Good Lord I'm tired and extremely sick. I'm sorry this is late and It doesn't have the plethora of information at the bottom like normal. I was too exhausted to write up everything, but yeah here's the new chapter. After this chapter the story will pick up a little and if this chapter was too vague don't worry next chapter will be more detailed and informative.
Okay other than that thanks to everyone who reviewed and enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter 4~
"Okay this is where you're going to be staying. There's a bed here, a bathroom over there-a closet in the corner and I'm right down the hall. If you're hungry there's food downstairs in the kitchen and a t.v. in the living room if you get bored. Any questions?" Angela rambled gesturing animatedly as she talked. Bella watched with some amusement as her half-sister took a deep breath to steady herself. Breathe Angela breathe.
"No none for now." Bella lied shaking her head. In reality she had a million questions, but couldn't summon the nerve to voice them. Everything was foreign and new. Bella was ancient. She wasn't acclimated to the present. It would take her weeks to grasp basic human behavior and even longer to understand how much things had changed. She couldn't mask her ignorance forever but for now she would keep quiet. Her pride wouldn't allow her to willingly look stupid in front of someone else.
After her acknowledging her negative response Angela stood hovering uncertainly in the doorway.
Bella quirked an eyebrow at her. "Everything okay?"
"Not really no." Angela grimaced a bit and sent the fallen goddess a frustrated glance. "I think we need to talk Bella…"
She winced. That didn't sound good. The ominous We need to talk discussion never boded well for anyone. Ever. Well no need to delay the inevitable-Bella rationalized sighing internally. Angela wanted to talk about something serious and Bella was not rude enough to ignore her wishes-not while she was being kind enough to let her stay in her house.
Resolving to bite the bullet Bella met Angela's gaze evenly. "About what?"
"Hephaestus left out some things didn't he?" Her half-sister asked bluntly, her eyes hardening. Already accustomed to seeing Angela's easy going smile after just a few minutes she wasn't prepared for her to switch gears and all but snarl at her . Blind sided by her sibling's sudden change in demeanor Bella blinked warily as Angela became increasingly tense.
"What do you mean?"
"Bella what exactly did you do that has the gods so angry?"
Bella blinked-Her brow knitting together at the question. They already explained why the gods were infuriated. Why was Angela asking again? Out of habit her fingers combed through her silky tresses-a calming gesture that gave her time to reply.
"I disrupted fate so they-"
"No Bella." Angela cut her off with an impatient wave of her hand. "I'm asking what you did. How did you change fate? What is their future now?" Her half sister clarified her steely gaze never leaving Isabella's face.
Understanding caused Bella to stiffen. Angela wanted to know why the gods were terrified. It was a delicate question. She wasn't sure how to respond. How would Angela react? What would she do with the information? Knowledge was power. In this case it was also dangerous. With effort Bella masked her anxiety. Ignorance was also dangerous. Keeping Angela in the dark like a child wouldn't help things either.
"I'm meant to start a war, and dismantle Olympus." She explained quietly. "Supposedly I'm going to usher in a new era of gods."
Angela became very still, and several emotions flitted across her face: Shock, fear, horror, anger, concern, and finally worry. "Wow." Her sister breathed, a pained expression crossing her face. Angela looked considerably paler than she had a couple of seconds ago. "Bella I mean…Damn-that's huge. No wonder the gods are after you." Angela sat back sluggishly against the wall, unable to support herself at the moment. Bella followed suit and sat down on the bed. An uneasy silence fell between them and Bella began to fiddle nervously with her fingers. After fighting back the shell shock her half-sister grinned weakly. "Zeus must be pissed."
Understatement of the century.
Bella snorted. "He's…not happy."
"He's never happy with the Heliades line. No one is…You're all bat shit crazy."
"Bat shit crazy?" Bella echoed the words in confusion-arching one slender eyebrow. She was having serious problems understanding the complicated vernacular of this era or it could just be her half-sister. Angela's comments always left her scratching her head. This time however she could feel the tension dissipating and sent her half sister a grateful look. "We're not crazy just excessively unique."
"Is that code for excessively stupid?" Angela teased gently, her good humor returning.
