"So, what exactly happened out there?" Zeus couldn't keep the annoyance out of his voice. He'd wanted to go as well, but someone had to stay in the Moon Palace to guard it. Aphrodite just shook her head with a rueful expression on her face.
"I don't know ! That's the problem! Sure, I was there for the birth, and for Charon's death, but I walked in in the middle of the conversation, and nobody bothered to explain anything to me." Venus snuggled against her mother and Aphrodite spared enough attention to give her daughter a gentle smile.
"Well, where are they, then? I know you were given the fastest ship to get to Charon in time, but they shouldn't be this far behind you. It's been hours! Over half a day!"
"Oh, stop bothering me! It's not like I've had a relaxing couple of days! Hermes and Serenity are visiting Neptune and Uranus. Since Hades won't be able to protect the Solar System anymore Serenity decided she needed to stop and talk with them. Evidently the two are going to have to work closely to protect us now."
"What!? Why can't Hades protect us? You have to give me something!" Zeus felt his face begin to redden with frustration, and he took deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself.
" Well , if you must know, Hades gave the Silence Glaive to Saturn. Oh, that's the name of his and Charon's new daughter, in case you were wondering."
"He gave the glaive to an infant?!"
"It was the oddest thing, you know. Pluto named him. Neither of those two men" Aphrodite tried not to use too sarcastic a tone as she said that word "would deign to name her themselves." Zeus' cheeks were blown out in consternation. "First Hades gave the glaive to Pluto to guard until Saturn was old enough to use it, then Chronos gave the Garnet Rod to Pluto, then all three girls jumped through that time portal-"
"Three?! What three? There were only two girls, Saturn and Pluto!"
Aphrodite gave him a wide-eyed look. "Oh, didn't I tell you? There were two Plutos there."
Zeus collapsed into a faint with a loud crash as he hit the ground.
Venus took her thumb out her mouth long enough to look down in surprise at the big man lying down on the floor. Then she turned questioning blue eyes to her mother.
"Well, he deserved it." Aphrodite tried to justify her behavior. "I wouldn't have done it if he hadn't been so annoying !"
*****
"So we won't be hearing from the outers again?"
Serenity sadly shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. They'll be spending most of their time learning to fight, to defend us from outside attacks. They just can't spare the time necessary to travel back and forth among the planets. I'm sure they'll send us messages if things go wrong or they need help, but other than that, they're completely cut off. They even support themselves with hydroponics, so there won't be any food runs between us anymore either." Serenity looked around at her four good friends. There were others she knew among the common population, but they were nothing more than acquaintances. The only other people who could be considered close to her were Luna, Artemis, and, of course, her daughter. Serenity stifled a sad sigh. Her world was growing smaller. Friends were dying or leaving. . . She choked back tears and forced herself to continue.
"Another problem is Gaia's troubling silence. She'll respond to direct messages, but even then her responses are terse. I just don't know what to do about it. It's not that she's doing anything wrong. . ."
"We're still getting food shipments on time. It's not like she's cut herself off." Hermes offered, but he, too, looked concerned. "Maybe we should just pay her a visit and try to find out what's going on."
Serenity opened her mouth to agree when she noticed that Aphrodite was shaking her head. She gave her the floor. "We can't all just show up and demand to know what's going on. Gaia would feel threatened if we all ganged up against her like that. That's not the way to get an answer. It's easier and more pleasant all around to get answers through sweetness instead of with a threat."
"And you're our resident expert on being sweet, aren't you, Aphrodite?" Zeus sulked.
"Well, Zeus, it's certainly not you ."
Serenity held up her hands for silence before things got nasty. She wasn't in the mood to put up with quarrels like this. "Stop it! We're breaking up here! Everyone, count to a hundred and calm down!"
Ares raised his eyebrows at Serenity. She sighed. "Yes, Ares?"
"Do I have to count to one hundred? I wasn't fighting."
"Why, can't you count that high?" Hermes voice cut in before Serenity could respond.
" STOP IT "
Everyone leaned back from the table as Serenity swept it with an angry glare. "I have enough problems, I don't need you to all start acting like you're the same age as your children!" Everyone looked at each other with wide eyes at Serenity's outburst. She took a slow breath and began again. "I don't know why you're all baiting each other like this, but I need it to stop."
"And who gave you the right to order us around?" Zeus muttered sullenly.
"You did. It was your idea to make me Queen. I haven't pulled rank before, but if all of you are going to force me to do it in order to get some cooperation, I will!"
Hermes' face split in a wide grin. "And you guys said it wouldn't work! I told you we could get her to finally take control!"
Zeus smothered a chortle with one huge hand while he slapped the table in glee. "I loved that line of yours, Ares! Asking if you have to count to a hundred."
Ares smiled and looked over at Hermes. "Who knows, maybe I can't count that high!" Hermes shook his head, tacitly admitting that Ares was much more intelligent than appearances led one to believe.
Aphrodite sniffed disdainfully. "You men are all children. I'm the only one who had to act. Immaturity came naturally to the rest of you."
