A/N: There is one swear word in here! Beware! Thank you everyone for the reviews. They mean a lot. R&R and enjoy this chapter!


CHAPTER NINE

Katie assumed that since Travis had had to save himself from getting in trouble multiple times, he would easily give the lord of the skies viable reasons that they shouldn't be blasted to pieces.

She assumed wrong, naturally.

"I…I'm awesome," Travis blurted, his eyes widening as the volume of his voice increased. "Like my dad! My dad is Hermes, and he's awesome. I shouldn't die. Please, man, I have so much to live for!"

Zeus stared him, obviously not amused. Katie bit her tongue and tightened her grip on Lila's hand. She had always thought that Travis's pranks would be the death of her, but she had been wrong; Travis's idiocy would literally be the death of her.

"So much to live for?" the god scoffed. "A lie, Travis! You know who had so much to live for? My daughter, Thalia, who's eternally trapped at a day from sixteen; my…brother…Poseidon's son, Percy, who saved Olympus just weeks ago—"

"We're all heroes," Katie interrupted. Although she was angry at Travis for trying to save them with incredibly stupid reasoning, she knew what it was like to be belittled by a god. It wasn't fun, and it wasn't fair. "Thalia chose the Hunters, Lord Zeus. She could be eighteen right now if she hadn't. No one forced her to make that decision." She took a deep breath, ignoring the glare on Zeus's face. "And Percy, even though he's one of the greatest campers of all time, needed us. He needed Travis, too. Without all the other demigods, he wouldn't have been able to save you and the other Olympians."

For a moment, it was silent, and Katie's heart began pounding even faster than it already was. She was going to die. Travis and Lila were going to die. It would be her fault, for arguing with the king of the gods…

"You speak like your mother," Zeus commented, and Katie flinched. Somehow, that statement was harsher than being killed; she didn't want to be like her mother in any aspect of personality, the woman who had never given her motherly advice and only compared her to her favorite daughter, Persephone. The only thing Katie and Demeter had in common was a love for agriculture, and that was how Katie liked it.

Zeus gave her a curious look. "You aren't fond of your mother, are you?" he asked, and Katie shyly shook her head. "A shame, child. Your mother is wise and insightful and powerful; she would have made a great candidate for queen of the gods."

Katie was so stunned that she let go of Lila's hand, and the scared girl almost fell over. Demeter would have made a great candidate for queen of the gods? Even though Hera was missing, that still wasn't a safe thing to say. Travis thought so, also; he gasped and tensed his shoulders.

"W-with all due respect, Lord Zeus," Katie said uncertainly, "I don't think you should be saying that. Things are how they are. You can't change them now."

Zeus shook his head. "Change is all around us, Katie. Can't you feel it?" He studied her closer. "Has it ever occurred to you, Katie, that you could have been the child of the prophecy?"

At this, Travis's jaw dropped open. Katie sucked in a breath. She had never thought about it, but it was true; a half-blood of the eldest gods. Demeter was the third oldest child of Rhea, and the first female; the prophecy didn't specify which god, but everyone had assumed it was Poseidon, Hades, or Zeus. Hera and Hestia didn't have demigod children, and everyone stereotyped Demeter's children as farm-living, plant-loving nerds who couldn't fight.

"It didn't," Katie told her uncle. "But everything worked out, yeah? You can't dwell on the past too much. Percy saved the world, and now he's gone. We need to help find him. We need to find more demigods. You can't kill us. Please."

Travis stepped forward next to Katie, feeling inadequate. He knew that, if and once Zeus spared them, Katie was going to reprimand him for hours about being an idiot and his lame excuses. It wasn't his fault, though! Pranking and alibis for said pranks took a lot of time and thought; it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment hobby.

Zeus sighed. "I will let you live," he agreed, although his tone suggested he wanted to do otherwise. "Find more demigods. Try to find Percy. And Hera…" He shook his head, looking slightly frightened. "I fear that is out of even my hands."

