Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I only own the story and my own characters, everything else is property of their rightful owners.

A/N: I'm back with another chapter! I had a bit of a writer's block for a bit but I'm back and rolling again! Please read the authors note at the bottom, it's very important!

Marcus POV

Meanwhile not too far from Grayson's flight home, Marcus was having a struggle of his own. "Jon how the Hades does this door open?"

Jon poked his head over Marcus's shoulder. "I think you have to do something with that panel on the wall. Doesn't work? Here let me try."

Marcus glared at the train door that was refusing to let him pass into the next coach and moved aside. Jon squeezed past and went to work trying to open the door, but after a few tries his cursing revealed it wasn't going well. A glance at Samantha and Alex revealed they were both struggling to hold in their laughter as Jon continued to curse and bang on the door.

Finally unable to hold it in, the two girls looked at each other and burst out laughing. Samantha tapped Jon's shoulder as she continued to laugh and reached past him to press a slender hand on the side panel. The door opened with a quiet hiss, much to the chagrin of both boys.

Jon and Marcus shared an embarrassed look and he heard Jon muter under his breath, "girls," before walking through the door into the next car. Marcus let both Alex and Samantha pass him, with Sam grinning at him as she walked past, and Marcus shook his head before following. There was no one in this car so the group sat down in one of the sets of seats.

Samantha wanted to sleep more so she drew her knees up and leaned her head against the window, closing her eyes. Jon seemed to tune out as well, staring off into space and Marcus knew from experience that he was completely lost in his own mind and he wasn't going to come out of it anytime soon. That just left him and Alex, who played with her hair a bit before looking at Marcus and asking, "So what's your story?"

Marcus glanced up with a surprised look on his face. "My story?"

He realized at that as surprised as he was that she didn't know much about him, it was the same vice versa. He hung out with Jon a lot, and Alex was often there, but he almost never talked to her. Chances are no one had told her about his backstory because hardly anyone knew it, so it makes sense she would be curious.

Alex nodded. "As close as you are with this cynical idiot here," she jabbed her thumb towards Jon, "I've only heard about you through the occasional story at camp and the one time I had to come find you for something. How'd you end up at camp? How was life before being a demigod? How'd you end up with her?"

The last statement was followed by an indication of Samantha and Marcus felt his cheeks colour. Trying to ignore her smirk, he began searching his thoughts. "Ok so where do I begin… so I'm from Toronto, Canada-"

He was cutoff immediately by Alex exclaiming, "You're Canadian?"

Marcus was a bit take aback and nodded mutely. Alex looked a little embarrassed at her outburst but indicated for him to continue. "Anyways my mom is an accountant, not the most outstanding job to attract the eye of a God but it happened anyways. My mom still hasn't told me how she met my dad, but basically I grew up travelling a lot during summers and holiday breaks with her. She also had 3 siblings so there were family gatherings all the time. My cousins were all fantastic at what they did, athletics, academics you name it. I was basically this kid with learning issues that couldn't compare. Maybe that's where the low confidence that Sam complains about all the time comes from, but honestly in my position it was pretty downing. I wasn't great in school and was just ok at everything else, supposedly the jack of all trades Hermes aspect coming into play."

Alex gave him a sympathetic look but he just shrugged. "If my cousins knew the truth about me now, they probably wouldn't be thinking the same way. Anyways, arriving at camp was really strange. I didn't have a satyr watching in my school like most demigods, instead it was my mom that brought me to camp. I ran into a Cyclopes in the downtown area one day and escaped it in the subway system."

Marcus shuddered for a moment as he had a quick flashback to that day and a surge of panic and relief hit him once again as he momentarily relived the vents. He remembered dashing through the station, dodging around other commuters and squeezing into a subway car just as the doors closed. "My mom packed me up immediately and drove through the night to get me to camp. She sent me over the border in the morning, I met Chiron, got the whole orientation thing and then I met her." He lifted his chin towards the sleeping form of Samantha.

