Okay I don't usually like to begin with a long Authors note, but I have to here. As lots of you (or those of you who read my notes in the previous one) I am moving soon. So I have literally six weeks to get this up. Fortunately there are only six chapters, unfortunately until August or Late July I will be out of commission. The way I have this planned I will get the last chapter out the day before I get on a fourteen hour flight (Good planning right?) The next one will not be up for a very long, long time. I am trying to get the other one written but I don't know how long that's going to take.

This one is also technically a crossover of PJO and a series called TimeRiders, great books read them and you might understand a bit more, but if you haven't read them that's okay too. Feel free to ask questions!

I don't own PJO or TimeRiders

Secret of the Silver Bow Part III: Of Time Riding and Trench Wars

One

Key – The Wild

The Conscious

The Instinct

Shamrock

Nothing to Remember

I spend my life becoming invisible, It's hard to maintain, and it's hard to get by, I don't recall fight or flight setting in
~ Neko Case

Grace

It took them over an hour to find her, and when she was found by someone. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her chin was resting on them, her eyes were wide with fear and the person wasn't sure what to do, which was fitting seeing as that someone just happened to be Nico. He seemed to be a bit annoyed that she wouldn't say anything but he lead her back to Camp. By this time the whole camp was awake and at breakfast.

"I found her Chiron." He said his deep voice an emotionless void, like that of the underworld. "There was no sign of Shamrock though." The Hunters, Artemis and Apollo looked up.

"Grace what happened?" Thalia's voice made it clear she expected to be answered, and would be, Grace looked at her, tears once again welling up in her green eyes. Lady Artemis seemed too stunned to speak at the moment, she was more worried about her son then Grace's sanity. If anything in recent months that seemed to have been crumbling. The look on Grace's face though was enough to tell her it was bad, a whole new level of bad, not just Shamrock bad, but worse, if that was possible.

"H-he f-fell. I-I'm so sorry my Lady." Grace whimpered, before breaking down in sobs. Thalia led her to the table and tried to get more out of her. It was bad, Lady Artemis knew that now, Grace didn't cry over guys.

"What? Where did he fall?" Artemis said the panic now more evident in her voice.

"Oh, Um Artemis." Nico spoke up, his voice very grim it was clear that he knew what was going on. "There was a cliff is that what you mean Grace?" Grace looked at him and nodded. Lady Artemis let out a feral howl that was both frightening and heart breaking, before Apollo or anyone else could stop her she had changed into wolf form and raced out of the pavilion. Grace sat down and stared at her food, but it would be a long time before she even felt hungry.

There was the gnawing feeling of guilt in her stomach, and an empty feeling in her heart that she had not felt in a long time the feeling of having the rug pulled out from under here, again. The same feeling that had settled itself in the pit of her stomach like a stone, when she saw her brothers burned corpse once he was removed from the wreckage of the fire, the one that remained there for many years. It was agony.

The rest of the day, seemed to pass in a blur, she spent it on the archery range, alone, shooting arrow after arrow into the targets. She did this until she couldn't take it anymore and she sat down crying. After about twenty minutes she dried her tears and went back to the cabin, the rest of the hunt was gone, but the cabin itself seemed to grieve for him. It was quite and dark, the blinds and curtains were both closed tightly and the beds made in the hunter style, the entire cabin seemed dead. She was completely alone.

The camp was mostly quiet, there were no classes that day. They were all out searching for the body. Grace knew there wouldn't be anything but she didn't tell them that, because even though most of the campers didn't know or like Shamrock they had been to many funerals without bodies after the titan war to let this one go unchecked.

Why? Why her? Hadn't she had enough pain, and suffering come her way? She would ask herself this question during the painful weeks ahead, she would ask herself this more than she should have.

She wanted nothing more at that moment then Shamrock back at their side telling them he was fine, hugging her tightly and muttering in her ear that it was all a big misunderstanding, but with Sham that was highly unlikely. In the evening there was a knock at the door and Percy was standing there with Annabeth, both had grim looks on their face's and it was clear they had found no body.

"Can we come in?" Percy asked, Grace remained completely silent but stood back to let them in. Lilly who was seated on the bed stood up shakily, her eyes were red, her curls un brushed, she hadn't even changed out of her pajamas, and a wolf pendant swung about her neck, there were tear tracks down her face and she had clearly been crying.

