Started With A Dare - A POTHENA STORY ✔

I Refuse A Front-Row Ticket

ATHENA POV

I realised that I haven't had a dream for quite a while. Still, though, that was the worst place and moment to dream at.

I was on Mount Olympus. The throne room was empty except for me...and Ares? I looked down. I wasn't my goddess self - in fact, I was still in plain old human form, but I was floating. I looked up to Ares to figure out what this dream wanted to tell me, but the something gave me quite the shock.

Ares could see me. In fact, he himself might as well had given me this lucid dream.

I floated towards him, crossing my arms. "Poseidon doesn't know this, but I'm sure you play a huge role in this whole thing. Wilbur and his buddies alone couldn't have pulled off this entire scheme - I'm sure godly help was given to them. Why'd you help them? Did they promise to build you a shrine or something?"

Ares laughed. No, it was more of a cackle. The entire throne room's temperature seemed to decrease rapidly. "My dear Athena, I honestly have no interest in whatever shrine they'd want to build me. However..." His soft gaze turned dangerous. "There is one thing I want right now, and I'm so close to obtaining it!"

I gulped. Ares felt...different than usual. "What is it?"

I was greeted with Ares' evil grin before everything went dark and I woke up. The tent entrance was wide open and there were helpless yells of 'LET ME GO'. *Poseidon.*

I felt my pulse quicken and immediately leapt out of the tent. Poseidon was tied to two pine trees and Sinis was standing right behind him, pulling the pines down. Part of me was relieved that Poseidon wasn't dead yet, but the other part was panicking at the fact that Poseidon was probably minutes away from death and with my physically weak body, there was no way I could swoop in and save him.

"Well, looks like our audience has arrived! Now I can finally kill you." Sinis loosened his grip slightly, causing the pines to tilt backward and Poseidon to yelp.

"What are you doing?" I questioned angrily, though there was no need to. It was obvious what he was going to do. To have waited until I was awake so that I could witness it, too...it wasn't the first time one of us had been put on the brink of death, but we were both there every time. This time, I had to watch him killed silently. There had to be something I could do to save him...or at least die with him.

"Sit down, Athena. Right there." Sinis happily pointed a few metres away from himself, right in front of Poseidon. "We can't commence the show if the audience isn't seated yet."

I gritted my teeth. Hard. So hard I thought my teeth actually started crunching. *Show? Audience?* I told myself not to be shocked - this person in front of me was a sick and evil man. It was useless to try and beg for mercy - in fact, it was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Oh, give me a break. This isn't a performance - it's homicide. I'm curious, though, why'd you put him on there instead of me? I thought I was the more annoying one."

Judging by Poseidon's panicked look as he heard my statement, I'd done a pretty good job. The look was gone in seconds, though - even though we'd suffered amnesia, he knew me enough in the short journey we had over the past few days that this was some sort of plan. And to be completely honest, I wish I did have a plan. My only hope was for extremely unlikely godly help to arrive as I try making more time, perhaps even coming up with an actual plan to save our lives. If that was even possible.

"Ah, but it seems like you have greater affection for him than the other way round. Besides, I have a...small problem to take care of, just between him and me, and you see, this is the fastest solution. Now go ahead and get seated, you don't have any other choice anyway."

I didn't know what to think about that. Was that what Sinis saw? I contemplated shooting Poseidon an accusing look, but I reconsidered when I remembered the situation he was in. Inches away from death, and he was a descended immortal, too. I wouldn't be surprised if he died of fear right then and there on the spot, but that wouldn't be good. I don't know how I'd continue this if it was left only in my hands. I drove my mind away from him and slowly walked to the position he told me to sit. Instead of sitting down, I stood my ground and crossed my arms, hoping to come off as confident so that I could at least throw Sinis off guard slightly. That would allow Poseidon a few more seconds to live, and that was all I was fighting for.

Sinis looked at me sceptically. "Not gonna sit down like a good girl, huh?"

"Audiences only show up if it's a good show. This-"

"Oh, Athena, this is going to be a good show all right," he smirked at me as he let go of Poseidon even more, causing him to yelp in pain. I cussed under my breath. "So will you sit down?"

"Well, I don't think that's a good show! You're always repeating the same way to kill people - can't you use more of a creative method?" I was projecting my anger on a completely different subject. Sinis looked confused for a moment.

"Actually, Athena, you've got a good point. It'd be great if I could at *that* tree behind." Sinis pointed to the back with an inspired expression that was so fake I wanted to throw up right then and there. "So, I'm sure you have the strength to hold on to this naughty guy here for a moment as I fetch it? I wouldn't blame you if you *accidentally* let go, though. I myself barely had the strength to hold on." He threw in a disgusting giggle in the end, probably just to show how ridiculous he could be.

But then he did even more - he let go of the pines.

Poseidon screamed in agony. At that split second, I hurled myself at the pines and held them down, but even my weight alone wasn't enough...stupid mortal meat-bag. When I thought it was all over, there suddenly seemed to be an extra heavy weight added onto me. Curious but not bothering to look as Poseidon was in danger, I took advantage of this new heaviness and threw myself at the ropes bound onto him, somehow ripping them apart with my bare hands.

It wasn't until we both landed in safety that I decided to look around for the source of our help...which I simply could not believe.

(A/N: Yes, it's an author's note! And I'm sorry for being late. I've promised to stay away from my terrible procrastination habits but recently I've got 3 writing projects at the same time, homework and group projects from school and the deadlines are really getting to me. No excuses here, though! I just got worse at keeping my productivity sky high. I'll try my best to update on time next week. Also, I took part in the ONC this year! Check out my entry if you want to! Totally not a shameless plug...)