Chapter Text
Blood.
Is what Athena sees. It’s all Athena sees.
Red on the ground, red on her spear, red on her face, red on her hands, red, red, red, red, red covers everything.
Red covering Pallas’s arms, covering her hand, because she’s holding her stomach, because red is pouring out because-
Athena stabbed her.
Athena stabbed her. With her spear, in the tournament with everyone watching across the river; Lord Father, the queen, uncle, dad. Everyone.
Pallas fell to the floor and grasped at the spear Athena jammed in her stomach. Athena scrambled to her knees to try and help Pallas wrench it out but it doesn’t budge the only thing that happened was red pouring out.
The red on the floor spread out following the engravings of stories of the gods. it trickled against Triton’s hair, down to his beard and dripped upon the brow of his youngest daughter, the liquid covers her face and the rest of her body, the it flowed into the river. That turned red too.
The red overflows from Pallas and doesn’t slow no matter how much Athena covers up her betrayal, it just keeps bursting through her fingers. Red soaks her legs, it sprays out and the surrounding red keeps rising and rising until it reached her waist, her abdomen, why’s everything so dark? Her chest, where is everyone? Her collar bone, why can’t she feel her body? Her neck, Pallas isn’t here anymore.
Her neck. Why is blood so cold?
Her chin. Turning brownish.
Her lips. The smell of rot clogs her lungs.
Her mouth. Athena can’t raise her face to escape.
Her nose. Can’t breathe.
Her lungs. Can’t escape. Won’t escape.
She created this flood, now she’ll drown in it.
She has to drown. She made it now she has to drown.
She did this now she has to pay.
She dug this hole. So lay. In it.
Can’t breathe.
Don’t breathe.
Don’t you dare breathe. You little murderer.
Don’t-
Athena arched from the bed, greedily stealing the surrounding air and stuffed them into her lungs.
Drowned. Every single time she drowns. Blood, always in blood. Sometimes it was her blood, golden, painful and horrible just like Athena when she was ‘born’. But mostly it was Pallas’ blood, ruby red and free flowing like the rivers around Lake Tritonis. That contest, that stupid tournament. It was more akin to a show rather than an actual tournament but they still choose to preform with actual weapons rather than the ritualistic ones they usually have in shows. A stupid decision that led to Athena’s mistake, her unforgivable sin.
Because of her Pallas is-
snorrrrrrrreee
An ear splitting snore popped Athena’s thought bubble. Pallas’ ear splitting snore. She’s in her usual sleep position of taking up most of the bed with her limbs twisted up like one of Hestia’s pretzels. The blankets have fallen off her to reveal the rest of her caramel toned body, Athena’s eyes instantly snapped to the scar that marred Pallas’s stomach, like every other night she woke up from this nightmare.
Because of Athena, Pallas has a permanent reminder of Athena’s imperfections.
If Athena had half a brain she would’ve realized that Pallas was distracted, if she was paying an ounce of attention she would’ve seen Pallas was incapacitated and stopped herself in time. But no Athena couldn’t even control her own body, she couldn’t prevent herself from hurting Pallas.
The thought of it carves out Athena’s stomach, it makes her sick. She makes herself sick.
Pallas was always the better fighter. If it was a fair fight Athena was fated to lose, she took both Pallas’ victory and her dignity.
“Mmmh… can hear you thinkin’ from here” Pallas sputtered through the hair covering her face
A queen-sized scaly soft tail wraps itself around Athena like a blanket Pallas threw away in her sleep.
“Apollo’s not even out trotting around showing everyone his ‘incredible radiance’ yet” the rest of Pallas wraps around Athena, “Nike didn’t come back tonight I guess.”, noting the lack of golden wings on the other side of Athena.
“Father has ordered an early morning meeting. I have to get a head start if I want it to go good.” She answered back like one of Hephaestus’ automatons
“Atheeeeennnnaaaaa, you know full well that thunder-beard isn’t awake, probably spend all his energy on every other woman that isn’t his wife-“
“You can’t talk about him like-!”
