Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth publishing this story but I love it too much to discontinue it. Wanna know something? For my Champion of Chaos story in my google docs, there's like 100 000 words. For Sea&Fire it's like 80 000.

After our battle, the villagers invited us to join in a feast to celebrate. I tried to refuse, but they insisted. It was, after all, the first battle they had witnessed where the Titans had lost, and it was a joyous occasion. It was sort of depressing when you think about it. Was the situation that bad?

A large banquet was prepared with an endless supply of delicacies. Local musicians played cheerful music and everyone danced. I sat beside Pegasus, eating olives and watching Stella chat with a boy from the village. She was showing him how her wheelchair worked. The boy didn't seem to understand much of what she was saying, but he smiled anyway. Good for him. Hopefully, though, Stella could get more information. I refuse to think the Gods hadn't won a single fight against the Titans.

Out on the dance floor Joel looked as if he was having a great time. He'd covered his silver arm to hide the damage, but as he danced, the cover came free. His pretty dance partner didn't react with shock or fear. Stella was right. These ancient people accepted our differences and welcomed us into their home much more quickly than the people of our own time would have.

During the course of the evening, I was invited to dance by several boys, but I wasn't in the mood. I kept glancing around, waiting for the next attack. Agent B was doing the same. He was attempting to chat with the locals, but I could see that his wary eyes never stopped moving. Maybe we could find some similarity between the two of us after all.

At the end of the celebrations we were invited to stay at the houses of the village leaders. As we walked back together, loud warning cries filled the air.

"The Titans!" I cried, jumping up. Pointing to the skies, I shouted, "look!"

The stars had been blotted out by a dark, moving cloud. As it got closer, they could see it wasn't a cloud at all. The sky was filled with flying warriors. They made no sound, but the sheer number of them was overwhelming. Right in front of them, a large bird flew, like it was guiding them.

Screaming filled the air as frightened villagers took up whatever weapons they had. The sound of clashing metal mixed with their cries as sword met sword.

"They're attacking the village!" Stella cried.

As more winged fighters arrived, Brue reverted back to her vicious self.

"Not again!" Paelen cried as Brue dropped him to the ground. Sharp, deadly teeth filled her two mouths, and long, sharp claws extended on her many feet. Her lips pulled back as both heads snarled in rage.

The ferocious Mother of the Jungle knocked Stella from her wheelchair and rose protectively above her and Paelen, roaring with deafening sounds we had never heard her make before.

I stayed frozen, watching as the bird in front morphed into a young, muscular man. His face was like a void, dark and endless and unseeing. However, his actions proved to be not friendly. He pointed at the village, yelling out a word in Greek. It was like the shadowy warriors got a jolt of energy, fighting with more passion, as the man also joined in. Stella was frozen in fear, staring at the man. No doubt she knew what he said. Judging from her reaction, it was definitely not good. "Emily! Ninja Turtles!" Joel yelled.

Behind us the narrow village streets were filled with monstrous-looking warriors. They weren't overly tall, but they were stocky and wore dark green helmets and armour. Joel was right. They did look like Ninja Turtles. But these were no pizza-loving movie heroes. They carried swords and were attacking anyone in their way. But most of them fought in the same way as the faceless man did.

"We've led them here," Agent B said. "Emily, get your Flame ready; this is going to be nasty."

"We're surrounded!" Stella cried. Pegasus shrieked and pawed the ground.

I stood there, not able to move. Who was that man?

"We cannot fight them all. We must flee!" Paelen shouted. His voice shook me out of my daze. I raised my hands, calling fire, and shot them at the nearest attacking ninjas. As the laser touched their green armour, pieces fell away, and they collapsed to the ground.

"Turn around, Emily!" Agent B cried. The man had spun. It seemed he was controlling the warriors, for only he seemed to have a mind. His hold over his sword tightened. In the dark night, I could distinctly make out the shape of a bow on his back before he slipped it off, nocking five arrows and shooting at us. I narrowed my eyes, cutting them down. Still, that used more power than I thought. Stopping arrows in mid-air was a very bad idea. Got it. His arrows dropped to the ground with a dull thud, doubled and shorter than they originally were. He looked at me, as if surprised. Never met me before, I'm sure.

