Athena began to read.

Athena adopts a handkerchief

SO ABOUT A MILLION PAGES AGO , I mentioned Zeus's first wife, the Titan Metis.

"I was confusing her with Thetis." Frank said Frankly.

Remember her? Neither did I.

"At least your memory is better than Percy." Hazel gave a kiss on Frank's cheeck.

I had to go back and look. All these names: Metis and Thetis and Themis

"There weren't that much names at the time." Apollo said.

and Feta Cheese—

"Perhaps you should eat some." Leo said.

I get a headache trying to keep them straight.

Percy rubbed his forehead.

Anyway, here's a recap: Last week on The Real Gods of Olympus: Metis was pregnant with Zeus's child. She had a prophecy that the child would be a girl, but if Metis and Zeus had another child after that, it would be a boy who would grow up to take Zeus's place. Hearing this, Zeus did the natural thing. He panicked and swallowed his pregnant wife whole.

Dun-dun!

"Must you be dramatic?" Jason asked.

What happened next?

"Tell us." Hazel said.

Well, immortals can't die, even when they're ingested by other immortals, so Metis gave birth to her daughter right there in Zeus's gut.

Aphrodite threw up onto Ares' lap. Then she mumbled an apology and vanished them. Ares gave her an assuring look. That's ok, sweetheart!

(Feel free to get sick now. Or you can wait. It gets worse….)

Metis eventually faded into pure thought, since she was the Titan of deep thoughts anyway. She became nothing more than a nagging voice in the back of Zeus's mind.

"I wonder what was inside in Zeus' body." Nico wondered.

"A realm where only air resides. I was floating there." Athena said. "Mom was more like an echo."

As for her daughter, she grew up in Zeus's body, the same way the earlier Olympians had grown up in Kronos's belly.

"Better than Kronos' belly though." Demeter said. "We couldn't even move actually."

Once the child was an adult (a small, super-compressed, very uncomfortable adult)

"I had space." Athena said. "I became an echo too, and tried to escape through a place where all echos dwell, as mom informed. It happened to be father's head.

she started looking for a way to escape into the world. None of the options seemed good. If she erupted from Zeus's mouth, everyone would laugh at her and say she had been vomited.

"Easy, but undignified." Athena muttered.

That was undignified. If she followed Zeus's digestive track the other way—Nope! That was even grosser.

"Bet it would have been easier than from Zeus' mouth." Poseidon said.

She was a strong young goddess, so she might have been able to break out of Zeus's chest,

"You would have been considered cruel and heartless." Hestia said.

but then everybody would think she was one of the monsters from the Alien movies,

"Alien movies weren't available at the time." Aphrodite said.

and again, that was not the kind of entrance she was looking for.

Finally she had an idea. She dissolved into pure thought—a little trick her mother, Metis, had taught her—

Athena smiled.

and traveled up Zeus's spinal cord straight into his brain, where she re-formed.

"Zeus is going to have a massive headache!" Apollo said.

She started kicking and hammering and screaming inside Zeus's skull, making as much racket as she could.

"It felt like I was going to die. And I'm immortal." Zeus said.

(Maybe she had a lot of room to move around in there because Zeus's brain was so small. Don't tell him I said that.)

"You're so busted, dude." Jason whispered.

"Now we're even, Perseus." Athena said.

Zeus' body was cackling with electricity.

"Perseus Jackson!" He roared.

"Yes?" Percy mumbled innocently.

"I'm the sky god! I see many things! I have seen what you love most after your mother, your half sister, your girlfriend and your stepfather!" Zeus bellowed.

Percy was thinking hard what he loved fifth best.

"You're hereby banned from blue food for five years!" Zeus thundered.

Percy fell into knees. "Nooo! Not the blue food!" He began to sob.

"Come on Zeus, he's just a kid." Hestia said. "Pardon him, for me?" She gave a sweet smile.

"But still-"

Hestia gave him puppy dog eyes.

"Fine! You're pardoned!" Zeus grumbled. "But you must burn some of them for me in future." He said.

"Thank you my lord. Thank you lady Hestia." Percy flashed a grateful smile at Hestia, who accepted it with a raised hand.

As you can imagine, this gave Zeus a splitting headache.

He couldn't sleep all night with the pounding in his skull.

"He was noisy in the bed, grumbling about his head." Hera complained.

The next morning he stumbled into breakfast and tried to eat, but he kept wincing, screaming, and pounding his fork on the table, screaming, "STOP IT! STOP IT!"

"I was really thinking that father was going insane." Hephaestus said.

Hera and Demeter exchanged worried looks.

"No matter what, we care for you." Three sisters said.

"Nice to know." Poseidon said.

"Uh, my husband?" Hera asked. "Everything…okay?"

"Headache!" Zeus bellowed. "Bad, bad headache!"

As if to prove his point, the lord of the universe slammed his face into his pancakes,

"Why must Zeus always ruin good food?" Dionysus asked.

which demolished the pancakes and the plate and put a crack in the table, but did nothing for his headache.

"The worst way to solve your headache." Apollo said.

"Aspirin?" Apollo suggested. (He was the god of healing.)

"Usually Aspirin works." Apollo shrugged.

"Nice cup of tea?" Hestia suggested.

"With ginger?" Hermes licked his lips.

"I could split your skull open," offered Hephaestus, the blacksmith god.

" I had no understanding of living beings, trust me. Many lonely years with machines can do that to you. Still, I have very little understanding." Hephaestus said.

"Hephaestus!" Hera cried. "Don't talk to your father that way!"

"She loves to scold." Aphrodite said.

"What?" Hephaestus demanded. "Clearly he's got a problem in there. I could open up the hood and take a look. Might relieve the pressure. Besides, he's immortal. It won't kill him."

"Surgeries weren't known then." Apollo said.

"No, thanks…" Zeus grimaced. "I…" Suddenly red spots danced before Zeus's eyes. Pain racked his body, and a voice in his head screamed: LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!

"Athena's screaming at the top of her lungs. I feel you Zeus." Poseidon muttered.

Zeus fell from his chair, writhing in agony. "Cut my skull!" he wailed. "Get it out of me!"

"Finally, Zeus went mad with pain." Frank said.

The other gods turned pale with fear. Even Apollo froze, and he had like, a dozen Boy Scout badges in first aid.

"I was the best back then." Apollo said.

Hephaestus rose from his seat. "Right. I'll get my awl." (Which was basically an industrial strength ice pick for making holes in thick surfaces, like metal, or gods' heads.)

"Rough." Hazel said, her eyes widened with horror.

"The rest of you, get Zeus on his throne and hold him down."

The Olympians prepped for emergency brain surgery. They dragged Zeus to his throne and held him steady while Hephaestus retrieved his tools.

"Hephaestus in action!" Leo said.

"Thank you too, son." Hephaestus thanked.

The blacksmith god wasted no time. He marched up to Zeus, set the point of the awl in the middle of the sky god's forehead, raised his hammer, and

BANG!

After that, they called him One-Hit Hephaestus.

"That's better than cripple. For I'm not cripple anymore." Hephaestus said.

He used enough force to penetrate the skull without turning Zeus into a god-kebab.

"Thankfully. I wouldn't able to take another blow from it." Zeus said.

From the awl point to the bridge of Zeus's nose, a fissure spread—just wide enough for Athena to squeeze her way out.

Cheeres erupted.

She sprang from Zeus's forehead and, right in front of their eyes, grew until she was a fully formed adult goddess, dressed in gray robes and battle armor, wearing a bronze helmet and holding a spear and shield.

"It was a nice entrance." Hephaestus said.

"Thank you." Athena said briefly.

