No More Olympus

Chapter 22

It was safe to say Jacob was numb.
At the moment, he was attempting to process an entirely different reality than the one he woke up to this morning.
One where the stuff of fables, magic, monsters, and gods was part of his new reality, as well as the world's new reality.
And he was forced to witness the chilling results.
The airport he was sitting in was filled with people in various states of disarray.
Some looked completely untouched, presumably, they were on the outskirts of the city or already in the airport at the time.
Some were covered in dust and debris, with cuts, bruises and torn clothes.
Some were in hospital gurneys, being treated by paramedics, doctors, and whoever else was able to stand for long enough to help.
From what Jacob had overheard, there were, miraculously enough, no reported deaths in the disaster. In fact, he overheard in hushed tones that some of the people who were about to be thrown into life-or-death scenarios had been suddenly whisked away to the safety of the airport by some sort of magic golden blur, but they quickly explained away that it must have been adrenaline or something like it.
At least, that is what Jacob was able to understand in the limited Greek that he had picked up from living with Athena.
Jacob was silently sitting in the corner of the airport, watching the chaos unfold before him, a few doctors had come by to check on them, but he told them he was fine and pushed them away.
He needed time to think.
There was an excellent chance not one person in this airport would ever know what had just happened tonight. He heard talks of earthquakes or terrorist attacks. Clearly, no one had even considered the possibility that a brother and sister had just had the world's deadliest shoving match, using hidden godly powers to destroy a city almost entirely on accident the same way two drunks would smash a table in a bar fight.
He began to reconsider moments in his own life with Athena that he likely explained away, such as her surprising strength in some moments but entirely unremarkable strength in others, her knowledge of history despite seemingly having no interest in the subject at all, the fact that he had never once seen her cut herself in any way, have a cold or display any other medical affliction literally anyone else has had through the course of their life.
But before he could go any farther down this rabbit hole, his phone began to vibrate in short bursts in his pocket.
Pulling the device out, he saw that he had received a text message from his sister Sadie.
"Just saw the news please tell me you guys are okay!!!!!" She texted.
"I'm fine," he replied.
"Did you find Athena?" She asked a few moments later.
"Yes she's fine too," he assured her.
"Thank god," she replied, "We're heading over to mom and dads now I'll deliver the good news."
Jacob considered just laying it all out there and then explaining everything to her in text in some odd way of processing it himself. Still, he decided against it as he would probably sound insane or like he was pitching the synopsis of a fantasy novel or both.
"Did you just text me to see if I was still alive?" he texted instead.
"What of it?" She asked.
"So most people call in this situation what's wrong with you?" He explained.
Jacob paused a few moments to let Sadie type her response out.
She eventually replied with a middle finger emoji.
Jacob chuckled and slipped his phone back into his pocket before glancing out the window at the destroyed Athens, whose true destruction was only now being revealed by the rising sun.
He sensed that someone had sat in the chair next to him but didn't turn to face them.
"Long night, huh?" The other man said.
Jacob sighed.
"Like you wouldn't beli-," he began, leaping out of his chair in surprise and fear after turning to face the other man.
"Try me," requested Ares as he continued to sit in the chair next to Jacob's, having completely healed from the fight the hour prior save for a blood stain on his shirt, which seemed to be the newest of many, "Sit back down."
"Stay away from me!" Jacob demanded in a low hiss so no one would hear them.
"Oh, not this again," Ares sighed, "Sit back down, or I will kill everyone in this airport."
The two men stared at each other in a stalemate.
"You're bluffing," Jacob guessed.
Ares pulled perhaps the largest knife Jacob had ever seen, seemingly out of thin air like a street magician would a coin.
"I am not my sister," Ares warned, "I do not bluff."
Jacob, feeling he had no choice, sat back down next to Ares, who seemed to be much larger than Jacob remembered.
"First, some ground rules," Ares began, his knife seemingly disappearing as if it were a coin used in a magic trick, "Not a word of the next ten minutes gets repeated, understand? You will carry it past the gates of Hades."