"Are you Percy?" Lilly asked her voice weak, as though she didn't care who he was or why he was here. She probably didn't care.

"Yeah, are you Shamrock's sister?" Percy asked carefully so as not to upset her.

"Yeah, but we were friends first." Lilly said wiping her eyes and sniffing.

"Oh, could we prepare a funeral?" Percy asked.

"You should wait for Lady Artemis to get back before you do that." Grace snapped, but it was really more that she didn't want to believe he was dead, she wanted to believe that he'd found some way out of this mess. That he was okay somewhere out there, and that he would come home. She had to hope because right now there seemed to be none and if there wasn't any hope left then her sanity would crumble, slowly.

Artemis

It would however be a long time until Lady Artemis returned, longer than anyone thought she would neglect her hunters for. By the time there was even discussion of a funeral, she was already in Maine and showed no sign of stopping, she turned west towards Alaska and before she took one more step she disappeared into moonlight, and was blown away.

Days would pass and no one would see hide nor hair of her, but after about a week and a half she returned to a physical form and disappeared into the garden of solitude and would speak to no one. None of them understood why bother talking to them about it? They couldn't fix her problem so she shouldn't cry to them about it, that was what she had been taught as a child 'if no one can fix it and you know that don't cry over it' she figured it still applied here and Hera would get angry at her if she mentioned it. She felt twelve years old again, hiding from her step mother in the gardens of solitude, crying as ichor trickled down her face from Hera's nails, which were more like talons.

She didn't care if Athena tried the logical approach, saying that it was probably quick and painless. She didn't care if Hera lost her temper and screamed at her and hit her. She most certainly care didn't care if Apollo tried to cheer her up with a song, those things only made her angry. She screamed at Athena to leave her alone, she broke four of Hera's ribs and told Apollo his music, poetry and what not was a load of crap and to give it up.

If she couldn't have Shamrock there was only one person left who could possibly console her, Orion. Her friend and lover, she could never be angry at him, it wasn't his fault her son was dead (It wasn't Apollo, Athena or Hera's fault either that was just pent up anger) He was dead though and Hades didn't fancy the idea of letting him out of the Underworld even for a few days. So Apollo stuck her in the back of the sun chariot and flew her west, even there in the company of Orion she said very little.

"I am sorry about your child Lady Artemis." Orion said, trying his best to console her by wrapping an arm around her, it was only then that she turned her sad silver eyes on him and said;

"Artemis, it's just Artemis." It was barely more than a whisper but that was the most she had spoken in two weeks. Even that was enough for Apollo; she had to be getting better. So he left her down there with Orion.

Things didn't go as well as hoped, she stayed silent. They would 'hunt' in the day (If you could call hunting when everything is already dead) and she would be silent, they would eat, also in silence, then she would lie down and go to sleep. As much as Orion tried to hide it, for her sake, he was worried sick about her.

At this point even Hades was worried; he loved his niece even if he didn't always show it. Next to Poseidon he had been the closest thing to a father Artemis had. It's not like Zeus ever showed her affection or even remembered her name, on her ninth birthday he had called her Athena, so don't expect him to play the daddy role. She was the kind of kid that you had to love; when she was younger she would smile at almost anyone, even him. Then when she was twelve things changed, her relationship with Hera got even rockier and Apollo and her, who had once been very close, grew farther and farther apart. He watched her become like an island, alone in the fast Ocean of the world and she closed off her boarders refusing to let anyone in for fear of getting hurt.

Even Hades hadn't seen Artemis this upset before, even when Orion died that was bad but this was horrible. She had he connection with her child severed in just fifteen seconds. Something no one should ever have to experience.

After a few days in the Underworld she left, and Poseidon was the next one to attempt to comfort her, but she had become so silent and closed in that even he couldn't get through to her. It was hopeless. It had been three weeks and he was still controlling the tides.

Apollo

Apollo grieved very differently from anyone. He kept up with his duties, unlike his sister whom the Hunters had been taking turns driving for. He did however go home every night and just look around the house. It was empty and silent, he'd been in the house alone before but there was always that feeling that he would be back. Now that the little tyrant that had controlled most of his life was gone the house was empty, cold, and lifeless, he had no reason to be here, but he couldn't bring himself to go to his palace on Olympus.

