I am so so so so so sorry. There has been a lot going on, but I'll skip the excuses. Hope this chapter was worth the wait; I did clear some things up.

StephLopez: Thank you! I'm so glad I have your support : )

NoodlePoodle: Aw, thank you so much! And yes, the cover picture has been changed. The original certainly didn't match the story at all.

"A-apollo?" Faith was the first one to speak. She was staring wide-eyed at his car like it was a god in itself.

"Hey, Faith. How's your curse doing? Ah, I see you got a little darkness there," he gestured casually to the tattoo-like symbol on her arm. "Be careful with that."

Vaz was the first one who really came to her senses. "Um, excuse me. Not that you're not welcome, but, uh, what are you doing here?"

He laughed. "Well, I heard that you guys needed a ride."

"A ride to where?! We don't even know where we're going!"

Another chuckle. I wanted to say something too, but I was a bit distracted with the smoking vehicle, the shiny teeth, and the fact that there was a freaking god right in front of me. I mean, I had seen Grandpa a couple times and, I think once, I was able to see Zeus. But it had been so long that I couldn't seem to tear my gaze from him.

"What do you mean darkness?" Faith finally spoke, her voice a little more shaky then usual. She was touching it again, her fingertips trailing along the blackness with the same delicacy that one might use while petting a dog. It was kind of creeping me out, to be honest.

Apollo shook his head, still smiling. "You'll find out more about that later. That's not, ah, what do they say… my cup of tea?" A shake of the head. "Well, I suppose it is, but I think it's in everyone's best interest if we hush that up for a little while. I'm not here as a doctor. I'm here as a friend."

Faith had the nerve to roll her eyes. "A friend, eh? That's a bit hard to believe."

"Shut up, Faith," Vaz's tone was like a blade; sharp and dangerous. I resisted the urge to take a step back when I saw the fire in her eyes. She glared at Apollo as if he was a younger sibling, and not one of the most powerful forces on the earth. "I'm going to ask you one more time. Where are you taking us?"

There was a scary glitter to his eyes now, and my gut was telling me to run. Instead of going with instinct, I moved so that I was shielding Faith. When I glanced over, I saw she was shaking. Her head was nodded to her chin, and her fists were clenching and unclenching.

"I'm going to take you to a place where you might learn some information."

I opened my mouth to say something, but naturally, it was too late. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly we were in the back of… was this a school bus? I almost threw up when I looked out the window. We were so high up, everything looked like little specks.

"You look a little green there," a voice beside me said weakly. "Are you okay?"

I turned, to find Faith shrunk up against her seat, knees up and hands tightly intertwined. Her knuckles were white, but they didn't compare to her face, which was a flattering shade of paste.

"I think the real question is, are you okay?" I moved a little to the left so she could have more space. Not only would it hopefully make her more comfortable, but if she threw up I wouldn't be in the splash zone.

She didn't even try to smile. "Claustrophobia. Closed space. No exits. I'll…" she swallowed thickly. "Be fine."

"Of course she will."

I glanced to across the seat and found Vaz spread out on her own bus seat, looking quite comfy. She had her hands behind her head and her feet up on the seat beside her, as if this was some luxury cruise. The fact that she could sound so casual in a situation like this irked me for some reason.

"Apollo's being kind of quiet," I leaned over and said lowly, hoping the god couldn't hear me. "What do you think he has up his sleeve? I'm not sure I like the looks of this."

She shrugged. "Not much you can do about it. What are you going to do, jump?" She laughed, but her eyes didn't change. "That would really make you stupid."

"Urgh…" Faith was clutching her stomach. For both our sakes, I got up and slid myself next to Vaz, pushing her feet off the leather and making room. She gave me a dirty look, but didn't protest.

"What do you think he meant by information? Do you think he's leading us to my parents? Or is this just some game to him and the rest of the gods."

Vaz became indignant. "Hey, my mom is helping us along the way, and clearly Apollo wants to help. I say we give him a shot. He is Faith's grandfather. Maybe that'll give us some credit."

I snorted. "Oh yeah, because the gods care so much about their relatives."

"Oh go away; I don't need your negativity on my side of the bus," Vaz glared at me, using her boot to push me off the seat with an 'Oof.'

"All hands on deck!" a cheery voice came from the front. "And Luke, I would feel a lot better if you would apologize for all those mean things you were saying!" I could almost hear the pout in his voice. "I'm just trying to help."

I didn't dignify that with a response. "Are we almost to… wherever you're taking us?"

"You got it, kid. Try to hang on to something, okay? This might be a bit of a jolt."

I barely had enough time to make it back to my seat with Faith, when the bus made a sudden jerky movement, and then started to plummet as if it was made of lead. I tried to yell, but when I opened my mouth, nothing would come out. My eyes flitted to Faith, who looked terrified, and then to Vaz, who looked bored. I clutched the material under me with all my strength, closed my eyes, and prayed to Zeus that he wouldn't let his crazy son crash me into the ground.

And then, stillness.

When I opened my eyes, the brightness to the bus was gone; it was obviously not magical anymore. Apollo had disappeared, and Vaz was already on her feet, peering cautiously out of her window.

We were in some kind of forest-y area, but much more marshy then the one we had met Faith in. There was moss hanging from branches, grass and bushes scattering across the dirt, and the constant sound of animals coming from outside. I was almost afraid to open the door.

"Wait, did he leave his chariot with us?" I tilted my head.

"No," Vaz sounded fed up. "He switched it out. He landed, gave us this old thing, and took his chariot back to the sky. Would've been a lot nicer of him to leave it, though." She winked at me, and suddenly I was glad he had taken his power with him. The image of Vaz, controlling a god-powered vehicle in the sky, made me shiver.