I'm not sure where she got the outfit. Maybe Athena magically created it,

"Magically created it. I can't excatly come out naked, can I?" Athena asked.

or maybe Zeus ate clothing and weaponry for snacks.

"Zeus, did you ate wardrobes of your old girlfriends' " Poseidon teased.

At any rate, the goddess made quite an entrance.

"Hello, everyone," she said calmly. "I am Athena, goddess of warfare and wisdom."

"Hi!" Nico waved his hand. "Are you my family?"

Demeter passed out.

"I did not!" Demeter deadpanned.

Hera looked scandalized, since her husband had just given birth to a child from his own forehead, and Hera was fairly certain Athena wasn't her daughter.

"She was too puzzled to be angry at Zeus." Apollo said.

Ares the war god said, "You can't be in charge of war! That's my job!"

"Got to keep my job safe." Ares shrugged.

"I said warfare and wisdom," Athena explained. "I'll oversee the sort of combat that requires planning, craftiness, and high intelligence. You can still be in charge of the stupid, bloody, 'manly man' aspects of war."

"I can be intelligent when I want to. But that's no fun." Ares said.

"Problems of immortality. You would be more childish." Leo said.

"Oh, all right," said Ares. Then he frowned. "Wait…what?"

"Yeah yeah, smarty pants. Got it. No need to boss me around." Ares said.

Hephaestus sewed up the crack in Zeus's head. Despite the misgivings of the other gods, Zeus insisted that they welcome his daughter Athena into their ranks. That's how she became one of the Olympians.

"Poly-tricks!" Demeter said.

Like you heard, she was the goddess of wisdom, which included good advice and useful skills.

"Also, a big head." Ares said.

"Brother?" Hephaestus chided.

She gave the Greeks the olive tree, but she also taught them about calculating numbers, weaving cloth, using oxen to pull their plows, flossing after every meal, and a bunch of other helpful tips.

"Guidance book for the Greeks, that's Athena." Aphrodite said.

As the goddess of warfare, she was more about playing defense than offense. She didn't enjoy combat, but she knew that sometimes it was necessary. She always tried to win through good strategy and sneaky tricks. She tried to minimize casualties, whereas Ares loved violence and liked nothing better than a battlefield littered with mangled corpses.

"You cannot do war alone. You are but one side of a coin. Ares is the other." Grover said in his best great dragon voice.

"I am the brighter side, obviously." Athena said.

(Yeah, he is a sweetheart, that guy.)

"I'm not a sweetheart! I'm a hot badass!" Ares said.

Athena's sacred plant was the olive tree, since that was her big gift to the Athenians.

"Are you implying something, Percy?" Annabeth asked sweetly. "Big?"

Her sacred animals were the owl and the snake. Supposedly, the owl was a symbol of wisdom from the heavens.

An owl stood on Athena's throne hooted.

The snake symbolized wisdom from the earth.

"Then what symbolize the wisdom of Tartarus?" Hermes wondered.

"Pit scorpion?" Apollo guessed.

Percy shuddered, remembering his near death encounter.

Me, I never understood that. If owls were so wise, why would they go around asking Who? all the time,

"Because they're seeking more knowledge about people they meet." Athena said.

like they couldn't remember their own names?

"No, they're asking your name." Annabeth said.

Snakes have never struck me as very smart, either;

Two snakes sprung from Hermes iphone, which was turned into the caduceus.

'Oh shit!' Percy thought.

"We're not very smart? We're hurt Percy!" Martha hissed. George kept his silence.

"Sorry Martha, I wasn't thinking about you guys. George, dude! Its been a while!" Percy said.

"Say something George!" Martha pressed.

"He didn't bring me a rat as promised!" George said.

"George!" Martha deadpanned. "Do you ever stop asking for rats?"

"But rats are deilicious!" George whined.

"Back to iphone mode!" Hermes said sweetly.

but apparently the Greeks thought that when snakes hissed, they were whispering important secrets.

"George and martha can be very smart." Hermes said.

Yeah, that's right, Mr. Greek Dude. Hold that rattlesnake a little closer to your ear. He's got something to tell you.

"You're about to die!" Nico hissed.

Athena is easy to spot in the old Greek statues and paintings. She pretty much always wears the same thing.

"She has no need of flaunting her beauty, she's natural." Hephaestus said.

"I'm flattered Hephaestus, but keep your compliments to yourself." Athena said.

Her helmet is decorated with rams, horses, griffons, and sphinxes, and it has a big fancy Mohawk-type plume on the top.

"A girl got to do her own styles." Piper said.

She usually carries her shield and spear, and wears a sleeveless Spartan-style dress with a magic cloak called the Aegis draped over her shoulders. According to the legends, the cloak is lined in snakeskin and is pinned with the bronzed head of Medusa, kind of like a corsage.

"That was after Medusa." Hermes said.

Sometimes you'll hear the Aegis described as the goddess's shield rather than her cloak.

"When goddess Athena throws her mighty shield- All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!" Leo sang.

"Its not for throwing, thank you very much." Athena said. "The shield and cloak both called Aegis, for your knowledge. Cloak is Aegis one, and shield is Aegis two."

I guess nobody has ever looked closely enough to tell for sure which is right, because with the head of the Medusa there…

"You can't observe and learn." Frank said.

well, the whole point of that thing is to make you run away screaming.

"That kind of shields are useful that way." Thalia said, touching her own bracelet.

In a lot of stories, Athena gives the Aegis to Zeus as a present, so it's technically his;

"To get into your daddy's good graces, eh princess?" Ares asked.

but she borrows it from time to time like, Hey, Dad, can I borrow the severed head of Medusa tonight? I'm going out with my friends.

"Daddy's girl!" Hermes teased.

Okay, honey, just bring it back by midnight, and don't petrify anyone.

Zeus and Athena shook their heads in embarrassment.

One of the biggest mysteries about Athena is why she's called Pallas Athena.

Athena's eyes had tears in them.

For the longest time, I thought people were saying Palace Athena, like it was a hotel in Vegas, or maybe Athena's secret lair.

"Athena's secret lair? Wow, must be like the hotel that had those cash cards." Leo said. Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Nico shuddered.

Even the Greeks couldn't agree on why their favorite goddess had the nickname Pallas, but here's the way I heard it.

When Athena was a young goddess, fresh out of Zeus's forehead, her dad sent her to live with the nymphs of Lake Tritones in Libya on the North African coast.

"Why?" Hazel wondered.

"You'll like them," Zeus promised. "They're warlike women, just like you. They might even teach you a few combat tricks!"

"That's not why you sending her away, Zeus." Poseidon knitted his eyebrows.

"I doubt that," Athena said. "Why are you sending me away?"

"Because you're annoying?" Apollo teased.

"Nah. Because Athena reminds Zeus of his headache." Dionysus drawled.

Zeus tried for a smile, which wasn't easy, since his forehead still hurt. "Look, my little war muffin—"

"War muffin? Thanks son!" Poseidon gave a thumbs up.

"Don't call me that!"

"You've been stuck inside my guts your whole life," Zeus said. "This'll give you a chance to learn about the wide world. And it'll give the other Olympians time to get used to the idea of you being on the gods' council. Honestly, you're a little intimidating to them.

"Amazingly, this is one of rare times that Zeus was a good father." Nico muttered.

You're smart and powerful."

"You're waterring her ego!" Demeter chided.

Athena was flattered, so she agreed to spend some time in Africa.

"This time for Africa!" Grover did some dance. Others gave him odd looks. "What? I like Shakira."

Aphrodite beamed. Grover panicked. "And as a singer." He didn't want to hear about Grovra.

She loved it there, just as Zeus had predicted. The nymphs of Lake Tritones were excellent fighters and athletes, maybe because they lived in such a harsh environment.