Pallas interrupts Athena by squeezing the wisdom out of the goddess and nuzzling her loose feathers off.
“And you’ll do great anyways and since when has any of your meetings have been anything but perfection.”
Pallas chirped against Athena’s back
“Many actually, like the time back-“
“Waaaayyyy wayyy back when you were a child Athena. A little kid! Tinier than me! Oh remember when you were tinier than me Thena? I remember when I could just pick you up by your armpits when you were being stupid and not sleeping.”
“That was years ago, kelp breath.”
“That’s what I’m saying!! And I do not have kelp breath. You don’t have such fine food here.”
Pallas played her piece and made a great point. A point Athena will ignore.
“I still have to prepare to the standards expected of me.”
Pallas guides Athena’s face to rest next to her, both Pallas Athena and Pallas Athena become connected in bases of ways. Ocean and lightning and sea and feathers, fuse into each other until they’re unrecognisable as what they was. Their marriage might’ve been an unwilling one but it’s still a loving one; even if it’s not the type of love typically related to marriage.
Pallas tries to persuade her through their connection, Athena softens but doesn’t back down. She can’t relax right now, she has work to do.
“Dis-a-pointed sighhh… fine. But you’ll owe me cuddle time later, go do your nightly ritual and I’ll continue mine,” Pallas unwrapped her tail from Athena and fell back into their bed pulling the blanket, that’ll definitely be kicked off again soon, back up.
Time to look over the presentation, maybe perfecting it will get rid of this pit in her stomach.
It didn’t.
It really didn’t.
Actually it might’ve made the twisting in her stomach worse.
It feels like worms are digging around her stomach, squirming around and multiplying with every step Athena took.
It’s just a meeting, she’s done this a thousand times before, and she practiced this presentation so much she can recite the whole thing blinded, bound and actively hunted down by Artemis’ most aggressive pets.
So why is she so squeamish? Why is her body betraying her like this.
Something bumped into, a little cloud nymph that apparently hasn’t developed the basic ability to see yet.
“Watch it.”
Athena sneered and shoved the stunted nymph out her way. She doesn’t have time for nymphs that can’t even be bothered to see a whole goddess walking in front of her face.
“U- I apologise my lady I-“
“I don’t have time for useless blabbering, nephelai. Can’t you see I’m busy.”
“…yes my lady.”
“You’re excused. Don’t let it happen again.”
“Thank you, my lady.”
The nymph bowed her head and doesn’t lift it back up until she’s out of Athena’s range.
The owl eyed goddess continued her trek to her father’s palace. Past those perfect little pastures, past the overly saturated flowers, past the grating laughter of the lounging gods, past those dumb giggling nymphs seated on around their lords and ladies.
Every noise that echoed in her skull, every texture that brushed against her skin, just everything is setting Athena on fire, everyone is standing on her nerves right now.
Why is everyone like this, why can’t they just leave her alone. Athena needs to be alone and if they won’t leave she’ll make them leave. Athena clenched her fist around her spear like how she usually would before launching an attack— did she yell at that nymph?
Athena freezes in her step.
That nymph wasn’t really doing anything wrong, she just bumped into Athena. Sure maybe it was a little rude especially towards a goddess but that was it. A little rude. Athena doesn’t snap at ‘a little rude’ she’s not her lord father.
Athena doesn’t understand why that nymph set her off so much, but Athena shakes the thought off when she arrives at the steps of Zeus’s court.
Breathe in, five, four, three. Seconds.
Breathe out, three, four, five. Seconds.
Seconds. She only has a few more to calm herself before being in the presence of her king.
“Born of fairer sex, to be wiser than both the provider and barer of divine seed, to rise above all expectations of all that witness her.”
Athena whispered her daily affirmations
“Rise above all expectations.”
She whispered the point of her.
Athena opened the great marble doors and stepped into her lord father’s palace.
Zeus’s palace is what you expect out of The King’s palace. Soaring ceilings and colossal statues of the king himself lined the halls. White was the prominent colour here, with some yellow accents here and there, it’s the coldest place in Olympus and there’s a constant smell of ozone that Athena can never get used to.
