Hey boys and girls! Sorry this update has taken so long! I really didn't expect it to! I did a lot of brainstorming an deleting and editing, so it's not like I COMPLETELY left y'all. I've been here the whole time!

And now presenting my masterpiece!

"THATS IT?!" I yelled, pressing my elbow down hard on Ares' upper chest. He struggled against the restraints on his wrists, dying to get me off him.

"I SWEAR!" He choked out, gasping for air as his face turned beet red. I was so tempted to just choke him out right then and there. Be done with all the heartbreak he had brought me and move on. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't have that kind of strength.

I pulled away from him, looking over him in disgust. He should be by my side, Solving this problem with me, not bound in chains and spewing words of hate at me as he collected his breath.

"How is it that that's all you know? There's got to be more. There's got to be things you're not telling me." I said, taking my seat in the cold wooden chair again. Ares hadn't spilled hardly anything! A few locations of weapons, a few hiding spots, and a few irrelevant secrets about the individual Roman gods themselves. But other than that, nothing. Nothing of value. No battle plans, strategies, key elements of war when I KNEW they had to have them. Above all, he wouldn't tell me how to reverse the effect of Neptune's machine.

"Think about it, kid. Why would they tell me all their dirty little secrets when they didn't even know if I was trust worthy or not." He said, his breathing pattern regular again. "Think a little." He added, taunting me. "I've only been one of them a week."

"You are not one of them." I narrowed my eyes at him.

Ares threw his head back frustrated. "I am, Athena!"

"Then tell me what I need to know!"

"I know nothing!"

I picked up the syringe needle beside the bed filled with gold flakes and red liquid and held it up to his neck, along his jaw line. Ares tilted his head up, trying to avoid the needle. "Then I'm afraid you're of no further use to me." I growled, threatening to plunge the needle into his system. "What more is there?! There has got to be more! You know how to reverse the machine! You know how! Tell me!"

"I've told you all I know!" Ares yelled. I looked into his eyes. If this were the old Ares, he would have been telling the truth. His eyes indicated that. But since it wasn't entirely him, I still had my doubts.

I lowered the needle, dropping it onto the tray beside the bed again. I turned to leave, pausing at the door with my hand on the handle.

"Do they even tell you what you're fighting for?" I asked, looking back at him. "Did you even ask? Or does it not matter to you? There was no reason for all of this; for burning the city down, killing those innocent civilians, threatening Olympians... There were other ways. This all could've been avoided. You do realize this isn't really you, right? That they've done something to you. I don't know what-"

"All I know, is I have a hatred for all of you in my heart. In my soul! Especially you, Lady Athena. And Olympus would be a better place to live without Greek scum ruling the place." He spat at me. 

"That 'scum' ruling the place?  Thats your family..."  I nodded solemnly, walking back over to the bed slowly. "It's painful for me to see this dark side they've instilled in you, Ares. Where there once was love, there is only hate now. Where there was light there is darkness. And that is definitely not the Ares I love."

"You say love as if you still love me." Ares laughed wickedly.

"I will always love you. Perhaps not be in love with you, but I'll love you." I whispered. "At one point it was said that our love was eternal. That it knew no bounds. Love like that, it... it doesn't just go away." I laughed, humorlessly.

"That man is gone, baby."

"No.. He's not." I shook my head, looking down at him kindly. "He's still in there somewhere. Hidden maybe, but there none the less. No amount of magic or mind control can change that surely."

"Its a shame you won't be around to find out." A smirk shot across Ares' lips, his words wounding me. "Crazy how quickly things change,eh? Immortal one day, dying the next? Can't say I'm not happy to see you go." He laughed darkly.

I smiled. "Aye, you're right. Things indeed change." I picked up the needle, toying with it in my hands. "I gave everything to you, Ares. And this is how you repaid me. By becoming a menace, a disgrace! And although I believed once that an eye for and eye does not even the playing field... Well, things change." I plunged the needle into the swoon of his neck, hearing him cry out. "And since you insist on being grouped in with the Romans, I am going to kill you before I die."

I only squeezed in half of the syringe's contents, but that seemed to do the trick. Ares body convulsed as he coughed menacingly. I turned and left the room, without a guilty conscience but a better overall feeling.

I paused by a huge door with the label 'Conference room' on the outside.  Noises came from the inside. No voices, but small quiet sobs.  Rustling came as well.

What had happened?

I pushed the door open, surveying the room.  Everyone was gathered in here, even Mars.  Hera was the source of the sobs, but they immediately stopped, and everyone starred at me.  They're looks were of fear, and of regret mixed with sadness.

"Whats happened?"  I asked, keeping a lid on my emotions. I was brimming with anxiety. Patiently I listened for answers but no one spoke up.  "Anyone?"  I asked, walking over to the group of them slowly. "Please, someone answer me."

"Poseidon?"  I asked, but he only bowed his head, not meeting my gaze.  I pursed my lips, frustrated on the inside.  "Hermes?" He shook his head lightly, also dropping his head.  I spun around, facing the one true person who has never once lied to me.

"Artemis..."  I demanded.  She shifted uncomfortably under my glare, her muscles tense like a animal when it knows its being watched.

Her throat muscles twitched.  She swallowed, then finally spoke in a calm, hesitant voice. Her eyes roamed the room, eager to look anywhere else but me. "Your father... King Zeus... He has entered the... the transition phase into a long put off recharging sleep."

I let it sink in, its full affects hitting my stomach like a train at full speed.

Zeus' power wears him down.  Every 10 million years or so he has to recharge by taking a long peaceful sleep.  He usually wakes up 10 thousand years later, during which time Ares has ruled over Olympus in my fathers absence.  This is a normal occurrence.

But its never happened during a war before.

I starred blankly at Artemis, wishing her words to be false.  This couldn't be happening. Zeus couldn't leave us, we needed him.  Ares wasn't a mental state to take charge.  Who did that leave?  Who could lead us. It couldn't be Hera, a traitor, now outed to everyone in the room.

The stares I receive from everyone in the room lead me to believe it could only rightfully be one person.

Me.

"Its you Athena..." Hermes said, solemnly.  "The throne is yours."

"I-I..."  I stuttered, trying to force any words out, but none would come.  What was there to say?  They needed a leader.  The world needed a leader.  But I only had 5 days...

Thankfully, everyone seemed to accept the fact that I could not talk, but what they did next surprised me.  Slowly, one by one, starting with Apollo and Poseidon, everyone around the room knelt down on one knee.  

I looked around.  Everyone was on there knees.  Even Hera and Aphrodite. Though it was not an official ceromony, this was a close as we could would get.  This meant something.

I was now Queen of Olympus.

Hey guys! Thanks for being patient with me!  This took me a while to think of, and so it feels really good to update.  Hope you enjoy it!

Comment/ Vote!

-Elizabeth <3