Categories > Cartoons > Class of the Titans > Demons Within Me
Demons Within Me
Disclaimer: see chapter 1 and I do own my version of the prophecy and the characters I create for small purposes in this story, nor do I own aspirin
Warnings: very, very, very mild language. But poor Arch is just having a bad day all around.
Authors Note: O. My. Gosh. Archie and Tulais finally come face to face!
Chapter 9: By Myself
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Archie waited for a few minutes in the gym, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. That 'council' had been so... strange. He knew the gods were keeping something from him, but he didn't know what. Archie hated it when he didn't know what was going on, especially if it involved him.
He felt a stir of anger in his gut. It was hard sometimes, he was so quick to anger, but it was a familiar feeling and in some strange way, it helped calm him down to know he still had his fury to support him should the gods try and freak him out like that again. His dad used to have the same problem, and sympathized with him about his sudden rush of anger than his mom did. Come to think about it, he'd inherited a lot form his dad.
His hair color had originally been a reddish-violet, but over the years the red had apparently 'vanished' from the color, leaving him with this unnatural purple. His cow-licks had also come from his dad, but by now his dad's hair was starting to recede, meaning he had no problem with cow-licks, and Archie couldn't remember his dad ever having the same hair problems he did. His father had been more on the aggressive side when he didn't really need to be, like Archie, but Archie's anger was a lot stronger and uncontrollable. Or maybe Archie was just nothing like his father and would spiral into driving away all his friends and living as a hermit.
Apart from his dad's nose, Archie had basically received his mother's genes. He had the same sort of 'limp-walk' (which he could cover quite well) that his mother had, especially since she had terrible arthritis in her right heel. It wasn't too hard to guess which side of the family he had gotten Achilles' ancestry from. He had the same slim build, and was quite strong without being muscular like Herry. He'd been home schooled all his life because he couldn't compete in activities like the other kids thanks to his heel. His mom didn't want him to get bullied and got a tad overprotective of him, he almost hadn't made it to Olympia High since he'd had to sneak out and had called her later telling her where he actually was. His dad had secretly congratulated him for a well-though plan and promised to hold mom at bay as long as he could. Apart form education, he'd learned a lot of the way of fighting while protecting his ankle, which was when he'd decided to learn how to use a whip. Back than, he hadn't known how 'girlie' or 'kinky' a whip could be. He just thought it was cool and original. You never saw movies where the hero saved the day with a whip.
Archie massaged his temples as he left the gym and headed down the hall. He'd drop by Chiron's room, quickly pick up something to calm himself down and sleep for the next hundred years. He came up to Chiron's room and slowly pushed open the door...
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"Calm down, calm down, Atlanta. Archie's in no trouble right now, really, he's quite fine," Chiron said calmly. The redhead seated herself down, slightly embarrassed by her outburst.
Just then the door opened and a very pale, swaying slightly, Archie walked in. He was mumbling quietly to himself about something and didn't notice him until Atlanta spoke up.
"Archie? A-are you okay?"
He jumped at the sound of her voice and looked startled to see them all there. It was still an hour till school; usually they'd just be waking up.
Then, remembering Atlanta's question, he shook his head and replied, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"You sure, buddy, you look pretty sick to me?" Jay said worriedly.
Archie smirked, "Just plenty tired."
"So, uh, what happened with you, and the dreams and Tulais?" Herry asked curiously.
Archie's smirk seemed to fade suddenly and he looked down at the floor.
{So now they know too... but it's a good thing they aren't as afraid as the gods- but Chiron probably already has them freaked out about this Tulais. Augh, I could really do without these immortals right now}
"Nothing happened," Archie snapped as he turned to Chiron, "if you have anything that might calm me down a bit, I'm getting a killer headache?"
Chiron nodded slowly, "Here, just take some aspirin and lie down for the day. Relax and take it easy and you should be better by tomorrow."
He handed Archie a few small white pills, all of the teens stared at the centaur.
"What? Just because I like the old ways of dealing with injuries doesn't mean I can't use some of your new, modern ways myself," he snorted proudly.