"Birds in same feather flock together." Apollo said.

Athena learned all sorts of super-secret ninja-nymph combat techniques.

"Best was turning into water puddles and luring enemy in, then attack." Poseidon said.

The nymphs thought Athena was the best thing since sliced ambrosia.

"Sliced Ambrosia is better than Athena." Ares said, biting a slice of Ambrosia.

Her dearest friend was Pallas, the only nymph who could occasionally beat Athena in hand-to hand combat.

Athena looked sad, her stoic face expression wavered.

They shared the same taste in armor and weapons. They had the same sense of humor. They thought so much alike they could finish each other's sentences.

"Like Fred and George?" Nico asked.

In no time, they became BFFs.

"What does that mean?" Hazel asked.

"Best friends forever?" Percy shrugged.

Then one day, Athena and Pallas were sparring by the lakeside when Zeus happened to look down from the sky to see how Athena was doing.

"After chasing his fair share of girlfriends." Frank guessed.

Zeus was shocked. Athena and Pallas fought with such speed and intensity, Zeus couldn't believe it was a mock combat.

"They were too good." Zeus said.

Athena looked like she was about to be killed!

"She can't die. She's immortal!" Hephaestus said quickly.

(And, yeah, I know she was immortal so she couldn't actually be killed, but Zeus was an overprotective dad. In the heat of the moment, he forgot.)

"Yeah, they have the best daddy and daughter bonding. No love for us peasants." Apollo said.

Pallas thrust her javelin at Athena's chest and Zeus overreacted.

"That he does." Hades agreed.

He appeared in the sky right behind Athena and held up the Aegis (which he was keeping at the time) so Pallas couldn't help but see it.

Hestia gasped.

The bronzed face of Medusa startled the nymph. Athena knocked aside her friend's javelin and counterattacked, stabbing her spear right at Pallas's gut.

Tears began to flow over Athena's cheecks silently. Others looked sympathetic towards her. Zeus did the unexpected, he rose from the throne and went towards Athena, enveloped her in a comforting hug.

"I'm sorry." He muttered in her ear.

Athena nodded. After a few minutes, Zeus went back to his throne and sat down.

The dull mood stayed in the room, as Athena began to read again.

Normally, Pallas would've had no trouble dodging. Athena expected Pallas to move. But this time, Pallas was too slow. Athena's spear went straight through the nymph's stomach and out the other side. Pallas crumpled to the ground.

"Poor Pallas." Aphrodite said.

Nymphs are magical creatures. They can live a long time and withstand a lot, maybe even the sight of Medusa, but they aren't immortal. If you impale a nymph with a spear, she will die.

"Duh!" Dionysus said.

Pallas died.

Crowd gave two minutes of silence as an honour for Pallas.

Athena fell to her knees, sobbing in shock and horror. She cradled her poor friend's lifeless body and glared at Zeus, still hovering in the air with the Aegis.

"Caught in the action, aren't you?" Poseidon mumbled.

"DAD!" Athena screamed. "WHY?"

"Everytime an individual was betrayed, they always ask that." Ares said.

"I'm familliar with it too." Aphrodite said

Looking in his daughter's stormy gray eyes, Zeus felt almost as scared as he had when he'd faced the giant Typhoeus.

"Zeusy is afraid of his wittle daughter!" Apollo sang.

"I thought…I didn't mean to…Oops."

"They say that everytime, males." Artemis said.

He disappeared and fled back to Olympus.

Athena was miserable in her grief. Her friend's body dissolved back into the waters of Lake Tritones, the way water nymphs often do,

"Satyrs dissolve into plants, right?" Nico asked.

"What would be the plant of goat boy?" Leo asked.

"I'm so glad if you don't want to find out." Grover said.

but Athena decided to honor Pallas with a sacred monument. The goddess built a wooden replica of Pallas and painted it with such skill that it looked almost lifelike.

Hephaestus applaused.

Then Athena cut off a small section of the Aegis cloak (which, being god-size, was pretty huge)

" And I can make the small piece large." Athena added.

"Engorgio?" Nico suggested.

and draped it over the shoulders of the replica Pallas.

The statue became an important artifact. Eventually it ended up in the city of Troy,

"I thought Athena hated Troy?" Hazel asked.

No one answered that.

where it stood in a special shrine called the Palladium, meaning the place of Pallas. Women could go there and claim sanctuary from Athena. No one would be allowed to harm them.

"Even another women?" Jason asked.

"Even another women. At that time I thought things that were...nonsense. I was grieving over Pallas." Athena said.

Men, on the other hand, weren't even allowed to look at the statue. The punishment for doing so was death.

Artemis beamed.

Nico cleared his throat. "I believe that Pallas' death wasn't caused by all the males of planet?" He asked calmly.

"As I said to my half brother." Athena said briefly.

The statue of Pallas looked so much like Athena that people began to call it the Pallas/Athena.

"Women." Apollo said. Artemis glared at him.

"What? Its not like men can see the statue in live to tell the tale." Apollo said, holding up his hands in air.

Then people got confused and started calling the goddess Pallas Athena.

"I suppose you were fine with that." Hephaestus said. Athena nodded.

Athena was fine with that. In a way, by taking her friend's name, the goddess was keeping Pallas's memory alive. So feel free to call her Pallas Athena, but don't ask her if you can book a room at the Palace Athena.

"It reminds her of one of worst experiences in her life. That's mean." Hestia said.

I can tell you from personal experience, she doesn't think that's funny.

"What? The talk I gave to you, Perseus?" Athena asked smugly.

"She gave talk to you, Percy?" Annabeth asked. "Poseidon visited me in dreams and said that if I hurt Percy, then he would curse me of eternal thirst."

They looked at each other, then began to yell.

"Mom/Dad how could you intimidate my boyfriend/girlfriend like that?" They asked.

Poseidon and Athena grinned sheepishly. Rest of the gods chuckled.

Come to think of it…Athena doesn't have a great sense of humor in general.

"Come on Perseus. I do." Athena said.

"No you don't." Hermes grinned.

The way she dealt with Arachne, for instance? Harsh.

Athena's face looked stoic. Annabeth went pale, remembering the mother of all spiders and her little adventure led to a *picnic* in Tartarus.

Arachne started life with no advantages at all. She lived in a kingdom called Lydia, which was in the country we now call Turkey. It was nothing special, sort of the South Dakota of Ancient Greece.

"How dare you insult South Dakota?" Nico roared mockingly.

"They got presidents, at least." Piper added.

(Sorry, South Dakota.)

"That's what I thought." Leo said. "Always the charming lad who apologises."

Arachne's parents were lower-class wool dyers, which meant they spent all day stirring bolts of cloth in buckets of stinky, steaming purple soup—kind of the equivalent of flipping burgers at McDonald's.

"Don't you ever insult hambergers in front of me, Percy!" Thalia said.

They died when Arachne was young, leaving her with no friends, family, or money. Yet Arachne became the most famous girl in the kingdom because of pure skill. She could weave like nobody's business.

"She was beautiful and very skilled. I have seen her handy works sometimes." Apollo said.

"When?" Leo couldn't help but butt-in.

"I'm the god of light. I'm also the god of knowledge. I know and see everything under the sun light, and I can view them whenever I wish. I can watch you, regardless of what you doing." Apollo grinned mischievously.

"That's gross. Even for a god." Hazel said, wrinkling her nose.

"Why thank you dear. I'm honoured." Apollo said.

I know, you're thinking, Wow. Weaving. South Dakota is starting to sound exciting.

"No, we're not thinking of South Dakota, and you're no mind reader, Percy." Piper said.

But, dude, you try weaving. It's hard!

"Malcolm would have pulverized you." Annabeth said. "He loooves weaving."

