Categories > Cartoons > Class of the Titans > Across Time, Against Time

Chapter One: New Acquaintences

by x_soranelle 2 reviews

"...all that stood in his way were those heroes....They, with their foul Hope, and his children the Gods behind them, defiled his glories, wretched mortals that they were, disgracing the name of Cr...

Category: Class of the Titans - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Fantasy - Warnings: [!!] [V] - Published: 2007-01-29 - Updated: 2007-01-29 - 2288 words

0Unrated
A/N: I don't own anything. I haven't posted in ages. I am the equivalent of a rotten tomato. These things I already know. =D

Disclaimer: I don't own CotT. I would be much less lazy if I did.

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It's like a damn movie, with all these gorgeous dead guys all over the place, just waiting to be sobbed over.

Pure, fiery anger filled the young lady, as she cast her eyes over Neil; amongst their party, he was the only one without any mortal wounds; it seemed as though he slept quite peacefully, content amongst the pallor of the snow. She refused, however, to look at Herry, or Theresa - or Taski. Especially not Taski.

Dead./ She mouthed the words, and her breath threatened to make the name a whisper. /Taski's dead.

"You didn't have to use me like that," Stated Ino with relative calm, turning away with tears streaming down her cheeks. Biting down upon her lip, her face screwed up the wrong way as her mask of manners and emotions began to slip and fade. Stop crying, damn it.

"But I did." Katalyst replied emotionlessly, eyes hollow and not understanding the tears on the girl's face. She simply couldn't calculate them. They were useless, after all. There was no variety of precaution or nervousness as, from somewhere to the left of her fire-tree, a choking gasp caused Ino to startle. A dark-skinned man to her left, looking mildly like Odie yet older than any of the teens in the group, was choking upon the bitter blood flooding his throat.

Maddened with rage that she, a mere mortal, was sitting there, at liberty to this creature called Katalyst, Ino's eyes turned sharply upon the goddess. "How long? How long was this planned?"

"Since forever," Katalyst responded innocently, rising from her throne of wood and flame. "My Lord does not wish them dead yet. Help me carry your heroes away - before the wolves come to feast." She paused a moment, and made a gesture with her hand which, somehow, forced Ino into moving upon her feet, as though Katalyst held the strings of a marionette. Pausing over top of Theresa, the goddess knelt a moment to brush tangled red hair off of the heroine's face, ignoring the snarl of her agitated look alike.

"Where are they? Odie - and Archie - Atlanta - What'd you do with them?" She snapped this angrily as, with no concious decision, she knelt over Herry, attempting to drag him off the ground. The creature Katalyst ignored her.

"They're all alive," the goddess said loftily, lowering her eyes. "Aside from your Amalthea. But I won't let them wake up for now - not until their history catches up with them. Let me tell them how it began, little Ino, and while I make you move with me you will hear it also, from my perspective, how things all began. And each of you can fix the puzzle any which way you want."

"They won't hear. They wouldn't listen."

"They can. They will."

_____________________________________

"The night rings cold," The goddess murmured quietly to herself, holding firm the reigns of her silver stallions as they circled restlessly in their fixed position in the sky. "Something is wrong." Eyes scanning the dark earth below her, Selene hesitated a moment longer, than shook her head in defeat. "Cronus, if I could see you now..." But the goddess did not finish that sentence, for as the words trailed on her tongue, all of time stopped.

The moon was fixed in the sky, a brilliant sphere of soft, untainted light. As its beams fluttered down upon the earth, a cloak of charmed shadows fluttered off a tall, bright form; the spell of darkness cast upon the Fire Tree unraveled like coiled thread, and the eager flames, willing to burn through the nights air, stretched and licked the heavens for all their size.

A year, the goddess whispered. I have waited a year for him. And now he is come.

"So I have," rumbled a heavy voice, and a look of glee fell upon the goddess's face.

And so it shall begin.


