Non-Canon Omake: The Little Spider, Chapter 9 (Patreon)

A/N

Small warning, there’s two very minor spoilers at the end of the chapter in regards to who Arachne refers to as her ‘aunties’.

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High up on Mount Olympus, you could hear a pin drop.

No one spoke as they looked down upon the scene happening in the camp. Surrounded by their children, and other demigods, a young girl supposedly the child of Athena had two resplendent wings shimmering behind her and a Halo above her head.

None of the gods of Olympus were stupid, even if she didn’t proclaim it outright, they could all recognize the origin.

Surprisingly, Ares was the one looking the least shocked or concerned.

Beating Ares in a duel, that was a feat that would make any of the parents proud of their children. Even if it was only Ares basically possessing his daughter in some minor capacity.

However, not even Athena opened her mouth to gloat.

It was rare for something to silence all of them at once.

Though, that silence was ended by the sound of laughter.

Dionysus started laughing on his throne, a full stomach laughter that almost had him kneeling over.

It opened the floodgates.

“Athena!?”

“What in the name of Tartarus did you do!?”

“Seriously, who did you mind fuck to get that?” Aphrodite chimed in.

“Since when do those guys appear?” Apollo asked in confusion, hinting at a very reclusive ‘pantheon’.

“Bravo, dear sister.” Dionysus clapped his hands but everyone ignored him.

“And here everyone was saying I was going to eventually break the rules by fucking someone from another pantheon, but surprisingly, our Virgin Goddess beat me to it.” Aphrodite threw out again amidst the shouting and arguing that abruptly started.

“She should be killed.” Hera frowned.

“You’re welcome to try.” Poseidon scoffed, with an eye roll, making the Queen of the Gods glare at him.

“I want to inspect her spear.” Hephaestus stated, less concerned than everyone else, and likewise, he was ignored.

“Seriously, how did you land an Angel? Can you teach me?” Aphrodite looked at her with genuine sincerity.

“I did not!” Athena finally lost her composure, an extremely rare occurrence in the history of Olympus. “Her father was a normal human!”

“I wonder if this is how all the fathers feel when you just appear and drop a baby in their laps.” Poseidon looked at her, not missing an opportunity to take a jab at her.

Athena snapped her head at him about to retort, but a thunderous crackle reverberated throughout the halls.

“Enough!” Zeus slammed his fist down on the throne. “Athena, explain now!” He demanded, looking at her with a furious gaze. “You are more than aware of the ancient laws. Inter-pantheon children have been forbidden for thousands of years.”

“I’m serious, I really don’t know. Her father was a normal human.” Athena quickly defended herself, completely confused just as they all were.

“….you sure about that?” Ares raised an eyebrow.

“I am sure, yes!” She clenched her teeth.

“Did you check?”

“……” Athena found herself speechless. Mostly due to the ridiculousness of the question.

“So you didn’t check, hmm? So much wisdom there.” Ares’s lips curled up in a mocking smile.

“I dare any one of you to tell me the last time you ‘checked’ with any mortals yourselves.” She swept her gaze around the room, and it was silent. “I know a human when I feel one. There was nothing extraordinary about him.”

“He could have hidden himself.” Hermes pointed out.

“Why would he attend a mortal school hiding himself?” Athena questioned.

“….why did you?” Hermes asked her in response.

Once more Athena was silent, realizing she had said something so idiotic and ironic. She wasn’t usually like this, the whole situation had her on her back foot and she wasn’t on her normal game.

“…so did you bang an Angel or not?” Aphrodite asked.

Athena wanted to scream.

“So to clarify, we have a Demigod who may or may not be also an Angel or part of another pantheon, who also has in her hands the monster spoken of in prophecy that can bring down the gods?” Apollo looked around.

Everyone went silent again.

“It’s the spear.” Hephaestus spoke up again for the second time during the meeting. An image floated infront of him, that of the spear she wielded. “The Spear is letting her do that, it’s not natural.”

He was the authority on weapons, so no one questioned his words, especially when he didn’t have a proverbial dog in the fight.

“See?” Athena looked around. “I had no contact with them, as per the rules.”

“….how’d she get the spear then?” Ares asked.

Once more Athena went silent with a scowl, without any words of response. Of course she had no idea how it happened.

“Athena.” Zeus’s stern words reverberated throughout the hall. “Start form the beginning. We will hear your side before making a judgement.”

Athena took a deep breath, calming herself. It wasn’t like her to be so emotional. “I was visiting the human school as I often do. I met a young man – Annabelle’s father.”

“Arachne.” Dionysus corrected, earning a glare from Athena.

