It all happened so quickly, as I knew it had too if I was going to catch them off guard.

Neptune knelt behind me, firing up the machine of his, a mechanical humming filling the air as it revved up.  Mars and Mercury both turned their back to me and started whispering something I obviously shouldn't be allowed to hear.

Perfect timing, if I do say so myself.

I slipped my hand out of the rope, hoping Neptune didn't see.  I glanced behind me warily,  meeting his disapproving, blazing eyes.

"Hey Mars, we-"  Neptune started, but I gripped the back of the wooden chair I sat on, stood up and brought it over my head, smashing it over his crunched over positioned body, during this movement, the devise that had fused to me detached, giving me a sharp pain and taking with it small nips of my skin, and landed on the ground with a thud. The chair broke over him, knocking him out and leaving me with two, pointy wooden stakes that used to be the legs.

Mars and Mercury looked at me, evaluating the situation.  As did I.  I looked around the room, searching desperately for a door, finding it located behind me.  "Now,"  I said venomously, looking at both of them through narrowed eyes.  "I'm going to leave through that exit.  Neither of you will come after me, unless you want one of these wooden stakes through your chest.  Got it?" 

Mars looked at Mercury, giving him a slight nod of the head.  He turned to me, lifting his hands up in a surrendering position.  "As you wish, my lady."  He said in a sweet tone.  He probably thought I wouldn't make it farther than the outskirts of town, if that.  Or he was probably planning on following me right after I left.  But I would make sure that didn't happen.

I looked at both of them suspiciously and backed out of the door cautiously, noticing that these were the temple doors, but ones from the side entrance.  Surprisingly neither followed.  I pulled the door shut behind me, seeing that there were two pull handles on the outside. I put both of the wooden stakes between them so that Mars, Neptune, and Mercury could definitely not follow me.  I backed away quickly, looking at the door. It didn't move.  So they weren't even going to try to follow me?  I can't lie, I was disappointed. After all the blows they threw at me, I certainly deserved to get a few good swings in on them. 

I turned around, of where I should go first, to try to find my family or go to my lab. But all of sudden, it didn't matter.  

I looked around at my fallen city speechless, with my mouth open in awe.  The skys were glowing orange like they did in the underworld, and the air was intoxicated with smoke. The shops that lined main street were all now condensed to piles of charred rubble, some with a light fire still on top of them.  Pieces of newspaper, garbage, and ash blew around in the air and on the streets. A strange wind laced with charr and little black particles whipped around the deserted, quiet city. Tears sprung painfully to my eyes, both of sadness and of sensitivity.

The houses of the Olympus residence's, from what I could see from the temple stairs, were burned down as well.  The mansions of the gods were the only structures still standing, but barely.  Some were worse than others.  Demeter's roof had collapsed in, as well as the top story of her house but the damage wasn't done yet, for her house was still engulfed in flames.  Hermes' whole house was obliterated and lay in a pile of brick and wood, with only one fragmented wall still standing. My once beautifully constructed, historic, pure city was reduced to fire and ash.

I looked over at my house,  all the windows were broken or smashed, and the doors kicked in. The top level of my home had significant holes blown through the walls, but it was still standing. There had to be some reason for my house being one of the only ones.

I quickly forgot about the irreparable damage done to the city when my eyes traveled the the ground.  Dead citizens lie around everywhere.   Nymphs, centaurs, and satyrs lay dead.  They had no doubt tried to run when the invasion started, but had failed. Some probably couldn't get out of the way in time.   It broke my heart as a goddess, someone sworn to protect them.  I looked around again, recognizing some faces, just people I had seen around on the streets.  I couldn't tell you the first thing about them, but the fact that I knew them, had seen them before, was sworn to protect them was enough to send me falling to my knees in despair. 

Not everyone was dead though.  They couldn't be. Olympus housed over 1 million creatures over the spread of the land, only about 1000 were dead here on the streets.  There was still tons of hope left for the Olympus walkers. Still, these lives were valuable, and now, lost.

I should've been here. I should have stood in front of them and protected them my own body if need be. I wanted desperately to run to them.  To see if any still had pulses, or at least dispose of the dead with dignity.  One look at the sky, however, told me that was out of the question.  

What looked like an army of warriors wearing gold armor zoomed through the air, as if on patrol.  I quickly rose from my knees and darted behind one of the columns, as so that they wouldn't see me.  They flew over head, sounding like a group of airplanes.  They were a huge threat.  Eyes from above could see way more than eyes on the ground.

Once the sound died down, I heard yelling and order calling.  I peeked my head around the corner to see Minerva, my roman equivalent, directing or yelling at a small group of the warriors right outside my house.  I put my hand over my mouth, so my breathing would be quieter and I could hear her talking clearer.

"What do you mean you didn't find it?!  Check again!  It's got to be in there. She'd want to keep it close to her and out of sight. It's in there, I know it!"  She yelled, and the searched bowed their head down.

"I'm sorry, my lady, but its not.  We've checked the house 12 times today with 3 different groups, checked every nook and cranny, we did.  Even asked some of them Greeks where it was.  Athena does not have a lab.  Its a lie.  A rumor.  A story.  A fable, my lady."  One brave warrior explained to her wearily, knowing that there was a strong  possibility Minerva would kill him for even speaking.  She was just that cruel.  She would ask someone a direct question, and kill them upon recieving an answer she didn't like.

So they were looking for my lab?  Ha.  There was no way they would come even close to it.  Asking my family would do them no good either, the only one who knew was Artemis and there was absolutely no chance she would tell any of them.  Hera had been in my lab but escorted to and from it by a guard of my house who I instructed to blindfold her every time. The entrance to the tunnels leading down to my lab, which were underground, was well hidden for obvious reasons.  In ground floor living room of my home, there was a certain white tile that when you dragged your foot across it in a certain motion and at a certain angle, the tiles gave away, leading down to the tunnels of course.

