(A/N: First and foremost allow me to apologize for using an OC. I couldn't pull Theresa or Atlanta from their Jay/Theresa and Archie/Atlanta pairings. I must also apologize about any OOCness the characters may have, I was sincerely trying to get them in character as much as possible. This is my first fanfic that I've written for Class of the Titans that isn't a crossover, and it is the first fanfic I have wanted others to see. So rate and review please. =D PS: Sorry I couldn't think of a good chapter title.)
Disclaimer: Class of the Titans belongs to it's legal owners.
Chapter One: Memories
She found herself blinking at a ceiling. She was freezing. What happened? Where was she? The questions repeated themselves inside her head. She wasn't at home. She blinked again, the thought of home made her head spin. She didn't have a home anymore. No, that's not true. She had obtained a home, with a kind group of people. The thought of those people made her think harder. The ceiling began to look familiar, she was in her room, at the Brownstone. The Brownstone? Yes, she remembered the building, and she also began to remember her housemates. Housemates? No, that wasn't the right, they weren't just housemates, they were her friends. Friends? She hadn't thought of anyone as a friend in a long time, not since that happened. Her thoughts drifted to when this all began for her.
Three months ago: Olympus High school.
She roamed the halls, unsure of where to go. The weight of her pendant was heavy around her neck. This was the closest school available since she had gotten expelled at her last one, for lighting a very pushy boy on fire accidentally. Of course no one believed it was an accident. It was moments like this that she wished she had stayed at home and hadn't run away. But the wish quickly faded. Bad things happened to her at home. She shook her head, home was a forbidden topic even inside of her own mind.
She passed a janitors closet, which had a strange lock. She pulled out her pendent, which was the same shape. Just as she was about to put it in the slot she heard a cough behind her. She turned, while placing her hands behind her back, to see a light brown haired boy, with chocolate brown eyes staring at her.
"Hi," He said with a smile. "Are you new here?"
Before she realized what she had done she found herself hiding behind some lockers looking out at the stranger, keeping a very safe distance between them.
She watched as he blinked, clearly surprised by her reaction, it probably didn't happen to him often enough. He looked at her in her new location as he put his hands up in a non-threatening way.
"I'm Jay." He said while taking a couple of steps closer.
She flinched away from his approach by clinging herself to the wall. "I-I am-Lena." Even she could hear the fear in her voice, causing her to swallow hard.
Jay froze at the sound of her voice, had he done something?
"I-I need to get going." Lena found herself saying, as she began to push away from the wall and start to walk away as quickly as she could. During her flustered state she hadn't even realized she had dropped her pendant.
Jay was stunned and left blinking after the strange girl, who had ran away from him. She had called herself Lena, and she was definitely someone whom he had never seen before, probably new here as he had asked her before. He walked over to where she was standing, and noticed a golden pendent on the ground. He picked it up, and looked at it with shock. He pulled out his own pendant, and compared the two. The only difference between them was that hers had an 'L' on the back while his had a 'J'. Jay pulled out his PMR and called the others, feeling like they needed to know about this.
It didn't take Lena long to find the principles office, her heart still pounding in her chest, in fear, from her encounter with that guy who called himself 'Jay'. She looked at her hands, they were still shaking. Her eyes widened then, she had dropped her pendant! With a almost mute swear and tears in her eyes, she decided it would be best to look for it later. She headed into the office.
Jay and the others stood in front of the Queen of the Gods: Hera, and the Messenger of the Gods: Hermes. Jay looked at Hera and threw down Lena's pendant on the table. Hera's eyes widened, and Hermes gasped.
"Where did you get this?" Hera asked. It was clear that she knew what this was.
"I met a girl just now, she was carrying it." Jay explained.
Hera sighed. "So I guess it's time to tell you the truth."
"What do you mean the truth?" Archie asked.
Hermes swallowed, "This is all my fault because I couldn't track her down."
"The person this pendant belongs to is one of you. She too is a hero, meant to help save the world from Cronus. We lied to you about the prophesy, there are supposed to be eight of you if you intend to defeat him." Hera said, petting one of her birds.
