Blessed

Love lost

Zeus telepoted all three of them in a big stone room. All of the eleven Olympians were waiting ready for the ritual including Hades, Hera and Selene. Hera was almost unconscious and every now and then a small whimper came out of her. Zeus was worried. Hades healed her wound but she was completely depleted of enegy.

"Are you ok, agape mou?" he asked looking at her pale face. Her eyes were closed and she hanged limply in his arms. "Just do what you must, save her..." she whispered.

Zeus looked at Olympians and said "We must act quickly, I can guess they will attack strongly and quickly. All of you must bless my daughter with a part of your powers so she can help us fight against them."

"Brother, go hold them off." he said to Hades and the latter just nodded to him and telepoted away.

Zeus felt Hera's body tensing in his arms. She mustered the strenght to open her eyes and she looked at him accusingly. "She's not to be used to defend anyone! I won't let you..." she uttered as she tried to stand on her legs. She wanted to push him away and it hurt him. She didn't understand his intentions.

"She's not a weapon to be used for your power-hungry ambition!", Hera continued her voice broken and looked at him hurt evident in her eyes.

Zeus decided to ignore her as he didn't want to fight with her while she was weak and injured. He motioned the Olympians to gather around. He passed Hera's struggling body to Poseidon, "She won't be hurt, Hera, don't worry.", he tried but she just glared at him not trusting his words. She could never understand or support their need to increase the greatness of the Pantheon and she was under the impression that Zeus thought of Selene as of means to an end. It became clear to him that after all she still couldn't trust him and his heart broke. He would fix it later, he promised to himself, she will know his hearts true intentions.

"We can't start, Ares isn't here!" Aphrodite said looking nervously around the room. Zeus growled at the mention of his name but Hera said, "My son won't be joining us. He decided to betray us and bring enemies to our home to destroy our family. He isn't welcome anymore as are the ones who support him and his evil intentions."

Aphrodite just stood there with open mouth, her beautiful face revealing shock. Her husband Hephaestus, however, looked pleased. She quickly composed herself but not before few tears escaped. She looked tragically beautiful, her pain only adding to her feminine charm. Hephaestus was not fooled by her show of emotions, though. He looked at his cheating wife. She was ruthless as much as she was beautiful, "My wife's lover is absent and I assume that is why we have company...", he said turning his eyes at Theia and Helios.

They kept in the shadows and at the mention of their names stepped forward. Helios had a stoic expression and his eyes were shooting between Zeus and Theia. Zeus noticed he didn't really care about him, he was focused on Selene's swaddled form in his hands. She was calm and quiet and her eyes examined everyone in the room like she knew the gravity of the situation.

"I know most of you don't have any reason to trust me, but I swear on my mother Gaia that I bear no ill will towards this child. Hera, you can rest assured I would never harm her." Theia tried but Hera just turned her head to the side and didn't utter a word.

"We dont have time to chat, make a circle." Zeus said and placed Selene in the middle of the stone altair while Athena, Hestia, Poseidon, Hera, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter and Theia came around and intertwined their hands. Zeus tried to stand between Poseidon and Hera but she didn't want to let go of Poseidon's hand so he went to stand by his aunt Theia.

"You should all release your power and energy to her, give as much as you can without endangering yourself." he added the last part having Hera at mind. She was depleted of energy because of Ares' attack and he knew she could only give her life force.

As he spoke, Theia already started giving her energy to Selene purple vines of power floating and enveloping her small body in a purple glow. He knew she did it first as she wanted to gain trust of the others. Helios's gaze was glued to Selene's still form mysterious feeling caught in his eyes. It looked almost like devotion. He placed one arm on Theia's shoulder to give her strength and support. The others watched the exchange and soon everyone had started to concentrate to follow. A few moments later, sounds of struggle reached them and Zeus cursed out loud.

"I'll take care of it." Helios said with confidence. He looked at Selene one more time wonderment evident on his face, "Look at her eyes!"

Everyone turned their attention at the baby and her green eyes were purple!

"It's because of my power." Theia said and then added, "Go, my son!"

Helios flashed away.

Zeus went to Hera and took her hand in his, "Let's all help."

She was still angry and betrayed but didn't release his hand and he thought of it as a good sign.

All of a sudden Theia's energy flow was stopped and she gasped with tears in her eyes. Her white toga was starting to stain blue on the place where her heart was and her body was distorted in unnatural fashion. The light was slowly darkening in her eyes and as she died her body slumped down and revealed a smiling Iapetus. The Titan who controlled death had a deranged smile that caused even Zeus to shudder. Next to him was Ares looking at his parents and Selene with disgust.

Everyone looked terrified at Theia's crumpled dead body and Zeus screamed "NOOOOO! ARES! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

He lunged at his son, but Iapetus intervened and landed a punch at the enraged Zeus.

"Hurry, continue with the blessings!" Hestia yelled and all at once vines of energy started going in Selene's direction. One by one, the gods grunted and released their power to the silent baby.

"Don't overdo it, sister!", she told Hera, "I'll cover for you!" and released all her power.

Hera saw that she was giving all of her povers and looked at Hestia's determined face. She never wanted to be a goddess, she wanted to retire and this was her chance to pass the power to another.

