Dealing with Drama

A Scared Soldier

Time: Same Time

Not in control of her body, Athena was forced to stare into Percy's dark, glassy sea-green eyes.

She braced herself for the inevitable barrage of horrors that was soon to overwhelm her mind. She wanted to close her eyes, to look away, to curl up in a ball. But in vain.

A picture of a blonde woman flashed into her mind, one of several nights she had spent crying alone in her palace. Always the butt of ridicule, always the lonely nerd, the outcast.

Hestia had the demigods and minor gods who loved her unconditionally. Artemis had her Huntresses.

Artemis was the one she was closest to. And now, this son of Poseidon had taken her away.

Poseidon.... she remembered with boiling, unfiltered hatred, how he was the first one to humiliate her for things out of her control, how he was the first to curse her children.

Maybe a part of that was her fault. Her hubris always getting in the way of everything, not letting her back down from anything.

And, alienated from everyone around her, Athena sought companionship in the only things she knew intimately, her books. It might have suited Hephaestus- he was anti-social and introverted- Athena was moulded by circumstance to become the anti-social, introverted, cold-hearted bitch she was.

She saw herself, the young and lively, naïve and hopeful, Athena, in her daughter Annabeth. She had been jealous of her old qualities manifesting in her daughter, Annabeth finding the perfect companion and partner in the best man in the world. She should have been happy, and proud that her daughter got Percy, who was something of a grand trophy to everyone.

But she didn't. She felt jealous of her daughter, and the looming wall of her burning jealousy crashed onto the poor soldier she secretly desired. She treated Percy the worst she had ever treated anyone, worse than any son of Poseidon ever born. She exacted revenge for every insult ever thrown her way in her four millennia of life, in the ten years she knew him.

She felt tears welling up in her eyes, not allowed release due to her lack of control of her own body.

She felt Calypso stare at her questioningly, and with a bit of hostility. She was not surprised at the latter. "A-Athena?" The Titaness stuttered at her unnatural state.

Athena wanted to speak, to say something, but she couldn't. She felt like a puppet on strings as she stood up, taking everyone for surprise at the fact that she could stand at all after the mental torture she had undergone.

Athena wanted to scream in abject terror at her predicament. She swore to all the deities above her that she would never poke at the sensitive god again as she stiffly, unnaturally, took a step towards the pinned Dark god.

"Mo-mother?" Angela's voice was trembling, nervous at her state as she neared the violent, captive god.

"She's under his control!" Calypso exclaimed, horrified, as she lunged at the goddess, trying to restrain her. Piper looked up from the makeshift bandage she had tightly wrapped around Reyna's absolutely damaged knee, hurriedly drawing her attention back to her patient as the ex-Praetor moaned in pain.

After a moment of disorientation as they tried to decipher the Titaness' meaning, Angela and Cynthia lunged at Athena, capturing both of her arms. The three girls tried to drag the wisdom goddess out of the room, trying to separate the spark from the gunpowder keg.