Title: The worst vacation ever

Summary: Zoey's circle goes to California for vacation, but as they're passing through a small beach town called Perdido Beach, they come across a barrier. They get trapped in the FAYZ like Alex while Gaia is destroying Perdido Beach. AU where Howard and Brianna survive.

Rated: T

House of Night Pairings: Zoey/Stark, Aphrodite/Darius, Stevie Rae/Rephaim, I can't think of any others but if I forgot any just let me know

Gone Pairings: Sam/Astrid, Howard/Orc, Edilio/Roger, Brianna/Dekka, Caine/Diana, Quinn/Albert, unrequited Edilio/Sam

Warnings: cursing, mentionings of violent deaths, teenage drinking, I can't think of anything else

Disclaimer: I do not own House of Night or the Gone series. The Gone series and its characters belong to Michael Grant and the House of Night charcaters belong to P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

AN: This is my first House of Night fanfic so no flames please and sorry if any of the characters are OOC. Enjoy :)

Aphrodite

Aphrodite woke up with a massive headache that felt like giant fists knocking against her head. She groaned and sat up, putting a hand on her forehead. Her life was a mess. Last night she'd had to attend Erin's funeral, and they couldn't live in the depot, and their cats and Duchess were there and she missed Maleficent, and she had that vision of Zoey, and her mom had disowned her and Neferet had eaten her dad and...

She held back a scream. She'd say she was stressed, but stressed was the understatement of the year.

"Advil?" Darius offered, two little red pills in the palm of his hand.

Aphrodite smiled gratefully and took them, drinking a huge glass of water along with it. Darius was good to her. Aphrodite would probably be a lot more stressed if he wasn't there to comfort her. "I need a vacation," she grumbled, and that was when the light bulb went off in her blond head.

A vacation. High fucking time for one.

"Darius. We should go on vacation," Aphrodite suggested. "You and me, and the rest of our circle."

He gave her a doubtful look. "The mayor - your dad - has just been murdered," he said. "You really think the High Council will let you go on vacation? Just us and our circle?"

"You're an adult," she pointed out. "A Son of Erebus. You could protect us." She smirked. "On vacation."

Darius smiled warmly. "It wouldn't hurt to ask Thanatos for permission," he said.

Aphrodite's headache began fading away. "I really fucking hope she says yes," she said.

Zoey

"A vacation?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Nyx knows we all need one," Aphrodite pointed out.

It was true. We'd all been really stressed - especially Aphrodite - that the High Council would have to let us go. Take a break, for once. We'd gone through so much, my friends deserved a break. We could deal with Neferet's crap when we got back. I thought everyone was a bit stressed out. "I think it's a good idea," I said. "Where would we go?"

"Anywhere but here is fucking good with me," Aphrodite responded, and Stark covered a laugh with a cough.

I rolled my eyes. "I'll take that as a 'Let's get past getting Thanatos' permission to figure that out'," I said. "I take it you're feeling better?"

Aphrodite glared at me and took a sip of wine out of her coffee mug. That was when I thought of something, and it totally was meant to be a joke, but when I asked, "So, no complaints about Shaylin coming?" I actually was really curious about that.

Aphrodite didn't answer for a moment, but then she said, "As long as she doesn't annoy me."

I didn't believe her, but I decided not to press further. After breakfast, we all went to Thanatos' classroom and knocked on her door. "Come in," she said from inside her classroom, her voice muffled by the door.

Aphrodite and I had gone to get Thanatos' approval, so I followed Aphrodite in. I let Aphrodite ask, since it was her idea. She got right to the point. "Thanatos, Zoey and I wanted to get your approval - since everyone's really f - I mean, really stressed right now, we wanted your approval to go on vacation."

I was surprised by how politely she'd asked. Thanatos looked surprised, too, probably at our question. "Under normal circumstances, I would permit a vacation for you and your circle, Aphrodite," Thanatos said, "but with all that's been going on it may not be a good idea. We may need you here as witnesses. And there's the Vampyre High Council-"

"I thought you left the High Council," Aphrodite interrupted.

"I did," Thanatos confirmed. "I will not deny that. But..."

