Part 2: Dreams

A/N: Well, hello to the world! It's been a while since my last update, but I promise you, I am not dead! I have just been busy. Anyway, I don't have much to say about my story, but I do however have a few tidbits to add about recent goings-on. Recently someone (name left out) has been hurtfully bashing authors and it's silly and ridiculous and petty. Attention seeking, but in a horrible way. With other authors help, I am hoping to do my part to re-jollify the CotT community after this incident. 

Class of the Titans is an amazing fandom, and every author on here is incredible in their own rights. I have decided that on each of my new updates I am going to bring the spotlight on another author (or two!) who deserve it. Perhaps they wrote an amazing story, perhaps they did a good deed, and perhaps I just think they are amazing!

So, in total of this long rant, I would like to bring to your attention two people today. They go by the names of Jason Strong and elegos-sirinal-shamtul. Give thanks to these two, we are SOO lucky to have them!

Now, onto the story. I do not own this, although I do own this plot :)

// Should Have Known You Could Bring Me Heartache, Almost Lover's Always Do //

His words branded themselves into my own brain, leaving no room for thought, no room for argument. Neil wasn't being malicious, and that was the worst part. He believed I was dead. He believed that he lived here, in Jay's mind, and that I was dead and here to torment Jay.

The worst part of all this was that Neil was a part of Jay's mind. This must have meant that somewhere inside of him, Jay believed that I wasn't real, that I was dead. What had gone on to create a mind so cold, so barren of happiness.

"Neil, I'm sorry. I don't understand." I could feel the truths burning my tongue, "I am Jay's doctor, and I have sent an image of myself into his brain. Here. This is Jay's brain. I need to find Jay… inside his brain. Like… his inner soul, his spirit. We all exist in a corporeal form in our own minds. It's the image we hold of ourselves."

Neil blinked and gently reached out to grab my hand –left- and twine his fingers with mine. Strangely, it wasn't sexual, or overly romantic. It was tender, and desperate. I suddenly understood that everything Neil had been saying to me was the absolute truth as he knew it.

"Terry, if this isn't a trick, I need you to swear it on the one thing you hold dear. I have had many images of your spirit try to get to Jay in the last few years. I can't afford to let the real you get in." He cursed under his breath, "But if this is true… well, I can't afford not to bring you. And, just so you know Doctor? This isn't Jay's mind."

I growled, yanking my hand away from him. When had my temper gotten so out of control? "Yes, it is! I know because I hooked myself up to the TOUCH machine and Jay. This is his mind and I'm only an image inside of it. I only feel solid because that is the nature of the TOUCH." At Neil's blank look, I explained, "Odie invented it. Not the Odie you know. At least, I don't think so. TOUCH stands for Therapeutic Observation/Utilization of Cerebral Healing."

Neil's eyes narrowed, "That sounds like something Odie would invent. So, this TOUCH thing, it projects images of another person into someone's brain to help heal them… mentally?"

It was simplistic, but true. I was glad he seemed to be grasping the concept, and ashamed that the first time Odie had explained it to me, I had had no idea what he was rambling about. My heart beat heavily against my ribs when I thought of Odie.

"Yes, pretty much. So, could you take me to Jay? I need to see him, I need to help him wake up before police arrive." My voice was husky, full of tears. Neil's hand had once more wound its way into mine.

Instead of answering me, he smiled, "I thought you would keep your ring. Even after we broke it off, you wore it, always. Jay loved it," Neil's voice darkened, but with a smug pleasure, "And, he hated it. Sometimes, I hate myself for making him go through that. But he stole the best thing I had ever had from me."

I could feel my eyes widening when I realized that Neil was talking about me. The ring. The ring that he claimed was our promise to each other, once upon a time. The ring that had sent Jay into panic in his memory of first meeting me.

Suddenly, I was afraid that perhaps, this wasn't Jay's head. Perhaps, this was reality. Maybe I was right, I was the insane one. Maybe I had finally woken up in the glacier world that was reality.

Neil laughed, startling me out of my disturbing thoughts, "But, then I remember the look you gave me when I told you I knew you were in love with Jay. I could be jealous of Jay, I could hate him. But I could never hate you. Neither of us ever could. You were his only weakness, an undefeated leader who feared nothing. You were the only thing that I loved more than myself. And you destroyed us both."

