Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hello, again, everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I've mostly been writing, as I've been in the mood for it ha ha.

This chapter is the last "fluffy" chapter (what I call "talking chapters" that don't necessarily deal with the action) for a while, as the next few chapters after this are all about the action! ;) This chapter is pretty necessary, though, because it's setting the scene for something tagged shortly down the line, along with some untagged things that are very crucial to the story...which if you want to theorize about, I won't mind. I won't confirm your theories, though lol.

Next chapter will be posted on Wednesday, as always, so I will see you then,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 16: We Spend Some Time Hitchhiking Pt. 2~

Ares was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well, well," he said. "Here comes my two cousins and their friend, safe and sound after all."

I glared at him as best as I could. "You knew it was a trap," I accused.

He shrugged and gave me a wicked grin. "So maybe I did. It doesn't matter. You got me my shield and made a nice TV skit in the process. That takes some style, kid."

I rolled my eyes. "You're a jerk," I said as I shoved his shield at him, causing both Silena and Katie to catch their breath. "Now, where's our ride?"

Ares snickered. "Bossy, bossy," he said. Then, he grabbed his shield properly and spun it around in the air like pizza dough. It changed form as he did so, melting into a bulletproof vest, which he slung across his back before he said, "See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. It'll take you straight to LA, with only one stop in Vegas."

I stared at the eighteen-wheeler warily. The trailer was black with wavy white stripes on it, like a zebra, and the text on the back of it was white, too – which was good, because it made it easy to read with my dyslexia. It read: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

"You're kidding," I said once I'd finished reading.

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the trailer unlatched. "Free ride west, punk," he said. "Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off of his handlebars and tossed it to me. It was already open at the top, so once I caught it I could easily tell that inside there were fresh clothes for all of us, along with twenty bucks of cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.

Still, I didn't want it. Ares had tricked me and the way that he had done it was low, even for a god. So, as I zipped up the bag, I said, "Look, I don't want your – "

But before I could say anything more than that, Katie cut me off. "Thank you, Lord Ares," she said as she gave me her best warning look for good measure. "Thanks a lot."

I gritted my teeth, but nevertheless reluctantly slung the backpack over my shoulder. I mean, I knew that my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but that didn't stop me from wanting to just throw him back his bag of shit and be done with it, regardless as to the fact that that would probably result in my doom. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced, after all: Hudson Lake, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers who didn't believe me, and every other jerk who had called me stupid in school or had laughed in my face when I'd gotten expelled. And I didn't like him because of it. Not one bit.

Anxiously, I looked back at the diner, which only had a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching us nervously through the window, her face pale and her eyes wide, as if she was afraid Ares was going to hurt us or something like that – if that was the case, then I didn't blame her. Still, I didn't like how she dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see, or how they seemed to have a short conversation before he held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.

Great, I thought with a grimace. Time for me to make the papers again.

I could just see the headline now: FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY MISSING FROM NEW YORK FOUND TALKING TO BIKER THUG IN COLORADO.

The thought of the headline made me think about the first one, which in turn made me think about my mom. "Hey," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level because of the idea that was currently rolling through my brain. "I want one more thing from you."

He sneered. "What? That bag ain't enough for you, punk? You a spoiled brat or something?"

I ignored his jibe in lieu of asking, "What do you know about my mom?"

Ares raised an eyebrow. "Your mom?" he asked. "What, do I look like old Death or something?"

"No," I said. "I just – I have a feeling if any of the gods knows something and is willing to share it, it's you."

At first, I thought he was going to kill me right then and there for that comment, but after a moment his sneer turned into a dark grin and he laughed. "Dionysus was right," he said. "You are smart. And just for your smarts, I'll tell you one thing: your mother isn't dead, punk. She's still alive. And she's being kept by old Death as a hostage, so that he can control you. So if you want her back and all that, your best bet is to find him that helm of his before the solstice."

Despite Ares's meddling over my emotions, waves of relief crashes over me at his words. I was right, after all. My mom was alive. And that was all that mattered to me at this point. "Thank you," I told him honestly as my shoulders sagged from the release of all of the tension that I had been experiencing ever since I started this quest.

Ares's grin widened. "Don't thank me yet, punk," he said. "We'll meet again in the near future. That's when you can thank me."

Then, he revved his motorbike and roared off down Delancey Street.

Next to me, Silena groaned. "Only you can piss off the war god and somehow get on his good side again, Percy," she said. "Now, come on. We need to get on that truck before the guys inside decide to leave – or worse, somehow notice us."

And with that, the three of us ran across the street and climbed in the back of the open trailer, before closing the doors behind us.

