A/N - Well, sorry for the wait!
Things have been rather hectic these last few months - and I had a period of just being completely uninterested in writing.
That's all done now, and it feels great to be back!
Thanks to all those who fav'd and alerted to my story!
Special thanks, once more, to the reviewers: Balrog Roike (Action is definitely coming! And we'll see, we'll see!), ThatOneBassoonist (Cliffhangers? Me? Never! :p In any case most things will be revealed!), WhiteCrow-BlackNest (Err...Sorry for the wait!), kitty tokyo uzumaki (I so wish that plushie was real!), Crescent Moon Lady (Oh...there'll be plenty of barbs in this chapter...), lonewolfgirl-sademo588 (THANKS!), Unknowen (Sorry for the wait - here it is!) and DevilPudding101 (How could I resist the Puppy-eyes? Enjoy!)
Read and Review and Enjoy...KAIBA'S VIEW!
Chapter 16.
"I, am Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt."
Silence held the group; not to mention, both Otogi and Honda's mouth were gaped open in surprise.
'Surprising, yes, but why is the Mutt's friend so surprised? I had believed that he was in on it too, from what I'd heard in what this school believes to pass as a bathroom,'
Kaiba frowned at the scene, as Jou – or should he say Apollo – bluffed his way through an explanation.
'Those gullible fools will lap up any sap story that they hear – che, fools!'
"So ya' see," The God continued, "I've – we've – been sent here to pretend to be mortals, so that we may keep track of any supernatural happenings,"
Apollo, Kaiba refused to call him by a fake name when he knew the real one, looked far too smug with himself for this to really be anything but utter bullshit.
And that was ignoring the fact that 'Jounouchi' had never acted like he was on the look-out for anything in his life, until this whole Greek project began at school.
"Getting back to the point then," Kaiba hastily intercepted the inevitable onslaught of mundane questions he was sure would come from the rest of the group, "What is going on and what did our teacher just turn into?"
There.
There was now no way for 'Jounouchi' to try and lose our focus in his tangents.
The person in question glanced towards his sister with an uneasy expression.
"Well, ya' see..." Apollo suddenly became extremely fidgety, "We don't exactly know what's going on,"
"WHAT?"
Of course that loud outburst came from everyone, except Kaiba; never would he lower himself to their level.
However, that does not mean to say he wasn't thinking it.
Apollo tried to placate his crowd with 'soothing' hand gestures that only served to make him look as if he were conducting some sort of interpretive dance.
"I mean, we know bits – but not everythin'," He took in a deep gulp of air to steady himself – not that Kaiba thought it would help his intelligence any, "From what I've gathered these few days, is that the Furies-"
At the plebeians blank faces, Kaiba decided to intervene.
"Lesser Goddesses of the Underworld that deal in judgement and punishment,"
Apollo gave him a strange look.
"What'd ya do Kaiba – swallow a dictionary?"
With Kaiba's stony face as a reply Apollo, finally, got back on track.
"Well, anyway, they've gone rogue – and we don't know why, but the person who turned up just know was their leader – Alecto. The nastiest monster you could ever meet: 'the grief-bringer', 'in whose/ mind are sad wars, angers, deceits, and guilty crimes./ A monster, hated by her own father Pluto, hateful/ to her Tartarean sisters: she assumes so many forms/ her features are so savage, she sports so many black vipers'-"
"Alright! That's enough, Brother!" Artemis huffed – looking extremely put-out. Kaiba dutifully noted that it must be a usual occurrence for her brother to suddenly burst out into poetry at the drop-of-a-hat.
Apparently the air-headedness was an honest trait, one had not been invented for the character of 'Jounouchi'. That was interesting. It brought up more questions like:
How much of 'Jounouchi' was real? How much was fabrication for the benefit of us lowly mortals?
It was something to think and look out for. In the mean-time, Apollo had gone back to his farce of an explanation.
"Well, anyway, they've all escaped the underworld, with Alecto, and we don't know why,"
The who group looked rather disappointed in the fact that they nothing to go on.
Kaiba bet they were all looking forward to some completely inane quest or other such rot.