Just then, the winged warriors were landing, and we were able to get a closer look. These were blackbird-like things. They were tall, with leathery black armour and dark wings on their backs. Their heads were covered in helmets with beaks and black feathers.

"Joel," Agent B called, "get Stella, Paelen, and Brue out of here. Emily and I will try to hold them back. Use that jewel of yours. Find Jupiter. Tell him what's happening."

"I'm not leaving you!" Joel cried. But for once, he was out-ruled.

"Joel, go!" I shouted. "You don't have any weapons. Tell Jupiter about the Titan weapon. Go now, while I try to stop them!"

The turtle warriors were now charging their way. "Go!" I ordered again.

Joel pulled the jewel from his tunic and commanded it to take them to Olympus. "Follow behind us!" he cried. I was kinda busy, but I nodded. The man started making his way to me. From how he fought, I knew he was exceptionally skilled. But there was something weird about him. Something that made him inhuman. He showed no fear, no regret as he hacked through the villagers. But he didn't kill either. From what I saw, all he did was attack their heads with the blunt of his sword, knocking them unconscious. It wasn't that heartwarming as the turtles would finish off the humans behind him, but it still meant something.

Pausing only to get Stella back in her chair, Joel ran into the Solar Stream, followed closely by the roaring Brue, who was carrying Paelen in one of her large mouths.

Agent B stood behind me. "Just keep firing!" he yelled. "No matter what, don't stop. We can't let them get hold of you."

As I cut down fighters, it seemed that more and more were appearing from nowhere. "There are too many!" I cried, frustrated. "I can't stop them all."

Agent B screamed. I rotated and saw that two turtles had caught hold of the CRU agent and were pulling his arms in opposite directions.

"Agent B!" I cried, my concentration cut off.

"Go!" the CRU agent howled. "Forget me, just go!" Pegasus reared and kicked one of the warriors attacking Agent B. The creature's helmet was knocked off—and I was shocked to see that there was no head inside. The turtle was hollow. But even without its head, it was still holding on to Agent B and pulling his arm in a gruesome tug-of-war with the other turtle. I spun back to the man. He had stopped, but his attention was on us, hand clenched in a fist. He was doing this. Anger filled me.

Mike was at the warrior's feet, biting into the thick leather armour and growling viciously as he tore pieces away from it. I fired at the headless turtle and cut off the arms holding Agent B. Then I burned the arms off the second turtle. Agent B collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain.

I looked around desperately. We were surrounded. It was only a matter of moments before the winged warriors reached us. Even with all my powers, I didn't think I could get the warriors before I was cut down. But… how could I leave the villagers? The man was nearing, and I had no doubt he would kill me. Just then, he morphed again, changing to the same sea serpent as before. He roared, and the turtles seemed to listen to him. This time, instead of going for me, they started running away. Still, it wasn't enough, and I still saw like hundreds of them coming for me.

There was no time to pull the jewel from my pocket. Instead, I closed my eyes and created a protection shield around me, Pegasus, Mike, and Agent B. Concentrating as hard as I could, I cried out, "Olympus!"

The journey lasted the quickest blink of an eye. We were now on Olympus. But this was not the Olympus that I knew. I looked around at the devastation and was reminded of my first visit there after the Nirads had attacked and conquered it.

Somehow, it looked worse. And the first time, there was absolutely no life anywhere.

Fires burned and choking smoke filled the air. What few structures there were lay in ruins as marble pillars and collapsed walls littered the ground. There were no statues, no gardens, and no art. This was truly a war zone.

I knelt down beside Agent B. He was moaning in pain. His arms, twisted at odd angles, looked badly dislocated and broken. I reached out to heal him, but my powers didn't work.

"While you were on Xanadu, did you eat any ambrosia?" I asked urgently.

The agent's eyes were clenched shut with the pain. "No!"

"Why not?" Was he stupid or just plain dumb?

