Chapter Text
Apollo waited in that office for the next couple of hours. He stayed there, even after all the voices had faded and Hera’s heels had finally disappeared from beneath the doorway. Apollo leaned against the door, staring miserably out the office window. He had no clue how he was going to get out of this. None of the gods would help him. Apollo himself had no means to get back home. So what came next? Apollo struggled to find an answer to that question. Zeus was supposed to be the culprit. The other gods were supposed to get him back. What was he to do now that none of that was the case?
Gods, why did it have to be him? Why alone? If Apollo had a single one of his children or friends with him, they would have found a solution. Each one had a gift to offer that Apollo couldn’t muster. What he wouldn’t give for an ounce of Nico’s drive, Will’s positivity, or Meg’s stubbornness. He had sunk so low as Lester, but even now, after learning his lesson, that low feeling didn’t quite leave him. The thoughts of being useless, helpless. He was grateful for the feelings, for the humility, but gods why did it hurt him so much?
A knock came at the door. Apollo sighed, and scuffled backwards, so that he now sat facing the doorway.
“Come in.” Apollo said, dully. He assumed it was Hera come to fetch him.
He was wrong.
“Hey, not-bro,” Artemis greeted, a flimsy smile on her face. She entered the room politely (Apollo could see she was nervous, though) and shut the door behind her. Apollo rose quickly to his feet. They stared at each other for a few moments, before Artemis cleared her throat loudly. “Well, heh, sorry your council meeting was a bust.”
The words were not said meanly, but Apollo felt a sting nonetheless.
“Thanks for the reminder.” Apollo grumbled. Artemis paled.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like-” Artemis stopped herself. Apollo noticed that she had her arms wrapped tight around herself. He was reminded of Meg whenever she talked about Nero. Apollo narrowed his eyes, angered by the thought.
“It’s all good,” Apollo assured her, easily. He paused, then searched her eyes before he asked a question that had been bothering him. “Do you hate Apollo too?”
Artemis's expression flashed with surprise, then settled on wary.
“What do you mean?”
“I just- it seems like every deity in this entire Olympus hates me. Him. Which is fair,” he clarified. Apollo perfectly understood that in his heyday, he had been an absolute tyrant. “I just want to know if there could be anything I need to fix? Maybe that’s why I was sent here?”
Apollo didn’t voice his other reason for guessing that; the fact that he’d spent the last six months making up for his other past mistakes. Artemis chewed on her lip, seeming to seriously ponder the question.
“All of your mistakes… there’s no way for you to correct them.” Artemis responded, flatly. After a moment of realization, she adjusted her statement. “Not you, of course; the other you. Our you.”
“Right. You all are taking this really well, might I say.”
“So are you,” Artemis shrugged carelessly. “I mean, we’re gods. Finding out there are parallel universes isn’t the craziest thing.”
Apollo laughed at that.
“Fair point.”
Artemis gave him a smile, but then it faded.
“I-I came here for two things. One: I just need to know, and I need you to be honest. In your world…” Artemis stared up at him, her face full of raw emotion. Apollo couldn’t imagine his twin having such a look upon her face. “Did you hurt Persephone?”
Apollo’s eyes widened, surprised. That was the last question he expected her to ask. He hadn’t even had that as an option in his infinite godly brain! He co*cked his head, confusion clear.
“Persephone? Artemis, I don’t think I have shared more than two words with that goddess in the centuries I’ve been alive. No offense to her I just…haven’t.”
Artemis breathed out a sigh of relief. She wiped a hand over her eyes. Apollo was starting to get nervous. What did he do to Persephone?
“Artemis, what-”
“Onto my second reason,” Artemis added, quickly. It was as though she knew what he was about to ask, and didn’t want him to ask it. “There is someone who might know how to get you back.”
All other thoughts flew from Apollo’s mind. “Really? How? Who?”
