Akheron was fucking with them. He was trying to make them feel bad about what they were doing. He was also still not answering Kratos’ question. So, should Zelos shoot him in the throat like he had threatened or let things go on for a bit longer? He eased himself away from Nike and went back over to his brother. Kray really was making a mess out of the god of pain. He put his hand on his brother’s shoulder again.
“That’s enough, Kray. Thank you for handling the hard part for us.” Zelos was proud of his brother for handling the physical part of Akheron’s punishment. He knew Kray hated using his strength like this. And once he calmed down, Kratos was going to have a hard time dealing with what he had done. Zee would have to make some time for his brother. Later. Now there was still a little business to take care of. Zelos raised his gun and fired a shot into Akheron’s left knee.
“You did not raise us. Styx raised us. Zeus raised us. I will even claim that Pallas raised us before I give you any credit for how any of us turned out. We are not like you. We are all better than you.” Zelos spoke calmly. He was finding himself feeling oddly detached from what he was doing. As he fired a bullet into Pain’s right knee, he thought it was strange how his rage was turning into indifference. At least for now. Rivalry was not so much a fool as to think that he would continue to feel like this. Soon, he would be heart broken over the loss of his favorite uncle.
“Zeus has yet to demand your blood, Akheron. And, according to the deal made, he never will. Any blood that flows today is for us. To satisfy our need for revenge. You are right about that. You hurt our mother and we are hurting you because of it. The reason you hurt her really doesn’t matter. Kratos just needs to make some kind of sense out of a senseless act.” He gave a short laugh and smiled. “While we commit one of our own.”
He moved over to the man that had been his uncle and knelt beside him. He poked the barrel of his gun into Pain’s ruined kneecap. The pain would probably be good for Akheron, even if the blood loss wasn’t. Zelos knew that he should be getting Nike and Kratos and getting out of there. He should be doing that, but he wasn’t quite finished yet. He had a few more things to say, even if he was talking too much while he should be leaving.
“Do you know what makes us better than you, Akheron? If I was really like you, I would have shot that owl when we came in.” Zelos moved his gun, aiming it now at the owl that so often was present at Akheron’s river. “If I was like you, I would just hang onto this. Live for nothing but revenge. But we’ve had ours and we’re satisfied that you suffered.” And he was certain some of them would be disgusted with themselves in the morning. “So, we’re done. This is over.”
Zelos lowered his gun and put it back in its holster. He stood up and looked down at the broken man that had hurt their mother. “What we did here might have added to our pain, Akheron, but you were the cause of it. We’ll suffer for what we did and eventually, we will recover. But you will never see it. The others, they can decide for themselves. But as for me, I never want to see you again.”
Zelos straightened his jacket and moved away from Akheron. “I am sorry if I bored you with all that. But, I do hope you learned something from all this.”
Keeping his face turned away from Akheron and his siblings, Zee closed his eyes. They were nothing like Akheron. As far as Zee was concerned, they had never attacked family. He would keep telling himself that as often as he needed to until he really believed it to be the truth.