He smiled involuntarily as he thought back to the beginning of his time at camp. "She was my tour guide that day, taught me a few things. I also saw a couple different sides of her and I guess she was happy I was someone who was pretty accepting of who she was. Camp wasn't the nicest environment for her, especially in her cabin. Ares is really not the most welcoming. So I guess I was that person that allowed her to escape everything. It's really interesting because she didn't tell me immediately who her godly parent was, so I thought she was this sweet, innocent girl before she broke the nose of one of her half-brothers in front of me and told me her father was Ares."

Alex laughed. "Nasty shock I guess?"

Marcus grinned and nodded. "No kidding. If she told me at the beginning who her father was I probably would've laughed and not believed her, which would have scored me negative points in her mind. I did believe her though, and a number of incidents have happened since that have brought us close together to where we are now."

He thought about last night to the conversation he had with Sam. There was something that seemed so raw, so vulnerable about her as she spoke, the way she opened up and told him everything. Across from him, Alex raised an eyebrow and was most likely aware that he wasn't telling her everything but she didn't push. He was thankful for that, and was suddenly aware of the silence that had fallen between them as he was lost in thought. He decided to return the favour. "So what about you? What's your story?"

Alex momentarily seemed completely lost in thought. She chewed on her nails for a minute before she began. "I was born in Argentina. I don't remember much about it, but my mom moved us to New York and I basically grew up there. Nothing fancy, mom worked as a nurse so it was just me all the time at home."

She began absentmindedly braiding her chestnut hair. "I think because of how I grew up, it made me appreciate my extended family even more. I envy you with your constant family presence." To Marcus's surprise, she wiped a tear away before continuing as he sat in shock, wondering what to do. "My mom wasn't always able to be there for me. I understood that and appreciated that she was busy working hard for us to live, but the loneliness ate away at me. Then when I was 11, my substitute English teacher turned out to be an empousai. She attacked me. I escaped with a classmate who turned out to be a satyr and went straight home, where my mom told me everything."

Alex clenched and unclenched her fists. "She knew. All that time she'd known who I was, who my father was, that I would one day be in danger. And she never told me. I wasn't sure how I felt about her then, still not sure now. We were family. Family shouldn't keep secrets from one another. So when I came to camp and learned I had so many other siblings, it was bittersweet."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Bittersweet? In what way?"

Alex glanced at him and Marcus noticed for the first time how piercing her blue eyes seemed to be despite the obvious confliction going on behind them. "I was finally not alone, I had lots of siblings to go to, to ask for help, to learn from. But at the same time, everyone hides something and more family just means more secrets you don't know about. It frustrates me, but then I guess that's when family bonds are the strongest, when they share secrets."

She involuntarily glanced at Jon, but Marcus saw it and glanced at Jon too. "You two really are close aren't you?"

Alex seemed to withdraw from the conversation at the same time as giving him a questioning look before nodding. "He showed me around, he took care of me and everything. I've told him so much, he's the closest family I have now." She said softly.

Marcus nodded, glancing between the two. He was rather curious about what events sparked the bond between the two half-siblings, as well as what Alex's relationship was like with her mother now but she seemed to drift off so he figured he could ask another time. Jon shifted in his sleep, his head lolling sideways while Alex had begun quietly singing to herself in Spanish. Marcus soon found himself lost in thought.

Watching Samantha sleep across from him, curled up in a ball against the window, Marcus was once again hit with a flurry of emotions. He began to think back to when he was younger, before he learned he was a demigod, before he had been pulled from his old life. He'd grown up with his mom living next door to a girl his age named Caitlin. They'd done everything together for years until he'd been attacked and brought to Camp Half-Blood. He'd spent his first summer there, and went home afterwards. Spending more and more time at camp meant he seen to her less, and over time they grew apart. Thinking about it, it was a representation of the takeover of the demigod part of his life, where he left behind his mortal life and moved into the dangerous demigod life.

Then a couple years ago he had decided to spend a year back at school and was in her class, where they began to rebuild their friendship and saw each other almost as often as before. He'd realized at some point during the year that he'd fallen for her. He suspected the crush had most likely formed years ago when they were younger but never understood what it was until then. Being a demigod meant you usually can't pass up on an opportunity because you will never get another shot, so he'd told her that he liked her. She was in a bit of a shock when he had told her, but she had told him afterwards that she did not reciprocate the feelings.

