it's fate, not you

"I'M SORRY, HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST YOUR MIND?" Athena looked at Stefan incredulously, her wide eyes shifting back and forth between her boyfriend and the woman who had nearly gotten her killed yesterday. "Did Elijah hit you in the head too hard?"

"Athena, just hear her out. She has information about the Originals," Stefan pleaded with Athena as she stormed into the living room, finding Damon sitting there with the same irritated look on his face that she was sure was on hers right now.

"Do you approve of getting information from the woman that tried to bargain me off to said Originals, or are you sane?"

Damon sighs, standing to pour himself a drink. "Oh, I'm definitely not sane, but I think it's reckless and stupid to get information from her."

Athena claps her hands together, turning to face an apologetic Stefan. "Never would I have thought there'd be a day where Damon is more sane than you, Stefan,"

"Listen," Rose steps forward, an understanding look in her eyes. "I don't know that much about them, and I don't know what's true and what's not true. That's the problem with this vampire crap. But Klaus, I know is real,"

Stefan's mind hums at the name and he briefly frowns at the odd sensation, unable to follow any sort of trail that would lead to a coherent explanation. Clearing his throat, he shakes his head. "Klaus is one of the Originals, from the first generation of vampires,"

Athena furrows her brows at Stefan but reluctantly looks to Rose. "Like Elijah?"

Thinking back to the situation at the abandoned house, she wondered just how much her mind was capable of, especially when it led her to undagger Elijah before they left. It had barely made sense in the moment and even if she wasn't trustful of Rose, she figured there had to be some sort of truth in her words.

"No," Rose sighs at Athena, her tense shoulders relaxing only a little bit. "Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He was a foot soldier, Klaus is the real deal,"

"Klaus is known to be the strongest," Stefan hid the confusion in his voice, hoping Athena would miss it entirely.

The goddess scoffs, looking at the three incredulously. "What, so not only is one of the oldest, strongest vampires in history coming to Mystic Falls to presumably kill me for harboring you, but you were going to sell me to him?"

"Yes,"

"No," Damon glares at Rose, who rolls her eyes. "Klaus isn't coming for you, at least not that we know of."

"He's coming for the doppelgänger,"

Athena scrunches her face up. "Which one?"

"Elena,"

"Great," She claps her hands together. "I'll go get her right now, and we can just meet the homicidal vampire at the city limits. Sound good?"

Damon begins to agree, but Rose and Stefan both stop them. "Klaus won't stop there," Rose shakes her head. "He– he's malicious, and evil, and a true psychopath. He'll kill all of us if he thinks we're plotting behind his back, or trying to hurt him."

"Okay, first of all, there is no us," Athena gestures between the brothers and herself, frowning at Rose. "There's you, who has infringed on our us. Second of all, we're not doing either of those things, so there's no reason for Klaus to go all Jack the Ripper on us."

She shakes her head, standing up from the couch. "We just hand over Elena and keep Katherine locked in the tomb for all of eternity, and everything will be fine. Elena will be dead, Katherine will be rotting, and you will be across the world, kidnapping someone else. Sounds like paradise to me,"

"Me, too," Damon raises his hand, giving Rose a sardonic smile that she glares at.

Stefan shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Athena, I wish it were that easy. But Klaus isn't someone you can bargain with. He'll want more than Elena, and we have to be prepared for whatever it is, which means for the time being, we need to keep Elena safe and figure out how to protect ourselves against Klaus."

Athena grits her teeth and looks away from Stefan, knowing there is at least an inkling of truth in his words. Sighing tersely, she looks at the three people standing before her. "Okay," She nods, pushing her hair off her shoulders. "I can't believe I'm asking this, but why isn't Elena here? I mean, if this all comes down to her, shouldn't she at least have some sort of idea that she's in danger?"

"You're right," Stefan furrows his brows at Athena. "Where do you think she'd be?"

"Well," Athena heaves a sigh, pulling out her phone. "We got kidnapped yesterday and it was her fault, which means her victim complex is skyrocketing, which most likely means she's cornered Caroline into telling her every little thing that's been going on because Bonnie has a backbone and won't tell her, and now she's going to find out some way to 'help' us,"

Athena air quotes the word help, her eyes rolling in annoyance. "But because she's not actually helpful, it's only going to cause problems for us in the future. My best guess is she's finding out more about the Originals, or more about this stupid curse that everyone's so afraid of."

She sighs as she quiets, looking into three sets of eyes with a slightly accusing look of her own. "Anyways," She draws out, grabbing her bag from the floor. "I'm going to school until one of you finds out where Elena is because I don't care enough to do it myself. My best advice is to contact Caroline."