His words hurt me, even though I didn't know what he was talking about. They resonated within me, wild birds that were pecking at my heart and stomach. I was done talking with this beautiful, cruel and wonderful boy. I needed Jay. I needed Jay's warmth, his solidity, his strength.

"Take. Me. To. Jay." I demanded. I closed my green eyes that were too much like my Grandmamma's. I needed no reminders of what I had left behind and lost. I didn't want to stare into the depthless blue eyes of Neil and suddenly find out that all his lying words were the truth.

Instead of replying, Neil took my hand and started leading me. I didn't know where, I wasn't about to open my eyes and find out. I just walked with him, in silence. The silence that said too much. His hand held mine much too familiarly. I realized that I was holding his hand comfortably.

Just as I was almost ready to believe what he had been saying, a voice screamed my name. I could hear it, in my head, echoing and tinged with shock and desperation. I wanted to open my eyes, wanted to see who was calling me.

My hand was ripped away from Neil's and I knew I had to look. I opened my eyes against the light that was bouncing off the ice around me. It was too bright, and I squinted. When the blurriness finally receded, I found myself staring into chocolate eyes that I knew better than I knew myself.

Instead of thinking, I lunged towards Odie and hugged him. I held on and started to cry in dry, heaving sobs. The apparition, the phantom, the piece of Jay's mind held me back. He was solid in Jay's head, and holding me as I cried.

"Risa, Risa, baby, stop crying." He whispered. His words felt like magic to me and soon enough I stopped shuddering and looked once more into his face. It was perfect, the face of an angel. Odie looked just like my best friend.

I had known that Jay must have met Odie before. Herry was Odie's friend, and Herry knew Jay. Jay had also once mentioned Odie when he talked to me. Therefore, I was expecting to find Odie in Jay's head.

But what I wasn't expecting was the devastatingly beautiful woman beside him. She had hair like sunlight, cascading down her back in straight sheaths. Her skin was pale, paler than mine even, and eyes so warm and blue that I almost cried again bored into mine. I wondered who she was, and how Jay knew her, and how I could ever, ever hope to compete with this angel.

"Theresa." She said gently, "It's wonderful to finally meet you."

With those words, everything snapped into place. Her voice was beautiful, and tender. I knew that voice. I had talked to her the same day she had died. It was Mellian, Odie's fiancée.

Her words that day came back to haunt me for a moment. Her angel's voice had promised me, "Anything that would want to hurt him would have to kill me first."

It had killed her. And it had killed him.

I choked back tears and tried to concentrate on her face.

How in the world did Jay know her? This question made me regain my composure and I swallowed, hard.

"Mellian, Odie. I realize that you probably think I'm dead, alone with crazy Neil over here," I gestured to the blonde who had watched this whole scene, "But I need to see Jay."

Odie looked panicked for a moment and turned to glance at Mellian. She shrugged at his look and he turned back to me. I wondered what the silent communication was about.

"You're not dead Risa. Not yet anyway." He sighed, "I'm a gateway."

I stared blankly at him. I was pleased he didn't think I was dead, but why would he say YET? I didn't plan on dying for a while.

"What the hell is a gateway?" I snapped.

Odie looked shocked at my anger, which almost made me laugh. It figured, I had been a pretty bland and calm person in reality.

"A gateway is something or someone who holds open entries between two worlds." He said succinctly. I didn't know what he meant.

"Okay, what do you mean two worlds?"

Odie had always been good at explaining things to me, when he was alive. So when his next explanation made me feel like everything went crystal clear, I was not surprised.

"This entire universe is compromised of many, many worlds, all next to each other but not touching. In every world, there are a certain amount of things or people who hold those words together, like spider strands in a web. They are called gateways. Sometimes, the people who are gateways die, and a little more of the world is slipped away. But new gateways are made every day. For example, I have been a gateway all my life, and known about it. Now that I have taken Mellian to a different world, she has become a gateway as well."

I nodded at this. It made sense, even though it went against every law of physics I knew (even though I didn't know many). I decided that instead of believing every word that came out of his mouth, I would defend my argument.

