A second later, the six of us reappeared in the centre of a large, white Amphitheatre. One of the meetings of the Godlands was in full swing.

The meeting was being looked over by Zeus, the ex-King of Olympus and Eir, The Goddess of Peace and Healing. The two stared at the small figures below from the highest part of the Amphitheatre. They were followed with many other pairs of disapproving eyes looking down on us from all sides.

All around us, each figure was clad in long white robes, Zeus and Eir wearing small golden badges pinned to theirs, symbolising their status.

A few seconds of silence later and Zeus spoke out, his loud voice booming out around the Amphitheatre.

"What is the meaning of this?! Why have you brought a human into our court? And why are Hades and Hel tied up? You better have a good explanation for this! She is the problem here!"

Zeus pointed at me, then over to Pandora, with a thunderous expression on his face.

As Dawn took a step back in quiet outrage, Ace spoke up, bravely, looking right into Zeus' electric blue eyes,

"That's what you think, because none of you questioned the prophecy, did you?! No, safer to just assume that, as always, the Prophecies were set in stone. Now, I wonder, are you all really SO stupid that you didn't see their plan? They leave the world thinking it was their daughter that was to blame, while they can start taking over each Realm one by one, the Chaos Realm, Midgard, the Godlands; all of them! I mean come on, I know you're bad, but you can't be that stupid!"

A bold, defiant expression streaked across Ace's face as she finished her speech, leaving a wave of silence in her wake, broken only by the goddess Eir.

"This is a serious accusation. Do you have any evidence that this is not just you being, quite frankly, a disruption as usual, Astrid?" The Goddess of Peace asked coolly.

At this, Pandora spoke up, looking livid as her blazing green eyes pierced upwards.

"Evidence?! What do you call these?!" Pandora asked, pointing at the large collection of cuts across her face and arms, then flinging her other arm back at the extreme amounts of cuts and bruises upon Dawn and Ace.

"Calm down, if you would Pandora, we will care for you and your wounds in due course," Eir said calmly as Zeus folded his arms, looking as though he was going to burst unless he let out the speech desperate to escape his lips. In response, Pandora scoffed, with a laugh marred by years of a life she had never wanted. 

"Care. Ha! You don't know the meaning of the word. I didn't see you wanting to care for me for all those years where all of you left me with them, I bet you check on the others round here, but when you have to make an effort to see if someone's okay, well then it's not worth it is it?! You're telling me to calm down, you're telling me you'll care for me, well where were you when I needed that help all those other times? Where were you when I actually needed you?" Pandora asked, looking round at the assembled Immortals with a look in her eyes that was the look of someone centuries older than her.

Her eyes showed someone wholly different from the thin woman standing before them all.

Someone who'd been forced to be brave when it was hardest, to stand tall when the whole world was pushing them down, to talk when the universe told them to be silent. 

The Goddess of Darkness was tired of being silenced, she was out of her nightmare and she wasn't ever going back. No matter what anyone told her.

"Calm down-" Eir began, going about this in a much calmer manner than Zeus, who interrupted her, clearly not used to shutting his mouth for this long. 

"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. 

"Very well, now but-" "Sorry Eir, I just had to point something out," Zeus began looking gleefully down at the three Goddesses standing in front of me and Hades and Hel, who was smiling at the chaos. 

"No. You continue Zeus," said Eir, in an icy voice as sharp as knives but Zeus, oblivious to her sarcasm, took her request and continued, much to Eir's annoyance. 

"Are you trying to tell me that, that little nuisance is the Chosen One?" Zeus asked Pandora flicking his hand at Ace, who gave him a smile that could cut through solid rock. At his words, Pandora gave a small nod, staring at Zeus with eyes that could kill.

Instantly, Zeus practically fell off his chair with laughter, echoed by ringing jovial expressions from Immortals around the Amphitheatre as The God of The Sky thumped his fist against his chair in glee. Throughout this all however, Ace's smile managed to stay firmly in place as she drew a deep breath sending her eyes to the sky. The expression on her face made her look as though she was asking the world why some people must be SO tediously annoying. 

Eventually, once the laughter had calmed a little, Zeus wiped a joyful tear from his eye as Eir called the meeting to order and continued, "Hades, Hel, you've been very quiet so far, if the accusations these three are making are true, you could be facing imprisonment in Tartarus, you know." 

At his brother's words, Hades smiled ever so slightly and lifted his head- giving Ace a look that was so poisonous it felt as though you could see the venom flowing through the air. 

