A/N: Hi! Sorry about the hiatus. My computer died on me. Life has been hectic. Still, I'm back! Thanks for returning!

Chapter 4: We Catch a Cruise

Our life started to gain a rhythm. Days hiking and evening setting up a campfire- they'd proved really strong deterrents for monster attacks- and traps, as well as nights eating up and resting. I'd discovered a hidden talent for cooking meals. I could just tell which herbs were good and how to apply them to bring out the most flavor or at least enough to not kill us. Though the latter actually might have been Andromache, as initially, she'd stopped me from picking poisoned mushrooms. Even if it wasn't her turn to make dinner, she still always stayed on lookout. I'd also gained skills gathering wood and the two of us would switch off who collected each night. My dreams also stayed the normal random that I was used to without any memories of my parents interfering.

Days turned into weeks and before we knew it, we were well into fall, and it was starting to get chilly. Andromache left one day and brought back jackets for both of us (mine was navy, hers was black) as well as a can opener and some cans of food. I decided not to ask how she'd gotten it, especially since she'd refused to take the can opener from the safe house we'd found weeks ago, stating that it could help more half-bloods that way.

Despite Andromache's constant complaints about the gods' involvement or lack thereof, following our meeting with Hades, our daily monster count went down from fifteen a day to a mere one or two or five. It was kind of relaxing. The monsters that did attack us never stood a chance against Andromache and her spear. She complained that she didn't have anyone worthwhile to test her skills against but considering when she'd tried to teach me to fight with some sticks, I had somehow tripped on a twig, hit my head, and blacked out, it wasn't like I was going to be any help. By some fluke of nature, I'd been born without any battle instincts whatsoever, something Andromache found rather weird.

I should have realized our life had gotten a bit too boring and the fates were bound to throw a massive curveball our way. After all, it isn't like prophecies stop existing just because you've completely forgotten about them.

In that vein, I suppose I really ought to blame the fates for my decision to gather firewood despite Andromache's warnings that something felt off.

"Then we need more wood," I insisted. "If the fire burns out then we'll be at their mercy."

We'd discovered that having a burning fire was a deterrent to monsters when our fire had burnt out one night, and we'd woken up covered in giant spiders who were trying to tie us down with webbing. Fortunately, Andromache had reacted quickly enough to kill them before we ended up as their dinner (or breakfast). I'd mostly screamed and waved a stick around crazily.

"Just be careful," Andromache told me. She held her spear nervously.

"I will," I told her. "You keep the fire burning."

"Aye, aye," she saluted me and added one of our last few logs into the fire.

I headed off into the woods and grabbed as many logs as I could safely stack up. In the distance, I thought I saw a blur of movement but when I grabbed a stick as if to defend myself, nothing moved.

I picked up my pile of logs again and prepared to head back. I nearly bumped into the woman who hadn't been there a moment before.

"Eleanor," she greeted me.

I didn't know how to respond to that. Normally the people who know my name are either monsters or people I'd told it to. The woman didn't strike me with a sense of danger. More like someone with a lot of power, but a friendly sort. I wondered if she was secretly a goddess.

"My lady," I greeted her. "May I have the honor of inviting you to sit at my fire under the protection of Lady Hestia."

She smiled as if it was some sort of inside joke.

"I thank you for your invitation," she told me. "But I must decline. I came to warn you, child, that you are in danger." Her warm eyes looked at me nervously. "A great evil approaches the fire where you left Andromache."

Despite only knowing her for about three seconds, I believed her and that freaked me out. So I did the first thing that came to mind, I threw all my manners out the window. The thought of something happening to Andromache terrified me. Our time together had brought us close and if there was anyone I wanted at my back, it was Andromache. I dropped the new firewood in a messy clatter and ran.

I returned to the clearing only to feel myself get slammed forcefully into a tree. I tried to shout to warn Andromache, but the hand attached to the elbow clapped on my mouth. I twisted desperately trying to free myself. It was about as useful as wiggling my arms and legs in a completely useless manner. I was caught.

I turned to look at my captor. It was an albino girl about my age. She had warm pale brown eyes that didn't appear to stop moving. They glanced at me, through the trees, towards Andromache's and my fireplace, back above my head. Still, with the glimpses I got of them, I saw visions of a childhood with a twin brother among the woods. The trees offered protection, food, and bent to her will. It was clear I was in her domain.

"I-," I tried to explain. She'd released me now that I had stopped struggling.