“Leto,” Artemis told him, surely. “My Leto. Other you and her have been meeting in secret the past few months. Usually I’m included in the family get-togethers, but not anymore. They never talk in more than whispers. If they were plotting something, you’d need to talk to her.”
“So, you think the other me did this to myself?” Apollo asked, slowly. Gods, what a perplexing sentence he was having to say.
Artemis nodded. “It makes sense, right? My brother’s been much more antsy lately. He has these insane delusions of becoming king of the gods. Maybe he was trying to take over your kingdom?”
Apollo thought back to what Zeus had said to him: You are never going to be king!
“It’s worth a shot!” Apollo said, optimistically. Artems grinned.
“Awesome! So, I’m not so sure where she is, but I already got a friend on the case.”
“Oh really? Who is it?”
“Hermes.”
Apollo remembered his last experience with this Hermes. His expectations sank faster than a siren victim. Apollo let out a breathy laugh, and prepared to explain how that wasn’t the best idea. Sadly, he was interrupted before he could get the words out.
“You rang?” Hermes, out of nowhere, appeared beside Artemis.
“Hermes! I told you, stop scaring the crap out of me!” Artemis yelped, punching his shoulder with a smile. Hermes chuckled.
“I can’t waste a perfect opportunity to startle my bestie, can I?”
He had a wide, good natured grin upon his face. His voice was jovial. Apollo stared, surprised and a bit hurt. Was this what Hermes was usually like? Artemis rolled her eyes.
“Whatever. Hermes,” Artemis grabbed Hermes’s elbow and turned him so that he faced Apollo. Upon noticing him, Hermes's eyes turned icy. “I texted you the situation. Do you know where Leto is?”
“I kinda hoped you were joking about the ‘situation,’” Hermes said, using air quotes. He avoided Apollo's gaze. “You know he’s lying, right?”
“Hera says he’s telling the truth. Are you saying you don’t believe the queen of the gods?” Despite the confident words, Apollo couldn’t help but notice the uneasy glance she had shot him. Does she not trust me?
“I didn’t say that. I just don’t want anyone getting hurt. We know now what happened last time we trusted him.”
Hermes gave Artemis a dark look at the end of his sentence. Artemis winced, looking hurt. Apollo scowled. No one, in any universe, got to shame his sister.
“Who cares if you believe me or not? I’m telling the truth, and Artemis can decide on her own if she wants to help me, without you, me, or anyone else guilt tripping her.”
Artemis and Hermes stared at him. Apollo felt slightly abashed. It really wasn’t his place to say any of that; he didn’t truly know either of them. Apollo did what he did best in tense silences: he changed the subject.
“Anyway, where might Leto be?”
Hermes studied Apollo a moment longer before replying. “She’s on Delos.”
Apollo wanted to kick himself. That made so much sense; in his universe, that was where his mother resided. It was where he and Artemis had been born. Artemis, however, appeared shocked by the news.
“Really? What in Olympus is she doing there?”
“I’m just the messenger.” Hermes shrugged. Artemis ran a hand through her hair, brow creased. She looked deep in thought. After a few beats, she turned to Apollo.
“Right. Apollo, I think you should go alone.”
Apollo thought he misheard her.
“What? Why?”
“My brother has been scheming with her for ages. This could be the perfect time for some espionage. If she’s behind this, she will know that you’re not our Apollo. If she is not, you can still find out what her plan is.”
“Artemis, I don’t even know what your Apollo is like,” Apollo told her, honestly. “How can I pretend to be someone I know nothing about?”
Hermes shook his head in a disbelieving manner. Apollo shot him a glare, but Artemis focused his attention on her by stepping in between the two.
“Leto loves talking almost as much as this world's Apollo. Just make some small talk, and she’ll eventually come out and admit her plan.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to turn up the arrogance.” Hermes said, helpfully, in a voice that didn’t express a desire to be helpful. Artemis nodded in agreement, looking sheepish.
“Even so, I don’t know where to go,” Apollo expressed. “I don’t know anything about your world.”
