If you ever thought Heaven was walking on clouds, you'd be wrong; it's Zeus' domain, the aether, the upper air of the Earth, where all can be seen and all can be destroyed.

::Zeus appears in a powerful stroke of lightning and storms through the aether, looking down on the world below and stirring up the thunder harder, pounding more rain into the earth, and crackling it with bright, deadly lights.::

::Zeus begins to feel something pulling at him. He frowns and falls to his knees, sweeping aside steams of cloud in order to gaze onto the world below. There, surrounded by Ares' army of the undead, are his children. They stare up at him, imploring him, desiring to see him.::

"They will not come here!"

::He has no will to spend time with any of them. He raises his hands and sends a wilder storm down, crackling lightning into each of his children as a warning to stay away.::

[So much for that. The gods all appear in a peaceful explosion, reunited with dad. Aww.]

::Dionysus looks as happy as any God can be to see their father. It doesn't phase him that he's angry, not at all. Why bother being scared of that when they can bask in the joy and love of just being around him?::

::Hephaestus arches his back and straightens his posture as he watches Zeus silently and stoically.::

"Father."

::Okay, maybe not so silently.::

"What're you doing here?"

::Zeus' voice almost strangles in Melinda's throat.::

"I told you all to stay away."

::The sky darkens and thunder rolls across it.::

"This is a bad, bad world we have returned to. It has forgotten who I am. It must pay!"

::He parts clouds and jets more lightning down.::

::Dionysus is appauled by this. Make them know even worse misery than they already wallow in? No!::

"Father, don't you think that is a little extreme? Why punish them when we can show them how to appreciate us once more! Don't you remember the joy I once spread?"

"We should find a way to light up the world, instead of bringing spiteful vengance."

::Though he knows this is more Zeus' style, and he's probably speaking out of place.::

"Forgive me for speaking out of turn, Father."

::He bows his head in respect.::

"But we can see the awful woes of this world, but yet these is so much promise, and so much affection between the people. Surely you can feel that."

::He says this because not only does he feel the Godly affection for Zeus as his father, but there's also a niggling feeling of the need to protect and nurture, a foreign feeling from his host.::

::Hephaestus stares down at the bolts of lightning as they careen towards the world below, wreaking havoc in their path. He doesn't necessarily disagree with Zeus. The mortal world knows nothing about respect in this day and age. The humans, the whitelighters, other magical beings thinking they know better than them; the Gods of Olympus. Petunius, however, disagrees vehemently somewhere deep within. How's smiting down everything in sight going to teach anyone respect, if everything is dead?::

"That is your job."

::Zeus jabs a finger at Apollo.::

"What I feel and what you feel do not need to be the same, child. Now, all of you, leave."

::The vengeful god turns and stalks away from them, starting to feel strange. Melinda keens for her mother, and there's something Athena's not telling him that he knows is a very, very big deal. He turns and faces the goddess, eyes flashing with venom.::

"What have you done?"

"I have not stood in the way of that which is inevitable, if that's what you mean."

"You've furthered it."

::Zeus keeps Melinda's finger pointing at Athena as he walks her legs back towards the group.::

"I know you have, you treacherous little whore. Don't pretend you have no hand in this mess!"

::Athena swallows. One thing she won't pretend about is how scary Zeus is. But yet, the goddess is above most emotions.::

"I could not prevent something that was going to happen anyway. So yes, I took action to allow events to unfold more quickly. That, I will admit to."

::Hades frowns, staring between Athena and Zeus.::

"... what the hell are you two talking about?"

"Our beloved Athena has been taking steps to rid the world of us once more."

::Apollo turns his head to look at Athena. He's unsure how to take this news. She was trying to get rid of them all, which is clearly not a good thing... but then she is the Goddess of wisdom, and there clearly has to be a reason why she has been taking action, and a good one. It's not like she blindly stumbles into things.::

::Hephaestus also stares at his sister. It's not the fact that she's betrayed them all like this that annoys him--though that's still a huge thing--it's her trademark vagueness that that really gets to him. He doesn't say anything though, doing so will only elicit an even more infuriating response from the Goddess of Wisdom.::

"I knew this was going to happen."

::Though true, it's not like Athena to say something like this. In truth, it's Jasmine making a bad joke. It offers her little amusement in a trap she feels very much threatened in. Can gods kill other gods? Or just their bodies? She doesn't want to die, not after Paige just did. She doesn't think she'll be so lucky.::

"Whether it is your wish or not, and this goes for all of you, to remain in this lifetime, in these bodies, in this world of today... you will not. That is the long and the short of it. It will not be long before we are pulled back into that void from which we came, no matter how you act or behave. And, believe it, Apollo, Dionysus. Believe it that I have been acting for good."

::She turns. Half of her mouth is twisted up in a smile.::

"For ours than theirs. But some of you will be unaffected by my words. That matters not. It will be over soon."