Six of the seven burst out into snickers and giggles, but strangely, Archie only felt his anger get stronger. It wasn't a very funny joke anyways. He turned with a mumbled 'whatever' and left the room.
Atlanta was the first to notice this and quickly zipped out of the room behind him.
"Archie? Are you sure you're okay? I mean, we could give you a ride home and-"
"Now, I'm fine. I'm just going to walk back to the dorm, raid the fridge and hibernate for a few weeks. The fresh air will do me just fine," Archie growled angrily.
Atlanta was a tad startled by her friend's reaction, but promptly she put her hand son her hips, "Well fine then. But you could at least cheer up a bit!" She turned and stormed back into Chiron's room.
Grumbling about how annoying people were, Archie swallowed the pills without water and headed out to the dorm.
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Atlanta stood by the door glaring at the wall opposite her, and it was obvious to Odie that she and Archie had just had a fight. Man, why did those two have to have a fight, now, of all times? When some demon was supposedly prowling the streets in search of them and they were in the middle of fighting with Cronus.
He sighed and rested his chin in his hand. Suddenly, his watch beeped loudly in a familiar yet dreadful tune, meaning he had to get up. Usually the collection of long and short beeps would wake him up at his computer desk after a long night of searching for Cronus or inventing some sort of new gadget, but he'd been up waaaay earlier than normal.
By the time Odie had turned his alarm off, he realized something, and he usually woke up with only about ten minutes to get ready and out the door for school! Everyone was going to have to run home and get their stuff and, and, and... they were going to be late!
"We're going to be late! We have to get going!" he cried and leapt to his feet.
Chiron broke out laughing.
Neil, who was now complaining about not being able to have his wake-up shower, stopped to look at the aged teacher.
"Hey, what gives? It's your fault if we're late, because YOU had to have us come here so early! Now I'm going to be ugly, ALL day!" he cried.
Believe it or not, but Chiron laughed harder.
"W-what is it, sir?" Theresa asked hesitantly.
"Don't you kids remember? It's the long weekend- you have today off!" Chiron explained.
The group looked at each other stupidly, how could they have forgotten?
It began as a snicker from someone, but soon spread to the rest and quickly they were all laughing again.
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Terrible.
That was the only way to describe this day, the way he had treated his friends, the way he felt, and the weather, all with one word. It probably hadn't been such a good idea on his part to take those aspirins at school, his head was already starting to feel light and he, himself, was feeling a tad ditzy and lightweight. One more thing to add to his list of why he was really starting to hate Mondays. Or really, just today.
He pulled his hood over his head, but it really wasn't much use. If he'd known it was going to be raining, he might've stayed and gotten the ride back to the dorm, but there was no way he was running back like a dog with his tail between his legs and apologizing for his behavior; not yet.
It was getting hard to see through the downpour, and it wasn't helping that his vision was going in and out of focus, thanks to the aspirins. Curse you modern, quick-relief medicine. Curse you people who thought up the idea of quick-relief. Curse Chiron for having the pills. Curse the immortals for ever making him WANT the aspirin!
Turning the corner, Archie realized that this area did NOT look like anywhere near the brownstone. This place was chalk full of warehouses and broken bottles and crates and littler. He huddled up against the side of a warehouse to try and get out of the rain (though it wasn't much use) and try to figure out where he'd taken a wrong turn, but nothing came up.
"Crap!" he cried, and turned and slammed his fist as hard as he could into the metal siding of the warehouse behind him.
He hadn't really meant it when he'd 'cursed the gods', but he was just so angry right now. Usually he'd just go out for a run or do some training to blow off steam, but the aspirin were not helping him calm down at all, instead, they were only making him more irritable. And that wasn't the only thing. He knew Hera was suspicious of him now, allt he gods were and his friends probably were too. Since, after all, he should have never known about the curse and transformation Tulais had gone under, not to mention he shouldn't even know about Tulais.
