50 Athena

After everyone had left Hades and Zeus were the last ones in the throne room. 

"So ... what is it?"

"I want you to open up my skull."

"Hah?"

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"Open up my skull. Since waking up I have been having the worst migraine imaginable."

"And you think opening your skull to let out some steam would help? I am always fascinated by how dumb you can sound. I mean how is that your first thought when dealing with a migraine? Do you think that there is just hot air that wants to come out? ... You know what? Let's do it. I can see it work."

Hades took out a hammer from his inventory curse. He really had to improve this thing. He had already taken away its consciousness and had it work like that. But it still felt wrong. 

What he wanted was something like the 'Gates of Babylon'. Yeah, that would be appropriate for him. He better work on that soon. But that would have to wait until he deals with his problem. 

Hades didn't wait for Zeus' permission. He largefied the hammer and then swung it full force. ... That was a bad idea though. 

"Wai-"

The hammer impacted Zeus' head and split that skull right open. Brain matter and blood splashed EVERYWHERE. Hades activated Infinity to keep himself clean. 

"Oh shit! It's everywhere!!! Oh, Hades what have you done? ... eh whatever."

And then from ... where the brain used to be, a figure shot out and stood in the throne room. It was a woman. She had dark hair, an olive complexion and grey eyes, which must be associated with knowledge and dignity. Although there is not much of that dignity right now...

"I am Athena, the goddess of wisdom, craft and warfare. I have been born from Zeus' thoughts-"

"Wow wow wow, calm down fancy pants. That's nice and all but we have ourselves a gory situation here.", Hades stopped her from doing her 'grand' speech.

"Also what's with all the armour, helmet as well as shield and spear? Where did those come from?"

"I thought you said-"

"Eh, forget him, he'll be fine. Luckily the hammer hit him on the head and through the brain. That's his least-used organ anyway."

"But ... won't he suffer some lasting damage and then might his personality change?", Athena asked.

"Pfft, as long as the dick is still there, he's still Zeus, believe that!"

.

"So ... should we clean this or..."

"Clean? This? God no. We'll just leave through those doors and let him pick himself up. You can't kill the dumb ones that easy. They're like weeds, they always come back."

Athena looked at Hades in a questioning way. 

"You don't have a very high opinion of your king. Why is that?"

"Oh? Are throwing the first stone then? Better make sure that daddy dearest doesn't find out your little secret.", Hades said with a devious smirk.

"How do you know that?"

"Why so surprised? There is no chance I would ever believe that Zeus' thoughts could produce something, even less a goddess and one of wisdom no less. Hahahaha. That was a poorly thought-out plan. But you'll get an A for average."

Athena looked at Hades. He was not how her mother told her. He seemed to be laid back without a hidden agenda for power. But she had to wait and see. If he told anyone who she was, then that could ruin her plan to punish her father. She had to make sure this was kept a secret.

"You might want to curb your bloodlust...", Hades said and looked at her. His eyes glowed light purple with hints of red. Athena could feel the pressure building on her and stopping her from breathing. 

"... or you might get hurt.", he finished.

.

The pressure stopped and she took deep breaths. 

"Remember, goddess of wisdom ... if you prepare to kill, you should also prepare to be killed. Some things are not to be hunted, because there might be more to them than meets the eye.

Still waters ... run deep after all."

After saying that, Hades sunk into his shadow again, leaving Athena to herself in the messy throne room. 

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(Athena POV)

My name is Athena. I am the daughter of Metis and Zeus, the King of Olympus. When my mother was pregnant with me, Zeus got a prophecy that stated that one of his children that he would have with Metis, would grow to be stronger than he is. 

So to stop that from happening, he tricked my mother into turning into a fly and then swallowed her. How ironic.

I was born inside Zeus' stomach and was taught by my mother. It was hard for her and she told me all about the history of the world that she knew of. 

I could see the pain and betrayal she felt. She spent some years raising me and teaching me everything she knew and also everything she knew about the family of my father. The Olympians as they were called. The new rulers of Olympus.

None of my uncles and aunts seemed like much ... except my uncle Hades. Mother told me what she knew about him and how she regretted ever making an enemy out of him. 

She told me never to anger him or get on his bad side. I wasn't planning to, but the more I heard, the more I was unhappy that he didn't help my mother. I deduced that he could have ... had he wanted to.

When I confronted Mother with that, she just smiled. She told me that she knew that and this was the reason Hades never punished her. 

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(Flashback)

"What do you mean, he never punished you? Why would he punish you? And for what?"

"I told you about the fear I had that Hades could one day rule Olympus instead of your father. I was afraid he would try to make Zeus look bad. To get ahead of Hades, I told Zeus what I thought and he seemed to agree with me. 