Bella placed a hand over her heart, feigning extreme pain. "You wound me sister.""
The demi-goddess shook her head. "Half sister." Angela corrected, mirth shining in her eyes. "And I'll try to be nicer. I would hate for you to break down into tears."
"That is highly unlikely." Bella snorted shaking her head.
It was unbelievable how well she and Angela seemed to get along. Bella wasn't fond of strangers, gods, hell people in general annoyed her but something about Angela intrigued her. Her half sister was an enigma. Overall she seemed nice, honest and even a bit shy but there was an intensity to her that clearly marked her as not human. One moment she was sarcastic and amused the next she was cold and unrelenting. She clearly didn't want anything to do with the divine but she was letting Isabella stay in her house. The demigoddess was a paradox. Her eyes raked over the young woman standing across from her-studying her. Bella was still wary of her but she wanted to trust her. Badly. It was exhausting having no one to rely one but herself. Hephaestus was a manipulative war monger. She couldn't trust him. The other gods were also just using her for personal gain or trying to kill her. None of them could be trusted. Could she trust Angela though? Her half sister who had been leaning comfortably against the wall now stood up a thoughtful expression crossing her face.
"Bella, not to sound rude or invasive or anything but you've been here for the past thirty minutes and I can't really see you as a threat. How dangerous are you?"
The question threw her off guard and Bella did a double take. She didn't look dangerous? Porcupines don't look dangerous either until someone gets stabbed in the eye. Skunks don't look lethal until you're stuck soaking in tomato juice for 48 hours. Not dangerous…pfft. An amused smile tugged on her lips. "Well I was a third generation goddess so I have almost two thousand years of experience behind me. I spent a lot of that time training with my father Helios so I'd say I'm relatively dangerous"
Angela gaped at her imitating a fish. A strangle sound escaped her. "You're almost two thousand years old?"
Bella giggled at the shocked look being sent her way. "Yes." She managed to reply between laughs.
"Holy shit." Angela breathed stumbling back-Bella shot up from the bed and reached out to steady her half-sister with a hand. Shakily Angela accepted the help still staring at her with wide disbelieving eyes.
"Are you alright?"
Angela looked completely stupefied. "No I mean…How? What the fuck?" Her half-sister complained after trying to absorb this new information unsuccessfully. "I mean- I expect Zeus and Hera and Hades to be that old, but you said you were a third generation goddess. You're from MY generation, and I'm nowhere near that age."
"How old are you?" Bella asked curiously leading Angela to the bed so they could both sit down. Docilely her shell shocked sibling allowed herself to be seated still looking incredulous.
"I'm 120." Angela murmured lightly shaking her head.
Bella couldn't help the low wolf whistle that escaped her lips. "Wowwwwww. You're a child." She chuckled.
Angela rolled her eyes, fighting the urge to smile. "No you're just ridiculously old. "
"And I aged like a fine wine." Bella smirked gesturing to herself. Angela quirked an eyebrow, silently appraising her. Bella fought the urge to fidget when those eyes roamed up and down her body lingering on her face. After studying her-Her half sister sighed shaking her head.
"So you're not completely different from the other gods I've met. You're definitely vain like the rest of them." Angela mused dryily.
Bella frowned at the dry comment. She couldn't dispute it because it was true-all the gods were vain. It was a divine failing. However being compared to the rest of her peers, and relatives bothered her. Angela obviously didn't hold the gods of Olympus in high regard. Being placed in the same category as them left her feeling uncomfortable and vaguely offended.
"You could say that." She said neutrally with a careless shrug for good measure.
There was no point in getting worked up for nothing. Angela wasn't being insulting-just insightful. Brutally honest people were rare nowadays. Sometimes the truth was just hard to swallow.
"So if you have almost two thousand years of experience that means you would know some interesting things about history right?"
Angela asked trying to appear uninterested in her answer but failing miserably. Obviously Angela craved knowledge-she would want to know some of the more intricate details of the past. Bella could easily picture her half-sister as a scholar of some sort. Angela was somewhat fluent in Latin so clearly she was educated, but she was also young. History was just a book for her.
Bella had lived it.