Jacob could only nod.
"Excellent," Ares said, "How are you adjusting to your new reality?"
Jacob didn't answer for a while, but Ares seemed content to stare at him menacingly until he did.
"Uhm... fine, as good as anyone could, I guess?" Jacob stammered.
"Good," Ares nodded, "If I can help with your transition in any way, let me know."
Jacob could tell Ares was deeply uncomfortable being there, which led him to wonder why the hell he was there in the first place.
"So you're a god?" Jacob asked.
"Yes," Ares confirmed.
"An immortal?" Jacob continued.
"Yes," Ares repeated.
"An ancient world-shaping being?" Jacob added.
"Is there a point to this?" Ares questioned.
"Sorry," Jacob apologized, "It's just it's not every day that you're having a casual conversation with the personification of war."
"For you, it is an everyday occurrence, remember," Ares reminded him jovially, "You are sleeping with one."
"I... I...," Jacob stammered, staring at Ares with giant bug eyes.
"Are you having a stroke?" Ares demanded, annoyed at how he was staring.
"No," Jacob said as calmly as he could manage, "It's just that... you are Ares, right? The Ares?"
"Yes," Ares nodded, "We've been over this."
"I'm sorry, it's just that pop culture seems to have a consensus of you as... the bad guy, and I'm just wondering...," Jacob trailed off.
"Bauer, are you asking me if I am a comic book supervillain?" Ares questioned in disbelief.
"I mean... are you?" Jacob shrugged.
"I am when I need to be," Ares replied, slyly grinning to show he was mostly kidding.
Jacob visibly seemed to relax at his grin.
"So, how is she doing?" He asked.
"She's in what's left of our hotel bar," Ares said, "Getting drunk with Aphrodite."
"Why would she be getting drunk now?" Jacob questioned.
"She believes her life with you is over," Ares explained, "Why that so saddens her, I do not know."
Jacob nervously rubbed his hands together.
"Is her life with you over?" Ares asked.
"I don't know," Jacob said with frustration, "How do we get past this? She's a goddess."
"She's also Athena," Ares reminded him, "For better or worse that does not change regardless of whether or not she is omitting details about her mortality."
"What was she like before then?" Jacob asked, "You knew her as a kid, right?"
"Well, I never knew her as a child," Ares explained, "She emerged from our father's forehead almost fully grown, although I suppose even that is untrue now, but I knew her as a young woman."
Ares noticed Jacob's eyes widen at the mention of Athena's 'birth.'
"Okay, moving on," Ares quickly said, "When she first arrived at Olympus, most of us had decided their opinions on her in the first few days, Zeus, Hestia, and the twins seemed to like her fine, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Demeter and Myself found her annoying."
"Well, I guess most people find their younger siblings annoying," Jacob shrugged.
"Yes, but she seemed to think that she was the eldest sibling and proceeded to act like it," Ares explained, "She was very much a control freak. If she didn't get her way, she wasn't happy."
"Oh, I've experienced that first hand," Jacob chuckled, "When she first moved into my place when we were dating, she had us moving around furniture for hours until she was happy with it. If I'd have known she had super strength, I would have told her to do it herself."
"She also was incredibly prideful," Ares continued, "Any insult toward her would be met with swift and extreme retaliation."
"I've seen that too," Jacob nodded along, "She used to have a problem with road rage."
"She was a huge suck-up," Ares added, "I believe the term these days is 'Daddy's little girl,' but back then, we just called her his 'pet daughter.'"
"She never really mentioned her dad," Jacob said before his eyes grew as wide as plates, "Oh my god, her father is Zeus. My father-in-law is Zeus. His picture was on the side of my plane."
"Yep," Ares confirmed.
"Am I liable to get smited, smoted, whatever the term is," Jacob asked, "You know for... having a relationship with his daughter, I mean my dad chased my sister's boyfriends away with a shotgun, should I avoid storms from now on?"
