I looked around the Dining Car, searching for Estelle. I spotted her sitting at the bar, a glass full of soda-pop in her hand. She was faced away from us, talking. It wasn't until she moved her head, taking a sip of her pop that I noticed who it was.

"Alexandria..." Cynthia next to me growled. I grabbed her arm, trying to get her to turn and leave, she snatched her arm away, letting me know she was still mad at me. But we both headed for the exit. I scrambled to reach for the knob, but the door opened abruptly, causing us both to stop in our tracks. A figure a few inches taller than me blocked the doorway, his thick head of black hair and electric-blue eyes seemed to mock us. He walked closer until we had to step back.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked. "Couldn't you stay for a pop?"

It was Carter.

"Move," I demanded, sounding much more confident than I really was. "Now."

Carter's dark red turtle-neck shirt was form-fitting, showing off all the muscles in his stomach, and the ones that weren't visible in his arms. He wore a pair of black pants that seemed to fade against the dark contrast of the Dining Car. "Now, Greg, don't be feisty. We are, after all, family."

"Family doesn't fight against each other." Cynthia told him. He eyed her, and his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"I was told you were a daughter of Ares." he said.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, offended. "I am."

He put his arm on her shoulder. "Than act like it." She pushed his arm of her shoulder, and I could practically read her thoughts. I'm going to smack him, I'm going to smack him all the way to Germany, then I'm going to swift kick him in the ass so he lands back in the States, then I'm going to buy a ticket on a passenger plane back to the USA just so I can smack him again. He looked at her again, the back to me. "Come, Alexandria is waiting."

"Why would I go with you? What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked, nonchalantly looking around the car for exits.

"I wouldn't attempt escape. We've got guards at all the doors," he paused. "Then again, you die today, anyway."

I was too deep in thought to process the last part of his sentence. They had us cornered in the Dining Car. We were doomed. He led us over to the bar, where I gave Estelle a deep glare, letting her know I was going to throw her out of the train later.

Alexandria looked me over. "Hey, handsome." she said. She didn't quite have the same effect on me in human form, as she looked to be about twelve, but in mermaid form, she looked to be at least nineteen.

"Shut up you bottom-feeding hussy." Cynthia growled at her, then looked at Estelle. "I should have known you'd betray us. I could call you a few things, you know."

"Yikes, someone needs more fiber in her diet," Alexandria said with a laugh. "You were all 'teary-eyed' last time I saw you. What happened, did Miss Sensitivity 1939 find out Gregory doesn't love her back?"

I blushed. Cynthia spoke up again. "At least I'm not in love with my first-cousin!" she stood up.

Alexandria stood up as well. "You're right, darling, you're in love with your second-cousin." Estelle drank more of her pop, like there was nothing going on around her.

Carter rose from his seat around the bar. "Retract those claws, kitties. We're here on business. This has nothing to do with Estelle, and who loves Greg the most, we save that for second grade."

I thought it was a funny joke, though I'd never admit it. But they looked at each other, and sat back in their seat. The bartender who'd obviously seen the incident walked over to us.

"May I help you children?" she said, I hardly noticed the British accent. But I did notice Carter checking her out.

"We're fine." I said quickly, and she looked us over, unsure, and then went to polish the glasses with her rag, but she kept an eye on us. I turned back to Carter. "Okay, jackass, what the hell do you want from us?"

"I'll ignore your profanity," he said, then went on. "Zeus and Poseidon don't like you, Greg. You see, they think you and these girls are the ones that Hades will send after the Relic."

Relic? Why does he keep mentioning a Relic? "What are you talking about."

"You mean you don't know?" Alexandria snorted. "My, my. I've seen stop signs slower than you."

"You're talking about the Seal of Destiny, right?" Cynthia asked.

Carter nodded. "Yes. My father and uncle seem threatened by the presence of the three of you. So they assigned us to kill you. I don't see the threat, though. A suicidal son of Hades, a daughter of Ares who may as well belong to Aphrodite, and a daughter of Demeter who uses the same fighting technique as a gorilla." He quickly added a sarcastic "So very scary, why, I think I've wet my pants."

"Still doing that, Carter?" Estelle finally spoke up. "Why, I remember when you first arrived at camp, and Chiron stepped out of his wheelchair, you took one look at him and peed yourself. Sad thing, though, you were thirteen."

