~ A Long Road Ahead ~

SAPHIRA

It's been somewhere between one or two hours since they started driving. They have left the city behind, having crossed a bridge -Saphira isn't sure which- and continued on the route I-70 into Pennsylvania. Annabeth is the one driving, taking the first turn behind the wheel. In order for them to be able to stay on the move, she and Percy agreed to drive in shifts, so that they don't have to stop for the night. The son of the sea is riding passenger, while the hunters and the wolf ride in the van's back.

"It'll be a fourteen-hour trip if we drive nonstop. We could beat them to Springfield, assuming they stop at any point for any significant amount of time," Annabeth says.

"Or at least, get there before they hand Asteria to the 'higher-ups,'" Percy adds. "The handoff is supposed to be in three days, so as long as we are there before then, we can catch them and get Asteria back."

"Also assuming nothing goes wrong on the way there," Saphira mutters.

"We'll be fine," Chloe tries to assure her.

Saphira wants to believe that, but she feels like something is going to happen. A deep, nagging feeling of dread that has been dwelling within her ever since they found out where the gorgons are taking Asteria. Of course, she desperately hopes that this is the moment they rescue her. They know where they are going, they're not that far behind them, and there is a chance they could actually beat them there… but something just feels off. Something is telling her that this is not where they get her back.

Lykos has dozed off, at Saphira's urging. She wants him to be as well-rested as possible, and rest is not something he may get much of later. He's not just in charge of ensuring their safety, but also one of their best means of finding Asteria. She and Chloe know how to read the signs of their target, how to track them across the land, but they'll never be able to smell what he can smell. They need him to be working at full capacity if they are to stand a fighting chance of finding the child.

"Since we have quite the drive ahead of us, why don't we chat some to pass the time?" Percy suggests. "Might help us all out to get to know each other a bit more."

Annabeth nods her head. "Good idea. It'd give us a strategic edge to know each other's strengths and weaknesses as comrades. We'll learn how to properly cover each other's backs and-"

"Annie, I meant, let's talk about us. Our backgrounds, our interests, etcetera," Percy interrupts her. Saphira feels some of her old defensiveness begin to rise, but quickly pushes that down. She's still learning how to open up more to people, still tearing down the walls she built up over the previous years, which have been slowly coming down ever since she befriended Lykos. Well, that's not quite true. Chloe was the first to break through with her after Zoe's death, the first to pry into her inner self.

"I think that would be nice," Saphira says after a few moments.

The daughter of Athena blushes. "Right. We can- should do that first. How about you start, Percy?"

Saphira perks up. "Yes, please. I would love to know more about your mother, if you wouldn't mind. I thought she was absolutely wonderful."

Now it's Percy's turn to blush. "Well, alright then. Where to start… My mom has always been my rock, the one person for a long time who I could always count on, and who never gave up on me. No matter how hard life was, partly because of me, she always managed to smile."

"Partly because of you? Were you a troublemaker as a kid or something?" Chloe asks.

Now, the sea child's expression darkens slightly before he heaves a sigh. "I wish that was all that it was. Yeah, I got kicked out of school a lot. I was a terrible student, but no, the reason I made it hard on her is because I am Poseidon's son. As you know, we demigods have a scent that drives monsters crazy. My mom knew this, so she made a sacrifice that I cannot ever repay her for."

"What did she do?" Saphira asks after thinking if she should. It sounded like a sensitive subject, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"She married someone she didn't love," Percy replies. She can hear the anger in his tone and already suspects she knows where this is going.

"Oh, you don't have to share more if-"

"No, it's okay. I probably should talk about it more," Percy sighs, then continues. "A pig of a man I called Smelly Gabe. A filthy, disgusting bastard who made our lives miserable. He hoarded all the money that my mom earned for his stupid poker games. He insulted us, berated us, made us do shit for him like we were slaves. He-... he hit my mom. For a long time, I had no idea why she put up with him, but it wasn't after I found out I was a demigod that I figured it out. It was his stench. My mom used his stink to hide my scent from monsters. She put up with that rotten asshole for years to protect me."

