Author's Note: ... Hi :3, wowwie, look, an update for all. Sorry it took so long again, tons of stuff, but I've still tried to be active in this community, and some other updates are soon to follow. I've also begun to make notes on each story and it's status on my profile page, there are some questions there for you, so I'd appreciate it if you'd check it out and then message me about it. Thanks a lot! –Nuuoa Eclaire

Minor Chapter Notes: This scene takes place back in present time, right after chapter, or at another place during chapter eight. Theresa is therefore missing, but has still not been revealed, and Hera has, or is in the current process of attacking the Gods.

A Covra is a power-stealing clairvoyant. Era and Terabetta were also Covras.

Disclaimer: I do not own Class of the Titans, but I own all my own writings, story, Aredith, Terabetta, and the modified legend of Thisbe.

Pairings (per chapter): Aredith/Jay? Aredith, Theresa/Jay

Warnings: Back to present time. Visions of killing. Monstrous intentions.

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The Cold Side of Heart

Chapter 12: Falling Laughter
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"Arums Tuta."

The door of the high school swung open with little effort, as was expected. Nothing posed much of a challenge so far. Grabbing her seemingly normal school bag, filled with what many would assume to be the last of the remains from her locker, Aredith walked down the hall toward the main portion of the school, and within it the largest section of doorways, classes, and closets. Cronus was sure the Gods' entrance was there. And with it the whole reason she had agreed to work for Cronus in the first place, with that pathetic excuse for an immortal. He had his connections despite him. He hadn't screwed up on his end of the deal yet either.

Theresa had been with them for about a week now, but Aredith had refrained from seeing her. If she had been there she was sure that Theresa would have caught on to their plan. Sure, she did not know of the process of power stealing, or what Aredith really was, but when she was visible, Theresa would be far more aware of her heart freezing than if not. Theresa's powers would be hers soon enough.

It was a simple rule, and as far as Theresa was concerned she was just getting a different perspective on the matter of the new Titan battle against Cronus, and the 'Jay' that came with it.

Aredith chuckled as she walked. Use the first form of hurt against Theresa and enter her thoughts, and with it, her heart. And with that her power. Wait, and then the God of time would go and claim her for their side, where he would train her and mould her against the remaining six of the prophecy. Then it would be Aredith's turn, and with no emotion left, she would claim Aellaqui Stuna Leima for her own. It was a win-win situation. The seven would be down to six, and Cronus would rule, and with her new power Aredith could achieve the ultimate goal that still waited for her around the corner.

Cronus had this plan down in his mind; he just didn't take her into enough account.

Being a Covra was delicious fun.

She absently brushed a stray copper red hair from her face, and with the silent clacks of sneakers on tile, kept on her course. She was dressed to avoid attention, normal school clothes that had no importance to get into

further. The inside of New Olympia High also had little to note at this point. It was white, and Greek modeled, and fairly accurate in that case. It was also quite dirty, as if their janitor did not do his job often enough. Aredith scrunched her nose in distaste, and then smirked. The Gods had a great place to hide in... And an amazing security system to boot.

"There—" As if on cue a voice pushed into her senses and Aredith swung around to face the last remaining individual of the graduated student body. She had been sure no one was in the school when she had come in. Was there another entrance she did not know about Her sharp ice blue eyes cut the male down in front of her, metaphorically, though the real meaning of it was possible for her. She didn't really bother to look at him; he had no air of importance about him.

The new voice stopped mid-way through. Aredith sniffed, he had seemed pretty happy, as if finding a long lost friend of sorts. Maybe he had confused her for someone else. She watched the doorways behind him, and their conversation only from the corner of her eye. Which one of these doors... she wondered.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Aredith's voice hit an octave higher with ease. Her background played easily into every inch of her new character. Her name was Arianna, a graduating student who mainly kept to herself. She was silly and unnoticeable. The exact type of person opposite to her true self. Aredith was sure the nuisance now directly in front of her and crestfallen would not mind then that he had never seen her.

"No, I don't believe we've met. I apologize, I thought you for someone else." The stranger turned away slightly, Aredith warily noted, probably wanting to escape conversation with her. Sure, she was exceptionally gorgeous, as always, but his heart obviously belonged to the girl he thought her for. She needed to make it to her goal, and she would soon. Like any other human, he would not care what another unimportant girl was doing at school at the beginning of summer. Why should he care? He was not smart enough to inquire.

"I wonder why."

Aredith's composure momentarily wavered, and she focused her full attention on him. What was this? Her eyes flashed. Did this mortal suspect her of something? Or could he be generally concerned? She doubted it, but she also highly doubted the first.

"I tend to not like being noticeable. I'm Arianna." Aredith, Arianna, smiled sweetly at him. Every sign told this man seeking different woman to leave. He seemed noble a fellow, or as noble as scum could get. No flirting for him.