"Hang on, though," Otogi called out, Kaiba had to admit he was probably the smartest one in the group. Not including himself – obviously.
"Why are they in the Underworld if they're Goddesses? I mean, in the research we all did, it said that the Gods lived in a place called Olympus which was in the Heavens,"
Surprisingly, it was neither Apollo or Artemis to answer, but the Thief King himself.
"Alecto and the Furies guard the spirits of the dead and those known as the Titans, right?"
The rest of their pathetic group looked ridiculously stupid towards him.
Honestly, had they all forgotten that he and that kid, Ryou, were both allocated Alecto as their history project?
Although, he wouldn't have been surprised if they knew nothing and were counting on leaving their project to the last minute. Not that it mattered any more – what with the teacher going off on a world-dominating rampage.
Kaiba supposed she allocated herself to the group just to laugh at their incompetence. It was certainly something he would never do in her position – to compromise his mission with practical jokes, but he could heavily appreciate the irony.
"How do you know about this, Thief?" Yami questioned.
Even Ryou looked a bit stunned.
Bakura scuffed his toe along the floor.
"Read Ryou's notes," He muttered.
Ryou gently placed his hand on Bakura's arm in a show of sickeningly sweet support.
"If I remember my research right, although I didn't get much done before..." His voice trailed away, as his eyes trailed towards Yami, obviously the group had been doing something else with their time – other than with schoolwork, "Well, the Titans needed to be guarded by the Furies, because if released they would try and regain control of the Heavens from the Greek Gods and in doing so would destroy the universe in the process,"
Apollo looked decidedly glum as he nodded.
"Got it in one,"
Anzu stepped forward, obviously she had had enough of keeping her mouth shut and keeping her irritating opinions to herself.
"Wait, wait," Anzu unnecessarily called for calm in a silent room,"So if the Furies have left, are the Titans going to escape without them there?"
Both of the immortal siblings laughed.
They laughed so hard that even the normally friendly group were looking irritated.
Kaiba, however, was silently fuming.
How dare they laugh at him!
Luckily, it did not take them long to pull themselves together.
"No, no," This time it was Apollo doing the waving to calm them down, "The Furies only guarded them from those who could release them. No, the Titans can only be released by an Olympian God - or by their Item of Power. Which is the same thing really, since a God is never without their Item,"
The Capitals were audible to the ear. There was no doubt in any of their minds that these Items were as important as they sounded.
There was a pause and then Honda spoke up.
He had been surprisingly quiet throughout this whole time – and Kaiba had been wondering why there was a lack of outrage at the fact that 'Jou' had been keeping things from him.
But, Kaiba supposed, that Honda saw the same thing in Apollo's face that he did. That these last few snippets of information were not hidden secrets divulged, but rather chunks he had missed due to seeing them as irrelevant.
"What is an-" He words stumbled for a second before gaining a reverent tone, "Item of Power?"
Artemis took up the mantle as she leaned against a nearby tree – Kaiba had almost forgotten they were outside, but now he knew, he could already feel the glaring mid-morning sun upon his face. Had they really been talking all morning? He hoped he had not missed too many classes – as it seemed as if lunch would soon be imminent and a crowd of juveniles would soon flock towards their current position.
"An Item of Power," Artemis began, shaking Kaiba from his thoughts, "Is a God's symbol. It is not the origin of their powers or the conduit through which they use their powers. But it represents them in some manner and through this can gain similar virtues and an essence of the God,"
Apollo smiled at the group before gesturing to himself.
"Mine is in the shape of my favourite musical instrument!" He lost his smile as he continued, "Although I've had to hide it while I am a human – I know it will never be found..."
Suddenly, Apollo's face lost all colour following his last words.
Slowly, looking older than his years - or probably more like his true years, he turned to his sister. The cheerful and comforting atmosphere of before, had all but disappeared.
She was looking unusually guilty. It reminded Kaiba of when Mokuba had done something extremely stupid – that ended up with both of them in trouble from all sorts of people.
"Sister, where is your Item of Power?"
Well there you go! I will try my hardest not to let the next chapter take as long!
R&R!