"Percy, Percy wake up!" Annabeth shook me awake, one hand on my shoulder. I stretched and clambered out of the back of the truck, mind still turning over the revelations of the previous night's dream. My father was being a stubborn fool. I was committed however, finishing the quest was the only option.

I glanced around at where we had stopped. We were somewhere in the Midwest, judging by the rolling fields around us. Luke had pulled us over at the side of the road, and had been digging through the engine, perhaps the truck had broken down. Luke stumbled over to us, bleary eyed, and shook his head.

"Drive shaft has sheared through, there's no way we can replace it. Looks like we'll have to carry on on foot." He seemed weary, but resigned to keep going. Annabeth nodded, tacitly agreeing with Luke's assessment of our options. With our luck, hitchhiking would only end in disaster, and staying in one place for too long is never a good option for demigods, as I'd learned the hard way.

We set off, stumbling in exhaustion. With my disturbing dream last night I had slept fitfully, and Annabeth didn't seem much better off. It was clear that the only thing keeping Luke going was sheer force of will, and Annabeth and I wordlessly decided to walk either side of him, in case he collapsed from fatigue. We kept going, following the dusty track, occasionally stopping to eat a cereal bar, or to take a sip of our limited water supply. We kept moving, heads hanging low, no longer mustering the effort to look ahead. And so, when we did find a town, we didn't notice until it was nearly upon us, walking as we were with our heads bowed like oxen. Blinking drearily, I looked up at the town, if it was even worth the name. There was two roads, a handful of houses, and a single store, that apparently sold cigarettes, liquor, and, stamps, if the sign was to be believed.

Luke and I dropped where we were, and Annabeth took off her bag, placing it at our feet. As the most rested of us she offered to look around, and the two of us accepted without complaint. She walked away, glancing back and forth at the buildings. Luke leant against me, drifting in and out of consciousness, and I allowed my mind to drift, thinking of all the things I would say to my father once I had cleaned up his sorry mess. I considered forgiving him, and equally considered disowning him for being such a deadbeat. I wasn't sure how to treat my dad, until I then also thought about how the other gods treated their children. Annabeth had only spoken to her mother once, despite being at camp for years. Athena gave her the Yankees cap, and perhaps the occasional dream, but I couldn't think of much else. I also couldn't think of any other campers from the Athena cabin with even that much. Malcolm too had spoken to her on the winter solstice, but none had magical gifts. Luke had told me once, in a rare moment when he spoke about his past, that before he set off on his quest Hermes had sent him some flying shoes which was pretty cool, but even that hadn't stopped him getting his scar. 'At least my dad claimed me, not like the others from Hermes cabin.' I mused, 'And they are all willing to help.'

"Luke, Percy, come on!" With this thought ringing in my ears I was startled from my reverie by Annabeth hurrying excitedly back along the road towards us. We both tottered to our feet and hefted our bags onto our shoulders, moving to meet her. Once we had gone over to talk I passed Annabeth her bag while she explained what she had seen.

"There's a small train station, just on the far side of the village. I checked the times, one should be coming soon.

"Hopefully we have enough money left in the bags for some tickets." I spoke up, interrupting her before she got too carried away with the idea. She blinked and thought for a moment before conceding that, for once, I had a point.

We checked through the bags and our pockets, and pulled out $62.25 in a handful of notes and a single quarter that I discovered tucked in a back pocket. Making our way over to the station we bought a ticket from the automated booth and settled down to wait. With this new discovery our spirits were lifted somewhat, but we all knew that we couldn't rest too easy, as we could be attacked at any time. Our encounter with the Minotaur was proof enough of this.

Before long, the train pulled up at the station and we made our way on. The train was conspicuously empty of life, except for us. We decided not to question it, and once more collapsed into some seats. Thankfully these were slightly more comfortable than the floor, and all three of us soon fell asleep.

I woke to the sound of Annabeth's chuckling laughter. I started awake and quickly sat upright, once I realised that while I was asleep, I had leant my head against Luke's shoulder.

