divinewisdom | Memory 30

Memory 30 / Significant Negative
Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me. (MoA Backstory)
Old Joe, Day 258. Horn of mead, drink to receive. [1/2]

During the time that Percy's missing, Annabeth visits his mom once a week so they can cry together and then reassure each other that he'll come home! Sweet but sad. :( On one such trip, she spots her mother standing, staring at a subway map in Grand Central Station. Which is weird! Because Zeus called all the Olympians back to Olympus and had closed the gates, so that Gaea's forces couldn't invade and they would be protected against evil etc etc.

“Mom!” Annabeth said. “Athena!”

The goddess turned. She seemed to look right through Annabeth with no recognition.

“That was my name,” the goddess said dreamily. “Before they sacked my city, took my identity, made me this.” She looked at her clothes in disgust. “I must return home.”

Annabeth stepped back in shock. “You’re...you’re Minerva?”

“Don’t call me that!” The goddess’s gray eyes flared with anger. “I used to carry a spear and a shield. I held victory in the palm of my hand. I was so much more than this.”

“Mom.” Annabeth’s voice trembled. “It’s me, Annabeth. Your daughter.”
“My daughter...” Athena repeated. “Yes, my children will avenge me. They must destroy the Romans. Horrible, dishonorable, copycat Romans. Hera argued that we must keep the two camps apart. I said, No, let them fight. Let my children destroy the usurpers.”

Annabeth’s heartbeat thumped in her ears. “You wanted that? But you’re wise. You understand warfare better than any—”

“Once!” the goddess said. “Replaced. Sacked. Looted like a trophy and carted off—away from my beloved homeland. I lost so much. I swore I would never forgive. Neither would my children.” She focused more closely on Annabeth. “You are my daughter?”

“Yes.”

The goddess fished something from the pocket of her shirt—an old-fashioned subway token—and pressed it into Annabeth’s hand.

“Follow the Mark of Athena,” the goddess said. “Avenge me.”

Annabeth had looked at the coin. As she watched, it changed from a New York subway token to an ancient silver drachma, the kind used by Athenians. It showed an owl, Athena’s sacred animal, with an olive branch on one side and a Greek inscription on the other.

The Mark of Athena.

At the time, Annabeth had had no idea what it meant. She didn’t understand why her mom was acting like this. Minerva or not, she shouldn’t be so confused. “Mom...” She tried to make her tone as reasonable as possible. “Percy is missing. I need your help.” She had started to explain Hera’s plan for bringing the camps together to battle Gaea and the giants, but the goddess stamped her walking stick against the marble floor.

“Never!” she said. “Anyone who helps Rome must perish. If you would join them, you are no child of mine. You have already failed me.”

“Mother!”

“I care nothing about this Percy. If he has gone over to the Romans, let him perish. Kill him. Kill all the Romans. Find the Mark, follow it to its source. Witness how Rome has disgraced me, and pledge your vengeance.”

“Athena isn’t the goddess of revenge.” Annabeth’s nails bit into her palms. The silver coin seemed to grow warmer in her hand. “Percy is everything to me.”

“And revenge is everything to me,” the goddess snarled. “Which of us is wiser?”

“Something is wrong with you. What’s happened?”

“Rome happened!” the goddess said bitterly. “See what they have done, making a Roman of me. They wish me to be their goddess? Then let them taste their own evil. Kill them, child.”

“No!”

“Then you are nothing.” The goddess turned to the subway map. Her expression softened, becoming confused and unfocused. “If I could find the route...the way home, then perhaps— But, no. Avenge me or leave me. You are no child of mine.”

Annabeth’s eyes stung. She thought of a thousand horrible things she wanted to say, but she couldn’t. She had turned and fled.

Annabeth tries to get rid of the drachma, but it keeps reappearing in her pocket, the way that Percy's sword does. It just gives her terrible nightmares and fills her with dread.

Effects:
• Complete certainty that Athena is her mother! If she had any doubts before, she doesn't now.
+1000000000000 Fear and Distress because MOM JUST DISOWNED ME D: D: D: D:
+1000 Worry over her Mother
• worry worry worry worry
• inferiority complex +10 what if she isn't as good of an Athena child as she thinks she is
-100 certainity even though she got this memory being an Athena child, Annabeth sit down
+10000 Panic over what the Mark of Athena is
• Also now Annabeth will have nightmares! REALLY BAD ONES. About failing and dying and her mother disowning her.
• She will probably also be really upset for a few days after this memory because it's....not good.
• But now she can receive Mark of Athena memories! Hooray! (Hooray?)
Also probably +50 desire to beg Percy for spoilers. Because he knows what happens. '^'