Carter blushed. "I'd make you regret that comment, however, you're dying in less than an hour at my hand, anyway."

When he said that, was the same time I noticed the dagger sheathed and hidden at Cynthia's side, and Estelle's backpack that she carried her 'special fruits' in was at her side. I knew in my pack my short-sword was waiting for my use.

I looked again for exits. This time, not for doors, but for air vents, or...anything. That's when I saw it. A hatch at the top of the car, that most likely led up to the roof of the train. It was a long shot, but it was our only choice. Keep him talking. He loves to brag.

"Oh, really, we're going to die? And how do you plan to do that?"

"We've placed salt on the upcoming railroad tracks." He answered.

I paused for a moment, waiting for him to begin laughing, but he didn't. He was serious. "What are you going to do next, serve it with a lightly-buttered roll?"

He sighed. "You idiot. Salt causes trains to run of track when placed on the railroad. It would be almost like slipping on ice for a human. Only, much more... deadly."

"Why don't you just kill us?" Estelle asked. Looking at her, I remembered what had just occurred in our car a few hours ago. How hurt she'd been, and how she was willingly going to let us alone. But that's the last thing I needed to be. Alone. I wondered what she had been talking to Alexandria about, since she didn't seem to be attempting to get away from her.

"That would take all the fun out of it." He said, a sly, evil smile crossing his face. "Besides, we wouldn't want it to look like it was aimed at certain people. That would cause unnecessary investigations."

"Do you know how many other people you'd be killing?" Cynthia asked, she didn't even seem concerned for herself, but for the wellbeing of everyone else.

"A bunch of worthless, pathetic mortals." Alexandria answered. "Too many to count."

"You're half worthless-pathetic-mortal!" Cynthia protested.

"Actually, I'm a third mortal, a third sea mammal, and a third god." She responded.

"You know what, I'm glad Greg didn't turn out anything like you two," Cynthia said. "You two have got to be the most arrogant people alive. So spoiled by being the children of one of the Big Three that you don't even consider your mortal heritage, and you kill them if they get in your way. You have lost your compassion to feel the pain of another creature. You've lost your right to love, and you've forgotten what it's like to feel vulnerable. That's what's kept demigods and mortals close. Not the blood that we share, or the country we live in, but it's the emotions and feelings we share that allow us to feel sorrow, joy, or pain for one another."

"If we wanted to be preached at, we'd go to church." Alexandria said, looking at her nails. "You're just jealous, anyway, just because you're father is a minor Olympian. A bed-hopping shell of a man that only likes to watch people die." She rose. "He's worthless, and only causes trouble. And you're the poor sap that has to call him 'daddy'. Sucks for you. Ah, what does it matter? You're both a waste of oxygen either way."

Without saying anything, Cynthia grabbed Estelle's pop from her hand, looked at the glass to see how full it was, shrugged, and poured the glass over Alexandria's head. Alexandria instantly fell to the floor with a shriek, I jumped to avoid her sprouting tail. I pushed myself up onto the bar, ignoring the screams and gasps of the mortal passengers. I prayed to Hestia that it wasn't a mermaid they were seeing through the mist.

"Estelle! Cynthia! Hurry!" I motioned to them, and Alexandria was already pushing herself off the floor, her blue-green tail morphing back into legs. Obediently, Cynthia and Estelle pushed their way on top of the bar, and I started in a run across the smooth surface, knocking beer and Hades-knows-what-else into people's laps, and on the floor, overwhelming the place with screaming, curses, and breaking glass.

The exits flung open at once, and I saw Carter and Alexandria's guards. Extremely large, human-like robots, that moved quickly across the floor. Automaton's. Created by the forge-god Hephaestus.

"Estelle, throw something!" I said, fumbling with the latch that would open our only ticket to freedom. She unzipped her backpack at warp speed, but they were getting closer. Alexandria had changed back into a human, and her and Carter were now on top of the bar. Cynthia picked up a wine glass and threw it, smacking Alexandria in the face and shattering at her feet. "Estelle, now!" But as I said it, she whipped out what looked to be an orange. She immediately threw it, and it landed in front of two of the six automatons, splattering it's liquids all over them.

Instantly, their fake skin started to melt and tear, exposing the metal under it, but as quickly as the skin melted, the metal started to dissolve in a sickening sizzling sound, like that of grease cooking a tortilla.