He kept seeing images of little Shamrock in the house. Lying in his bed as Apollo played a lullaby he had written just for him on the Lyre; Running around like a wild child, completely naked as Apollo chased him around the house (he was a fast three year old) because he didn't want a bath. Ten year-old Sham standing with his arms crossed, scowling (as usual) about being told not to hunt. Then he saw him and the hunters there after the Volterra incident, the happiest he had ever seen Shamrock.

He opened the door to Shamrocks room. The bed was made boot camp style, the way he had been taught in military school (It's a long story, and Apollo didn't mean to forget he had left him there for a full year!) and there was a chest at the foot of it. The dresser across from it was gathering dust along with the rest of the room. No one had slept here in weeks but now it really felt empty, it really felt like he was gone. This time Apollo couldn't go visit, this time he was really alone here.

He sighed and closed the door to Shamrock's room and locked it. He wouldn't be able to go in there again. He climbed the ladder to the attic and in a puff of dust as he turned on the old, dusty lamp he saw Sham's old crib, it was painted a sliver color, with stars and the moon on the head board, it had faded over the years and the sheets, which still covered the mattress because Apollo had been too lazy to take them off when Sham moved to a bed when he was five, (He was much smaller than the average kid) had crescent moons all over them. His mind flashed to an image of Sham as a baby.

The room could have been any other infant's room. It was painted baby blue, the changing table and dresser were painted silver, there was a crescent moon and the constellations painted on one side of the room, near the crib. In the crib slept a small baby (Almost too small for his age), a tuft of Auburn hair on his head, his onesie was blue and he had a small scowl on his face (even as a baby a scowl seemed permanently carved on his face) like his dreams confused him and he didn't like it. The boy's big lamp like silver eyes opened and instead of crying he merely looked up scowling at the mobile of the ancient Greek gods hanging above his head, his eyes fixated on the one of Artemis, as though he wanted her and not Apollo.

Tears welled in the corners of Apollo's blue eyes; it was hard to imagine that he would never see Shamrock again. Even if he had driven him crazy for years on end with his endless escapades (What he would give for Sham to be on one of those against the rules hunting trips) he still loved him, perhaps the grief was worse for Apollo because he had raised the boy. Apollo had never told Shamrock that he nearly put him in an orphanage for the first few years of life, he also never told him that he never once regretted raising him. He never told him how much he loved him. He never told him how much he reminded him of his father, which was strange because he was so much like Artemis. Artemis, it was hard to say though, Artemis did love him more than Apollo had seen her love anything else. Even more then Artemis loved him, which hurt to think about, but they were mother and child they were supposed to be close.

Lilly

The first day Lilly cried, more then she wanted to admit. She had lost a friend, one of the first one she's had in a long time. She called Jake and told him the news but he offered little comfort, afterwards she spent most of the day at the canoe lake watching the naiads weave, at around noon, Nico showed up.

"Are you just going to sit there all day?" He asked. She jumped and turned around, when she saw it was only Nico she sighed.

"I don't know what else to do; he was my brother you know." She whispered. Nico looked up at her in surprise. "Apollo told me after Lady Artemis ran out of the pavilion, that he had us separated and I was raised by Poseidon because we would provoke each other's powers."

"Oh, it's not easy to lose a sibling." Nico sat down next to her and sighed, like he knew what she meant.

"He wasn't really my brother; just because he was a blood relation doesn't mean I thought of him as one, he was always just a friend to me nothing more nothing less." She shrugged and leaned her head on Nico who jumped but didn't resist.

"I guess but it's no use grieving about him." Nico whispered, putting an arm around her.

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked puzzled.

"Well would he want us too? No he'd want us to go on living out lives because it's what we were meant to do. I learned that the dead don't like it when you get too twisted up in grief." He said darkly like he had a bad experience with the dead once. "Besides we don't even know if he's really dead."

"Of course we do, he fell off a cliff over a hundred yards then hit the water." Lilly exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Grace never saw him hit the water. She saw a flash of silver light then he was gone, and I could feel it if he was dead, but something's not right here. It's as if someone is playing a deadly game with fate. Like they are trying to cause him trouble, but not enough to kill him." Nico was frustrated.

