Chapter Text
“We did it,” Gaghiel noted, leaning back on her beach chair, a touch of wonder in her voice. “Holy shit, we actually did it. We freed Hellas.”
“I’m as surprised as you are- I thought it’d be much more difficult considering our combined lack of direct combat skills,” Leliel muttered, sitting down on her own chair with wide eyes, staring out over the expanse of ocean before them and the now freed land before them. “.... I can’t believe it’s taken less than a year .”
“Do you think we’re the fastest to pull that off?” Gaghiel asked, genuinely curious. “You know, if we’re to believe that everyone else’s vacations are also derailed by fighting gods?”
“By chapter count, currently yes,” Leliel nodded, idly motioning at the narration surrounding them. “In terms of actual time scale…. Well, it’s been about seven months here, but I’m pretty sure one of the other groups might break six despite arguably taking longer.”
“I very much would like to know who had the bright idea to give us that awareness,” Gaghiel grumbled, “and punch them. This is still weirding me out.”
“That might have technically been partially my fault,” Leliel stated, raising a finger before pulling up the tangled web of their family tree and pondering the list of names. “The sheer amount of space warping and dimensional warping Angels popping up lately probably made it worse… and it was definitely Kokabiel who fucked it up for everyone.”
“Actually, I’m probably blaming Raziel,” Gaghiel decided. “She started the trend, after all...”
“If she hadn’t started the trend,” Leliel pointed out, “then we probably wouldn’t have come here at all. And where would that leave Hellas?”
“... I almost wanna say potentially fine after a few centuries, but that only covers the humans,” Gaghiel muttered, frowning off at the distance and huffing. “To say nothing of all the spirits and deities crushed under the stupidity of the Olympians.”
Leliel nodded sadly. “But look on the bright side - we’re here. We made it. We freed them. I, personally at the very least, am happy how that turned out.”
“Mhmm… though, I was kind of hoping it’d happen near like, the end of the year instead of being somewhere in the middle,” Gaghiel muttered, then huffed and leaned back in her chair. “ADAM, how has it already been this long, and yet it hasn’t been this long at all?”
“Passage of time is weird, ” Leliel deadpanned.
“So it is,” Gaghiel nodded, then sat up slowly and looked around. “Hey do you wanna go get some lunch?”
"Oh, absolutely," Leliel grinned. Lunch sounded nice.
<>
“It seems as though this whole debacle is finally coming to a close,” Arachne murmured quietly, weaving a brilliant tapestry depicting the grand battle of Olympus that had happened mere weeks prior. “I wonder what the Fates had to say about how quickly this all went…”
“The Fates are off emptying Dionysos’ wine cellar,” Medusa declared, walking into the room. “Hello Arachne. How goes?”
“Very well, Medusa,” Arachne nodded towards her new sibling, motioning for the snakey lady to sit down as she continued passing fibers over each other, weaving her tapestry into something truly grand. “Though I suppose it would be better if I had some form of reference image for the scene I am creating- one’s imagination only does so much, as it were.”
“I took some pictures,” Medusa admitted. “I couldn’t not, it turns out. Phones, eh?”
“Ah, lovely devices,” Arachne nodded, holding her hand out to Medusa and making a grabby motion. “Hand it over, I need reference photos.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the Gorgon nodded amicably, tossing her phone over. “Man. It must feel great to do this again without fearing repercussions, eh?”
“Absolute catharsis,” the spider agreed. “Do recommend.”
“Blaspheming against the gods of yesteryear, ah, such a delight,” Medusa chuckled, sitting beside Arachne and examining the tapestry in all its lurid detail. “Ooh, you even got me shattering Athena into a billion pieces- nice!”
“It’s the little things,” Arachne nodded amicably, digging through Medusa’s gallery. “Oh my. Gaghiel truly is a force of nature, isn’t she?”
“That she is- I’m not sure what she’s always on about, calling herself useless and all, but she’s, well…” Medusa sighed and admired the images of Gaghiel tearing apart Mount Olympus’ foundations with a wild tsunami just from the wake of her passing. “ Breathtaking in action.”
“Self-worth issues are a thing anywhere, it seems,” Arachne murmured.