But after that, his paranoia seemed to increase whenever Hades did something. No matter what, he seemed to be doing everything, just to get the throne after the war with the Titans.

I also thought so. And when your father accused Hades of bringing Oceanus on our tail ... he just left. I never would have seen this coming. Hades left the camp and did not participate in the war for over a decade. 

Things did not go well after that. We lost most major battles and when it finally looked like we could win, after Hades had joined our side again ... me and Zeus did the same thing again. We got suspicious of Hades once more and I was sure that he would use all of his accomplishments to get voted as ruler of Olympus.

... he did not. Not only did he not brag about his accomplishments of killing two Titans at once or killing Cronos, but he didn't . even . show . up!!

He didn't care about becoming King or ruling. While Zeus and I were making plans to secure his rule ... Hades was just relaxing and didn't care about us at all.

That is why I know that this is my punishment from Hades. He punished Zeus by cursing him, but he never punished me. And now, I am here. You are correct ... Hades could have stopped this and the fact that he didn't mean that he wanted this to happen."

(Flashback end)

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This was huge. Because not only did this mean Hades wanted to punish my mother. It also meant that he knew this was going to happen. And that made him dangerous. 

The moment I thought about taking him out, to preserve my secret ... he noticed and pressured me. He didn't even look mad. Just ... amused. But his eyes were dangerous and I understood at this moment ... 

... Hades is dangerous!!!

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(3rd Person POV)

The doors to the throne room opened and in came the rest of the Olympians. 

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE? WHERE IS HADES?! WHAT DID HE DO?!!!!", Hera screamed. 

"I am Athena. I have been born from Zeus' thought. This has given him headaches since this morning. Zeus asked Hades to help him open his skull and it would seem ... that Hades used a bit ... too much force."

"YOU THINK?"

After a long explanation, Hera finally seemed to calm down. Zeus was slowly regaining something that looked like a head. Not long and Zeus would go back to his usual self of a philanderer.

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Meanwhile with Hades.

Hades was in the END again. He was currently sitting in the training room. That was the sturdiest room there was in the Underworld. Not only could it withstand the chaotic forces of the void, but it could also take his strongest attack and not budge. 

But as he sat in a meditative position... the walls were trembling again. There was something wrong with him and he had to deal with it now before he destroyed everything he had built.

He could feel it in the deepest parts of his soul that something had changed. He felt like a caterpillar that should now get ready to become a butterfly. But he didn't know ... how? What was he supposed to do?

Hades let the talk with Hecate pass through his mind. He remembered everything. She told him about the Sphere of the Gods and that it was the source of all magic and that it was one of the Fundamental Forces of the Multiverse...

That's right. It was then that something had happened. He remembered the Fundamental forces from his past life. It was a big deal. He first found out about them because of the Flash and his connection to the Speed Force. 

But that was not the trigger. It was when he thought about harnessing these forces or at least some of them that his problem began. He thought about ... the Death Force, the Void Wind and then ... 

... The Sixth Note. 

!!!

Once again Hades fell into this epiphany-like state. It was as if something was trying to reveal itself to him and he was so close to understanding what. 

What was the Sixth Note? The Sixth Note was ... the opposite of the Dimensional Superstructure.

And the Dimensional Superstructure was ... ... the cosmic force which governs all things imaginable and unimaginable and it is part of the Harmonious Forces... 

How did he know that? It was unclear. All that knowledge to his questions seemed to pop into his brain. Now there was only the final straw. If the Sixth Note was the opposite of the Dimensional Superstructure, then ...

The Sixth Note, is the cosmic force beyond imagination and is unlocked when the impossible is glimpsed!!

The impossible is glimpsed ... impossible ... 

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Of course! The impossible is glimpsed. Just like what he had. He had glimpsed the impossible. He used to be a human, living in the original reality from where all these comics were born. 

He had seen 'it' and gotten wishes granted to him and had understood the most fundamental part of it all ... it was all fiction. NO! That's wrong. I used to be fiction.

It used to be a comic, an idea an imagination ... but now ... 

Now it was real. It was made real through the fact that he perceived it as such. Was Bishop Berkeley right? It didn't matter as it was all real now.

*

Time stopped at that moment and Hades' consciousness left his body and travelled beyond reality, beyond the vast void that encompassed it all and became so fast that the friction seemingly made him dissolve into nothingness.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a dimly lit room, sitting on a comfortable chair and across him sat someone whose features he couldn't make out. 

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"Welcome ... Adrien. It has been a while."

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I had a lot of fun with this chapter.

I was thinking to myself ... how would my MC react when Zeus tells him to open his skull? Oh I know, he will absolutely smash the fucker. And that's what happened.