I mean have you ever looked at the fabric of your shirt up close? Next time you're in a boring chemistry lecture, check it out.

"I can't. I would be too busy in Underworld." Nico said.

"You can't be in underworld when you're in the school- Wait? Are you having underworld teachers too?" Annabeth asked in very excited voice. " Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur, Micheal Faraday, Ernest Rutherford and all other legends?"

"Nope. Lets just say, I'm in a stress relieving trance and I can see the underworld." Nico said, ruining Annabeth's excitement.

The cloth is made of threads—millions of them going up and down, back and forth. Somebody had to take the material, like wool or cotton or whatever, brush it out so all the fibers go in the same direction, then spin it and twist it into those tiny little threads. Then they had to line up a zillion sideways threads, all parallel to each other like guitar strings, and weave the up-and-down threads into them.

"That's your lullaby in Chemistry class, I guess." Leo said.

Sure, now we've got machines to do that. But imagine, back in the day, doing it all by hand. Every square inch of cloth took hours and hours to make. Most people could only afford one shirt and one pair of pants, because they were so freaking hard to make. Curtains or sheets? Forget about it! And that's if you just made it one color, like white. What if you wanted a pattern? Then you had to plan out which threads to dye what color and you had to get them all in exactly the right place, like a massive puzzle. With my ADHD, I could never do that.

"Malcolm also have ADHD." Annabeth countered.

"I'm not a son of Athena." Percy reminded her.

Weaving was the only way to get things made out of cloth, so unless you wanted to run around naked all the time, you'd better find yourself a good weaver.

"Even beef boy found a one. He had a loincloth." Percy said.

Arachne made it look easy. She could make you a Hawaiian shirt with pictures of flowers and frogs and coconuts woven into the fabric,

"Why frogs? Is the shirt for Umbridge as a birthday present?" Nico asked.

and she could do it in about five minutes.

"Wow!" Jason said. "She is that good!"

She could make curtains with silver and blue thread so when the fabric rustled, it looked like actual clouds moving across a blue sky. Her favorite thing was making tapestries—which were big pieces of fabric art that you could hang on your walls. They were only for decoration, and they were so hard for most weavers to make that nobody but kings and pro basketball players could afford them,

"Or billionaires like Tony Stark." Leo said.

but Arachne made them for fun and handed them out like party favors.

"She seem to be generous." Piper said.

That made her popular and very famous.

"Why not? Her works were good, and they were seen by many people." Hephaestus said.

Pretty soon the local folks were gathering at Arachne's hut every day to watch her work. Even the nymphs left their woods and their streams to gawk at her weaving, because her tapestries were more beautiful than nature.

"She certainly was skilled, then." Grover said.

Arachne's hands seemed to fly. She picked up a tuft of wool, spun it into thread, dyed it whatever color she wanted, and looped it on the frame of her loom in less than a second. When she had a whole row of strands going up and down, she attached the sideways thread to a long piece of wood called a shuttle,

"Shuttle? What would it do?" Hazel asked.

which was kind of like a giant sewing needle. She slid the shuttle back and forth as fast as a ball in a tennis game, weaving the threads together into a solid piece of cloth, and because she'd planned out her colors so perfectly, a picture appeared in the cloth as if by magic.

"Her works were like magic, but I assure you, she used no magic. That's pure talent." Apollo said. "Isn't that right, Athena?"

Athena nodded, rather grudgingly.

Shuttle, shuttle, shuttle, shuttle: WHAM!

"Its a better poem than Apollo's own ones." Artemis said.

Suddenly you were looking at an ocean scene woven from cloth, but so realistic that the waves seemed to break on the beach.

"Huh?" Poseidon mamaged to ask. "Without any magic?"

The water glittered in blue and green metallic thread. The woven people on the shore were so carefully crafted you could make out the expressions on their faces. If you held a magnifying glass up to the sand dunes, you could pick out each individual grain of sand.

Arachne had basically invented high-definition weaving.

"Mind blown." Leo said. " I would have loved to see one of her works but she is a monster now, and I wouldn't die to see one of her works."

One of the nymphs gasped. "Arachne, you are amazing!"

"Thanks." Arachne allowed herself a smug smile as she prepared to weave her next masterpiece.

"Her big ego begins to grow." Annabeth said.

"Athena herself must have taught you weaving!" the nymph said.

"I didn't even bless her." Athena muttered. 'There must be something. Why Apollo keeps complimenting her?' She thought.

Now, this was a huge compliment. Arachne should've just nodded, said thank you, and let it go.

" Not everyone is humble as you Percy." Annabeth said.

But Arachne was too proud of her own work. She had no use for the gods. What had they ever done for her? Arachne had built herself up from nothing. Her parents had died and left her penniless.

"She has very good points." Apollo said.

"Why are you keep taking her side?" Artemis noticed this too.

She'd never had a bit of good luck.

"Poor girl." Aphrodite cooed.

"Athena?" Arachne snorted. "I taught myself how to weave."

"Very impressive. You and her could have gotten alone well." Hermes said.

The crowd shuffled nervously.

"But, surely," one man said, "you should thank Athena for your talent, since the goddess invented weaving. Without her—"

"He had some sense." Athena said. "But he's provoking her."

"No tapestry for you!" Arachne hit the man in the face with a ball of yarn.

"Burn!" Leo exclaimed. "She completed his sentence though."

"Weaving is my thing. If Athena is so great, she can come down here and test her skills against mine. We'll see who gets schooled."

"That's badass." Ares said, while putting on a shirt designed with spiders. 'I support Arachne' was written in the middle of the shirt. Athena gritted her teeth. Annabeth held Percy's hand tight.

You can guess what happened. Athena heard about this challenge. When you're a goddess, you really can't let somebody get away with calling you out like that.

"Hubris comes again! And Athena got her ass handed to herself by mere mortal!" Poseidon said.

Athena gave him ' How could you?' look.

"Come on! Can't take a teasing?" Poseidon asked sarcastically. Athena gave him a playful glare.

"Your competitive spirit need to be kept in line, uncle." She said.

The next day, Athena descended to the earth, but rather than come in with spears blazing, she decided to visit Arachne in stealth mode and check things out.

"Before the battle of fists, comes the battle of minds." Jason quoted.

"Never took you for a Kung-Fu Panda fan, dude." Leo said.

Athena was careful that way. She liked to get her facts straight, and she believed in giving people a second chance.

"She and Dumbledore are kinda similar that way." Nico said.

After all, she'd accidentally killed her own best friend Pallas. She knew that mistakes happened.

"Good to see you're learning from your mistakes, yet you keep doing mistakes to learn." Hermes stated the 'obvious', which earned him a glare from goddess of wisdom.

She took the shape of a feeble old woman

"Why goddesses always take old woman forms when they're visiting someone?" Hazel asked.

"To get mortals to underestimate them, I guess." Percy shrugged.

and hobbled over to Arachne's hut, joining the crowd that had gathered to watch the weaver do her thing.

The mortal was good. No doubt about it.

"I'm surprised. Athena admits skill of another one." Hermes said.

Arachne wove scenes of mountains and waterfalls, cities shimmering in the afternoon heat, animals prowling in the forests, and sea monsters so terrifying they looked ready to leap out of the fabric and attack. Arachne churned out the tapestries with inhuman speed, flinging them into the crowd as prizes, firing them from her T-shirt cannon, making all the spectators happy with valuable parting gifts.

"Spectators lived their happy lives, decorated their homes with her tapestries, wore the clothes she weaved for them and sneered at her whenever someone told the tale." Apollo said.

"You're cryptically taking her side Apollo, is there some secret?" Hephaestus asked.

"Nothing." Apollo said, clearly hiding something.