They are quiet for a long time. Saphira isn't sure what to say- no, that's not right. There is a lot she wants to say, with most of it cursing the 'man' that had done those things. Some of it may be the small part of zealous hunter within her, but even if she wasn't a follower of Artemis, the things Percy just described would have sickened and infuriated her nonetheless. Who could do such things to such a wonderful woman?

"Your mother is a powerful and incredible person," she finally says. "I hope that her new husband understands how lucky he is to have her."

The smile returns to Percy's face. "Yeah, Paul is a great guy. I'll admit I wasn't sure of him at first, after everything that happened with Gabe, but Paul is nothing like him. He's kind, loyal, and he loves my mom. He makes her happy, which makes me happy because if anyone in this world deserves peace, it's her."

"I am glad, and I am sorry you had to live through that. It makes me wish that Artemis could have found this… 'Gabe,' and punish him for what he did to you and your mother," Saphira says.

"Don't worry. He got what was coming to him," Percy assures her, his smile becoming somewhat wicked.

"Did you…?" Chloe leaves the question hanging.

"Poseidon sent us Medusa's head after I completed my first quest. I had chopped it off and sent it to him before that, but he sent it back. My mom used it to turn Gabe to stone and sold his statue. She was able to use the money to get our new place and also pay for her tuition in creative writing," he says.

"Oh, that's actually awesome!" Chloe exclaims.

"His soul would likely have ended up in the Fields of Punishment as well," Saphira adds.

"I'd like to think so," Percy admits.

"My turn," Annabeth pipes up.

"I hope your childhood was more joyful," Saphira says, but the wisdom child laughs in response.

"You're sweet, but unfortunately, my childhood wasn't really great either. Must be a demigod thing," Annabeth replies. She sighs, and then continues. "Well, my mother, Athena, sent me as a gift to my dad. As you know, she is a virgin goddess, so her kids aren't born the uh, natural way, myself included. Anyway, my dad wasn't prepared nor was he happy to have me and tried to give me back, but Athena told him it doesn't work that way. So, he had to raise me. Even to this day, I'm not sure if it was because he didn't love me or because he didn't know how to raise me, but I grew up alienated from him. It got much worse when he married my stepmom with her two sons."

"Stepparent issues too?" Chloe asks her.

"Ooh, yeah. She wasn't like Gabe, thankfully. She was happy enough to be with my dad, but it was me who she decided to make miserable. It only got worse when the monsters started attacking. I was basically a freak to her, a threat to her sons -my stepbrothers- and she did everything she possibly could to make sure I knew I wasn't wanted. Eventually I got fed up with it and when I was seven, I ran away from home. I lived on the streets for a little while, hiding and running, until I met a couple people who became very special to me."

"Thalia and the son of Hermes," Saphira states before she can think to keep her mouth shut. She silently curses herself for not holding her tongue.

Annabeth throws her a look of surprise and confusion over her shoulder. "H-how do you know that?"

"I… well, Thalia is our lieutenant," Saphira replies. "She has shared some of her stories about her life before joining the Hunt. Plus, we did meet you before, when Zoe was our leader. That was when Thalia had rejected our offer to join us."

"Oh, right. I forgot all about that. It's been so long… and I didn't even understand what was happening back then," Annabeth says with some wistfulness in her voice. "Were you there, the first time?"

"I was. I had conversed with Zoe over it many times. She was furious with Thalia for rejecting us, and I had tried to make her understand that she had her reasons."

Saphira remembers quite vividly the arguments she and her sister had about that incident. She had always believed that romance was not something to look down upon, for she knew that love was a pure thing no matter if it was romantic or platonic. Zoe, on the other hand, had fiercely denied this and insisted that romance always ended badly. The difference came from their backgrounds. Zoe was hurt by a man and never got to see what true romance looked like. Saphira was not hurt like this, and she had seen what it looked like when love was honest and genuine.

"Well, looks like our paths were intertwined long before this quest," Annabeth says.

"Indeed."

"I supposed Thals told you how we lived on the run and how we got to camp then?"

"She did. She ended the story on that hill."

