Jack tried hard not to stare at the Anubis too much. Edri's image kept shifting, like two transparent images on top of one another, from his godly appearance to a child in pajamas. Holographic bookmark style. The two walked in silence, but Jack's chest squirmed with anxiety. Slowly, they were getting close to their end goal. A successful one hopefully.

"Out of all the Linear Deities, I was created last." Edri spoke suddenly, his voice that of a young, Indian child.

"Created?" Jack wondered. "You mean you weren't alive before?"

"Eons ago, all of us were normal humans. Just as you were once." Edri explained, his voice now deep. "But we didn't die normally. We were recruited, much like you guardians, to dictate the course of the afterlife."

"By who?"

Edri shook his head. "We don't actually know. But we are here now. And there was a reason for it."

The corridor ended at a perfectly square, black door. Scratched into the wood of the door was a white symbol. A wide tuning fork, with a circle at the top, except rather than the usual symbol of hades, the circle took the shape of a pomegranate. The outer frame of the door was lined in white with ancient Greek writing. As they drew closer, the blackness of the door began to grow deeper, and the whiteness adhered a silver-like glow. Jack rubbed his eyes.

"I doubt I'll be able to travel into Elysium, Jack Frost." Edri said, now that they had stopped at the foot of the door. Jack looked at him in surprise.

"What? Why not?!" Alarmed that he would have to traverse on his own into The Underworld, Jack was definitely shocked.

Edri sighed and scratched his arm. "The bigger reason being that Cassius doesn't want me there. In fact, the last time I saw Cassius was shortly after my creation."

Jack steeled himself. With or without the Anubis, Cassius needed to be recruited to their side. This wasn't the time for a nervous wreck. He sighed, reached his hand out and placed it against the door. Just at his touch, the door groaned open, and light flooded Jack's vision. His breath disappeared.

The other side of the door revealed that they were perched on top of a mountain, and spread out before them were scenes of all four seasons at once. Plains that rolled on endlessly, equally split into four seasons of the year. As if they were ripped from pages in a magazine and bound with sellotape. Mountains of glittering snow connected to blossomed trees connected to a beating sun connected to red, orange, yellow, and purple leaves, and circled again and again. Jack was dumbstruck. This was The Underworld?!

"I…" He stammered.

"It wasn't what I expected either." Edri finished for him. "Cassius has turned Elysium into exactly what it was meant for. Heaven. Eternal peace."

Jack finally pulled away from the scenery and looked up-down-up-down- at the ever shifting deity. "I don't understand. Gunza said that Elysium was overcrowded and that Cassius was worn with lines of souls requesting to see him?"

"For that you'd need to see the inner city." He pointed past the fields. The formation of the valley resembled the crown of a volcano. Multicolored cubes of houses dotted up and down the walls and rim of the volcano. From the center, a massive kopje rose like a hastily built castle, and on its flat top sat a small, black, saltbox house. Smoke rose from its chimney and the kopje it sat on was dotted white with snow. At first glance, Jack would have guessed it was just an ordinary house. But as he squinted, he realized that the majority of the movement of souls in the city was aimed in the saltbox's direction. Just barely, he could make out the colorful patterns of crowds, all waiting at the base of the rock outcrop.

"Jack," Edri pulled at his sleeve, drawing his eyes down. "Cassius won't let me in. I can't pass the doorframe." When he tried to step forward, a ripple forced his foot back. "You must find Cassius and speak to him alone. Hopefully he'll release his grip enough so that I can join you there."

"Thank you Edri."
"Good luck, Jack Frost."

It was only after a few seconds that the door disappeared behind him. Jack willed the wind with all his might to push him to the house. Several long minutes passed. The city wasn't getting any closer and he was suddenly unsure if he was even moving forward. He swooped lower towards the ground. The plains were obviously moving past him. So why wasn't he advancing?

'Who the hell are you…?'