Ω

After two hours of walking in silence, Travis couldn't take it anymore.

"Why aren't you screaming at me?" he shrieked at Katie, who was walking beside Lila in front of him. They were somewhere in South Carolina, if he thought correctly. "Katherine, seriously. Are you okay? Is it really you? Don't you want to tell me that my excuses were stupid and going to get us killed?"

"I do want to tell you that," Katie replied evenly, not turning around. "But it's over and done with, Travis. You brought me hyacinth seeds, which I didn't think you were capable of getting or even knowing what—"

"What's a hyacinth seed, Katie?" Lila interrupted, looking up at the daughter of Demeter. "Uh…sorry. ADHD. I sometimes talk at inappropriate times."

Katie sympathetically smiled. "It's okay. Most demigods have ADHD or dyslexia, or both. A hyacinth flower means 'I'm really sorry.'"

Travis froze for a second before jogging to catch up to the two girls. He had given seeds to a flower that meant sorrow and regret, which was why Katie had forgiven him so easily. He had to give it to Aphrodite; that goddess really knew what she was doing.

He looked around at the road they were walking on the side of, but there were no sign of any taxis and all the cards that passed them did so without a second glance. He was too tired to think of any magical demigod ways to quickly travel somewhere.

A few minutes later, a few dozen yellow taxis appeared in his sight. He sped up to walk on Katie's left. "Look at all those taxis. We can get one."

"Whoa," Katie agreed. She looked around. "I think they're heading for the…Charleston International Airport. There's a sign there. It's just two miles from here."

"I've been there," Lila piped up. "I flew with my dad and my stepmom to DC. It was so cool."

"Dad and stepmom, huh?" Travis commented as they hailed a taxi and climbed in. "That means your godly parent is a girl. You'll either be Demeter's, Aphrodite's, or Athena's."

After seeing Lila's slightly disappointed expression, Katie shook her head. "No, Travis is still thinking of before. We have a bunch more cabins now, and there's more minor gods claiming their children. There's Hecate, Iris, Eris…"

Lila shrugged.

The taxi dropped them off at the airport, and the three demigods exited the car and entered the airport. There were more people than Travis expected. He'd only been on a plane twice in his life, but both times, the airport hadn't been crowded at all.

He led the girls over to a screen that showed the day's flights. "Where do you guys want to go?" he asked. "Virginia has a lot of schools. That's where Annabeth's from, right?"

"Yeah," Katie answered. She was about to suggest a location when very loud children's voices echoed throughout the lobby. She turned to see a distraught male teacher trying to herd a group of about twenty rowdy children all wearing matching red tee shirts. It was every teacher's worse nightmare: a class field trip.

Katie was admittedly impressed as all the students eventually handed their teacher a ticket each. Whatever school they went to had to be pretty lax; Katie's school (or her old school, since she was now a yearlong camper) had been weary of even letting seniors go to the local museum.

Lila tugged on Katie's shirt after a minute. "Katie," she whispered, fear evident in her voice. "What is that?"

Katie and Travis turned to where the girl was pointing. A few meters behind the group of students was a hellhound. It was one of the smallest ones Katie had ever seen, probably only five feet tall, but with its sharp teeth and fiery eyes, it had to be scary for Lila. The hellhound was sitting against a wall next to a woman on a laptop; Katie figured the mortal didn't even see the hellhound, or if she did, she saw it as a harmless poodle.

On instinct, Katie and Travis both brought out their weapons. Lila's eyes widened when she saw the dagger and sword but she wisely kept quiet. She stayed back as the two teenagers casually walked toward the hellhound.

When he was about two feet away from the hellhound, Travis raised his sword to stab the monster without any fuss, but the hellhound hopped up and howled loudly. The woman next to it looked slightly annoyed but continued to tap on her laptop. The hellhound bounded from its sitting position right toward the group of students.

