OOoh, yes! That's really cooolll!!!!!

Sam-

We all sat in the bus silently, only the sound of wheels driving through potholes was a sort of music.

Jen and Tray were sitting as far away as possible from each other while Katherine just looked at her hands, probably still shocked at going on a quest.

I glanced around and met Tray’s gaze. It seemed like she was about to cry, which she never does. I noticed that her nails were clenched into her skin, making droplets of blood slide onto the floor.

“Tray? What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.

“N-nothing.” She was almost shaking with what I thought is fear.

“You’re hurting yourself!” I exclaimed, taking out gauze and tape. She allowed me to wrap up her palms.

“Tray, there’s something wrong. You have to tell us.” I set my jaw and stared her down.

“Sh- She’ s b-back!” Tray wailed, covering her face with her tan hands.

“Is she crying?” Katherine wondered timidly. Jen nodded yes.

I then bent down and hugged Tray as tightly as I could as she sobbed.

 "Yes," Tray cried--into my shoulder.

“Now, Tray, tell us what happened,” I said soothingly, my arm still around her.

“I-I can’t, you’ll all die.” She blinked back tears.

“Great. She calls us her friends but won’t even tell us stuff,” Jen muttered.

“Jen. Just shut it or help me out here.” I turned back to Tray. “Why can’t you tell us?”

“I just told you why!” She yelled, standing up and sinking back into her seat.

“But Tray, this might be important.”

“Give us a clue.” Katherine placed her hands in her lap and smiled at Tray. “You mustn’t tell us everything.”

“A girl ‘J’ with a boy’s name.”

“Jen?” Katherine wondered.

“Watch it, wimp,” said Jen through gritted teeth.

“Jack?” Tray nodded, looking as if she might faint.

*

Argus dropped us off near a bus stop in Manhattan.

“Where should we go?” Jen inquired.

“We need to find Nick,” I told them.

“No,” Jen sarcastically murmured.

“He won’t be on the mountain,” Tray said decidedly.

“Why?” I wanted to know.

“Too obvious.”

“He could be anywhere!” Jen sank onto a bench.

“He’s in Colorado,” Katherine announced.

“What?” Jen, Tray and I demanded.

Jen narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “How do you know?”

“I-I just know.” Katherine studied her feet.

“Well, that’s the only thing that we can really do. Colorado, it is.” 

//Jenifer//

"Don't worry Sam, she scares everyone."

"Oh, so I guess I frighten the big bad Jenifer, then?"

"You would. But just because your have absolutely no personality, your body gets all weird if you get the slightest bit mad, and you frighten newbies oh, just about every day doesn't mean that you frighten me. Irritate me to the point where I want to slice your throat, yes, but frighten? Not so much." I smirked at Tray and raised my eyebrows. Sam and Tray both kicked my foot at the same time, which really just resulted in them kicking each other. 

"I'm going to check on Katherine. You two behave yourselves." Sam got out of our boothe and I was left with the glaring Tray.

"Fat chance." Tray muttered

"Good luck." I retorted.

Sam walked down the aisle towards the diner cart and I sighed, leaning on my elbow and my face in my hand. I stared out the window, dreading any extra time spent with Tray. After a few minutes of highly enjoyable silence, Tray was the first to break it.

"We have to stop this, you know. As much as I enjoy bickering with you, we can't go on with this." For once, I have to agree with her. It disgusts me, but it's a fact. 

"Fine. You're right." I sit up and lean back in the chair. "Symmáchous , touláchiston gia af̱tí̱ ti̱n anazí̱ti̱si̱ ?"* I held out my hand, waiting for her to shake it.

*It means: "Allies, at least for this quest?" and it's Greek phonetically, the real letters are: Συμμάχους, τουλάχιστον για αυτή την αναζήτηση;