A raspy voice whispered in his ears, followed by a loud, white noise. Jack instinctively slapped a hand over his ear. He pushed on, fighting to get close.

You aren't supposed to be here…

The voice came again. It sounded young.

Who sent you here…?

It sounded tired.

If you try and disrupt the city, I'm going to have to kill you, you know.

Jack shook his head, trying to shake the voice away.

Strange… Why won't you answer me…? I know you can hear me…

"I'm not here to hurt anyone!" Jack finally shouted, desperate to rid his head of the white noise.

You fly with such urgency… A mission perhaps…?

"Get out of my head!"

Hmm…"

Finally, it disappeared. However, with it went the illusion that Jack was flying in the same place. Out of thin air, the withered face of a cliff rose before him. Jack yelped, forcing the wind to direct him downwards instead. He twisted and turned, maneuvering dangerously through misshapen spires and rocks, pulling up sharp until finally, the crown spread out below him. The streets bustled, strangely, with life. Souls filled every corner. Jack landed in a fairly open looking square, in the autumn part of the city. A replica of the Piazza San Marco, the square was lined with architectural wonders, and he could even spot a sliver of the Venetian waterways. Souls strolled around the square, as if they were unaware of their being dead.

Jack glanced left and right. Every so often, a face he vaguely remembered would appear, and it was starting to make his skin crawl.

"I gotta get to that house' he thought to himself. The wind began to lift around his ears when a face made him stop dead. Long brown hair, shiny brown eyes, and an innocent smile that held a copy of his own mischief. Jack had never seen her as an adult, but he'd know his sister anywhere. Mary Overland looked older than Jack did. She was tall and slender, and dressed as if the 21st century, jeans and a t-shirt. She stared out at the length of the square and breathed in deeply. However, it was in the same direction of the winter spirit, and Jack knew she was looking straight through him.

A pinch nipped at Jack's heart. The only true family he could remember had died years ago. For him to see her once again was almost like a dream he wished he could end. Jack exhaled slowly and flicked his finger towards her. A spark of blue twirled through the air and struck her right on the nose. She gasped and instinctively raised her hands. Mary looked around, unsure of what it was that had happened. But suddenly, she found herself thinking of her older brother. Suddenly wondering why in the centuries that she had been in the glorious fields of Elysium, Jack hadn't appeared. She held her hands together and looked out away from the crown.

"Oh my dear brother," she whispered. "Wherever you are, I hope to see you soon."

A smile crawled onto Jack's face, his chest suddenly felt warm as he took to the skies once again. He finally spotted the lone, black house and dove for it.

POP!

Like Santa Clause on Weight Watchers, Jack slipped through the fireplace into a revolutionary, New England style living room. Well…with the added touch of Brothers Grimm. Black oak was used for the wooden floors, the trim around the doorways, the doors themselves, the steps. The only change in color was the wooden furniture, which was the darkest shade of cherry wood Jack had ever seen. From where he stood, Jack could see into the kitchen, the dining room, and just barely make out the top of the stairs. The walls of each room were lined in floating shelves covered in jars of dried herbs, flowers, skulls, stones, ancient looking books, and here and there, a black cat that had chosen it as its napping spot.

"For the record, I don't celebrate Christmas." The voice that had first introduced itself in Jacks mind was sprawled out on a grey, three person sofa. The boy's description didn't even come close to matching his living status. His long, unruly hair was the purest shade of gold Jack had ever seen. Even more than Helios'! His eyes were bluer than Jack's, and his sun-kissed skin was peppered in small, brown freckles. In short, if anyone where to think "King of the Underworld," this boy wasn't the image Jack would ever have thought of. He definitely didn't picture him half asleep on a couch, dressed in plaid pajama pants and a bathrobe.

"Uh…" Jack stammered. "Happy Chanukah?" Jack offered.

"So," he slowly rolled to his bunny-slippered feet. "Enjoy your field trip?"

