The Olympians' Quest

Chapter 10 ~ Putting Aside One's Pride

3rd Pers. POV

3 months later

It had been 3 months since the gods had begun their quest. Three months since Percy, Ana, Thalia and Nico left them to deal with their problems on their own. Hestia and the remaining Olympians had been taking care of Olympus. Amphitrite and Persephone watched over their husbands domains whilst they were away.

Over the course of these months, quite a bit had changed between the gods.

While searching for the twins symbols of power on Delos, Apollo and Artemis remembered the 'good old days' when they would spend the day hunting together in the woods, when Artemis taught him how to carve a bow out of wood, or Apollo taught her how to make music using nature's tools.

The Archer Twins had returned.

Sure, they still argued (what siblings didn't?), but they had grown closer and begun to fix their bond that had dwindled in the last few thousand years.

Artemis even managed to be civil with Aphrodite for more than a few minutes. The love goddess had finally accepted that Artemis would not break her oath, but that did not stop Aphrodite from teasing the younger deity whenever she saw a good-looking male. Especially when said male happened to be wearing a hunting outfit.

Ares spent quite a bit of his time bonding with his brothers, Hermes and Apollo, during the quest. The three gods spent quite some time planning tricks and pranks, occasionally teasing their sisters.

The biggest change, however, was the behaviour of the Big Three. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades had fought a lot after their children left. The two eldest had especially blamed their youngest brother for that. The Lord of the seas and the Lord of the Underworld both found their old brotherly bond they once shared when they were trapped in their father's stomach. They had bonded over their mutual annoyance at their youngest sibling. When it became clear that they would accomplish nothing on the quest if they didn't work together, they managed to find a way to speak civilly with each other instead of constantly blowing up at one another. 

Hestia no longer visited every day. Sometimes she came a few times a week, and sometimes she merely left them to their own devices. It was the only way they could truly understand what it was like to be on a quest.

At one point, she had dropped off a backpack with some supplies and clothes for each of them, claiming that a god always interfered with quests and this was how she was going about it.

Zeus' ego had taken a great hit over the last few months. It reached a point where he no longer yelled at all, talking only when necessary. He was always so stuck in his head. The image of Thalia's expressions right before she left with the others gave him a great feeling of sadness and failure. The anger, disappointment, sadness and pain had been so prominent in that moment that he'd frozen. He'd had no idea how to respond to the demigods' accusations. He felt awful, truly, but it was too late. They were gone and the gods were nowhere closer to finding their symbols.

They were practically mortal now. The loss of their weapons had taken a great toll on them. When they bled, it came out an orange-y/bronze colour. Athena had said that it was a price they were paying. With so little power in them, they could not handle ichor in their system, thus their blood was slowly but surely turning red.

The gods had searched plenty of places: New York City, Ithaca, Manhattan, Rochester, some parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. They even ventured all the way to Greece and Delos (thanks to some help from Hestia), but still they could not find their weapons. It was as if they'd lost contact with them. They could no longer feel the aura of power they radiated so finding them had become a hundred times harder.