Chapter 5
Cronus was bored sitting in his lair, flipping through channels on his T.V.
"Boring, seen it," he mumbled to himself, "maybe instead of taking over the world I should just make the mortals watch T.V I mean they'd probably kill themselves eventually with how boring it is," Cronus said as he eventually stopped on the news, where that dreadful Meryl Dragon was reporting.
"Ugh no thanks." Cronus said about to change the channel.
"And lastly Ms. Theresa President is still in a coma, and doctors aren't sure if she'll ever wake up." Meryl Dragon said sadly.
"Theresa's in a coma?" Cronus asked happily as a picture of Theresa came onto the screen, "oh what a shame, poor Jay must be so upset… too upset to try and stop me I bet!" Cronus said laughing as he jumped up running out of the room laughing to himself.
Theresa wasn't sure how long her Ryan and Harvey had been walking through the forest for, the trees didn't really let enough sunlight shine through to know what time it was.
"Whoo I'm getting tired." Harvey said as he stopped hopping taking some deep breaths.
"Here allow me." Ryan said bending over and holding out his hand.
"Why thank you!" Harvey said as he hopped onto Ryan's hand.
"Don't mention it." Ryan said as they began walking again.
"So why are you guys going to see the great scientist?" Harvey asked confused.
"So that Theresa can defeat the wicked witch of the west." Ryan said smiling at Theresa, who felt a knot in her stomach.
"Really?" Harvey asked looking at Theresa raising an eyebrow, "She's the one from the prophecy?"
"Hey what's that supposed to mean?!" Theresa demanded.
"Well no offence, but you don't really look like someone who can defeat a witch." Harvey said holding up his hand in defense.
"She's got the ruby ring." Ryan said.
"She does?" Harvey asked, "catch!" he yelled at Theresa as he jumped out of Ryan's hand.
"Whoa!" Theresa said surprised as she held out her hand in the nick of time to catch Harvey so he wouldn't fall to the ground.
"Let's see this ring!" Harvey said his voice full of excitement.
Theresa looked at Ryan who nodded, "well OK." Theresa said holding up her right hand to show Harvey the ring, Harvey jumped onto her right hand examining the ring, "wow, it is the ring!" He said a little bit surprised.
"Like I told you she's going to save us all from the Wicked Witch of the West!" Ryan said putting his arm around Theresa, "and then we'll be free!"
"I think you're both forgetting that I still have to actually do it." Theresa said feeling the knot in her stomach tightening.
"You'll do it, after all it's in the prophecy!" Ryan said as he began walking faster, "now let's get going after all the sooner we get to see the great wizard, the sooner we can get back to our regular lives!"
"Sounds good to me!" Harvey said excitement building in his voice.
"Prophecy's change though…" Theresa whispered to herself as she rushed to catch up with Ryan.
Jay sighed as he walked back to the school, he thought if nothing else he should at least tell the gods what was going on with Theresa, just a couple of days ago he and his friends, including Theresa, had been all together trying to decide what to do about Cronus, and now Theresa was in a coma, probably because of him… why did he have to yell at Theresa like that?
"Jay, what are you doing here?" Hermes asked as they bumped into each other at the janitor's closet, "I assumed you'd be with Theresa."
"Theresa's in a coma…" Jay said fighting back tears.
"What?" Hermes asked surprised.
"And it's all my fault." Jay said unable to hold the tears back anymore.
"That's not good, come on!" Hermes said putting his pendant into the door, and then running into Hera's office, where Zeus and Hera were talking.
"Hermes, Jay?" Zeus asked surprised.
"What's going on?" Hera asked her voice full of concern as she noticed the looks on both Jay and Hermes' face.
"Theresa's in a coma!" Hermes said his voice full of worry.
"What?!" Hera yelled.
"This is not good… what happened?" Zeus asked, and Jay took a deep breath explaining to them the events of the past couple of days.
Theresa was starting to get tired, and hungry, but she wasn't sure if Ryan and Harvey would want to stop.
"Guys, I need a break." Theresa finally said as her vision blurred.
"There's an apple tree over there." Ryan said pointing, "come on." He said walking over to it, Theresa followed sitting underneath one of the trees.
"Ah that feels better." Theresa said resting her head against the trunk.
"Here's an apple." Ryan said handing her one.
"Thanks." Theresa said taking a bite, "wow these are good apples!" Theresa said a little surprised, truth was she was expecting the tree to turn out to be a crab apple tree or something.
"Yeah Oz is known for really good apples, probably because there's no pollution." Came a male's voice.
"Who said that?" Theresa asked jumping up and looking around.
"It was I." Came the voice again.
"Who are you?" Ryan asked looking around but not seeing anyone.
"Show yourself." Theresa finally said looking around again.