*


By what she could see, the girl waiting impatiently at the door was vain, arrogant, and obnoxiously loud; vaguely, Theresa wondered how Atlanta could look so faintly amused, so tolerant, walking after her. After all, Artemis's student could hardly contain herself around Neil; the girl in front of her seemed twice as bad. In the least, the rose-haired girl had the imitation of a spoilt and rotten rich girl down to size. The other one, however, black haired and sand-tanned seemed much more understandable; she was chatting amiably away to Atlanta, who seemed to be suppressing the urge to roll her eyes and grin.

Frowning absently, Theresa glanced back at her mirror, adding the last twist to her fiery hair. Assured with her appearance - she had the sneaking suspicious that she'd be under heavy scrutiny by Atlanta's table friends - but not quite assured in herself, the young hero gazed back outside the window, watching as the two new girls cashed out some eccentric performance which made Atlanta pointedly laugh. The events which had introduced Atlanta to ever-popular Ino's group wasn't exactly something which put the rest of the young Achaean heroes in too wonderful a light; and somehow, this didn't serve to calm Theresa's nerves. Contemplating them for a moment, she shook her head airily and demanded that she calm herself down.

"Something/ is/ wrong," she breathed to herself after a moment's moderation, attempting to reason for the feeling in her stomach. Tilting her head out the window and ducking a quick check down the street, she finally tugged the curtains over the window and sighed. "But I'm not sure if it has to do with those two or not."

*

Before Atlanta could jam her key through the lock, the door swung open on its own accord. Neil, mirror in hand for a last minute check-over ignorantly brushed past her, causing the teenage heroine to frown with annoyance.

"Neil - "

"Oh/, that's/ the one," whispered Ino at her ear, quiet as a she could force herself to be. "The masculine me..."

Quirking a brow at the first of her two guests, Atlanta nodded, responding fairly, "Yeah; that's Neil, for you..." A smile tugged at the corners of her lips; often, she had drawn parallels between her two... friends, for lack of a better word; their self-obsessions and vanity surpassed many others.


But it came as a surprise to her that Ino was quite unperturbed by this behavior; naturally, she demanded careful consideration by her fellow mortals (all of which she classed beneath her). However, instead of hissing with distaste or snapping coolly at the teenage model, she placed on a cunning mask of expression as Neil strutted past her, grinning cockily as he pocketed his beloved mirror.


"Neil, darling, you look fabulous, as always!" Cried Ino, spreading her arms out and going forward to kiss the air on either side of his cheeks, European style. Momentarily disconcerted as the stranger spun around him to meet eyes, the descendent of Narcissus faltered before replacing his characteristically charming expression and returning the gesture. "I try," He responded with a flash of his grinning teeth, as Ino continued to perform as though they were the best of friends. Only when Neil, finally detaching himself from the girl and her plethora of compliments (exaggerated as they all were, with sarcasm lightly dripping off the ends - though of course he didn't notice), and turned away, did he realize he had no idea who the girl was.

Atlanta, forcing a laugh down her throat, watched as Neil stopped dead, looking back at the haughty Ino and snickering Taski with mild paranoia and realization, then continued to walk away at an alarmed pace.

"Nice work," Atlanta shot at her friend, attempting to keep her voice humorously dry. "It'll give him something to think about."

"As likely as not," Taski responded dismissively as, head high, Ino slipped through the front door and removed her faux-fur coat, as comfortably as though she lived here. "I don't have a doubt he does that twice and three times a day in the business."

~*~


"They seem nice enough," Athena commented absently, slicing French bread with her sword, as Theresa boxed Atlanta into a round of 'twenty questions' about her childhood friends. "Anyone," she added, turning a hard eye to a uncomfortable Neil, "who can cut young Narcissus down to size has my approval."

Archie grinned, offering his plate to Athena absently. "Friends like that break the monotone in here; they add... a bit of variety to the conversation." His attention was diverted momentarily to the plate in front of him as Athene slapped it down with sound force on the table, starting at the heavy 'clunk'. "What were their names again?"

"Amalthea Taski," Atlanta replied, twirling her fork amongst her spaghetti noodles. "And - "

"Amalthea?" Athena repeated, frowning momentarily; but then an almost affectionate smile broke out upon her face. "Is she Greek?"

