I've been thinking of doing a sequel and I've put up a summary for it on my profile page. Please let me know what you think(: By the way, thanks to all my faithful reviewers for reviewing. It's been really nice to know you guys have been reading all this while I've been posting. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I've enjoyed writing this.

By the way, my friends Invisible-Nobody and The fates of love have posted their first stories - Living Fairytales and Wake up living respectively - so check them out if you want!

Chapter Eleven

Despite the completely reliable heater that was sputtering out unsuppressed heat, the morning was still cold. The blizzard had stopped the night before, thankfully so, but the temperature hadn't gone up much. Not that Neil could tell.

Yawning and clambering out of his bed, he wondered why he was even up so early. A quick glance at the curtains told him what he needed to know - it was pretty dark, and not a hint of sun filtered through the light curtains. And surprise, surprise, he was up before sunrise.

His hand consciously reached for his mirror. When he saw his reflection, he blanched. His hair was a mess, as it always was in the morning. And he actually had eyebags! Eyebags! The horror of it.

He grimaced. Running a comb through his hair was a quick job for once. Perhaps he was hungry, or was just random, or simply just feeling serious because of his friends' disappearance, because he walked out his room and into the hall.

The first thing he saw made him smile. Theresa and Jay, sitting on chairs before the window, were fast asleep. Theresa was snuggling into Jay's snug sweater. The both of them looked blissful. Neil shook his head lightly, forcing away thoughts of taking a photo. Today he just felt too serious. Maybe Herry and Odie's absence made him hurt and think a little bit deeper.

After all, he had never really truly thought about his friends dying.

Sure, Jay had died once. But he had always known that his hardy leader would make it back. And he did.

But now things were all too real. Herry and Odie. Two people. Rather, two of his friends. Not one but two. And finally he could say that it scared him. Of course things like that were too... Too awkward to be spoken aloud, and he had never really been comfortable with saying that he cared. After all, he cared about himself, but it wasn't just him. There were his friends in the picture, like it or not. He hadn't started off with wanting to like them, but he did in the end.

He shook his head abruptly. Since when had he started thinking such deep thoughts? It wasn't like him.

He drew out his mirror, gazing at his reflection. That same platinum blond hair he had from his father, and those blue eyes... The same as ever. But he had changed. His friends had changed him. And he actually looked like he cared (not that anyone else would see that difference in him). And funnily enough, it felt good.

He put the mirror back into his pocket and made his way to the door. It was dark outside, but there was an innard force compelling him to put his hand on the door knob and turn it. He opened it quietly, stepping out of the house -

- And almost screamed.

Long blond hair. A girl. Sitting on the doorstep. Was she a g-g-gh-ghos...!

Three long seconds later, Neil realised that it was Lyrea. That little bit of information had come only when Lyrea turned to look at him, though.

"Hey, Neil. What are you doing here?" She looked as surprised as he felt.

She was right. What was he doing here?

He ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. "I was thinking of how good I would look like in the snow." Lies, lies.

"Yeah, right." Lyrea snorted. "You weren't thinking about that, you were thinking about something else, weren't you?"

"How did you know?" Way to go, Neil. You're so extremely smart today.

Lyea grinned triumphantly. "I didn't. But you just told me."

Neil shrugged, sitting down on the steps himself. "Alright. But don't you think I would look good in the snow?" He beamed at the thought of himself in an extravagant pose. The cameraman would tell him how fabulous he looked, how his smile seemed to glitter in the non-existent sunrays...

"Yeah."

Neil almost fell off the steps. "Did I hear you correctly?"

Lyrea raised an eyebrow. "I said 'yeah'."

"You mean you think that I would look good in the snow?" Neil looked hopeful. After so much criticism on his friends' part, it was music to his ears to hear of this wonderful, very-much-deserved praise.

She rolled her eyes and shot him a warning look. "Don't push it."

And he decided he wouldn't.

"Anyway, what were you thinking of just now?" Lyrea cast a sidelong glance at him.

He shifted uncomfortably in the snow. "My friends?"

"You're kidding," Lyrea said in much disbelief. "You were actually thinking of someone else?" Seeing Neil's glare, she covered up quickly. "I mean, uh, why were you thinking about them?"

"They're gone. And I'm not sure if they're coming back." Neil sighed. "I didn't think this before, but I would have given away my mirror to have them back."

Lyrea softened considerably. Just as she thought, this guy had a heart. And a heart that didn't only focus on himself. She was heartened by this fact.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly.

Neil cocked his head to one side. "So what are you doing here?"

"Me? Thinking about my mum, that's all." It was a wistful smile that conveyed her thoughts. "She's dead now. In fact, today's her Death Anniversary."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Neil was quiet for a while.

"Nah, it's okay. She's been dead a long time now... I still miss her, but I've still got my dad. How about you?" Lyrea couldn't help but wonder why she asked such a question.