"Well I-"

"Good. So you can leave now." He pointed at the fireplace. "Show yourself out." He stumbled around a coffee table littered in stacks of paper, broken pencils, and five different coffee mugs, into the kitchen.

Jack silently followed behind, watching as he pulled another, completely different coffee mug from a messy cupboard.

"You're Cassius, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah," he threw his head back, draining a sixth cup of coffee. "Who's asking?"

"Jack Frost, is asking."

Cassius whirled around, staring at Jack like he had lost his mind.

"Why the hell would a guardian come all the way here for? Not to mention, uninvited." He started pouring more coffee into his mug. "Aren't you supposed to be out making little children miss school or get presents or whatever?"

"Normally I would be," Jack grimaced at the black sludge of coffee. "But its turned into a matter of making sure there are little children alive to skip school."

Cassius' hand faltered and his mug almost tipped off the counter.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Jack, for the third, and hopefully the final time, retold his story. With each passing sentence, Cassius looked more and more withered. By the time Jack had finished, Cassius looked as if he had aged several years. He leaned against the counter and put a hand to his forehead. Jack fiddled with the curve of his crook anxiously.

"Gunza blames Edri-"

"And she should." Cassius said abruptly. Jack blinked.

"I don't understand…"

"To be honest with you, Jack, I agree with Gunza." He straightened and crossed his arms. "There was no reason for Edri to have been created. Gunza and I functioned well together. She had her realm and I had mine."

"You guys both say the same thing, and yet, Edri was created anyway."

"So Death made a mistake. Listen Frost. I don't know how things go in the overworld, but down here, there are no "snow days" or "summer vacations. I've never had a day off. Not in my life and not in my immortality. So I don't think you're in any position to tell me whether or not-"

"Edri doesn't have any control over where each soul ends up." Jack cut him off, fed up with hearing the same excuse. Cassius obviously wasn't ready to listen to him, so Jack had no choice. It was time to do what he did best. Snark.

"I mean, I assume you didn't know that. It'd probably be in your best interest to stop slamming the door in Edri's face, see then maybe you'd know what was going on right around the corner." Jack started to walk around the house, leaping up on to the walls. "In fact, I bet you have no clue what's been going on above ground since you were given this position."

"You son of a-"

"Tell me I'm wrong." Jack dared him. He switched to the ceiling, his face no more that 3 inches away from Cassius'. "You know what? How about this. If you can catch me on something that I call you out for, I'll get out of your messy, messy hair."

Cassius' glare caught Jack's eye, and suddenly, Jack felt his body go cold. A heavy shadow loomed in the corners of his eyes. He was afraid. Very afraid. Jack swallowed down his large desire to curl up into a ball, and put on his signature smirk.

"Why are you doing this?" Cassius asked him slowly.

"Because the world that I know and love is about to be ruined by someone who thinks they know how it runs. By someone who doesn't realize that times have changed, and so have its citizens. So before you go telling me that the old way was the better way, I'd like to see that you actually know what the new way is."

Cassius groaned and pushed passed the spirit. He turned and fell back onto the grey sofa.

"Fine. If it means you'll leave me alone. Ask away."
"How many Presidents has the United States of America had until now?"

Jack was met with an eye roll. "Seriously?"

Jack nodded.

"Okay fine. Thirty Eight."

"What kind of government is used to rule Russia?"

"Easy. Communism."

"What countries make up the European Union?"

Cassius started listing off countries in alphabetical order. When he was finished, he crossed his arms.

"There. I answered all your dumb questions. Now get out of my house and out of my realm." He grabbed one of the pillows on the couch and covered his face with it, when a loud bell tolled through the house. A muffled groan came from under the pillow and Cassius stood back up. He pushed through the living room and headed for his front door.

"America currently has 45 presidents, Russia is a democratic country, and England is no longer a part of the EU."

Cassius stopped.

