Rain hit the roof, imitating the sound of a gun. Darrien shifted to avoid eye contact with Payton. Theseus rolled on the floor tiredly. Since the hydra fiasco, we had kissed Hallie on the cheek goodbye, and went to the nearest medical clinic for my feet.
"Um, how long until we get there?" I said.
"About 2 hours." The uber replied.
His white van made a sharp turn as we all hit the wall. Darrien groaned, prying his face off of the window.
"Sorry." The uber said sheepishly.
Theseus whimpered. Abigail readjusted her quiver, which she always did when she was nervous, which had started looking more bulky than usual. Payton rubbed his necklace from Hephaestus trinkets. Darrien started playing with Hallie's locket, something she used to wear everyday. It had a picture of all of us, a group picture before we set out for the quest. We were smiling in front of Olympus High, barely ready for the danger ahead. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
I opened my eyes and found myself in the Garden of Hesperides. How long have I been asleep? How did I get out of the van?
I was dressed in a flowing silver gown and and had tanned skin that slightly glowed like moon light with blond hair getting blown back by the wind. I was hovering a few feet above the floor, not even with winged sandals. 5 teenagers were walking up the mountain.
They entered and I saw them: me.
Me and my friends were walking to the garden of Hesperides. I must be experiencing this through someone else.
Payton clicked a gold pen and it transformed into a trident. He swung it over his head and smoothed his eyebrows.
"If you'll excuse us, ladies," he said, "We have business to do. You're too pretty to be mean and not let us in."
Despite myself usually blushing, someone who looked almost exactly like me except taller, in a gold dress, hovering higher than me, and with hazelnut hair replied by saying, "Despite many quotes, flattery shall get thy nowhere, Son of the sea God."
A girl with a rose gold coloured dress, red hair like flames, shorter, and hovering lower than me smiled. "We are the Hesperides. My sisters and I have guarded this garden for eons, with the help of Ladon."
A dragon almost like the hydra, but with even more heads, crawled over. It hissed. The youngest, rose gold dress, fished in her pocket and came up with raw lamb. She pieced it and threw it at the creature. It jumped up and ate it with a snap.
"Cool pet." Abigail said.
I smiled. "Hello, daughter of the maiden. I thought Artemis bared no children."
Abigail tensed. She hated people saying that. It made her sound like a mistake. But technically, she was. Artemis got drunk one night in Washington by faking her mortal ID, screwed with her "Men are pigs and utter trash" policy, screwed a guy she met at the bar, found out she was pregnant the next week (after Hera texted her a "Congrats! It's a girl!"), gave birth to Abigail in the forest, and here she was. It was also pretty bad since Artemis's mortal form was only 16 at the time, relatively young. Abigail has never really met her father. It was just a simple one-night stand sort of deal, and sometimes I see Abigail cry when someone mentions it. All she has left of her father from the bar is a photo of him from his ID. It made me feel even worse that I (or, rather, the person I'm seeing the future through) had said it. "Yeah, well, you thought wrong. Didn't Atlas have more children? Where's Calypso?"
"Calypso fought against the winning side. She lives in Ogygia on an island. She lives a rather lonely life." I replied.
"Can we get through the garden?" Darrien said.
"Of course." I said with a warm smile.
Darrien's face relaxed.
"If you survive The Ladon." I said.
"Call off the lizard. Fight us yourself." My body said. By the way, it was the actual me, not the body that is not mine but I am currently possessing.
I laughed. "If only you knew. Even as a daughter of Athena, you should know that us Hesperides are immortal. Unlike you half- bloods, we are immune to anything. Celestial bronze, monsters,-"
"Don't forget sympathy." Darrien piped up.
The eldest Hesperides scowled. "I wouldn't talk, son of Demeter. Not even your nature skills can control the garden's tree."
Darrien cursed in Ancient Greek. "You're just like Atlas. The golden apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"Good luck." The Hesperides and me said.
"Fools." I muttered as we disappeared.
"Wake up," a voice said.
A slobbery tongue brushed my face and I woke up. Theseus had jumped on me while I slept and proceeded to lick me. I wiped it off. I grabbed my backpack and got out of the van. Abigail, Payton, and Darrien were all standing in the freezing rain, dripping wet. Except for Payton, of course, because the rain had made a circle around him keeping him dry. Theseus leaped out of the van. Payton grabbed some mortal money and placed it in the uber's hands. He drove away.
"Where are we?" I said.
"Train station. We're gonna take it to San Fransisco. But the train only goes as far as Nevada with the money we have." Darrien explained.
We boarded the train. We couldn't even afford a cart with some bed space so we were all crammed in one seat.
"Please deposit one drachma for this collect call." A voice said.
Payton fished through his pockets and threw in a drachma. "O Goddess, please accept our offering."
The drachma disappeared. A misty image of Olympus High showed up. The cafeteria was lit on fire and the halls were crawling with monsters. We were in Abby's dorm. She had shut and locked the door. Things have changed since the last time we saw Abby. She no longer started wearing heavy makeup, just a little lip gloss, blush and foundation rather than mascara, eyeliner and more. And she had recently dropped the dresses. She was wearing jeans with a nice pink blouse with a lavender pattern, which had a burn mark on the left shoulder and a rip on the right arm. She had her back to the door and carried a sword. Her hair was cut longer than the shoulders, when last time we saw her was at waist length.