::She opens up a channel between herself and Leo, giving him the knowledge of how to get here.::

::Zeus senses a fluctuation in Athena's power and starts toward her.::

"She is leading them right to us."

::Eyes narrowing, the king clenches his hands into tight fists.::

"I am going to tear you limb from limb. Then I will send you into an eternity of snakes that will crush every bone in your body day after day after year."

::There's a fight going on within Dionysus, his host is obviously concerned for her actual sister's well being and wants to protect her. Although the God feels a littlle betrayed and unwilling to believe that he is going back to the nothingness, he isn't particularly vengeful.::

"Father, if you do that you will incur the wrath of the witches who care for her deeply."

::This is half him, half Azura talking.::

::Athena swiftly backs off, away from Zeus. She's scared now. She might not feel much emotional pain, but physical isn't something she can easily escape. Not all the time. Not for an eternity.::

"Father, please."

::Apollo's voice is pleading. He has been turned in his views of the mortal world. Athena is indeed the one that would know, and as vain a God as he is... if him not being there benefits mankind more than his presence would, then he's willing to give himself for that. He is only there to help the world, not to harbour his progress.::

::Bright orbs look incredibly unnatural in this realm, but Leo and Paige have made it here nonetheless. The whitelighter frees his arm from Paige's and stares apprehensively at the gods, worried they're going to swiftly turn against them like Zeus appears to be with Athena.::

(She led us here.)

::Paige twists to the side and wraps both hands around the handle on top of the urn's lid. She pulls it off.::

[Though the gods can only give up their powers by choice, being together creates a higher level of being. The gods are more familiar with the desires of each other, and this creates a larger consciousness where the collective mind of the gods is swayed by the beliefs of the individuals. If that makes sense. So Athena's complacent acceptance that this will and must happen makes a pretty convincing case towards the other gods being more likely to give theirs up. But Ares' desire to kill and slaughter is also a really good point... hmm... maybe the witches ought to decide... if they're strong enough...]

::Athena's level of knowledge spreads out like a shockwave. It's calm, collected and inevitably in the know that this has to happen. There's no sense in fighting it. There's only the best way of going about it, which is returning to stasis now and waiting until their time.::

::At this point Apollo is 100% with Athena, and ready to give himself up again. There is a pull from the other direction, but make that two God's ready to give up themselves.::

::Dionysus is swayed as much by the overwhelming presence of Athena's beliefs as he is by Azura's need to protect her sister. ANd the only way that can happen is if they willingly leave their hosts, that way Jasmine will be safe from Zeus.::

::Hephaestus now can't deny that what Athena is saying makes sense, as much as he hates it. And he hates it a lot. Inside, Petunius just wants this over with as soon as possible. All traces of the vague thoughts about giving in to Hephaestus have completely vanished, thanks to recent developments, i.e. Paige coming back from the dead and Zeus currently threatening Jasmine and the rest of the world below.::

"I'm not going back into stasis knowing that everything is wrong. What if it's worse when the world is-"

::Air quotes.::

"ready for us?"

::Zeus scowls at the changing minds of the gods, turning away and taking a few, angry steps. He pauses when he's beside Paige and Leo and turns to stare at them coldly.::

"How would you enjoy suspension over the hottest lake of fire, with starved rats scrambling over your bodies? Once they tear a hole in you, they go inside and bite whatever they can chew. Would you like that?"

::Paige is stunned so much that she doesn't even need to try to stop herself replying with her usual sarcastic response. Say you'd love something like that to a god and you'd be receiving it! But Melinda just said that to her. Her poor, sweet, innocent little girl opened her mouth and came out with one of the most hideous ideas Paige has ever heard, topped only by whenever Azura has even briefly brought up some of Cora's 'strokes of genius', which to this day still makes Paige have to go and throw up. She just can't believe it. She can't think of a single thing to say. The spite and anger in her daughter right now is just... just unfathomable.::

"What we'd like is our daughter back."

"You mean your daughter."

::Oh, that stings. That really, really, really burns a lot. Paige's mind goes even more blank than it was. She's not coping. At all.::

"As for you-"

::Zeus jabs Paige in the chest with a pointed finger, almost making her stumble.::

"You're the reason your daughter's even in this mess."

::This snaps Paige out of it a little. She finally looks up, having been avoiding anybody's gaze for a while now. Her eyes connect with the harsh glare of her little girl.::

"What?"

::It doesn't make any sense, how any of this could be her fault. Because she was dead? Could she have stopped this somehow? How?::

"That's enough."

::Now Leo is looking stern too. He's not afraid of the god's wrath. Zeus had already taken him out once today and he'll be damned if he lets the bastard god make Melinda do the same to her mother as well.::

"But don't worry... she'll still become great."

::Zeus is smiling now. He turns back to look at his children.::

"Won't she, Athena?"