The three of them watch her go and the door to the boarding house slams shut with her departure, seemingly snapping them from their shocked stupor.

Rose clears her throat slightly, looking at the brothers. "Am I the only one who was utterly terrified just now?"

Damon smirks slightly as Stefan sighs, presumably thinking of following after Athena. "You'll get used to it. Athena's an acquired taste,"

"What's her," Rose makes a vague gesture. "Deal? She's not a vampire, but she came back to life. And she's not a witch, yet she conjured vervain."

He taps his temple, giving her a wink as he passes before her. "It's all in the name, Rosie. All in the name,"

──────

"You were right, Elena went to get information about Klaus from Katherine,"

Athena snorts, pressing the phone against her ear as she rolls her eyes. She watches Artemis grab another quiver of arrows for her bow. "Of course I was, and of course she did. Did she tell you what Katherine said?"

"She's been running from Klaus and she was going to hand us all over to him in hopes to pay off a debt."

She stops, her hand clenching around a bundle of daggers that Artemis had given her. "I've seen how paying off a debt to the Originals went the first time. There's no way Katherine is that stupid."

"I thought the same thing, but she told Elena that besides the doppelgänger and the moonstone, the key to breaking the curse is a vampire, a werewolf, and a witch,"

"A vampire, werewolf," She trails off, eyes widening. "Caroline, Tyler, and Bonnie. She triggered Tyler's curse and turned Caroline just so she could barter them off to Klaus in order to get her freedom. That diabolical bitch– that's actually a good plan! If I wasn't so pissed, I'd probably congratulate her,"

"Athena,"

"Right, right," She waved her boyfriend's slight scold off, earning an amused look from Artemis as she drew her bow back and aimed it at some target that Athena couldn't see. "So, now what? What do we do? If Elijah is already here, then there's no question that Klaus is on his way from wherever it is that really old, evil vampires spend their spare time."

Stefan clears his throat, shaking his head on the other line. "I don't know. From what I've heard about this Klaus guy, you can't beat him. You either give in, or you get killed."

"And we're still not on board with giving in? I mean, vampire-wise, we could turn anybody. We could give him Rose! And I'm not too broken up about Tyler if I'm being honest, he's turned into such an asshole, and werewolves aren't as laidback as vampires,"

Stefan huffs a slight laugh, knowing he shouldn't find the situation funny but unable to keep a straight face at Athena's ramblings. "What about Bonnie? She's the witch,"

"Well, what about that witch Katherine brought? Lucy. We could just throw her to the wolves. Or wolf, I guess. I get a loner vibe from this Klaus guy,"

"We aren't going to give up an innocent witch to a homicidal maniac, Athena,"

"Nobody ever wants to do what I wanna do," She feigns a pout, earning an eye roll from Artemis that she ignores. "Okay, I have to go, but why don't you and your hero brain come up with a great plan to save Elena and everyone else, and you can just fill me in on it later."

Sighing, Stefan runs a hand through his hair and looks between Caroline and Elena, both of whom seem particularly distraught. "Okay, I'll talk to you later,"

"Mm, fine,"

"I love you,"

"Love you, bye," With an apologetic look, Athena drops her phone back into her bag and walks back over to Artemis. "Sorry about that, we're going through with the save Elena thing, I guess."

Artemis frowns slightly, readjusting her metal bracers that cuff around her forearms. "What's going on? Who's Klaus?"

"The Originals," Athena shrugs, swinging the daggers in her hands to get a good feel of their weight again. "They were the first vampires to walk the Earth way back when, and they're trying to break the Sun and the Moon curse which happens to involve quite a few people I know."

"The Sun and the Moon curse? That sounds fake,"

"That's what I keep saying," Athena looks at her gratefully, shaking her head exasperatedly. She frowns a bit, looking up at Artemis through her lashes. "Hey, couldn't you do some sort of godly intervention and help us out?"

Artemis huffs a brief laugh, but the pity that appears in her eyes makes Athena worry. "I wish that I could, little sister, but Zeus wouldn't be happy with me if I did. We're taught not to interfere with these sorts of things, especially when it's a path that the Fates have yet to see."

"What, so my dad wants me to just do this all on my own? Doesn't that just make my life harder?"

Artemis shrugs, propping her bow up on a tree as she turns to face Athena. "Every young god goes through a series of inevitable things, no matter where it aligns with fate. They're supposed to mold you into a true god, like a coming of age, I suppose,"

She glances at the girl to see if she's following along, and Athena nods, pursing her lips in thought. "But, if my life has gone completely off the rails fate-wise, does that mean I'm still going to have those moments? Or is everything just a clusterfuck of inevitable events meant to make me strong?"