"Who would do that?" Lilly wiped her eyes with one hand

"Easy, someone who wanted revenge for something he or maybe one of his parents did or possibly Chaos."

"Chaos?"

"An immortal being that causes, chaos." Nico raised his eyebrows.

"Oh. But a lot of people don't like Artemis." Lilly pointed out, it was true she had killed more Greek hunters then anyone else, and Lilly was prepared to bet that they didn't like her very much.

"Yeah but I could narrow it down to a few." Nico frowned, like he knew something they didn't

"Like who?" Lilly asked.

"It's not my place to tell you that now come on we should get going, you need to return to your home for now." He stood up and vanished into the shadows.

"We? Who's we? You just disappeared I am still right here!" Lilly said. Nico suddenly reappeared, and coughed.

"Right, forgot you can't do that okay now we leave." He grabbed her hand and they both disappeared into the shadows.

The Hunt

The hunt as a whole behaved quite oddly, none of them really knew how to take his 'death' seeing as they had only just started to warm up to him. They all seemed like they were in a state of shock too frozen to do much more than their daily routine. They got up made the bed, went to breakfast did their morning archery lessons, went to lunch, taught archery in the afternoon, went to shower, went to dinner, and then to bed. Even Chiron found it strange how they didn't even complain when they had to give lessons, but they plainly shot who ever tried to flirt with them or speak to them really.

Other than the state of shock things seemed pretty status quo for their little group, they fought with campers (Next to silently) and refused to let the Apollo cabin lecture them on archery. After a few days they snapped out of it and mostly returned to their normal selves. With the exception of Grace and Thalia.

Thalia was just a bit harsher and distorted, which was more because no one had any idea where Lady Artemis was and this was known to upset her a lot. She tried to run things the way Lady Artemis would have them run, but this was her first time without Lady Artemis around for more than a week. She wasn't Zoe, she couldn't keep the hunters constantly on their toes, even though she tried her hardest the hunters had fallen into a slump, and she didn't really know what to do. It was times like this that she felt like she had done something wrong, like she didn't belong here, but she had nowhere else to go, she didn't have any choice.

Grace just seemed kind of lost. Like she didn't really know what to do in this situation, she had a vacant look in her eyes like something was gone. It took her a few days to speak again but she didn't cry in public after the day of the 'accident', she would talk and act much like she had before, hardened, not letting anyone in and like she was completely alone in the world. She beat up even more Apollo campers then normal which is saying something as she usually beat up whichever one came he way. What's worse is she beat herself up about it, constantly telling herself that it was all her fault that everyone she knew and loved was dead. Her family, her best friend, who was next? Who could she trust not to leave her?

What the hunt didn't know however is that Shamrock was very much alive, he was in a time and place that was much more dangerous than here, and he may have gotten himself into more trouble than ever…

?

A harsh light hit my face, and I blinked a few times. I was lying on a bunk and three kids were staring at me, two girls and a boy. The oldest was the girl who looked like she was a tech geek; she had glasses on, frizzy red hair and was maybe eighteen. The boy was sixteen or seventeen and his dark brown hair and brown eyes looked at me like he wondered where I came from, and the youngest girl had Carmel skin, black hair and didn't seem to care about me what so ever. She just seemed mildly annoyed, and angry at me.

"Hello." The boy said, he had a thick accent, an Irish accent. I sat up and looked at him.

"Are you Grace?" I asked.

"That's a girl's name!" He snapped. "My name is Liam O'Connor, what's yours?"

"It's-" I stopped. "I don't know. I-I can't remember."

"Oh, well this is Maddy, and Sal." He introduced, Maddy, the girl with glasses smiled.

"Is there something we can call you?" She asked carefully like I was a small child, I didn't like that I wasn't a six year old. Was I? No, at least I didn't think I was a six year old.

"Um… Orion." I said, frowning.

"That's a stupid name." Sal said.

"Sal, be nice, I know you haven't slept in two days but you could be nice." Maddy scolded.

"Why haven't you slept?" I asked.

"You were screaming in your sleep a lot." Sal got up and walked away. Liam yawned.

"Where am I?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "New York, September 10, 2001."