Katie sprinted toward the students and stood in front of them. She waved her dagger around, trying to distract the hellhound. It snarled and leaped toward Katie's chest. She stumbled back but didn't fall; she even managed to cut a deep gash on its side.

A few of the workers glanced up from whatever they were doing. One of them called out to Katie and told her to get her dog under control. The students behind her laughed, and she wondered why she was trying to protect them; after all, they were mortal. The hellhound couldn't hurt them.

"Children, follow me. Obviously, this girl can't keep her poodle under control," the teacher sniffed, gathering up his luggage. "Come on, everyone! One, two, three! Eyes on me! Let's go!"

The students all obediently followed him, still giggling at Katie, who was now aimlessly swiping her dagger at the hellhound as it pranced and growled around her. One of the students, though, a boy of about ten years old, stayed behind. His teacher didn't notice.

"Hey, kid," Travis breathed, running over to the boy. "Your class is leaving. You have to go. We'll take care of our…ah, poodle." It seemed ironic to him to refer to the monster that was almost as tall as Katie and double her weight as a 'poodle.'

The boy shook his head and gulped. "That's…that's not a poodle, man. I've seen some weird shit in my neighborhood, but this…whoa…" He watched in awe as Katie finally stabbed the hellhound in its chest and it disintegrated to dust.

Lila ran over to them, carrying Katie and Travis's backpacks. "That was so cool, Katie," she gushed. "Wow!" She looked at the younger boy who was now with them. "Who are you?"

"Khalil," the boy answered, raising an eyebrow. "Who are you guys? Why the hell do you have swords?"

"I'm Travis, the girl who killed the hellhound is Katie, and that's Lila, who we just picked up," Travis answered, studying the boy. "Khalil, I think you're a half-blood. You should come with—"

Khalil shook his head adamantly, gripping his suitcase tightly. "No way, man," he spat, glaring at Travis. "I don't hang with any racists, you understand? Just because I'm mixed doesn't mean you can—"

"He didn't mean a half-blood as in your parents," Katie interrupted patiently. "Well, he did mean it as in your parents, but not what you think. One of your parents is a god; an Olympian. Zeus, Poseidon, Hera…they're all real."

Khalil blinked after a minute. "Oh." He turned to Travis. "Sorry, man."

"It's fine," Travis answered. He was a little shocked at how well Lila and Khalil were taking this. When a satyr had come to get him and Connor, they'd trapped the poor guy in their house for hours and dyed his fur pink; it had taken their mom and the satyr four hours to convince the brothers the gods were real.

Katie suggested they fly to Virginia. The four of them waited until the flight was called and boarded the plane.

Katie was nervous and excited at the same time. She'd never flown before, and her mother and Zeus got along fairly well, so there was no reason she should have been afraid of flying. However, her dad had been in the Air Force and died, so she was a bit skeptical.

She didn't tell Travis about her thoughts, though. It was just make everything more complicated. She wasn't entirely comfortable spilling her secrets to him, for one, and they would have had to find a different way of traveling.

As soon as she sat in her seat, she buckled herself as tightly as the leather strap would allow. She gripped the armrests and didn't move an inch for Travis, who had to climb over her in order to get the window seat he had claimed.

"Where's Lila and Khalil?" Katie asked him, keeping her head straight. All of her muscles were tensed.

"The row right in front of us," Travis answered. "Katie, are you okay? We're going to be fine. Nothing's going to happen." As he said this, the plane roared and took off. Katie's ears popped, but other than that, everything was fine. She slightly relaxed. "See? No problem!"

Katie's comfort was short-lived. Less than two minutes later, the plane jolted to the left, and Katie watched in horror as the part of the airplane's left wing ripped off and flew into the oblivion.


A/N: Sorry it was a little shorter than usual! I had a snow day today so I wanted to get something up. The next chapter probably won't be until the weekend or early next week.