Well..for the first thousand years or so she did-before she fell into training.
Crossing her legs Indian style to get more comfortable Bella smiled indulgently. Mentally she prepared for story time. "You could say that." She repeated her uninformative reply from earlier.
Unimpressed with her generic response Angela glowered at her. "Well? C'mon you must have a cool story or two. Are any of the old legends true? What about Odysseus? And Dante? Or Gilgamesh? Wait-Did Arthur exist? And Merlin?-"
Bella clamped a hand over Angela's mouth to stop the flood of questions. She was expecting for one or two-not a whole barrage to come barreling out of Angela's mouth. Even with Bella's hand muffling her, the inquisitive woman was still struggling to speak. The fallen goddess shook her head.
"Okay let's try this again. Ask me the first thing again, and I'll answer you. One question at time not ten." She removed her hand ignoring Angela's glare. "M'kay?"
Chagrined her sister nodded and repeated her first question. "Odysseus?"
"What about him?"
"Is his story true?" Angela asked fervently trying not to get frustrated. Bella noted her growing ire with some amusement and wondered if she should torture her with non answers some more. The idea was so appealing but…
Deciding not to annoy her hostess, Bella filed through her thoughts trying to determine how much she knew about Odysseus. If she remembered correctly he was part of the Trojan war, and the gods took great pleasure in ruining his life and delaying him from getting home. Unfortunately besides that she knew almost nothing about him. The Trojan war was before her time.
"Sorry." She shrugged. "I was too young to remember the finer details of that time. I wasn't paying attention to the human world when I was a small child so I don't remember Odysseus." She admitted ruefully.
"And Dante?"
Bella stared at her blankly.
Angela groaned in exasperation and cradled her head. "Dante? Dante's inferno? Divine Comedy?" She elaborated and Bella hummed thoughtfully.
"That happened." She confirmed with a nod. "Divina Commedia." Bella said in flawless Italian. "It wasn't just a work of the muses. Dante literally journeyed through hell and survived thanks to Virgil. After traversing through Hades realm he escaped and with the luck of the gods got to Olympus. The muses only blessed him after he successfully conquered his demons."
"Were you there?"
Bella laughed musically shaking her head. "Are you kidding? No I wasn't there. I just heard about the aftermath because he was one of the few unlucky humans that caught Hades attention. Hades LOATHES him."
Angela chuckled softly shaking her head. "The Lord of the underworld loathing someone isn't exactly surprising."
"True." Bella agreed her eyes twinkling. "So any other questions?"
"Loads." Angela said unabashedly.
Inwardly Bella groaned. Why were humans so bloody curious about everything? The past is over. Things happened. Don't worry about the little details. As long as history doesn't repeat itself no one really needs to know the why's how's and when's. Let it go Angela. Let it gooooooooooooooo.
"Ask away." Bella said wearily.
"Actually I think I should save these questions for another time. It is getting late." Angela disagreed quietly looking out the window. Bella followed her gaze and noted the sun was gone. Helios had already dragged it across the sky and only darkness remained. Night time seemed to dampen the genial conversation they had going.
"That might be best." Bella smirked tiredly feeling her very human body begin to crave sleep.
Angela yawned a bit also starting to feel the effects from the long day. "Alright I'm going to go get ready for bed then. Remember if you get hungry there's food downstairs."
"Alright." Bella nodded as her half-sister slid off the bed.
As Angela headed for the door Bella allowed herself to fall back onto the bed.
"Oh and Bella one more thing." Angela paused at the door to look over her shoulder. "I have to go to school tomorrow so you'll be alone in the house for most of the day. Is that okay?"
Bella blinked sleepily. "Just perfect." She mumbled.
"Alright good night then..."
"Night."
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Morning came quickly. Bella never heard Angela leave. When she woke up the house was silent, and she was alone. For several minutes she just laid there in bed staring blankly at the ceiling. "I should probably get up." She thought out loud. Still her limbs refused to move and she laid there-inert on the bed.
Five minutes passed, then ten.
Finally Bella found the will to drag herself out from under the covers. She was insanely comfortable in bed but didn't want to lie there all day. Angela mentioned food in the kitchen and she hadn't eaten in 48 hours. She needed sustenance than she could go back to sleep.
