Chapter Text
Hold' em down
Hold'em down
"Channel the fire inside your soul, and-"
TCHK
Silence reigned in the mess hall, everyone watching in shock as Antinous dropped to the ground, dead.
An arrow stuck out of his neck.
The bow that the queen had left them was missing.
A wet, breathless laugh resonated throughout the room. "For twenty years you've suffered every punishment and pain, monster." A raspy voice sighed, somehow commending authority over the whole room. "From the wrath of us gods and monsters, to the screams of your slain comrades. But now? You've come back, only to find you palace desecrated- sacked like Troy! And now, these invaders dare touch your wife and hurt your boy!?"
An exhausted sigh answered the voice. From the darkness, two pair of eyes eyed them, predators onto prey. One, bright and eager. The other, dark and so utterly exhausted. "You already know what I think, Earthshaker: I've. Had. Enough." The laugh resumed, a horribly cruel sound that promised bloodshed, and the suitors dispersed into the palace.
"There's a group of them right outside of your mess hall." Poseidon muttered in Odysseus ear, who hummed in acknowledgement as a nocked an arrow.
When Odysseus had gained Poseidon's blessing (by torturing him with his own trident, somehow), he hadn't really been sure of what to expect, besides the storm to finally go away. Certainly not for the lord of Tides to follow him back home. At first he'd been worried, when the- still very badly wounded- god had shambled out of the water only to lean his full weight against his back. "What do you want from me now?" He had even asked, resentment clear in his voice.
But Poseidon had just laughed. "To watch, monster. Make sure you've actually learned your lesson, and didn't just attack me out of frustration."
Odysseus frowned, and then realized that the god's hair wasn't dripping water. Which meant that his back was now very wet for another reason. "I think I can feel your blood soaking through my clothes-"
"There's a bunch of men in your palace trying to marry your wife." Poseidon bluntly informed Odysseus, and then chuckled when he felt him tense up. "And I want to be there when you slaughter them like pigs. Besides," He adjusted his position against Odysseus' back, phasing halfway out of reality. He could move properly now, without Poseidon's weight hindering him. "There's worse things to have than a god's help, yes?"
"... get in my way, and I'll gouge your eyes out." Odysseus hissed. Poseidon laughed at the threat, pleased, and the mortal knew that the god's mirth would haunt him as much as his hatred.
But for now, that was of no importance. Somehow, the god hanging onto his back kept him hidden in the shadows unless they wanted to be seen, kept him silent unless they wanted to be heard. Combined with Odysseus' knowledge of his palace's layout, those mangy dogs stood no chance.
He stood right at the entry point of his mess hall. Indeed, a group of them were gathered, talking in hushed voices. He aimed for one of them- the furthest one away from him- and let go of the arrow. It lodged itself into the man's eye, and he collapsed to the ground. The rest of the group screamed in horror, scattering. Poseidon laughed over his shoulder, the sound echoing throughout the whole palace. Odysseus frowned, running into one of the secret passages he had built into his house. With how many of these men that had to litter the place, he couldn't count on all of them being easy to hunt down and he already found another group! Slowly, he neared the six men, keeping an ear out for the ideal moment to kill them. If he was going to have a cruel, insane god watching over his shoulder, the least he was going to do was put on a show. And after what he had heard, he felt like making them suffer anyway.
"Where are they? Where are they!?" One of the suitors asked, panicked. Poseidon chuckled in his ear, amused. They're already breaking.
"Keep your head down!" Another suitor hissed, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him to the floor. "One of them's aiming for the torches-"
"Our weapons- they're missing!" A third one exclaimed after patting himself down, starting to panic as well.
"They're using the darkness to hide their approaches..." Another realized, who sounded like he was halfway trying to make sense of the situation, and halfway trying to accept that the end was there.
"We're empty-handed and up against an archer-" Yet another realized, desperately trying to keep it together. "Our only chance is to strike him in the darkness!"
