Chapter Text
He was a god again finally. He hated feeling weak, feeling scared, being hurt. But gods did he missed it. He missed Meg, he missed being able to talk to his kids. He missed holding them in his arms. He even missed how little respect they gave him, yeah he knew that sounded weird, but what they gave him was genuine. No one was faking pleasantries trying to please him, or referring to him as the "perfect" one.
So Apollo made a decision he went to the one place everyone avoided, the moirai. Against popular belief, he could not see the future, only what they "gifted" him with. But... He needed to know, he needed to know if he ever succeeded in seeing them again, finding a way around the ancient laws.
They were silently weaving as he walked in taking his place on his normal cushion. He bowed to their backs. "Great Moirai, I have come to ask of you a question," he didn't say it grandly. over the years he found it counterproductive and he didn't really hold them in high esteem right now.
"Get up," Caltho said gently, too gently. He did as requested. Why was she acting odd?
"Your father turned you moral again?" Lachesis spoke, she wasn't asking. She knew. "And all your siblings did was to take bets"
"What is your question?" Atropos seemed to almost interrupt her.
He glanced between them, that probably wasn't a good sign. "I was wondering if I'll find a way to see my children again?" His children, any of them.
Will, Katie, Lee, Meg, Leo, he even longed to see Percy again, even after he neglected to help, he got it he wouldn't have helped him either. Gods, he had a problem with trying to adopt other people's children.
"What will you do to see them again?" He didn't know which one of them spoke.
"Anything, just tell me what I need to do!" Would they really be so kind as to let him, to give him an answer?
"Anything?" They didn't turn their backs, they didn't even glance at him.
Would he, would he be cursed to go through all that again, give up godlyhood forever. Yes, he had spent too long away from them, he had lost too many.
He couldn't bring himself to say it. But he nodded. Once, twice. Thankfully they took that as a response.
"Good, we didn't want to make this harder than it had to be" he glanced around who had spoken. This was starting to sound bad.
"We will give you a chance to be with most of your children, the living and dead," he froze at that. He readied himself to memorise whatever twisted riddle they came up with for his task.
"Your father has hurt so many,"
.... Were they asking him to try and overthrow him again, he had already been tricked into it once.
"For starters Hermes works himself ragged with all the stress he's under, he hasn't slept in three months."
Gods he'd been so selfishly mad, he hadn't gone to check on him since he got back.
"Next, Dionysus is missing an important domain he could fade at any minute!"
That was true, but that had been the plan, the punishment that is. A crazy, insane, plan. But it had worked. Dio got what he wanted and continued to get in trouble just enough to stay there.
"And poor Hebe, he treats her like a slave instead of his daughter."
He wouldn't know, father had forbidden him from even being in the same room as her.
"And look at you Apollon, moral three times. You were at the precipice this time! And don't pretend that we don't see those lightning scars on your back. By our mother, you were punished for something your brother did and he didn't even apologize!"
He didn't know what to say to that. What was he exposed to say? He wasn't expecting to get a list of his father's wrongdoings.
" And 'pollo, poseidon would have been a better king, but now he is no better than him."
What...
"Look at Kymopoleia, forced to marry a brute of a man, a hundred handed one she doesn't and will never love! He doesn't even like her!"
He hadn't known that...
"And Percy he should have ascended, his father should not have taken 'no' for an answer "
No, no, no.
"Percy doesn't..." Apollo tried to interject.
"He's a child, he doesn't know what he wants. A parent's job is to keep their kids warm, fed, and protected. And it is his job to make the right decision for them!"
"Hades isn't even an option, he told his son that it would have been better for him to die instead of Bianca."
"Even Aphrodite has ruined our perfect weaving by cutting so many strings early for her obsession with tragic love."
"There are no good options left, we either have these sorry excuses for parents or traumatized children!"
"We need to do a complete reweave."
He tried to stand up, to plead this was not what he meant, not at all.
He wanted to be with his children, but not in chaos, they were threatening to make it like none of them ever existed.
His legs wouldn't move and his voice wouldn't work.
He watched the Moimai as they carefully took several strings aside.
"We aren't so cruel as to throw all of you into chaos, we have better ideas on what to do with you." Caltho reassured gently. She had turned to the bag beside her and pulled out knitting clips.
She carefully clipped each of his children. Then she moved onto the brighter threads, the seven, they pulled at each, testing their strength. They finally decided to put six of the seven aside, leaving the dark gray one alone.
They then turned to the others; Nico, Clarisse, the Stolls, Pollux, and Meg. Then further back and clipped 3 more, sunset yellow, sunset orange, and a deep purple.
Atropos shifted, revealing his bowline. The gods' strings held up the basis for the other strings to weave onto. His was already clipped.
She then clipped Hebe, then Dionysus, Kymopoleia, Finally, she secured Hermes and stepped back giving him a full view on their work.
Once their strings were cut the tapestry would be secure. At least the world wouldn't end.