She quickly put a finger to her lips and motioned around the tree. I moved slowly- I didn't want to startle her- and turned. There was Andromache and our campfire. Andromache was still shakily brandishing her spear and clutching her arm. There was a massive black needle-like porcupine needle sticking out from the elbow. She was pale, unsteady, but determined.

"Castellan will reward me greatly for your capture," the monster -it must have been a monster though it looked like a normal person with mismatched eyes- said. "We've been looking for you for quite some time."

"You won't take me alive," Andromache snarled. It would have been more imposing if her left leg hadn't given out from under her as another needle slammed into it. It took everything I had not to rush forward.

"That can be arranged," the monster replied. "However, I don't think that will be necessary, Kronia."

Andromache's left eye twitched. For some reason, monsters insisted on calling her Kronia. Andromache had refused to explain where that had come from. Her eyes swam with tears from the obvious pain, and she looked in my direction. Her mouth opened in a slight 'oh' as she spotted me. She blinked rapidly.

"Run," she mouthed and then promptly collapsed.

The monster picked her up and leaped through a portal. There was still a shimmering mirage left over.

I think I screamed. Andromache was all I had left to rely on. I had no idea how to get home and after everything, we had been through together… I didn't want to do this alone.

My mysterious rescuer looked sheepish.

"I'm sorry," the girl whispered. "The m-manticore took my twin the other day. He said that he was- he was-" she gulped "he was being drafted for an army. I tried to follow, but I couldn't. I've been watching this area ever since, hoping he'd come back. So, I could kill him."

I decided not to ask which him she had been referring to, the monster or her brother. Odds were she meant the monster, but after the weeks I'd had, well, I wasn't going to put anything past this crazy world.

"I'm sorry," I stared at the shimmering mirage. "Andromache and I barely knew each other for a few weeks, but it's been a long few weeks and-"

"I get that, I'm Robyn," she smiled. "Wait, didn't the monster call her Kronia?" Her voice tensed up at Andromache's monster name.

"That's not her real name," I explained. "She goes by Andromache, but the monsters..." I shrugged. "This whole demigod thing is kind of new to me and I'm fairly certain that the name thing is another aspect of it" that I just don't get.

Robyn smiled nervously. "Imagine living it your whole life. It doesn't get any less perplexing."

I felt a moment of relief. I'd been worried I would have to explain it to her. I knew she was a demigod too, but I had no idea how I knew that. It was like breathing. You take it for granted up until you can't, or you just start thinking about it.

"So…"

"I just wish we had some way to follow them," Robyn sighed.

"We could try and get caught," I offered.

"We'd just be stuck in whatever predicament they're in. It wouldn't do us any good. If only..."

I stepped over to the shimmering spot and poked it. It wavered and then a feeling built up inside me. I pushed it gently out. The glimmering spot grew far opaquer until in front of us was a shimmering portal of the sea. In the distance was a cruise ship. Something told me that Andromache was there.

"How did you do that?" Robyn asked.

I shrugged. It felt almost like I had added energy to the leftover pieces of magic. As if I had fortified it and given it strength. But ha-ha even in this universe that's impossible, right?

"Let's go," I gestured.

"Oh no," Robyn insisted. "You go. I'll stay here."

Her eyes were staring at the image like it wanted to rip her into shreds if she let it.

"You sure?" I asked. The ship was getting further and further away.

"Yeah," Robyn swallowed hard. "Keep the border safe. Always good to have a place to retreat, you know?"

I decided not to push it and leaped through the portal.

I splashed directly into the ocean. It was cold and wet. It was also a lot stronger than I'd expected. I floundered for a bit until the current suddenly shifted to help me. It only did so much. I splashed about until I was able to grab the nearest grabbable thing. A service ladder. I clung to it for my life.

Once I'd got myself securely attached to the ladder, the water pulled back and seemed to vanish. I shivered. Despite knowing the air was a lot warmer here than wherever I'd left from, it still felt frigid. Well, nowhere to go but up.

As I climbed, it suddenly dawned on me how idiotic this decision had been. I hadn't thought it through. I didn't even know how to get into this place. I hadn't even thought about how we'd escape. I'd just… leaped.

On top of that, I was now sopping wet. I was cold. Also, the portal had vanished from my line of sight. I could barely sense it. Granted my sense of touch was only starting to return in my arms in legs, so maybe my portal sensing abilities also needed to defrost.