“I’ll teleport you there, and then you can just say my name when you want to come back.” Artemis assured him.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to hear me?”
“Definitely. Call it a sibling bond,” Artemis paused. “Not that we’re technically siblings.”
“Right,” Apollo agreed, bashfully. Yet another one of Artemis’s offhanded comments that managed to sting him. “When would I be going there?”
“Why not right now?” Hermes shot him a sly smile, then snapped his fingers.
“Hermes!”
Apollo just barely made out his not-sisters cry of frustration before the world turned pastel once more. The feeling of being pure light washed over him. Apollo would have groaned, if he’d had a voice. Very funny, Hermes. He thought, grimly. And it was such a Hermes move, in any universe.
Apollo felt himself reform. He landed (on his feet this time, not too shabby) in the sand of a desolate beach. Past the beach was a forest of towering palms whipping in the wind. Apollo furrowed his brow. There were storm clouds above him, and not a being to be seen. Oh, what he would give to have his bow and arrows (heck, he even longed for the Arrow of Dadona; Apollo found, with a pang, he missed that Shakespearean voice) or his battle ukelele.
“Apollo!”
He whipped around. Along the beach, a few yards from him, was a woman in a dark green dress and shawl. She’d appeared out of nowhere. Never a good sign. Her ominous appearance didn’t calm Apollo’s nerves. She had eyes that were completely black, aside from golden iris’s. Her hair was a light yellow, and her skinned matched that of Hera’s. It was staggering how alike they looked.
“What took you so long, my dear boy?” the lady, Leto, asked. She had a sugary sweet voice, but Apollo could sense menacing undertones behind it. Everything about this woman gave him goosebumps. Which isn’t good. Apollo told himself silently. Since she’s my mother in this universe.
“You know me,” Apollo said, trying on what he hoped was a winning grin. “Always busy.”
“How is it going?” Leto pressed, creeping closer.
“Good!” Apollo fought not to step back under the woman's piercing gaze. No emotion was on her face, just eerie calmness. “Really great!”
“Your grandfather has agreed to help you?”
What?
“Of-of course.”
“Well,” a smile materialized slowly on Leto’s face. “What are you waiting for? Make Persephone your bride, and the throne is yours.”
Apollo froze. Persephone. Her name appeared everywhere, and Apollo was honestly getting worried. She was a nice enough goddess, beautiful as any other. Her marriage with Hades was weird, but what Greek couple wasn’t? (Honestly, their absurd family tree was one of the many reasons Apollo never married. That, and the fact romance didn’t seem to love him).
“What about Hades?” Apollo was genuinely curious. Leto shook her head, sympathetically.
“I have told you, don’t worry about him. That marriage is new and fickle. Besides, who would Olympus want the Goddess of Spring to be with? A king of the dead, or the god of the sun?” She brought a hand to cup Apollo's cheek. Apollo struggled to not flinch back. This was not the Leto he knew.
His mother was modest, kind, protective. She would never intentionally harm a marriage (Zeus was obviously to blame for their affair. Who could resist the king of the gods and live to tell the tale?). Apollo loved his mother as much as he loved his sister, children, and all his half-blood friends. This goddess…she couldn’t light a candle to the Leto he knew.
He took a step back.
“Right you are,” he told her with a forced smile. “Well, I’ve better go.”
Leto co*cked her head.
“Are you alright, my son?”
“Never better! Just…you have given me lots to think about!” That was the truth. Leto was still staring at him. Apollo turned his back.
“Artemis.” He murmured under his breath. The response was immediate. First he was light, then he was back in the office. He gulped in a breath, thoughts shooting around in his head. None of that conversation had helped him, but he could still help them. He noticed that Hera had now joined Artemis and Hermes. They were all looking at him, concerned.
“Apollo, what did you see?” Hera asked, putting a hand on his arm. Apollo appreciated the gesture. It was ironic how this Hera’s touch calmed him, whereas that Leto's caress had made him uneasy. He focused on Hera, and told her everything.