The girl didn't seem greedy. She just wanted to share her work with the world. Athena respected that.

Hermes raised her eyebrows mockingly.

This mortal Arachne hadn't come from a rich family or gone to a fancy school. She had no advantages, and she'd made something of herself from skill alone. Athena decided to give Arachne the benefit of a doubt.

"Now I think you should have ignored her challenge and let her live her own life." Demeter said.

The goddess pushed her way through the crowd and began to speak to Arachne as the young girl worked.

"Here goes nothing!" Leo said.

"You know, dearie," said Old Lady Athena, "I may be old, but I've gained some wisdom with my age. Would you accept some advice?"

"No, she won't." Frank said.

Arachne just grunted. She was busy with her weaving and didn't want any words of wisdom, but she said nothing.

"Patience is a virtue." Jason said.

"She didn't want words of wisdom, Jason." Piper said.

"You're very talented," Athena continued. "There's absolutely no harm in gaining the praise of other humans.

"You just blew up your cover!" Hermes announced.

You've earned it! But I hope you've given the goddess Athena proper credit for your talent. She invented weaving, after all, and she grants talent to mortals like you."

"Yet you haven't granted her anything." Hades stated.

Arachne stopped weaving and glared at the old lady. "Nobody granted me anything, Grandma. Maybe your eyes have gone bad, but look at this tapestry. I made this. I don't need to thank anyone else for my hard work!"

"She loves her art dearly." Hestia said.

Athena tried to keep her cool. "You are proud. I see that. And rightly so. But you are dishonoring the goddess. If I were you, I would ask her forgiveness right now. I'm sure she would grant it to you.

"Cause she is standing in front of you right then." Nico said.

She is merciful to all who—"

"Really?" Hermes chuckled. Athena glared at him.

"Get lost, Grandma!" Arachne snapped. "Save your advice for your daughters and stepdaughters. I don't need it. If you love Athena so much, go tell her to come find me and we'll see who owns the art of weaving!"

"Go Arachne!" Ares cheered, chewing some peanuts. Poseidon held back his smile for the sake of new found peace between him and Athena, but Percy's eyes never missed 'Arachne rocks' bangle around Poseidon's left wrist.

That was it.

Athena's disguise burned away in burst of light. The goddess stood before the crowd, her shield and spear gleaming. "Athena has come," she said. "And she accepts your challenge."

"And they call me a showoff." Zeus muttered.

Pro tip: If you're a mortal and a goddess appears right next to you, and if you want to survive the next few minutes, the proper thing to do is to fall on your face and grovel.

"Advice given by a person who never follows them." Thalia shook her head.

"I'm a half god." Percy pointed out.

The crowd did exactly that, but Arachne had guts. Of course she was terrified inside. Her face went pale, then flushed red, then turned pale again. But she managed to stand and glare at the goddess.

"I would have never thought that I would admire a human." Ares said.

"Fine. Let's see what you've got, old lady!"

""I'm sorry I have to say this." Hephaestus started. "But-" he stopped.

"Burrrrrn!" He exclaimed.

"Ooooo," said the crowd.

"They were enjoying this, like we are now." Hazel said.

"What I've got?" Athena shot back. "The little girl from Lydia's going to show me how to weave? When I get through, this crowd's going to be using your tapestries for toilet paper!"

"This is gonna be fun." Ares said, cutting a mango using his knife.

"Burn!" said the crowd.

"Oh, yeah?" Arachne sneered. "Must've been dark inside your daddy's head if you think you can weave better than me. Zeus probably swallowed your mama just to keep you from getting born and embarrassing yourself."

"Now, that's harsh, yet I'm enjoying this friendly banter.." Aphrodite said.

"Snap!" the crowd yelled.

"Oh, yeah?" Athena growled. "Well, your mama…"

"Is dead." Nico said.

The goddess took a deep breath. "You know what? That's enough trash talk. It's time to weave. One tapestry each. Winner gets bragging rights."

"Bragging rights? Since when?" Jason asked.

"Uh-huh." Arachne put her fists on his hips. "And who decides the winner. You?"

"I swore on river Styx to give a fair judgement." Athena said briefly.

"Yes," Athena said simply. "On the River Styx, I promise a fair judgment. Unless you'd like these mortals to decide between us."

"Checkmate!" Hermes said.

Arachne looked at the terrified mortals and realized she was in a hopeless situation. Obviously the mortals would decide for Athena no matter how good Arachne's weaving was. They wouldn't want to get zapped into ashes or turned into warthogs for angering the goddess.

"Warthogs? Were you reading or watching Harry Potter?" Nico asked.

Arachne didn't believe for a minute that Athena would be fair, but maybe gods really did have to keep their promises if they swore on the River Styx.

"Nope. We have living evidence in the room." Piper said, her eyes hovering over Percy, Thalia and Jason.

Arachne decided she had no choice, so she might as well go out in style. "Bring it on, Athena. You want to borrow my loom, or do you need a special one with training wheels?"

"I love this girl more and more." Ares said, licking his fingers.

Athena clenched her teeth. "I've got my own loom. Thanks."

The goddess snapped her fingers. A glowing loom appeared right next to Arachne's. The goddess and the mortal both sat down and furiously began to work.

"Competition's on!" Zeus said.

The crowd chanted, "WEAVE! WEAVE!" and pumped their fists in the air.

"Looks like they were really enjoying that." Hestia said.

The Lydians totally should have sold advertising and gotten corporate sponsors, because it would've been the highest-rated weaving smack-down in Ancient Greek television history.

"It was quite the show in Hephaestus TV. Though there were no viewers much. I have to find my old recordings, but that would take a year." Hephaestus said.

As it turned out, Athena and Arachne's trash talk continued—but in the language of tapestries.

"Language of tapestries?" Frank asked curiously. "Can they talk to tapestries?"

"Yes." Dionysus drawled. "Arachne was a long lost daughter of Athena, and as a daughter of Athena and Athena, they could talk to tapestries."

Athena wove a scene of the gods in all their glory, seated in the council hall of Mount Olympus, as if to say: We are the best. Don't bother with the rest.

"That's one way to show off the arrogance." Piper said.

She depicted the temples on the acropolis of Athens to show how wise mortals should honor the gods.

"That's fine." Frank said.

Then, for good measure, Athena wove little warnings into the cloth. If you looked closely, you could see all the different famous mortals who had dared to compare themselves to the gods and had been turned into animals or flattened into roadkill.

"She had insulted mortal pests as well." Nico mumbled.

Meanwhile, Arachne wove a different story. She depicted every ridiculous and horrible thing that the gods had ever done. She showed Zeus turning into a bull to kidnap the princess Europa.

"How dare her?" Zeus asked.

She showed Poseidon as a stallion chasing Demeter as a white mare,

"That's embarrasing." Both Poseidon and Demeter agreed. Poseidon slowly took off his bangle.

and then poor Medusa, an innocent girl wooed by Poseidon and turned into a hideous monster by Athena.

"You know, truth can be harsh." Aphrodite said.

She made the gods look stupid and evil, childish, and no good for mortals…and I'm sorry to say, she had a lot of material to choose from.

"Gods are all those things. I competed with a satyr once, then I flayed him. Childish and stupid. Now I regret it." Apollo said.

When the tapestries were done, the crowd was absolutely silent, because both were amazing.

Athena's was majestic and breathtaking and made you feel the power of the Olympian gods.

Athena gave a proud look at crowd.

Arachne's was the most scathing critique of the gods ever created, and it made you want to laugh and cry and get angry all at the same time—but it was still beautiful.

"Both were trying to humiliate each other, so why not? I'm sorry Athena, but you weren't any better in this situation.

Athena looked back and forth between the tapestries, trying to judge which one was better.

