ANDROMEDA
At Percy's words, Andi lifted her head off of Cass's shoulder and took a peek out the nearest window. If she craned her head just right, she could see the black helicopter following them overhead. It looked near-identical to the one that had come for them at Westover Hall. Andi wondered if Thorn himself was lurking inside, or if it was manned solely by mortal mercenaries willing to hand over a bunch of kids to monsters for a paycheck.
"They know the van," Percy said. "We have to ditch it."
Zoë's grip on the steering wheel tightened as she swerved into the fast lane. It was no use. The helicopter was gaining on them.
Grover, ever the optimist, suggested, "Maybe the military will shoot it down."
"The military probably thinks it's one of theirs," Percy pointed out. "How can the General use mortals, anyway?"
"Mercenaries," Zoë spat, resentment dripping from her words like acid. "It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid."
Percy knitted his brow in confusion. "But don't these mortals see who they're working for? Don't they notice all the monsters around them?"
Zoë shook her head. "I do not know how much they see through the Mist. I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters."
Andi grimaced. She was fully aware of how awful humanity could be. She'd seen some of it firsthand. It was almost funny, the lows people would stoop to just to get ahead in life all without getting off their high horses. They'd stab you in the back and claim they were doing what was best for you. They'd leave you to rot and say you'd understand when you were older. Andi hoped and prayed she would never understand.
There is nothing justifiable about abusing a child.
Cass seemed to know where Andi's mind had gone because her face had softened and she'd taken to rubbing Andi's back gently. Of course, Cass knew. She always knew. Cass was so good with people, so in tune with others' emotions. Andi wished she could be like that. She wished she always knew the right thing to say and could make friends as easily as breathing, but it just wasn't like that for her. Where Cass saw windows, Andi saw doors.
Some doors were easier to open than others. Some, all she had to do was knock. Others were barricaded with furniture or riddled with locks and she could never be sure who put the barriers in place — her, or the person on the other side. Some doors had peepholes and some doors were boarded shut entirely. On rare occasions, occasions like Carol and Dinah, the doors were wide open and she could waltz right in, but she'd always find herself hovering in the doorway until she was sure the floorboards wouldn't give out underneath her.
In other words, Cass was an extrovert, and Andi was an introvert.
When Andi tuned back into reality after successfully talking herself out of a panic attack, she realized Thalia was praying.
"Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?"
Shockingly, nothing happened.
"There!" Bianca exclaimed, pointing at something up ahead. "That parking lot!"
"We'll be trapped," Zoë protested.
Bianca smiled confidently. It looked good on her. "Trust me."
That was enough to get Zoë to shoot across two lanes of traffic. She turned into a mall parking lot and came to a screeching halt between a minivan and a red coupe. The Dream Team quickly hopped out of the van and Bianca took the lead, directing them down some steps.
"Subway entrance," she told them. "Let's go south. Alexandria."
"Anything," Thalia agreed. They bought tickets and made it through the turnstiles without any issues, even though they probably looked super suspicious considering they kept glancing over their shoulders. Andi still didn't relax until their southbound train had left the station and they could see the helicopter circling the parking lot with seemingly no clue of where they'd gone.
Grover sighed in relief, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."
Bianca's cheeks flushed pink as she smiled, looking quite proud of herself. "Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it because it wasn't here when we used to live in D.C."
"New?" Grover was frowning now. "But that station looked really old."
"I guess," Bianca said with a shrug. "But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway."
Thalia sat upright, furrowing her brow. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"
The daughter of Hades nodded. Everyone else looked super confused, but Cass and Andi just exchanged knowing looks.
"Bianca," Zoë started to say, her voice soft. "How long ago..." She trailed off as the sound of the helicopter filled their ears once more.
Percy grimaced. "We need to change trains. Next station."
No one argued. There was no reason to. They had to keep all of their focus on staying alive. Over the course of about half an hour, they changed trains twice. It seemed like it took them forever to finally lose the helicopter. When enough time had passed since the last sighting and they became confident they'd gotten away safely, Andi had to bite down on her bottom lip to stop herself from screaming, "Thank fuck!"
Losing the helicopter was the good news. The bad news was they'd reached the end of the line and were now stranded in an industrial area, surrounded by warehouses, railway tracks, and piles and piles of snow. Andi was fucking freezing. Everyone else had a winter coat but all she had was her sweatshirt. She hugged herself tightly and rubbed her arms tirelessly as they searched the railway yard for another passenger train to no avail.