“Our new family is kind of a hotbed of those, amongst other neuroses,” Medusa deadpanned, shaking her head and groaning. “The only upside to that is that everyone else has managed to perfect a therapy formula that mostly involves going on a therapeutic vacation full of violence and catharsis.”
“...That sounds like it’s going to lead to an ever-expanding web of vacations until nobody knows where the Family ends and everything else begins,” Arachne deadpanned.
“Probably,” Medusa nodded. “That, or maybe we’ll just end up going to therapy.”
“Didn’t you just say that the vacations were a therapy formula?” Arachne shot back. “I’m willing to bet they’re not going to deviate from that.”
“... Yeah that’s true.” Medusa nodded, then paused and turned to Arachne with a sly grin. “Hey… that reminds me. When you’re done with that tapestry…. Wanna go on a vacation?”
Arachne contemplated that thought. “You know what, dearest Medusa? I’d love to.”
<>
“It’s ending,” Hades murmured, staring out over the vast expanse of the Hellenistic world as life went on, sitting on a bench with Persephone and simply watching the bustle of humanity down below. “This journey, I mean.”
“It’s not been a very long one, has it?” Persephone asked idly, running her fingers through Hades’ hair and weaving flowers between the strands. “Hardly a year, less that even.”
“And yet, a total upheaval of the pantheon, domains restored to a primal and more chaotic, less centralized form, the death of much of our family- though, to be fair, they deserved it- and the unchaining of our own existences from the Underworld,” Hades answered back. “An eventful seven months, all told.”
“I’m just happy that Apollo is gone,” Persephone snickered.
“I think the entire newly released nymph population is,” Hades joined in his wife’s laughter, holding her close and simply basking in her presence. “It’s been too long since I could enjoy a summer with you, my love… And here we are now, our first summer together…”
“It’d be longer if I had any say in it,” Demeter muttered inaudibly as she walked past, ignoring the lovebirds as she dragged a massive piece of rubble up the mountain to where she, the remaining other olympians, and several hundred lesser deities were trying to rebuild the palace of Olympus.
Without the sheer amount of statues commemorating Zeus’ ego, it was honestly going quite well.
“I think Hellas finally has a chance to heal,” Persephone murmured. “It’ll be good for the world. How about we head off elsewhere? See the sights? Leave them to their own devices? It’ll be good for us, too...”
“Our own little special vacation, or a proper, chaotic, Family style Vacation?” Hades asked, a light smile playing across his face.
“Let’s leave the Family Vacations to everyone else,” Persephone giggled. “I think I just want to see the sights with my handsome husband. Wouldn’t you agree, darling?”
“I think I’d love it, my beautiful wife,” Hades agreed.
“Very well, then let’s be off,” Persephone nodded, gently holding onto Hades’ hand as the bench they sat upon fell back into the aether, taking the two of them with it.
<>
“Hmm… it kind of feels odd how fast this all went,” Typhon murmured, twiddling his thumbs as he and Echidna sat peacefully by their new beachside home, a gaggle of their more sentient children playing on the beach now that they’d been freed from their curses and terrible fates. “But y’know, I think it’s for the best. After all, it means I get to stay with you, my beloved.”
“I never thought something like this would happen during any of our lifetimes,” Echidna agreed. “And yet... I’m kind of glad, you know?”
“Definitely,” Typhon nodded, leaning his head against Echidna’s shoulder and sighing happily. “It’s… idyllic. In a way that I never could have imagined before. It’s certainly not ruling Olympus and casting the world into a kingdom in my own image, but… I think it’s better this way.”
“Mm…” Echidna nodded, playing with Typhon’s hair as they stared out over the calm, blue waves.
The sun shone down on quiet, liberated Hellas, warm and sweet, drawn across the sky by a fleet of spirits and their horses.
Gaghiel and Leliel rested. Their new family members scattered off to see the world and enjoy life as they never could before.
The story came to a close.
The end.
<>
“... What, were you expecting something else?” Tabris asked, rolling his eyes and shutting the metaphorical book.
“Go home, it’s done. Everything worth talking about’s been done already.”