Annabeth exhales heavily and seems to be thinking about a time that was long past. "She was- still is my hero. Her and Luke… well, before Luke was possessed by Kronos." She sounds saddened now.

"Thalia had told us about Luke as well," Saphira says, remembering the details of the sky child's many stories. "He sounded like a good man then."

"He was." The reply came from Percy. He too, looks saddened by the memories they're now sharing. "I'll admit it. I hated him during the war. I hated him for betraying us, for trying to kill me, for hurting Annabeth… for a lot of things. In the end though, he sacrificed himself to save us, to save the world from Kronos. He did a lot of terrible things, but he died a hero."

Percy casts an awkward glance at Annabeth. "I was also… jealous."

"It's okay, Percy," Annabeth murmurs, looking at him with a loving smile. "I know I didn't make it easier for you. Hell, I didn't make it easy for myself, with how tangled my feelings were. Besides, you weren't the only one who was being jealous."

"Heh. Yeah, I remember. Rachel, Calypso, and..." he trails off.

"What do you mean 'and'?" Annabeth presses him, looking incredulous. "Who else besides those two?"

Percy blushes. "Uh.. well, when Jason and I got swapped, Reyna had tried to make a move on me."

"Oh, right. I knew that, just forgot," Annabeth says.

"There was also one of the Amazon girls who tried to take me back with her as her manslave."

Wisdom's daughter shakes her head in disbelief. "I didn't realize how much competition I had."

"There is no competition," Percy assures her with a grin. Annabeth glances at him, smiling brightly.

"I love you."

"I know."

Saphira can't help but smile. This is what she had always meant and what she wishes Zoe had seen.

"Okay so, who goes next?" Annabeth says. "Chloe?"

The healer smiles and nods. "Sure, though I don't think my story isn't as interesting as anyone else's."

"Don't worry about it. The whole point is to just get to know each other," Percy reminds her.

"Okay then. Well, let's see. Apollo is my dad, which is kind of funny since I now follow his sister and they can't stand each other, more so that Artemis cannot stand him," Chloe begins. "I was born in Las Vegas, where Apollo met my mom at a nightclub and they hooked up. Now, my mom didn't despise me or anything, but the problem was that Apollo had shown her who he was and she became obsessed with him. So obsessed that she basically forgot I existed and I had to just, raise myself. It wasn't that bad, really, though I did try to get her attention for years before I finally gave up. Luckily, I got my chance to get out when a satyr showed up, when I was eleven years old. That was probably the first time my mom noticed me in years and she then tried to use me as a means to get Apollo's attention."

"Why was she so obsessed with him?" Annabeth asks.

"Well, like I said. She knew he was a god and I guess she just wanted to be with him just for that. Anyway, her plan failed because I left with the satyr to CHP. It was nice for the few years I was there, but I felt like I didn't quite belong, so when Artemis appeared, looking for girls to join her, I jumped at the chance and I've been with the Hunt ever since,," Chloe says.

"How long ago did you leave camp?" Percy asks.

"Wasn't long before Thalia's transformation into a tree," the healer replies.

"Do you think you made the right choice?"

Chloe nods. "Absolutely. Anyway, that's all I really have to say about my past. Like I said, it wasn't as interesting as anyone else's."

"Well, if mine and Annabeth's stories are what we define as interesting, then maybe it's for the best. Nice to know at least one demigod who didn't have to suffer as a kid," Percy says.

"Saph?" Chloe prompts Saphira. Saphira nods and takes a breath to prepare for her story.

"I was born over two thousand years ago, in the Garden of Hesperides. Hesperia was my mother, and I've no idea who my father was. A poor mortal who was lured and trapped by her and my aunts, I suppose. Hesperia enjoyed the company of man enough, but she had no care for… the results," Saphira says. "She did not want me. I also lacked their ruthlessness, and cunning, everything that she and my aunts had. It made them see me as useless. My mother saw me as nothing more than a distraction, a pest, and she made it very clear every day..."

The memories begin to flood, seeing the past flow past her own mind. She can feel some of her emotions fighting to rise up out of her, but she forces them down. She is stronger than that now.