The trailer was dark inside, and it smelled something awful, like it was the world's biggest pan of kitty litter or something like that. With a grimace of disgust, I uncapped Riptide for the first time since I had used it to cut off Medusa's head way back in New York. The blade cast a faint bronze light in the trailer, and revealed a scene that made my stomach churn in disgust and pity: a scene depicting a zebra, a male albino lion, and an antelope that I didn't know the name for, all looking filthy and malnourished.

Part of the reason for their malnourishment, I assumed, was the fact that the lion had a sack of turnips in his cage, which he obviously didn't want to eat, and the zebra and and the antelope had each gotten a styrofoam tray of hamburger meat, which they also looked disgusted at. The zebra's mane was matter with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time, and the antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of its horns that read: OVER THE HILL!

And none of this was even mentioning the fact that all of them were sitting in cages that were way too small for them, with soiled blankets and no water next to their ill-matched food. All of them also had all of their ribs showing, which was even more sickening than the other signs of malnourishment that they were showing.

Right behind me, Katie let out a low moan that almost sounded like a sob. "This is kindness?" she asked no one in particular. "Humane zoo transport?"

"Katie," Silena began softly.

Katie wasn't listening to her, though. In fact, she didn't seem to be capable of listening to anyone in that moment, because there was a dangerous look in her eyes and I could see vines poking out of her skin, growing at a rate that was a lot faster than what I thought she was capable of.

Suddenly, Luke's words about her being dangerous didn't seem so funny anymore.

I swallowed hardly as I tried to figure out what to do. Obviously, Katie wasn't going to let us just sit here and let the animals be abused any longer – I mean, I didn't think even I could let myself just let that happen. But we needed to go west, somehow, someway, and Ares had at least been agreeable enough to give us the truck...

...The truck. He gave us the truck.

But he didn't give us the people driving it.

"Silena," I said as I turned to look at her. "Do you know how to drive?"

Silena frowned. "My dad gave me practice lessons before I left this summer, since I'd turn fifteen and a half in August. Why would you..." she trailed off as her eyes lit up in recognition. Then, she gave a hesitant grin. "Are you sure about this, Percy? I haven't had much experience driving, you know. Just a few lessons."

I grinned back. "Well, I haven't had any," I said. "So you're already loads better than me." Then I turned to look at Katie. "Katie, are you fine with staying back here with the animals? To keep them calm?"

She looked up at me with glassy eyes and a frown of her own, but that was okay, because I was, quite frankly, surprised that she responded to me at all. "What do you mean?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"You'll see," I promised her, before I looked back at Silena. "Come on, Silena. Let's go show those assholes what Kindness International really means."

Three hours later, we were driving along I-70 West, with a radio station playing all of the hits from the '70s and '80s playing smoothly in the background. Silena was sitting in the driver's seat, her beautiful face showcasing an expression of determination, while I was sitting in the passenger seat, munching on my portion of the Double Stuf Oreos and watching her drive in case she fucked up somehow in spite of her actually amazing driving skills.

Although, I have to say, her driving skills were no match for her breaking-into-and-hotwiring-a-semi-truck skills, because those were by far some of the best skills I had seen in that area, even if the skill set was pretty niche.

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Silena suddenly asked me.

I couldn't help but jump in surprise at her words, causing the crumbs from my cookies to go flying. "Shit!" I said as I watched the small, dark brown flecks fly into the area around my seat. "Silena, you just made me spill my crumbs!"

She rolled her eyes. "You don't eat crumbs, Percy. That's why they're called 'crumbs'. Now, answer my question: did we do the right thing?"

"The right thing about what?" I asked, confused. "I mean, you know as well as I do that those Kindness International guys had all of this coming to them with the way they treated those animals back there."

"Yeah, they did, but that's not what I'm talking about. I just – " she sighed. "I just feel bad about leaving Katie back there, okay? I mean, she was having a panic attack and we just left her to get through it by herself, and that wasn't fair – especially when I'm not sure if I could stop this thing before we get to Las Vegas. I think Ares did something funky to the gas and the gas pedal, because the gas mileage won't go down and the pedal won't go all of the way up. Which means Katie could be stuck back there for the rest of the eight hours of the drive."

I blinked. I think that had been the most words I had heard Silena speak all at once ever, and it kind of surprised me. But, it also made me think about why she had been so unwilling to come on the quest itself. "I'm sure Katie's fine," I told her comfortingly, even if I was a little uncomfortable at the thought myself. "I – I mean, it's probably best that she's on her own, if she's really as powerful when she gets angry as I heard she is. But that's not really why you're so upset, are you?"

