Aran swore to his father and all the other Gods on Olympus that he would for once behave on the camp trip.

That promise was becoming more and more difficult to hold onto with each passing minute they spent on the plane.

Aran groaned and fell back on his seat, blowing his brown bangs out of his bright green eyes and looking down at the demigod in the seat beside him.

Kex was currently asleep, curled up on the leather seat with his bright orange teddy bear, both of them smothered beneath a dark blue cotton blanket that one of the flight attendants had put over him. A head of midnight black hair sticking up from under the blanket.

Why a 7 year old was on the trip, Aran still didn't get. Or why it was a 7 year old Ares child who couldn't even pick up a sword, being sent to Greece with him and the other 12 demigods...what was Chiron thinking?! If they got into trouble, he'd bet that Kex wouldn't live through it.

Checking that Kex was still asleep, Aran unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed past the empty seats and out of his row, standing in the hall of the near empty airplane.

Apparently the Athena kids thought it would be a good idea to book the plane privately to avoid any accidents with mortals if they were to be attacked in the air.

Nice to know they were so confident in them.

Aran brushed down his camouflaged cargo pants and fixed his camp T-shirt before strutting over to the front of the plane. He stopped beside one of the centre rows and smiled down at the 14 year old daughter of Athena.

"Hey Aurora, what's up?"

Aurora looked up from her book on animal's and their natural habitats and looked up at the son of Hermes. She smirked and teased sarcastically,

"We are, duh"

"oh hahaha…yeah I kinda walked into that one huh?" Aran laughed.

"Yea, so what's going on?" She asked, pushing her long, brown hair over her shoulder and taking out a red gogo, placing it in her mouth and using her hands to braid her hair while balancing her open book on her lap and raising her tan legs up to set her feet on the open board hanging down from the seat in front of her.

Aran shrugged "Nothing much, which is exactly why I'm bored…something fun would've usually happened by now, I mean, we've been on here for 5 hours and we've still got another four to go!"

Aurora quirked an eye brow at him, examining him with her classic child of Athena stormy grey eyes. "Oh sure, cause being attacked by monsters 35,000 feet above the Atlantic ocean is considered a lot of fun!"

Aran rolled his eyes, there was Aurora's favourite tool. Sarcasm.

"Anyway, I'm gonna check on Thana, see how she's doing" Aran told her, turning to walk to the front of the plane.

"Can you check on Carina too?" Aurora called after him, wanting to know about her best friend.

"You got it Aurey!" Aran smiled, giving her the thumbs up before nearly skipping to the front.

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Usual son of Hermes" She lifted her legs back down and leaned her book on her shorts, the orange fabric of her camp t-shirt catching her eye as she read on about poisonous scorpions they could likely encounter on secluded areas of desert terrain.

"What was that about sons of Hermes?" asked an obnoxious voice from behind her.

Aurora sighed and finished her braid, wrapping the red gogo on the end before turning to face the smirking gaze of the brown haired, brown eyed son of Hermes who was standing up in the row behind her and leaning over the top of the seats, the orange hem of his camp T-shirt just visible over the seat.

"What do you want Rider?" Aurora snapped.

Rider faked hurt by putting his hand on his chest and gasping dramatically. "What, you don't want to talk to the awesome one that is me?"

"'Is I'" Aurora corrected "And no" She finished, turning away from him and back to her book.

Rider laughed and reached over to push her book down "Oh come on babe-"

"Rider" A low, threatening voice growled from beside them. "Leave her alone before I give you a one way ticket to visit my granpa"

Rider scoffed but none the less, fell back into his seat. Aurora grabbed her book and glanced over at the 16 year old in the window seat across the aisle from them. "Thanks Michael"

Michael Di Angelo nodded at her before turning back to him DS. His pale skin seeming to shine as the light from the gamers screen shined on his chocolate brown eyes and his black hair that looked like he had just rolled out of bed and not bothered to brush it. He wore his usual outfit of a silver shirt with a black skull pattern, black jeans and his black and silver sneakers, a short stygian iron sword hanging by his side which he'd manipulated the mist to get it past security.

Aurora marked her page and closed her book. Pushing the board back up onto the back of the seat in front of her and setting her book on her seat as she stood and walked over to the Grandson of Hades and Nemesis. She leaned on the back of his seat and looked at the DS.

"What are you doing?"

"Racing Chris on Mario Kart, I am so beating him" Michael smirked.

Aurora looked up and waved over at the 16 year old son of Hecate in the window seat a few rows down from them. He waved back, his spiked black hair matching his dark brown eyes and pale skin. If it weren't for Chris being claimed by Hecate, she could've sworn that Michael and Chris were brothers. They sure acted like it with their personal challenges on their videogames and their challenges at camp. Also in the way they dressed with Chris's black t-shirt with skull wrapped in white flames on it, black jeans and his black and blue skate shoes. Including his dark grey DS with flaming skull stickers like Michael's.

"No!" Chris shouted at his DS.

"Ha!" Michael teased "That's what you get for crashing into me with a star!"