The owl eyed goddess puffs up her feathers and shakes the building frost off her wings. It’s clear skies, not the time to get cold feet.
The king of kings was sitting- lounging on his plush throne with giggling doe eyed nymphs sitting on his lap, entertaining him, feeding him fruits, among other things. Probably let time slip through his fingers again.
So Athena waits on one knee until her king notices her.
“You know darling I’m aaa-Athena! My daughter. You’re early!” He chuckled out thunderously, the nymphs must’ve been buttering him while Athena was preparing her presentation (how early were they here?), through she has to be a little grateful to them. It’s much easier to present her plans with clearer skies, even if her father’s head will be fuzzy the whole time.
And also Athena is on time, down to the exact minute actually. Father was just having a really good time, guess that’s why Athena didn’t bump into Hera on the way here. Likely with lady Demeter.
Her Lord father waves his entertainers away and puts his wine goblet on the arm of golden his throne, still holding the cup.
“Good morning father, today is the time for my monthly reports of ongoings in the mortal realm, as you scheduled me to.”
Athena rises when Zeus allowed her to, he doesn’t say anything but does nod for her to continue while he goes back to sipping wine.
“Well. Greece has been relatively peaceful, I solved Athens and Sparta’s disagreement so they won’t be fighting for a good few years,”
Athena pulled out some paper and throws them into the air, the air currents spin in circles making the papers float forward for whatever topic she’s talking about
“Numbers of offerings are largely the same with the exception of far away towns, they’re in the early stages of being brought of our sphere of influence but since it’s still in it’s early stages I can easily fix it with minimal help. Some legends here, some magical beasts there and it’ll be fixed in at most two generations.”
Lord father’s attention was grabbed by the amount of offerings at first but quickly loses it when he hears Athena has it covered.
“Right…” he blew a stray piece of hair away and waved his hand for her to continue again
“The medical nymphs need an upgrade to their buildings, preferably soon due to the low amount of patients at this time.”
“And you have a solution?”
“Of course, lord father.”
“Hm.”
She waved the paper away and blows in another one in.
“And- sigh- and lord Poseidon is-“ Zeus puts a hand up, interrupting her.
“I have no need to hear of my brother’s woes dear daughter, if he wants to whine about not being able to rule properly he’ll have to whine at our meeting, in front of everyone else.”
“And you don’t have to call him by his title Athena, he may outrank you but I still outrank him, we can’t have you bowing down to a lesser king.”
Athena nodded and blew the paper back into the stack
“That’s all the reports with the most importance. Would you like to hear the rest?”
Athena knows the answer.
“No. Such matters don’t need to be heard by a king, I’m sure you already have it covered.”
“Of course father, I’ll send for you when my tasks are completed.”
“Good. You’re dismissed Athena, go on with your day.”
Athena bowed again before turning to leave, Zeus calls his nightly entertainers back in when Athena reached the colossal doors again.
That was one of the better meetings she’s had with him, though usually the weight on her shoulders get lifted for the rest of the day and she feels substantially lighter after the meeting has concluded.
Not today however, the knot in her stomach is still there and actually has gotten worse since the meeting finished. Athena doesn’t understand why she’s doing this, she should feel good right now; she completed the meeting, father is happy and she’ll have time to spend with Pallas later in the day.
So why is there a
Pit.
In her stomach…
Dizzy. Maybe Apollo was right, she has to been working a lot lately even by her own standards. Was she sick? Is that why her stomach is trying to eat itself?
Maybe she’ll visit Apollo later to check but right now she has work to do and a little pain never stopped her before and it won’t now.
She passes through Olympus again and somehow the residents are even more annoying than before. Athena does everything so they could have a good life and they just waste away their worth right in front of Athena. Sometimes she wants to slap them around until they realise that they’ve been nothing but a waste to society for the last thousand years.
The outburst of energy makes Athena’s head light.
Maybe she should go back home before starting work.
Tiredness has started to catch up to her, that must be it.