"Well, what do you want to be then?"

He was either an amazing liar when investigating, or dense. Really, really dense.

"I don't know." The question took Aredith aback, but from her years of training the answer was a simple one. She was playing a fool after-all. And it was the truth this time. Why on earth would she want to be anything beyond who she was. Beautiful, powerful. Deadly.

The strange teen watched her, and watched her harder. He was looking for... something... He saw something! Did this mean she was... nervous? Heaven forbid... no hell damn it. It was too much. It was driving her over the edge. She had to grab something. Anything. Didn't he get it? Couldn't he see her for what she really was? Aredith supposed she really was a fool in the end.

His hair was a dark brown and gold.

"Yes, you do." The stupid boy had her by her ends now; she wavered from side to side by an unknown force. It hurt. She hurt. She hated him so much, and she didn't know why. Where were the main doorways now?

He was being so... kind to her.

Who did this child think he was?

"For the last time, I don't." Aredith's voice cracked under the pressure, why was this so hard? After all the years of perfect composure, of lying through her teeth, of standing while she sunk. Why now. And for all people.

Aredith cursed him, and sought her voice of blood-lust. She would be rid of him soon, maybe draw him into the back room... he was the average sack of hormones after all; he wouldn't know he was not breathing before he stopped—

Aredith stopped breathing.

His skin was dark... tanned, olive-toned and firm.

"Don't lie to me."

Why did this man have some odd tendency to talk to her so informally? As if he knew her, what gave him the right? Aredith gripped the side of the wall, trembling. 'Cronus, this is the one person that I would not rather be with, compared to you. Be glad, you bastard.'

"I will lie as I please and never admit it to you." The crack of her voice hissed hot air, her tongue whipped out. But who was you. Aredith looked away from him, and his great intoxicating eyes, so present, but far away into the pool of her memories. Past lives rippling gently over the surface, barely traceable.

The tall student was looking from her eyes into her soul. Aredith didn't like it when people looked there, it wasn't what the average person would expect to find. Brimming with tainted stolen power, theft of dreams and love.

Her foe looked pleased now, as if gaining the satisfaction of her mirth was enough for him at the moment. He crossed his arms, and chuckled. Of all things. Her white firsts grew taunt with the urge to strike him once again. To call upon her dark magic and take him by the neck, lean him against the cold lifeless wall, and choke him... choke him... choke him...

Until he feel from the sky—

The boy had a rich velvet voice.

He laughed.

She hated him.

"What's so funny?" Aredith plotted her escape roots; it was pointless to draw attention to herself. It would take too long to mend, and no three powers sung to her Covra self, nothing pulled her to their power. There was no point to kill him here, at least not now. Her lust was buried beneath those dammed sparkling orbs of his.

Her face was probably ridiculously childish, in some sort of amusing pout, and he laughed again.

Aredith could not stand it anymore. He had no right, just standing there, reading her thoughts, getting into her head, past her cold distant face, and deep into her empty core.

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY?" Anger came forth full blast, her eyes grew wide, and the shadows were pressed behind them once more. His laughter gurgled short, and he watched her. Lean. Tense. Watching him.

"It's just..." he began, voice smooth, face breaking an untraceable grin.

"You're acting like a girl in love."

She blinked.

"And unlike you..." The grin broke free.

"I tell the truth."

She hated him.

"What's your name, truthful?" The truth was overrated, with it she would have never been able to make it this far. The Gods would have found her again by now. Without the snake of falsehoods resting on her lips, Aredith would have been killed off long ago. Without guarding her thoughts and self from the likes of people like this boy, she would die... again.

Even longer than long ago.

Four words changed all that.

"My name is Jay."

He smiled.

That smile.

Ice eyes flew over at an alarming rate, taking everything in for what seemed to be the first time. His feet, his legs, his torso, his chest, his shoulders, his skin, his face, his eyes, his hair.

His smile.

Aredith fell into a free-fall. Her non-present heart, dormant for years hit her hard. Visions blared behind her face. A soul broke forth from deep within her memory pool, maybe from another water entirely.

"Are you okay?"


She watched inside herself, lost to the world around her. The free-fall grew fast, and the clouds parted and closed around her until all she saw was the misty gray veil. It choked her. It spoke.

"I don't care, you're my friend, and personally..."

The veil lifted slightly, and two figures joined Aredith to her silent deadly fall to the ground of reality. Two women. The voices in the clouds continued to speak.

"You're a woman?"

The two had faces so similar to hers. Full soft lips. Delicate noses. High cheek bones. Porcelain skin. Their hair and eyes were different though. Hers a rich mahogany, one a coopery rich red, and the last another variation of her own. Aredith watched them, her eyes reflected in theirs. Greens, turquoises, and light blues waiting. Silence forgot them.

