing in her mind. She held out the recording device with a shaky hand, careful not to drop it or let herself be seen.
Athena wondered if she was the only Olympian who knew what Zeus was planning.
It felt like she was calculating every move ten steps ahead like a game of 5-dimensional chess with multiverse time travel. (She had spent so many consecutive weeks completely absorbed in that game).
Zeus was the black king, Nero was with Triumvirate Holdings as a line of pawns defending him, and Athena was the white queen.
The only problem was, Athena didn't know who her bishops, knights and rooks were. Nor Zeus's. It had been so long since the gods' first rebellion, and so much had changed since then. Did Hera and Poseidon even still hold the same views they did back then? Or was Hera the black queen?
She didn't know who would still be sympathetic to Zeus.
But at least she was one step ahead of the game, and Zeus remained oblivious that she knew.
Zeus was trying to eliminate Apollo because he believed him to be a threat to his power. And sure, Apollo was a wildcard; he was powerful and smarter than he acted.
But Athena was the real threat. She was the daughter of Metis.
Zeus's overconfidence and paranoia would be his own downfall. His trust in his favourite daughter would be his greatest mistake.
She needed a plan; a better, more thought-out plan than last time.
Step one was to find allies.
Step two; find a covert way to protect Apollo - screw Zeus's rules about interfering with mortals.
And step three... checkmate the king.
Athena mentally mapped out a list of who would be on board.
Artemis (and Apollo, if he survived) was a definitive answer for yes. Dionysus, Poseidon and Hermes would most likely stand with her. They each had a strong relationship with Apollo, and held little to no fondness for Zeus. Her voice recording would harden their resolve against the king of the gods.
Hades, Hephaestus and Hestia were a maybe. That is, only if Hestia's love for family overrode her yearning for peace, and if Hades's thirst for justice could be appealed to. Hephaestus on the other hand was a complicated one; he could be gruff and unsentimental, but he was also highly intelligent and innovative. Athena felt like she had a mutual understanding with him, and she needed someone immensely resourceful like him on her side. Athena supposed that she could see Hades, Hephaestus and Hestia as allies no matter what. Because even if they decided not to partake in it, they would be smart enough to not reveal her plans to Zeus.
Hera, on the other hand, was a risk. If Athena had more time, she might have started stealthily interrogating Hera long ago to try and find out her true feelings for her husband. Truthfully, Zeus and Hera were such a closed-off couple that there was no way to know for sure what was going on behind closed doors. Athena knew that Hera was in mourning for that Grace boy, one of Jupiter's mortal sons. But she had no idea if Hera cared about Apollo - another of Zeus's bastard sons - to the same extent. Likewise, Demeter and Aphrodite were an enigma that Athena could never crack. She wished she had spent more time with them over the millennia; but it was no use lingering over what-ifs now.
Ares, though-
"Psst," someone whispered from behind a pillar near her. Athena jumped and whirled around, hand tightening over the recording device and clutching at the dagger in her belt.
She froze when she saw the other war god, crouching behind the column on the opposite side of the throne room's entrance. He was wearing sunglasses, and his leather jacket smelled like smoke and something herbal.
He must have had his aura of red hot fury turned up, because she glared at him, feeling that constant urge to stab him. (Or maybe that was just a sibling thing.)
Ares put a finger over his lip and grinned darkly. "You look tense, do you want some of Persephone's good shit—?"
"Shh, knock it off," Athena hissed, rolling her eyes. "I'm doing something important here."
Ares scowled but switched off his odikinesis, and Athena untensed her shoulders and relaxed against the pillar. She peered anxiously over at Zeus, but he hadn't made any move to indicate he had heard them.
"I always knew you'd be the type to eavesdrop," Ares whispered under his breath.
He took his sunglasses off to reveal a maniacal glint in his red eyes. Athena made steady eye contact with him and observed him cautiously, watching his mannerisms to find any sign of what he had overheard, or if he held any sympathies towards Zeus.
She narrowed her eyes at him, skeptical of his intentions. He didn't wither under her scrutiny like most people would.
"Jeez, you need to chill," he smirked. "I'm not a snitch, don't worry. I can appreciate a bit of strategic spying, especially if it's against our dear old dad."