"Yes, well you see, my daughter is right about one thing, the Prophecy you think you know is indeed wrong, but it is not Ace who is the Chosen One, quite the opposite in fact. You see there is no Chosen One. Instead, it is Ace who has been masking her plan to take over the Nine Realms, with help from my daughter of course, and we who were attempting to foil their plans when they manipulated Dawn into believing it was we who were the 'villains'."

Ace and Pandora looked at each other as Dawn looked from Hades and a grinning Hel to Eir and Zeus, waiting for the latter to see how ridiculous Hades' statement was... but they didn't. 

"Well, well, well, I can't say I'm that surprised, it seems the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree, does it Astrid?" asked Zeus, narrowing his cold blue eyes at The Goddess of Chaos. 

"Wait, are you telling me you actually believe them? May I ask why you demand evidence for our claims and then the second Hades suggests anything you immediately take that as gospel. I'd like to hope it isn't just me who sees how wrong that seems?" Dawn questioned in outrage, moving forwards as Ace and Hades stared each other down for a few seconds, Hades breaking off first. 

"They are older and more experienced Dawn, and Astrid is well known for her tricks and general misbehaviour, therefore it makes sense-" 

"Makes sense?! No, I'm sorry- so one minute you tell half the population to stay out of all your political business because they aren't old enough or responsible enough to join in and yet, when somebody says 'oh yeah by the way it's Ace who wants to take over the Nine Realms' you're perfectly happy to believe that she could over two people who have been well known to lust for power, because it being them just wouldn't make sense would it?! No, because they're 'more experienced' so they must never make mistakes!" exclaimed Dawn, gesturing at Hades and Hel with an exasperated expression on her face. 

"The answer is simple, after all Astrid, you aren't a normal case." Said Zeus keeping his bright blue eyes trained on Ace's midnight blue ones even through Dawn's speech. 

"Oh and what is a normal case then, because honestly Zeus, I think you've skipped the first few thousand centuries of your kids' lives, in fact I think most of you have, given that you all seem to think we're brainless delicate little children who can do nothing, not adults with, arguably better thought processes than yourself. I doubt any of you could get Hades and Hel in handcuffs could you? We aren't children anymore, we have been adults for a while and it's about time you treat us like it. An example for you- you all seem to have forgotten who stole Kronos' Tomb in that museum!" shouted Ace, standing tall with confidence blazing around her. 

"You mean the Tomb that is now in MY possession?" Zeus asked, smugly. Ace resisted the heavy temptation to make a rude gesture as Eir spoke again, while only me and Dawn seemed to notice Ace holding back her laughter with some effort.

"Now, we will have to question you five to sort this out, but it seems to me as though Astrid has been manipulating you Dawn, into believing that Hades and Hel are in the wrong-" Began Eir, suddenly cut off by a scoff from The Goddess of Light:

"Manipulate me?! Listen, I'm just going to say this, I don't appreciate you insulting my intelligence by saying I've been tricked by these two the whole time, they are my friends and I'll stand by them any day! I can see corruption clear as day and it certainly isn't coming from them!" Dawn shouted, putting her hand in Ace's, her other in Pandora's and sending a defiant stare up at Zeus and Eir on the high platform above. 

"Look, let's just finish this shall we?" Asked Zeus, his eyes so narrow they were nothing more than light blue slits. 

"What's the rush Zeus- got a girlfriend to meet?" Ace asked sharply, with an audible gasp going up around her as Zeus blustered furiously. 

"Now Ace, we all know that isn't true..." Dawn began. 

"Ah thank you Da-" The God of The Sky began, promptly cut off again a second later,

"He's got several," Dawn finished calmly, as a huge gasp erupted from the Ampitheatre and Ace scoffed in disbelief, laughing her head off, Pandora smiling at Dawn in an expression of proud surprise. 

"Holy Hydra heads that was brilliant!" spluttered Ace in between giggles as Zeus looked ready to explode with anger. Then, before he had the chance, Eir managed to cut across him with her cool, calm voice. 

"Clearly... Astrid is a bad influence on both of you, but if you only let us help you-" Eir began before being cut off again, quite a familiar annoyance by now. This time by Pandora- who took a bold step forward, her hand still linked with Dawn's.

"She may be a bad influence but she is, and always will be, our bad influence." Pandora said, giving Eir and Zeus a piercing green stare as the assembled Immortals around them whispered to each other watching the three Goddesses with uncertain expressions marring the many faces. 

"Yes and if you're going to call me a bad influence at least get it right! For the hundredth time it's Ace- not Astrid - Ace! And before whatever happens next, let me say one thing, if I'd wanted to take over the Realms, you can be sure I'd have done so by now! I mean Olympus in particular you just knock over one pillar and everyone freaks out!" said Ace, still grinning up at Zeus and Eir, who spoke now, looking disappointed. 

