Olympus Fallen

~chapter 4~

Artemis' POV

I scream as Athena collapses on the grass, a mere 2 metres from the portal. I want to reach out and drag her across the portal, but the portal refuses to let me cross back again. The Olympians are all gathered around the portal, crying out for Athena to crawl across. I see her shoot a glance upwards, and attempt to crawl forward but before she can, Coeus grabs her shoulder, and she lets out a small whimper, before she stops fighting.

"NO ATHENA. NO-"

The portal begins shrinking, and I see Cronus smirking as he looks down at Athena lying at his feet, unconscious and small. I try to cross back across the portal, but Zeus holds me back. "No Huntress, we've already lost Wisdom, we need you to get Olympus back."

As I watched the portal disappear into nothingness, I sink to the concrete floor of New York's city streets, too stunned to even react. Athena, my closest sister, in the hands of Hades and Cronus, while all I did was ran. She was a warrior and I was a huntress. But we were both virgin goddesses. It drew us closer over the many millenia we passed together.

I made a silent vow. Athena, i will come and get you out soon, I promised.

I turn to see, all of us had shrunk from our godly size to mortal size, and all huddled around as we tried to comprehend just what happened. Zeus was staring blankly where the portal previously was. Demeter was weeping silently.

I was at a lost. Without Athena, we wouldn't be able to find our way around this city. It was large and more confusing than any other I had ever seen in Ancient Greece. Besides, we didn't know where her house was. Without Athena, we'd essentially doomed ourselves to wandering about this concrete jungle.

I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened my eyes again, Athena would be standing before me, ready to take charge and lead us once more. Sometimes, I even felt Athena was more fit than Zeus to be Ruler of the Heavens.

"So what are we going to do? We don't know where is Athena's house. We cant just wander around here." Ares chimed in. Many mortals were shooting us strange looks. 11 people wearing clothes from a millenia ago, with messed up hair and weapons found only in museums.

But Apollo spoke and disrupted my thoughts. "Actually, I've been to Athena's house here before. She used to bring me here sometimes, but the last time we came was about 15 years ago? I could probably still remember the way if nothing has changed much."

Everyone heaved a collective sigh. At least we would have a roof over our heads.

And so, we set off. Apollo leading the way, as we wandered around several streets. I was beginning to get dizzy. I didn't understand how my twin could find his way around here. Everything looked the same to me. It felt as though we were wandering around in circles. But I kept silent, and trudged after Apollo.

Soon, we stopped at the gates of a huge mansion, complete with a full size lawn. Despite its grand size, the mansion looked deserted, and paint was chipping off of the walls. Evidently it hadn't been occupied in years. Apollo gestured for us to climb over the tall silver gates, and we all gathered in front of the front door.

Poseidon tried pushing the door open but to no avail. "The door doesn't open. We don't have a key."

I frowned. Had Apollo forgotten we needed a key to get in? And led us here on a wild goose chase to a house we couldn't enter? Apollo merely shrugged.