"Do you want my coat?" Percy asked her, hanging back to fall into step with her. Andi smiled at him and made a mental note to congratulate Sally Jackson on raising such an incredible son if she ever got the chance to meet her.
"Oh, gods, Andi!" Cass gasped, eyes widening at the sight of her sister shivering like a chihuahua. "You're turning blue!"
"I am not turning blue," Andi said with an eye roll. "I'm fine. Look. Up ahead."
She pointed to where Apollo in his Fred disguise stood at a trash-can fire. 'Fred' flashed them a friendly smile, though the effect was somewhat hindered by his lack of teeth. "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!"
Andi picked up the pace and reached the fire first. She sighed in relief at the heat radiating off of it, even if it was just barely enough to combat the frigid temperatures.
Thalia wasn't doing much better. "Well, this is g-g-g-great."
"My hooves are frozen," Grover whined.
"Feet," Percy corrected.
Andi looked over at Cass and realized she was staring at 'Fred' with wide eyes. Oh yeah. This was Cass's first time ever meeting her dad, wasn't it? And it was while he was pretending to be a homeless dude. Not exactly an ideal meeting. Luckily, all of their friends seemed too busy freezing to death to notice Cass's gaping at the homeless guy, so they didn't have to answer any uncomfortable questions.
"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca suggested. She and Zoë were huddling close together for warmth. "Chiron—"
"No," Zoë cut in with a shake of her head. "They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."
For a moment, none of them spoke. They just stewed in their misery, faces flushed from the sting of the icy air. Andi tucked herself into Cass's side. Cass wrapped her arm around Andi's shoulders and pulled her in as close as possible.
"You know," 'Fred' spoke up, "you're never completely without friends." Underneath all of the grime and his unkempt beard, his expression was kind, his toothless smile warm. "You kids need a train going west?"
"Yes, sir," Percy answered, perfectly polite. "You know of any?"
'Fred' lifted a bony hand and pointed to a gleaming freight train that definitely wasn't there before. The side read SUN WEST LINE. Andi eyed the triple deck of cars behind the steel mesh curtains, trying to decide which one she wanted to crash in.
"That's...convenient," Thalia said. "Thanks, uh..."
They turned back around to see 'Fred' had vanished. The fire had gone with him. Andi glanced at Cass. She looked sad. Disappointed. Like she'd hoped he'd say something, anything, to her and her alone. Andi linked arms with her sister and offered her an apologetic smile. Cass just sighed and pulled Andi in closer.
*
The Yoshino-Mills sisters ended up claiming a purple Ferrari on the middle deck.
Cass was curled up in the passenger seat, Andi in the driver. Unlike Thalia, neither of them was capable of hot-wiring the radio, so they were sitting in silence. Behind the cover of the tinted windows, Andi had gotten changed into jeans and a yellow knit sweater. She didn't feel like sleeping, so she'd separated her hair into two sections and taken to braiding them. Cass was trying to fall asleep but was having no luck, so she was just staring out the window with an odd expression on her face.
It'd been nearly half an hour of relative quiet when Andi's resolve broke and she nudged Cass with her foot. "Hey. I know something's bothering you. Talk to me."
Cass let out a deep sigh. "It's nothing. I'm being stupid."
"Bullshit," Andi shot back. She probably looked really dumb right now, paused halfway through her second braid while frowning at her sister. "You're incapable of being stupid. Okay, well, you're not incapable, but...what I'm trying to say is that your feelings are valid!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Cass said, managing a wry smile. It lasted only seconds before she was frowning again. "I don't know, it's just...I get it, I do. He couldn't break cover. But I'm his daughter! I'm his daughter and he didn't even look at me. It was my first time ever seeing him in person, and he didn't even look at me."
"Oh, honey," Andi murmured. She gripped her hair with one hand to keep it from unwinding and reached over the console to rub Cass's shoulder with the other. "I'm so sorry. But hey, maybe you guys will get a chance to talk when we go to Olympus."
"Maybe," grumbled Cass. She was scowling now, glowering at the scenery passing them by as if it had personally wronged her. "But probably not. Why would he bother to give me the time of day? He has like, twenty kids. I'm not special."