The tunnels themselves were tricky to navigate.  You could access them through a facaded vault in the temple if you were trying to get to the armory or various other rooms, but besides an almost impossible to find hidden passage way, only the entrance through my living room would allow you to reach my lab.  They led all under and through Olympus, and only a handful of gods knew about them though all of them had enough sense not to use them unless it was necessary.  One wrong turn and anyone could get lost.  But if you knew what you were doing you could see a few landmarks that told you where you were.  My lab is fairly close to my house.  Its also hidden by a pass code lock.  Meaning if you don't know the  pass code you don't get in or out.

"Oh yeah?"  Minerva asked, furious, grabbing the warrior by the collar of his armor.  "What makes you think they aren't lying? Hm?  What makes you think there isn't something of value in that lab and thats why they're trying to conseal its locations?  She's got a lab alright. I've got an idea of whats in it. And we're going to find it no matter how long you have to search."

"Well it's not here, my lady. Check it for yourself if you'd like."  The warrior told Minerva sincerely.   Minerva bit her lip, no doubt frustrated.  She ran both her hands through her long disheveled hair, giving in to the warriors analysis.

"If you're positive,"  Minerva looked to the group, getting a unanamis nod.  "Then... then burn the place to the ground. Leave nothing, do you understand?  Nothing! Not a brick"  She said waving her hand in dismissle.

"No!" I wispered to myself as the group grabbed a handful of lit torches and chucked them through the windows of my once beautiful house.  In no time the place was encased in flames.

And no later than that was it burned to the ground just like the rest of the houses, and a tear ran down my cheek.

A ringing noise in the distance brought my attention back to Minerva, who was watching the fire as well.  I missed the first part of her conversation, because of the crackleing of the wood being burned but I managed to hear the last part or two as Minerva half walked half jogged up main street towards the temple.

"... Don't understand how you let things like this happen."  Minerva paused, as the person on the other end of her projection pad talked.  "How long ago?... Well knowing her she could be anywhere by now... I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE IS!  Maybe shes at the FUCKING LAB!... No we didn't find it!... Whatever!  We'll talk about this later.  I'll see if I can find h-"  Out of no where my wrist cramped up, and gave out.  Lucky I caught myself, but maybe not in time. "... wait a minute, I just saw something moving."

I tried desperately to think of a way to escape.  Nothing.  If I moved, she'd find me.  If I didnt move, she'd find me.  This is what I like to call a dead end.

Footsteps lightly and quickly made their way up the temple stairs, as the enemy approached.  Time was running out.  Suddenly I thought of the forest behind the temple.  It was lush, and thick.  It would definitely provide a nice cover from overhead soldiers.  The problem would be making there alive.  It was a big risk. If I was going to try to run, I'd have to time it out.  Minerva would have to get closer, but if she got too close we'd have a problem.  A big one, at that.

"I know it's you over there, Athena."  Minerva cooed.  "Come on over and give you equivelent a hug."  I didn't move.  "No? Alright, well then how about you be woman enough to fight me one on one."  There was the sound of her un-sheathing her knife that she always carried, and kept sharp to the point.  

I didn't have a weapon on me and Minerva never played fair.  She would cut me down in seconds if I revealed myself to her. Now was as good of a time as any to run. So I did.  

I sprang up from my croutched position, bolting towards the corner of the building which was still a long ways away, since the temple was so huge.  Minerva laughed, running after me, as if this was all fun and sport.  I terrible, awful pain hit me in my thigh just as I was turning the corner making my leg go numb.  I kept running, but looked down to see Minervas knives' handle sticking out of my leg, and Ichor running down my calf.  

The sound of Minerva running pounded in my ear.  Making my pulse quicken and my adrenaline surge.  I was going to have a heart attack. I gathered up my heavy dress that was slowing me down tremendously and yanked it up past my knee caps, liberating my legs and allowing them to pound the ground faster. I felt the dress tug at the knife stilled lodge deep in my leg, pinning the dress down on one side.

Once I was under the canopy of trees and running on the moss covered ground I felt safer, but I knew there would be no stopping anytime soon.  I ran and ran and ran.  The sound of MInerva running faded away slowly as she lost momentum.  

Even after I was sure Minerva was far behind me I still ran for another hour.  I knew these woods pretty well.  I had hunted in them since I was a small child.  Ares and I used to come out to these woods for target practice or to race horses.  Sometimes we'd even get Hera to hide things in the forest for us and we'd play explorer.  I pushed these thoughts of Ares from my mind, focusing on my rapid breathing.

I finally reached a river that ran through the entire forest, and found that I could not run anymore.  I collapsed onto my hands and knees, slowly crawling my way to the water.  I cupped my hands and gathered water in them, then lifted them to my mouth and gulped the cool, clear water down.  I repeated this process more than a dozen times.  I glanced down at my leg, the handle sticking out of my velvet dress, and gripped the handle of the knife.  Mentally counting to three, I pulled it out letting out a yelp, and tossed it aside to the ground.  The wound was of course deep, but the pain level was low and I'd seen worse.

Cautiously and carefully I raised up my dress and rinsed out my wound.  I then tore of a piece of my dress from the hem, and wrapped it around the wound, constricting the flow of ichor.  

Now that that was taken care of, I surveyed my surroundings.

The were trees all around of course.  Some were larger, some were smaller.  I found one with a gigantic root with a curve on the inside.  It would provide perfect shelter for the night.  

I knew I had to go back, so why put it off.  I would leave in the morning.  That should give my leg plenty of time to at least feel a little better.  Tomorrow I would find my family and then work out some sort of plan.  

We'd take Olympus back. We had to.