"Ambrosia makes humans immortal. I don't want to live forever!" he cried through gritted teeth.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my food pouch, quickly ordering ambrosia cakes soaked in nectar. "Here, eat this!"

"No!"

I looked around at the devastated landscape. A battle had recently been fought here, which meant the fighters could still be in the area. I needed to save them. "I can't heal you if you haven't eaten ambrosia. Now you will open your mouth and eat this or I will force it into you. You know I can do it."

I had better things to do than deal with a stubborn man. Like finding Jupiter and finding out who the horse and the man were. Oh, and find Joel, Paelen and Stella.

"I don't want to live forever!" He cried in agony. Can't he tell if he doesn't eat this, he will die right now? I doubt anyone would want to die right at the moment.

Using my powers, I pulled him up to a sitting position. "Open your mouth, Agent B," I ordered. "Don't make me do it for you."

I force-fed the CRU agent the whole ambrosia cake. "Chew and swallow!"

He collapsed back on to the ground, and I held his hand while the ambrosia coursed through his system. After a few minutes I could finally feel my powers starting to heal his broken arms.

Agent B moaned as he healed. Before long he could move his arms. He sat up and looked at me with fury in his eyes. "That was wrong, Emily, and you know it! You forced me to eat it against my will."

"Just like the CRU are planning to force me to become their ultimate weapon?" I snorted with disbelief. Does he hear himself?

"That's different!"

"No, it's not!" I fired back. "You don't want to live forever, fine. But do you want to die right now? You talk about Pegasus being a distraction. You with two broken arms are a bigger distraction. I did what I had to do. We can fight about it later. Right now we're exposed. I think we should find somewhere to hide."

I helped him up as we made our way to a collapsed building. Safely inside the broken structure, Agent B sat down for the last bit of his recovery. "Any ideas where we are?" he asked.

I gazed around. "Usually the Solar Stream delivers us near Jupiter's palace, but this doesn't resemble the palace area at all."

"This is a war, Emily. Nothing looks like it should on a battlefield." Way to state the obvious.

The sound of roaring filled the air. Flames shot across the darkened landscape. Agent B and I peered through the debris and saw three huge dragons tearing across the area, setting fire to anything that moved. My mouth fell open.

"When were there dragons in the myths!" I cried, hopelessly. "The myths didn't mention anything about dragons, or those things attacking us at the village!"

"What myths have you been reading?" Agent B said, now fully recovered and exasperation for me coming back in full level. "Of course there were dragons! Did you expect Jupiter and Saturn to be throwing snowballs at each other? This is a war of epic proportions. It covered the cosmos and destroyed worlds!" I liked him better when he was silent.

"How am I supposed to help the Olympians with that?" I suddenly realised the depth of trouble I was in. The Nirads had been under orders. They harmed me, sure, but they also didn't want to. The Gorgons needed me, and wouldn't have killed me and the CRU also wanted me. None of them had ever planned on killing me. This was very, very different. There was nothing stopping anyone from killing me, especially if it's the Ancient times. Everything I had ever done was like child's play compared to this. I could actually die. The image of dead Olympians lying everywhere when I first arrived at Olympus appeared in my mind. Would that happen to me?

"I don't know," Agent B said. "Our first job is to find Jupiter and see what he has to say."

In the distance the three rampaging dragons stopped. They lifted their heads and seemed to be sniffing the air. Suddenly their heads snapped in the direction where we were hiding. Smoke seeped from the dragons' nostrils as their eyes sought our location.

"Uh-oh," Agent B said. "I think we're in big trouble." No shit Sherlock.

As if called by a silent whistle, the dragons started charging. The closer they got, the bigger they seemed to grow. Before long I felt like I was facing down three very large and very angry ten-story buildings. Maybe larger.

"Why are all the monsters here so big?" I cried fearfully.

"I really don't know," Agent B answered. "I just hope you're feeling strong!"

Standing behind me, Pegasus nickered and nudged me gently in the back. He was telling me I could do it. I just hoped his faith in me was justified. Because I'm not just the Flame—I'm a 13-year-old.