Everything between them had collapsed from there. Afterwards, he barely saw her and he chose to put distance between them to mentally recover and went back to being a full time camper. Ir had hurt for a long time, given how long he had known her. He had eventually gotten over it, or so he told himself.

Thinking about Caitlin tore at his thoughts again, opening that door to the wrecking ball of emotions that had beat him down for a couple months while he remained in school with her. Now looking at the girl sleeping across from him, he was hesitant to do anything again because he didn't want it to happen again. This could be the second time he could alienate a girl he had spent a good portion of his life with, and with Sam he wasn't yet willing to risk their friendship. He valued it too much to screw up a second time, granted maybe if he said something it would go in his favour. But past experience told him otherwise and he wasn't willing to take that risk yet.

The door hissing open and the giggling chatter of a group of girls broke Marcus out of his thoughts as they entered the car. All 4 of the girls seemed about his age, lightly dressed like high school girls and he recognized them as the ones staring at him on the platform before they boarded the train. A couple of them snuck glances at him and giggled as they moved further down the car and settled into seats.

The noise woke the rest of the group up. Jon and Alex were both instantly alert while Samantha still seemed half asleep. Alex turned and glared after the group as they sat down. "I don't like them." She muttered.

Samantha yawned and sat up, arching her back. "Don't like who?" She asked sleepily.

Alex jerked her head towards the group further down the train. "They keep looking in our direction, it's making me nervous."

Samantha risked a glance between her seat and Alex's before shrugging. "They're teens like us, maybe they're just curious."

Jon shook his head. "If they're that curious, they can come and ask. Not everyone is as curious as you SamTam."

Sam's head whipped around to spit a harsh glare at Jon. "What did you just call me?"

Jon just gave a lopsided grin like he had done nothing wrong. Marcus had to give him credit for not flinching under Sam's glare, almost everyone cowered when she got angry. Although now he could say he had seen her really angry but that was beside the point. Sam continued to glare until she sighed through her nose and twisted her ring on her left hand. "Because present company would be very unhappy with your decapitation, you get to live for now. But I'll get you back for that Jon."

Jon just kept grinning, completely unconcerned about his possible impending demise. Marcus chucked as Samantha fumed for a moment before relaxing. "I forgot how much you hate people getting creative with your name," he told her. "But you have to admit that one is pretty good."

She turned her glare towards him and now Marcus had to resist the urge to flinch. He knew from experience she couldn't stay angry with him for long but that didn't make her glare any less scary. She opened her mouth to say something but was distracted by one of the girls walking down the aisle towards them. Everyone glanced up as she passed, and Marcus swore she winked at him as she went past and entered the washroom at the end of the car.

Once the washroom door shut with an audible click the group relaxed again but Marcus was beginning to feel a bit uneasy. They were paying an unusual amount of attention to him, and he was beginning to think it wasn't because they found him attractive. Sam broke the silence by finally asking,, "What's our plan?"

Jon snorted. "Finally a sensible question. I asked earlier but didn't get anything out of him."

All eyes turned to him and he hesitated. He honestly wasn't sure what the plan was, he was just hoping to get as far west as possible with the money they had. The train was supposed to stopover in Salt Lake City and then go on to Las Vegas but ended there. He had no plan for anything past that. He felt himself sweat a bit internally before opening his mouth. "So Salt Lake City is first, followed by Vegas after a stopover and-"

He was saved from the awkward silence that would have followed when he had nothing to say when Alex suddenly gasped and stood. "Guys we need to leave."

Everyone looked up in surprise. "What? Why?" Jon asked.

Samantha seemed to understand what was going on and was already spinning one of her rings around her finger, something she tended to do when she was anticipating a fight or when she was very tense. "It's those girls. We need to get out of here."

Marcus looked over at the girls and one of them noticed and waved. He subconsciously raised his hand to wave back but stopped when Samantha kicked him. "Cut it out will you?" She whispered. "Come on let's go."