"You're just telling us this now?" Archie asked again, anger seeping through his voice.
Hermes spoke up, "It's my fault! We had sent her the pendant, but after New Years I wasn't able to collect her like I was able to collect you seven."
"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Jay asked, calmly.
"Because we needed you to be confident in your battles with Cronus, or you would have died." Hera responded.
"Does Cronus know?" Theresa asked.
Hermes shook his head, "Probably not yet. But if he goes to the Oracle now that she's inside the city, at this relatively close range, even she can't hide from the Oracle."
"How did she stay off the radar for this long?" Odie asked.
"Even we are unsure about how she's stayed away." Hera said solemnly.
Atlanta clapped Theresa on the shoulder and said, "At least there will be one more girl on the team."
Jay sighed, remembering his meeting with Lena. He didn't bring up how she had acted scared, or how she had cowered in the corner to get away from him.
"What's wrong?" Theresa asked him quietly.
"Nothing we should go find her, before Cronus does." Jay picked up Lena's pendant off the table, figuring that she would probably be looking for it soon.
Lena finally got out of the principals office after half an hour, tired and drained. Her hands clenched into fists, thinking about the conversation she had just had."We will not tolerate any violence from our students."The principal had said. She muttered to herself as she walked back to the spot where she had dropped her pendant. "Well, I wouldn't have to be violent, if stupid boys learned their place." 'Or maybe' She thought to herself, 'If I didn't panic every time a guy got relatively close to me. I wouldn't be here right now.'
Lena looked ahead to see the janitors closet that had distracted her in the first place, and back tracked to the lockers she had hid behind. It wasn't there! She was sure she had dropped it there! She got down on her knees to look at the ground more closely, checking to see if it had slipped behind or under the lockers. While a constant string of swears slipped out of her mouth quietly.
"Looking for something?" Lena turned to see the guy whom she had met earlier, what was his name again? Jay? That seemed about right. She took a look around only to see that he wasn't alone this time, his friends were surrounding her, leaving her with no place to run.
Lena found herself, for the second time that hour, pressed up against a corner because of the same guy. "Um," Her voice was caught in her throat. "Yes, its-this golden-pendant." Her voice was shaking, and she could feel the tears well in her eyes.
Lena watched as Jay let the pendant slid out of his hand as he hung onto the chain. "You mean this?" She nodded. Jay continued to talk. "When did you obtain this?" His tone was calm and kind, trying not to scare her again.
She looked up at him, "A-about ni-nine months ago. I found it, while I was l-looking at my -" Her hands covered her mouth.
"Your?" Jay began to approach her.
"Um…" She could feel her breathing getting shallow, and panic bubble up to the surface.
"Jay, wait!" Lena watched as Jay looked up at a long strawberry-blond haired girl.
"Why?" He continued to approach Lena, causing her to fall off the metaphorical edge.
"WHAAAA! I'M SORRY!" Lena began sobbing, and rapidly apologizing.
"That's why." The long haired girl said, as Jay looked at her with a 'What did I do wrong?' look.
"You scared her, Jay!" The short red headed girl spoke up, as she approached Lena who was still sobbing on the ground. She came up to her and stroked her head. "Don't worry, everything's okay, he's not going to hurt you."
It took a bit for Lena to calm down, and Jay looked completely confused and defeated with his head against the wall. This was twice he had scared the girl unintentionally. The short red headed girl introduced them. Her name was Atlanta, the strawberry blond was Theresa, the blond was Neil, the purple haired guy was Archie, the dark brown haired male was Herry, and the shortest one with dark skin was Odie. Atlanta had figured that Lena and Jay had already met, and she was right from the look of defeat on Jays face.
"I'm sorry for that out burst just now. I'm Lena." Lena said in between trying to regain her breath.
"It's fine, do you want to tell me what happened?" Atlanta hadn't left her side since she started bawling.
"I'm a touch androphobic." She stated still trying to regain some of her breath.
Atlanta looked up at Odie, who said, "She's afraid of men."
