Present 1943

The rumors were starting to get to him. He'd dismissed them at first, but they kept pressuring him until they hit a nerve and spurred him to action. Calling for his cup-bearer, she quickly came to him and bowed low.

"Rise."

Zeus' voice thundered, sending echoes within the vacated throne room. "What do you know of the reports I've been getting recently?"

"What do you mean father?" Hebe asked.

"Don't play dumb with me."

Electric sparks danced around his deep blue eyes. Anyone who knew him at this point knew better than to deny him what he wanted lest they find themselves convulsing in pure agony. Hebe could've sworn that Zeus was constantly overloaded with power and needed a little potency drain from time to time to prevent him from drowning in his own might.

"There's a rumor my lord—"

"Yes, I got that part already."

"That there is a weapon that can kill gods."

"Do you think it's true?" Zeus leaned forward to stare down at Hebe who was at the bottom of the stairs ascending towards the throne.

"I'm not sure my king," Hebe whimpered.

There was a long silence in the room that made Hebe flinch as she prepared herself for the thousandth time for the immense pain that was soon to come.

Nothing came. Looking up, Zeus was long gone. Hebe let out a deep sigh before scampering back to her chambers.

…

"Great-One, what brings you here?"

"We see, you're are troubled."

"You want answers?"

Zeus only glared, "start talking."

"You already know the answer to which you seek."

"The question you should be asking is why a god would go to the lengths they have to find a weapon that threatens their own existence."

"So, they finally want to kill me."

"Why would they want to kill you, Great-One?"

"There is an uprising, and I'm the highest power. Doesn't take a genius to know that killing me will be what counts. I pity the fool who would dare stand up to me."

"Pride always comes before a fall."

"Watch your words old hag."

"We've spoken," the old Fates went back to their ever-busy state of muttering to themselves leaving Zeus to contemplate blasting them with one well-placed thunderbolt, or he could just rip the entire house into tiny pieces. He finally settled for leaving in peace he would still need them as much as he hated relying on them.

Getting on with the matter at hand, he reached out with his divine power and summoned all the Twelve Olympians to his throne room. It was about time he settled the case once and for all. With a flash of lightning, he teleported to Olympus.

…

It took half an hour for only five gods to appear and another half for him to conclude the rest weren't coming. Growling, he stood up from his throne, his face reddened. The entire room smelt of ozone as his face grew darker, sparks of lightning flashed across his eyes. He directed his gaze at the five, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Athena and the ever-drunk bastard.

That left out his wife, her unruly sister, the Carnal Witch, Anger Issues, Greasy and his wet brother. He generally never minded the occasional one or two gods missing but half of them missing put him on edge. It seemed to happen a lot lately.

"Does anyone know where the rest of you are?" He asked them but singled out Apollo and narrowed his eyes at him.

"I can't see them," Apollo shrugged.

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"Anyone who knows their whereabouts, now is the time to speak."

No one replied, which had the effect of pissing him off even further.

"I called you all here because I can smell a war coming, I need to know who is and who is not on my side right now."

Everyone straightened up and faced him, but no one spoke. "Good. Athena, I want you to find out what is going on with the gods right now."

"Yes father," she vanished.

"Apollo, keep looking." "Yes, father."

"Artemis, I want you to find my wife." She nodded and left.

"Hermes you're going to the Tartarus," after Hermes raised an eyebrow. "I need to know where his allegiance lies, the last thing I want is to be stabbed in the back."

After Hermes' quick exit, Zeus walked out of the throne room and headed out.

"Whaar ab-out m-e," Dionysus stammered.

"You can go back to doing what you do best," Zeus replied without turning nor slowing down. Getting out of his throne room he raised his right hand and a five-meter-long glowing rod with a short zigzag materialized in it. His chiton disappeared only to be replaced by his battle armor. It was almost entirely white except for his shoulders which had raised black edges, his cape was silvery and so was his helmet. His breastplate was divided into two, on his right chest plate there was a lightning sigil while his left plate had a screaming eagle.

During his entire transformation, the entire surrounding area was filled with the smell of ozone and sparks of electricity could be seen everywhere. Commanding the Aether, he vanished from Olympus his destination, the oceans.

When the call came from the king, Ares was quick to get out of his chambers and went straight to Hera. Upon arrival, Hera quickly summoned her allies who arrived much faster than she expected. She guessed the call from Zeus motivated them.

Once all the crew had gathered, she cast an illusion spell to hide them all and they began their meeting.

"I think he knows," was what Hera got out to the four gods standing before her.

"Doesn't matter now, we found what we were looking for." Ares drew his sword and did a few swings with it before passing it to Hera.

"I thought it was a scythe."

"It was reforged by Hephaestus."

"Is that the weapon that can kill gods, doesn't look like much?" Poseidon said, unimpressed. "Honestly if that were to kill me, I would be more disappointed than angry."

"We can always try it on you and see how effective it is." Ares scoffed.

"Give it your best shot."

"Stop it both of you." Demeter intervened, "we are at our most crucial phase of our plan. And as Hera said, Zeus probably knows we are coming, so we need to set everything in motion now if we are to succeed."

The five gods sat down and started putting the final touches on their plan. After it was done all three disappeared, leaving behind Ares and Hera.

"Are you sure your concoction is working?"

"Yes, I made it myself and used it on him for years. He has no idea how much weaker he has become. For a very long time no one has challenged his rule, and it has made him grow complacent.

"Your uncle's idea was great. Zeus had no one to exercise his immense abilities on has completely numbed his power gauge, so to speak, now the rest of the plan rests upon you."

"I know my part, and I've gotten a lot stronger since last week when I acquired the sword, the humans are in a full-scale war throughout the globe. I feel…euphoric."

"Don't fool yourself, even weakened, Zeus would still kill you without breaking a sweat."

"I can't believe Poseidon backed out of the opportunity."

"Well, he was afraid of how Hades would react. There is a status quo among the three, so you can imagine if one possessed the power to end another, it will shift the balance of power tremendously, but it will be seen as less of a threat if it was you."

"I feel insulted."

"Don't be. Them viewing you as less of a threat is what I'm counting on. It's what you should be focusing on instead of trying to prove yourself."

Ares wasn't happy about it but held his tongue. He had a plan of his own. Kill his father and take his power. He smiled and nodded in acceptance after a moment pause.

"Good. Now you know where to be. Go and only come when the time is right, not a minute longer, not a minute less." Hera said.