Pallas isn’t in bed when she arrives, unlike how people see her Pallas is not lazy in any way. She’s slow in the morning sure, but beyond that she’s usually the first one up, guiding seafaring explorers as per the domain that came to her once she earned immortality.
So she’s probably half way across the world by now, she won’t be coming to Athena’s rescue for… at least three, maybe four hours. Less so if Athena called out to her. Athena won’t though, she wouldn’t distract Pallas from something she enjoys because Athena has a little headache.
“Stupid.”
Athena fell into her bed. And suddenly her body itches as if thousand bullet ants starting crawling and biting all over her body. Do she kicked the scratching blankets off, then the grating pillows, then the sheets, then she dug and dug and dug until she was finally comfortable. At least for a while.
But that pit in her stomach is back again. Worms and maggots that relentlessly dig into her skin, writhing and scratching and eating and spreading. Athena holds on the thinned skin of her stomach. Sick, she’s sick. Apollo’s right and she’s just tired sick. She’ll get up and go to the royal medical wing and he’ll fix her or give her some bitter medicine and she’ll go right back to work.
One…two… three. Up.
…no. Once more.
One… two… three. She’s up.
No? Then once more.
One…
Two…
Three.
But she’s still not up.
She tries again, tries to many times, tries for too long. She clutches the quickly thinning skin stuck to her stomach. Tired. Maybe… maybe she will call Pallas. Just this once, she’ll beg for Pallas’s songs to comfort her. Maybe Pallas won’t think she’s pathetic when this is all over.
With every blink it’s harder to get her eyelids back up.
Blink. And it’s dark again.
Blink. And light burns into her retinas.
Blink. And her stomach feels thin.
Blink. And it feels hungrily hollow yet bursting full.
Blink. And it gets fuller and fuller.
Blink.
And.
And pain.
The dam crumbles and pain shoots through.
Athena closed her eyes, she didn’t want witness what’s happening to her.
Her entire body burns with pain, like a match fully used through finally reaching your fingers.
And with every breath, Athena strokes that fire on the tip of her fingers again. And with the breaths that follow, flames burn lower and lower until they reached her
Stomach.
Then pain of the flames go lower and lower. It’s trying to exit her but it’s stuck. The fire is stuck but it’s still trying to free itself. It’ll force out if it had to.
Because it has to.
Fire, down, down, and down until it tore her open. Ripped her up like handcrafted paper dolls given to a father.
Down, down and out.
Out. Athena took another breath and no new fire starts, only a dying sizzle and a warmth that’s resting next her her stomach.
A solid, warm presence tickling her stomach.
Athena lifted her eyelid up with a struggle and beholds something golden through the unders of her eyelashes.
Something’s wrong.
Is a thought that randomly pinged in her head. Pinged. Someone’s trying to reach out to her but it’s like the message got cut off before it can say anything. Pallas usually isn’t one people would reach out to often. So who was trying to reach her?
Normal messages would either just be delivered by Hermes and he’ll just do what he does best or you’d make a full two way connection so you can communicate with that person; so this must be some kind of emergency message.
Nike? No, she’d go to the council first, hades probably her mother. And it’s not Athena, her messages are much clearer and straight to the point. She doesn’t do cryptic if she’s sending a serious message.
But Pallas can’t think of anyone else that would call out to her specifically. No one on Olympus likes her that much (other than Athena and maybe Nike), and it’s not people back home because her dad is there and her grandpa, the king of seas, is only a call away. So she wouldn’t be the first choice for emergencies.
Pallas hesitates, she wants to investigate who tried to contact her and why, but she’s still guiding this mortal and they haven’t found any island that it can land safely yet. The waves are trying to capsize the boat, crashing and steering the ship this way and that way, Poseidon must be one of his moods again. Leaving this mortal now would probably doom them to sleeping with the fishies (they do not need anyone sleeping with anymore fishies, grandpa does that enough).
Sorry whoever was trying to call her, she needs to keep this explorer alive. Otherwise Zeus will have more reasons to divorce her from Athena, he’d something about not even being able to do the job she’s been trusted with- and how if she can’t even do that she can’t be trusted with the heiress of Olympus.