Acid oranges. Ouch.

Finally, the latch popped open and the outside world was exposed, all I could see was the gray sky and the snow falling from it. I wasted no time, I hoisted myself out of the opening, and onto the roof, instinctively reaching into my backpack to draw my sword, when I saw something that practically sent me into cardiac arrest. Six women, two archers, four weapon wielders stood on the roof.

The one in the front, a extravagantly beautiful woman, holding a sword, and a silver and red buckler spoke to me. "Get behind us, young warrior."

The snow lightly fell, and the train still trucked down it's railroad, causing me to sway as I tried to move across the snow-covered roof. I dropped to my hands in knees, in order to keep from falling off. I was hardly dressed to be crawling through snow. When I was close enough, the woman grabbed my arm, and lifted me up. I could barely hear her shout over the wind which had seemed to just pick up.

"I bless you and your allies with the Blessing of Grace." Her words were calm and relaxed, and all of a sudden, It was like the train had stopped, and the wind was no longer pushing against me. It was as if I were standing on the ground, except much, much easier, almost like gravity had no effect on me—and of course it did, but I felt... free, like an eagle soaring over a mountaintop. Like there was nothing that could bring me down.

Cynthia scattered onto the top of the vehicle, followed by Estelle. They had no trouble standing up, I guess the Blessing had taken affect on them as well. They scrambled behind the women with no instruction, and Carter appeared through the hatch, and Alexandria right behind him. They stopped immediately upon sighting the people who had saved us, shock on their faces. Carter wiped the expression from his face, trying to show no weaknesses.

I noticed one thing, though. The woman had said she bestowed the Blessing upon me and my allies. Carter and Alexandria definitely weren't allies, yet they had no trouble standing on top of the train.

"It doesn't matter now." Carter began, and laughed. "None of it matters." The six women broke apart, four backing up, leaving two standing side-by-side in the front. They guided us backwards with them. Carter eyed the two women. "Hippolyte, Penthesilea, you have led your warriors to their doom."

"And die honorably they will." One of the women in the front said, she stood next to the one who had blessed us. She wore a helm that covered most of her head, but her blond hair flowed out in two neat braids. She was completely covered in battle-armor, and carried a shield and spear in her hands.

"There are two ways you all will die today," Carter said, producing a sword. "Either by the hands of us and our minions personally, or you will die when the train wreck takes place."

They both seemed unphased. "Your minions?" The one who blessed us asked. As if on cue, automatons pushed the hatches of the cars behind Carter and Alexandria, and began pushing themselves up on the train-top.

Carter only smirked, but Alexandria spoke up. "Artemis will be pleased to know you're enemies to the Hunt again. She says it's good practice to fight against your girls, Penthesilea."

The one called Penthesilea—the one who blessed us—spoke up."Artemis is a fool, she and Lieutenant Nightshade are nothing but arrogant, sorry excuses for immortal life. I've almost killed them on several occasions."

The one who seemed to be named Hippolyte chimed in. "And in the end, it will be us to have the last laugh." Automatons from everywhere behind our enemies joined them, looking dangerously threatening. There were many more then I expected, at least thirty, maybe fifty. And there were nine of us...

"No, the last laugh will belong to us," Carter smirked. "At the next railroad crossing, salt has been placed on the tracks. I expect everyone on this train to be dead within five minutes."

"There's one hole in your plot," mocked Penthesilea. "You're on this train."

"Don't underestimate us." Alexandria replied. She had a dagger tightly gripped in her palm. I could feel the nervous sweat rubbing against my sword from my hands.

"What makes you think you're going to live to see us die, mermaid?" Hippolyte asked snidely. Then added, "Amazons, attack plan Delta."

Instantly, the two archers shot a small volley of two arrows, and the fight had begun.

The two sides rushed at each other, coming head on. Estelle threw one of her little grape explosion do-hickies, and it exploded in the middle of the large group of automatons, and sent parts flying through the air. Alexandria went after Cynthia, and Penthesilea and Hippolyte went after the large group of robotic monstrosities. Leaving me, against Carter as the other Amazons went to help their leaders, and Estelle was acting as an archer with her banana-boomerang.

Carter lashed out at me with his sword, and I barely had time to react, but at the last second I raised my short-sword, and blocked his blow. My brain pulsed as I attempted to summon skeletal reinforcements from the Underworld. No luck.