"Very well, guards would you please restrain Astrid and Pandora?" Eir asked while Zeus attempted to hide the pleasure that streaked across his face as guards headed into the Amphitheatre- freeing a gleeful Hades and Hel and heading straight for Ace and Pandora, who pulled up their hands consecutively.  Then, just as the Guards made to go for the two goddesses, Dawn attempted to block their way, taking two muscular Guards to properly pull the goddess away as she struggled fiercely against them. 

As Ace and Pandora made a move to help Dawn, she shouted back at them while the guards converged on them all, 

"Go!!" as she shouted, The Goddess of Light kept struggling against the two Guards who were having to make a severe effort to keep a hold of her. 

Struggling for a moment, Ace and Pandora looked at each other uncertainly, making a split second decision as they looked back at their friend with a pang in their hearts.

So, as the guards jumped in between the two of them, Ace nodded at Pandora- who looked ready to jump into the nearby Portal Ace had opened- only for one of the Guards to shove her through the back of the Portal, Ace only just having time to shut the Portal before they followed Pandora through. At this, Ace's blood boiled, her fists clenching as she gave the other Immortals a furious warning,

"Oh boy are you going to regret this!" and with that, The Goddess of Chaos teleported away in a shower of yellow sparks- sending out a whirlwind of Chaotic Magic out from her hands, which, for a moment- seemed to have no effect. 

However a second later the yellow Magic burst through the air, causing every Immortal in the vicinity (except for Dawn) to jump up, as they all seemingly received a united, rather unpleasant electric shock of sorts, sending them up off the chairs with shrieks of outrage and discomfort. Now, from that moment on it was looking as though many of the Immortals around the Amphitheatre were fast wishing that their leaders had never messed with Ace in the first place. While Eir attempted to maintain her dignity after a clearly unpleasant shock to the backside, Zeus, Hades and Hel were looking livid as they struggled between keeping what dignity they had left or rubbing their sore backsides from the particularly potent shocks that had been reserved just for them.

In the end they just settled for looking completely furious as Dawn attempted to run away from the shocked Guards that had been holding her, who unfortunately recovered quickly, pulling the Goddess back as she looked furiously up at Zeus, Hades and Hel. 

"You deserved that!" Dawn shouted at Zeus her face burning with rage. "Come now Dawn, you must see that your anger is simply due to Astrid's manipulation, we can help you." "No. Stop trying to pretend that they aren't the ones to blame for this!" She said pointing over at Hel and Hades. 

"Not only are you insulting my best friend whose name, as I think she's told you at least a hundred times, is Ace- you're also making her out to be a villain when in reality she was trying to help save you ungrateful idiots! And to top it all off you're also insulting my intelligence, after all what makes you so sure I'd fall for it if Ace had been trying to manipulate me?" Dawn asked, looking round at the outraged Immortals and back over to Zeus furiously. 

"Listen Dawn we can help you." Eir said smoothly looking down at Dawn almost pityingly. 

"Help me? Help me?! If you wanted to help me, if you wanted to help anyone you'd stop your Guards from wasting their time running after two of the best Goddesses I know and get them to throw these two tyrants in Tartarus where they belong!!" Dawn yelled, throwing out an arm, as the Guards behind her kept a wary eye on the Goddess waiting for a sign of escape, and gesturing at Hades and Hel who put on expressions of mock despair that the audience around them soaked up like sunlight in a cave.

"Now, Dawn you can't judge on past mistakes. Didn't anyone ever teach you that?" Zeus said speaking to Dawn as though she was a naughty little five year old. 

"Didn't anyone ever teach ME that? Hello!! You just sent Guards after someone who spent the first century and more of her life living in the worst conditions with only one person to care for her- a person who risked everything for her I might add, and YOU are telling me not to judge on past mistakes?! When you just attempted to arrest two Goddesses for the crime of nothing more than being born to the wrong parents- because of course, the apple doesn't fall from the tree right Zeus? Although perhaps you are forgetting that your own father wanted to kill you and your siblings a long time ago! So, if the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, where exactly does that leave you Zeus?"

At Dawn's words, a chorus of breaths were held in as the congregation of Immortals turned to look at The (former) King of the Gods who went white, the chalk white slowly morphing into a hot red as his electric blue eyes narrowed. "I think that's quite enough of that." Said Zeus, gesturing at the Guards with a flick of his hand, his voice as cold as his gleaming eyes. Eir shook her head as Dawn was dragged away from the Council, struggling against the Guards holding her.

This left me standing in the centre of the Amphitheatre, unsure what to do until Eir turned her head back to me then said to the Guards- "Take the Mortal for memory wiping if you would."