"Oh, thanks." I said, I didn't really know what the date was supposed to do for me, but it felt important, like something big was about to happen. Liam nodded and handed me a bowl of dry cereal. "Do you have any milk?"

"No, sorry. So do you remember anything?" He asked curiously. I shook my head.

"Just this." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a picture of a red haired girl, lying gin the grass, looking up at me. "Her name is Grace, I think."

"Was she your girlfriend?" He asked

"I don't know, all I know is, she's important and I have to get back to her. Oh, and I don't think I'm from around here." I sat up and put the bowl on the side table. "It sounds familiar, is it a national holiday? The presidents birthday? Was the president assassinated?"

"Um, not exactly. " He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What did I scream about in my sleep?" I asked.

"Most of it was in a language none of us could identify though Bob said that it might be some very old dialect of Greek; the bits that were in English were about Grace." Liam grinned. "Only I heard those parts though so don't worry I won't tell the girls, they'll tease you to no end they will."

I stood up, I was a little shaky at first but I got my balance and got my first good look around this place it was dull and the bricks were crumbling quite a bit. The four beds all had metal frames, like you might see in a prison and on the one next to me there was a picture taped up, it was in black and white and fuzzy. They really needed to add some… pizazz to this place.

"You live here?" I asked warily, if they did I felt really bad for them, it was so depressing, like prison, or an orphanage or prison that was for orphans.

"Not, exactly, we're time travelers." Maddy said.

"Yeah sure you are and I'm a magical pony in magical pony land." I said skeptically.

"No really, we watch out for changes here in our time then we go back and correct them." She insisted.

"Is this true?" I rolled my eyes

"Yes." Liam said.

"Then how is that possible?"

"Well in 2041 a man created a time machine, but when he saw the power it had he destroyed the machine and all his notes but it was too late the damage had been done so they recruited a bunch of people like us. To use the time travel abilities to be able to correct other people's mistakes, it has worked so far. The people they choose though have to 'die' we can't be missed. Liam was rescued from the Titanic I was rescued from a plane crash, and Sal was rescued from a fire. We won't be missed because we'll be assumed dead." Maddy explained.

"Why should I believe you?" I asked.

"It's your choice but you already know too much so if you leave we will have to kill you." Liam said.

"Ouch." I said.

Maddy whacked him on the back of the head. "No we won't have to kill you but as much as you might not like it you've been recruited. Welcome to the team Orion."

So after they shared that little bit of information (Which they ought to have explained at the beginning) I got the 'Grand' tour. The headquarters was four rooms. That was it, a bathroom; the shower was old and rusty, according to Maddy if you wanted to have enough hot water you had to shower in five minutes. The toilet seat had fallen off and the sink gave you a trickle of water.

The living room was small but nicer than the bathroom, Sal, a huge monster guy and a huge monster girl were watching a movie in Hindi on the Television which was a little fuzzy but not bad. They had painted over the bricks and a pale yellow color now covered them. There was a throw rug under a coffee table, there was a counter along one wall, with another sink (With much better water flow might I add) a stove and a coffee maker.

The last room was dark and the lights that were on were kept quite dim, along one wall were computers and tech stuff. On the other wall were four tanks, filled with a livid gel solution. The first two tanks were empty and the last two had what looked like monkeys floating in them but when I got closer I saw that they one was human. A baby; maybe nine months old. The other was unrecognizable.

"Is that a fetus?" I asked.

"Yep, about eight weeks into development." Maddy said proudly as though she was the mother.

"Why?" I asked honestly this was going to make me quite sick. Who puts human fetuses in a tank to look at? That is just sick and twisted

"They're genetically engineered to be stronger, larger, and more efficient than humans. They also have a computer instead of a brain, they're organic robots." Maddy said.

"Yep our little robot kids." Liam smiled.

"If you don't mind me asking, but I am going to anyway; whose fetuses are they?" I asked.

Maddy shrugged. "Somebodies in the future I guess."

"Wouldn't the mother miss her child?" I wondered.

"I like to think that they were given up willingly but I honestly don't know." Maddy whispered. She seemed sad so Liam put an arm around her.

"Of course they were." He muttered. I felt like an intruder, they all knew this life and had accepted it as their own but I didn't accept it. It wasn't my life there had to be more that I couldn't remember.

