Chapter 22

MEG POV

(A/N Figuring out a street map of Trenton was more time than it was worth, and Miami is way bigger, so I really can't be bothered doing that again. So apologise to people living in Miami, but the travelling through the city will mostly be bulcrapped. Sorry that it's a day late, but last night when I was writing (woohoo, procrastination) I accidentally deleted the first half of the chapter. Here's this one, (honestly it turned out way better than the original) and a longer Bridger: ASWS on Wednesday, and hopefully that makes up for it.)

Meg awoke to the onboard sound system telling them they had arrived; looking out the window, she could see that it was pitch black, barely any stars to see and only a sliver of moon. Turning back to her companions, Chris was trying to wake up Clarisse, with not a high amount of success, and Robin was fast asleep in his chair, brown hair falling into his eyes, and every so often there would be a somewhat loud snort. Meg debated over the best way to wake him up: she could try shaking him, but if he was half as heavy a sleeper as Clarisse she had no chance, she could try and whisper in his ear, but that could be interpreted the wrong way and Chris would make fun of her the entire rest of the trip, or, glancing down into her bag, there was a third, more unorthodox method…

"Meg,what are you doing?" Chris half-shouted across the aisle, his exasperation fighting his enthusiasm. The daughter of Demeter did not reply, her focus was all on levitating a tomato above Robin, that, when dropped, would splatter on his forehead. Letting it go, she turned and gave her answer in the moment before chaos.

"Having some fun."

"ARGH!"

Robin's eyes flew open and he sat up, almost flying off his seat with the force of his movement. Along with Chris, Meg could see that Clarisse had woken up and was laughing heartily while Robin tried to blink the tomato juice out of his eyes. He turned to her with an accusatory glare.

"You did this."

"Guilty as charged. Tomato juice looks good on you by the way." Robin was dumbstruck by the comment, and Meg took advantage of the free second and ran, laughing, out of the doors of the train, and up to the station entrance. Chancing a glance behind her, she could see the son of Adranus close behind her, with Chris and Clarisse further back. Getting to the entrance, which was flanked by rosebeds, Meg's escape was cut short by the sheer beauty of Miami. The beach was almost completely clear of holiday goers, leaving a clear, uninterrupted view of the sea, which with the few visible stars reflecting down, took on an appearance not unlike gemstones scattered across a carpet of navy silk. Caught up in the beauty of it all, Meg completely forgot about Robin, and only remembered she was supposed to be running when he executed a fireman's lift on her.

"Haha, gotcha now!"

"Be warned, Clifton, I could make an apple tree grow out of your ears!"

"Yeah, because you're going to give me brain damage to get out."

"Alright you two, cut it." Meg twisted her neck around, to see that Clarisse had caught up with them, and was now standing behind Robin. With a small wink, Meg lifted one leg over Robin's head onto his other shoulder, then pulled herself up so she was riding piggyback.

"Ha! Now, let me down." Forced to comply, Robin moved his arms up, grabbed Meg around the waist, (she was trying very hard to to think about how good that felt) and slowly lifted her down.

"No fair, you've got crazy karate moves or whatever from camp."

"I didn't actually learn them from camp. A Roman demigod, Reyna, taught me while I was with the Hunters of Artemis." Meg thought back to the attack on Camp Jupiter. In the days that followed, between helping out the rebuilding, Meg had been given small lessons on basic hand-to-hand. After getting back to camp, she had sought out Annabeth and refined her moves. Coming out of her reverie, Meg noticed that Robin's expression had changed drastically to resemble a kicked puppy.

"So, you're a huntress?" The hurt in his voice was clear. Meg could have kicked herself. Stupid, now he thinks you're uneligible. And why is that a bad thing? Shut up, me.

"N-no, I'm not a huntress. Haven't really thought about joining them either." Seeing the pain on his face so quickly switch to relief gave her an idea to mess with him further. "Why are you asking?"

The tables now turned, Robin was left to stutter a few seconds until Chris graciously stepped in.

"You know, this is cute, but we really need to get a move on, so let's go." Oh, gods. Both teens blushed at his offhand comment, though Meg swore she could see something besides embarrassment in Robin's expression. She didn't get a good look at it though, as he hastily strode off towards Clarisse, who had already gotten down to the water's edge and was kneeling in the sand. As Meg got closer, she could catch phrases in Ancient Greek, but Clarisse was speaking quickly, as if she wanted it to be over soon.

Swish, swish.

Meg frowned and turned around. She could have sworn she saw something moving, but the beach was decidedly clear. Focusing back on Clarisse, the woman was still speaking fast but Meg could catch the occasional word like 'father' or 'aid'.

Swish, swish.

Meg turned again. This time she definitely saw a movement, a small amount of sand being kicked up by an invisible force. But again, nothing was noticeably different. Turning round again, she could only concentrate for a second before she saw it again.