Andi frowned and used her free hand to punch Cass in the shoulder. Hard.
"Ow!" Cass whined. Her withering gaze was focused on Andi now, her eyes narrowed down to slits. She looked scary when she was angry. Dangerous. When Andi was angry, she looked like a petulant child. From behind gritted teeth, Cass ground out, "What the fuck was that for?"
Andi smiled cheekily, shrugging. "No one talks about my sister like that."
Cass rolled her eyes and rubbed her shoulder. "And you say I'm dramatic."
"I'm being serious, Cass," Andi said, her face softening. "You're fucking amazing. I mean, you're funny, you're kind, you're smart, you're a total badass! You're the best person I know. If your dad can't see how utterly incredible you are, that's on him, not you."
There was a lull in the conversation after that. Cass seemed to be soaking Andi's words in, memorizing them. Meanwhile, Andi finished off her second braid and secured it with a hair tie, then checked herself out in the rearview mirror. She thought she looked pretty cute. She'd probably never be as good at braiding hair as Dinah, but she was good enough.
At last, Cass cracked a smile, brown eyes gleaming in the low light. "Yeah, I am pretty great, aren't I?"
Andi threw her head back with a witch-like cackle. "There she is! There's the self-assured Cassandra Mills I know and love!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm back," Cass said, waving her hand dismissively as she giggled. "And now I'm going to try and get some sleep."
She wiggled around in her seat, trying to get comfortable, then closed her eyes with a heavy sigh and turned away from Andi. Andi drummed her fingers on the dashboard, unsure of what to do with herself. Maybe she should try and sleep. But if she slept, she might dream, and she wasn't in the mood to dream. She was afraid of what she might see.
Not even ten minutes had passed when Cass turned back to Andi and declared with a pout, "I can't sleep."
"RIP," Andi joked. She twirled the end of her left braid in between her pointer finger and her thumb, examining herself in the rearview mirror again, and decided she hated it. She took out her hair ties and pulled apart her braids, then raised her eyebrows at Cass. "You want me to sing to you?"
"Sing?" Cass echoed, brow furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah," Andi said, dragging her fingers through her hair. When it was neat again, she separated it into two parts and worked on winding the first part into a cute little space bun. "Isn't that what Carol used to do when you couldn't sleep? Sing to you?"
Cass's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, yeah. I completely forgot about that. How come you remember that but I don't?"
Andi shrugged as she secured her first bun with a hair tie. "No clue. But I'll sing to you if you think it'll help. I'll even take song requests."
Cass smiled and watched Andi set to work on her second bun. "You know what song I have stuck in my head? It's so random, but at the same time, it makes complete sense."
"No, tell me."
"Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid," Cass told her. Andi let a snort and finished off her second bun. Cass was right. It was random, but also super fitting for their current situation. They'd always dreamed about entering the world of Percy Jackson, of being badass demigods, and now they were here and it was nothing like they'd imagined.
Andi shook her head teasingly. "So, what? You were fighting the Nemean Lion and your brain was all, Look at this stuff, isn't it neat?"
"Mhm." Cass grinned, any sign of the anguish she'd been feeling over her dad a distant memory. "Shooting arrows like, Wouldn't you think my collection's complete? Wouldn't you think I'm the girl, the girl who has everything?"
"Wait," Andi said. "Isn't the line 'Wouldn't you think she's the girl, the girl who has everything?'"
Cass shook her head, her grin widening immeasurably. "No, no, you're thinking of the next part. It's 'Wouldn't you think I'm the girl, the girl who has everything?' And then it's 'Look at this trove, treasures untold. How many wonders can one cavern hold? Looking around here, you'd think, Sure, she's got everything.'"
And then all of a sudden they were singing Part of Your World to each other. Andi let the song wash over her, let herself lose herself in the lyrics. She felt like she was back in Carol's car, destined for the camping grounds, singing along to the Spotify playlist Cass made without a care in the world. She tried not to think about how things might never be like that again and focused instead on making Cass laugh with her overdramatic hand gestures.
She tried to remember that as long as she had Cass, she would never be alone. They'd get through everything ahead of them the way they'd gotten through all the bullshit in their past.
Together.
*
PERSEUS
Percy thought he might be hearing things.