Tray-I just couldn’t take it anymore. Between my dreams about Jack, Jenifer, and what Sam had said I just couldn’t take it anymore. She’d told me that I was easily provoked and was likely to cause the next Olympian/Titan war. I don’t know why but it was just too much. I was so sure that I was going insane. I was scaring new people. I shouldn’t have done that. Everything was getting on my nerves lately. I knew I had to leave before I hurt someone besides myself. Instead of going to the bathroom I walked to the back of the train. I cut my way through the back. I was staring at the track of speeding away. If I jumped I’d probably break a few bones. Unless…..  I opened a chasm in the ground and jumped into it. Instantly I was in the Underworld sitting in front of my dad and Persephone. They looked like they were in the middle of a conversation. “Oh Tray, what now?! Hades asked exasperated. I rolled my eyes. “Nice to see you, too, Dad. Oh and by the way I’m not here for help, like you’d offer any, but I’m here to take a break. So don’t kill me k? I’m going to my ‘room’.” I stood up and walked off. I swear I heard Persephone saying something about Hades needing to be a better father. I snorted. As if. I lay down on the bed of bones, and pulled the animal skin covers over myself. If I wasn’t so used to this by now I probably would have puked. I shut my eyes hoping that in my father’s territory I would be free from dreams, but of course I was wrong. My eyes were open almost as soon as they’d shut. I looked around, nothing but fog. Great another one of those dreams. I walked forward, the fog curling around my feet. Then a voice circled around me. “I know you are there, Thanantos. I know that you don’t want me here. I also know I’m not going to go away.” I froze in place. Hiporborean. I nearly screamed. If there was one thing that scared me more than Jack it was that stupid titan. “Go away. Get out of my mind,” I said steadily. “I’m already in it. And I’ve rooted myself in, and I’m not leaving. Not yet anyway. I still need a few things while I’m here.” His voice swirled around me like a snake moving in for the kill. But there was nothing scarier than what came next. “I will kill you Tray. You know I will. And not just you but everyone close to you too.” It wasn’t what he said it was his voice. It was a mix of his voice, Jack’s and mine. I woke up in a cold sweat screaming. My dad walked in. “For the love of Hercules, Tray, shut up! Even dead creatures need sleep!” Then he walked out. I ripped off the blankets. Hiporborean was in my head. He was using me. Just like Uranus was using Jen. Probably not in the way Uranus was controlling her but somehow he was seeing through my eyes and I had no idea how.

Sam-

“She deserted us because she’s too scared to face Nick.” Jen snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Maybe she left because of you!” Katherine crossed her arms. I was surprised that she was even protecting Tray.

“You don’t know her, Katherine. She’s a coward.”

Frustration boiled up inside me. How could Jen be so unfeeling, so cold-hearted?

Uranus.

Yes, I should blame it all on Uranus, but shouldn’t she try to shut him out? What if she doesn’t want to?

“Jen, I thought you made a pact with Tray to be allies for the quest.” I attempted to keep my voice under control.

“She isn’t here, is she?”

“That doesn’t mean you can go around insulting her.”

“You-“

“GUYS!” Katherine jumped up from her seat, looking close to tears.

Both Jen and I stopped. I sat down next to Katherine.

“Can’t you guys stop it? Tray’s gone and if we don’t find her she’s going to die.” Subsequently she started to sob.

I put my arm around her shaking shoulders. “What’s wrong? What do you mean she’ll die?”

She just cried harder. I patted her back until she finally looked up. “I – I just know. She’s only safe while in the Underworld.”

“Katherine, how – do – you – know – this?” Jen inquired through clenched teeth. 

“I can feel it. We have to get her back. I’m going to tell her.”

“What do you mean, you’re going to tell-“

Katherine disappeared.

//Jenifer//

I cursed under my breath, burying my face into my arms and leaning against the table. "Not another one! They made the pact, for the gods' sake!" I groaned and leaned back, closing my eyes. "What in Poseidon's name are you talking about?" Sam asked irratedly. "Exactly! It's all Poseidon, and Zeus, and Hades! It's all them! They're the ones who brought us all here, giving us this stupid life, and look, there's two Zeus kids, me and Nick, plus who knows how many more." At this I pointedly glared at the roof of our car. "Then there's you and...Nell." I swallowed slightly, and Sam cast her gaze to the floor. "Then there's Tray, the annoying little twit that she is, and now it's pretty obvious that Katherine's a Hades' kid too. Six?! Really guys?" I yelled up to the sky, retrieving a good amount of looks from passersby, including a sleeping man in the booth next to us. "Jen, calm down. You'll get us discovered." I sighed, still fuming. "Well if I can't rant to you, I'll just yell at someone who counts." I stood up, walked to the back of the train, closed the door and made sure no one was looking. Once I was positive that I was alone, I jumped off, my molecules disolving into the air and floating away in the wind, towards the sky.

Sam-

Tray clenched her fists, trying to hide how much she was shaking. Her jaw kept clenching and unclenching. She looked like a ghost, white and almost see-through.

“Tray, you cannot let Hyperborean see your fear, nor can you let him in. Do you have any idea how he got there?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice broke and she coughed a little, trying to prevent tears from coming to her eyes.

“It’s old magic.” Katherine hung her head to one side and watched Tray.