Faith still had her eyes closed when I glanced over, and I tapped her gently on the shoulder to try to get her to open them. When she did, she cursed.

"We're still in this death cage?" she gestured, sounding a lot more strong then she had when we were in the air. It was obvious that the tight space still grinded on her nerves, but she seemed to feel better now that we weren't in the air.

"Feel free to get out," Vaz gestured to the door. I saw a challenge in her eyes; she wanted to see if Faith was brave enough to go first.

None of us knew where we were, or what we were doing, or what we were supposed to do, but none of us brought it up. Faith steeled herself, stood, and marched out the door, with Vaz behind. Sighing, I followed. Personally, I kind of liked the death cage. Whatever was out there… well, I felt safer knowing that there was a barrier between us.

Now there was nothing. We took a step out of the bus and was hit full on with the smell of fresh, mountain air. I could taste the mist on my tongue, and my eyes stung from how clear it was. I was surprised; in the book I had read about areas like this the air was thick, but I couldn't get enough. I had never tasted oxygen like I did now.

"Do you have your pack?" Vaz turned to Faith. Oh, I hadn't thought about that.

"Yeah." Thank the gods. "Apollo put all your guys' stuff in here too, and the bow…"

"The bow?" I stepped forward and, sure enough, there it was. "Don't take it out. Not now. I have a bad feeling…"

Suddenly, something came stomping through the underbrush towards us, making almost more racket than a bear. I pulled out my dagger, Faith knocked an arrow to her own bow, and Vaz pulled out her sword. We must've looked like a pretty scraggly team, but I pushed that out of my mind.

A figure appeared. A knife, glinting, was in our opponents hand.

"Calm down," a voice soothed. "Put your weapons at your feet and no one has to get hurt."

"Who are you?" Vaz demanded, not backing down. I was surprised at the ferocity in her voice.

Laughter. Gods, I was so tired of people laughing today. "Does that concern you?" The voice was smooth, silky, and very persuasive. It was obviously a male voice, with no sign of a tremor. "No it does not. Put your weapons at your feet and no one has to get hurt."

Faith was apparently done with this guy; she let an arrow fly. It hit him dead on… but suddenly all that was there was a shadow. The voice was suddenly right in my ear, and a blade was putting pressure between my shoulder blades.

"Should I say it again?" he asked pleasantly, his breath tickling my ear. "Put your weapons at your feet and no one has to get hurt."

"Shadow travel," Vaz growled, slowly bending as if to put her sword at her feet. "Be on guard."

"Now!" Faith shouted.

Somehow, I understood, and put as much distance as I could between me and the stranger by somersaulting forwards and turning to see what I could do. Vaz was in a serious fight with him, but was quickly having to fall into defense. Faith seemed to see what was happening, and skirted around to his blind side with an arrow in hand. When she raised it to strike, he turned and jabbed at her stomach. My mouth went dry.

Instead of him gutting her in front of me, Vaz crumpled to the ground behind him, crying out. In a moment of confusion, Faith managed to wedge the point of her arrow into his side. He made an inhumane hissing sound and disappeared into the shadows.

At once, I was at Vaz's side. "Vaz…what happened? What just happened?" I was in shock. She shook her head and clutched at her stomach. When I moved her hand, a blood stain was rapidly appearing.

Faith sprang into action, kneeling beside the other girl and barking orders. "Get the ambrosia from my pack, Luke. Vaz, I'm going to need you to stay conscious. Keep your heart flowing, okay? I'm going to put some pressure on the wound. This might hurt a little. No, no, stay with me. Where's all that stuff about staying tough? You don't want to look bad in front of stupid here. Okay, you're going to be fine."

My hands couldn't stop shaking, and I felt like it was taking forever for me to grapple with the ambrosia pack and get one out. I moved as quickly as I could, and stuffed one in Vaz's mouth. Her eyes were hazy.

"Okay, Luke, I'm going to need you to take over," Faith, sounding very calm and reassuring, pressed my hand to Vaz's stomach, and I shut my eyes at the sticky feeling of blood. I applied the amount of pressure that Faith instructed me, and she hurried to her bag to get something else. When her hand emerged, she was holding a bottle full of strange white powder. She took a pinch, moved my hand again, and sprinkled it over the wound.

"Ungh," Vaz groaned. I hurried to reapply pressure, but Faith grabbed my hand and gave me a warning look.
"Wait," was all she would say. "It's magic."

Sure enough, the blood flow slowed, and then stopped. Her shirt was definitely ruined, and she had now definitely passed out. There wasn't much Faith and I could do about that now, so I decided to ask her a couple of questions that I had a sneaking suspicion she had the answers too.

"What just happened? Why was Vaz hurt when the creep stabbed you?"

Faith looked away. When she looked back, I gasped; her eye color had changed. Instead of purple, it was a shocking blue. "I told you about my curse, right?" she said with her gaze elsewhere. I could tell she was not as calm as she was letting on.

"Yeah."

When she finally looked at me again, there were fractures in her eyes, like they were twin cracked glass windows. Shattered beyond repair. She had to swallow before she spoke, and her voice came out strange… deeper, maybe. "When Apollo declared no monster would touch me, the Cyclops used his darkness to curse me. The wound that would be normally inflicted on me is diverted to the person closest to me; this is why I travel alone. I am doomed…to be alone…"

And she trailed off, muttering things in a strange language while stroking her arm. Dark fell, but she continued to do that long into the night. I listened to her until I fell asleep.