He was standing on the second deck of the freight train. Thalia had just kicked him out of her Mercedes SLK, and now he was leaning against an Audi and wondering what to do with himself. Or, well, he was, until he heard what sounded like people singing Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid.
He walked towards the purple Ferrari Andi and Cassie had holed up in and realized the singing was coming from there. It seemed the two were doing a duet despite the lack of backing track and had possibly lost all sense of volume control. Percy couldn't help but smile. They were on a mysterious train heading towards an unknown destination to rescue Artemis and Annabeth from the clutches of some asshole that called himself the General, and they were singing Disney. It was more than a little unusual.
And yet he couldn't be all that surprised. He knew by now that Andi and Cassie were strange. Before Andi, he'd always thought Cassie was one of the most normal people at Camp Half-Blood, but now he was quickly starting to realize it was a façade. It was kind of funny. She almost seemed like a different person with Andi around. Not in a bad way. In a good way, actually. Cassie seemed lighter and freer with her sister around.
Because they were sisters. They didn't share a parent or a last name and they looked nothing alike but Cassie and Andi were undoubtedly sisters. They had all of these inside jokes and seemed to be able to read each other's minds. They came alive around each other as if they were feeding off of each other's energy. Now, when they sang, their voices blended together beautifully. It was like they were two halves of a whole.
"Up where they walk, up where they run," they were belting at the top of their lungs. "Up where they stay all day in the sun! Wanderin' free, wish I could be, part of that world!"
Percy nearly jumped out of his skin when Thalia rolled down her window, frowning. "Are Andi and Cassie singing?"
"Yeah," Percy answered. For some reason, he felt embarrassed, his cheeks burning. Like he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. He swallowed hard and added, "They sound good."
Thalia's frown deepened. "Yeah, I guess so. Also really loud." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you just standing there listening to them?"
"No," he scoffed, even though that was exactly what he'd been doing.
"Good, 'cause that would be kind of creepy," she said.
He rubbed the back of his sheepishly, hoping his skin wasn't as red hot as it felt. "Yeah, it would be."
Andi and Cassie were reaching the end of the song now. "When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up above? Out of the sea. Wish I could be...part of that world!"
Percy wasn't an expert but it sounded like they nailed that last note. When the song was over, he heard them laughing. With a mischievous glint in her eyes, Thalia started to clap. The laughter cut off almost immediately. Seconds later, the driver's side window started to roll down, and then Thalia was disappearing back into her car, and then a pink-cheeked Andi was staring at him. It took him a second to realize what just happened.
Thalia set him up.
"Hey," Andi greeted awkwardly, sticking her head out the window. She'd put her hair up in two buns. A few strands hadn't made it in, and now they curled around her ears. She'd changed too, into a very comfy-looking sweater. She looked pretty. Which Percy was observing in a completely platonic manner, of course.
"Hi," he said.
Cassie poked her head out the window next to Andi's. "Were we really singing loud enough for you to hear us?"
Percy looked around, hoping to find a way out of this conversation, but no such luck. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shuffled towards them, shrugging. "Yeah, kind of."
"Great!" Andi exclaimed, trying to force her grimace into a cheery smile. "On a completely unrelated note, do you think if I flung myself off this train it would be enough to kill me or—"
"You guys sounded really nice," Percy interjected.
Cassie smiled while Andi's eyes went wide. Gods, this was so painfully awkward. It hadn't been this awkward talking to Andi before, back when they were flying on Blackjack. In fact, Percy didn't think he had ever had such an easy time talking to a girl, besides maybe Annabeth, but that took time, and then Cassie, but everyone found Cassie easy to talk to. She once joked that she prided herself on her bedside manner.
"Really?" Andi pressed. "But—"
Cassie slapped her hand over Andi's mouth. "What Andi's trying to say is that's very kind of you to say, and we appreciate the applause." Judging by Andi's narrowed eyes, that was most definitely not what she was going to say.
"Um, I'm going to go find Grover," Percy blurted out.
"K," Cassie said. Andi tried to pry Cassie's hand off of her mouth, so Cassie used her free hand to fight Andi off. "We're going to try and catch some z's." Then she yanked Andi back into the car and someone rolled the window up.
Percy stood there for a moment, just staring. Then he shook off whatever weird feeling had settled over him and headed for the top deck.
