Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Choose.”

Odysseus swallowed thickly, forcing down the bile in his throat. He knew something like this was coming the minute Zeus began talking, and now the god king stood behind him, demanding he make a sacrifice, and his silver tongue was failing him when he needed it most.

His crew were staring at him, sweat soaking their brows and eyes glittering with worry.

He clenched his fist, forcing himself to confirm Zeus’ request. “Ch—choose?”

“You, dear king of Ithaca, have the final say in who pays the price Helios demands in return for slaughtering his friend,” Zeus sounded amused; maybe even bored. “So who dies today: you… or your crew?”

Gasps and shouts rang out among the crew, some grabbing at each other while others remained stock still.

Eurylochus stood at the front of their group, eyes wide in horror.

“Please,” Odysseus begged, turning his head to try and face the god behind him, gripping his shoulders, “don’t make me do this.”

Zeus chuckled, sliding his hands up Odysseus’ shoulders and holding his neck in a manner that mimicked choking the mortal, though no pressure was applied. “Let’s see when a man truly becomes a monster, great king,” he spat mockingly, voice like venom in Odysseus’ ear.

The cold rain continued to beat against the ship and the men standing on it, hiding away the tears that many of them were beginning to shed. The crew looked so small now… huddled together in a tiny group of thirty-six men.

I killed them. This is all my fault.

The guilt that rooted itself in his heart was enough to make him want to fall onto his knees and scream until his throat was raw. How could he have let it go this far? How could he have let himself betray his crew — his comrades — like this?

I killed them… what would be so wrong in killing the rest?

The thought shocked him, and reminded him of the things he had asked himself in the Underworld. He hadn’t given those questions much thought since then, just accepting that he was a monster.

But this was the true test of that resolve. If I make sure I get home again, who would care if I’m unjust?

And then he looked up, into Eurylochus’ eyes. Into his brother’s eyes — and he knew he couldn’t do it. Ctimene waited for him back home. The others had wives and husbands and children to return to. And, while he did as well, he couldn’t bear to ruin another thing for his crew.

He couldn’t bear to see the look in his baby sister’s eyes if he had to tell her that he had killed the love of her life.

But I have to see Penelope and Telemachus. I—

That was when an idea struck him, and he sent a silent prayer of thanks to Athena, if she was even listening to anything he did nowadays. A prayer thanking her for allowing his brain to finally start functioning again. His intelligence had never failed him for this long before.

He twisted in Zeus’ grip, managing to turn his body until he was gently grabbing at the god king’s wrist. He plastered a placating smile on his face, trying to seem almost like an innocent young child.

“King of the gods, surely I can repay my sins in another way,” he started, licking his lips. Zeus’ grip loosened in shock, and he took that moment to fully twist out of his grip and drops to his knees, fully begging at this point. “I… offer myself in servitude to you, for as long a sentence as you and Helios see fit. I offer everything I am and have to you so long as nobody dies today.”

Then, after a moment of silence, he brokenly added, “please.”

The minutes seemed to pass by like hours, days, months, years — Odysseus wasn’t sure. But eventually the rain stopped, and he could only hear his own labored breathing and the quiet gasps of the crew. One last crack of thunder cut through the air before the clouds cleared away, letting the sun shine down on the ship and the sea once again.

“Helios has agreed to these terms,” Zeus said, his voice a low rumble. It seemed much louder without the rain and thunder drowning it out. “Though he is not pleased, he accepts.”

“A… and you?” Odysseus asked nervously.

“I am more than happy to accept your payment,” Zeus chuckled darkly.

Odysseus gulped, and then squared his shoulders. He couldn’t back out now. He turned his head to see the crew, and just caught sight of Eurylochus opening his mouth to speak.

Zeus cut him off. “You will be granted safe passage and benevolent winds on the rest of your journey home.”

Then, without warning, he grabbed Odysseus by the hair, pulling him up and onto his feet. Odysseus couldn’t help but cry out at the sharp pain that spiked through his skull.

“Good luck without your precious captain,” Zeus mocked.

And then, in less time than the blink of an eye, they were snapped off the ship.

Chapter Text

Zeus was pulling him by his wrist, tugging harsh enough to make it feel like he was pulling it out of the socket. Odysseus gave a shout of alarm when the god suddenly stopped, though, in front of a door.

Then, yellow glittering eyes were locked onto his blue ones. “This room will be where you stay. I will have servants to bathe, dress, and feed you within the hour. Today I must smooth over the details of your payment with Helios, then I will return.”

At the end, his lips quirked up into a smirk, but Odysseus had too many things on his mind to really catch the implication — or care, for that matter.