"As one of Jason's grandson, Hera does not allow me to make mistakes."

A peacock feather tumbled gently in the wind, moving in and out. They were closer to the ground now, and in her mind Aredith wanted to throw-up.

She wanted to cry.

"Eternity means nothing without her."

The feather now whispered a lullaby. Lyrics of harsh sweet words. One woman spoke. They were all glowing now. Bright inflections of blues.


"You can take away all I hold dear, but you will not take my life!"

How wrong that one was. The next spoke harshly, cold, lonely, forgotten.

"I feel no pain."

Aredith was crying now, and she was sure it was not from the bite of the imaginary wind. Her heart was growing, warmer, warmer, erupting in her chest. Burning. Her blood boiled.

"I will come back, and kill you…"

From her cries her own voice was born. The other two had left her, dissolving in the whispering winds of the past. She was almost at the pool, and the man that had emerged was clearer now.

Aredith was trembling, her lip quivered, and her reddish hair whipped her eyes. From the air she was falling. She was falling from the sky. Just like he did.

He spoke rich velvet, and welcomed Aredith with a smile.

"My name is Jyros."

The shallow pool rippled and another soul broke free of loose chains. The two were so similar that as the heat of her heart overtook her, it broke all over again, and the pieces stuck to her like ridged glass. But Aredith couldn't feel any of that.

She had no heart, after all.

"My name is Jay."

Then why did she feel this way? Aredith was born with one goal. One single purpose, and as the dead. Then why did she want to kiss them both? And never let go, or if she was able to fall forever, just to watch them.

Something else was with him, no. She, Aredith, was with the new man now, or so it appeared to be her. She had fire hair, and a lazy haze of frost trailed up from her finger-tips.

"Jay doesn't love you, Theresa."

Aredith had spoken again.

Theresa watched her, her face twisting into the hated image of her own visage. They were one of the same.

Terabetta.

Thisbe.

Aredith.

Theresa.

They were all the same.

They were all different.

It could not make sense to a simple passer, but she knew first-hand. Aredith held all the strings, and in the process had one woven around herself. The truth would be revealed in time, and then it would make sense. For time too had a hand in this.

But some truths had surface now, surfaced with the pain of the rest of Aredith's suppressed memories and hurt. Jay and Jyros were both descendants of Jason, and so alike that the glass in her chest gave a sharp jab. And she, Aredith, the Covra, the unfeeling, had felt something new, and old. But more importantly Theresa hated now. Hated Jay and the clairvoyant knew full well. It was her fate, her curse, to have this happen. Just as Aredith herself had a curse placed on her, but of a different sort. Of the same. She would soon consume Theresa whole. Take her heart's power, and from it, gain the power needed to finally fulfill her calling. And it did not matter.

Aredith hit broke the frigid surface, and scattered the reflection in four separate parts.

She instantly froze, and when Aredith remembered the world around, it was night, and she was alone. Maybe she had said goodbye to Jay, maybe not, she could not be sure of her actions anymore. Cronus owned them. But the mother goddess owned her vengeful wrath.

Hera, the loathed, hated, spited, deceitful bitch that had put her in this place from the start. Crimson clouded her vision, and Aredith felt the bloodlust rush through her once more. She was a monster.

"That is one thing that truly separates us, Theresa." No more than whisper, dripping heavily into the shadows—from her mouth to the floor. From her eyes as salt water.
"Because unlike you, I love it." Her eyes flashed.

She was crying again, but she had a new goal in her sights, one that fully belonged to her. No matter what the cost and she had already lost so much.

Yes, she was sure by the end of it one of them would die, and the cold lifeless corpse would be left forgotten as it was said.

There were four sides to this dice toss.

Hera would die.

Theresa would die.

Jay would die.

She would die.

It spun wildly in fate's hand.

Then suddenly Aredith lifted her head, and erupted into a fierce violent laughter, and sung the ballad of the insane.

Kill Hera. Kill Theresa.

"What do I want?" She smiled.

For she was...

"I know the answer to your question, Jay."

They were...

"I want to be yours."

The Cold Side of Heart.

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Author's Note: Holy cows of doom! It is apparent that much has been revealed, but what is true? And what can we make of it? Is Aredith really Thisbe, as it seems. She does love Jyros, and now Jay? And it also appears to be that Aredith wants to kill Hera, just as was Terabetta's, who is Thisbe, final goal. But don't forget Theresa, she said they were the same... but different? What is this madness! It shall all be revealed in time, for now think only of what will happen to Theresa, and where she is now, and what will happen after. Not of who will die by the end of this. And someone will die. –Nuuoa Eclaire