Ataraxia [BTS au | Heroes of Olympus]

33

His spine turned to steel. He knew it was the truth , that he had no purpose.

 It has never been true, another voice whispered – a voice that sounded like his mother's. Each of them berated you because they feared you and envied you. So does Khione. Use that!

He didn't feel like it, but he managed a laugh. He tried it again, and the laughter came more easily. Soon he was doubled over, giggling and snorting.

Calais joined in, until Zethes elbowed him. Khione's smile wavered. "What? What is so funny? I have doomed you!"

"Doomed me!" He laughed again. "Oh, gods ... sorry." He took a shaky breath and tried to stop chuckling. "Oh, boy ... okay. You really think I'm powerless? You really think I'm useless? Gods of Olympus, your brain must have freezer burn. You don't know my secret, do you?"

Khione's eyes narrowed. "You have no secret," she said. "You are lying."

"Okay, whatever," he said. "Yeah, go ahead and take my friends. Leave me here ... useless." He snorted. "Yeah. Gaia will be really pleased with you."

Snow swirled around the goddess. Zethes and Calais glanced at each other nervously.

"Sister," Zethes said, "if he really has some secret –"

"Pizza?" Cal speculated. "Hockey?"

"– then we must know,"Zethes continued. Khione obviously didn't buy it. He tried to keep a straight face, but he made his eyes dance with mischief and humour. Go ahead, he dared. Call my bluf .

"What secret?" Khione demanded. "Reveal it to us!"

He shrugged. "Suit yourself." He pointed casually towards the prow. "Follow me, ice people."

He pushed between the Boreads, which was like walking through a meat freezer. The air around them was so cold it burned his face. He felt like he was breathing pure snow.

He tried not to look down at Jin's frozen body as he passed. He tried not to think about his friends below, or Yoongi. He definitely tried not to think about the Boreads and the snow goddess, who were following him.

He fixed his eyes on the figurehead. The ship rocked under his feet. A single gust of summer air made it through the chill, and hebreathed it in, taking it as a good omen. It was still summer out there. Khione and her brothers did not belong here.

He knew he couldn't win a straight fight against Khione and two winged guys with swords.
He stopped at the foremast and faced Khione."Show us this secret of yours, Namjoon Kim," Khione growled. "Then pray I leave you on this ship intact. If you are toying with us, I will show you the horrors of frostbite."
He had seen pictures of frostbite victims. The threat terrified him, but he didn't let it show.
"Come on, then." He led the way to the prow, humming one of his dad's favourite songs – 'Summertime'.
When he got to the figurehead, he put her hand on Festus's neck. His bronze scales were cold. There was no hum of machinery. His ruby eyes were dull and dark.
"You know our dragon?" He asked.
Khione scoffed. "This cannot be your secret. The dragon is broken. Its fire is gone."
"Well, yes ..." He stroked the dragon's snout, trying not to move too fast."But Festus is more than a machine. He's a living creature."
"Ridiculous," the goddess spat. "Zethes, Cal – gather the frozen demigods from below. Then we shall break open the sphere of winds."
"You could do that, boys," He agreed. "But then you wouldn't see Khione humiliated. I know you'd like that."
The Boreads hesitated. "Hockey?" Cal asked.
"Almost as good," he promised. "You fought at the side of Jason and the Argonauts, didn't you? On a ship like this, the first Argo."
"Yes," Zethes agreed. "The Argo. Much like this, but we did not have a dragon."
"Don't listen to him, " Khione snapped. He felt ice forming on his lips.
"You could shut me up," he said quickly. "But you want to know my secret power – how I will destroy you, and Gaia, and the giants."
Hatred seethed in Khione's eyes, but she withheld her frost.
"You – have – no – power," She insisted.

"Spoken like a D-list goddess," He said. "Isn't that what Apollo called you? One who never gets taken seriously, who always wants more power." He turned to the Boreads. "She doesn't value you, either, you know. She thinks she can boss you around because you're demigods, not full-fledged gods. She doesn't understand that you're a powerful team."
"A team," Cal grunted. "Like the Ca-na-di-ens."

He had to struggle with the word since it was more than two syllables. He grinned and looked very pleased with himself.
"Exactly," He said. "Just like a hockey team. The whole is greater than the parts."

"Like a pizza," Cal added.
He laughed. "You are smart, Cal! Even I underestimated you."
"Wait, now," Zethes protested. "I am smart also. And good-looking."

"Very smart," he agreed, ignoring the good-looking part. "So put down the wind bomb and watch Khione get humiliated."
Zethes grinned. He crouched and rolled the ice sphere across the deck.
"You fool!" Khione yelled.
Before the goddess could go after the sphere, he lurched forward to the control at the base of Festus' neck. He clicked the buttons exactly like he remembered. For a horrifying second nothing happened.
"Never mind our plan," Khione snarled. "Kill him!"
As the Boreads raised their swords, the dragon's metal skin grew warm under his hand. He dived out of the way, tackling the snow goddess, as Festus turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees and blasted the Boreads, vaporizing them on the spot. For some reason, leaving behind only Zethes' sword.
He scrambled to his feet. He spotted the sphere of winds at the base of the foremast. He ran for it, but before he could get close Khione materialized in front of him in a swirl of frost. Her skin glowed bright enough to cause snow blindness.
"You miserable boy," she hissed. "You think you can defeat me – a goddess?"
At hiss back, Festus roared and blew steam, but he knew he couldn't breathe fire again without hitting him, too.
About twenty feet behind the goddess, the ice sphere began to crack and hiss. He was out of time for subtlety. He yelled and raised his dagger, charging the goddess.
Khione grabbed his wrist. Ice spread over his arm. The blade of his knife turned white.
The goddess's face was only six inches from his. Khione smiled, knowing she had won.
"A child of Athena," she chided. "You are nothing."

Festus creaked again. Behind he Khione he saw something. It was Yoongi his legs and hands on fire as he rose stayed floating in the middle of the air.

Maybe the movement of his eyes or the heat that was radiating from Yoongi, made Khione turn back.
Yoongi had raised a hand towards Khione, fire shooting out of it. But Khione was fast. Her hand that was not holding his wrist shit forward blasting snow at Yoongi.
The two elements clashed against each other, but Khione was winning. The range of Yoongi's fire kept decrease. That was when he raised his other palm and shot fire again, but this time in his direction. Well precisely towards his frozen knife.

The ice melted and before Khione could do something he drove his dagger straight down.
The blade touched Khione's chest, and the goddess exploded in a miniature blizzard. He collapsed, dazed from the cold. He heard Festus clacking and whirring, the reactivated alarm bells ringing.
The bomb. He struggled to rise. The sphere was ten feet away, hissing and spinning as the winds inside began to stir.He dived for it. His fingers closed around the bomb and he tried to throw it out of the ship hoping to get it away. But they weren't fortunate enough. The bomb shattered just after a few second he had let it go, pushing the ship halfway across the Mediterranean, though it had sustained relatively minor damage.