Zeus opened the door, shoved him into the room, and slammed it in his face without a moment of hesitance.

“Oh my gods,” he muttered aloud.

Staring at the white door and listening to Zeus’ footsteps fade away, the reality of his situation truly sunk in. It had worked. His plan — it worked! His crew was alive and guaranteed to return home safely.

Then it sunk in even more, and he felt his heart squeeze inside of his chest. Penelope…

Maybe it won’t be forever, he thought, trying to remain slightly positive. Maybe they’ll let me go home soon enough.

Yeah. Yeah, he had to believe that. Otherwise…

He turned around and faced the room, clapping his hands together as he took in his new surroundings. “Okay, what have we here?”

The room had pale grey walls, almost white. A pearly color that he quite liked, if he was being honest. In the middle of the back wall, there was a large king-sized bed. To his left, there was a desk, and to his right, a dresser. A few feet away from the dresser, in the far right corner of the room, there was another door leading to what he presumed was a bathroom.

“Simple enough,” he hummed to himself. It reminded him of his and Penelope’s room in their palace.

Before he could dwell anymore on the room, a knock sounded on the door. Then three servants walked in — all women, surprisingly. Although, not necessarily unpleasant. This room had a masculine air about it to at made him rather uncomfortable anyhow.

“You must be Odysseus?” The first woman asked, the other two standing beside her quietly.

He nodded. “Yes, I am. Pleasure to meet you.”

He held out a hand to shake, but she ignored it and instead guided him to the other door, which did indeed lead to a bathroom. The two women with her split off wordlessly as the first drew a hot bath in the tub.

“Your bath will be quick, but efficient,” she stated, voice devoid of emotion.

Odysseus ran a hand through his hair, realizing then how grimy it felt. Then again, he didn’t want these women — who looked exhausted — to be bothered with his dirty skin. “I can bathe myself, really. It’s not trou—“

“It’s best we do it,” one of the others said, walking beside him to hand the first a cloth. “The god king is particular about his indulgences.”

“I’m… not sure I follow,” he admitted quietly.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” the third woman said, stopping the water. It was the first time she had spoken, and her voice was soft and shaky.

Odysseus didn’t enjoy the sound of that, but he decided not to argue anymore as they ordered him to strip his clothes and step into the bath.

He felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment as he dropped his chiton to the floor. Then two of the women gasped, and he remembered the blood-soaked bandage wrapping his lower abdomen.

“W—what happened?” The quiet girl asked, looking at him with deep brown eyes.

He shrugged, turning and climbing into the bath. The first woman nodded gratefully and began to trifle through a basket, presumably brought in by the second woman. “My crew mutinied against me. Even… even when I thought they would stand with me.”

But how could they? After everything I’ve done — I’m a monster, just as they all said I was.

The first woman walked towards him with a sweet-smelling soap, absent-mindedly cupping some of the bath water in her hands and sprinkling it down his arms, beginning to scrub the dirt and grime from his skin. She looked towards the other girls.

“Liliana, go fetch the new clothes being prepared for him,” she said sternly. “Meli, go get the doctor for his wound.”

They nodded, and quickly left to complete their given tasks.

The room was silent, save for the splashing of water, for a while. Finally, the woman cleared her throat and spoke. “Why did you come here?”

Odysseus wrung his hands together under the water. “I… I swore servitude to Zeus to save my crew.”

“The crew that betrayed you?” Her voice was flat. Not shocked or angry, simply observing.

“Yes, well…” Odysseus hummed thoughtfully, and closed his eyes as she began to wash the soap away, leaving him feeling quite refreshed. “Sometimes we do stupid things for people we care about.”

He thought that that was why Eurylochus mutinied. He cared about the crew — even more than he cared for his brother. But despite that, Odysseus still cared for him.

And yet fear gnawed at his gut. Would Eurylochus tell Penelope the truth when he returned? Or would he make up some elaborate lie about how their old captain had died? Would twelve year old Telemachus, so young and innocent, have to face the fact that he would never meet his father?

“What have I done?” He muttered, looking at his hands as if they held all the answers.

Then the bath was over, and the girl named Liliana had arrived with a fresh pair of clothes. He was helped into them, processing how clean he felt after weeks spent either passed out or drudging through the day covered in caked blood or dirt, when the door suddenly opened.

“You must help this patient, really,” the third girl, Meli, was saying, walking towards the bathroom with another pair of footsteps. “The god king insists.”

“Well, dear girl, you know I help any who are ill or injured if necessary.” This was a new voice. Melodic and sweet sounding, as if the man was singing a high note while still speaking. “I will do my best to—“

The voice stopped as a godlike figure rounded the corner. Odysseus looked up, locking eyes with a pair of golden ones. Long blonde hair hung down the man’s back, and half of his chest was exposed with his chiton. He stepped back in shock at the sight of the mortal king, and then his expression hardened.