“His name was Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg, a completely mundane human.” She added. “Not to mention he was Japanese, visiting the country for schooling. The idea that he’s connected to them is extremely unlikely considering how loathed they are in the east.”

Her words held merit; Heaven didn’t have much of a foothold in that part of the world where the mortals still openly worshipped other gods.

“If it was accidental, then it’s forgivable.” Artemis spoke up, usually on Athena’s side. Despite her own disgust for the Goddess of Wisdom siring children the way she does, they’re usually cooperative.

“Why wasn’t this discovered until now?” Hermes asked.

“If you will recall, I asked you to search for a missing daughter of mine some years ago.” Athena quickly calculated a means to defend herself.

Hermes scratched his cheek. “Right, I do remember that. So, it’s this one, huh?”

“I too was asked to track her down, and I was unsuccessful. This should prove that Athena was also not at fault if whoever was responsible was able to escape so many of us.” Artemis added.

Zeus frowned, but his temper wasn’t flaring so Athena internally breathed a sigh of relief.

“I will withhold a judgment until this matter is properly settled. But it appears as though the ancient laws were not intentionally broken.” He finally settled on, but he was far from happy. In fact, his first instinct was to start throwing lightningbolt, but he held himself back for now. “But the mystery still remains.”

Ares tapped his throne. “She did mention who her mom was, and who also taught him. You’re the one who keeps up with ‘foreign affairs’, sister. Who is Scáthach, hmm?” He asked knowing the answer himself.

It’s not like he’s oblivious to what happens outside of their part of the world. In fact, he knows the name of almost all the impressive non-gods even from other pantheons. If someone is a master of bloodshed, he knows them.

“Is that someone famous?” Apollo asked. “I don’t recognize the name. Another god?”

“Athena.” Zeus looked at her, wanting to know the answer too.

For the King of Gods, he didn’t keep up with such things. Precisely why he had Athena handle all of it in his stead.

Athena was silent for a moment, not because she didn’t know the answer, but that she was dredging up the information from her mind. As the goddess of Wisdom, she never forgot any bit of information. She had read up on nearly every figure of importance across every pantheon in every part of the world and kept it stored within her mind.

It only took her a fraction of a second to recall the information she needed and she resisted the urge to facepalm.

“She is a famous figure originating from Ireland during the Ulster Cycle. She’s most famous teaching the son of Lugh – the Celtic God of Light – known as Cu Chulainn. I could give you the entire biography, but she is essentially their equivalent to Chiron.” Athena summarized pointedly.

“Well, that makes things easier, doesn’t it?” Hermes looked around. “We can go issue a complaint to them to settle things. Problem solved.”

Athena resisted the urge to sigh again. “She’s entirely human, so the ancient laws don’t affect her.”

Hermes pursed his lips, understanding what she meant by that.

Frankly, they were just looking for someone to blame, because someone had to take the blame to smooth everything out.

“And it doesn’t answer the question of who gave her that spear of hers.” Ares pointed out. “I should mention that it was able to cut away the divine power I was supplying with my daughter.”

It wasn’t said outright, but everyone understood what that meant.

A genuine Godslaying weapon was in the hands of one of their children down in camp.

Just that would be enough for Zeus to usually throw a fit and show paranoia. Considering it’s in the hands of both a girl presumedly raised by another pantheon as well as having a certain creature at her side…

Well, it was lucky that he wasn’t deciding to smite now and ask questions later.

“There’s a simple way to remove any complications regarding the girl.” Artemis spoke up.

“What, are you going to have her join your hunters?” Aphrodite responded with a clearly mocking tone.

“Would it be wrong?” Artemis countered. “If she joins my hunters, would that not mean we have absolute claim on her, mitigating any further annoyances that come with her uncertain identity?”

There was a beat of silence where everyone considered that, even Athena. Athena was ‘confident’ in the face of everyone’s arguing that Wilhelm was human but truthfully, her confidence was wavering at this point.

There were many inconsistencies that hadn’t been brought up yet that she was willing to not speak about herself less she’s put back under the spotlight.

“And it would also solve the problem of Mr. Blueberry that everyone is also worried about.” Dionysus seemed to support her, which sent everyone snapping their heads looking his way.

“….are you mocking me?” Artemis was genuinely confused at why he was supporting her here.

“Not at all, I think you should do your best to get her to join your hunters.” He raised a glass full of wine towards her with a big smile. “Because I want to watch it blow up in your face.”

Artemis twitched slightly, ignoring him further. “If anyone has any better ideas, you’re welcome to voice them.”

“You can try.” Zeus gave her permission. Of course one couldn’t just demand it as joining the hunters had to be a voluntary action on the person’s part. Especially if said person apparently had links to other pantheons, it would be a smooth way to cut off any other claims if she willingly joined the hunters.