"I wanted her to want me. I craved her attention, her affection, her love. I craved it so badly that I did everything I could imagine to get her to see me as a daughter, but all I ended up doing was making her not just not care for me, but hate me as well. Eventually, she had enough, and when I turned eleven, she drove me from the Garden. I begged her to let me stay, begged her to let me be with her, but… she revealed her dagger to me, and threatened my life. If I did not heed her command to run, she would have killed me."

Both Percy and Annabeth look over their shoulders at her with shock and disgust.

"I knew the Hesperides were cruel, from when I met them on that quest but…" Percy shakes his head. "That's vile."

"I still wanted her love, but my desire for a loving mother was outweighed by the fear of what she would do to me. So I ran, fast and far from the place I had called home for so long." Saphira draws her knees up to her chest and lifts her eyes to the sea child's. "That's why I wanted to meet your mother, to see what a mother who cared and loved their child would look like. Your mother… she is everything I wished my mother to be, and more."

"Isn't Artemis like your mother?" Annabeth asks.

"Not quite. She is indeed caring and loving, but she is more like our older sister," Saphira explains. "I've had many older sisters in my life. Artemis, Thalia, Zoe… but a mother? A true mother? Never."

Annabeth nods and sighs. "I can sort of relate to that. Obviously my stepmom was awful to me, and Athena… well, I can't say she's much better. I know the gods aren't supposed to really talk to us and all-"

"That was supposed to change," Percy says.

"I know, babe, but the gods have always been awful at that. Even they admit it," she replies. "Anyways, I had always wished Athena would be more involved with me, though I suppose I should be grateful that my mom never threatened to kill me."

"That was the day I finally realized that no matter what I did, she would always hate me. I wish I could say that the world outside the Garden treated me better, but that was not quite the case. The first place I made it to was Athens, about two years after I had fled. I tried to make a life for myself there, but the city was not very kind to me either. I ended up becoming a beggar, then a thief. Quite a good one in fact, so good that I was eventually driven away from there as well, lest I should be caught and punished."

Saphira feels Chloe squeeze her arm as comfort before she continues.

"I wound up in the wilderness and it was there that my life finally began to turn for the better. I was fifteen, gathering food in the woods, when I was attacked by a tribe of wild centaurs. They had ambushed and cornered me, and when I attempted to flee, I was kicked by one and knocked down, but they got to do no further harm to me. When I woke up, it was in the hunters' camp, and I was being tended to by their healers and Artemis herself. I was afraid at first, but she assured me I was safe. They had arrived just in time to save me from the centaurs. She asked me why I was alone, so far from civilization. In my pained state, I told her everything I had been through."

She remembers that day so clearly, like it had been only weeks ago. She remembers how she had cried while the goddess was kind enough to have held her. Artemis had been greatly upsetted and intrigued by her story, as another of her hunters had been through a very similar ordeal.

"She offered me a place in the Hunt, an offer that I could not refuse. At that point, I simply wanted a place to belong, a place to stop running away from. I nearly did just that again when I realized that I was not the only Hesperide in the Hunt."

"Zoe?" Percy asks. Saphira nods her head, feeling that familiar heartache for her passed best friend.

"Yes. I was terrified of her at first. I thought she would be like my mother and aunts, but I was wrong. However, upon learning that she too had been driven away from them, I found a bond to be had with her, and we became very close. She taught me everything, how to fire a bow, how to track, how to fight. I became one of her closest and most trusted, so much so that I accompanied her almost everywhere she went. I hunted and fought alongside her for centuries… until the day that I wasn't there when she needed me most."

Up until now, she had been doing a well enough job of keeping herself together, but now her resolve begins to shake. A single tear manages to break free, crawling its way down her cheek, but she quickly wipes it away and pulls herself back in.

"It was that quest, four years ago, when she left to rescue Artemis from the mountain. I was not present to accompany her when she left. I was already sent on a mission, leading a hunt for a pack of hellhounds that had been evading us for some time. I had no idea of what was happening- what had happened, until I returned."