"From what you and Zeus both have said, since the accident you're well into these tasks without even realizing it. It seems as though fate or something else is trying to set you back onto a path. The accident itself, everything that led to you finding Damon and Stefan, nearly being killed multiple times since then, and now this mess with the Originals. It's all happening for a reason, even if it's unclear now. If you continue down this path, you'll have no problem joining us on Olympus one day."

Athena's heart dropped and she tore her wide eyes away from Artemis quickly to hide her panic. She remembered her father telling her that her fate had changed because of the accident, and she wondered if perhaps she'd never gotten into that car that night if everything would be different. She wondered if she had never met Stefan, if she'd find the concept of leading a kingdom appealing. As it is, she doesn't find the idea of leaving her life here appealing in the slightest.

"So," She clears her throat, trying to hide the thoughts in her mind that would probably do nothing but upset her sister. "How will I know that I'm doing what needs to be done?"

"Right now, you'll just be growing stronger. Your senses will change, they'll become less human. I even gained better aim when I was adjusting," She gestured to her bow. "Eventually I got used to those, but my powers didn't stop evolving. I gained things like object manifestation, a better memory, and things that were helpful in a more tactical sense. Usually, once you've made it out, your powers adapt and pick up where you might have lacked in the situation. Though, it's been different for most of us, so who's to say what you'll experience."

She thinks of her fight with Elijah, and the vervain she'd made appear in her hand. She thinks of the day at the park with Caroline, where she'd suddenly heard a hundred different sounds all at once while trying to find Stefan and Damon. Her ability to nearly take down an Original vampire with a punch, and not break a bone while doing so. It made sense to think that these were the small rewards she was gathering before a large task finally paid off in double, but it frightened her to think of how bad things could get that she could possibly gain powers like Artemis had.

Just how many of these things had been happening without her even realizing it?

"Athena?"

Her sister's concerned voice chimes in, and she looks up at her taller frame, covering up the sudden nerves building in her. "What? Sorry, I just, um," She clears her throat. "I was thinking about the whole Klaus situation."

"Right," Artemis narrows her eyes like she doesn't believe a word she's saying. "You want to go?" She gestures to the daggers in her hands and Athena nods slowly, stepping where Artemis previously had been and staring down a narrow path through the thick trees.

"Remember, take a deep breath right before you throw them and it will steady your aim. And don't beat yourself up if you miss, it takes practice, even for a goddess."

Athena nods, slipping the dagger off her finger to pinch it in between her index finger and her thumb. She narrows her eyes, and draws her hand back, letting out a deep breath as she throws the dagger.

It sails through the trees, narrowly avoiding birds and oddly grown branches, landing directly in the middle of a tree with a makeshift target etched into it. Artemis cheers behind her, and Athena forces a small smile of relief at her joy, but she wonders how long it took for Artemis to gain all of these abilities. From the way she spoke of it, it was over a long period. Athena had barely hit two months since she first noticed her powers.

"Hey, Artemis?"

The brown-haired goddess raised a brow, still smiling somewhat. "Yeah?"

"Have you ever– has anyone ever," She shrugs a shoulder, badly feigning nonchalance. "Changed their own fate?"

Artemis narrows her eyes, seemingly racking her brain for an answer, before she slowly shakes her head. "The Fates don't make mistakes, Athena. Every soul that is in their possession is planned to the last detail, there's no way for it to change unless you encounter a Fate and ask them, and even then they don't listen. They know better than to do something like that,"

"So," Athena clears her throat quietly. "Whatever happened to me back in May wasn't my fault?"

Artemis shakes her head. "No one's ever been able to change their own fate. If something does change, it's because of someone or something else. I highly doubt it, seeing as it's never happened before, but it could've been one of the Fates themselves. Why, do you think you remembered something about it?"

Athena shakes her head slowly, pursing her lips. "I just wondered," She shrugged slightly, trying to brush the topic away easily. "Your turn or mine?"

"You pick,"

Athena sighs, a smile coming easily now even if it was fake. Even as she nails another bullseye, she feels dread pooling in her stomach. She needs to talk to her father, and she needs to do the one thing she swore she'd never do.

She needs to go back to the woods where the party was, back to Wickery Bridge where the accident happened, and figure out what went wrong. She needs to retrace her steps and figure out exactly where things went wrong.

Her fate changed the night she got into Elena Gilbert's car, and it wasn't her, so which of the three Fates had been in attendance at that party?

──────

author's note; Athena really took that whole goddess of wisdom thing and RAN 🏃🏻‍♀️💨 also I don't really like this chapter but the episode is really Katherine centric aka Elena centric so I just skipped most of it, and delved into Athena's issues a bit more ;) 

originally published; 1.10.21. 

edited: 12.2.23.

- liz