The last one chuckled. "We know these halls!" He exclaimed with a heavy accent, and Odysseus realized that these men had wormed their way into his home a long time ago. "The odds can be tilted-"
Fuck doing this quietly. Very gently, Odysseus laid his old bow against the wall. He then reached for Poseidon's trident, his hands and face burning with the ichor staining them as he did so, and its prongs scrapped against the stone floor. This gained the suitors' attention, and they all turned to where the both of them stood. About two feet away from the huddled group. "You think I don't know my own palace? I built it!" He snarled, before ripping through them. He stared at their dead, terrified faces, and idly wondered as he wandered deeper into his palace if his fury or Poseidon's glee was the cause of their terror.
He rounded a corner, coming face to face with another suitor. "Old king!" He exclaimed, taking a few steps back before bowing his head. Too little, too late. "Our leader is dead, you've cut off the serpent's head." Odysseus raised an eyebrow as he considered the man. If they had let the man who had planned to kill his son and rape his wife be their leader, it did not speak well of the rest of them. Idly, he noticed that Poseidon had stopped laughing. "Now the rest of us are no longer a threat."
Poseidon snarled, low in his ear. "No such thing, monster. Kill him." Odysseus nodded in agreement, slowly advancing toward the other man.
"Old king, please, forgive us instead. So that no more blood is shed-" His eyes frantically swiveled between Odysseus and Poseidon, both of them having matching expressions of cold fury on their faces. He weakly held his arms out, exposing himself. "Let's have open arms instead-"
STAB
Odysseus closed his eyes, taking a deep breath through his nose and pushing the memory of Polites to the back of his mind, he'd want me to kill these people anyway. He opened his eyes, fixing the dying suitor with a flat stare. "No." He ripped the trident out of him, and Poseidon cackled loudly.
They disappeared back into the darkness. "Where to next, monster?" Poseidon asked, leaning more heavily against Odysseus as he gripped his trident in a loose grip.
"Wherever the closest dogs are." Odysseus answered, the simple knowledge that these sorry excuse of men had allowed themselves into his home enough to make his blood boil. None, in his travels, even came close to invoking the sheer, visceral hatred he felt for them. Not the cyclops who had wanted vengeance, not Circe who was protecting her nymphs, not Scylla who simply wished to survive, not Calypso who had been monstrously lonely, and not even Poseidon who at least had kept a distance from what he sought to return to. No, these men had dared intrude on his wife and son and hurt them for gods known how long, and they would pay for that with their lives. "... Poseidon?"
Poseidon hummed, his head lolling against his shoulder. "Yes, monster?"
"Did you actually intend to kill my family?" Odysseus asked, frowning as he weaved through secret passages. "Back when you were threatening me. Or was that just something you were saying to force my hand?"
"Uuuuuh..." Poseidon started, clearly struggling to gather his wits. Odysseus was aware that the gaping chest wound from which blood was still pouring out probably had something to do with it, but he liked thinking that the sea god was simply not gifted in the brains department. Made him feel better. "A mix of both? I just wanted you dead back then. I figured threatening your wife and kid was the quickest way to get that." He finally answered. "Would've probably gone through with it if you hadn't said that bullshit about forgiveness."
Odysseus hummed. "How honest." He candidly remarked. "Would've probably worked in making me give up if you had gone through with it. Sure is a shame that you lost your temper like you did, uh?"
Poseidon growled low in his ear. "I don't like games, so no need to lie like that."
"I'm not apologizing."
"Good." Poseidon's head suddenly snapped up, hearing something that Odysseus couldn't. "Say, monster, did you leave the armory open?"
Odysseus shook his head, starting to head there nonetheless. "I'm not an idiot, why would I risk them arming themselves?" He narrowed his eyes. "Did they break down the door?"
Poseidon squinted, moving his head slightly. "No, some of the pigs found the door unlocked... and they're currently trying to take your son hostage."
Odysseus' vision turned red. He hurried, Poseidon's lower body taking a consistency closer to water as he was dragged along. He skidded to a halt into the corridor leading to the armory. A group of suitors surrounded a younger man, one of them lifting him by the throat- "Got him!"- and all Odysseus could see in the torches' light was that the boy's pale eyes were the same as his wife-
Odysseus did not think. He simply lifted the trident, pointing it in the direction of the scum that dared touch Telemachus, and sheer, primordial power washed over him. He did not see that the suitor died because his lungs filled with his own blood, drowning him. He did not recognize the familiar divine force that urged his son to run to safety. And he did not realize that the pressure in the room had increased, as if they were now at the bottom of the ocean.
