Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Hestia

She had humored Athena to find what threats she would be trying to pull on her. She hadn’t told about Perseus to other gods because she had no intention of painting a target on her son's back.

Hestia had not thought by any stretch that Athena would have fallen so low as to try and blackmail her. She had on many occasions had heard how Athena had abused her smartness and blackmailed gods. Only Chaos knew why.

She wanted Perseus to have a life full of joy, not a life where he would be a pawn in the games of the gods.

Zeus would want him for his powers; this would leave Poseidon and Hades, who would be either out for his blood or trying to make Perseus join them.

Aphrodite would try to spice things up for what it was worth; a story without a heartbreak would be too dry for her, and she could not even imagine what plots her son would find himself in.

No, it was better if she took on a hard stance and stopped gods from interfering in his life.

‘My little boy, mum's home’, she called out to her toddler son, who instantly came towards her. Running on those little paws of his.

‘Mama’, the child croaked in a sweet voice.

She picked her little boy up in her arms, and saw Demeter sleeping on the couch and Hera lying on the ground like as if she had been knocked out cold.

‘Now, now you both make for a very poor babysitter,’ she snorted.

And Hera didn’t seem to have any modesty left either; she had one of her breasts uncovered.

Her sisters stirred, though she didn’t want to disturb them. They deserved some rest.

She carried her little warrior with her and retired to her room.

Her little whelp had Hera’s milk all across his face and clapped his hands, and then blew a raspberry as she tried to clean him.

‘No, you little monster, you are not allowed to do this,’ she said in mock amusement, watching her little boy’s silly antics.

I wonder what powers drinking milk of Hera will entail for my little tyke. She thought.

Will it make him powerful like Heracles? She knew that was not so; her son still looked perfectly normal.

Except he is apparently fireproof.

She allowed her little boy to cuddle up to her as she relaxed in bed and slowly began to rock the child. Making the child yawn and drift off into sleep as she began singing her hypnotic lullaby.

This allowed her to drift into her own thoughts…

I would have never thought, Athena, of all people, threatening my boy. She was always a lovely child, but everyone grows up…

She sighed sadly.

Her son whimpered in her arms; it felt as if the child knew what she felt.

Hestia had never dreamt of becoming a mother, and now… now she didn’t regret it.

Athena

She sighed sadly. In these moments she wished she had a little better reputation, if only her aunt hadn’t been ruled by emotions and shadows.

Though her own reputation didn’t help her much. But she had done what she had too, played her cards well, she wasn’t going to regret what she had done.

There are bigger concerns, she thought

It had been Millennia since the last large uprising against the rule of Olympians.

Long enough to allow their enemies to reform and plot.

She was aware that many of the older titans had started forming back; she had raised this issue on several occasions with the council, only for her warnings to be dismissed.

Her father and the council had grown arrogant. Last time, there were only six Olympians; now there were twelve, and they had more allies. What threat could Titans pose?

A good analogy, alas, their list of enemies had also grown, there were Titans and Giants, she could easily think of dozens of monsters who wanted revenge on Olympians, the minor gods were by a long stretch not happy. And forces which had stayed neutral in last wars, who wouldn’t stay so in this war if it occurred.

There were other concerns as well…

Their Pantheon was getting weaker, the sacrifices to them had shrunken since the ancient days.

There were many problems that prevailed since the ancient days and many new problems had sprouted up.

They all needed an addressing.

Regardless, another major concern existed, that was, what if, gods and goddesses from their very own family stayed neutral…

Her aunt was well-loved by both sides of her family, Hebe, Kymopoleia, Nike and many other minor gods and yet connected more to Olympus than average minor god did not side with them, this would be bad for morale.

But there was a deeper concern, what if their own children didn’t support them?

She was aware of growing dissent in Camp Half Blood, and many of her own children showed a great level of anger towards her for being a absent mother.

This left the child of Hestia as a wild card. The boy no doubt would have to grow up in mortal world, he would at some point see unfairness of all the problems that existed in camp half blood, there was a very big question mark about what if the child did not stand with Olympus?

Hestia even though close to her brothers would never fight the Titans, even last time her role had not been much above caring for wounded and logistics. She had even flat out refused to help with Atlas, and her uncles, and the very favour had been returned, the titans had many times refused to lift their own weapons against Hestia.

There were many reasons for such, but Hestia was not exactly an unloved child, on contrary there had been painting somewhere where she had seen Hestia as a baby being taken care of by Kronos, and the children of Gaea and Ouranos.

There were also paintings that depicted that Kronos had wept as he had swallowed Hestia.

Regardless, if the boy sided with Titans she could think of no bigger disaster. Not only would it be putting the prophecy against them, but even on an individual scale she could see the boy impacting war more so than a normal demigod. As the boy was no doubt going to grow into a super powerful demigod, who was more than likely to ascend.

Regardless, preparation will have to begin somewhere and they could very well begin with her.