"You know you drool when you sleep, right?" She asked, eyes full of mocking mirth.

"Urm, yeah, I-I've always done that." I stuttered, embarrassedly wiping my cheek with my sleeve. Then, smirking to myself, I replied "Must be a part of the whole son-of-the-sea-god thing."

"I wonder why we didn't notice earlier." Luke chimed in, blinking to clear his eyes. With all of us awake, and finally feeling a bit more refreshed, we set down to brainstorming our next few steps. It was clear that our train wouldn't take us all the way but thankfully it was heading west, stopping somewhere in Arizona. Once we got off at the end, we would need to find another way to get all the way to wherever we were heading. Neither Luke nor Annabeth knew quite where the entrance to the underworld was, but it would have to be very far west and based on the Powers-That-Be's habit of aligning important places mythologically to important places in the human world, a major city was our best bet.

Based on where our train ended we were going to head to LA first and start the search for the underworld there. Not that any of us knew what to look for, but I for one was hoping the underworld would be rather obvious.

We lapsed into a lengthy silence, as we slowly ran out of things to say. I played with my dagger, drawing it a few inches before snapping it closed again. The repeating snick as it slid home was soothing, but soon began to drive my erstwhile companions mad. The minutes ticked by, now silent except for the sound of the train running on the tracks, reminding us how eerily alone we were on the train.

The silence didn't last long however, broken by resounding footfalls echoing along the corridor. It seemed innocuous, they were not overly loud or threatening, but we stared at each other in horror, because whatever was making these sounds had not been on the train when we set off.

The footsteps continued, the sound approaching along the silent carriage. Crunching, ever closer it came. The three of us had a hushed, rushed conversation to decide what we did. Luke was all for standing and fighting, but as Annabeth pointed out, there was barely room to stand in the corridor, let alone swing a sword. I gathered our bags and stood, heading towards the door at the far end of the section, away from the footsteps. Reluctantly, Luke joined me with Annabeth quickly following. We slid through the open door and dashed off the far side, pausing only to close the door behind us, to gain some time.

We knew running would only prolong our chase, we couldn't run forever else we would eventually run out of train to hide in. Thankfully we were near the back of the train and heading towards the engine at the front. None of us wanted to find out who or what was actually driving us, or who was following us close behind.

Running through carriage after carriage of empty seats, all identical, began to impress upon us just how alone we were. Soon, I began to feel as if we would never reach the front of the train, and were stuck in a nightmarish world where no matter how fast we ran we would always be caught by the faceless evil stalking through the carriages behind us. We ran and ran, barely pausing for breath to open the doors we came across. Soon, I could run no further. I signalled that I was flagging and we slowed down, before Luke dived behind some seats for cover, and we both followed suit.

We didn't have to wait long before we heard the steps again, faster this time, as if hurrying. The door slammed open and where it was now stood what would be best described as a demon from the depths of hell. Or rather, Hades. It was a woman with wild hair and sweeping bat wings, her fingers grasping claws, her mouth a snarling grin. I glanced across to Annabeth, where she was crouched behind a seat the far side of the aisle.

"Fury, servant of Hades." She whispered to me in response. Now I remembered, I'd read about them while practising Ancient Greek with Annabeth. All she needed was a whip to complete the look.

The Fury stalked further into the cabin, her nose pointed upwards, as if smelling us out. She stopped, grinned menacingly, and raised one hand.

'Oh look, there's the whip.' It materialised in her hands, long and black, flickering with ethereal flames.

"Come on out, you can't hide from me."

•••••

A/N

Haha...hey guys...I totally didn't just go on a unplanned hiatus...at all...

Seriously though, I do feel bad for not updating this in a while. I have a few exams coming up so I've been working for them, sadly writing has taken a bit of a back foot there. I decided against my suggestion last time, since apparently no one cared enough to comment either way, but I keep feeling the urge to do something RWBY related. I'll probably start it once this is finished - if it's ever finished that is.

I am still open to any advice you may want to give me, and suggestions for what to write next. No, it will not be a crossover, but I'm otherwise open for ideas.