"Oh, good! You guys got the message!" Abby said. "Things have gotten from bad to worse here at Olympus. The barrier around the academy is...... It's almost weakened. I mean, the magical barrier is still here and all, but it's like someone-"
"Poisoned it." Darrien finished. "I can smell it even through this Iris- message. Olympus is protected by the magical barrier, the magic surrounding the gods and half- bloods within it, keeping the monsters, bad weather, stuff like that, away. Artemis is missing on Olympus, weakening the barrier around school. Any more Gods and Goddesses?"
"Well, we just got alert on Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, and Athena missing. Actually, Ares took Apollo's spot as the driver of the sun. But he doesn't do a good job. Just yesterday, he torched Florida. The mortals didn't realize it, though. They just thought it was a 'heatwave'. A couple of minor gods and Goddesses, too. Janus, Hecate, Morpheus, Nemesis. But, according to the Athena offsprings studies, their essence is still present, just not on Olympus. Mortals are still dreaming, thanks to Morpheus. And mortals are still making choices, thanks to Janus. And Mortals are still taking revenge on each other, thanks to Nemesis. But they're not on Olympus, making the barriers paper thin. A couple of students in Advanced Spell- ology are watching the barrier at night and trying to get it to be more stable. It works okay, but not strong enough, as you can tell." Abby said.
"My mom's gone?" I said.
Abby nodded her head. "Sorry, Ariana. The school has a fill in Principal. Principal, er, Hermes. No, wait. He got captured two days ago. Our newest Principal is Hephaestus, I think."
She opened the door just a sliver and we could see fire erupting around the halls and students attacking Hellhounds. She closed the door and she flipped the image, and we got a vision of outside the window. Students were on chariots shooting Cyclops with their arrows and spears. Aiden was leading the archers into battle, slaying an empousa, half animal legs, half demon girl. They chased her across the field, licking her lips at a mortal.
"What happened to Piper?" Abigail asked.
"Piper's not doing good. She got thrown like a rag doll by some Cyclops. And, on top of that, DemiGods are leaving. They're weakening the barrier by going against Olympus and attacking our side." Abby said.
"What about my dad? What's he doing?" Payton said.
"Poseidon is in the ocean, fighting off the old Titans of the sea. He has his own battle and can't be in Olympus." Abby said.
The door broke down as a Minotaur stomped into her dorm. She rolled under the bed and kept still. She threw a drachma in the air and our screen minimized and hid under the bed with her. She put her index finger to her lips. The Minotaur sniffed the air. He stomped out of the room and broke into Pansy's. Pansy yelped and swiped her sword at the creature. It dissolved in to golden spores as Pansy held up her shield.
"Believe it or not, that's the eighth time it happened this week." Abby said. Abby got up and the image followed her. She put the door back on it's hinges and shut it. She propped a heavy shield on a chair and dragged it at the door knob.
"Listen, I have to go soon, seeing as I can't be alone for 5 minutes without a Cyclops or monster finding me. But, most important thing, Principal Hephaestus knows who the spy is. The spy who's on the ques-"
The image disappeared. "Please deposit one more drachma for an additional five minutes," A voice said.
"You guys got any? I'm broke." Payton said.
We all shook our heads no.
"Great. Now, we don't know who the spy is because of Iris, that little gold digger." Abigail grumbled.
A rainbow shot through the window and landed on Abigail. The rainbow disappeared, leaving a rainbow stripe where it had been. She straightened her shirt and it faded away.
"O, Goddess of The rainbow, I apologize for telling the truth." She mumbled.
Theseus walked in a circle and took a little nap. I got all cozy and took a nap myself.
"Look! We're in Las Vegas!" Abigail said.
A flashing sign read Welcome to Las Vegas, Nevada.
"Let's just take a quick stop for sight seeing." Payton reasoned.
I didn't need to be told twice. As soon as the train stopped, we hopped out and took a small walk.
"Okay, always take the queens, never the jacks." Darrien said.
"We're not here to gamble, we're just here to sight see." I reminded them.
"Okay, let's map out how we're gonna get to California." Abigail said, grabbing a map.
"Let's take the train again." Payton said.
"No. We're out of mortal money." I said.
"According to my IDemi, the nearest drachma ATM is only 4 blocks away." Darrien said, pulling out his phone.
I grabbed a seat and was shocked to see a man dressed in all gold, all gold hair, hat, skin, everything. He tipped his hat to me. I smiled. I fished in my pocket and gave him a pack of gum. He frowned and threw it at a pigeon. Either I've gone crazy or monsters have invaded Nevada, because the next moment the pigeon made this screeching noise and flew off.
"We'll try and track the ATM." Abigail said then scrambled off with Darrien.
The gold man stood up and did a small robot dance. A stranger threw him a twenty dollar bill. The gold man tipped his hat and smiled.
"Um, can I borrow your twenty?" I said, reaching for the fold in his hat.
He jerked his hat back and frowned. He walked away and found a spot near a cafè.
"Guys! We found an ATM!" Abigail yelled. I walked over to the group, more than happy to get as far away as DemiGodly possible from the tin man with no heart.
We stood in front of a big pet store that read Aunty M's snake trinkets and more.
"There's ATMs inside of a pet store?" I said reluctantly.
"According to my app, yes." Abigail answered and, with that, strolled in.
We all marched after him except for Darrien, who stood by with Theseus.
"Not coming?" Payton called as he pushed the door open.
Darrien shook his head. "Nah. Someone's gotta watch Theseus. Go have fun. I'll watch the little runt." He rubbed his hand over Theseus's head.
I nodded. Theseus wouldn't like being cooped up inside some pet store with nothing to do. I trailed after Payton as I looked one last time at Theseus, who looked a little shaken up, like he knew something was going to happen.
"It's okay, bud. I'll see you soon." I called.
And let the the door close behind me.