“I cannot help this man,” he said lowly, turning to leave.

“Lord Apollo, wait!” Liliana called, following after the god.

Apollo?

Oh, godsdammit!

Could Odysseus’ day get any worse?

Chapter Text

Odysseus walked out of the bathroom, guided by the woman who had helped bathe him. He felt a little better on his feet now that he was clean, but the wound on his chest and the aching exhaustion were still dragging him down quite a bit.

“Zeus demands you look at his wound,” Liliana was saying vehemently. “He is badly injured!”

Apollo crossed his arms, tapping his foot on the floor angrily. “You think I care? Zeus can find somebody else to heal him. I refuse to.”

“You know that the king will not change his mind once he has ordered you to do something,” the first woman said sternly. She crossed her arms from where she stood beside Odysseus. It stunned him how easily she could talk to this god, glaring at him firmly and with no fear.

The god in turn glowered back at her. “If he expects me to heal the man who murdered my friend’s child, then he is sorely mistaken.”

Meli spoke up this time, voice surprisingly firm despite its quietness. “Would you rather him die? If you do not heal him today, the wound will grow infected and he will pass. Then Zeus will have your head.”

“You forget, little mortal, that I cannot be killed,” Apollo said.

“No, but he can punish you,” Meli replied. “You forget how it feels to bleed as a mortal, Lord Apollon.”

Apollo’s golden eyes flashed brightly, and then fell upon Odysseus with a sort of angry reluctance. A long pause, a slow, deep breath, and then a whispered, “Fine.”

His voice dripped with rage, but he commanded the Ithacan king to take a seat on a bed and remove his chiton and bandage. Odysseus did so with a frown, wary but unwilling to defy the god.

“Why does Father care so much anyway?” Apollo grumbled as he inspected Odysseus’ wound.

Liliana replied as she helped Meli gather their bath supplies back into the basket. The first woman, whom Odysseus had not yet learned the name of, stood watch like a hawk. She wanted no nonsense from god and mortal. “He’s here in servitude to Zeus. He saved his crew by agreeing to stay here as a slave.”

Odysseus winced at the way she said it. Apollo stopped dead in his tracks, looking up into the mortal’s gaze. He seemed as if the idea amused him. “You swore servitude to my Father?”

A nod. “My crew would’ve died, my lord. I had to make sure they returned home to their families.”

That was when the god’s eyes softened. Odysseus furrowed his brow in confusion when Apollo hung his head with a sigh, then resumed his work with a much gentler touch. “I… apologize in advance for my Father. No being should be put through how he treats his servants, but certainly not one with noble intentions.”

Odysseus blinked in surprise. “… Noble intentions?”

“You were trying to save the people you could,” Apollo shrugged. “As much as we have disagreed in the past, I must respect that.”

The king of Ithaca’s head was spinning. Had he just… accidentally mended his relationship with a god? Trying desperately to understand the situation, he looked up at the girls over Apollo’s shoulder, but Liliana and Meli had left, leaving the first by herself to watch over them diligently.

“Thank you, my lord,” Odysseus said quietly, returning his gaze to the god who was now backing away and straightening to his full height.

He nodded, merely shrugging. “I may be a god, but I know a good-intentioned man when I see one.”

After exchanging a look, Liliana huffed. “So can you help him?”

“Of course,” Apollo said. “I must return to my room and gather some supplies, but I can get it stitched and quickly healing in five minutes.”

When the sun god reached the door, Odysseus hesitantly spoke his name. He turned with an unreadable expression. “I know I can never undo what I’ve done,” Odysseus said, “but I can apologize for my actions. If it’s any consolation, I regret what I did every day. Lord Zeus told me that if I didn’t… kill the child, I would never see Penelope again. That the babe would grow to avenge his family and in doing so, he would kill mine.”

Apollo stiffened at his words, and Odysseus felt anxiety seep into him.

“I know that’s not an excuse,” he continued. “But truly… I am sorry.”

A long, agonizing silence stretched between them, and then a gentle, “Thank you.”

And Apollo was gone.

Odysseus let out a deep breath, looking to the woman before him in shock. “Did that—“

“That actually happened,” she nodded, as if she had dealt with this many many times before.

“Wow.” He reminded himself to devote much more of his time to worshipping the sun god when he got home.

If I get home.

The thought made his heart squeeze. He looked up at the first woman, silently watching him.

In case I never leave…

“Hey,” he said, “I never caught your name.”

For a brief second, a smile quirked her lips upward. “Elia.”