"You didn't know any of the things I asked, imagine what else you're missing out on. Cassius, the world is different. Humans are different. Their values have shifted throughout the span of their existence. Even now, things are changing. At a certain point, they changed so much that you and Gunza weren't enough. So Thana was made, and then so was Edri. All four of you have-" Jack caught himself short. "...had… specific purposes, and that's why you were put here.

Cassius stood still, as if he were suddenly dressed in heavy armor. But at Jack's falter, he cocked his head to the side.

"Had…?" His tone was suddenly dark and heavy. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Jack swallowed nervously. It wasn't what he expected Cassius to get caught on. "Last night, Thana and I were confronted by Gunza and her shadows. The two declared war on each other and in the end, Gunza killed Thana with her own scythe."

Cassius whirled around and Jack swore thunder rolled in the distance.

"You're lying…"

Jack shook his head. "It's true. Gunza is ready to take down anyone who stands in her way. Including the other deities and I know for sure that she'll target Edri next. At least, now that she knows she can."

Cassius had gone pale. He looked ready to faint and Jack was afraid he really was going to. The bell tolled a second time, a deep crashing sound that only the chimes from the Vatican could live up to. The Hades put his face in his hands and rubbed them up and down. Opposite of where the front door stood was a dusty and slightly cracked mirror. He stared at his reflection.

"Millennium, I've spent building this place. Turning it from a sunny day into a paradise for every kind of soul. Winter slopes for snow lovers to go skiing. Beaches with clear waters and high waves for surfers. I've recreated museums, national parks, famous architecture, amusement parks, so that the souls here will know an afterlife of happiness. And I did it all by myself! And…" his shoulders slumped. "And I don't understand how things became this way. I mean, eons and eons of the same work you'd think I'd know how to get in an hour of sleep here or there…"

Jack approached him carefully, and slowly put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You care about the souls here. So much that you forget to care for yourself. And its reasons like this that the other deities were made in the first place. To help bring order. You see your title as a responsibility. Gunza sees it as a rulership."

"That's the only logical way. Gunza has to act as the dictator of hell. A warden. That's the only way to oversee the evil behind her gates."

"Sure she may act that way. But it doesn't mean she is one. This isn't a matter of filling quotas, Cassius."

"I know it isn't, but I can't take on all this alone!" When the words escaped his mouth, Cassius gasped. Jack squeezed his shoulder.

"Then maybe, instead of letting Gunza wreak havoc on the world, you come up with a new system. Ya know, like the Russians did when they stopped being Communists?"

Cassius coughed out a laugh.

"I want to say that you're wrong." He sighed. "I want to push you out the door and let Gunza do what she wants if it means less work…"

Jack held his breath, his hand back at his side.

"But I know you're right… If the values of humanity have changed for the better then that can't mean anything bad. And it's my job to watch over the good souls of the passing. Gunza can't be allowed to continue this."

"Then we need to go now. If we don't stop her now, then Edri will be next, and I don't know how long until she starts thinking about you."

The bell gonged a third time. Cassius, despite his pajamas and messy hair, already looked like the regal kind of man Jack imagined him to be. He strolled towards the fireplace and picked up the black cat sleeping on the shelf. The feline's massive, yellow eyes snapped open.

"Turtwig, hold down the fort. I've got business elsewhere." He gave the cat a kiss on the head and dropped it on the floor. The cat pranced away through the front door, as if carrying out the orders it was given.

"Cyndaquil!" Cassius shouted. From the top of the stairs, another black cat with a white spot on the top of its head climbed down. Cassius kneeled in front of it. "Keep an eye and an ear out for the bell. You and Turtwig have some work cut out for you."

The Hades stood, and motioned Jack towards him.

"I'm trusting you that this is the right thing to do."

"I promise. I wouldn't go through all this trouble if it wasn't."

Cassius nodded and thrust his hand at the fireplace. The long gone coals burst to life, a roaring wall of blue fire filled the chimney.

"Edri…" Cassius muttered. "All this time, I've ignored him."

"You can apologize in a minute. Let's go!"