It would have been a much more enjoyable dream if she hadn't been so shocked the entire time.

That was the first thing Alexandria Jacques thought as the light pierced through the darkness of her closed eyelids. She squeezed them shut tighter and groaned, rolling over and burying her head in the softness of the pillow closest to her.

Her second thought was about how much she wished she could go back to the dream and relive it. It hadn't been so bad after all, and she smiled softly at the thought of it. The views were beautiful, and the thought of actually meeting Greek mythology was all the more exciting, even if only in her sleep.

Alex's third thought was that this was not her bed, and her eyes flew open and her head shot up at that.

The bed she woke up in was black and red, completely and utterly black, and red.

It reminded her of the bed across from hers in the Co-Ed room they had in the dorms at Greece, the one Eric had set up opposite of hers. He had an obsession with those two colors, and his bedsheets, pillows, pajama bottoms, everything was red and black.

But this wasn't his bed. No, this was so much larger.

This was not her bed either.

The first thing she did was to check herself, sighing slightly in relief at the fact that her clothes were still on. The next thing she did was to rush and throw off the covers, nearly jumping off the larger than king sized bed and landing unceremoniously in her hands and knees. She winced at the impact of her fall, slowly getting up to brush herself off and look around.

That had been a dream, right?

Her answer came when the door to the room swung open, making way for Eric to walk in with concern. "Did you fall Lexi? I swear I heard a thud in here."

Alex approached Eric and caught him off guard when she grabbed his wrist, her voice coming out more as a desperate plea then anything else. "Where in the world am I Eric?"

"Mount Olympus Lexi." He ignored her confusion and stared at her with a quirked brow. "Are you feeling well enough to come with me? I mean, not that your fainting caught anyone off guard, but you still gave us quite a scare, especially Heracles."

He was talking as though this were all normal. If she hadn't known him for the last two years, she would have brushed him aside as insane, or worse. But she knew him, she knew Eric.

Enyo.

She swore under her breath, beginning to pace back and forth while continuing to mutter quietly.

This wasn't actually a dream. This wasn't one, yet it felt nearly impossible to accept it as a reality, nearly. Should she play along with it, should she call the whole thing a bluff and walk off. Actually, jumping out that window in the room didn't seem to be a bad idea at the moment.

Eric simply stared, watching carefully and getting lost in his own thoughts until she finally stopped in her tracks and look up at him suspiciously. "Were you going to take me somewhere?"

Her steady voice snapped him out of his daze and he nodded slowly. "Yeah I was actually. You feeling up to it? You can stay a bit more if you want."

Alex found herself smiling at him despite her situation. One thing she had to admit, no matter how much of a flat-out pain in the butt Eric had become over her time knowing him, she couldn't call him a complete bastard. He too much of a softie for it.

"Look at you being all nice to me. I'm fine. Let's just go."

-

They walked out of the place, a palace she might as well call it.

They walked across a river, they walked past a field of trees and flowers.

They walked past two other palaces Alex couldn't help but stop and admire.

They walked over a golden bridge. Gold seemed to describe everything here.

They walked into a large hall rather empty, except for the large Corinthian styles columns guarding their paths and the canopy shielding them from the sun.

And finally, Eric stopped walking, Alex guessed they had arrived.

"We're here. We are at the throne room."

A shiver ran down her spine and chills throughout her body as he said that. "Throne room, does that mean that-? You mean I'm going to meet?"

Eric looked over his shoulder at Alex and shook his head. "No, don't worry about that. Zeus is a bit too busy right now to be here, and I'm sure everyone else is as well."

Zeus, right, bug guy, lighting, anger issues, girl issues too but...

Alex let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "What about Athalia, no- Athena?"

Eric nodded towards the ivory white doors to the throne room, a small grin briefly appearing on his face before he approached them and pushed the doors open.

Alexandria's mouth parted slightly; those doors seemed at least heavy enough for Heracles to open, tons at least. The way Eric's muscles flexed and bulged against the sleeves of his shirt gave the weight of those doors away easily.