She still remembers everything about that night, coming home to find the Hunt in a gloomy, solemn state. She eagerly searched for her friend, looking for her in Artemis' tent, but instead found the grieving goddess and Thalia Grace there. Confused, she had asked them what was going on, and Artemis at first had only cried and embraced her, further confusing Saphira until she explained to her what happened. At first, all she could feel was denial, disbelief, and shock… before the anguish, the heart-stabbing agony that had followed, that had caused her to cry and scream her pain. She had cried endlessly for four days and four nights until she finally succumbed to exhaustion. After that, she became withdrawn and ceased nearly all intake of food and water, neglecting herself for weeks before she fell ill. It was then that Artemis, Thalia, Xenia, and Amaris had taken it upon themselves to force-feed her and nurse her back to health.

Her mental and emotional state however, remained shattered.

"I was broken for a long time after that. I detached myself from my sisters, from Artemis. I did not mingle with any of them… until Artemis assigned me a new tentmate, as she hoped would help me" she says.

"Didn't I?" Chloe asks, gently squeezing her arm.

Saphira smiles at her. "Yes. You did. At least, as much as I let you. Chloe was the only person who could get me to talk to her for all that time."

"She shut me out for a long while," Chloe adds as she places her arms around Saphira's shoulders. "But I wormed my way into that heart."

"Worm is very much a suitable term for it," Saphira jokes.

"Hey!"

"I'm joking, but yes. Chloe was the one who helped keep me sane… until I found someone I could relate to, to help me as well." She looks down towards the sleeping wolf. "Him."

She recounts for them the story of how she had met Lykos, how the two became friends and how they ended the war between hunters and wolves with the defeat of Lycaon and Orion, and how Artemis named him the Guardian of the Hunt.

"So, you shot him in the shoulder. He slammed you onto the ground, and… you became friends this way," Percy simplifies.

Feeling a rumble through the floor of the van tells them that not only Lykos is actually awake and listening, but that he finds their story just as amusing.

"You've been awake this whole time, haven't you?" Saphira asks him. A low groan is the response as he lazily opens his eyes and flicks them towards her. That usually means 'no.' He bares his teeth in a wide yawn before gesturing at her with his head and rests it again on his paws. He's telling her to sleep. He must have been lying awake, waiting for her to rest so that he could as well. Her other best friend seems to pick up on this as well.

"You should sleep too," Chloe tells her.

"I should be awake and help keep Annabeth alert," Saphira replies with a shake of her head. "And as you said, I am the leader of this quest. I should not rest while my companions cannot."

Annabeth briefly throws a grateful and reassuring smile over her shoulder at them. "It's okay, Saph. I got this. Plus, as the leader, you should be resting while you can. It's still a long road ahead. We need you to be able to be fully alert should something come up."

"I'll be awake for a while longer too. I can help her while you sleep," Percy says.

Saphira releases a sigh of both gratitude and surrender. She's realized by now that they are here to fully support her and ensure she is taken care of.

"Very well, but if anything happens, even something minor-" she begins to say.

"We'll wake you. Don't worry," Chloe interrupts her, tugging gently at her cloak to pull her down towards her lap. "Come on, Saph. You can sleep on me."

Still a little reluctant at first, Saphira slowly allows the healer to bring her into a more laid-back position, resting her head in Chloe's lap. Unfortunately, the van's floor leaves much to be desired as a place to sleep, and she shuffles about in her attempt to get comfortable enough. Once again, her friend assists her in helping her relax. Chloe carefully begins to play with Saphira's hair, running her fingers through the dark locks and massaging her scalp. It's not something she hasn't done before. There have been many times when the healer had helped her get to sleep this way, comforting her and soothing her when she was feeling… restless, in their tent, in the chilly nights back in the mountains. Usually when she had woken up from a bad dream or had been thinking too much of the past.

But now?

She feels strangely at peace, like a great weight has been lifted off her chest. Opening up to the couple seems to have done her some good, much more than she thought it might. Sharing her secrets, her past, letting free years- centuries of heartache, with those she can relate to.

With that, Saphira falls into the best sleep she's ever had.