Before I could do anything, I was surrounded by a pack of Guards who pushed me out of the Amphitheatre as I thought of running away then looked across the cloudy landscapes, and back to the Guard's weapons and thought better of it. 

"It won't hurt. Don't worry, it's a simple process." The voice came from the head Guard, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom who looked round at me with her dark brown eyes- before we saw a Healer coming towards us from behind a Temple.

This particular Healer was a tall man with a long black beard and long wavy hair, a lined pale face mostly hidden by his large beard and dark brown eyes that twinkled in a somewhat familiar way that I couldn't quite put my finger on. 

"Healer Randi was meant to be taking charge of this procedure, where is she?" Athena asked, looking suspiciously at the man who was wearing a white toga and brown cuffs round his arms along with battered sandals on his feet that looked like they hadn't been changed for several decades. 

"I am acting on Healer Randi's orders, she has had to take a very important case, but I can assure you, I am up to the task." At this, Athena gave him one last sweeping look of suspicion, then nodded curtly and left with the rest of the Guards- leaving me and the Healer to walk towards the large buildings ahead.

Suddenly, I stopped, a little way from the place where we'd left Athena's team. 

I didn't want to lose all these memories and I had no intention of losing them, so, out of nowhere, I shoved the unsuspecting Healer over, expecting him to be furious. However, to my surprise he just laughed as he got back up, so, in my surprise, I raised my fists taking a step back as the Healer gave me a large grin, that, yet again was the shadow of a familiar face. 

"If you think you're taking my memories you can forget about it!" I protested, pulling my fist back and giving the Healer a strong punch on the shoulder as he walked forward to illustrate my point, sending him flailing backwards with a shocked laughed on his part. 

"Woah calm down Professor, seriously where did you learn to punch like that?" the Healer asked, rubbing his shoulder and looking at me incredulously. 

A second later, as I was about to respond, something struck me, and I almost lowered my fists as my brow furrowed in confusion. 

"How would you know I'm a Professor?" "Because if you'd let me finish, I was going to tell you that I am NOT a Healer, far from it, you see you've met me before, I think you might just remember me." Said the Healer with a rather sarcastic tone crossing his jolly voice as he spoke. Then as I basked in my confusion, the Healer looked around checking no-one was there and morphed away in a flash of bright yellow sparks, changing into a very familiar person indeed. 

I knew I'd known those eyes and that grin, how had I not seen it? 

"Ace!" 

"Yep and you're not losing your memory alright? I'm taking you back to your house. I made a deal with Healer Randi, she's a good one- and she'll tell them you had your memory wiped, you'll be safe." 

"Thanks, but oh Ace, you shouldn't be here you're in danger!" I replied, suddenly feeling anxiety clutch at my stomach once more. 

"Yeah you think?" asked Ace sarcastically, holding out her hand with a broad grin still firmly stuck on her face. 

"Seriously though, I may be in danger, but you are only here because of me and I have a slight suspicion you don't want your memories wiped." Ace continued, her brow furrowing. 

"Yeah sorry about that." I replied sheepishly, making Ace laugh. 

"No worries." 

With that, I took Ace's hand and in the next second we were back in my battered, somewhat destroyed, house. 

"Oh yeah I forgot about that, hang on." Ace said, now looking sheepish herself, then she pointed at the rubble which glowed a bright shade of daffodil yellow, lifting up and slotting itself back into the wall and the floor, leaving my house as good as new once again.

"I... thanks, Ace. Can I ask you something?" I inquired. 

"Sure, what is it?" Ace said pulling her staff out of mid-air and fixing her feathered hat back onto her head. 

"Why were you laughing when Zeus was talking about that Tomb?" Ace grinned looking incredibly proud of herself as she spoke. 

"What a wonderful question. I hoped someone would notice. Well, he thinks I gave him the Tomb, but what I actually gave him was a cleverly disguised cardboard box and for the sword, a toy sword from the museum's gift shop- oh I wish I could see the look on that smug git's face when he finds out." Ace finished as my mouth opened for what felt like the 100th time today.

 "Well, you've seen Zeus, I couldn't leave it with that dopey Deity now could I?" At Ace's words, I laughed then thanked the Goddess again as she smiled distractedly. 

"No problem- it's the very least I can do. I tell you what, when all this is over I'll write to you and Pandora and Dawn will too we'll let you know what happened. You're a good person Amelia, and I bet you're a brilliant Professor too." Ace said making me smile yet again before she headed for the door. "Goodbye, Professor." Ace said beaming at one last time. 

"Good luck." I said and The Goddess of Chaos nodded at me, pulled her hat lower down her face and disappeared with a click of her fingers and a final big wink.