Slowly with some trepidation Bella crept down the stairs almost expecting to find someone waiting in the living room for her.
No one was there.
"Lovely." She sighed, annoyed with her self. She hated baseless fears.
The human world was turning her into a nut case. Paranoia was the last thing she needed right now.
After rounding the corner and walking to the kitchen she cracked open the fridge. Her eyes roved over its contents. . She couldn't recognize anything. Not one thing looked edible. Really. After glaring at the fridge for ten minutes she grunted and slammed the door shut."You've got to be kidding me…So I guess no food for me today then." She all but growled resigning herself to starve.
If the gods didn't kill her the lack of food would.
Anorexia yay!
It was always her dream to die because she was too ignorant to make food.
Bella quickly left the kitchen because being surrounded by food she couldn't eat was depressing. Her eyes flicked to the window noting the position of the sun. It had to be what? Nine-ten o clock in the morning. Angela said she would be gone for most of the day so she still had several hours to kill.
Ugh.
The universe must really hate her.
She needed something to do that would kill a few hours till Angela got home. Her eyes trailed over the living room again and this time they landed on a book case. Bingo. Bella smirked trotting over to the other side of the room. Her eyes roved over the books, and the long elegant spines, skimming over the titles.
"What the…"
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Santa Olivia, Mortal Coils, A Companion to Wolves, The Sight, Firebringer, Urban Shaman, Earth Logic, Fire Logic, Water Logic, and several other novels she didn't recognize. Bella blinked at the wide array of books. Clearly Angela loved literature, and from the look of it everything she read was fictional. How delightfully unoriginal-it was hard to believe Angela was 120 at this moment. These stories were juvenile at some derision Bella found herself reaching for the Fire Logic book. She needed something to do for the next several hours. A good book never hurt right?
Novel in hand Bella stalked over to the couch and plopped down like a very graceless sack of potatoes. Cautiously she flipped open the cover scanning the words held within. "Hrmmm…Sounds interesting enough." Without any further comments she began to read allowing herself to become engrossed in the novel.
One hour passed.
Then two.
Then five.
When the front door swung open and Angela walked in Bella had thirty pages left in her book. Without looking up from her page Bella greeted her half-sister. "Hey Angela welcome back, it was quiet with you gone. I decided to read to pass the time…Yunno I don't think this novel is very realistic. In real life Zanja would have left Karis because she was on drugs, and Karis would have hooked up with Norina."
Surprise colored Angela's face as she shut the door. "Thanks, and what the hell are you talking about?"
Bella held up the book she was reading. "Fire Logic."
This time a very different emotion made Angela's face color. "Erm." Her half-sister flushed. "I didn't know I still had that book."
"Why are you blushing?" Bella smirked knowingly. Angela was embarrassed. As far as Novels go Fire Logic was exceptional but what made it unique was the protagonists. They were both females and they were both in love with each other. It was not the type of novel she expected Angela to like.
"N-no reason." Angela coughed lamely.
"So it's not because of the girl action in this book?" Bella teased watching her half-sister shift uncomfortably.
"No! It's just.." Angela trailed off uncertainly unsure of how to finish her sentence. As much fun as it was to watch her squirm-Bella took pity on her and closed the book with a decisive snap. She wasn't about to poke at Angela's quiet reserved nature.
"Look Angela don't worry about it-alright?"
Her half sister grinned weakly. "Ha I suppose.
"Nooooooo." Bella looked at her strangely placing the book on the table and getting to her feet. "That book beat Sappho's works any day. I loved it-so really don't worry about it. I've had my share of experiences with both men and woman." Bella admitted with a shrug.
It was Angela's turn to look surprised.
"Really now?"
"Really Really." Bella drawled chuckling a bit. "What do you think that I've been celibate for all these years?"
"No-well maybe." Angela flushed again.
The fallen goddess giggled which made Angela scowl. "Shut up Izzyyyyyyy." At her half-sister's petulant expression Bella burst out laughing.
"As you wish, but only if you do one favor for me?"
Still pouting a bit Angela glowered at her. "What?"