They rose from their seats and began making their way down the aisle towards the exit, but before they got to the door the washroom door opened and the girl that had been inside stepped out into their path smiling. "What's wrong? Leaving our company so soon?"

Marcus stopped in the aisle as the girl met his eyes. Something about her gaze drew him in, causing him to notice every detail about her. From the rising cheekbones to the way her blonde hair framed her face to her blue eyes. Eyes that seemed to swirl like whirlpools as he looked more and more, feeling the world begin to all away around him as his brain fogged up a bit. He hadn't noticed he had taken a step forwards until Samantha elbowed him, causing his head to clear. "Who are you?" She asked coldly to the girl.

The girl made a face. "You're no fun girl, why don't you talk to my friends and I can spend some time with this handsome gentleman.

If Marcus had turned he would have noticed that the other three girls had left their seats and made their way down the aisle towards them. Instead he stood there awkwardly as Samantha glared lasers at the girl. "If you don't mind, we're in a bit of a rush. Can you please move aside so e can get through?" Samantha asked through clenched teeth, struggling to keep her voice level.

The girl smiled innocently. "Now why would I want to move aside and lose a chance to meet some new people? We're not going anywhere, how about we introduce ourselves? My name's Monica and the three behind you are Carolina, Maddy and Lydia."

An outstretched hand accompanied the introduction and Marcus raised his hand up to shake it. Monica's smile seemed to widen as his hand came up until Samantha grabbed his wrist. "What in the name of the Gods are you doing?" She hissed in his ear.

Monica gave an exaggerated sigh. "You stupid girl. You never understand anything do you? He's already mine."

Faster than any of them could follow, the hand that was held out to shake suddenly shot forward and her fingers sank into Samantha's arm. Sam bit back a scream and her grip on Jon's arm tightened tenfold, causing him to yelp as she crushed his wrist in her grip as he struggled to pull his weapon out of his belt with his left hand. Samantha didn't even bother with a weapon, instead she clenched her other hand into a fist and drilled Monica in the face with a punch that knocked her backwards onto the floor of the car. Sam finally let go of Marcus's arm, muttering a quick apology for the bruise marks that were already beginning to form before she quickly inspected her own arm and Marcus finally got his weapon out. There were 5 medium-sized holes in her jacket and in her arm, each oozing blood. She swore and squeezed her rings, causing both of her swords to appear.

Monica finally rose from the ground, her facing looking a bit off as a bruise began to form on her nose. As she rose, her appearance changed. Her hair became a stream of flames, hands turning into long claws and where her shorts ended, Marcus could now see one misshapen metallic bronze leg and one furry leg ending in a large hoof. Blood dripped from the talons of her right hand and he gasped. "An empousai?"

Samantha growled, a sound Marcus had never heard before as blood dripped down her arm, forming a scarlet glove on her left hand. "I'll kill you quickly." She decided before lunging towards Monica.

Behind him, he heard a yell and then a screech. Whipping his head around, he turned just in time to see one of Alex's arrows connect with the girl that had been introduced as Carolina and that empousai vaporized on the spot. Jon had his penknife in sword form and was trying to fend off one of the other empousai while the third got a hand on Alex's wrist as she tried to draw back another arrow and threw her against the wall of the train car. Transforming his sword into a knife to make it easier to fight in the small aisle of the train, Marcus dove forward and body slammed the third empousai, Lydia, away from Alex who was slumped on the floor in a daze after hitting her head on the window. Lydia scrambled back to her feet, laughing. "Boys, always so clueless until it's too late." She sneered.

She began moving towards him in a very strange, jerky gait because of her mismatched legs. Marcus hesitated before charging forward to meet her, ducking a swipe of her talons before slashing at her leg. Now normally, his knife would slice through her and she would dissolve into powder but he chose the wrong leg. He cursed his mistake as his knife clanged off of her bronze leg, jarring his shoulder and causing him to stumble backwards. Lydia laughed and Marcus soon found the same bronze leg connecting with his chest, knocking him back several feet onto his back. Pain lanced through his chest as he landed heavily on his back, seeing stars for a moment as he struggled to breathe.