She reminded me of Nell, a little version of Nell with her quiet but wise ways. Every time Katherine spoke, it was like a knife stab in my chest . I swallowed hard and blinked.

“We’ve got to ask Chiron,” I decided.

“NO!” Tray jumped up, her eyes wild with fear. “He’ll (meaning Hyperborean) know.” Then she fainted.

*

“Tray. Tray!” I slapped her lightly on one cheek and her eyes fluttered open.

“What- What happened?”

“You fainted.” Katherine hesitantly put her hand on Tray’s shoulder, trying to calm her.

“I had this awful dream.”

“What?”

“That Hyperborean saw where we were and sent out some weird creature to find us.”

“Did you see which creature it was?”

Before Tray could answer, a woman wearing a brown hat with a large brim, which shadowed her face, walked in carrying a long package in her hands.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked in a voice that sounded ancient. She wore gloves and her dress was so long that you couldn’t even see her feet.

Tray nervously scooted closer to the window as the woman sat down.

I felt Katherine tense next to me and grasp my hand. Through clenched teeth she whispered. “Miss Gorgon my old history teacher used to love snakes.”

I glanced at her and she nodded. I locked eyes with Tray who took her knife out of her boot and set it on the seat beside her. Then she pulled a sword out from her other boot.

“On three,” I mouthed.

One.

The woman appeared to not notice us.

Two.

She began to take her gloves off; scales.

Three.

Her hands flew to her hat.

“LOOK AWAY!” I yelled. Like Medusa, this woman had hair like snakes, which could petrify you.

 “You think I’m that easy to fool, “ she cackled. Looking in the train window, I noticed that it could be used as a mirror. The Gorgon was right behind me. I closed my eyes, turned around and prayed to Poseidon to help me.

A gush of freezing water burst out of my hands and I heard a scream. I turned away and looked at Tray who threw her knife backwards onto the creature. She missed.

Katherine then did something surprising. Turning around and looking at the ceiling, she pushed her hands forward and vines began to wrap around the Gorgon (at least that’s what it looked like in the window).

Then a shrub with a red fruit that I recognized as pomegranates popped up in front of the Gorgon’s face.

I spun around, ready to stab her with my knife, but Tray was quicker. She removed the head with a swipe and kicked it under the seat.

“How did you--“ she began, turning to Katherine. She was standing still, looking up at a symbol above her head.

“An apple. You’re Demeter’s daughter,” Tray said.

“That’s not an apple, it’s a pomegranate! That’s Persephone’s sign. She’s the daughter of Persephone.” Katherine smiled and the pomegranate disappeared.

“I’ve been claimed?” Tray and I nodded.

Katherine’s smile faded. “We have to get off the train.”

Were Nick and Jenifer blood relatives, like actual brother and sister? Or just same dad, different moms? If so, then just alter it to the answer. :]

//Jenifer//

"But Dad!"

"Jenifer Fitzgerald, you heard me for the last time!" Zeus' voice thundered around the palace hall. He put his hand to his temple and closed his eyes. "Athena, Poseidon, please leave me and my daughter to discuss this in peace."

"Of course, father."

"Yeah, yeah."

They both disappeared and left Zeus and I alone in the hall, which was something that I didn't exactly cherish. 

"Listen, Jenifer, Nicolas is my son just as much as you are my daughter, I cannot simply just-"

"Father, you've done it plenty of times before, listen, you'll just send me to Nicolas, I'll act as if I'm on his side, then you'll do your little king-of-the-gods stuff and then it'll all be sorted out! You've seen what he's done, dad!!"

"And Jenifer, I've also seen what you've done." He said softly, and I stepped back slightly. 

"Da? You...you know I, you know I haven't been in control..."

"Jenifer, just go to your bedroom."

"But-"

"Go."

I sighed, deafeated, and left the main palace hall, opened a door on the left, walked down a hallway, and opened a door to reveal my room. I slumped, facedown on the bed, and thought. Nick was somewhere in the world, most likely Mediterranean, and the group was in a train headed to Denver, probably somewherearound the Appalacias, and I'd have to get back there somehow. Tray's probably back, and she's most likely 'brainwashed' the others to think that I've gone back to Nick, bluthering idiot... and anyways, no one'll believe me after the things that's happened...in the past.

I stood up abruptly. I heard voices, and they weren't in my head. They were coming from the throne room. I skillfully opened my door without making any noise what so ever, and, just to make sure that no one heard me, rose a few inches off the ground. I peered around the corner to the main throne room, and there was Nick. Talking the same discusion as I was with Zeus.