Welp, no place but forward, or in my case, up. I wasn't going to get anywhere by clutching the bottom of what seemed to be an impossibly long ladder. Considering I was down a magic carpet or broom, I was going to have to climb.

I'm not quite sure how I did it. I just sort of grabbed rung after rung and climbed, only taking short breaks (looping my arms around the following rungs to keep from falling off) every time my arms started spasming. The side of the boat took forever and yet finished way quicker than I'd expected. When I found myself at the top or at least someplace I could get off, I hurled myself over and landed, very gracefully, in a heap. It had taken me long enough that I was only mostly damp.

On further inspection, I appeared to be in some kind of corridor.

"We are having fun," three children chorused following an adult, who must have been one of their parents. "We are going to the pool."

I groaned and pushed myself to my feet. Then I nearly jumped overboard again. Standing, not even five feet away, was a hellhound. While we'd technically made peace with Hades, I still wasn't too eager to bump into one of his minions. They'd wanted to eat Andromache and me a bit too much for my liking. Either way, I was sure it was going to jump on me or raise the alarm.

It did neither. Instead, it just waddled around the corner and headed to what appeared to be a buffet table and ate the current pile of pancakes whole. Then it looked up expectantly for more. When the plate magically didn't fill, it started to sniff the plate filled with sausages.

I hurried away. Of course, that meant I bumped into a demigod who also had to be turning the corner.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm sorry! I uh… the hold…" I did my best to smile confidently.

The boy I'd bumped into stared at me non-plussed. He was wearing armor over his regular clothes. Clutched in his hand was a sword.

I felt myself dripping conspicuously. There was no way he was going to-

"That shaft?" he pointed in the opposite direction.

"No," I replied as if I knew what I was talking about. "I'm still pretty new and I made a couple of friends among the newest recruits, and I was, you know, hoping to visit them?"

He looked at me confused. I gulped; with my luck he oversaw recruitment.

I scuffed my shoes awkwardly on the ground. A puddle was steadily growing around me. His smile warmed up and he put his sword in its sheath.

"Welcome to the team," he smiled. "I'm Chris."

He put out a hand for me to shake. I grabbed it.

"Nora," I replied, my good manners taking over before I could think of a good false name. Oops. I was doing really well on my whole rescue attempt.

"Well," he smiled at me. "I don't know how you made friends as we just started our latest shift a week ago. You just want to see the orientation film again, don't you?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, so I smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"I could tell," he smiled. "Well, some of newest arrivals are all watching the orientation film. It's just down those steps and the fifth room to the left. There's double doors so make sure one door is closed before opening the next and be silent. Also, make sure to hide before the end so you aren't spotted when they bring them to the conversion chamber afterwards."

"Thanks… Chris," I smiled and headed off in the direction he'd pointed me in. He hadn't seemed suspicious of me, but this seemed so easy. After the grocery incident, I'd kind of adopted the policy that everything that had been easy is now impossible. Particularly when I looked this suspicious.

"Also," he called out after me. "You can probably find new clothes in the third door to the left the way. But on the positive, you shouldn't have to worry about 'orientation' again. At this point, throwing people overboard is for enemies, not allies."

I gave a muted thumbs up. What sort of place had I gotten myself?

It turned out Chris hadn't led me wrong. After scuttling to the sides of the walls in the hall like a not at all conspicuous spy whenever I heard footsteps, I opened the third door to the left. It looked to be a closet. There were hundreds of purple shirts with what looked to be a scythe on the front. On the other side were jeans of various sizes. In the back was a curtained-off area that I assumed was for changing. I grabbed clothes that appeared to be in my size and ran to the curtained area to get changed.

Once changed – and therefore much warmer – I followed the rest of the directions. I needed the fifth door to the left, which meant it was just 2 doors down. It took a few moments, but I found it.

I snuck through both double doors. Inside was a massive movie theater. At least it looked the ways my books had always described them. My parents had never been too fond of movie theatres.

"Waste of time and not worth the cost," my father had always explained.

I let out a soft gasp as I stared at the screen. It was showing the shimmering image of a beautiful campground with fields upon fields of strawberries and were those pegasi in the background?

"You might be new, or you might be a veteran of this dangerous world of gods, monsters, and men," a friendly feminine voice called from the screen. "But already you must be aware of the state of things. The gods live high above uncaring as you find yourselves running from threat to threat. They only appear if they want something from you and even if they want to assist, they claim to be restricted in what they can do. In the meantime, hundreds of demigods die before they even reach adulthood monthly. It's no surprise that less than fifty percent of demigods live to adulthood and even fewer manage to raise families."