Lena nodded, and Jay looked up. It wasn't his fault! He felt his confidence return. "Isn't that great, Jay?" Theresa asked, she hadn't left his side since his head met with the wall, and a sense of despair radiated off of him. Atlanta helped up Lena and watched as the girl brushed off her clothes. Her breathing had returned to normal.
"Well," Archie said at last, "what now?"
"We take her to see Hera." Jay said with his renewed confidence.
"Why does the Queen of the Greek Gods want to see me?" Lena asked partly hidden behind Atlanta.
They all looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "How do you know about her?" Jay asked.
"I read a lot of Greek mythology…I mean a lot, a lot. Mostly for research, and partly for personal interest." She shrunk back behind Atlanta, who just sighed, hoping that she wouldn't be clinging to her for long. As if Lena sensed this she pulled away from Atlanta, and moved to the back of the group, avoiding contact all together.
Jay nodded and pulled out a his own pendant and stuck it into the lock on the janitors door. Lena opened her mouth, and everyone just pulled out their own. "We all have one," Jay
said smiling, and ushering everyone inside.
"This closet," Herry said almost squished, "is getting smaller." He pulled the string to turn on the light, opening the portal to the gods domain. They all rushed inside except for Lena who was cautious, causing both Theresa and Atlanta to pull her in.
Lena stumbled, tripping over her excessively long pants, causing her to land face first on the floor. She looked up, slowly, seeing that Jay and Archie were in an argument.
"I don't trust her." Archie said outright, not bothering to notice that Lena was on the floor behind them listening to every word.
"You are going to have to start trusting her, Archie." Jay said.
"And what's with her being afraid of men? In case you haven't noticed, Jay, five of us are men." Archie was almost yelling.
Atlanta shot in, "We're all afraid of something, Arch. You, yourself are afraid of water."
Lena stood up, brushing herself off. She looked at Archie, and spoke, her voice like ice. "Archie, was it?" He looked at her, and what he saw must not have been pleasant, because he cringed back. "If you have a problem with me, I would prefer you say it to me first before going to bitch to Jay."
They all looked at her, shock crossing their faces. Her dark green eyes were almost glowing with rage, and her crimson hair seemed to frame the rage radiating from her and for someone with a fear of men, she had a sharp tongue that was almost deadly.
Jay put up a hand to stop Archie from retaliating, as Theresa went to Lena and tried to calm her down. Lena's rage was under control in a matter of minutes, while Archie had a harder time controlling his. Jay kept Archie to his right as Theresa kept Lena to her left to keep the two from fighting again. The others walked behind the four, making sure no other arguments happened from a safe distance. They all prayed that nothing else happened today.
They walked into Hera's room, and she warmly greeted them.
"Welcome back. Did you find her?" Hera looked at the group, counting eight heads instead of the usual seven. "Welcome Lena. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Lena smiled, "The pleasure, and honor is all mine, Hera, Queen of the Greek Gods." she said with a bow.
Archie mumbled something and Atlanta elbowed him in the side. Lena looked at him and smiled coldly.
Hera noticed the exchange but brought her attention back to Lena. "Lena here is the descendant of Linus."
They all looked at Jay, who just shook his head. He didn't have any idea who he was either.
Apollo walked in as if called, "Linus was my son, and brother to Orpheus. He also taught Hercules music, until he was killed."
"Who killed him?" Atlanta asked.
"Hercules," Lena spoke. "He killed him for reprimanding him for making mistakes." There was no emotion in her voice. She noticed Herry shrink back. "Not that I have any grudge against Hercules, or anything." she said to him.
Archie spoke up, "Well that doesn't seem very heroic."
"It's not, but when his illegitimate son marries a very powerful witch, and they have children who possess the witches powers, and after many generations of honing those skills. One might think it would become useful." Lena retorted.
"Then show us those magic powers of yours." Archie snapped.
"Gladly." Lena smiled again. Holding out her hand, she began concentrating. A small orb of fire appeared.
"Is that all?" Archie almost laughed out loud.