"I thought its Athena's, until Athena Parthenos." Annabeth whispered.

Some stories will tell you that Athena won the contest, but that's not true. In fact, Athena was forced to admit that the two tapestries were exactly equal in quality.

"A mortal girl stalemated Goddess of weaving in her own domain." Hermes said. "That's a miracle."

"It's a tie," she said grudgingly. "Your skill, your technique, your use of color….As much as I want to, I can't find any fault."

"You two should have been bffs. But noooo. Both of you have it for each other." Leo said.

Arachne tried to stand up tall, but the work had taken something out of her. Her hands hurt. Her back was sore and she stooped from the effort.

"She's a mortal, after all." Apollo said. "But a talented one." He muttered.

"What now, then? A rematch? Unless you're scared…."

Athena finally lost her temper. She took the shuttle out of her loom—a length of wood like a square baseball bat.

"She is scared that she's gonna loose. You whimp!" Ares grinned.

"Now, I beat the crud out of you for insulting the gods!"

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

"That's horrible." Hestia said. "Yes she was insulting gods, but she didn't know better. A young girl who got to her feet by her own strength, not by a power that vested upon her by a god; and there were no god in her worst years. She was arrogant, but Athena didn't have the right to do what she did, to make her life worse, and she was proven correct in one of the worst ways possible."

The goddess hit Arachne over the head as the mortal weaver scuttled around, trying to hide. At first, the crowd was horrified. Then they did what humans often do when they're frightened and nervous and somebody else is getting a beating…They began to laugh and make fun of Arachne.

"Now that's a good fanfiction topic. Arachne is betrayed by everyone, Athena turns her into a spider. But when Athena goes rough and became evil, world needs Arachne's services. But what would Arachne say?" Leo said.

"Get her, Athena!" one cried.

"Yeah, who's the boss, now, little girl?" said another.

"Hypocrites." Apollo muttered. Artemis nodded too.

The same mortals who had gazed in wonder at Arachne's work and had stood around her hut for days hoping for free tapestries now turned against her, calling her names and jeering as Athena hit her.

"That's cruel." Hazel said. "To be hated by the crowd who adored you for a most time.

Cruel? You bet. But if you ask me, that mob painted a picture of humans that's just as true and just as scathing as Arachne's tapestry about the gods.

"I can agree with you there, Perseus." Athena said.

Finally Athena's anger subsided. She turned and saw all the mortals laughing and pointing at Arachne, and Athena realized maybe she'd gone too far with the punishment.

"Finally she realises what damage she had done!" Apollo said. "Her works were burnt by those people. Percy tries to keep a lower scale of violence in the story."

"Enough!" the goddess yelled at the crowd. "Would you turn on one of your own people so quickly? At least Arachne had some talent! What makes you people so special?"

"Cheering for the gods. If that counts." Piper said sarcastically.

While Athena was occupied chewing out the crowd, Arachne struggled to her feet. Every part of her body hurt, but most of the damage was to her pride.

"Pride?" Hazel asked. "Pride in her skill, I think."

Weaving was her only joy, and Athena had taken that away. Arachne would never be able to take pleasure in her work again.

"Turning her into a spider never helped." Nico said.

The townspeople she'd tried so hard to please had turned against her too. Her eyes stung with shame and hatred and self-pity.

"She's depressed." Aphrodite said immediately. "Nice job, Athena."

"I never meant her to do that!" Athena said.

She rushed to the loom and gathered up a thick row of threads—enough to form a makeshift rope. She tied a noose and put it around her neck, then looped the other end of the rope over the rafter beam above her.

"She is going to suicide!" Leo gasped. "Is she the innovater of art of suicide?"

"I don't know him." Piper muttered.

By the time Athena and the crowd noticed, Arachne was hanging from the ceiling, trying to kill herself.

"Poor girl. She was pushed over the edge." Hestia said.

"Foolish girl," Athena said. She was overcome with pity, but she also hated suicide. It was a cowardly act. "I will not let you die. You will live on, and weave forever."

"So, a girl went over the edge with grief and you turned her into a spider?" Artemis asked. "Nice saving. There are some hunters of mine tried to suicide too. I gave them strength to stand."

"Weavers of Athena. That would be a nice group." Hermes muttered.

She changed Arachne into a spider, and from then on, Arachne and her children have continued to weave webs. Spiders hate Athena, and Athena hates them right back.

"Hatred never solves problems. You should reverse Arachne's curse as well. She had many good qualities, such as generosity. She had a heart of true artist and held pride in her work. Hubris was her worst flaw, which you shared with her. You broke her, and she tried to suicide herself because of her lost pride. You were right about suicide being a cowardice, but you had no right to punish her, considering that." Apollo said.

"Hmm. I might reverse the curse. But tell me, what's your deal with Arachne?" Athena asked.

Apollo gave a cryptic smile.

But spiders also hate humans, because Arachne never forgot her shame and her anger at being ridiculed.

"In a way, spiders hate humans because their mama was betrayed by them." Demeter said.

So what's the moral of the story? The old preachy storytellers will claim: Don't compare yourself to the gods, because you can't be that good.

"Arachne was as good as me. She stalemated me in the contest." Athena said. "They were being biased to my side, to win my admiration."

But that's not true.

Arachne was that good.

"Yeah, I have seen her works." Apollo said.

Maybe the lesson is: Know when to brag and when to keep your mouth shut.

"Maybe." Hestia said.

Or: Sometimes life isn't fair, even if you are as gifted as Athena.

"That one's better." Nico said.

Or maybe: Don't give away free tapestries.

"I wouldn't." Leo said.

I'll let you decide.

"Society is full of hypocrites." Ares said.

Athena tore up the tapestries from that contest, as beautiful as they were. Because honestly, I don't think anybody came away from that encounter looking very good.

"Come on Athena. Can't appreciate that there was a mortal girl who matched you with skills." Aphrodite asked.

"I have decided to make her a goddess after I took off the curse. A minor goddess of weaving." Athena said. "What I did.. was harsh. She was full of herself, so was I. We gods can't take insults and I was jealous of her too, and ... I beat her up, in front of all of those people, leading her to suicide. Suicide is cowardice, and running away from your life. But she was damaged so much, she didn't know any better. Then I made a monster, which took a number of my children."

You may be getting the idea that Athena…

"Isn't wise as always?" Dionysus asked.

well, how to put this delicately?

"At least you're not downright punching me on the face, Perseus." Athena said.

She might've been the wisdom goddess, but she didn't always make the smartest choices.

"No need to tell." Hermes grinned. "Once she threw Poseidon's sushie into a pond as a prank."

Percy began to laugh.

For one thing, she was self-conscious. For instance, the way she invented the flute.

For some reason, Apollo squirmed on his throne.

She was walking in the woods near Athens one day when she heard a nest of snakes hissing,

"And she was blessed with wisdom coming from Earth." Dionysus said.

and she thought, Huh, a bunch of long tubular things that make noise. And just like that she got the idea for a new musical instrument.

"Flute?" Hephaestus asked.

She hollowed out a reed, made some holes in it, blew on one end, and beautiful music came out.

"Athena rocks! Athena rocks!" Leo sang.

At first she was really proud of her flute. She wasn't even the goddess of music, and here she'd invented a cool new sound.

"Every innovater is proud of what they invent, no matter what." Hephaestus said.

She took her flute up to Olympus, eager to show the other gods, but as soon as she started playing, the other goddesses started giggling and whispering to each other.

Grover imitated a flute playing action, puffing his cheecks.

Athena stopped mid-song. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing honey-bun. Just play." Aphrodite said.

"Nothing," said Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

"Nice guess." Aphrodite complimented.

"The music is lovely, my dear," Hera said, trying not to laugh.