Something was enthralling about the video. I scooted forward to get a better look at the screen.

"For generations being a demigod has meant being monster dinner. The only safety, a camp with easily breach able borders." I saw a video of two massive fire-spurting bronze bulls. "But no longer, welcome to the Princess Andromeda! The new future!"

The camera suddenly pulled back giving a large view of the ship we were on. It swirled around starting at the figurehead, a gorgeous woman chained to the ship. The lighting could only do so much to make her screaming and terrified face look noble.

At this point, I was straight up in the middle of the back of the room. Any farther forward and I would be falling over seats. Any thought of there being people in the back to avoid went clear out of my head. To be fair, it was dark, and it didn't really look as if there were other people. And that made me cocky.

That was a big mistake because contrary to what my brain was telling me, they noticed me. One instant I was watching the piece on how monsters and half-bloods could cooperate to create a better world and the next thing I knew I was dragged and pushed against a wall, with a blade to my throat.

"What are you doing here?" my captor demanded. It was dark but by the flickering screen, I could still see short sandy blonde hair and three scars shaped like claw marks down the side of his face. He was obviously a demigod, and he didn't seem to want to be here either. I took a leap of faith.

"Same as you," I whispered. "I came to rescue one of my friends."

"Without a blade?" he asked. He quickly patted me down.

"Yes… It isn't as if blades just grow on trees."

"I don't know if you're idiotic or lying."

"I'm going to go with idiotic."

"Clearly, but you said we're on the same side."

"Some monster kidnapped my friend and I followed it through the portal." I did my best to avoid squeaking. There's something about having a blade to your throat and your vocal cords trying to reach never before reached octaves.

"But those portals are only meant for one use!"

"It worked for me."

He looked rather confused but didn't follow up on it. We stared at each other for a bit. Then I got tired of worrying about swallowing with a literal sword in my face.

"Uh, not to be rude," I asked. "But if you're not going to kill me, could you lower your sword?"

The sword guy stared at me for a second. He cocked his head to the side. Very faintly I heard a soft whispering in the distance.

'Win her trust to bring her to me.' The voice was so soft it gave me shivers. It was so faint I couldn't be sure I'd heard it.

"I'm Luke," the demigod told me. He lowered his sword. "If you're really as you say you are, come on."

"I'm not leaving without Andromache," I blurted. "I came for her. I'm not leaving without her."

"You really are idiotic," Luke replied.

"I suppose," I shrugged.

"Listen," Luke explained "The film has another two hours at least to go. After the Orientation film is the worst time for the rescue. I would know. I've investigated it. We can find another time later to help Andromache. In the meantime, I'll show you where I'm stowed away."

"Uh…"

Luke dragged me along with him. Have I mentioned that I'm really bad at confrontations?

"So, who are you again?" he asked me.

"Nora," I told him. It just bubbled out of me. Now that we weren't in the dark and I wasn't staring at the side with the scar, he was hot.

"Nora?" He smiled and my heart flip-flopped, much to my horror. "You don't strike me as the girl to run away."

I tried to play cool. "It all just sort of happened one thing after another." I might have used a bit too many hand gestures. Only Luke didn't seem to mind.

"I was a runaway myself," Luke told me. "Made a couple of great friends. I thought I'd lost one for a while but she's back now. The other probably hates my guts at this point…" he sighed.

"Why?" I asked.

Luke looked at me startled. "We made different life choices. She wanted to stay in camp, but it was too… confining for me. It was the same old grind. Day after day. Being trapped. Being told we were safe and when I finally had my chance for glory, a quest, it was just a stupid rerun."

"That's annoying," I sighed. "I'm on a quest myself." A common point! A point in common- a never mind…

"So, you aren't a runaway?" His eyebrow lifted.

"I don't know," I admitted. "My father sort of kicked me out of the house with a letter to give to some dude named Chiron. My father told Andromache and I to head to Camp Half-Blood. They were going to drive us. Only we got attacked by a hellhound and then one thing led to the next and-"

"Both of you ended up here on this ship," Luke finished. "Same with me. After my quest one thing led to the next and I found myself helping the demigods here. Who's your parent by the way?"