“I got a suggestion.” Apollo raised his hand.

“And what brilliant idea do you have, Apollo?” Artemis rolled her eyes.

“….why not just ask her?” He said. “Like, ‘hey, where’d you come from, what have you been doing for the past how-many-years, and who had you been doing it with?”

“That’s crazy talk.” Dionysus was the first to reply, while chugging down another glass of whine before snapping his fingers, and a image of the girl in question appeared, rather a projection screen of her down in the camp. “By the way, Ares, say goodbye to your cabin.”

They watched as down upon camp, Arachne was climbing up the side of the Ares cabin before grabbing hold of the Ares sign that hung above the door.

“Uh….are you sure you should be doing that…?” Percy followed along because…well, he didn’t really know anyone else at the camp other than Grover. And Grover was off doing….thing that Satyrs do he assumed.

Especially after the whole fight thing that happened a couple hours ago, everyone else had been avoiding them.

Percy was still new though and didn’t really understand a bunch of the implications.

“It’s mah cabin now, and a want to replace the sign.” Arachne huffed, nearly falling off the roof as she kept trying to pry off the signboard.

For the gods of Olympus, they were taken aback by the blatant disrespect. Of course, they knew that Ares made a bet…..but honestly, none of them believed any of their children were idiotic enough to actually go through with it.

At the very least, even their parents would warn against doing something so….debasing to another god. It would have been a good opportunity to extort something from Ares in this case.

For the girl, having a cabin meant absolutely nothing. But having a promise or a boon offered by the God of War reflective of saving his face infront of the others and his actual cabin, that was significantly more valuable in their eyes.

Ares, to his credit, didn’t say a word of complaint. Oh, he surely seethed silently on his throne as he watched his cabin – a literal temple of his – become debased so openly. He could even see some of his kids hiding inside or from a distance, just watching.

Not that he believed they should stop her.

He was firmly of the ideal that to the winner goes the spoils.

He made a bet, he lost, thus she claimed her rightful prize.

Was he going to hold a grudge? Most assuredly, but he also wasn’t going to go back on his word.

In fact, Ares let out a small sigh and stopped being petty, letting the girl take off the signage without his divine power stopping her.

At the very least, the God of War could use this as a way to get his kids to up their training and light a fire under their butts.

“Are you going to kick out all of the people living here?” Percy asked as everyone listened.

“No, why would I do that?” Arachne frowned. “It’s their home, a aint that mean. I’m just changin the name of the cabin.”

Ares’s anger diminished to a noticeable degree.

He made a mental decision that the next time he fights the brat, he won’t permanently maim or kill her when he taught her a lesson.

Regardless of what she did, it was still technically his cabin, as it was woven with his divine power and was still a veritable temple of his.

“So what are you going to name the cabin now?” Percy asked.

“A am going to name it after my aunts and uncles.” Arachne dropped to the ground as the Ares sign hit the dirt.

“Wait, Aunts and uncles, as in plural?”

“Ya.”

“What do you mean?” Percy asked in confusion.

“Monday is gonna be for Auntie Meridia since her name starts with the same letter.” Arachne started, and as she called out each name, she produced a piece of wood and some paint supplies, drawing their names and symbols next to it. “Tuesday is gonna be for Auntie Tiamat because the same. Wednesday is going to be for Uncle Odin cause his day is Wednesday. Thursday is going to be for Auntie Izanami. Friday is going to be for Auntie Jinn because it’s her favorite day of the week. Saturday is going to be Auntie Raiden. And lastly, Sunday is going to be for Big Grandpa.”

“Big Grandpa?” Percy asked in confusion.

Arachne finished by drawing a cross next to a literally inscribed ‘Big Grandpa’ on her individual signboard.

Percy could put two and two together.

Likewise, the gods watching this little interaction also had the capability of putting together the very obvious clues.

All the gods looked at Athena.

Athena wanted to smack her head against the nearest wall.

“It’s Sunday, so you need help hanging it up?” Percy offered.

“Nah, it’s alright, I can ask for help.” She held up the sign to the air. “Big Grandpa, can you help me with this?!” She shouted to the sky.

Before any of the gods, nor anyone else watching could say a word, the clouds parted and a gentle ray of bright light shined down around them, enveloping not only Arachne but the cabin as well.

Within the blink of an eye, the signboard was displayed across the door to the former Ares cabin.

In the halls of Olympus, once more, you could hear a pin drop.

“….hey Ares, did the Biblical God just sanctify your cabin?” Dionysus asked.

Ares didn’t answer him, but instead turned to the other God of War in the room.

“Athena, what the fuck?”

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A/N

Athena coming to the slow realization that she may have fucked up.