Sniffling dramatically, Bella threw away the last shred of her dignity and did what no other god or goddess would dare to do-she begged. "Please feed me." She all but whined fighting the urge to break something when she was met by Angela's laughter.
"Sure old lady…sure."
Insolent brat.
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"Who called this meeting?"
"Are you fucking stupid? We cannot all be in the same place."
"We need to talk about this."
"All of you SHUT THE HELL UP."
The room quieted and all eyes turned to Athena's slender frame. She glared at each of the quarreling males in turn who flinched at her gaze. The goddess of wisdom and heroes took one calming breath before planting herself in a chair. "Alright look we're here to discuss how to keep Isabella alive. All of you know she hasn't done anything to warrant death yet and until she does I'm not deeming her a threat. Zeus is otherwise preoccupied explaining the situation to the other gods on Olympus which is the only reason we can meet like this in my quarters. All of you have voted for the underdog before so you're all considered trustworthy until further notice. Any questions?"
"We don't even know where she is." Helios pointed out glumly from his seat. The sun god did not even possess even half of his normal fire. It was as if the burden of losing a daughter had literally sucked the life from his once intimidating frame.
"Helios Hephaestus hid her." Athena reminded him gently and she gestured towards the left where the armament master was standing. "He will tell us where she is."
"Your daughter is safe Helios." Hephaestus deep baritone resonated throughout the room-reassuring the sun god.
"For now." Helios said bitterly.
"How long are you gonna mope like a bitch? Grow a spine Helios." Dionysius giggled burping a little. At his words the sun god shot up from his chair a murderous expression on his face. Athena groaned and placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Relax. Ignore Dionysius you know better than to take him seriously." She murmured softly to the enraged sun god. Her gaze slanted to the pleasure god. "You are NOT helping." She hissed.
At her annoyed words the drunk god just shrugged giggling again and Athena rolled her eyes. "Anyways ignoring the male pissing contest going on-we need to decide how to keep Isabella alive. Zeus is no doubt sending people after her and we need to do more than just hide her."
Hephaestus nodded in agreement. "She's a human now so that complicates things. She's too vulnerable."
"But Zeus said she still had a fraction of her power right? So she's not completely helpless." Athena reasoned.
"That's enough for her to stand up to the supernatural in the human world but even against the weakest god Isabella wouldn't stand a chance." Hephaestus pointed out shaking his head solemnly.
Helios actually looked sick and Athena felt sympathy for the sun god before her. This discussion could not be easy for him. "She needs training." Helios whispered catching everyone's attention.
Athena had to acknowledge his words. She could see the logic. Power was great. Power with training was even better. Isabella was in desperate need of both. "He's right but who would train her? She needs someone that can keep her safe and train her enough to keep her alive." She asked glancing around. All eyes turned to her.
She would be the obvious choice.
The idea had no appeal to her though. She had no desire to train a fallen goddess in combat especially when it could go blow up so fantastically in her face. "I can't." She shook her head negatively.
"Hephaestus?" Her gaze cut to the other god and he shook his head. He didn't want to responsible if something went wrong either.
Dionysius wasn't an option and Helios had other prior commitments. There was no one else in the room willing to help her. No one else was crazy enough to blatantly defy Zeus and possibly end up fighting the other gods-not over Isabella.
"I'll train her."
Everyone jumped at the new voice. They all knew that voice.
"Ares." Athena said quietly acknowledging her brother in arms. He must have crept into the room without them noticing and been waiting in the shadows for his opportunity to speak. At his name the war god made his presence fully known, his molten gaze flicking coolly about the room.
"Hello Athena. Hephaestus. Dionysius. Helios." He nodded at each of them in turn before refocusing his gaze on her. "I can train her."
There was no one more qualified.
And no one more stupid. Ares training Isabella was an incredibly bad idea.
After taking one look at the war god's face, Athena sighed. What choice did they have though?
"Fair enough." She demurred shaking her head. "Tell me Ares-if you are in fact serious about training Isabella how do you feel about Alaska? Or Switzerland?"
bellum omnium in omnes
Bellum Omnium in omnes means-A war of all against all
Okay this chapter is done. What do you all think?