"Look up." The voice said, and as Theresa, Ryan, and Harvey looked up they gasped as they saw an owl sitting in the tree, Harvey screamed and jumped on Theresa's neck hiding behind her hair.
"No need to be afraid little one," the owl said, "I only eat apples."
"I've never heard of an owl only eating owls." Theresa said surprised.
"You're not from around here are you?" The owl asked.
"No I'm not." Theresa said feeling slightly embarrassed, she was kind of hoping that she was blending in a little bit better than that.
"Well some owls eat different things; I just prefer apples to anything else." The owl said as he bit one.
"I still don't trust him." Harvey said pulling more of Theresa's hair around him to hide.
"What's your name, owl?" Theresa asked, since he was reminding her of Herry… only smarter.
"Owen." He said taking another bite of an apple.
"Nice to meet you Owen, I'm Ryan, this is Theresa, and the frog hiding in her hair is called Harvey."
"I'm not here!" Harvey said as he pulled more of Theresa's hair to hide behind.
"Ow!" Theresa complained, "Harvey you can't stay back there forever."
"I'm not planning on staying back here forever, just until that owl leaves." Harvey said fear evident in his voice, Theresa looked up at Owen apologetically.
"Terribly sorry about him."
"Don't worry about it." Owen said giving her a smile.
"We'd better get going before it gets too late." Ryan said looking up at the sky, the sun was starting to move across the sky.
"Alright." Theresa said looking at Ryan and then up at Owen, "it was nice to meet you."
"Where are you going?" Owen asked curiously.
"To see the great scientist in Oz." Ryan said.
"Really?!" Owen asked excitement in his voice.
"Would you like to come?" Theresa offered.
"I'd love to!" Owen said jumping off the branch and landing on the ground below.
"Wait why didn't you just fly?" Ryan asked confused.
Owen looked at the ground clearly embarrassed, "promise not to laugh?" He asked unsure.
"Promise." Ryan and Theresa both said at the same time.
"I can't fly…" Owen said jumping in the air and flapping his wings but just falling back to the earth.
"How come you can't fly?" Theresa asked confused.
"Because the witch turned my parents into stone, and no one ever showed me how…" Owen said sadly, "I've been alone for so long and it would be nice to have some company."
"Of course you can come with us!" Ryan said bending down and offering his arm to Owen, "come on I'll give you a lift." He said as Owen jumped on his arm and went up to his shoulder.
"Oh sure invite the owl I didn't want to turn back into a prince anyways." Harvey said sarcastically.
"Prince?" Owen asked confused.
"Harvey here thinks he's a prince." Theresa said reaching behind her and grabbing Harvey out from her hair, "come on, Harvey say hi to Owen." She commanded.
Harvey looked over at Owen before gasping and hiding in Theresa's hair again, "Harvey that's not very nice." Ryan said disapprovingly.
"If you would just kiss me, Theresa and turn me back into a prince, I wouldn't have to be rude." Harvey complained.
"Not on your life." Theresa hissed back at him.
"Hey if the scientist can't change me back you promised!" Harvey said smugness evident in his voice.
"Don't remind me…" Theresa said rolling her eyes before shooting another death glare at Ryan for saying that Theresa would kiss a frog.
"Let's go!" Owen said excitement in his voice, "I want to see my parents and learn how to fly!"
"Shall we?" Ryan asked after a minute offering Theresa his arm, she smiled taking it.
"We shall, even if I am mad at you."
Ryan laughed as the four friends began walking down the green road again.
Cronus smiled as he walked up to the Oracle, "hello Oracle," he said pleasantly.
"Would you laugh if I knew that you were coming?" The Oracle asked smiling.
"Well you're supposed to know everything."
"I do." The Oracle said simply.
"Then you know why I'm here." Cronus said.
"You want to know that since Theresa is in a coma, if that means the prophecy of the seven heroes is finished." The Oracle said.
"Oh you're good."
The Oracle waved his hands as a light appeared in them, he stared into it for a few moments, "you can take over the world as long as you do it soon, Theresa may wake up soon."
"What do you mean "may?"" Cronus asked putting emphasis on may.
"I don't know when or if she's going to wake up, my powers aren't telling me that."
"Well some help you are." Cronus said annoyed.
"Like I said, Cronus, if you want to take over the world you're going to have to do it soon." The Oracle simply said.
"Hmmm you're right." Cronus said before making a portal appear, "I'd better get going to start planning!" Cronus said laughing as he disappeared.
Jay felt sick to his stomach as he remembered the conversation that he had had with Zeus, Hera, and Hermes, they wanted him and the rest of the heroes to stop spending so much time at Theresa's place and go back to the school so they could start focusing on Cronus since Zeus was certain that Cronus was going to attempt to take over the world, and it would make sense to have all of them under one roof, minus Theresa since Chiron had said that moving her with a concussion wasn't the best idea.