"Come on," Maddy said. "Let's go watch the movie with Sal."

I had no idea the Titanic came in Hindi. I guess it did, I wasn't personally fan of the movie, in Hindi I don't know if I've ever seen it in English. Personally I thought some of the tragedy and romance were taken away but it was enough to bring Liam to the brink of tears. According to Sal, Liam was a bit of a softy, and terrified of water. I guess if you live through something it makes it much harder to see.

After the movie was over Liam muttered something about going to bed and Sal went off to shower. Maddy seemed distracted, she had been since I asked where the fetus' came from.

"Hey Maddy?" I asked.

She jumped. "Yeah Orion?"

"Are you and Liam…" I trailed off.

She blushed and shook her head. "No, we're just friends."

"Okay." I could tell she knew I didn't believe her. "I'm going to bed."

The bed that was prepared for me was the one above Liam's bunk, there was no ladder so I just climbed up the side. I lay there for quite some time, I heard Sal muttering in Hindi to herself, Maddy rolling around in her sleep and Liam whimpering. Finally after what felt like hours, I drifted off to sleep.

Camp of the Hunters, Maine 2001

Artemis

Something was wrong she could feel it. She sensed another form that should not be here, it was like there was another half of her. She would have to investigate.

"Zoe. I want you to take Grace and Emily to investigate this source, it is coming from Manhattan." She ordered.

Zoe bowed deeply "Yes Milady. Grace, Emily come." The two hunters stood up.

Grace brushed her waist length red braid behind her. "We will find it and kill it."

"Good, good." Lady Artemis muttered.

The three hunters ran out of the campsite and towards their target, but Lady Artemis couldn't help but wonder if she ought to have gone after this one herself.

Shamrock/ Orion

When I woke the next day Liam, Sal and Maddy were up and their beds were made, I decided to follow their lead. I made my bed in Army Boot Camp fashion, it just seemed right. Since I didn't have any pajama's I just put the dress thing on that was in the bag next to my bed and went out to the main room. Maddy and Liam were talking in hushed voices in one corner. Maddy seemed to be tracing patterns on the back of Liam's hand, which was on the counter.

I sat on the couch next to Sal, Becks and Bob, the two giant people, who I guessed were siblings, I had been explained that they were the product of the genetic engineering and had a robot brain. Becks' long dark hair was in a ponytail behind her and she looked at me and raised her eyebrows in such a way that made forget she was a robot for a minute.

"Orion, are you okay?" Becks inquired.

"Yeah. Sal?" I asked. "What's going on with them?" I gestured to Maddy and Liam.

"Oh the usual they've been whispering together for weeks. It doesn't really bother me anymore. They argue sometimes." Sal explained. Their voices rose and it was clear they were arguing about something.

"Why do they argue so much?" I asked.

"I don't know it's only gotten worse since we found out time travel kills. Liam always seemed a bit stressed though. Particularly when Becks was around Maddy, and Maddy well she and Beck get along but I think she doesn't like how much attention Becks gets from Liam." Sal sighed. "Maddy gets really stressed out a lot; it's her job to keep us all safe which in recent weeks has only gotten harder and harder."
"They're like an old married couple." I commented.

"It's true, and look, now they start yelling." As if on cue Maddy and Liam's voices rose to a yell. "Then Liam will walk out and Maddy will pull the curtains around her bunk, and two hours from now things will be fine."

"Maddy!" Liam said. "Time travel is killing me not you!"

"Oh this is new stuff." Sal frowned. "it's usually about little things like the mess around here and things like that.

"Liam just let me go back and do the training mission with him!" Maddy pleaded.

"No, this is my job and I intend to do it to the best of my ability before I die and you can't stop that." Liam shouted!

"This isn't good." Sal muttered. "Hey you guys! Stop, you two fight way too much, and we have a new guy!"

"Fine. Sal take Orion and go… exploring!" Maddy barked. Sal shut up, nodded and motioned for me to fallow her out the door. It was clear Maddy wasn't normally like this and Sal wasn't used to it. The morning was bright and the warm late summer sun felt familiar, like I knew the sun personally. We walked out from the archway and crossed the Williamsburg bridge. I thought I could feel someone fallowing us, I turned but all I saw was a flash of red and I caught a flowered scent on the wind. Lilacs.