Athena let out an irritated sigh and tried to focus in on Zeus's conversation again.
"I do not want to hear your excuses," Zeus was hissing, his tone cold and hard as ice. "I can forgive your unscrupulous dealings in the past, but only as long as you hold up your end of the agreement."
Nero's reply was muffled, and the only decipherable word was Apollo.
"No, Apollo is my greatest regret and my biggest mistake," Zeus laughed scornfully and humourlessly.
Underestimating me is your biggest mistake, Athena thought defiantly.
"You don't want to be my next mistake, Nero," he continued. "You don't want to find out what happens when you displease me."
Athena shivered, feeling goosebumps raising on her skin. She let the hand that had been clenched around the dagger in her belt fall to the floor, steadying herself against the cool white marble. She shook her head in disbelief.
"Well this is fucked up," Ares muttered in a low voice.
Athena glanced at him, trying not to let the pure horror and desperation come across in her eyes.
"You weren't here earlier," she replied grimly, unsure of how much of the rest of the conversation Ares had heard. "He's using Apollo's trials as an excuse to eliminate him. He's going behind all our backs to execute Apollo because he thinks he's a threat," she explained, figuring she had nothing to lose.
Ares paused for a moment, breathing in thinly and not betraying any emotions across his face.
Sometimes Athena wondered whether critical thinking skills ever even entered that thick skull of his.
Despite the two both being war gods, they couldn't be any more unalike. Ares was the god of war, violence, bloodlust and rage. Athena respected war, but not Ares's version. To her, violence was a strategic means to an end, only to be used as a last resort.
But Athena could use Ares; because he represented a side of war that she was starting to think she may have a need of. Ares was not wise, calculating, or merciful. He was seen as the most hateful and brutal of all the gods... but what if that was exactly what she needed on her side?
Just because she didn't understand his perspective, it didn't mean he wouldn't do the right thing when it came down to it. Perhaps to lead a successful rebellion she needed him - and he needed her - to balance each other out.
Ares quickly proved her initial assessment of his intelligence wrong. "We need to tell Artemis," he whispered determinedly, his eyes narrowed, looking thoughtful. "We need to tell the others and stop father—"
"I thought you didn't care about Apollo?" she hissed.
"What are you on about, that pathetic loser is my brother," Ares growled back. "I don't particularly like him but I don't want him dead."
Athena raised an eyebrow. She was sure that wasn't his only motivation.
"Okay," Ares huffed at her cynical look, "and I would also like a chance to put Zeus in his place. I want a chance to humiliate him back after that lightning bolt fiasco."
Athena had always wondered why Apollo's punishment after the Giant War was so harsh compared to Ares's when the bolt was stolen. Maybe Zeus saw Ares as less of a threat. Maybe he was constantly overlooking and underestimating his strongest and most vengeful children. Maybe that would be his downfall.
"Mm," Athena hummed, "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"
She phrased it in such a way to imply that it had been Ares's idea all along, not her own. She needed to know what he really thought. She needed to find out his true motivations.
"Well," Ares continued. "Family fights are always the most brutal and entertaining. And I'm quite fond of disorder and chaos. I'm up for a revolt if you are."
He had an unreadable, guarded expression in his fiery eyes.
"I win every battle," he whispered smugly. "I think you need me on your side."
Athena paused thoughtfully. Her plans for revolution, her game of 5-dimensional chess with multiverse time travel was evolving and changing on the spot. She was developing new counter-strategies, tactics and maneuvers in order to constantly stay one step ahead of Zeus. She needed Ares as her white knight; she needed his impulsive decision-making and his unpredictable nature. Zeus would never see them coming.
Their mutiny could not fail. There was too much at risk for them to fail.
Suddenly Ares put a finger to his lip in a hushing sign, and Athena's heart skipped a beat. The throne room behind them was silent. She hastily clicked the stop recording button and slid the device into her pocket with trembling hands.
Footsteps echoed on marble and Ares disintegrated into atoms with a final cunning, knowing smirk towards her.
A cold, east wind was starting to pick up, and Athena dissolved into it, letting it carry her away.