Plus, he'd snapped at Atlanta and that was going to take a lot of sucking up (well, not really sucking up but just making her feel good around him again) and buying her some dorky card that would get her laughing. It wasn't that he wouldn't to that for her, but right now he was really upset with her. Why did she have to be so stubborn and annoying and hot? Why did she have to be so oblivious to his feelings? If she had been able to tell that he liked her, they could've gone out, maybe made out a few time, and then broken up like any normal couple did.
But was that what he wanted? To get close to her, use her, and then dump her? Was he really that much of a jerk? Atlanta was probably one of the greatest things to ever happen to him! He couldn't imagine life without her now-
"Achilles!" a low, throaty voice suddenly cried.
Archie leapt to his feet in a panic, stumbling from lightheadedness and squinted through the rain. A large, furry figure was standing not too far away. Were those... horns, on its head? And were its eyes glowing? Its eyes were RED?
"Achilles!" it snarled again.
Lightning flashed and Archie gasped in horror as he realized he was face-to-face with a huge (it's head was probably as high as Archie's shoulders), purple wolf with big white fangs, sharp black claws, black-rimmed glowing red eyes and two black horns sticking up out of its head. Did Cronus send this after him? Archie reached into his pocket to get his whip, but then he realized he didn't have it with him. He didn't have any weapon with him!
"I'm not Achilles!" he finally shouted back, preparing to spring away. His arms were lead and his legs about as equally tired, his vision was getting hazier by the second and he could barely think straight.
"Then why do you have his scent, brat?" Tulais demanded.
The demon had been tracking Achilles' scent all night and day, now he had found his friend, but instead seemed to have found this twig-legged brat. But there it was again, the strange mix-up in Achilles' scent. Strange, this, this child reminded Tulais of himself, before he became a demon.
That was it! That was the other part of this boy's scent! It was a strange combination of Achilles and his own human scent! But why would this boy have such a strange scent like that? Maybe he had recently been in the presence of Achilles and his old friend had had something that used to be his own, present? That had to be it, there was no other way... unless...
"Where is Achilles?" the thing said again.
Archie couldn't believe it had called him a brat though. Anger flowed through his veins again. How dare that, that thing say that about him!
"Achilles is dead, stupid! He's been dead thousands of years!" Archie snapped back.
Oh, he knew he should've shut his mouth and run, but nothing called him a brat to his face and got away with it...
That was it, the brat would have to come with him and Tulais would have to question the mortal when his fur wasn't making him look like a drowned sheep. And he had said it too- Achilles couldn't be dead! But then the brat had dared go far enough to call him stupid! Him, Tulais, stupid? It was to laugh!
But instead Tulais only felt the familiar anger, with a snarl he sprang forwards and tried to knock the boy down...
Archie dodged to the side and grabbed a broken bottle from the ground, wincing as he cut his fingers on the serrated glass. As the demon leapt at him again, Archie sprang to the side and swung the bottle as hard as he could. It shattered on the wolf's snarling muzzle and the things leapt back with a loud yelp of pain.
Archie smirked triumphantly and quickly wiped some of the rain from his eyes. He was ready to fend off this beast, but then realized his 'weapon' was nothing more than a small extension form his hand now that it was even more broken. Frantically he looked around for something he could use, but he could see nothing. An unexpected wave of dizziness washed over him and he sank to his knees.
The demon saw the opening and leapt forwards with a loud snarl. Archie was able to just react fast enough to try and block himself with his arms.
He felt the sharp fangs sink into his arm, just above the elbow, and the pain tore through him like wildfire as the horned wolf shook him by the arm. The pain was too much, and Archie was too lightheaded to really even wonder if he was screaming or not, nor to realize his PMR had fallen from his pocket and been crushed under the demons large paws as it dragged his now unconscious form off to a more private area...
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Wow... not much to say, except, does ANYONE see the FORESHADOWING I'm throwing in here? I'll write a request (oneshot) for whoever can guess what's coming up. It's a BIG secret that will affect a lot of this story and the plot, and especially Archie (and Tulais even) himself. In fact, this secret affects basically everyone and anyone Archie meets.
Anyone can guess (except for StinkFace because she already knows)
And review! Please tell me what you think of the longer chapter length?