"But Odie, this is Jay's mind. I came here through the TOUCH."

Odie frowned. "I know. I didn't foresee you doing that. See, Jay is a gateway too, for this world. When you went into his head using my invention, you didn't just land in his mind. He took you straight into this world."

I narrowed my eyes, "So what world is this?"

"The original world."

I rolled my eyes, "Honestly? The best name you could come up with was the Original world!? That's so lame and predictable."

Odie let out an unexpected laugh, "I should have known you wouldn't have believed it if it had a boring name. Well, it's true. This is the Original world, and it is called that because all the gateways exist here."

I smiled, "Alright. How did the gateways come to be?"

Here, Neil suddenly took over, "There were seven original human gateways and one gateway that was a goddess. The seven human gateways were descendants of Ancient Greek heroes. You may have heard of them: Achilles, Jason, Odysseus, Theseus, Atalanta, Hercules and Narcissus." Neil smiled as if he was sharing a secret.

"I have heard of a couple of them." I muttered.

"Okay, well, the seven descendants of these heroes were locked in a battle with Cronus, God of Time. The Greek Gods were helping them with this battle in any way they could."

I shook my head, "Okay. Well, this is absolutely unbelievable, but I'll go along with it."

"Don't be such a non-believer Risa. You've met more important people than you know." Odie warned.

I barely held myself back from snapping at him, but something in his eyes was angry and scared and I couldn't bring myself to hurt him. Not after I was suddenly allowed to touch him and hold him when I thought he was dead.

Neil continued as if he heard nothing, "Anyway, the teenagers defeated Cronus, but at a high cost. Two of the seven were killed, and two was severely injured; one died later of the injuries. The Gods, out of love and gratitude for the heroes, bound the souls of the seven to this world. This binding would make the living heroes immortal unless they were killed; and every time one of the seven did die, they would be reborn in this world. However, it didn't exactly work, and the spirits of the three heroes who had died managed to tie themselves intricately into all the worlds of this universe."

Odie scowled at Neil, "Not all the worlds. We only know of a few that they have been bound into. But we believe there is still many more they exist in. After they had done this, the two sprits of those heroes bound their friends' spirits into the fabric of each world."

I struggled to follow this, but I attempted to finish their fantastical story anyway, "And now the seven heroes are reborn in every world?"

Neil and Odie looked relieved, "Exactly. And only some of the seven reincarnations ever remember that they are gateways."

I snickered, "Let me guess, the two that died and originally wound their spirits into the world remember what they did. They are the only ones that know intuitively that they are gateways."

Odie smirked, "That's my girl. Very good."

"So, what were their names?"

At this, Odie looked wildly around, as if searching for a savoir. Mellian laughed; sounding much too much like a chorus of angels for my self confidence to ever be the same. Neil growled, as if the question annoyed him. But he answered, so I suppose that in the end, the scary but beautiful man beats the genius in fearlessness.

"Can't you guess?" His words were acidic and I flinched back, "The names of the seven heroes, descendants of the Ancient Greek Heroes?" He laughed maniacally, and I knew that Jay wasn't the only one who needed mental help here. He lifted up his hands and started ticking off fingers, as if listing off something he had learned by rote, "The Warrior, Archie, was the descendant of Achilles. The Brains, Odie, was the descendant of Odysseus. The Good-Looking, Neil, was the descendant of Narcissus. The Hunter, Atlanta, descendant of Atalanta and The Brawn, Herry, descendant of Hercules." After listing these, Neil stared straight at her and gave the next two names bitterly. "The Fighter, Theresa, the descendant of Theseus. And the Leader, Jay, descendant of Jason."

I shook my head, wanting to laugh at his ridiculous statements but not being able to because for some strange reason, his words felt so incredibly right. Like I was just waiting for someone to point out that I was descended from a Greek Legend. So instead of denying it or agreeing, I just kept shaking my head. When Odie hugged me, I realized that tears were still streaming down my face.

"I'm not a legend. I am not a gateway. I am not anything special at all." I said into Odie's shoulder.

"No Risa, you aren't a legend. And you weren't a gateway. Like I said, this is the Original planet, where it all happened. And there are only seven gateways. You are a reincarnated version of the original Theresa, one of the heroes and one of the gateways. She died." Odie rocked me as he explained this.

