The Runaway Rebels- Book 1

Chapter Eleven: Back To Olympus

"Your parent's household is not our business Pandora, it is not OUR job to care for you," he said in a voice cooler than his ice blue eyes. 

"It's not your job?! Well it's not her job either and yet Ace was the only person who actually cared for me in all these years, the two of them don't care about me. They only want the kind of kid that will follow in their footstep- so do not bother telling me to keep quiet, because I have had too many years of keeping quiet and I AM NOT going back!" Pandora finished, fixing Zeus with her powerful green stare as Ace looked proudly round at her friend. 

Outraged, his beard blustering beneath his large nose, Zeus spoke up again, "Well perhaps if you adhered to your parent's wishes for you, you wouldn't find fitting in at home such a hard experience. Now will you please explain how you six came to be here?" 

Dawn gasped as Pandora's mouth fell open in outrage at Zeus' ridiculous statement. However, as The Goddess of Darkness stepped forward, Ace stuck out an arm and without her even looking around, Pandora stepped back as the Goddess of Chaos stepped forward with a worryingly pleasant smile on her face and a frightful blaze of indignation in her eyes.

"Her parents wishes?" Ace began, her voice almost shaking with suppressed rage. "Her homicidal, murderous , MANIACAL parents, or does she have other parents I didn't know about?! And also before you cut me off again, remind me, oh "mighty" Zeus, while we're talking about obeying our parents, wasn't it you who started a war against your own father?!", asked Ace, her eyes flickering yellow for the faintest millisecond as the Amphitheatre around her buzzed with murmurs of agreements. It was like the goddess was powered by the sheer chaos in the air around her. 

"I- that was a necessary-" Zeus began, barely managing a spluttering defense before Dawn cut across him.

"Necessary? No, because I would think all you Immortals standing here would know this by now, war isn't ever necessary, maybe it feels right when you deal that first blow, I wouldn't know. But tell me, when the precious blood has been split and lives have been lost, is it worth it? Does it make you feel accomplished? Is it still necessary, when hundreds are lying dead, in fact, was it ever?", at the goddess' words, the whole Ampitheatre fell silent.

She hadn't even raised her voice, and yet The Goddess of Light succeeded in making the former King of the Gods quieten as Eir spoke again, attempting to steer the conversation back to the random appearance of five injured and bruised Deities and one equally injured human.

"Thank you for that Dawn, but, now, if I may ask- why have you chained Hades and Hel and what is this Mortal is doing here on Olympus?" Eir asked, simply gesturing at me gently.

"My parents- those monsters, are chained up because you all misunderstood your last precious Prophecy, you all assumed it must be the daughter that's the problem. Well, Ace herself got told the real meaning by the Prophet Goddess, the same as my parents, and that was that it was up to Ace, with me and Dawn, to stop those two, before they take over every last one of the Nine Realms! And the only reason the Professor is here, is because Hades and Hel stopped us from returning to Earth earlier!" Pandora said looking into the pointed features of Eir's tawny face as laughter pulled at the sounds around them. Even Zeus chuckled, not noticing Eir's furious look. 

 "That's all very good Pandora, but tell me two things, firstly, why was the Mortal with you in the first place?" Ace stepped forward at Eir's patronising tone, stepping a little in front of me as though to shield me from the staring eyes around the Amphitheatre. 

"That... was my fault. I was thrown off course when we were teleporting and we landed in the Professor's house, so we couldn't just leave her there." 

At this, disapproving mutters begin encircling us at Ace's words, but the goddess didn't shrink in the shame of her elders.