Demenior
Disclaimer: see chapter 1 and I do own my version of the prophecy and the characters I create for small purposes in this story, nor do I own aspirin
Warnings: very, very, very mild language. But poor Arch is just having a bad day all around.
Authors Note: O. My. Gosh. Archie and Tulais finally come face to face!
Chapter 9: By Myself
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Archie waited for a few minutes in the gym, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. That 'council' had been so... strange. He knew the gods were keeping something from him, but he didn't know what. Archie hated it when he didn't know what was going on, especially if it involved him.
He felt a stir of anger in his gut. It was hard sometimes, he was so quick to anger, but it was a familiar feeling and in some strange way, it helped calm him down to know he still had his fury to support him should the gods try and freak him out like that again. His dad used to have the same problem, and sympathized with him about his sudden rush of anger than his mom did. Come to think about it, he'd inherited a lot form his dad.
His hair color had originally been a reddish-violet, but over the years the red had apparently 'vanished' from the color, leaving him with this unnatural purple. His cow-licks had also come from his dad, but by now his dad's hair was starting to recede, meaning he had no problem with cow-licks, and Archie couldn't remember his dad ever having the same hair problems he did. His father had been more on the aggressive side when he didn't really need to be, like Archie, but Archie's anger was a lot stronger and uncontrollable. Or maybe Archie was just nothing like his father and would spiral into driving away all his friends and living as a hermit.
Apart from his dad's nose, Archie had basically received his mother's genes. He had the same sort of 'limp-walk' (which he could cover quite well) that his mother had, especially since she had terrible arthritis in her right heel. It wasn't too hard to guess which side of the family he had gotten Achilles' ancestry from. He had the same slim build, and was quite strong without being muscular like Herry. He'd been home schooled all his life because he couldn't compete in activities like the other kids thanks to his heel. His mom didn't want him to get bullied and got a tad overprotective of him, he almost hadn't made it to Olympia High since he'd had to sneak out and had called her later telling her where he actually was. His dad had secretly congratulated him for a well-though plan and promised to hold mom at bay as long as he could. Apart form education, he'd learned a lot of the way of fighting while protecting his ankle, which was when he'd decided to learn how to use a whip. Back than, he hadn't known how 'girlie' or 'kinky' a whip could be. He just thought it was cool and original. You never saw movies where the hero saved the day with a whip.
Archie massaged his temples as he left the gym and headed down the hall. He'd drop by Chiron's room, quickly pick up something to calm himself down and sleep for the next hundred years. He came up to Chiron's room and slowly pushed open the door...
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"Calm down, calm down, Atlanta. Archie's in no trouble right now, really, he's quite fine," Chiron said calmly. The redhead seated herself down, slightly embarrassed by her outburst.
Just then the door opened and a very pale, swaying slightly, Archie walked in. He was mumbling quietly to himself about something and didn't notice him until Atlanta spoke up.
"Archie? A-are you okay?"
He jumped at the sound of her voice and looked startled to see them all there. It was still an hour till school; usually they'd just be waking up.
Then, remembering Atlanta's question, he shook his head and replied, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"You sure, buddy, you look pretty sick to me?" Jay said worriedly.
Archie smirked, "Just plenty tired."
"So, uh, what happened with you, and the dreams and Tulais?" Herry asked curiously.
Archie's smirk seemed to fade suddenly and he looked down at the floor.
{So now they know too... but it's a good thing they aren't as afraid as the gods- but Chiron probably already has them freaked out about this Tulais. Augh, I could really do without these immortals right now}
"Nothing happened," Archie snapped as he turned to Chiron, "if you have anything that might calm me down a bit, I'm getting a killer headache?"
Chiron nodded slowly, "Here, just take some aspirin and lie down for the day. Relax and take it easy and you should be better by tomorrow."
He handed Archie a few small white pills, all of the teens stared at the centaur.
"What? Just because I like the old ways of dealing with injuries doesn't mean I can't use some of your new, modern ways myself," he snorted proudly.