I pulled back, "Do I look like her? Is that why everyone thinks I am her and in this place I am a spirit?"

Neil nodded, "You look exactly like her. A little less confident, more scared and definitely thinner than her, but otherwise, exactly like her."

I scrunched up my face at the 'thinner' comment. I had been trying to gain my lost weight back for weeks now; I knew I looked too much like a skeleton to be healthy.

"Often times when a reincarnated version of someone, such as yourself, has the original of themselves die, they suffer physical trauma. Ever since Theresa, the original, died here, you have lost a ton of weight." Odie told me. In the privacy of my mind I cursed the damn original Theresa. She had everything! The original planet, the fame, the body and she had Jay.

"How did she die?" I asked.

Neil sighed, "When? She died many times. The very first time she died, we found her in her room with her wrists slit."

I gasped, and thought wildly that I still had my bottle of sleeping pills and Jack Daniels beside me. It was a way out, and sadly enough, I was ready to do the same thing. "Why!?"

Neil put his face in his hand, "Archie and I are the only ones who remember the way you –the way she- looked when we found out Jay was dead. Jay was the one who was seriously injured in our battle against Cronus. She ran home and killed herself. We never would have thought her capable of it. It was to be with him, I know it."

I sucked in air so hard I thought my head would explode, "You remember that!? Wasn't it forever ago?!"

Neil nodded, "Yes, a long, long time ago. Many lifetimes have passed since then. See, when the Gods bound our spirits through the world, it made us immortal. Since Odie and Herry died in the battle-"

At this sentence I stared at Odie who informed me, "Yes. Herry and I were the ones who took a hold of the spell and bound it through every world. The Herry you know, actually. He remembers it all. We are the only gateways who are ever reborn knowing what we are."

Neil scowled at the interruption and continued. I got the feeling he was used to everyone always paying attention to him, "Anyway, when those two died in battle, and Jay later died of his injuries, the Gods did that for us. It went awry, but it worked. Archie and I have lived since that time as neither of us have ever been killed nor killed ourselves."

"Well, hopefully Archie hasn't gone that far." Odie muttered.

I didn't want to bring up this Archie person. He sounded too much like the Archie I knew, the person I had done TOUCH treatment on before. And that Archie, Archie Jeremy Killes, had the memories Neil was speaking of.

And I had thought he was crazy. My world spun off kilter for a moment.

"Are we talking about Archie Jeremy Killes? The man who was recently found to have abducted my best friend Atlanta!?"

Neil's expressive eyes widened to a point where I thought they would fall out. Finally they moved back into his head and he looked ten years older, even though I know believed his tale of immortality.

"So, he found her." Was all he said about it. I wondered if Atlanta remembered being a gateway.

"What is Atlanta all about anyway? Does she remember?"

Odie shook his head, "No, Atlanta lived through the battle, but she was later murdered by a man named Roger. Archie and Roger had been friends long, long ago. Archie hunted him down and killed him after what he did to Atlanta. That poor man waited so damn long for her to be reborn again, and it was an injustice what happened."

Odie's words were so bitter and vehement that I had to ask, even though I knew I shouldn't.

"What happened when Atlanta was reborn?" I was desperate to know. Would Archie in my world hurt Atlanta?

Neil glanced to the ground and I saw tears in his eyes, "She was reborn, and Archie went to see her in the hospital afterwards. He wasn't trying to be creepy; he wanted to make sure she was safe. She was. But she was diagnosed with leukemia and died only months later."

I knew tears were pouring down my face, "No wonder he was so cold and insane."

Odie was the only one who knew that I had been inside his mind, "He had every reason. I'm actually shocked he didn't pull you into the Original world when you did the TOUCH on him. He knew who you were the instant he saw you, as did Herry and I. As did Jay."

My heart sunk lower than my toes in that second. Odie, Herry and Jay, were all only with me because of some Theresa hero I had never met. I couldn't be the woman they thought I was. She was brave and beautiful and wonderful. I was boring and scared. Atlanta was probably only attracted to me because of our previous connections.

"Why am I here?" I whispered. Mellian pushed Odie aside.