"You're probably fine," Ares assured him, "He's since lost his power and can't do much of anything."
"Good to know," Jacob sighed, "So... you and Athena ever destroyed a city before?"
"Rarely," Ares said honestly, "Most of the time, we would fight at the bottom of Mount Olympus where there were rarely any mortals to be found. We tore up the outskirts of Troy, but it was in the middle of a war, so it hardly counts."
"Do they usually end with one of you trying to murder the other?" Jacob asked, sounding a little ill at the thought.
"Yes, all the time," Ares answered bluntly.
Jacob stared at him strangely.
"We are fundamentally opposing war gods," Ares explained, "It's in our very nature to conflict with one another, and both of us are aware of it, typically Athena tries to deny this, but occasionally even she can't help herself."
"What do you mean it's in your nature to conflict?" Jacob questioned.
"The two of us rarely agree on anything," Ares explained, "Any other Olympian could tell you we constantly argued, fought over anything and are remarkably competitive with one another. It could be safe to say we downright hate each other some days."
"So she's your sister," Jacob simplified, "You're siblings. You fight."
"I believe there's a little more to it than that," Ares insisted.
"Argue constantly, fight over everything, competitive," Jacob repeated, "You just described every single sibling dynamic on the planet. The only difference is that you two have been doing it for longer, and you've allowed it to escalate more."
"Does this dynamic extend to you?" Ares questioned.
"With my sister?" Jacob asked.
"Yes, the one who was flirting at me in your store," Ares clarified.
"She was what?" Jacob demanded defensively.
"Answer the question," Ares insisted.
"I guess so, yes," Jacob admitted, "We used to do it more when we were younger, then one day dad sat us both down and told us to stop fucking around, and we did... for the most part."
Ares chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Jacob asked.
"My father was never particularly concerned by the chaos we wrought," Ares explained, "He seemed to consider it child's play compared to what he was capable of."
"The stories I've heard make him sound like a real piece of work," Jacob remarked.
"Not half of what he did was recorded in any fashion," Ares said, "And a third of what was is incorrect."
"You met with him yesterday, right?" Jacob asked.
"No, Athena met with him," Ares corrected, "The old man didn't have the stones to face his own son, enough about that. What of your father, what does he do?"
"He was a bank manager," Jacob explained, "He wasn't particularly good at it, but he had a skill with people, so he got by well enough."
"You speak past tense. Is he dead or retired?" Ares asked in his usual blunt fashion.
"Retired," Jacob assured him.
"And what do they think of Athena?" Ares asked. Jacob could see in his facial expression that this wasn't merely him making polite small talk. He seemed to be genuinely concerned about the answer.
"They get along fine," Jacob assured him, "They get along great actually, which is good. It helps keep things apolitical."
"That's good," Ares nodded.
"Okay, I'm confused about something," Jacob began.
"What are you confused about?" Ares asked.
"The two of you nearly killed each other tonight," Jacob said, "In the last five minutes alone, you've called her annoying, and you said you hated her, now it sounds like you're actually concerned for her well-being and personal life. What the hell is going on here?"
"You watch your tone, Bauer," Ares growled, "And do not question my motives."
"Fine, fine," Jacob surrendered, sounding more annoyed than scared, "Whatever you want, be an enigma for all I care."
The two sat in silence as the airport in front of them buzzed about.
"She did kick your ass, though," Jacob poked.
"She did not 'kick my ass,'" Ares refuted.
"Dude, she was holding a spear tip to your bloody throat," Jacob said, "Context says you got your ass beat."
"She caught me off guard with a lucky shot," Ares argued.
"Still counts," Jacob defended.
"You know she wouldn't have been able to even get a lucky shot if I didn't save her back in Alabama," Ares retorted.
"That doesn't-," Jacob stopped himself, "When did you save her in Alabama?"
"The night before we left," Ares explained, "She was fighting two monsters in the park. She was about to lose when I swooped in and saved her, long story short, we killed the monsters and left the next day."