One by one they gave gave their power and as they finished they joined Zeus who was fighting Ares and Iapetus. A bloody battle was raging. Aphrodite was standing, glued at her spot watching Ares and trembling in fear. Hera stumbled to the stone altair where her daughter was laid. She was calm, not scared at all but she was somehow different. Her eyes were purple with silver swirls not green like hers anymore. She cried silently and patted her baby "I won't let them hurt you, little bean. You are safe with mommy..."

"Ares!" Aphrodite exclaimed when he run at her side. She was so happy, she thought he was coming to her but his attention was aimed at Hera and Selene.

Hera looked at him and realized she had no power to defend herself so she did the only thing she could. She used all of her life force to form a protective shield around Selene.

"No!" Ares and Zeus yelled at the same time. Ares was stunned as he watched his mother's dead body on the ground. "It's all your fault!!!!" he screamed at Selene causing her to cry.

Zeus was blinded by grief, rage and reacted instinctively. He summoned a lightning and in one quick thurst he impaled Ares sending flashes of electric current to his brain to immobilise him.

His ears were full of screams which mirrored the screams of his soul. It was all so wrong. He could feel his son struggling for breath and soon his struggle stoped. Zeus flung his still body away from the stone room. Numb and confused he realised that yhe screaming wasn't his. It was Aphrodite who was screamimg. Hephaestus came at her side and she started hitting his chest grieving about Ares' death. Her whole body was shaking as she watched Ares' unconscious form falling from mount Olympus down to the human realm.

Hephaestus' face was cold but he didn't move. He just stood there looking at her with an unreadable expression.

In a flash of bright energy, Helios flashed back in the chamber. His eyes fell on Iapetus and he assumed a fighting stance.

"My dear nephew, fancy seeing you here!" a deranged death god greeted him. "You know, I never had much patience for traitors. Your mother should have known better..." he added looking at Theia's crumpled body. Helios followed his gaze and when he saw Theia something in him just snapped. He whispered barely audible, "No..." and just kept repeating it. Falling to his knees he crawled to her and took her limp body in embrace. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. He kept trying to heal her wounds but nothing worked. His whole body started to glow, temperature raising to abnormal degree. The stone around them started melting and turning into lava.

Everyone was looking at him now and when Iapetus tried to walk to him and attack him while his back were turned, Athena stepped in to defend.

Her voice devoid of emotion she said shortly, "Stop him, he's out of control."

Helios's domain being the sun meant his power supply was endless. Apollo flashed to him and tried to shake him back to his sense but as soon as he touched his arm he was burnt! Artemis was by her brothers side in a flash. Panic was starting to rise among the Olympians. An out of control Titan was dangerous.

Zeus was still in a daze. He crawled to Hera's body. When he finally reached her and touched her small hand, the strange coldness of her skin shocked him into reality. He gritted his teeth and managed to get up.

Everywhere around them was lava and sweltering stone. Flashes of sun fueled power blasted out of Helios who kept silently crying while holding his mother's body. Zeus reached for Selene, afraid that some of the blasts would hit her but her mother's shield was still protecting her. She saw Zeus and her angry little screams became louder.

Satisfied with the outcome Iapetus telepoted away but before he did he flashed a small cruel smile to all the gods present. Athena was furious he got away and she exclaimed in frustration. Hermes was holding Hestia while they levitated above bubbling lava. Artemis was holding Apollo not paying attention to anything but her brothers burnt hands. Hephaestus was holding the crying Aphrodite. She usually hated to be touched by him but Ares' death shook her, she didn't even notice who's were the hands holding her above the melted ground.

Poseidon and Demeter flew to Zeus's side and Poseidon asked, "What are we going to do about him?"

Zeus didn't have an answer. His mind wasn't working. All he knew was that he lost his wife and that he killed his son.

Selene's screams were getting so loud now that even Helios turned his attention to her. It was like he was in a stupor that only her voice could break. He looked at her when their eyes connected he gasped. She had his mother's eyes.

Behind him, Hades flashed in. Assessing the situation and seeing the pandemonium created by the grieving sun god, he formed two balls of hellfire and shot them directly at his head! Helios, caught by surprise didn't even fight back. Upon impact his body shot through the wall and flew of the Mount Olymp.

Poseidon quickly summoned water and the ground was no more a melted inferno. Everyone levitated back to the ground.

Forcefield around Selene droped. Hera's spell obviously lasted as long as the threat did. No one was attacking now and everything was quiet so she stopped crying and statted cooing. Remaining gods gathered around her. Zeus placed one finger on her and gave her some of his power to make sure she is healed and replenished but didn't trust his arms enough to take her of the stone altair.

Crying Aphrodite broke away from Hephaestus. She came to the altair with shaking legs and took a cooing baby to her arms.

Zeus watched her as she kissed Selene's head. What he didn't know is that she put all the pain and hatred about losing her lover in that kiss cursing his daughter so that everyone wants her but nobody ever love her.

****

Zeus snapped back to present. He didn't like walking down the memory lane. Many years past, but the pain of that night was alive in all of them. And now it's starting all over again.

After the events of that night his family, the twelwe Olympians, were no more. Hera's death broke the family bond that kept them together for many centuries. The Titans were dormant, using the time to regroup as they suffered loses as well.

Being ancient, he learned that the change and war were only constant things. Everything else was weak in the test of time. Not even love could cure the world of it's sickness. He lost his desire to have the greatest Pantheon. He lost his compassion. Faith... Everything was lost with the death of Hera.

But still, he kept fighting. Maybe there was a reason, he just couldn't remember it anymore.