All's Fair in Love and Hate: Chapter 2

"Where is that wretched goddess?" Cronus snarled. He was in a bad mood - a very, very bad mood. Cronus had told the wayward goddess to be back in an hour, but it had been two hours, fifteen minutes and three seconds and still no word. You could never trust goddesses.

Standing up, the god of Time began pacing, and his face grew darker. There was nothing to look at - the dank, grey walls of the large cave having no decoration - but then again, the God of Time didn't believe in such trivial matters such as wall decor. What was the point when the world was out there, tantalising and ready to be taken over?

By the time fifteen more minutes had passed, Cronus had stopped dead in his tracks, and turned to face the giants standing at the opening of the cave with a look on his face similar to the dark clouds before the gathering of a storm. The giants guarding the opening would have looked apprehensive if their minds could process such a feeling but instead, they grunted.

"Find her," Cronus ordered, but before they could move to track down the goddess Cronus waited for, an awful, screeching laugh rang in the air and echoed through the cave, as a woman with great, fiery wings swept into the opening and landed gracefully.

"That won't be needed, Cronus," she hissed, in a horrible, grating voice. She raised her head, great, shining eyes intently focused on the god of Time. Before he could utter a word, she added, "The wings are wonderful... it was most generous of you."

Cronus surveyed her flaming wings and smiled toothily. "Good," he said with an air of satisfaction. "Now, you've only got a sample of what I can do for you, however."

Her eyes lit up and her face, under the unkempt hair, gave a greedy glance at the god. "And if I happen to decide to carry out your plan?"

Cronus said nothing, but instead turned to face the blank stone wall. "If you carry out my plan, I'm sure there will be... ample rewards."

Turning back around, he held something encased in a gentle, pulsating light. The goddess' eyes widened even more, a shine of longing in her eyes, and she lifted her head up to him. "It's not...!"

He grinned. "Yes."

Back in the meeting room, Jay paced across the floor as four others looked on bemusedly. "Calm down, Jay," Theresa finally said, with a hint of a giggle. "I'm sure they're fine." She glanced at the goddess standing across from them; Hera was tapping her foot, looking rather impatient. "Um... then again, why don't you try their radios?" Theresa added hastily, for good effect.

Jay shook his head. "I already did. Neither of them even picked up. They're not usually this irresponsible."

"Don't worry about them, Jay," Neil interjected. "I'm sure they're just... busy." He waggled an eyebrow suggestively but stopped once Odie sent him a warning look. "Er, well, I'm sure they're coming right along now," Neil added. Jay was about to turn on the blond again, but luckily for Neil, the door creaked open and Atlanta stepped through.

"Um, hi," Atlanta said sheepishly. Hera shot her a look, and she bit her lip. "I'm sorry I'm late."

Jay threw up his hands. "Where were you! I was about to go out and look for you, and you weren't even answering your PMR, either!"

Atlanta sat down next to Theresa, looking at her frantic leader, then winced. "I don't know."

"What?" Jay said, confused.

"I don't know where I was," Atlanta replied, somewhat calmly.

Odie frowned. "What d'you mean you don't know where you were? You were where you were, weren't you?"

Atlanta stared at him and didn't even try to answer his complicated sentence. She turned back to Jay and in an apologetic voice, "I honestly don't know where I was. All I remember is going running at the park, then I was walking back through the portal in the janitor's closet."

Hera pursed her lips. The goddess appeared thoughtful but instead voiced, in a vague manner, "do you know where Archie is?"

Atlanta shook her head, determinedly. The others looked at each other, sensing trouble, and Jay glanced up at the goddess of matrimony. "I'm sorry, Hera," he said with a tone of worry, "I should have kept better track of him."

Stepping back up to stroke one of her peacocks, the goddess said softly, "It is not your fault, Jay. We can only hope that nothing has happened to Archie -"

Bursting through the grand doors of the room, Archie ran up with a heavy limp to the other six teenagers, gasping for breath. "I'm sorry I'm late, I got caught up when I went to find..." The boy trailed off, looking confused. "Atlanta?"

Atlanta opened her mouth to reply but Jay interrupted, exclaiming in horror, "Archie! What happened to you?"

The bruise left over from the punch Archie had received was turning a sickly shade of purple, and where it had impacted his nose, the skin was swelled and throbbing. The long scratches across his cheek were still oozing blood which had dripped down on to his blue sweater and in other parts, had dried over leaving a dark crust of blood. Theresa winced and asked Archie in a motherly tone, "Who beat you up?"

The purple-haired boy was still staring incredulously at Atlanta, and finally muttered to Theresa, "I'm fine."

Sassily standing up and placing her hands on her hips, Theresa answered dangerously, "No you're not." Atlanta stood up next to her female friend and added angrily in spite of the awkwardness between them, "Tell us who did this to you!"

Archie gaped at the redhead. "Unbelievable," he murmured to himself, then asked Atlanta coldly, "You mean you don't remember? You know, the scream? Then you kneeing me and trying to scratch my face?"

Odie frowned. "You mean..." he said, "she did it?"

All of their heads, expressions disbelieving, swivelled in unison towards the speedy girl and Atlanta protested, "I told you, I don't remember what I've been doing for the last hour or so! All I remember is before, when I was in the park with..." she trailed off, glancing at Archie, and red seeped up into her cheeks. "I just don't remember."

Archie stood in shock, staring at the red-haired girl. His mind leapt to Cronus, then to the high-pitched scream, then to the wild, unrestrained look in Atlanta's eyes at the time of her attack.

I – hate – you. I – hate – you.The phrase drilled itself into his head, repeating itself, and he tried to figure out the relevancy of it all. I – hate – hate – hate –

"Hate!" Archie exclaimed, his eyes flying to those of Hera. "Erida!"

Hera's eyes suddenly took on a look of panic. The goddess and the young hero stared at each other for a moment until Hera tore her eyes away. "Hermes!" she called, and almost immediately, the messenger god flew into the room. "You called?" he stated, a smug self-righteous expression crossing over his face.

"I need you to fetch Ares," Hera instructed. "Now," she added, seeing Hermes open his mouth to protest his obviously much more powerful capabilities.

As the god hastily left the room, all faces turned to Archie as he took his place next to Odie. "Who's Erida?" Odie asked, clearly expecting an answer.

Unfortunately for him, Archie was lost in his thoughts. It was Erida – it was hate – so that means she doesn't actually hate me, Archie thought in relief. A troubled look came over his face as a voice in the back of his head added nastily, but that doesn't mean that she likes you.

"Arch?" Odie repeated, prodding him. Archie blinked, dispersing his thoughts and paying attention to the bespectacled boy. "Oh, yeah?" Archie answered distantly.

"Who's Erida?" Jay asked, growing impatient. Usually he would have been able to answer any other questions about Greek mythology, but this name stumped him.

"Erida?" a loud, angry voice bellowed. Ares, god of War, had entered the room, and his face was contorted into a frown. "Erida in New Olympia?" Turning his mother and seeing the expression on her face, the god of war objected weakly, "it cannot be!"

"Gosh, enough with all the fuss already," Neil complained. "Yeah, Erida's back. So can we know who she is now?"

"Erida," Ares mused, a hint of a smile coming over his gruff face. "Erida was amazing..."

A/N: Ah, so there we go. Erida. I'm not going to go into an explanation of who she is until the next chapter, so hold yer horses:) Much more to be revealed next chapter.

This chapter was, yes, mainly filler (hangs head in shame). Hopefully, though, it's building up the way I wanted it to. As always, comments appreciated, especially con-crit!

Look, ma! I figured out how to use horizontal rules again! )