As he lay on the ground, he was dimly aware of both Samantha and Jon battling empousai. Sam seemed to be winning easily, but was taking her time with her opponent while Jon seemed to be struggling with his long sword in a tight space. It didn't help that the empousai he was facing was tearing seats off of the wall and throwing them through the air, forcing him to be defensive.

Lydia sneered at his prone form before hobbling to where Alex was slumped against the wall. Reaching down with a clawed hand, she closed it around Alex's throat and picked her off the ground. "I'll kill you first for destroying my sister." She growled as she pinned Alex against the wall, her feet not making contact with the ground as she choked.

Jon seemed to hear this exchange and surged forwards, rolling under another thrown seat and slamming the butt of his sword into the forehead of his opponent, causing her to stumble backwards. He turned around, eyes wide as he yelled, "Alex!"

Marcus was the only one close enough to do anything to help, but he couldn't move with his chest the way it was and his previous injuries flaring up, slowing down his movements considerably as he tried to roll over to stand up.

Instead, he watched Alex's free hand groping around for something in her belt before she finally closed it on the thick shaft of an arrow. She gingerly pulled it free and twisted her body, bringing it up and driving it into Lydia's temple. She gave a shriek and vaporized in a cloud of dust that coated Alex, who choked and coughed as she was dropped back to the floor, massaging her throat.

Down the aisle, Jon gave a sigh of relief before turning back to face his opponent. Unfortunately, she recovered much quicker than he had expected and he turned to receive a set of claws raking across the side of his face. The force of the blow knocked him to the ground, creating a surreal image of the flaming empousai rising over his falling body. Then something came flying from outside of Marcus's vision and sank into the empousai, who vaporized. Turning his head as far as it would go, he noticed Samantha standing over another pile of dust with one less sword in her hand. Running over, she nudged his knife off to the side with her boot as he rested his head back on the ground. He grinned weakly as she knelt beside him. "I'm not sure if I would've preferred to be kicked by the donkey leg over the bronze one." He said, then turned his head and coughed.

Samantha rolled her eyes and pulled him up into a sitting position. "Hey, are you ok?"

Marcus raised his eyes to find her brown ones full of concern and nodded. "Most of it is probably just getting the wind knocked out of me, I should be ok." He then turned his head towards the other two. "Hey Alex! Can I get more ambrosia?"

Alex, who was cleaning the cuts that had been slashed across Jon's face, turned and made a face. "You've had too much already, not risking it. However Sam gets something, I'll be with her in a moment."

Marcus huffed, trying to glare a bit at Alex but she met it with her chin lifted as if daring him to challenge her decision. He dropped his gaze and leaned back against one of the seats. "I give up." He grumbled.

Alex grinned wickedly and then turned back to Jon's cuts. Samantha rose to her feet and hauled Marcus up so he could sit down in one of the seats, with Samantha taking the seat across from him. Alex and Jon settled into seats across the aisle from them as Samantha stripped off her jacket and held her arm out for Alex to attend to. Marcus hadn't gotten a good glance at the wound earlier, but now that he could see it clearly his eyes widened and he sat up off the seat, an action he immediately regretted as he began coughing from the tightening in his chest. Samantha glanced at him with a raised eyebrow as Marcus stared at the holes in her arm.

Blood trickled down her arm from each of the wounds, which Alex cleaned off before dripping nectar onto the wound. "Ow, ow!" Sam growled through clenched teeth as her hands closed into fists before finally relaxing and Alex covered the semi-healed wound with bandages. As Sam pulled her jacket back on Marcus suddenly realized that mortals had been nearby, but a glance towards the end of the car revealed no curios or shocked faces pressed against the glass. Mortal ignorance is ridiculous he thought. He had no idea how the sounds of the fight had not ben noticed but he wasn't going to complain. Since the empousai were gone, the demigods would be the natural mischief suspects in whatever the mortals thought had happened.

A period of silence followed as Marcus rubbed his chest, trying to determine the extent of his injuries. He had said he was OK but felt some discomfort. Samantha, of course, noticed and patted his leg. "Get some rest, I can watch for the rest of the trip."

Marcus raised an eyebrow at this. "You sure?" But he knew she wasn't going to take no for an answer and nodded, resting his head back and closing his eyes.