The rest of the suitors stared at them, horrified and unable to move. "Mer-" One of them started, raising his hands in the air in surrender. "Mercy-"
"Mercy?" Odysseus repeated, bewildered. "Mercy!?" Angrier this time, Poseidon's own hold on the trident keeping it steady in his shaking grip. Poseidon's face sunk into his shoulder, the mix of pouring his power in the weapon for Odysseus to use and sheer blood loss making him lightheaded. But the result-
"My mercy's long since drowned." Odysseus growled, pointing the trident at another one of the suitors. Said suitor collapsed on the ground, drowning in his own blood. Oh, the result-
"It died to bring me home-" The ichor staining his hands and face shone brighter, the god to who it belonged using it to channel more of his power into the mortal.
"- and as long as you're around, my family's fate is left unknown!" Slowly, one by one, the suitors dropped to the ground, blood pouring out of their mouths and noses as they slowly choked.
"You plotted to kill my son." With a gesture of the trident, he grew. His fingers extended into talons, his teeth sharpened into fangs. Ghostly fins and gills adorned him, as if he was a creature of the very same waters that had held him hostage of ten years.
"You planned to rape my wife!" A vision of the monster he was, that he turned himself into in order to get back home. The monster that the god hanging onto his back now favored, his cruel, ecstatic laugh only deafened by his monster's roar.
"ALL OF YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!" The trident left the god's hands, fully lending its power to the mortal. But before Odysseus could chase down the remaining men-
"They've filled your heart with hate." Poseidon whispered in the king's ear, goading him on. "All of them have done you wrong." His fingers dug into Odysseus' shoulders, making sure he was listening to his command. "Their fate is yours to decide, monster!"
Poseidon unleashed Odysseus upon the rest of the suitors, falling to the ground himself as the pain of his injuries overwhelmed him. And he laughed and laughed and laughed as the palace was covered in red.
Odysseus approached Poseidon, careful. The god had dropped onto the ground a while ago, laying face up as a constant stream of laughter left him. A small puddle of glowing gold slowly grew from underneath him. Now that he was done with the suitors, that he was now home and safe was starting to sink in, the anger was starting to wear down enough that he was starting to feel concern for Poseidon. Not guilt at the state he had left him in, but concerned that the god wasn't healing. If the stories were correct, then Poseidon had gone through much worse as a newborn. Surely, getting stabbed couldn't be that severe? "Do you... need a healer?" He inquired, squinting at the form on the ground.
Poseidon's laugh was a wheezing, coughed out thing. "I appreciate the offer. But this is nothing that your healers can help with, monster."
"Would you stop calling me that?" Odysseus snapped. "I know what I've become, you don't need to rub it in."
"Moooonsteeeeer~" Poseidon practically sing-songed. Odysseus frowned down at him, unamused, before smacking him with the butt of his own trident. Right into the exposed organs. Poseidon actually wheezed in pain, coughing out more ichor, before a small, wet cackle left him.
Odysseus sighed, starting to grow tired of the constant laughter. "Were you actually not kidding when you said you're usually chill back when we met? Or do you get off of people suffering?"
"Wouldn't you like to know-"
"Father?" Odysseus froze at the voice calling for him, and thankfully Poseidon quieted down as well. Telemachus. He stared down at the god at his feet, mind going a mile per hour trying to figure out what to do with him. When he had fantasized about finally meeting his son again, none of the scenarios included an actual god that he had severely injured in a blind, desperate rage-
Poseidon beat him to the punch, sitting up with what looked to be great effort. "I'll leave you to reunite with your family."
Odysseus blinked in confusion, staring down at him. "Are you sure-?"
"I preach ruthlessness, not being tactless." Poseidon answered, sounding slightly annoyed. He stared up at Odysseus, his expression strangely soft. "And I have no place in what's coming anyway." As if the last few hours hadn't been bizarre enough, the god bowed his head at him. "You've earned this, Odysseus of Ithaca."
And with that, he dissolved into sea mist. Odysseus blinked, trying to process what had just happened, when the sound of footsteps neared him. He put the trident against the nearest wall, the shine of ichor on his hands and face fading away. And then, he slowly turned around, and finally, properly laid his eyes upon his beloved boy. "Son?"