She was not a good mother by any chance, but at least putting up effort of doing something might win her points in books of demigods if nothing.

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was somewhat afraid of a situation where Hestia yearned for her family. Not the Olympian one, but the one that was before, the titan one.

This would mean that if the child of Hestia was not firm in his loyalty to Olympus, the prophecy could fail spectacularly for them, and her as a goddess.

As an Olympian, her body screamed to do something, but her mind knew better; any action taken against the child would make Olympus weep.

This meant that she had to make the child’s loyalty firm with Olympus, no matter what it took, and make sure to make Hestia feel that the Olympians were still her family.

For that would be the route of least destruction and the safest path to see prophecy fulfilled. Better than creating a divide in the council.

Athena sighed; she would need to soon confront her aunt and open things up. She couldn’t allow the feelings to fester. They would be detrimental…

It is going to hurt my pride, but perhaps bowing is not going to be so bad, just this once. Knowing Aunt for what it's worth might just turn out to be a lovely experience.

I shall then do it.

She pressed her lips together and thought of contacting Hera.

Yes, Hera is going to be more understanding than Demeter, and I do not think I can contact Hestia after this disaster of a meeting.

Hera it is then.

Athena sighed and summoned her owl.

‘Wisdom, go to Hera and tell her that I want to meet her.’

The owl hooted softly and flew away.

She then turned and looked at Earth, at her children… at Annabeth, her daughter who would have a very bright life ahead of her, if she managed to survive the growth.  

(Sometime later)

Wisdom had flown back and had informed her that Hera was ready to meet her in a mortal café in New York.

Weird

Regardless, she waved her hands and, in an instant, she was clothed in a modest dress fitting as per the modern mortal periods.

The Rookery… interesting choice…

She teleported away in a blinding light.

She immediately spotted Hera sitting at one of the many tables looking out to the road, sipping her coffee.

She immediately fell into the chair in front of her and looked at Hera, taking in her features.

She had the same brown hair, brown eyes, with those noble, high cheekbones, and a well-defined and slim jaw. With her beauty toned down to attract less attention.

‘Yes?’ Hera asked, looking at her questioningly.

‘I need a favour,’ she said softly

‘I am listening’

‘Well, I buggered up big time, you know”, Athena admitted, humility would do good, and it wasn’t lying either, she certainly had messed up.

But Hera only raised her eyebrows in question asking for elaboration.

“I had a talk with Hestia, and well it fell off track,”

“She assumed certain things and I didn’t make some things clear which just made it up worse”, She continued seeing Hera nod.

“I don’t think Hestia will be talking to me again, and well, I just want to clear up this mess.” Athena said in a regretful voice.

She was regretful, being goddess did not make her a master of every little act and sometimes she could be as dense as a rock… but then again conversations were not her forte.

“I see, and can I have more context of the talk”, Hera asked, innocently

She saw through the act, and shot her an irritated look and then softly said,

“You know, the baby thing”

Hera’s face didn’t change, after all this was expected, apparently Hestia didn’t keep things secret from her sisters and had shared her thoughts from their little meet.

Instantly she said, “It was all a misunderstand, Hera, I do love and respect my aunt and would love my cousin as well, I certainly didn’t have any intentions of our meeting sounding like a blackmailing meeting you know.”

‘I see, so you want me to convey some message? Or set up a meeting between you two?’

‘A meeting, if you could, it would be the best way to clear things up.’ Athena said in a crestfallen tone.

‘I will, and I know the whole fiasco, Hestia told us, by that, Demeter and I… everything, and I honestly thought the whole thing was silly, I mean you black mailing Hestia… I tried to tell her that you know, she will eventually come around” Hera said flashing her a smile.

“That’s good to hear”, Athena said, sighing aloud, it was a great weight of her shoulders.

And, of course, it was going to be Hera who was going to play as a mediator.  Though why did she sound so sure, Athena had no idea, her reputation was certainly not the factor that played here.

“why do you think I am innocent?” Athena asked

“Ha it is clear how much you love Hestia, and if you did try such a dirty tactic on Hestia, I am pretty sure Artemis would skin you, and that would be before we could get our own hands on you”, Hera said smiling.

“Be easy, Athena, Hestia also wants to talk, she sees the logic, she honestly had an overreaction. You know, she has taken quite well to being a mother, and apparently is like a lioness, she will kill for her son. And I would too if my boy was half as cute and lovable and plushie as Perseus is”

Hera got up and prepared to leave, but a question that had been plaguing her slipped off her tongue.

‘How does the child… Perseus look?’

‘He has the Amber eyes of his mother, and hair colour of smoke, he is a joy,’ Hera said in a fond voice, looking dreamy, and then vanished without a flash or a bang, more like just melting into thin air.

All that was left was Athena, left pondering as she sat staring at the road. Already imagining how her conversation would go with Hestia, and how she was going to spoil her little cousin.