As Jay made it back to Theresa's house he began feeling even worse, he didn't want to leave Theresa and he was certain that none of the other heroes would either but in a way Zeus, Hera, and Hermes had a point, they had to stay on top of what Cronus was up to.
"Jay!" Atlanta said relieved as soon as he opened the door.
"Hey." Jay said.
"What's wrong?" Herry asked as he looked at Jay's face.
"I was just at the school…" Jay said trailing off unsure of what else to say.
"How come?" Archie asked confused.
"To tell Zeus, Hera, and Hermes about Theresa." Jay said his heart breaking as he mentioned Theresa's name, would he ever get to see her again?
"So what's going on?" Odie asked.
"They think that we should go back to the school, since Cronus is still our priority." Jay said sadly.
"And leave Theresa?" Atlanta asked as tears began falling from her eyes, "I don't want to leave her!"
"Believe me, Atlanta, neither do I." Jay said sadly.
The heroes looked at each other unsure.
"Guys I'm sorry but in a way Zeus and Hera have a point we do have an obligation to the world." Jay said feeling a lump growing in his throat.
"If you guys have to get back to school, I can watch Theresa and keep you guys updated on anything." Adam said walking into the room, this thought made Jay Angier then it should have, what would happen if Theresa woke up from her coma and saw Adam instead of him, and fell in love with Adam? After all they had kissed.
"Alright that sounds good thanks, Adam." Jay said forcing a smile.
"Don't mention it," Adam said smiling.
"I'm just going to say goodbye to Theresa." Jay said walking upstairs and into her room, taking his typical seat right beside her and taking her hand.
"Hey Theresa," Jay said his voice barely above a whisper, "I'm sorry but I have to leave for a while, Zeus and Hera think that we should still focus on defeating Cronus… especially since it's only six of us at the moment," Jay let the tears fall down his face as he squeezed Theresa's hand again hoping for a response from her, but of course there wasn't one, "I love you, Theresa, and be strong you can pull through this I believe in you." Jay said as he kissed her forehead, before walking out of the room.
Downstairs Archie was hugging Atlanta who was crying her eyes out, Herry was leaning against the wall looking lost, and Odie and Neil were sitting on the couch both looking sad, Jay sighed sometimes he hated being the leader, he knew that it was going to be hard to start training again to defeat Cronus, especially since Theresa wasn't going to be there, plus he was having a hard enough time trying to motivate himself to do it, how was he going to motivate the rest of the team?
"OK guys, time to go." Jay said without much enthusiasm in his voice, and not surprising no one moved, "guys…" Jay said again, as Adam walked back into the room.
"Are you sure that you want to go?" Adam asked looking at the others, "I don't think that they want to go."
"Well we have an important project." Jay said loud enough that the others all heard and looked at him, "so we'd better get going."
Everyone nodded sadly, walking to the front door, Adam followed.
"If anything changes in her I'll call you right away." He assured.
"Thanks, Adam." Jay said shaking Adam's hand.
"Good luck on the project." Adam said though confusion was evident in his voice.
"Uh thanks." Atlanta said forcing a smile as they all followed Jay out of the house, back towards the school where none of them wanted to go.
Theresa felt nervous as it began getting dark, the trees were now casting all sorts of shadows and making everything look spookier.
"I'm beginning to not like this forest…" Theresa whispered to Ryan who took her hand.
"It is starting to get spooky." Harvey said hiding behind Theresa's hair again.
"Harvey you can't keep hiding in my hair every time you get spooked," Theresa said annoyed, ever since they had met Owen Harvey had been spending about ninety five percent of the time hiding in her hair.
"But it's safe and warm." Harvey said and Theresa could hear how content he sounded.
"I'm kind of afraid we're going to come across lions, or tigers or bears." Ryan said looking around.
Theresa looked around as well but didn't see anything, "are there lions or tigers or bears in this forest?"
"Of course there is, it is a forest." Owen said and Theresa could hear that he sounded nervous, "Right now I wish I could fly so I could make sure it was safe."
"Maybe we should try and get out of here…" Theresa said her voice full of worry, she really wasn't in the mood to get eaten.
Ryan nodded as they both began walking faster.
"What was that?" Theresa asked alarmed as she heard a branch break.
"Maybe the wind?" Ryan suggested.
"But there is no wind." Owen said pointing out the obvious.
"I'm out of here!" Theresa said as she began running away.
"Theresa wait!" Ryan called running after her, but Theresa didn't slow down, she kept running when all of a sudden a tiger jumped out in front of her, Theresa stopped running screaming as the tiger growled at her.
End Chapter 5
I don't own COTT
I don't own The Wizard of Oz
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