"Stay here with Pegs," I ordered as I crawled out of the debris. "If this fails, find Jupiter and tell him to hide the Titan weapon somewhere else."

Mike started to snarl and bark. He darted out of our hiding place and charged the tall, scaly foot of the nearest dragon.

"That is either the bravest dog I've ever seen," Agent B called, "or the dumbest!" It was tempting to agree with him, but it wasn't the time.

"Mike!" I shouted, running after the dog. "Get back here!"

Now that I was out in the open, the three dragons focused on me. I could feel their swelling hatred.

Roars shook the area as they inhaled deeply and shot burning plumes of fire directly at me.

I crouched, feeling the flames lick me. On the ground around me the rocks melted and became pools of molten glass. Broken marble pillars were charred black and crumbled under the intense heat. But for me, there were no burning sensations. In fact I felt nothing at all. Good thing, or else I would've been charred.

Bathed in the dragons' flames, I rose slowly to my feet. The more they spat at me, the stronger I felt. "Do you want to play with fire?" I shouted, somewhat gleefully. "Try this!"

I raised both my hands. A single brilliant blaze of laser light filled the night sky as I shot all I had at the dragons. There was no time for the monsters to react or even scream. In an instant they disintegrated to ash.

"Emily!" Agent B ran out from our cover. "Are you all right?" He caught hold of me and checked me all over. "Their flames didn't even singe your tunic! How is this possible?"

I shrugged, not even out of breath. "I don't know, but it doesn't matter right now. Where's Mike?"

The sound of barking broke the silence. We heard Mike yelp and squeal before turning silent. "Mike!"

I cried. "Mike, where are you?"

The sound of many feet walking on rubble filled the air. Several giants led by a centaur emerged from under cover. I spotted Mike in the arms of one of the giants—his mouth was being muffled by the enormous hand. That would have given me a heart attack—but I recognised the centaur. "Chiron!" The centaur was younger than when I had known him. His man's upper torso was strong and muscular, while his horse's body was lean and streamlined. The centaur's chestnut-coloured hair was long and wavy.

I tried to embrace him, but Chiron reared on his horse legs and pointed his loaded bow at me. I flinched, recalling the man with his bow. It wasn't the time, not that it ever was. Death had never been so close, and definitely not by someone I trusted.

"Chiron, it's me! Emily!"

Chiron's face and upper body were bathed in dirt and sweat, and he had deep weeping burns on his rear flanks. His expression was dark and threatening as he spoke unfamiliar words. He flicked his bow, ordering us to raise our hands.

Doing as ordered, I saw that most of the giants were covered in burn marks. I didn't recognize any of them, but it was evident they had all been fighting the dragons.

Pegasus stepped forward and made a long series of sounds. Chiron spoke back to the stallion and lowered his bow, but his suspicious eyes never left me.

"Pegs, please tell him who we are!" I said desperately. I didn't want to hurt Chiron, but if I had to, I would.

"No, Pegasus, don't!" Agent B ordered. "They can't know who we really are or where we're from. If we don't tread very carefully, we could change history and alter the future as we know it. We should have as little exposure to the Olympians as possible."

"But he's hurt. They all are." I took a cautious step toward the centaur. "Will you at least tell him that I can heal him? He's covered in burns. Please tell him to take my hand." I couldn't stand their hurt.

Pegasus nickered, nodding towards me. Chiron frowned, understanding him, and moved closer to me, holding out his left hand while still clutching his loaded bow with the other. He didn't trust me, but it was a good start.

"It's all right," I said softly, "we're friends. You just don't know it yet."

I took the centaur's hand. Chiron bucked at my touch and examined the wounds on his flanks. In moments the deep burns faded and healed completely. The centaur lifted a rear hoof and flexed his leg. There was no pain.

I smiled, relieved. However, I relaxed too fast. Chiron nodded at me and Pegasus and turned to speak to his giants. The tall men responded by surrounding us and raising their clubs and weapons. Chiron spun around and started to lead us forward.

"What's happening?" I asked, alarmed.

Agent B looked around. "I think we've just been captured by the Olympians." How did my life turn into this?

What? It's a good question.