Which is a load of sunbull by the way, she can do her job and be a good wife- actually she’s a better spouse than he could ever be. All he ever did in his marriages was cheat and do unimaginable horrors on them. Pallas just treated Athena like her best friend (like she always had) and she didn’t even get a choice in being married! Oop-
The mortal almost fell into the ocean, right focus. The sooner she gets this one into a dock the sooner she can investigate what happened up top. She reigns in the roaring waves and steers it further into the deep blue.
“Alright, c’mon bud.”
After about an hour of searching (WITH control over the waves too mind you) , the mortal finally docked on an island. Great big trees, light blue coasts, cool humid atmosphere, giant fruits hanging low, perfect for the average mortal height. Nice place for her to leave the mortal alone for weeks on end and have it still be alive when she returns. Now she can go check who sent that ping straight to her brain.
Problem, she’s half away across the world from Mount Olympus.
Solution, she can blast herself across the world by using the ocean to shoot herself out like one of Hephaestus’s cannon; another problem doing that would disintegrate everything that blocked her path. Which will not be good, Pallas might be a god now but she doesn’t have to act like one. It’ll be another few hours till she arrives in Olympus then.
Maybe she can annoy Athena on the way, though maybe she’s still stuck in that oh so important meeting with Mr. Promiscuous.
Pallas thought as she crouches at the edge of the island and shot off like a bullet, gently.
She always loved doing this, gliding through the waves like a blade gliding through paper. It’s one of the only times she can stretch her fins out and just let herself be a water nymph. It’s cold, it’s fun, it’s like taking a breath of fresh air after being stuffed into a tiny box that’s two sizes too small for you.
Sometimes it feels like swimming is the only thing that feels natural. She’s been stuck in Olympus for so long she wonders if she’s still even a lake- if she can even be considered an aquatic creature anymore.
…
She will annoy Athena actually. She’s probably bored to death by now, listening to her old man puffing himself up, Pallas has to save her.
She opens a two way link with her best friend (slash spouse) and puts on the most annoying accent possible.
Heeeyyyyyyy, it’s meeeeeeee
No response.
Ok? Are you sleepy or are you tired of listening to papa reciting his le-gen-dary stories?
Natta, nothing.
Athena? You there?
Well if the goddess of wisdom doesn’t respond, all you have to do connect deepe- Pallas jerked off course, pain stung her abdomen like molten metal being poured down her skin.
“Athena” Pallas rasped, what was happening to Athena.
The goddess of explorers braced herself once more and shot off, much more aggressively than before. Water, fish, rocks, islands, entire mountains, everything that stood in her path turned into nothing but ash and steam.
She launched from the seas, jumping through the trees, and running up the mountains with steam still trailing behind her.
That pain was from Athena, directly from Athena. She doesn’t have any time for mortals or mountains all of it needs to get out her way RIGHT THIS SECOND.
She zoomed through Olympus pushing her way through any nymph, demigod and god. Why are they just standing around?? Something’s happening to Athena! Why are they standing around like nothing has happened, everyone should be panicking, people should be gathered at the palace, where was Apollo!?
They’re not. Important. Enough. To be in the WAY. Pallas split a crowd in the main square of Olympus and sped off to her palace.
The people yelled something but Pallas just doesn’t care enough to to hear. She finally slowed down when she reached the entrance of their home, steam still rolling off her legs.
“Athena? ATHENA?” Pallas b-lined to where Athena’s presence is strongest. Their bedroom.
If something happened to Athena, if someone did anything to Athena. Pallas doesn’t know what she’d do to Olympus.
The room was deceptively calm when Pallas blew the door open. It was silent when she entered. Almost. If you strained your ears you could hear laboured breathing from their nest. Athena was laying there, wrapped around something and unresponsive.
“Athena?” Pallas whispered, she slid her hand over Athena’s ashen arm.
But it wasn’t Athena her eyes were drawn to.
No,
It’s the golden egg that Athena is wrapped around.