"Because Jay loves you, Risa. You. He loved Theresa when she was alive, but she has been dead for a long time now. You are a different woman, and no matter what happens, Jay was born to love you."

I growled, "Isn't that just every little girl's dream. That there is a man out there who was born to love them. It doesn't happen Mellian."

For a split second, I thought I had been dragged back into reality as my cheek stung. Then I realized that Mellian, a woman so gentle and kind, had slapped me. Her hair was dark brown and her eyes had gone black. I didn't understand.

"I believe that Theresa. And you're a fool if you don't. What they didn't tell you," She motioned to Odie and Neil who looked as shocked as I felt, "Is that there is something called a Soulmate. Have you heard of that?"

I nodded.

"Well, good. Soulmates are two people who are bound by the Fates to be together, in any realm, any world and through anything. Archie and Atlanta are Soulmates. They cannot be separated. Whenever Archie is reborn, Atlanta is. And so forth. Same with Theresa and Jay."

I laughed, "So he is doomed to love me no matter what. Well that just makes a girl know she's wanted."

Neil had ripped me to my feet and he looked so angry I thought he was going to hit me. I thought he would hit me and hit me and never stop. The ice in his eyes was even worse than the landscape around me.

"You are being ridiculous." He snapped, "Let me tell you something about Theresa, the original. We were set to be married. She hadn't even met Jay yet. Two weeks before our wedding –two weeks! - She ran into him at a store. Three days after that, I knew she didn't love me anymore. I told her I couldn't marry her when she loved another. Now, don't go thinking Theresa was some suicidal, cheating girl. She was beautiful and kind and wonderful, everything you would ever want to be. But the pull of Jay was magnetic to her, and to him."

Neil let me go and he sighed heavily, "What I mean is, you are both locked in a trap and neither of you will ever escape. The Fates have your life strings so twined together, that if one of you dies, the other will follow. That's why Theresa killed herself. That's why she was reborn to be with Jay. That's why she ended up with him, not me. And that is why, you stand here now."

"It's meant to be." Odie said.

I smiled, and for once, I truly knew that they meant it. Jay did love me, I only had to think back on the memory I had seen through his eyes to know it. I was being silly, but it was probably just mental trauma over finding out that I had reincarnations all over the worlds.

"I'm sorry I'm being foolish. But, why, if this is another world, is it so inhospitable?"

Neil smirked, "Well, it's your fault. This is you gateway, now that you are here. You are moulding it to be like this, and if I'm not mistaken, it's all your worst fears."

"That Jay's mind would be cold and cruel. That I would be stuck in this lab coat for the rest of eternity." I said. And as I said these words, they seemed to fall away, stuck into the atmosphere. My clothing shifted into a beautiful black dress and high heels. As surely as I knew this, the ground around me changed to grass and the sky was blue. I realized that I wanted my gateway to look like the one place I had loved more than any other.

My parent's house sat on my left, complete with tree swing and green grass. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down on me ferociously.

Neil laughed, but this time, there was a trace of anger in it, "It figures she would make her landscape their house."

"You knew my parents?" I asked, quite shocked and overwhelmed at the possibility.

"No, Risa. He means you and Jay. This was your house. Jay is just inside. Are you ready to see him now?"

I breathed heavily, wonderment and excitement at my new knowledge filling me. I was going to see Jay. He was going to love me. Everything would change now, and we could live happily ever after.

"Wait." I said. I turned to see the small pond that had always been beside my parents' house, and now my house. I took the trigger that would suck me straight back into my world out of my pocket.

"What's that?" Asked Mellian.

I touched the button lovingly and smiled as I realized I wasn't anything like the Original Theresa. She wanted to escape.

"It's my only way back." I said. I threw it as hard as I could, straight into the pond. We watched it sink to the bottom, and I giggled. I glanced around at all the shocked faces and shrugged. "Guess you're all stuck with me. Let's go see Jay. I'm starving."

Neil let out a peal of laughter and Mellian skipped forwards. Odie grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the house. The simple and peaceful house drew my heart towards it almost as powerfully as the shocked face in the window did.

// I Look At You Walk Through The Door, It Never Has Felt Like This Before //