"Because everyone is under a lot of stress is exactly why we need a vacation," I piped up. "Just a short one. Please, Thanatos? We just want a break. We'll deal with whatever's coming for us when we get back. I promise." I looked at Aphrodite.

"Fine, I promise, too," Aphrodite said with a dramatic sigh, and flipped her hair.

My heart lifted when I saw surrender in Thanatos' eyes. "A short vacation," Thanatos allowed, putting more emphasis than necessary on the word short. "I will give you four days to go wherever you wish to go, under some conditions."

Aphrodite groaned, and I elbowed her in the ribs. "I hate conditions," she said.

"Do you want to go on vacation or not?" I asked her, giving her a Don't push it look. She gave me an annoyed look in response.

"The first condition is, you must have a Son of Erebus agree to chaperone your trip, to protect you in case something happens," Thanatos said. "Just for safety precautions."

"Easy," Aphrodite said. "Darius."

"The second condition is," Thanatos continued, "you must get the approval of at least two teachers. They can be whoever you wish." Aphrodite opened her mouth to say something, but I gave her a warning look.

"Why?" I asked Thanatos. I was curious myself.

"The human police want to get DNA samples of all the teachers here," Thanatos reminded us. "They think someone at the House of Night killed Erin and Mayor LaFont. They're blaming our teachers, who may think it is unfair for you to take off in a time of need, especially some of our witnesses of the other night." A brief silence. I hated to admit it, but it made sense. "The third, and last condition, is that you must pay for all of your trip expenses yourself. No money will come from the House of Night to help you."

"Fair enough," I said.

"I've got my gold card," Aphrodite reminded me.

"Okay," I said. "So if we agree to those three things, we'll be able to go on vacation? For four days?"

"Yes," Thanatos said.

Aphrodite's eyes lit up and I was shocked to see an actual grin on her face. "Thank you, Thanatos," I said calmly, trying to suppress my own excitement.

She smiled. "You're welcome," she replied. "I'll see you both in class."

I nodded and followed Aphrodite out of the room, excited to plan our vacation.

Aphrodite

On their way back from Thanatos' classroom, Zoey and Aphrodite brainstormed a list of teachers who they might be able to talk to. "Lenobia?" Zoey suggested.

"Sure," Aphrodite agreed. Honestly, she had no idea who might okay their trip.

"Who else?"

"Lenobia and..." Aphrodite trailed off, and then she got an idea. "Darius and Stark teach archery to students," she said. "I wonder if Darius would count."

"I hope," Zoey said.

Darius counted, and Lenobia okayed their trip, so all that was left was planning their trip. They sat down in a cafeteria booth at dinner that night to discuss it with their circle.

"So," Zoey said, opening a blank Microsoft Word page on her laptop. "Who has any suggestions on where to go?"

"Besides 'anywhere but here'," Aphrodite said, and Shaylin let out a half snort, half laughing sound. "I think we've all established that."

Darius wrapped an arm around her shoulders and Aphrodite leaned into him.

"Disneyland," Stevie Rae suggested.

"Oh, hell no," Aphrodite protested. "Z, I am not letting the bumpkin waste our vacation on Disneyland."

Zoey rolled her eyes, but typed in Disneyland on her computer anyway. "Any other suggestions?"

"Hell yes," Aphrodite said. "L.A."

"Ooooh," Shaunee said. "I second that."

Aphrodite grinned as Zoey typed L.A. into her laptop. A lot of people agreed with Aphrodite's choice, and they ended up choosing that. They searched for hotels and picked out a nice five star resort on the beach. "My dad has a private jet," she said, and then remembered. "Well, he did have a private jet. We can go in that."

"Your dad had a private jet?" Shaylin gawked at Aphrodite, who rolled her eyes. "That is so cool."

"Yep," Aphrodite replied, and Zoey watched them nervously, probably hoping they wouldn't argue again. They probably would, but little did Zoey know how Shaylin and Aphrodite were working together. Aphrodite was excited for their vacation but she hoped the dream thing wouldn't affect it too much. Z needed a vacation - maybe this was what she needed to calm down and for her colors to go back to normal.