"I guess Hera had her good moments." Annabeth muttered.

Now, honestly, the other goddesses were intimidated by Athena, because she was so smart and strong. Naturally, they made fun of her behind her back and tried to shut her out of the clique.

Said goddesses shamefully nodded.

Athena disliked the other goddesses. She thought most of them were silly and shallow.

"Well, Annabeth here once said that Demeter's or Aphrodite's children aren't much of a force." Percy gave a croocked grin.

"Seaweed brain! I was twelve!" Annabeth exclaimed, slapping his arm.

"We are hurt, dear Annabeth. Aren't Piper and Meg sufficient for you?" Demeter and Aphrodite said.

But she also wanted to fit in, and it made her mad when they teased her.

"You just need to loosen up little, Athena." Piper encouraged.

"Why are you laughing?" Athena demanded.

"Well…" Demeter suppressed a smile. "It's just that when you play the flute, your eyes cross and your cheeks puff out, and you make this funny shape with your mouth."

"Advice no.67- Try to make few good friends if you're trying to fit in." Hermes said.

"Like this…" Aphrodite demonstrated, doing her best imitation of Athena's flute face, which looked sort of like a constipated duck's.

Grover again imitated the funny face.

The gods and goddesses busted out laughing. Athena fled in humiliation.

"Sorry dear." Gods said (exept Ares, Hades and Dionysus)

You would think, being the goddess of wisdom, she'd be able to laugh it off and not let it get under her skin;

"She gains wisdom from what she encounter." Poseidon said.

but she felt so burned she threw the flute away, letting it fall to the earth.

"Had it broken?" Grover asked. "I can use a flute."

She even issued a curse. "Whoever dares play that thing again," she muttered to herself, "let the worst fortune befall him!"

"On the second thought, nope." Nico imitated Grover.

Eventually the flute would get picked up, but that's a story for later….

"In my chapter I guess." Apollo mumbled.

After that, Athena became even more self-conscious about her looks. As a warrior goddess, she'd already decided that she would never get married. She didn't want any man claiming to be her master,

"Marraige isn't about mastering." Hera said. "Its a partnership between husband and wife. Husband should be loyal to wife, and in return, wife should be loyal to husband. They should treat each other with love and compassion, and be there with his or her worst times. They should respect each others-"

Athena cut in. "You don't have the ideal marraige thank you. I see you as a slave, devoted to Zeus."

Hera made a noise from her nose. "Why I never-" she started to rage, then she stopped. "You must notice that most of marraige consultants doesn't have a good marraige life, or they're unmarried."

"Maybe I can help." Poseidon said. "I and Amphitrite have a good marraige life. Yes, we cheat on each other and have other children as well, but she's an understanding wife, so I'm an understanding husband. We don't hate each others children. As you heard, Amphitrite is a good step mother for Percy, and my other children. I'm sure I don't lord over Amphitrite, or otherwise she wouldn't have her own children, or a same place as me, as the queen of sea. And I know you and Hephaestus had some...history." Poseidon made one of those..cryptic face expressions.

Hephaestus looked hopeful. This time, he was handsome and powerful and all. He already had an unofficial divorce from Aphrodite. Maybe his pickup lines wouldn't be bad this time.

and she didn't have time for that silly love nonsense Aphrodite was always gossiping about.

"Love is not nonsense." Aphrodite said. "Love is a force which even put most of powerful gods like Zeus and Poseidon to their knees, made most of lives fruitful and prosperous, and most of lives bitter and harsh. All you need to do is make your choices correctly and follow your heart, yet use your brains."

Because of this, Athena was very sensitive about her privacy. One night she decided to go to a swimming hole in central Greece, just to relax. She bathed naked, and while she was washing off in the waterfall, enjoying the peace and quiet, she heard this choking, whimpering sound.

"Stalker!" Apollo and Hermes warned. "Grab your towel!"

She looked over at the riverbank and saw this old mortal dude just staring at her with his jaw hanging open and his eyes as big as drachmas.

"An old pervert, I think." Artemis said. "Male scum."

Athena screamed.

"Goddess of wisdom is scared of a mortal old man." Ares grinned.

"You were beaten by a 12 year demigod!" Athena reminded.

"Who became savior of Olympus!" Ares retorted.

"I'm flattered, Ares." Percy mumbled.

The dude screamed.

"Why would he scream?" Artemis and Thalia asked.

Athena splashed water in his eyes and yelled, "Blindness!"

"Like eat slugs?" Nico asked.

Instantly, the man lost his sight forever. His eyes turned pure white. He stumbled backward, bumped into a tree, and fell on his butt.

"Oh. Poor man." Piper said.

"M-m-mistress!" he wailed. "I—I'm so sorry! I didn't—"

"I think he didn't watch you." Hestia said.

"Who are you?" Athena demanded.

"You know." Nico said.

"You know who?" Hazel asked.

"Not exactly." Nico said, grinning widely.

The poor guy explained that his name was Teiresias. He had just been out for a walk from the nearest city, Thebes. He had no idea Athena was there, and he was really, really sorry.

"That's how Athena give people second chances." Hermes said.

"I know how to give people second chances!" Athena snapped.

Athena's anger cooled, because obviously the man was telling the truth.

"You must remain blind," she said, "because no man may see me nude without being punished."

"Punishment to no crime. How hypocrite?" Jason asked.

Teiresias gulped. "Um…okay…"

"Seems he had some wisdom." Demeter said.

"However," Athena continued, "since this was an accident, I will compensate you for your blindness by giving you other gifts."

"I said I know how to give other people second chances." Athena said.

"Like…another set of eyes?" Teiresias asked.

"Not exactly." Annabeth said.

Athena managed a smile. "Sort of. From now on, you will be able to understand the language of birds. I will give you a staff, and with the help of the birds, you will be able to walk almost as if you had your own sight."

"Almost." Frank noted. "Its not the same thing. You could have made him forget that he saw you and heal his eyes!"

Surprisingly, Athena nodded.

I'm not sure how that worked, exactly. I would've been worried that the birds would play jokes on me, like, A little farther. Turn left. Now, run! And I'd pitch over a cliff, or ram headfirst into a brick wall.

"Those are cruel for a blind old man. Most birds are softies, they don't do that." Zeus said. "And I'm tweeting with birds, is that what you're going to ask Jackson!"

"Are you on tweeter?" Percy asked. Zeus slapped on his own forehead.

But apparently the arrangement worked out okay for Teiresias, and the birds took care of him. It also shows how Athena could calm down and moderate her punishments.

"Sort of wise, I guess." Grover said.

The one thing she couldn't stand, however, were guys flirting with her.

"It unnerves her, and we know how much Athena likes to play the powerful goddess role." Aphrodite said.

"Yes, you will say that to me too." Artemis said.

"No. You're the one who try to play the bad girl role." Aphrodite retorted.

Which brings us to the story of her and Hephaestus. Okay, deep breath, because things are about to get weird.

"I apologised for what you had to experience, but I would like to apologize again." Hephaestus said.

"Apology accepted, and don't try to flirt with me!" Athena warned.

"Aww! One of these days, I'm gonna melt your walls with my fire." Hephaestus said.

"You wouldn't." Athena said strictly.

"I'm the fire god. Of course I would." Hephaestus said.

So, Hephaestus was the crippled blacksmith god.

"No longer!" Apollo said.

More on him later.

Right now, all you need to know is that ever since he helped Athena get out of Zeus' forehead, Hephaestus had had a crush on her.

"Dad?!" Leo asked.

"Son!" Hephaestus said.

"I thought we were stating obvious." Hephaestus said to Leo after a short pause.

This made sense, because they were both into crafts and tools. They were both deep thinkers and enjoyed solving mechanical problems.