Six of the seven burst out into snickers and giggles, but strangely, Archie only felt his anger get stronger. It wasn't a very funny joke anyways. He turned with a mumbled 'whatever' and left the room.
Atlanta was the first to notice this and quickly zipped out of the room behind him.
"Archie? Are you sure you're okay? I mean, we could give you a ride home and-"
"Now, I'm fine. I'm just going to walk back to the dorm, raid the fridge and hibernate for a few weeks. The fresh air will do me just fine," Archie growled angrily.
Atlanta was a tad startled by her friend's reaction, but promptly she put her hand son her hips, "Well fine then. But you could at least cheer up a bit!" She turned and stormed back into Chiron's room.
Grumbling about how annoying people were, Archie swallowed the pills without water and headed out to the dorm.
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Atlanta stood by the door glaring at the wall opposite her, and it was obvious to Odie that she and Archie had just had a fight. Man, why did those two have to have a fight, now, of all times? When some demon was supposedly prowling the streets in search of them and they were in the middle of fighting with Cronus.
He sighed and rested his chin in his hand. Suddenly, his watch beeped loudly in a familiar yet dreadful tune, meaning he had to get up. Usually the collection of long and short beeps would wake him up at his computer desk after a long night of searching for Cronus or inventing some sort of new gadget, but he'd been up waaaay earlier than normal.
By the time Odie had turned his alarm off, he realized something, and he usually woke up with only about ten minutes to get ready and out the door for school! Everyone was going to have to run home and get their stuff and, and, and... they were going to be late!
"We're going to be late! We have to get going!" he cried and leapt to his feet.
Chiron broke out laughing.
Neil, who was now complaining about not being able to have his wake-up shower, stopped to look at the aged teacher.
"Hey, what gives? It's your fault if we're late, because YOU had to have us come here so early! Now I'm going to be ugly, ALL day!" he cried.
Believe it or not, but Chiron laughed harder.
"W-what is it, sir?" Theresa asked hesitantly.
"Don't you kids remember? It's the long weekend- you have today off!" Chiron explained.
The group looked at each other stupidly, how could they have forgotten?
It began as a snicker from someone, but soon spread to the rest and quickly they were all laughing again.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Terrible.
That was the only way to describe this day, the way he had treated his friends, the way he felt, and the weather, all with one word. It probably hadn't been such a good idea on his part to take those aspirins at school, his head was already starting to feel light and he, himself, was feeling a tad ditzy and lightweight. One more thing to add to his list of why he was really starting to hate Mondays. Or really, just today.
He pulled his hood over his head, but it really wasn't much use. If he'd known it was going to be raining, he might've stayed and gotten the ride back to the dorm, but there was no way he was running back like a dog with his tail between his legs and apologizing for his behavior; not yet.
It was getting hard to see through the downpour, and it wasn't helping that his vision was going in and out of focus, thanks to the aspirins. Curse you modern, quick-relief medicine. Curse you people who thought up the idea of quick-relief. Curse Chiron for having the pills. Curse the immortals for ever making him WANT the aspirin!
Turning the corner, Archie realized that this area did NOT look like anywhere near the brownstone. This place was chalk full of warehouses and broken bottles and crates and littler. He huddled up against the side of a warehouse to try and get out of the rain (though it wasn't much use) and try to figure out where he'd taken a wrong turn, but nothing came up.
"Crap!" he cried, and turned and slammed his fist as hard as he could into the metal siding of the warehouse behind him.
He hadn't really meant it when he'd 'cursed the gods', but he was just so angry right now. Usually he'd just go out for a run or do some training to blow off steam, but the aspirin were not helping him calm down at all, instead, they were only making him more irritable. And that wasn't the only thing. He knew Hera was suspicious of him now, allt he gods were and his friends probably were too. Since, after all, he should have never known about the curse and transformation Tulais had gone under, not to mention he shouldn't even know about Tulais.