It only seemed like second later that she was shaking him awake. "We're here, stopover time."

Marcus rubbed his eyes and blinked to clear the last of his sleepiness before he got to his feet. Jon and Alex were already waiting at the other end of the car with their bags slung over their shoulders. "Come on you two!" Jon called. "We gotta get out of here before someone notices the three sets of seats torn off the wall!"

Marcus vaguely remembered one of the empousai doing that damage and looking to his left at the damage he readily agreed with Jon. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he followed Samantha to the end of the train and they filed out. Alex hopped off the last few steps and stretched. "Since we have a few hours before the train leaves again for Las Vegas, can we go visit the Olympic Grounds?" She asked in an unusually happy tone.

She seemed particularly excited about this idea and Marcus turned to Jon with a raised eyebrow. Understanding the silent question, Jon shrugged. "She's a fan of the Olympics and follows them religiously. Don't ask me why because I don't know."

Marcus shrugged. "We don't exactly have the best timeline for this, but the train doesn't leave for another four hours. If It's close then why not."

They checked the maps in the station and to Alex's delight; it was a very short walk. The group made the short trek over to the grounds and along the way, Alex chattered endlessly about facts from the 2002 Winter Olympics that were held there. Marcus was surprised that she knew so much, this type of knowledge he would only expect from a child of Nike but it appears that not all demigods conformed to their godly parent's attributes. Then they turned a corner into the plaza and everyone stopped to crane their necks to take it what rose before them.

The Olympic Cauldron was beautiful. It reached five stories above him, with rectangular panels attached at all kinds of angles to make a crystal-like outer structure. In the silence of the park, he could hear and see the water cascading down the panels all the way to the ground. The torch at the top wasn't lit, but it didn't change how impressed Marcus was by the structure.

Everyone's staring was interrupted by a shocked sounding Jon. "Guys, angels aren't a thing right?"

Marcus wasn't sure what he was talking about, but then Jon pointed towards the base of the cauldron. Standing in the shadow of the structure was a woman that did resemble the general idea of an angel, with long dark hair piled up on her head in braids surrounded by laurels and a long white sleeveless dress. Her magnificent golden wings were folded behind her and her head was bowed.

They approached cautiously, and as they got near her head rose up. Her expression was intense, but beautiful. "Welcome, demigods." She said.

Her voice was commanding, almost strict like a drill sergeant. Marcus could feel his limbs twitching and tensing as he walked towards her despite his injuries, feeling new energy flowing through him and a sudden urge to do his best. As the other stopped a couple steps behind him, he realized she was silently calling him forward. He took one more step before kneeling. "Lady Nike?" He asked, worried that it may not be the goddess Nike but he figured by location it was a pretty good chance.

Her mouth spread in a smile. "Yes son of Hermes, now come closer. I have a proposition for you."

PLEASE READ THE A/N :D. It's long but please it's kinda important.

A/N: I've screwed up big time (I've probably done so multiple times but please bear with me). I've realized that I don't remember at any point within this story actually describing what any of the characters look like besides clothing (to the one reviewer who asked about why I described clothing so much, clearly my priorities are out of line). Literally across the board I haven't described things like hair, build, features whatsoever, so my sincere apologies to everyone who's character is in the story but is not described in a satisfactory way and an even bigger apology to you dear readers who are most likely frustrated at the lack of image you are forming in your mind even though my goal is to create the clearest image of what is going on in your mind. So I goofed. Badly. To make it worse I can't just put a full description of characters in the story because we're 12 chapters in. In what story do you see details being described 12 chapters in?

What I'll most likely do is at the bottom of the next chapter, I'll put a description of each character that is still in the story. Hopefully it'll clear things up a bit and to whoever submitted their character initially, they will most likely make an appearance, with a couple tweaks possibly happening, so don't lose hope!

Again I'm really sorry guys, hopefully the long chapter will appease the frustration but I'm not sure when the next one is coming. I return to classes in May so hopefully one more chapter before then! See you all soon and please review if you have the time! Thanks for reading!

-angelfirecho