*
CASSANDRA
When Cass finally managed to fall asleep, she dreamed she was home.
She was sitting at the kitchen table, kicking her legs absentmindedly. Her mom was making dinner — spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread toasting in the oven. Cass must've been nine years old. She was staring at the blank spots on the walls where pictures of Mama once hung.
Cass tilted her head curiously. "When's Mama coming home?"
Mom let out a frustrated sigh. "I already told you, sunshine. Mama isn't coming home."
"Why not?" Cass asked. She knew she'd asked it before, but Mom never answered, so it didn't hurt to ask again.
"Because..." Mom trailed off like she always did when Cass asked about Mama. Then, as expected, she changed the subject. "So how was school today?"
"Fine," Cass lied. It wasn't fine. The kids all made fun of her because she couldn't read like they could. The letters just got all jumbled in her head and she couldn't make sense of them. But Cass didn't want her mom to know about all of that. She'd just get mad again, and embarrass Cass in front of everyone.
"Good, good," Mom said. She dumped the freshly-drained pasta into the big pan with the tomato sauce and the meatballs. "Dinner's almost ready. Why don't you go wash up?"
Cass jumped up and ran to the hallway bathroom, where she could wash her hands without fear of getting in Mom's way. She scrubbed her hands nice and clean, then rushed back into the kitchen. Cass slipped into her usual seat at the table just as the doorbell rang.
A shadow crossed Mom's face, making her look a lot older than she was. She set a plate down in front of Cass and said, "Wait here, sunshine. I'm going to see who's at the door."
"Okay," Cass replied distractedly, too busy dumping grated parmesan cheese on her dinner to care who was at the door. She cut the meatballs up with the side of her fork, then mixed it all together. She was just about to shove her first forkful into her mouth when she heard her mom raise her voice.
"What are you doing here?" Mom was asking. She sounded really mad. "You know you're not supposed to be here."
Cass couldn't hear what whoever was at the door said next, but she did hear her mom practically spit out, "I told you not to come here."
"Is that Mama?" Cass called out to her mom. She figured it was Mama. Mama was the only person Mom ever got that angry with. Cass slipped off her seat and ran to the archway that linked the kitchen and the entryway. "Can I see her?"
Mom glanced at Cass, mouth set in a hard line. "No. Go eat your dinner, Cass."
"But—"
"Go eat your dinner!" Mom snapped.
Cass flinched and slunk off back to her chair. As she did, she managed to catch a glimpse of who had rung their doorbell. It wasn't Mama. It was a white man Cass had never seen before. He must've done something really bad to make Mom so angry. Or maybe not. Sometimes Mom got angry for no reason. Mama used to be able to get through to her and help her calm down, but now Mama was gone and there was no one left to remind Mom she didn't have to do or deal with everything herself.
The conversation between Mom and the man at the door didn't last much longer. Mom called him some words that Cass knew she wasn't allowed to say until she was older, then slammed the door in his face. Cass was twirling her spaghetti with her fork when Mom walked back into the kitchen.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you like that, sunshine," Mom apologized, making herself a plate of food. She set it down on the table, then kissed the top of Cass's head. "I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you like that."
"It's okay," Cass said with a shrug as Mom claimed her usual seat.
That was a common phrase in the Mills household. Cass would blow up on her mom or Mom would blow up on Cass and then they'd apologize and the other would say, "It's okay" even if it wasn't because saying it was okay was easier than really dealing with their problems. When Mama was around, she'd make them sit down and talk it out properly, and if one of them said, "It's okay," they meant it. But with no one to mediate, Cass and her mom fell into the habit of just moving on, no matter what.
"Who was the man at the door?" Cass asked, tilting her head curiously.
"Don't worry about it," Mom said dismissively.
Cass pushed her food around her plate. "Was it my dad?"
Mom stiffened and let out a sigh. "Can we please just...can we please just eat dinner?"
And that was that. The conversation was over. Cass pouted but didn't argue, and ate her dinner despite her lack of appetite. Little nine-year-old Cass had forgotten all about that incident almost immediately, never even wrote about it in her journal. But now fourteen-year-old Cass — Cass from another universe — was remembering, and with that memory came a realization.