Plus, he'd snapped at Atlanta and that was going to take a lot of sucking up (well, not really sucking up but just making her feel good around him again) and buying her some dorky card that would get her laughing. It wasn't that he wouldn't to that for her, but right now he was really upset with her. Why did she have to be so stubborn and annoying and hot? Why did she have to be so oblivious to his feelings? If she had been able to tell that he liked her, they could've gone out, maybe made out a few time, and then broken up like any normal couple did.
But was that what he wanted? To get close to her, use her, and then dump her? Was he really that much of a jerk? Atlanta was probably one of the greatest things to ever happen to him! He couldn't imagine life without her now-
"Achilles!" a low, throaty voice suddenly cried.
Archie leapt to his feet in a panic, stumbling from lightheadedness and squinted through the rain. A large, furry figure was standing not too far away. Were those... horns, on its head? And were its eyes glowing? Its eyes were RED?
"Achilles!" it snarled again.
Lightning flashed and Archie gasped in horror as he realized he was face-to-face with a huge (it's head was probably as high as Archie's shoulders), purple wolf with big white fangs, sharp black claws, black-rimmed glowing red eyes and two black horns sticking up out of its head. Did Cronus send this after him? Archie reached into his pocket to get his whip, but then he realized he didn't have it with him. He didn't have any weapon with him!
"I'm not Achilles!" he finally shouted back, preparing to spring away. His arms were lead and his legs about as equally tired, his vision was getting hazier by the second and he could barely think straight.
"Then why do you have his scent, brat?" Tulais demanded.
The demon had been tracking Achilles' scent all night and day, now he had found his friend, but instead seemed to have found this twig-legged brat. But there it was again, the strange mix-up in Achilles' scent. Strange, this, this child reminded Tulais of himself, before he became a demon.
That was it! That was the other part of this boy's scent! It was a strange combination of Achilles and his own human scent! But why would this boy have such a strange scent like that? Maybe he had recently been in the presence of Achilles and his old friend had had something that used to be his own, present? That had to be it, there was no other way... unless...
"Where is Achilles?" the thing said again.
Archie couldn't believe it had called him a brat though. Anger flowed through his veins again. How dare that, that thing say that about him!
"Achilles is dead, stupid! He's been dead thousands of years!" Archie snapped back.
Oh, he knew he should've shut his mouth and run, but nothing called him a brat to his face and got away with it...
That was it, the brat would have to come with him and Tulais would have to question the mortal when his fur wasn't making him look like a drowned sheep. And he had said it too- Achilles couldn't be dead! But then the brat had dared go far enough to call him stupid! Him, Tulais, stupid? It was to laugh!
But instead Tulais only felt the familiar anger, with a snarl he sprang forwards and tried to knock the boy down...
Archie dodged to the side and grabbed a broken bottle from the ground, wincing as he cut his fingers on the serrated glass. As the demon leapt at him again, Archie sprang to the side and swung the bottle as hard as he could. It shattered on the wolf's snarling muzzle and the things leapt back with a loud yelp of pain.
Archie smirked triumphantly and quickly wiped some of the rain from his eyes. He was ready to fend off this beast, but then realized his 'weapon' was nothing more than a small extension form his hand now that it was even more broken. Frantically he looked around for something he could use, but he could see nothing. An unexpected wave of dizziness washed over him and he sank to his knees.
The demon saw the opening and leapt forwards with a loud snarl. Archie was able to just react fast enough to try and block himself with his arms.
He felt the sharp fangs sink into his arm, just above the elbow, and the pain tore through him like wildfire as the horned wolf shook him by the arm. The pain was too much, and Archie was too lightheaded to really even wonder if he was screaming or not, nor to realize his PMR had fallen from his pocket and been crushed under the demons large paws as it dragged his now unconscious form off to a more private area...
00000000000000000000000000000000000000
Wow... not much to say, except, does ANYONE see the FORESHADOWING I'm throwing in here? I'll write a request (oneshot) for whoever can guess what's coming up. It's a BIG secret that will affect a lot of this story and the plot, and especially Archie (and Tulais even) himself. In fact, this secret affects basically everyone and anyone Archie meets.
Anyone can guess (except for StinkFace because she already knows)
And review! Please tell me what you think of the longer chapter length?
Demenior
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