Author's Note: Thank you to Inspiration Lives On, theHuntress101, WingedGoddesOfVictory, , SummerSpirit18, GRX3m0m, and tim (anon) for reviewing. And to all of you who faved and followed, thank you! :)

"X" marks the Romans. No plot holes in this; the witch's food cart just didn't come by, which is why they're hungry. So don't review and complain about them being hungry when there's a food cart being wheeled around the place. Thanks.


Chapter Two
Jason

Staring out the window while the only things to see are meadows are blurring past in a frenzy of green is an excellent way to put you to sleep.

Stifling a yawn, I turned away from the window for what must have been the hundredth time and complained to the black-haired girl sitting next to me, "What in Pluto are we going to do?"

Reyna turned to me and gave me an exasperated look. "We wait. Shouldn't that be a bit obvious by now?"

"I don't like waiting," Dakota thickly complained, pacing around the floor of our train compartment on the "Hogwarts Express" while waving around a canteen full of red Kool-Aid. After taking another big gulp, he giddily said, "I mean, really! We've been on this train for over four hours. Isn't it time that we arrived at this 'Hogwarts' place? I need more Kool-Aid." He frowned as he shook his canteen, and no sloshing sound came from within it.

"Stop yammering," Reyna said in a resigned tone of voice as she took my post in staring out the window. "It won't get us anywhere."

"I wish that we were on a plane," I complained, "which is way faster then this train."

"Junk of a train," Bobby corrected. "And of course a plane is faster than this train. Anything's faster than this train."

Dakota shrugged ruefully and slumped in his seat, blankly gazing at a seat cushion. "And then, we could have airplane pretzels."

Reyna and Bobby looked at the son of Bacchus in confusion, and the latter teen shook his head wearily. "Airline pretzels do sound good at the moment."

My stomach growled, and I sat up straighter. "Can we please stop talking about food? It's making me really hungry."

"That's the worst idea I've ever heard from you," Bobby commented. "And no offense, Jason, but sometimes, your ideas are plain out terrible."

"What's wrong with not talking about food?" I complained.

The three others very politely ignored me and resumed talking about pretzels.

Glaring out the compartment door, I glumly watched a boy with black hair and brown eyes—I thought that I recognized him from somewhere, but I couldn't pin it down—yank open another door and prod a seemingly-protesting girl with black hair. Scooting over to the door, I curiously watched as the girl slapped the guy's hand in annoyance and said something that made me blanch: "What in Hades do you want from me?"

"Reyna," I nervously said, dragging her over to the door and letting her peer out of the window. "Who's Hades?"

Reyna slapped me to keep me quiet and leaned towards the door to listen. Behind me, I felt Dakota and Bobby move to see what was happening.

"Percy wants to see you," the guy was saying. The girl, clearly annoyed, picked at her shirtsleeve.

"Well, couldn't Kelp Face move his lazy ass for a couple of feet to the room next to his instead of sending you over to tell me he wanted to see me?" the girl aciduously asked.

"He was IM-ing Chiron," the boy answered with a hint of impatience in his voice.

I reeled back from the door and collapsed in my seat as their footsteps faded from listening range.

"Hades? That's Pluto, right?" I asked Reyna.

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Quite obviously."

"Then why were the people using the Greek name? Wait, scratch that, why were they even using the word 'Hades' in the first place?" Bobby asked, his black hair reflecting the sunlight that was streaming in.

"Yeah," Dakota burped. "Why not the Roman names?"

"Well...there could be a number of reasons," I reasoned. "They could be Greek mythology addicts, and I noticed that mortals are more often familiar with Greek terms then Roman ones."

Reyna crossed her arms and muttered darkly under her breath.

"What?" I prompted.

"But are they even mortals?" Reyna asked quietly.

"Don't be such a shadow of yourself," Bobby brightly said. "Be a bright ray of sunshine!"

Reyna glared at him.

"Okay, okay!" Bobby yelped, putting his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry, Reyna!"

"Reyna simply looked away. "Anyways, I want to check those people out. They're definitely not mortals, Jason."

"Then, what are they?" Bobby asked. "Empousai?"

I rolled my eyes. "Dakota, boys can't be she-demons, and you know that. Which is why they have a 'she' prefix, not a 'he'."

"...Well, what about the girl?" Bobby asked. "She did have an air of—"

"Bobby," Reyna said tiredly, "you were looking at her through a window. Besides, if she was a monster, wouldn't she have attacked you by now?"