At first, she stiffened, but then her shoulders slumped. "No," she admitted. "It's not."

"Then what is making you so upset?"

"Nothing," she snapped, before she sighed and shook her head. "Everything, I guess. I can't help but wonder how Drew and Laurel are faring with taking on my duties, how Mitchell and Lacy are doing, how my dad is doing, and...and..."

"And whether or not we're going to survive this quest?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Well," I said. "I think we're doing pretty good so far. I mean, we survived the Kindly Ones, Medusa, Ares, your mom – "

"It's not the monsters and gods that make me worried, Percy," she interrupted. "I mean, they do, but I'm not – I'm not as worried about them as I'm worried about what happened the last time a child of Aphrodite went on a quest."

I blinked again. "Wait," I said. "I thought you said children of Aphrodite don't go on quests? I mean, except for you, obviously."

"And Luke corrected me," she corrected. "He said 'most' after I said that. Most, not all."

"Oh," I replied stupidly, before I frowned. "Wait, who was the other kid of Aphrodite then? The one that you said died?"

She winced. "I can't tell you that, Percy."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not my story to tell," she said.

"Then whose story is it, then?"

She winced again. "I can't tell you that, either."

"Is it Luke's?"

Silena shrieked and jerked the steering wheel. With a scream of my own, I watched as she instantly corrected it, only to be on the receiving end of her wrath as she turned to look at me and shouted, "How could you possibly know?"

"Gah, it wasn't that hard to figure out," I managed to croak out as I fought to catch my breath. "'Cause if he corrected you about that, obviously he knew this kid of Aphrodite, right? And how many other people could know the kid other than you, Annabeth, and maybe Katie? I'm not stupid, you know."

"I never implied that you were," she replied wearily. "It's just...I really want you two together, okay? You two work together so well, it's like it's...fate or something. Destiny. And I don't want anything to ruin that. So you – you gotta promise me to not mention this to Luke ever, okay? At least, not until he's ready. Because otherwise he'll kill me and I'd rather not have that happen before I can have my first kiss with Ally."

I stared at her for a moment, before I sighed and said, "Okay, I promise. Whatever you think is best, since you figured out Luke and I liked each other before we did..." I trailed off, as a thought suddenly occurred to me. "Wait. You like Ally? As in Alabaster, the son of Hecate?"

Silena blushed. Hard. Which was an impressive sight, all things considered, because I'd never seen her blush before. I didn't even know children of Aphrodite were capable of blushing, although now that I thought about it, I didn't know why they wouldn't be. Capable, I mean. "Shut up," she hissed at me, drawing me out of my short-circuited train of thought.

But I couldn't just let this go. "Oh my gods," I said, stunned. "You like Alabaster. Alabaster likes you. How have you two not managed to kiss each other yet? Or kill each other. I mean, no offense, but he seems pretty predisposed to doing both when it comes to you."

"Gee, none taken," Silena replied with a roll of her eyes. "I tried asking him out before at the beginning of this summer, before you arrived. He said no."

"'He said no'?" I cried out. "But Silena, you're – you're – "

"A daughter of Aphrodite," she finished smoothly. No, not smoothly. Angrily. "Apparently because most children of Aphrodite don't go on quests, we're not womanly – or manly – enough for him. Like any of that matters. Nobody's been on a quest for two years now."

"Until now, you mean," I countered. "You agreed to go on this quest. Was it because of that?"

She blushed again. "No!"

"If you did, I don't blame you," I said honestly, because I really didn't. I was still just happy about the fact that she had accepted so I didn't have to deal with Annabeth for the duration of the quest.

"I didn't!" she huffed angrily.

"Okay, okay," I said, before I shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, anyways, because I'm almost certain that he just said that because he was scared. I mean, did he tell you that you weren't womanly enough for him, or was that just something you thought he meant?"

Her silence was an answer in of itself. With a grin, I shook my head and stretched out my arms. "Tell you what," I said as I stretched. "Assuming we survive this quest, I'll help you out with Alabaster like you helped me out with Luke, as thanks for both coming on this quest with me and helping me realize that Luke has feelings for me, too."

Silena turned to look at me with wide, nervous eyes. "Really?" she asked with a trembling voice. "You'd do that?"

"Of course," I replied easily, even if I was a little baffled about the fact that I was going to help her, a daughter of the love goddess, ask out the guy she liked. I mean, it seemed kind of paradoxical – not that I was going to tell her that. "That's what friends do, right?"

She smiled. "Yeah," she said softly. "That's what friends do."

And with that being said, we continued on into the dark desert night.

Word Count: 3,053

Next Chapter Title: The Lotus Hotel & Casino Pt. 1