"See! We're totally suiting for each other!" Hephaestus said.

"No we're not!" Athena crossed her arms, but...her cheecks were tinted gold slightly.

The problem was that Athena hated romance and never even wanted to hold hands with a guy, much less marry one.

"Which was practically a divorced guy." Aphrodite said.

Even if Hephaestus had been handsome, Athena would have turned him down.

"Nope, she wouldn't." Artemis, for the surprise of everyone, muttered.

"Why?" Apollo asked.

"Its Athena's secret too!" Artemis deadpanned.

But Hephaestus was most definitely ugly: Grade-A Industrial-Strength Ugly with Extra Gross.

"I'm wounded Percy, after all that help with Daedalus?" Hephaestus asked.

"Yeah. I paid a huge price for that." Percy muttered.

He tried in his own way to flirt with her, like, Hey, baby, want to see my hammer collection?

"Lame, dad!" Leo said.

And stuff like that.

"Mechanical stuff, I guess." Piper giggled.

Athena power walked away from him, but Hephaestus limped after her. Athena didn't want to scream and run, because she wasn't a helpless mortal girl, or one of those silly "pink princess" goddesses who fainted and fluttered their eyelashes or whatever.

"Those girls are in movies, or stories." Frank said.

She was the goddess of war!

Athena stood proudly and smirked.

She just kept moving away from Hephaestus, snapping at him to leave her alone.

"I wasn't interested." Athena mumbled.

Finally the poor guy was sweating and panting like crazy, because it wasn't easy for him to move on his crippled legs.

"At least you pity me." Hephaestus said.

He flung himself at Athena, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Please," he begged. "You're the perfect woman for me!"

"Hephaestus is the brother who has a bossy wife." Hermes said.

He buried his face in her skirt and sobbed and sniveled, and some of his godly sweat and snot rubbed off on her bare leg where the skirt was parted,

"That's gross." Goddesses said.

and Athena was like, "Gross!"

She kicked Hephaestus away

"Poor Hepphie!" Dionysus said, drinking some wine.

and snatched up the nearest piece of cloth she could find—maybe a handkerchief or a napkin or something.

"Burn, bro. Your girlfriend rejected you in a worst possible way!" Ares grinned.

She wiped the godly moisture off her leg and tossed the gross piece of cloth off Olympus, where it fluttered slowly down to the earth. Then she ran away.

"Happily ever after." Leo said.

That should've been the end of the story, but something weird happened to that piece of cloth.

"What happened?" Hazel asked.

It contained the essence of both Athena and Hephaestus, and somehow, when it hit the earth, it grew into a mortal baby boy.

"Awww!" Goddesses and girls cooed.

Up on Olympus, Athena heard the baby crying. She tried to ignore it, but to her surprise, motherly instinct stirred inside her.

"I agree with Demeter, Aphrodite and Hera here. Having children and being a mother is great." Athena said.

She flew down to the earth and picked up the child. She understood how he had been born, and though the whole thing was still totally disgusting to her, she couldn't blame the little boy.

"He was an adorable one." Hephaestus muttered.

"You knew?" Athena asked sharply.

"I sensed him. Then I gave a visit, to see little Erik." Hephaestus said briefly.

"I suppose technically you are my son," she decided, "even though I am still a maiden goddess. I will claim you as my own, and name you Erikthonius."

"Erikthonius? Can't choose a normal name like Leo?" Leo asked.

(She gets one chance to name a kid, and that's what she picks? Don't ask me.)

"You heard Percy." Piper said sarcastically.

"If I'm going to raise you," she continued, "I should first make you immortal. I know just the thing…."

"Ritual failed?" Hephaestus asked. Athena nodded.

She got a wooden chest and put the baby inside. Then she created a magical serpent and put it in there too. (By the way, this is really not something you should try at home.)

"To give him the wisdom of Earth I guess." Dionysus said.

The baby boy Erikthonius fell asleep contentedly with the snake curled around him.

"Boy who cuddled with a snake." Nico said.

"That's Zeus." Grover reminded.

"There," Athena said. "A few days in that box, and the serpent will enhance your godly qualities. You will cease to be mortal and you'll become one of the gods!"

"He would have been a minor god, but a great one." Apollo said.

She closed the chest and took it to the Acropolis in Athens, which was, of course, her most sacred place. She gave the box to the daughters of Kekrops, the first king of Athens.

"This is where mission immortalizing Erik fails." Leo guessed. "Wait! Kekrops? Those guys are..."

"Gemini. They were ruling Athens at the time." Annabeth reminded.

"Also Piper sang to them and Hazel crumbled them under the ground." Leo grinned, remembering serpent trunk guys.

"Don't open this box!" she warned the princesses. "It has to stay closed, or bad things will happen."

"Is it Pandora's pythos?" Aphrodite asked sarcastically.

The princesses promised, but after only one night, they got curious.

"A better threat could have been worked." Zeus said.

They were pretty sure they heard a baby in there, cooing and gurgling, and they were afraid the kid was in trouble.

"They were really good people. But they had to think why Athena put the baby in the box, and gave to them, saying not to open." Hephaestus muttered.

"What kind of goddess puts a baby in a box?" one of them muttered. "We'd better check."

"Here we go."

The princesses opened the box and saw the snake curled around the baby. I'm not sure why it freaked them out so badly. Maybe they saw godly light in there or something, but the girls went insane.

"Poor girls." Hestia said. "Godly magic goes haywire when interrupted in the process."

They dropped the box and ran straight off the side of the Acropolis's cliffs, plummeting to their deaths.

"Welcome to underworld." Hades said.

"Aren't they monsters dad?" Nico asked.

"Demi-monsters I guess. Their mother was human. They were completely human." Hermes said, intervening father and son.

As for the baby, he was fine, but the spell was broken before he could become immortal.

"I feel you." Demeter said.

The snake slithered away

"And became Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of hogwarts." Dionysus drawled.

"You read or watch Harry Potter?" Nico asked.

"I'm Joseline Kristen Russell, Micheal Angelo! Don't ask." Dionysus replied.

and Athena came to cradle the child. She was raging mad, but since she couldn't scold the princesses, seeing as they were dead,

"Then turn to their father. Wait, he's already a monster!" Poseidon said.

and all, she took out her vengeance on their dad, King Kekrops. Once Erikthonius grew up, he kicked out Kekrops and took over as king of Athens.

"First human king of Athens." Frank said

That's why the Athenian kings liked to say they were descended from Hephaestus and Athena, even though Athena was an eternal maiden.

"Yeah, they claimed that they're smart through that." Demeter said.

So don't tell me Athena can't have kids, because there's the story that says otherwise.

"And you have seen demigods of Athena and dating a one." Hazel said.

Besides, I'm dating one of Athena's daughters, and I'm pretty sure she didn't spring from a dirty handkerchief.

"Seaweed brain!" Annabeth exclaimed, blushing in embarrassment.

Hmm. Actually, I've never asked her.

"I'm a brain child. I told you so when we travelled labyrinth. You insisted you don't want to ask further-" Annabeth was interrupted by Athena.

Nah, forget it. I don't want to know.

"Well, he said he don't want to know. Whose up next?" Poseidon asked. Without a word, Athena sent the book to Ares, who gave it to Aphrodite.

...

A/N

Athena took almost of all from me. Arachne's incident was very complex and I fear I might have interpreted wrong, so if you think I have, forgive me. *raises hands in air, surrendering motion."

We have come this long and I wouldn't abandon you guys. 7 gods gone, seven to go. (12+ Hades and Hestia)

What are the secrets of Apollo and Artemis? Name and win prizes!

See you guys. Stay safe. Love you. *flashes flying kisses.*