"Alright, did anyone see tha-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The sand behind them erupted. Coughing, Meg turned to her companions, and found Chris and Robin in the same state she was. Clarisse, however, was still kneeling and praying, albeit now covered in a pale yellow dusting.

"The crap was that?!" An indignant shout could be heard from Robin as the dust settled, the three demigods backing into a loose semicircle around Clarisse.

"I don't know, but I don't think it's here to make friends."

"Yeah, no sh-" Robin's angry retort to Chris was interrupted by another explosion of sand; this one, however, was further towards the station. Peering through, Meg tried to make out the form of any familiar monster while she racked her brains. Hellhounds usually attack in packs, Empousai aren't big enough, Cynocephali aren't that coordinated… What was it? A glint through the settling dust revealed shiny scales, a flash of moonlight on two equally dark pits, almost purple. Another pair of obsidian-dark holes appeared, but several metres below the first. As the dust settled, from top to bottom, the monster was revealed in its entirety. First, a scaly, snaky head, beige and yellow, with the first pair of pits for eyes, then a muscly neck, prime for breaking bones or snapping spines, all the way down to its tail end, where another head was attached seamlessly, the second chunks of onyx appearing in their entirety. An Amphisbaena sat in all its monstrous glory, ready for a tussle.

"Well this is another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into." Robin's voice came across seemingly distant from Meg's right. She grunted in agreement. The top head unhinged its jaws and lunged, bearing down upon the three half-bloods.

Robin immediately grabbed his nickels; turning them into the handguns, he pelted off to the right, firing as he went. The snake, though not completely unfazed, was mostly unperturbed by the bullets and went for Chris, who had summoned his sword and shield from the Capture-the-Flag game and was now being hard-pressed to fend off one head. The other struck at Meg. Leaping backwards, Meg called up her scimitars and went to work. The snake, however big and nasty it was, was uncoordinated in its assaults. One head would go in for Chris, but the other would go for Meg at the same time, resulting in neither fully getting there, and thus giving the demigods a momentary reprieve. After one such failed attack, Meg went in for a strike that should have guillotined the serpent-except her Imperial Gold blades bounced off as though the scales were titanium. Meg cursed under her breath; of course it would have impenetrable scales. As if the fight (and it's scales) weren't already hard enough. Looking over at Robin, who was still fruitlessly firing off rounds at the reptile, she got an idea.

"Robin! 'I'm going to trap it with vines, then you melt it with your fire!" He looked uncertain for a minute, then nodded his affirmation.

"Hey, scaly! Come look at me! Tasty, juicy demigod flesh!" Both heads started after Chris. Meg was thankful for the distraction, it would give her more time to concentrate. She looked past the snake, and focused on the patches of roses by the station. The dryad spirits inside were ready, but apprehensive. Come on, I need your resilience. Lend me your strength! Meg's eyes shot open and she raised a hand, calling the thick vines up from the beds. They rushed down the beach, almost as they were snakes themselves, until they reached the Amphisbaena and started entangling it, wrapping around its trunk, up and down the body and muzzling the jaws, until it was thrashing on the ground, completely trapped.

"Robin! Now!" The son of Adranus wasted no time in stashing his pistols and letting out a jet of flame, hungry, seeking to destroy. It latched onto the vines and crawled up, surrounding the snake. The plan was going well, until Meg realised she was killing the plants, innocent dryad spirits dying alongside the monster. No, I will not let this be another Aeithales!

We would gladly sacrifice ourselves, daughter of grain. It would be an honour. The dryads spoke in her mind as if they were right next to her.

Not for me, Meg thought back. Stop. Retreat. I am sorry. Immediately, the vines became slack, and the tendrils connecting it severed themselves and retreated to the rosebeds. Her energy spent, Meg sank into the sands with horror. She had let vegetation burn, dryads die, just for a means to an end. She was no better than Caligula. Meg was so consumed in her grief and disappointment, she barely registered the Amphisbaena, bearing down upon an easy meal, or the streak of maroon red coming from the other direction.

BANG!

BANG!

Meg came out of her haze. Robin stood in front of her, pistols drawn. The Amphisbaena was frozen, holes in both roofs of the mouth. As she watched, it crumbled into golden dust, until it was no longer differentiable from the sand.

(Alright, first things first. Sorry again for being late, typing at eleven at night tends to lead to some bad results. But also, I'm really friggen proud of this one. I was considering leaving it at the 'that's a big snek' scene but that would mean leaving the fight scene as its own chapter, or adding to a development focused chapter next time, and so now you get almost 2000 words of peace offering. Meg x Robin is here too, and a bit of lightheartedness as well. Remember, not all demigods are like Percy and Annabeth, forced to bear the weight of the world (woo puns I'm hilarious) from a young age. Robin and Meg are still young, and so they will mess around with each other. Cya on Wednesday for Bridger.

Vaya con Queso,

DamaSENDhimafriend