"Isn't she a bit too dark?" Theresa inquired, watching Athena cautiously; the goddess had just picked up the spaghetti platter, and tipped it on end onto Herry's plate. "She looks at least middle eastern to me."

"Yeah, but, well -" She glanced at Odie, who raised his brows pointedly, and coughed. "Then there's Ino - "

"Ino? " Odie perked up at this bit, from where he was attempting to scarf down his pasta with one hand, and frantically typing on his lap-top with another. "Unusual name."

"Well, yeah," Atlanta admitted, swallowing a forkful of pasta. " She prefers it to her full name. I don't blame her," She continued with a shrug. "/Deyanira Parthinope/; it's not exactly -"

Suddenly, the table fell uncomfortably still, and Atlanta's words died on her tongue. Then, with a cross a pointed glare, she added, "... Yeah. Not exactly who you're thinking of."


*

"This is degrading."

"Shut up."

"I mean, it's bad enough we look like common scoundrels -"

"Basaelios. Seriously. Shut up."

"-But slinking about like cowards, like criminals -"

"I don't think he heard you too well, Damiya."

"-you don't even know how unmanly this feels-"

"Patrick. Make him shut up."

"A shitzu! Whose idea was that?!"

"Damiya, you're an intelligent and clever damsel. Do tell me what I'm supposed to do about this?"

"And these bloody - damn - bows - and -" A yelp shot through the street, high-pitched and reproachful, as the woman holding the oddly-adorned Shitzu gave it a rap of the fingers. For a moment, the dog and woman glared at each other while Patrick, the creature who appeared to be a Doberman, gazed boredly at the Brinestone, waiting for the two to hurry and finish.

After a moment or two, the woman sighed and shook her head. "I think they look adorable, Basaelios. The bows, I mean." Almost guiltily, she kissed the little Shitzu's head, and the dog, looking appalled, ducked further into her arms, as though hiding a human blush tingeing up his cheeks.

Twitching an ear irritably, the Doberman, who, although upon a leash did not seem much restricted by it, made an odd, wheezing sort of sound. "Yes, this is the place." Shaking as though to dry his fur of something, Patrick the so-seeming Doberman nudged Damiya's leg.

"Is it honestly necessary to keep such a close eye on them?" Inquired the woman curiously, putting down the shy Basaelios. "After all, the Prophecy did say -"

"What the Prophecy said is debatable," Patrick stated wisely.

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A/N: And that's a wrap this time. ^-^ Now, to clear some things up with you all...

I actually thought up Ino and Taski out of pity for Atlanta; I was reading Rye's (twostripedsocks's) story 'Silence the Butterfly', which I of course very much adore. And so, as I was thinking of it one day before bed and being very sad for Atlanta, I suddenly thought up a group of odd, apparently ordinary kids who one day notice Atlanta's having a tough time and, whether for innocent intentions or scorn, they invite her over. Ino was the central character of this almost-but-not-quite 'clique', and Taski was just a good-natured someone I threw in there so it wouldn't seem like I was trying to compensate for Theresa's lack of presence. I decided to throw them into this fanfic for some slots I had open, and I think it'll actually work out well.

Athena is fond of Amalthea for a reason; if you're the kind of person who likes to look into the 'deeper meaning' behind fics and whatnot, go and have a field day. I just might have plans for the lot of these characters.

With Deyonira Parthinope, I kind of shot down three characters at once without even meaning to. I just loved the way it sounded, and it was a really rare name as far as I was concerned; as well, to quote some old, dead person I don't yet know about, "this Deianira drove a chariot and practiced the art of war." There's a reason why our heroes aren't too delighted about her, and for those of you who aren't Greek text-books, all will be explained in due time.

Watch Damiya, Patrick, and Basaelios, though. Those three are important to the story, but I've got a bit of a snag I have to tear out for them. X3 Yeah, Patrick's name isn't as awesome as the others'. But! That really isn't my fault. My muse broke, so I'm in the process of hiring a new one. No worries.


R&R please, even though I'm a witch and don't often get my stuff up. D= I honestly wrote this a long time ago, but I was too much of an idiot to post it. xD
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