Serenity sat silently at the table, trying to master her temper. "You mean this whole thing was staged just to annoy me?"
"You'd be a great ruler, Serenity, if you'd stop being so laid back and just rule We'd almost despaired of ever getting you to realize your position. These councils are nice and all, but we can't always come here to meet when a decision's got to be made. You need to take your title more seriously, your Majesty. I saw how your face soured whenever that older version of Pluto called you her queen. I figured that since she was so respectful of your position, at some time or another you'll have to assert yourself. So we pushed you to it." Hermes smiled kindly at Serenity. "After all, I'm just carrying out your own command too-I've preserved the time stream."
"As I recall, I gave that command to Pluto," Serenity tried, but she couldn't stay angry at them. They were all so pleased that their little plan had worked. She took a playful swipe at Hermes in an attempt to wash that stupid grin off his face. "Stop it! I know you're all laughing at me!" Serenity straightened in her chair. "So, who are we going to send to Earth?"
"I think you should go, Serenity. You'll know what you're looking for."
"No," She shook her head, "I can't leave again. If I'm really gong to be queen-" she raised her eyebrow at her friends, "-I'm going to have to stay here as much as possible. Zeus!"
He jerked his head up. "Yes?"
"Since you were so disappointed about being stuck here during the Saturn crisis, why don't you go find out what's made Gaia so reticent lately."
Zeus smiled over at Aphrodite. She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes and Serenity thought she heard her mumble something about flies and honey.
*****
"Look, I'm just too busy to bother keeping up with things out there, okay?" Gaia was nearly yelling as she put her face directly in front of Zeus'. "If you'd just stop sending such inane messages and leave me in peace, maybe I would have enough time to get things done around here!"
Zeus held his hand up, palms forward, in the unusual position of peacemaker. "Okay, okay, just calm down! There's no need to shout!"
"Mom?" A young boy with jet black hair stuck his head in the room. Gaia turned with a swish of her long chestnut hair at the sound. "What's going on?" It was night on Earth, and the boy was yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Why are you yelling?"
"Endymion! Why are you out of bed?"
"You were shouting. Very loud. Who is this?" Endymion turned sharp blue eyes on Zeus, and he felt an irrational urge to take a step back. There was something very special about this boy. . .Zeus started as he remembered something. Hadn't he heard somewhere that Endymion was shaping up to be a great fighter, even at such a tender age? It was a measure of Gaia's isolation that her son didn't know who he was. He took a step forward.
"Hello, son, my name is Zeus. I'm a friend of your mother's."
Endymion eyed him distrustfully. "It didn't sound like she and you are friends." Zeus laughed. The boy had spunk.
"That's why I came here. We haven't been hearing much from you in a while, so I came down to make sure everything's all right."
"Oh, you mean you're here to help with the-"
"Endymion!" Gaia tried so sound authoritative, but just came off as frightened. "It's past your bedtime. You have to get up early tomorrow for arms practice, remember. You should go back to bed."
Endymion hung his head at her tone. "Yes, Mother." He left, throwing one last glance backward before he left.
"What's going on, Gaia? And don't open your mouth and start yelling at me again. You've got a problem here, don't you? Is it with those humans? You have to tell us what's going on. We can help you!" Why wouldn't she tell him anything?!
"Gaia! Gaia? Gaia! Where are you?! Gaia!"
Zeus watched in amazement as a worried look washed over Gaia's expression before she schooled her features into a pleasant smile. She turned and called out "Here I am, Metallia!" A woman strode into the office and stopped in her tracks when she saw Zeus there.
"What are you doing here?" Zeus raised his eyebrow at her rude tone. She must have sensed his disapproval. She quickly made a small bow. "Sorry, Zeus, it's just that a storm has damaged one of our crops, and. . ." She stopped. "Anyway, Gaia, I need to talk to you as soon as you're finished."
"Oh, that's all right." Zeus was intrigued by Gaia's reaction to this woman, and wanted to hear what she'd have to say. "You go ahead and talk with her." He dropped a gem of information, being very careful not to smile-he loved this cloak and dagger stuff. As long as he won, anyway. "I'm going to be staying here for a few days." Gaia blanched at the news.
Metallia just gave him a flat, unfriendly stare, then shot a look at Gaia. Gaia cleared her throat. "I'm afraid you can't do that, Zeus. We-ah-we don't have anyplace for you to sleep."
"Oh, well, that's all right. I can share a room with someone. It's not a problem."
"No! No. I mean it. There's no place for you. You-you'll have to go now." Without another word Gaia turned around and practically ran out of the room. Metallia followed, pointedly ignoring Zeus' presence.
He stood there for a moment, completely nonplused at their attitude. He'd been very effectively stonewalled. He was convinced that the only way he could get any more answers than he already had would be to start threatening Gaia with violence, and that was hardly a solution. He shrugged helplessly. He'd just have to go back to the Moon and tell Serenity everything that had transpired. He only wished he had found out more. Aphrodite would be absolutely insufferable over this. Without another word he slowly made his way back to his craft.