"Did you smell that?" I asked.

"Oh the stink, that's just the city." Sal told me.

"No, the Lilac?" I asked.

"No I didn't." She frowned. I scowled but fallowed her, after a few blocks we were in a denser part of the city, there was a crowd that Sal navigated like she knew where certain people were going to be.

"You know this city pretty well." I commented.

"Well when you relive the same two days you do learn the city." She laughed.

"Same two days?" I asked.

"Yep, same two day's. Only our bubble is spared, we don't do the same thing every day but the other people do. They can keep living their lives though, they move on." Sal seemed a little sad. "We don't."

I was about to comfort her in some way when I smelled it again. The faint scent of Lilacs, in New York of all places. I looked across the street and saw three girls scanning the crowd. One had bright red hair and the other two very dark. One however caught my eye, the dark haired one with the silver circlet on her head. She looked like royalty, as if everyone here were below her.

"They've never been here." Sal remarked.

"Maybe you just never noticed. See now their gone." I said. We continued until we came to a supermarket. We walked in and Sal grabbed Rice Crispy Cereal, Milk, Eggs and after that I pretty much stopped paying attention. We checked out and Sal lead me to Times Square.

It looked magnificent, the signs were bright and advertised everything from Coke-a-Cola, to Broadway's the Little Mermaid. It was bright, loud, crowded and I hated it. There was no escaping the throng of people and I was starting to hyperventilate.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"We are being fallowed, and in this crowd I can't see who or where they are."

"Orion I'm sure we're fine, there are a lot of people here and that's it. If you're that worried we can go home." Sal brushed her long dark hair over her shoulder and turned. Seeing as I had no choice but to fallow her I decided that would be best.

As we walked out of Time Square I smelled Lilac again. This time I was sure I saw something, small and in a pack move out of the corner of my eye.

Run!

I reached over and grabbed Sal's hand, before she could say anything I was dragging her out of Time Square. I kept running but it still seemed to take hours to reach the bridge. Sal was panting and sweating, it was clear she had never run this far in her life. I knew that I couldn't keep this up for much longer. I didn't know how far I could go but Sal looked like she was going to collapse from lack of oxygen. I slowed down and Sal started to catch her breath.

After a few minutes she said; "Why did you do that?"

"We are being fallowed, I know that." I muttered.

"Can we walk? Please." Sal pleaded, I sighed and decided that since we were closer to the base then we had been, I gave in.

"Fine, but let's just move. We haven't shaken them." We started to walk; Sal was still a bit short of breath so we went slow. Her brow had beads of sweat on it, and it was then I realized I wasn't tired, or sweaty. "Interesting."

"What?" She asked.

"Well I don't feel tired, short of breath or sweaty." I said.

"Orion, we can worry about your weird body type later let's just move." She complained I obliged and fallowed.

"Your base isn't very big." I remarked. "If you have all this time travel technology stuff why don't you have a bigger base?"

"We aren't an ostentatious group." She muttered. "Besides we have to keep a relatively low profile, it's just what we do. Oh look we made it back before-"She was cut off as we heard a crash; I wheeled around and saw one of the large towers in flames.

"Sal! Look!" I said.

"It happens every Tuesday we relive. 9/11." She muttered.

"What a terrible place to be stuck." I said, still in shock. At least I knew why the date was important now, I was sure this day would get remembered.

"Well its worst for Maddy, her cousin was killed just a few seconds ago, Liam doesn't really get it and I'm not even supposed to be alive now. It's horrible yes but I only remember it because I see it every day. It makes me sad though, all the people who won't ever see their children again, all the fathers who will never meet their infants, all the mothers who will never have their children." Tears welled in her eyes but she blinked them away and looked at me. "See look there's the door." She pointed and sure enough I saw our little archway.

I breathed a sigh of relief, it was just a hundred meters away, we were fine. "Good." I whispered. "We should be in the clear now." I heard a noise and turned to see what it was, but as I did someone grabbed me and held a knife to my throat. I glance at Sal who was whimpering, as a dark haired girl held a knife to her throat, the other one with the tiara smirked.

Then an unmistakably Irish voice said; "Think again."