I shrugged. "Dunno." Just because he made my heart flip flop doesn't mean I was about to give him all my life information. Which, I'll point out, was the smartest thing I'd done during this entire little escapade.

"They're like that," Luke scoffed. "Only paying attention when they want you to do something. Expecting you to just love them and look up to them. To serve them without question." He spat at the ground.

"You hate them?" Andromache wasn't too fond of them, and I figured if they'd left her with Stheno and Euryale (the gorgons who'd tried to eat us), then she had a good reason.

Luke smiled. It almost looked creepy.

"It doesn't take a genius to know the world would be better without them."

"Andromache kind of feels like the world wouldn't be any different without them sometimes," I blurted.

"What about you?"

I froze. "I don't know. I haven't made up my mind. Some seem nice enough."

"Some?" Luke asked. "You've met them?"

"Yes," I replied. "Hades was nice enough."

Luke nearly choked. "Hades? Nice? He hates demigods!"

"No," I explained. "He's quite nice once you get to actually talk to him."

Luke shook his head. "Can't imagine that. I've seen him in person, and he did not feel that way to me. You don't think you're descended from him, do you?"

"Nope."

"What about related?"

The strange gleam in his eyes made me nervous. But as soon as I spotted it, it vanished.

"How am I supposed to know? Who are you related to anyway?"

Luke tensed up. "That's not a good question."

"Oh, sorry," I apologized. I hadn't meant to make him uncomfortable with my response. I'd just wanted to… He'd been the one to…

Luke stared at me for a hard minute. "You're not like most demigods I've met. You're… nice."

"Everyone's nice if you give them a chance." That was my family's motto. It had been ingrained into me since probably before birth. If he denied that, we were going to have to have some serious issues to work through in terms of our friendship.

Luke just gave me a look. "You've clearly not had a lot of experience in the world yet."

I smiled. "Or maybe you haven't been looking at the world the right way."

Luke gave me a funny look. It was the sort of look my father got when I started going off about a book, I'd finished but he didn't understand the appeal.

"Well, we're here," Luke smiled at me and led me into his room.

It was a comfortable-looking room. There was a massive bed in the center of it. It had its own bathroom with a shower! There was a massive dresser with an empty countertop. There were weights in the corner of the room.

I felt my knees buckle. An actual bathroom. A real bed.

"Do you ever miss home?" I asked him.

"No," Luke said simply. "I made my own home here. I do sometimes miss my friends. If they weren't so close-minded, they would-"

He cut off.

"You don't want to talk about it," I yawned. "That's alright. I trust you."

The soft presence hiding behind him smiled. I longed to ask him who it was, but something held me back.

"No, it's just... they see the world as black and white. You feel it, at least partially." Luke stared at me with blue eyes. "That the world would be better without the gods."

"I dunno," I shrugged. Talking like that made me uncomfortable. "Technology has gotten better."

"Demigods can't use technology anyway. It sends out flares for monsters to find us."

"That explains why my father was so insistent on the no phone policy."

"Your father was a demigod too?" Luke asked.

I nodded. "Hecate, that's what he told me."

Luke smiled at the news. "Hecate is perfect. She's one of the better gods in my opinion."

"Really?"

Luke nodded.

"I think my mother was a demigod too," I whispered.

He looked shocked.

"Do you know from…?"

"Can't remember, that's what my father said."

"Typical," Luke snorted. "Siring kids and not even bothering to claim them."

"I don't know if that's it. I'd have asked her except she's dead."

"Oh." Luke was silent for a minute "I'd thought I'd lost one of my friends once. She'd died saving my life and another former friend. Her father spared her life by turning her into a pine tree."

"That… sucks. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing for you to apologize for. It's not like you could have done anything."

"I'm sure you couldn't have either."

"I don't need any sympathy," he snapped.

"Oh."

"Besides, she's better now."

"You don't seem too pleased about that."

"She's still mind washed by the gods."

I shrugged. It was as good a response as any.

"Feel free to rest up," Luke told me. "You look exhausted. I'll keep an eye out for your friend. You said her name is Andromache?"

I nodded. My eyes slid shut and the next thing I knew I was asleep.

A/N: Here we are. I did mention familiar faces were going to show up in the last chapter. Perhaps I was supposed to specify unfriendly familiar faces. Also, there were a few more clues to the timeline. Brownie points to whoever can figure out when we are.

As always, thank you for reading! Let me know what you think! Comments, concerns, and conjectures of what's to come are always welcome!