The flame in Lena's hand grew, she maintained the flaming orb. As she began concentrating on her forearm and a spiral of water started to grow, and started up the rest of her arm. "Do you want me to keep going? Or are you satisfied?"
"I am…" Archie started, but the glares from the others made him change what he was going to say, "Satisfied. But how do we know you're any good in a fight?"
"Archie!" Jay and Atlanta exclaimed at the same time.
"I was about to ask the same thing." Ares said as he walked in.
Lena forced the water to extinguish the fireball that had formed and then made the water disappear. "What do you want me to do?" She looked at Ares, and smiled pleasantly.
He looked at her seriously. "A one on one match with Archie."
"Ares!" Hera looked aghast.
Lena turned to Hera, her eyes somewhat sorrowful. "I'll have to prove myself to them sooner or later, and I would rather get it out of the way today, so that this won't have to continue later on." She didn't let herself feel panic over being close to the boy, because she knew she wouldn't let him get close.
They moved out to the training area and everyone gathered around to see what was going on. Lena sighed as she stripped out of her sweater, and looked at her pants. She muttered something about wearing shorts, and took off her pants too. She folded both and stuck them into the bag she had been carrying. She was now wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts that went to her knees. She pulled out a retractable staff, and touched the switch causing it to grow to full size.
"She was carrying that around all day?" Odie asked.
"Where did she get that thing?" Atlanta asked.
Neil looked up and shrugged, more interested in his mirror then the fight that was about to happen.
Lena swung the staff around getting the feel of it; she hadn't used it in a while. She then looked at Archie. "To make this somewhat even, I swear on the River of Styx that I will not use my magic until after the match is over." She said while pulling her hair back. Archie nodded in response.
Ares threw Archie a spear, to make it a battle consisting of long ranged weapons. They both looked at Ares, who said "The first to be disarmed loses." They both nodded.
The match began and neither of them moved, testing the other. Archie moved first hoping to use his speed to catch Lena off her guard. She just dodged his attack, mostly trying to avoid physical contact. She looked at him and taunted him to attack again. She smiled when he did, using her staff to trip him lightly, she then used Archie's lack of balance against him, she hit his wrists causing him to let go of his spear, dropping it. She lightly placed her staff on Archie's chest to keep him from falling down.
The others who had been watching gaped and Ares sighed. Lena spoke as Archie regained his balance. "So….um…did I prove myself?" Blush colored her face, as she backed away to her bag, putting her pants and sweater back on self-consciously.
Hera looked at Lena, and motioned Hermes over. "Tell her parents we found her."
Hera had apparently spoken loud enough for Lena to hear, and for the third time that day fear built up inside of her. Before she realized what she had done she spoke up, "Please don't tell my parents!" She was looking up at Hera, fear very apparent on her face.
Everyone was looking at her again, and she shrunk in on herself once again. Hera smiled sadly, and spoke. "It seems you and I need to talk."
The Present: Lena's room in the Brownstone.
Lena remembered their conversation all too well, as her thoughts drifted in and out. She was having a hard time concentrating. Her thoughts drifted to the talk she and Hera had three months ago on that first day.
Three months ago: Hera's study
Lena was sitting down on the couch fidgeting under the Goddess' gaze.
"First, I need to know something." Hera said calmly. "How did you escape Hermes when he went to find you, nine months ago?"
Lena swallowed hard. She couldn't look up at Hera. "Nine months ago, I ran away from home. I stayed hidden by using a protection spell I found in my spell book, and I've been bouncing from one place to another ever since."
Hera nodded. "I see. That explains why we couldn't find you afterwards."
"I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble." Lena apologized solemnly.
Hera looked at the girl. "So," she paused, "why don't you want your parents to know where you are? As a mother myself, I can imagine the worry that they're feeling."
Lena looked up at Hera, panic already rising. "Because my step father will force me to come back, or my brother will if they don't!"
Hera looked confused. "Your brother?"
Lena shifted, hiding her face again. "For his own amusement, he'll force me back. To begin the process all over again." Lena could feel herself begin to shake.
"Alright, we won't contact your parents." Hera said resigned. "You can go now."