Alexandria inhaled deeply before following him in, glad that she had done so the minute she stepped inside.

"Alexandria, you're awake now, that's great." Alex glanced over at Athalia briefly before returning her attention to what really mattered, the throne room.

It was majestic to say the least.

Thrones, everywhere were thrones.

Thirteen thrones intricately designed placed five on either side and two at the front, those two elevated on steps that are slightly higher than the others and one place at the center.

"These. These are-." Eric nodded at her. "Try and guess whose is whose. You know all the Olympians right?" He wasn't asking as a question, but a statement, yet Alexandria nodded anyways, gathering the courage to walk forward and begin to weave her way between and around the thrones.

She stopped at the front, the highest throne seven steps above the rest. Made of black marble embedded with golden vines branching out through the surface of the smooth marble. Over it, a wine purple fleece splayed over the seat. Alex fought the urge to reach out and touch the golden eagle perched on the right armrest, entranced by its red eyes seemingly glaring back at her. She couldn't tear her eyes away from it, looking up at the sky-blue canopy covering above the throne. She didn't bother looking at Eric as she spoke to him. "This, is the throne of Zeus."

He hummed his approval of her answer. "That seat is actually pretty cold. Tried sitting on it once. Big guy's lightning bolts on my butt warmed me up quite well."

Alexandria descended the four steps before she found herself standing on crystal, staring at an ivory throne with what seemed to be animal skin as a cushion. Golden birds were spread across and around the throne, and leaves spread out around them. "This is Hera's throne."

Without waiting for Eric's response, since she didn't need it, her attention drew her to the second largest-throne in the room. Greenish marble decorated with carved shell and pearl, a silk covering draped on it and the armrests shaped like mythical sea dragons.

Mythical. It seemed as though everything she had ever believe to be a myth was exactly the opposite.

"This...this, is Poseidon's throne."

And she continued like that. The green stone and gold throne was that of Demeter's. The most colorful of them all was too well built for it not to be Hephaestus'.

"This is my throne." It caught Alex off guard when Athalia, no, Athena came out from behind the silver throne she was going to next. It had baskets at the foot of it and the image of a gorgon's head at the end of the armrest, not to mention the silver carved owl placed at the edge of the back.

Athena had changed from her previous clothing, instead of simply t-shirt and jeans she now wore a modernized grey-blue chiton that resembled more of a summer dress than anything else.

Athena motioned at the rest of the thrones and smiled as Alex continued to stare at her in awe. "Please, don't let me stop you, continue." And so, she did.

The silver throne with wolf skin was that or Artemis, the purely golden throne was Apollo's. Hermes' was one of simply carved stone (still majestic), and Dionysus' was gold plated wood.

The simple throne set in the center of the room was Hestia's, a modest throne to match a modest goddess, Alex had no doubt in that.

And then she approached the last one. A massive slab of bronze had been cut and molded into a simple throne that made her skin crawl, and she was sure that the red splattered at the bottom was not paint and that the smooth seat cushion with a rosy hue was not simply animal skin...this had to be his throne, it could be no one else's. Massive, brooding, and built as a warning.

"Ares."

The words escaped her lips as though it were a prayer, it wasn't. She had always hated the god of war simply for being that, bloody. And now, she knew that he actually existed, and it made her blood want to boil.

"Yes Alexandria. Ares, the divine of war."

You are fated for war.

Wait.

Her expression turned into one of pure horror as she spun on her heel and stared almost pleadingly at Athena, begging her silently that the question she was to ask was not true. "You don't mean to tell me that I'm-."

She never was able to finish her question. The doors of the throne swung open with such for they slammed against the walls they were hinged on.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE! WHERE IS THAT GIRL I WAS-!"

He...yes he, never finished either. The fact that his fiery eyes met Alexandria's brown eyes...brown eyes with blue halos...was enough to answer his question.

Fiery eyes, eyes that held war, hate, anger in them, just like her dreams.

And enough to answer hers as well.

Ares.