Victor's POV
Ouch. That had really hurt.
My body felt like when you kick your funny bone; except it was throughout my entire body. While I laid against some rubble from where I landed, my mind kept thinking, "Pins and needles! Pins and needles!"
"You," Zeus growled, coming over to where I was sprawled in oh-so-miserable pain. Oh uh. I need to divert his attention— fast.
"So, you want to know why I betrayed you all?" I asked. Zeus froze. Well then, point to Victor!
"Why's that?" Zeus asked, his voice on edge. I knew I had to be careful when talking to Zeus. Athena had always told me he wasn't nearly as stupid as people thought. Of course, Athena also admitted to me that she adored her father and looked up to him so that might sway her opinions on him.
"Because I didn't." I said.
"You didn't, what?" Zeus asked, his eyebrows narrowing. It reminded me of the look Athena got when something unexpected occurred.
"I didn't do whatever you all are claiming I did." I said. Energy danced in his eyes dangerously.
"What do you mean?" Zeus asked.
"Look! He's clearly lying." Ares interjected, walking up to his dad. Zeus glared at me and I realized the precarious situation I was in. Zeus was acting like he wanted to eradicate me with his eyes, Ares was grinning like he was about to watch the poor god Victor get plucked while Athena was in a corner going coo-coo for Olympus knows what.
"I have an alibi." I said.
"No he doesn't!" Ares shouted.
I coughed. "Please oh so gracious, Ares... I was talking before you opened up your jumbo mouth." I said, unable to resist a little quip at his own expense. The heat behind his biker glasses increased.
"Why you little—"
"What's you alibi?" Zeus asked me before Ares could get any further with his sentence.
"I was at the My Little Pony Marathon." I said. Ares got a victorious look. Great, don't tell me...
"Not going to work!" Ares said. "This happened after it ended."
Sparks flew between Zeus' fingers.
"Things are looking pretty bad for you." Zeus said in a near growl.
"Wait— Let Athena read my mind!" I said suddenly.
"What?" Zeus asked, his eyes widen with surprise.
"I said let Athena read my mind," I repeated. "If I'm guilty, she'll see."
Unless things go wrong...
Hera's POV
I pushed up out of my chair.
"Sissy, it's time to talk." I said to Hestia. Her eyes widen slightly but I didn't give her the chance to say no. I grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room. The rest of the family stared at me in shock but I didn't care: this was between me and her now. We got outside and I swung her arm around so that she was facing me. I tried to look her in the eyes but she kept her eyes at a downcast.
"Ever since this game began, you've been having problems with mom. Why?" I asked. She starred intently at the ground for several moments. After a while, the look in her eyes began to reflect hurt, misery, pain.
"She has a lot to be angry with me about." Hestia said quietly.
"What do you mean?" I asked quietly. Hestia pursed her lips.
"It's not something I wish to talk about." Hestia said.
"Why not?" I demanded. She winced.
"It's..." Hestia began.
"It's what?"
"Well... let's just say that after I was born, I caused some problems between her and father." Hestia said. I remained silent for a while, trying to figure out what she meant. How did her birth cause problems between them? Then I figured it must be because Kronos ate her and Rhea never forgave him. They had problems ever since then. Still, I didn't see why mom would blame Hestia for this. It's not like she wanted to be eaten.
"Let's go back inside." Hestia said quickly, running back inside before I could say a word. Reluctantly, I followed her.
For some reason, I felt like Hestia wasn't sharing all she could...
Athena's POV
"Athena, read his mind." My father said. My eyes widen with shock. He's... giving me permission to read Victor's mind?
As a general rule, I wasn't allowed to use my telepathic powers. All the gods have them but I, as the goddess of wisdom, have such a wide range in the mental domain that I am undoubtedly the most powerful telepath on Olympus. My mental powers work almost like charmspeak except, I don't even have to open my mouth to influence people. As such, my father doesn't allow me to use my powers except to contact him on occasion. Since I was born from his head, I have a natural telepathic bond with him.
Without saying a word, I got up off the floor from where Victor had pinned me and walked over to him. When I got to him, I crouched in front of him and placed his head between my hands. Victor's eyes were soft and my stomach twisted around like one of Medusa's snakes. How can my friend smile at me like that when he had betrayed me?
"It's okay, Athena." Victor said gently. As if I needed reassuring. He should be trying to reassure himself. I'll send such a powerful telepathic blast through his head, he'll be as useful as a carrot! "I trust you."
He trusts me.
I scowled and dug my nails deeper into his head, drawing blood. Victor hissed in pain as ten trails of blood went down his head.
"You trust me, huh?" I spat. "Only an idiot would trust someone."
"You're not an idiot." Victor pointed out.
Victor grunted in pain as I sent a powerful wave of energy into his mind. I'll show him, I'll...
After the first powerful blast, I found it harder and harder to hurt him. Could his words have affected me...?
No. They could never effect me! I could care less of whether he trusts me or not. Such words do not matter to a steel willed goddess like myself.
The more I searched his mind, the more shocked I felt. What... how... why...?
It didn't matter. What matter was—
"Your innocent." I said. My voice came out surprisingly broken sounding. My eyes began to hurt and it became hard to see. "Your innocent."
Cool tears began to fall down my face as I clutched Victor and sobbed loudly. He rubbed gentle circles in my back and spoke soothing words.
"Innocent?" My dad repeated. "How's it possible—?"
"I saw his memories." I said, choking a bit on my words. Once I calmed down, I knew I was going to berate myself for acting so disgustingly weak. "He wasn't even trying to block me. I saw that he was innocent."
"He had no memories of kidnapping Dionysus?" Zeus said, with a hint of disbelief. Victor's eyes widened.
"Dionysus has been kidnapped?!"
"Now who's letting out unnecessary information." Ares said, crossing his arms. Dad scowled at him.
Victor stood up. "I swear on Styx I had nothing to do with it."
Thunder rolled in the sky and dad stared intently at Victor.
"Fine," he finally said. "I believe you."
Even though I already knew it was true, hearing my father say those words just confirmed my belief and lifted the burden off my shoulders.
"So..." Ares said, with a disappointed expression. "No maiming?"
"Not yet." Dad said, beginning to walk out of the room. "But someone is still out there who did kidnap Dionysus. And whoever it was seems to have framed Victor for some reason."
Ares scratched his head. "Who would do that?"
The room fell silent, nobody sure how to answer that question. Who would frame Victor? What god had a grudge against him?