"You jinxed it!" Dakota laughed. "Now, Bobby's going to be attacked within an hour!" he added sarcastically.

Oh, the irony of his statement. If only we knew that before they actually did come barging in.

There was a loud crash outside as a guy with black hair and green eyes tripped in, closely followed by a girl with blond hair and gray eyes.

"Percy," the blonde admonished in front of us, "the next time you charge in like that, don't trip over a backpack."

"He wasn't ever known for making smooth moves," the guy who we had seen before chuckled. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Reyna lean forwards slightly, suspiciously regarding his face.

Percy's cheeks colored.

"I told you they weren't mortals," Reyna muttered after a period of awkward silence, still glaring daggers at the boy. She looked slightly uncomfortable as well, sneaking glances at Percy and the blond.

I stood up. "Exactly why did you come in here without knocking?"

"He's clumsy," the boy with brown eyes said happily, pointing at Percy, very noticeably looking anywhere but Reyna. "Didn't you notice that?"

"You say that as if it's a good thing," Dakota commented half-heartedly, shaking his canteen.

Percy scowled at him. "The things I do for you, and you never repay it."

The boy shrugged. "Whatever..."

"Anyways," Percy said, turning to us. "Who are you? You must be real important if a talking wolf told us to see you."

"You make that sound as if it's normal," the blonde whispered to Percy.

"Who, Lupa?" Bobby absently asked. "She's the director of Camp Jupiter."

Reyna threw her hands up in exasperation. "Oh, yes, just give our position away in a sentence, will you?"

I shifted in my seat. "Talking wolf? What would Lupa want with you?"

"Who's 'Lupa'?" Percy asked, confused.

"The talking wolf," the blonde muttered.

"Oh..." Percy self-consciously rubbed his head. "Sorry."

I stood up. "Well, if Lupa wanted to talk to you, then you all must be demigods, right?"

"Uh huh," the blonde nodded. "I'm Annabeth."

"Jason. Son of Jupiter." I extended a hand for her to shake, but she froze.

Annabeth's mouth dropped open as she stared at me. "Do you mean Zeus? Jupiter's the Roman counterpart."

"No, Zeus is the Greek counterpart," I replied. "We normally use the Roman terms. The Greek gods are dead. I mean, welcome to the real world..."

"Greek gods? Dead?" the boy behind the blonde asked, confused. "That's not right. I just saw my father the other day!"

"Hold it," Percy said, looking at me. "How in Poseidon's name can you be a son of Zeus?"

"Why can't I be?" I asked, starting to get really annoyed with him. "So, I'm not supposed to be alive. So what?"

Percy didn't seem to have an answer to that.

"Never mind," I muttered. "The point is, I'm a son of Jupiter, or Zeus, whatever you want to call him."

Percy offered a hand. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"You're not supposed to be alive, either, so what are you to question Jason?" Bobby rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, neither am I!" the other boy cheerfully said. "We have a nice trio of forbidden demigods, don't we?"

Reyna sighed and quickly muttered, "Reyna, daughter of Bellona. Don't even try asking who that is." She straightened, coldly glaring at the black-haired guy with brown eyes. "Don't I know you?"

"Um..." the boy intelligently answered. "...Maybe?"

Annabeth sharply glanced at him. "Nico?"

"Nico?" Bobby and I asked at the same time. I snapped my fingers. "That's why you look so familiar!"

That's when I realized that the other demigods knew him as well.

"Nico!" Annabeth yelled at the same time as Reyna rolled her eyes.

"I plead the fifth," the ambassador of Pluto squeaked.

"We're neither in a courtroom nor in America," Annabeth snapped, pointing stiffly at him. "Explain. Now."

"Oh, and you two," Reyna icily said, glaring daggers at Percy and Annabeth. The son of Poseidon backed away. "Whoa; what did I do?"

"You turned the pirates back from guinea pigs," Reyna stubbornly answered.

"...Come again?"

"Wait a moment," Annabeth slowly said. "You were that...that little girl on Circe's island..."

"Will someone tell me what's going on here?" I cried out in exasperation.

And as if things couldn't get any worse, the door creaked open again.

"Percy?" the girl asked. "What are you doing?"

My brain must have registered something familiar on her facial features before my eyes comprehended so, because my said brain sent an impulse to my lower jaw to tell it to drop open.

And that's when it clicked.

"You were supposed to be dead."