"I'm sorry." was all Lena said as she walked out of Hera's study.
The other heroes were waiting for her as she left Hera's study. She smiled and hoped it reached her eyes enough to fool them.
Present: Lena's Bedroom
She remembered, three months ago, by thinking about it. So then how did she end up here? In her bed, freezing. Freezing? Why was she freezing? Her thoughts sprang back to the most recent thing she remembered. They were in another battle with Cronus, at the park. They were going for a run; she had kept back with Odie to make sure he didn't fall too far behind…
Three days ago: Central park.
They had all decided to go for a run, even though it was the middle of winter in Canada! Lena and Odie were running behind the others. Lena would have been able to keep up but she didn't want Odie to be left behind.
Odie looked at Lena, who had seemed like she was getting used to him, and the other guys, but there was something that was still bothering him. "Hey, Lena." His voice was breathy due to being unused to the exercise.
"What's up Odie?" She looked at him, but kept up the pace and made sure he did the same.
"The first day you arrived, you got angry, and you were radiating rage. Your personality changed too. Do you mind if I ask what happened?" His breath still ragged.
Lena laughed, "I was wondering when this question would come up. To be truthful we don't know what happens, it just does. So we started calling it 'Dark Lena'. Dark Lena comes out whenever I get angry because my personality isn't very strong so it's like a defense mechanism created by my brain or something. It goes away quickly though."
Odie noticed she had said 'we' and not 'I'. This piqued his interest. "We?" He asked.
"My cousin and I." She said as she noticed the others turn a corner. "Let's hurry up to keep the others in our line of sight." She and Odie picked up the pace only to notice a ten foot long giant snake with Cronus on its back. She muttered an "Oh, crud." as she pulled Odie to off to the side to dodge the snake's tail.
Lena noticed that Archie wasn't so lucky in dodging the thing and was sent flying onto the lake, which was thankfully iced over.
"ARCHIE!" Atlanta called out for Archie worried about her best friend.
"I'm alright." Archie responded, just as Cronus saw the opportunity to rid him of one of the pesky heroes. He threw his sickle into the ice with enough force to send a crack right through it. The crack of ice spread all the way to Archie, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the freezing water.
Atlanta turned to jump into the water, only to see Lena, throwing her sweater and pants off to the side and jumping in after him. Lena quickly looked at Atlanta, her eyes telling her to get Cronus, Atlanta just nodded turning back to the battle.
Lena swam down in the water, her eyes desperately trying to locate Archie. They may not get along well, but he was one of them. A valuable part of the team; the warrior. Atlanta's best friend, and possibly Lena's favorite person to tease. Her eyes spotted the hero, and swam to him quickly. Just as her physical strength was about to fail on her, her arms wrapped around him, and she summoned whatever magical energy she had stored up. She forced the water to bend to her will; it created a funnel around them with Lena and a semi-conscious Archie standing in the center. The pressure from the water as it pushed them up, caused the surrounding ice to shatter, and the two were finally above ground.
The six remaining teens still fighting Cronus and the snake heard the time god say "Oh, crap." as he fled through one of his portals. The six turned to see Lena and Archie floating in the middle of a tornado made of water and ice.
Jay shouted for the others to move and hide behind the trees. The snake looked up at the newest threat and tried to flee like its master but it was already too late. The tornado hit it hard and the snake disappeared in a puff of ashes; defeated. Lena floated over to the others and placed Archie down first then landed near her clothes. Atlanta was at Archie's side in a matter of moments, making sure he was alright, and he was just cold and in shock.
Lena pulled out a towel from the bag she had dropped at the beginning of the battle, and began drying herself off. She noticed her skin had a bluish tint to it. Her eyes began to blur then, and waves of dizziness rushed over her. The last thing she saw was the snow covered ground approaching her face and fast. The rest was black.
Present: Lena's room.
That's right, she had fainted. She lifted her hand up to make sure it was cream colored again, when the door opened and the light flicked on.
"Oh good you're finally awake." Jay's voice sounded utterly relieved. "I'll go tell Athena." She heard the door close and the sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs.
