Chapter Text
When Adrien opened his eyes, he found himself in a familiar place that didn’t look like Korea. It was so beautiful that he could only describe it as an ethereal palace. He then noticed a familiar blue-haired man. Instantly he understood it was a dream. He could understand memories of his past life seeping into his dreams, but he couldn’t understand why he always watched in third person. It happened last time too. That annoyed him to think about, why could he only remember his dreams in other dreams? It would have been a lot nicer if he could remember such things when he was awake, especially when Sybl’s mom would be able to give more answers if he could give her more details.
“Listen, I just don’t see the point in chasing after some human longer than I already have.” The blue haired man spat, he was talking to another man who had green hair. To Adrian’s shock, the green-haired guy was hovering above the ground. It wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d seen but it was still very unusual. He could only wonder what sort of life he had led in the past.
“Really? I guess that makes sense but. . .” The green-haired man trailed off with a smirk on his face.
“But what?” The bluenette took a sip out of the chalice he was holding.
“I just can’t help but wonder if you did it for Athena’s sake.” Upon hearing that, Adrian watched his past self spit his drink out in shock. His floating friend seemingly tried to hold back a laugh. Although the scene before him was quite funny, Adrian couldn’t help but fixate on Athena’s name. He supposed it was confirmation that they did know each other in his past life, but why was it that Athena held the same name? Did that mean that he did too? He watched as his past self set the chalice down on a table.
“Hermes, let me make one thing clear. I already made that mortal suffer enough, and I have better things to do than continue to chase after him. Athena’s affection for him has nothing to do with it.” Adrian’s past self stated, trying to regain his composure. Finally able to have a better look at his past life, Adrian found himself feeling proud to have been so good looking.
“I can understand that. But Poseidon, you’re just so petty and it’s so hard for you to get over things. Seeing you act so rationally about this makes me wonder if something big happened recently.” The man, Hermes, retorted. Upon hearing that, Adrian realized he had been wrong about having the same name. But why was it that Athena still had the same name? Thinking about their names more began to bother him. Hermes, Athena, Poseidon, they were all the names of Greek gods. And if he were to count the current Athena he knew, then there was also Apollo. The name of another Greek god. Although he was confused, he didn’t have much time to think about it if he wanted to watch the memory.
“Did you forget that I’ve gotten married? Marriage can change people you know. Here I thought that you had a good memory. I suppose I’m not the only one that’s gone through a change.” his past self, Poseidon, shot back. Thinking about how Sybl treated him, Adrian was positive that the two people he was watching had to have been good friends.
“So what? You got married before the Trojan war, that was like over 20 years ago. And it seems that your wife couldn’t care less about you. And you treat her more like a friend than a wife. I don’t recall you two even going on a honeymoon.”
“Is that any way to speak to your own uncle?”
“ It is when my uncle doesn’t want to give me honest answers. You can’t trick the trickster god.” Hermes laughed. “Tell me about Lesser Ajax again. The mortal you killed after he offended Athena.” The man who Adrian could assume was his past nephew smiled smugly. He could only watch and take in all the information he could. Sybl’s mom told he was in a loving relationship with Athena, but how could they have been if he was married to someone else? Were they together and then broke up?
“Don’t forget he offended me too! Don’t turn this into something it’s not!” Poseidon declared, already turning to walk away.
“I suppose you have a point there.” The floating nephew sighed, clearly let down at the lack of a juicy story. “But I still don’t buy that you let Odysseus go simply because you got too tired of being petty. Could it be that you did it for my sake?”
“What?” The blue-haired god stopped and turned around.
“He is my great-grandson after all. Oh uncle, I didn’t know you cared about me so much.” Hermes pretended to wipe away tears for the sake of being dramatic. Adrian tried rubbing his eyes before remembering that he was always incorporeal in his memory-dreams. He just couldn’t understand how Hermes could look so young despite having a great-grandson. Or how his past self could look so young despite having a nephew with a great-grandson.
“I promised Hera that I wouldn’t skip every meeting so she’d be less stressed, not so you could act like this.” Poseidon gestured to his floating nephew. Before muttering to himself, “And he says I have an odd sense of humor.”
“See you later Uncle Poseidon.” Hermes waved with his usual mischievous smile on his face. Poseidon didn’t bother responding as he summoned his trident and turned a corner to the outside. However to both his and Adrian’s surprise, he bumped into another familiar face. Adrian’s eyes widened as he saw Athena. Although she was dressed in armor, she was unmistakably a woman. A very cute one though Adrian would be too embarrassed to ever admit that out loud.
“Oh.” was the only sound she made, as if she was unsure of what to say. Adrian noticed she was holding a book but he wasn’t sure what sort of book it was. He observed the two awkwardly nod to each other as they then continued on their opposite paths. The blue haired boy couldn’t see how the two of them were in a loving relationship when they seemed uncomfortable by just bumping into each other. Athena then stopped walking and turned around.
“Hey, Poseidon.” she called out, prompting both versions of the sea god to turn towards her. “I know we’re not on the best of terms, but I just wanted to say thank you for leaving Odysseus be.” her lips forming into a small but genuine smile. He turned towards his past self and watched him smile. Followed up by a scoff,
“You don’t have to thank me, it’s not like I did it for you.” An annoyed expression appeared on his silver-haired friend’s face. Adrian blinked, not expecting such an answer as he watched himself walk away. He turned to Athena one last time to see her annoyed expression melt into one of relief. Maybe glad to hear that it wasn’t for her sake? Her gaze followed him for a moment more as she lingered in place before turning around and leaving herself. As he watched his past self summon a chariot and step into it, he noticed Poseidon turned his head to the direction he had just come from. Of course there was no one to be seen. With that, the scene before him began to fade away.
Adrian opened his eyes to find himself waking up in his guest room. He instinctively put a hand to his nose as blood began to gush out of it like it did every time he had one of his strange dreams. But there was one big difference this time compared to all the others. He actually remembered what happened in his dream.
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“Alright, I’m off,” Athena bid her assistant goodbye as she turned to the door.
“Athena, are you sure you’re okay?” Nike asked, stopping Athena from leaving just yet.
“We don’t know anything for sure yet. We may have our theories but they haven’t been confirmed. The best thing for now is to stay as close to Adrian as possible.” the silver-haired goddess smiled, although it was clear she was tired. Upon hearing that, the tiny titan allowed a pink light to surround her and she grew into a bigger form of herself. With that, she hugged Athena tightly.
“No matter what you find out, know that I’ll always be on your side. Kay?” Nike whispered and the silver-haired girl could only hug her back and gently nod. Feeling much calmer and more assured, Athena couldn’t help but wonder if that was what it felt like to have a mother. Thinking of her assistant filling a parental role then reminded her of Iolo. Who she couldn’t reach at all throughout the night.
“Now, I gotta get going.” Athena pulled away, she had gotten ready much sooner partly due to the fact that she couldn’t sleep and partly because she had wanted to check on Adrian. Although she expected him to still be asleep when she dropped by, she didn’t want to wait for much longer. However, Athena was in for a surprise when she walked outside to find Adrian had already been waiting for her.
“Oh.” was the only sound the silver-haired goddess made when she saw him.
“Hey!” He happily greeted,
“Hey.” She certainly hadn’t expected him to be awake already, let alone ready to go to school. She had a feeling that she was in for a weird day.