"My mum, she's alright. My dad, he ran away with another woman." He didn't know what made him bare his heart to Lyrea. This was something he hadn't even told his own friends.

There was silence for a while. It wasn't something of awkward nature. No, on the other hand, it seemed to be perfectly comfortable.

That is, it was until a huge fireball came hurtling towards the cabin.

It was hardly expected. The fireball was about the size of Herry's truck, only bigger. Neil jumped up in horror, his mouth opening in a silent scream. A split second later, he reacted and pushed Lyrea out the way. The heat was intense, but the first worry was came to his mind was not that his hair was on fire. No, in the path of destruction was the cabin, which equaled his friends.

The next few seconds passed with alarming slowness as the fireball drew closer to the cabin. He vaguely heard Lyrea screaming in the background, but nothing was registering. And the next moment, something amazing happened.

A thin film of translucent, barely visible purple appeared before the cabin. And it appeared just in time too, because the fireball was within microseconds from touching it. The fireball hit the force field of sorts, and the purple flickered, seeming weak and about to give way. But it held firm in the end, and the fireball was extinguished before their very eyes.

Neil could only gape.

The smoke cleared, and he saw Theresa standing at the window, eyes glowing an eerie purple. Her hands were outstretched, as if she was the one controlling the force field. Jay was standing beside her. Suffice to say, his eyes were popping up with surprise, like how he was sure his were looking like at that point in time. Then the purple in Theresa's eyes faded. She must have felt drained from the exercise of unseen-of power, because she fainted. Thankfully, there was Jay to catch her.

That was all he saw before his head connected with snow. Someone had pushed him - Lyrea, he was sure.

Rolling onto his back, he glared up at her. "I could have broken a nail, you know that?" He examined his nails and gave her another death glare. "And I did!"

"You could have lost all your hair if I didn't push you down. Your hair was on fire," the blonde retorted.

Meanwhile, Archie and Atlanta hurried out of their rooms at the same time. "What just happened?" both asked simultaneously. Evidently they must have heard Lyrea's screams.

Atlanta took one look at Theresa and she was beside Jay. "Is she okay?"

Archie looked out of the window and got a shock of his life. "Did Neil decide to dye half of his hair black or something?" Seeing the smoke, he just realised that there must have been a fire.

"We're under attack! Get your weapons!" Jay yelled at them instead. At a time like this, he didn't bother to answer any of their questions. Pulling an unconscious Theresa closer to him, he kicked the door open and stumbled outside.

"Neil, are you okay?" was the first thing that left his mind.

Neil had his eyes shut while Lyrea was poking him to get up. "How bad is it, Jay? How bad is my hair?"

"Very bad," came a familiar voice from behind. Archie, purple hair intact and all, grinned as he walked up to Jay. In his hands were Theresa and Jay's coats, which he promptly handed over. Jay accepted them gratefully.

Neil didn't know whether to scream or to cry. In this case, he did both. Atlanta, meanwhile, zipped up to them.

Footfalls crunching in the snow made everyone look up from a wailing Neil. And before them, stood a tall, elegant woman. Her hair was long and blond, with a hint of waviness to them. Her eyes were a cold ice blue. There was something graceful about her, yet chilling in her presence. She held up her hand, which smoke was emnating from.

"Glad to see that Cronus' little gift works," she said with a twisted smile. Clenching her fist, she brought the hand back down to her side.

"Who are you?" Jay demanded. He would have whipped out his sword from nowhere had he not been carrying Theresa.

Archie, however, was way ahead of him. Hephaestus' whip was in his hand even before Jay had said anything. But the recognition made him stop short.

"You," he breathed. "I remember you."

"Of course you would. I'm the one who gave you that piece of advice, aren't I?" The woman smirked. "So, have you done it?"

"Done what?" Jay stared at Archie like he was crazy. A thought of Archie betraying the team crossed his mind, but then he forced it away.

"I see you have," said the woman. She nodded towards Atlanta's ungloved hands and at the ring.

Archie gritted his teeth. He automatically tightened his hold on his whip. "What are you doing here? And what was that 'piece of advice' for, in the first place?"

The woman cocked her head to one side. "I'm obliged to give advice," she said coldly. "I don't necessarily want to give it, but I have to. I'm the goddess of good counsel, but a lot of other things as well."

Atlanta's eyes widened as she struggled to call to mind the Greek Mythology she had learnt. "You're..."

The woman's eyes gleamed. "I'm Metis, the Titan goddess of good counsel, advice, wisdom, craftiness and cunning."

Finally I have revealed who Metis is. I wonder if anyone has guessed it? And anyway, she's going to play a huge major role in the sequel, With Everything to Fear. I got the above information from Theoi, a website on Greek Mythology, and Wikipedia. So yeah, please review if you have the time!