"Wait, was this in Fisher Park?" Jacob asked.
"I believe so, yes," Ares nodded.
"The other day, a mom found her six-year-old covered in blood," Jacob said, "He led her back to a patch of grass soaked in blood and littered with shredded snakeskin."
"He didn't get any in his mouth, did he?" Ares asked.
"Don't think so," Jacob shrugged.
Ares thought for a moment.
"He should be fine," he waved off.
"What did you fight?" Jacob asked.
"A pair of Gorgons," Ares explained, "Came all the way from Greece."
"What's a gorgon?" Jacob questioned.
"You know Medusa?" Ares asked, "The one with snakes for hair?"
Jacob nodded.
"One of her kind," Ares explained.
Jacob nodded again, this time in understanding.
"What did you do to it?" He asked.
"I beat its skull in with my fists," Ares explained, pointing to his knuckles for emphasis.
"Has anyone ever told you you're an intense guy Ares?" Jacob asked as politely as he could manage.
"You are speaking with the god of brutal warfare, friend," Ares reminded him, "I am frequently reminded of my 'intensity' on many occasions. I prefer to think of it as displaying strength preventatively before it's needed."
"I think that's called a pre-emptive strike," Jacob said, "I'm pretty sure it's a war crime."
"Only when on a civilian population, then it's terrorism," Ares explained.
"Then what's all this?" Jacob asked, motioning to the destruction outside.
"A domestic dispute," Ares said with a straight face. A face which promptly fell as he glanced at something over Jacob's shoulder.
"What is it?" Jacob asked, turning toward where Ares was looking and gazing out the window.
In the centre of the city's destruction, what can only be described as a tornado of blood-coloured smoke stained the early morning skyline.
A crowd had formed along the window to witness the display in the distance.
"What the hell is that?" Jacob asked.
Ares could just barely make out a creature in the centre of the storm. It was as massive as the tornado itself and appeared to have at least eight giant tentacles waving straight up into the sky, at least that's what the crowd thought they were, Ares knew better that they weren't tentacles at all, they were something much worse. He knew this beast, he knew it all too well.
"It's a monster," Ares said simply, "That's all you need to know; for now, move out of the way, please."
The god of war grabbed the bench he and Jacob had been seated on only moments earlier, ripped it out of the ground and chucked it through the nearby window.
"What did you do that for?" Jacob questioned as the crowd began to turn their attention to the two men.
"I couldn't remember where the exit was," Ares shrugged, "This will do, hop on,"
"To what?" Jacob asked,
"To me," Ares said, crouching down into a piggyback position.
"Why?" Jacob questioned.
"Because we're going to jump there," Ares explained.
"Like the Hulk?" Jacob asked.
"Exactly," Ares smiled.
"Yeah, I'm not touching you, man," Jacob declined.
"Relax," Ares assured him, "It is not gay if it is in a combat scenario."
"Yeah, that's really not my problem here," Jacob said dryly.
"I'll be gentle with my landings," Ares suggested, "Happy?"
"With all due respect, I don't think we have the same definition of gentle," Jacob said.
"Look, Bauer," Ares snapped, "Your wife is likely in ground zero right now. Are you going to sit here and let her face that thing alone or continue moping on the bench?"
Jacob paused for a moment. He turned to face the crowd that now had their full attention on him.
"If I die," Jacob began, "Where would I go?"
"Hades likely," Ares answered, "If it helps, we can put in a good word for you."
"Fuck it," Jacob sighed, walking over a climb onto Ares's back.
"There's a good boy!" Ares cheered.
"Just shut up and do it," Jacob begged, closing his eyes tightly.
"Holding on tight?" Ares double-checked.
"Go!" Jacob demanded, his eyes still welded shut.
The crowd who was watching them the whole time was then treated to the bizarre sight of two grown men, one giving the other a piggyback ride, leaping off into the far distance in a single bound.