The white man at the door had blond hair, blue eyes, and tan skin like he lived under the sun. The white man at the door had smiled at her, an easygoing smile that she'd seen recently on a homeless man. The white man at the door was her father. Apollo had come to visit her when she was a kid, but her mom didn't let him in. Why? As far as Cass knew, her dad was a sperm donor her moms had never actually met. But that's how it was in her universe. Maybe that's not how it happened in this one.
Cass blinked and the dream changed.
She was standing on a cruise ship. No, not just any cruise ship. She was standing on the Princess Andromeda. She remembered how mad Andi got when they found out that was the name of the Titan army's cruise ship. She'd said it was an insult to her name. Now Cass was aboard the offending ship and she wasn't sure why her dream had brought her here. She looked around and saw no one.
She decided to just start walking and see where her feet took her. Somehow, she ended up in a dark room with nothing but a bed. Laying on that bed was Annabeth Chase.
Cass's eyes widened. "Annabeth!" She ran to Annabeth's side and dropped to her knees beside her. Either Annabeth couldn't hear Cass, or she was too out of it to react. Cass tried to lay a hand on Annabeth's shoulder, but her hand went right through. Okay, so that answered that question.
Annabeth looked...she looked awful. Her skin was ashen, her eyes bloodshot. She was shaking ever so slightly like there was a chill in her bones that her blanket could not combat, and yet she was soaked in sweat, her hair matted to her forehead. Her face was gaunt and the skin of her bottom lip had been torn to shreds. Cass's heart broke. She wished she could do something, anything, to help, but she wasn't even really there. She was just a wandering soul catching a glimpse of a scene playing out a thousand miles away.
"Just hang in there," Cass murmured. "We're on our way. We're going to bring you home."
The door opened and a white girl Cass didn't recognize walked in. She had pink hair cut in a bob and doe brown eyes. She was carrying a tray laden with a glass of water, a steaming bowl of soup, a buttered roll of bread, and a white plastic spoon.
"You're probably not hungry, but I thought I should bring you something to eat just in case," the girl said. She set the tray down on the floor next to Annabeth, then took a seat right beside it. "It's chicken noodle soup. That always makes me feel better when I'm sick, so I thought it might help you. If you want something else, I can try and sneak into the kitchen to make you something."
Annabeth opened her eyes. The gray of her irises looked duller than usual. "How do I know it's safe to eat?"
"Why would I poison you?" the girl countered. "Come on, Annabeth. I may be on the other side, but I'm still Jill. I'm still the same girl you met on the dock."
"I'm not hungry," Annabeth said. She closed her eyes and rolled over onto her side.
Jill let out a sigh. "Understandable. I'll leave this here in case your appetite comes back, okay?" She got to her feet and headed for the door. She had one foot out the door when she paused and looked over her shoulder. "You should just join us, Annabeth. It'd make everything so much easier for you."
"Fuck off," Annabeth spat. Jill's eyes darkened. She left without another word, locking the door behind her. Annabeth waited a few minutes, then rolled onto her back and sat up a little bit. She ate the bread and drained the cup of water. When she was done, she wiped her mouth with her hand and stared off into the middle distance, eyes narrowing. "That fucking bitch."
"Yeah," Cass agreed. "Fuck her!"
Before she could say or see anything else, she was being shaken awake by Andi.
"Come on," Andi said, still looking half-asleep herself. "It's time to go. The train stopped."
"I had a dream about Annabeth," Cass told her. "And my dad. I had a dream about my dad and then I had a dream about Annabeth."
"You can tell me all about it in a minute," Andi replied. "But I want to get off this train before it leaves with us on it."
Cass rubbed her face tiredly. "Point taken."
The sisters got their things together and got out of the purple Ferrari they'd commandeered on this journey. Cass patted the roof fondly. She was going to miss it.
"You guys ready to go?" Thalia asked them, leaning on her Mercedes.
"As I'll ever be," Cass sighed. She followed Thalia and Andi off the freight train, then stared into the rising sun, hoping it would burn the image of Annabeth's emaciated form out of her head.
*
ok bit of a weird ending and also a shorter chapter but!!! let's focus on the positives!!! one of which being we got percy's pov!!! hopefully it's not too ooc. if it is, sorry, but i just really wanted to write that bit from his pov and give y'all a sense of what the others think of our girls andi and cass
also who's jill?? i definitely didn't invent her just as i was writing this chapter. or did i??
anyway, happy valentine's day y'all