The previous chapter was short - really short - so this shall be much, if not at least slightly, longer. To African Titan - if you really want Herry and Odie to have girlfriends and to be in the spotlight, I shall consider writing a sequel to With Everything To Fear. However, if you have ideas, please do tell or PM me, because it might be a little harder for me to think about ideas concerning Odie and Herry. I am, after all, one of the hugest Jay fans of the century, and so I tend to focus on him more... My bad, of course(:

Chapter Thirteen

Cronus smirked, sitting atop his cave-carved throne as Agnon stood by, on watch.

It was indeed virtually impossible to break out of this trap, Odie had thought to himself miserably. He had been scanning the surroundings for about three hours now, and all he knew was there was a weirdo woman walking around, trying to kill the rest. And from the looks of it, it seemed that she had already succeeded.

Herry, on the other hand, had been separated from him. Placed in another room, to be exact. And to put it crudely, both of them were chained up securely with bonds of special strength. He had seen Herry try to break out, and he hadn't even succeeded, so chances were Odie himself wouldn't be able to get out. Actually, who was he kidding - he wouldn't be able to break out at all.

So nothing was worse than sitting in a musty-smelling, dingy cave all by himself except for a huge towering giant and a stupid, smirking god. As if things couldn't get any better. (Note the sarcasm.)

"Cronus, would you just give up already?" Odie asked, annoyed. "It's not like you're going to win, anyway."

Suddenly he wished he hadn't said that. Cronus stood and walked over in his direction.

Nah, it wasn't that Odie was afraid of the god. It was just that once Cronus got started, he wouldn't really stop. And he would talk the ears off Odie - that is, if Odie didn't die of boredom first.

It was an undeniably horrifying torture. Secretly, Odie wondered how Agnon and company managed to maintain their sanity.

And with a startling thought, he realised the answer was easy. They weren't sane in the first place (or maybe they lost it when they got to know Cronus).

"My dear boy," Cronus said with a chuckle, "Do you really think so?"

Odie wanted to roll his eyes. "Yes, I do."

Cronus' expression darkened considerably. "Well, then you're wrong. I am the God of Time, and you think I can be defeated by a bunch of mere teenagers? No! That will never happen - not now, not ever."

Hope bubbled from within Odie. Was this the end of Cronus' long, boasting speech? He remained quiet, still hoping.

"And do you know why I would be able to defeat the other gods and my dear son Zeus? I am mightier than anyone. With my powers, I can rule the world and send it into chaos. Serve all those mean humans right; they all forgot my name! Forgot my name! Fancy that! And they shall pay for it. But not before the other gods pay for it. They sent me to the dungeon in the depths of Tartarus. Do they have any idea how boring it was there? It is worse than being killed - not that I can be killed in the first place. And so I shall take my revenge on them!" Cronus let out a burst of laughter, which was supposed to sound evil but to Odie, sounded way pathetic.

Of course, he felt like dozing off now. This was a sign of the start of Cronus' speech, and Odie wondered if he would ever see daylight again. For once, he missed Neil. Big time.

No doubt his friends were coming to save him, if they were alive, something that worried him, but he hoped it would be quick. As soon as possible. How much of this he could endure, he had no idea. And right now, he wanted to faint.

Cronus rattled on, not noticing his audience's - his only audience, since lucky Agnon had the luxury of freedom to escape - constipated look.

In the next room, Herry struggled against the bonds that held him. It had been hours since he had first tried, and they hadn't loosened.

One of Cronus' giant henchmen stood guard near him, so the chances of escaping was nearly nil. Hearing Cronus in the other room made him slightly worried for Odie. What in the world was Cronus doing to him? Well, at least there weren't any screams, but he couldn't be sure.

He tugged uselessly at the chains. And, a second later, he heard his stomach grumble. He hadn't eaten in one day. One full day. That hadn't happened before, and of course he was hungry like anyone would be.

It didn't exactly help as the random giant guard before him smugly bit into his own sandwich. It looked pretty much revolting - the sandwich, not the giant - and there was something that looked vaguely like worms, but Herry would eat anything now, including giants, oh and not forgetting maybe Cronus, even. Though Cronus wasn't even worthy enough to be eaten, to Herry.

Enduring the torture, Herry groaned again, averting his eyes from the tempting delight. What he didn't know was that Odie was also suffering in the other room.

"Hurry! Herry and Odie might be injured, or being tortured, or something!" Jay almost yelled as the team trampled through the thick snow.

Archie groaned. "We're hurrying already! Anyway, how do you even know they're being tortured?"

"Metis said something about torture by the giants," Jay declared, patting his pocket to make sure his sword was there. He had no idea how right he was about the torture.

Atlanta pointed in the direction of a cave. It loomed slightly up ahead, almost hidden by the bushes. The tracking device started beeping like crazy, and the red light pinpointing the exact location of Metis blinked furiously. In addition to that, the red dot on the tracking map had stopped moving completely.

"Over there," Atlanta said, marching over. "Let's go and save them."

"Wait," Theresa responded immediately. She grabbed Atlanta's arm. "We need a plan."

"Now you're starting to sound like Jay," Archie muttered under his breath, something that Theresa pretended not to hear.

"What's there to plan?" Neil said breezily. He took one step into the cave. "After all, there's probably nothing here that - OH MY GOSH!"

"What? What is it?" Archie whipped out his whip (A/N: no pun intended) readily, and Jay's sword was already in his hand.

Neil pointed to a mirror standing in a corner, propped up on the wall. Without saying anything, he went over and began examining his own reflection.

Jay had to wonder why a mirror was there practically in the middle of nowhere. And for obvious reasons, why wouldn't there be a mirror here in the cave if...

"It's a trap!" Theresa shouted after the familiar sensation of a vision, but it was too late.

The ground rumbled as walls shot up, closing Neil in until no one could even see his face.

"Neil!" all of them cried at the same time, yet they knew it was futile.

Neil was trapped.