I lunged at Carter, and he sidestepped, practically slipping on the snow. Automaton parts whizzed through the air behind us. Carter swung at me again, but I parried the blow, and automatically returned it. After a few seconds, with glee, I realized I had pierced his sword arm. He yelped in fright when he realized that blood was oozing from the wound, but he quickly recovered from the shock and switched arms. But I knew he wouldn't be as good using his off-hand. He switched to hand-sword combat, using a mixture of martial arts and swordplay as defense.

He kicked at me and lunged his sword at the same time, I leaped back to avoid the blow, but I felt the tip of his sword scratch against my thigh. He grinned with satisfaction when he saw the blood staining my pants. His expression quickly changed as he ducked, and Estelle's banana-boomerang jolted past my head and flew through the air, right where his head would've been. He stood back up, a smug grin on his face again. Apparently, though, he had forgotten about the drawback of a boomerang, because the device came back at a greater speed than it had come the first time, and hit him on his head. I heard the contact, I knew it was a banana, but the sound it made as it hit his head sounded like metal against hollow wood. His eyes rolled to the back of the head, and he fell to the roof with a loud Clunk! And only the snow to soften his fall.

I looked at the scene. Penthesilea and Hippolyte were fighting furiously, killing the robots with almost no effort, and Cynthia fought Alexandria, which was to my surprise, a pretty matched battle.

An automaton surged forward, challenging me. I lifted my sword, noticing it was unarmed, fighting with it's fists... its extremely large, seemingly painful fists. It punched at me, but I scurried out of the way, slipping on the melting snow.

So much for my new-found 'grace'.

The robot cupped its fists together, creating a metallic crash noise, lifted its hands over its head, and—

Died?

An arrow protruded from its chest, and I watched as it sparked and smoked, then fell over, and rolled off the side of the train.

That got me wondering.

Carter still lay unconscious on the train, he hadn't slipped off, he just lay there as if he were taking a nap.

I didn't have too much time to focus on that, because something caught me. A scream. I'd heard it before. It was devastatingly high-pitched, and had a tone of distress. It was Cynthia.

Alexandria had her on her back, knife to her throat, right at the edge of the roof of the train. She laughed, and whispered into her ear. She put her first two fingers together, kissed them, and held them at Cynthia's direction. I started in their direction, but the I was too late. Alexandria gave a sharp kick to Cynthia's ribcage, and Cynthia screamed as the force of the blow pushed her over the edge of the train. I rushed to the side, and looked over it, only in time to see her fall to the ground, leaving only her imprint in the snow.

She was gone. To my horror, my only friend, the only person who I could even remotely open up to was gone. Forever. Gone.

The sickening image replayed over in my mind again. The kick in the ribs. The scream. The shape of her body in the snow.

And it was at that moment, that my world caved in around me. I was overwhelmed with emotions; sorrow, rage, hate, blame, guilt, and the jealousy that it was her to die and not me. I just couldn't help it. Tears streamed down my face, and a headache started to pulsate at the back of my brain. I leaned over the side of the train and vomited. Watching someone die was never easy.

Then, I remembered a thought I had earlier, when I thought about how Cynthia had been turning into someone that I would hate because of my father. Why doesn't he just kill her?

The truth was revealed. I could never get close like that to anyone ever again. There would be no point. Just sorrow.

The light thought that she could still be alive sparked in my head like a fire, but was immediately dimmed. No one could survive a fall like that. Even with the snow to cushion them.

I stood, wobbling on my knees, to see a smug-faced Alexandria staring back at me. "That's what she gets for making my hair sticky."

I pushed her down on her butt. The fight was still going on around me, but the Amazons had pretty well finished it up. Most of the automatons were dead, and Carter was still knocked out.

"You're a monster," A growled at Alexandria. I could feel the anger burning in me. "And you deserve to die."

"Whatever." She said, readying her dagger.

"But I'm not going to kill you right away. I want you to suffer. Just like I have suffered all these years, and will suffer for years to come. I lay a curse on you. I curse you with the Curse of the Dead." I leveled my sword to her neck, and a ray of light swiftly ran down the blade, sparkling brighter at the tip of the sword, and fizzling out.

What was the Curse of the Dead? I don't know. It was just the worst possible thing I could think of to say.

"Um... okay." She said.

That was the last thing I heard before my world went black.