"But a blue shell, now that was just uncalled for" Chris play glared.

Michael stuck his tongue out at him. "Deal with it"

Aurora rolled her eyes at them both and went back to her book. "Oh and Chris, remember your question earlier? Yeah, if you shoot the green shell 1.7 seconds in front of Michael's kart at a 40 degree angle then it's sure to hit him" She smirked.

"Hey, no daughter of Athena help, that's cheating!" Michael protested, turning back to his game.

Further up the plane, Aran was sitting on the seat at the front beside the window seat which was currently occupied by the 15 year old daughter of Hades who was in the middle of a panic attack. Her pale hands gripping the armrests so tight it was stretching the leather, the shadows around the seat shifted and shrunk uneasily.

"Geez Than's, if you get any more nervous you're gonna make us crash" Aran smiled, trying to cheer her up.

Thana glared at him with her dark midnight blue eyes, her dark silky brown hair slightly over her shoulders. "Don't even joke about that!"

"Hee, sorry. But really, you know Zeus wouldn't shoot down the plane. All the gods are at peace, even Hades" Aran comforted, patting her knee as she pushed herself further into the leather seat, taking deep breaths. "Besides, you don't see the Poseidon kids panicking?"

"That's because we're over their dad's territory. If we crashed, they'd be fine!" Thana snapped out, her pale skin seeming paler than normal in contrast to the dark material of her aviators jacket that was opened, showing her skull patterned black tank top over her dark slashed jeans with her heavy black boots and silver skull charm necklace.

Seriously, what is it with Hades and skulls? Aran thought.

"Gods I hate planes" Thana muttered under her breath.

Aran chuckled "You hate a lot of things. Boats, chipmunks, squirrels, chicken, sunlight-"

"Boats, they're Poseidon's transport. Chipmunks, their chattering is annoying. Squirrels, their fluffy tails are weird, Chicken is the only thing worse than Persephone's cooking and finally sunlight burns your eyes and your skin. It's plain evil"

"I am sooo telling Apollo you said that, woah, okay I won't" Aran quickly changed his play threat when Thana's eyes widened and she looked like she was about to pass out.

She sighed "How much longer?"

"Three and a half hours?" Aran shrugged.

Thana groaned "Perfect, just perfect"

Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, Aran changed tactics and put a hand on her shoulder, making her dark blue eyes meet his light green.

"Look Than's, nothing's gonna happen, we're not gonna crash and the plane won't blow up or be sucked into the ocean" … "uhh, kay, wrong thing to say"

Well, that didn't work! Aran thought as Thana made a slight strangled sound and pulled her legs up onto the chair, burying her head in her knees and squeaking out "Ya think!"

"Ha, I wouldn't be surprised if the gods did strike us down" A voice sounded from the seat behind them.

Aran turned away from Thana and over to face the 14 year old daughter of Aeolus. Her long white blonde, wavy hair clashing on her tan skin and light blue eyes. If you looked closely enough, you'd see small white dots in her eyes like the clouds of a blue sky.

"What do you mean Nikki?" Aran asked.

"I mean, if the Gods wanted rid of someone on this plane then they'd knock it down without a second thought as to who else is on it or what the after effects would be" Nikki answered, leaning back in the chair.

Aran rolled his eyes, they all knew Nikki could be pessimistic at times, but normally those 'times' didn't last for very long. "Look Nik's we-"

Suddenly everything on the plane went still, even the engine was silent. Half a second later the plane lurched forward, sending nearly everyone off their seats. Some of the girls screamed in shock while the boys just groaned as they were unceremoniously flung to the floor.

"What the hades was that?"

Aran sat up from where he lay on his back, rubbing the back of his head to ease the slight throbbing. He looked over at the 14 year old lying on the floor in front of the seats just across the walkway from him, the 'resident celebrity' as Dionysus called her. Her long golden hair was braided into two French braids which hung down on either side of her face, bright deep beautiful green eyes staring back at him on her perfectly tanned face.

Aran shook his head. Woah dude, get a grip. He pushed himself to his feet, unsteadily wobbling for a moment and walked across the now calm plane over to the granddaughter of Poseidon and Athena.

"You okay Car?" He knelt down in front of her and held his arms out, letting Carina grip his forearms to stable herself before he gripped her arms back and helped her stand. The two listening to the hum of the airplanes engine in relief.

"Yeah Aran, thanks…but what in Athena's name was that?" Carina Jackson asked, removing her arms from Aran (To his disappointment) and brushing down the long sleeves of her dark green jumper which she wore with her brown fur-lined boots and dark jeans. She pulled down the neck of the jumper and pulled out a silver chain with a trident charm hanging from it. She unclasped it, causing it to turn into a pale green bow with a matching quiver filled with arrows.

"Dunno…" hearing the sounds of metal scraping against metal, they both turned to see the demigods standing in the aisles of the plane with their weapons drawn.

Thana with her unclasped silver necklace and skull charm turning into a stygian iron sword with a bone hilt and an obsidian stone embedded in the centre of the hilt.

Michael standing in stance with his short stygian iron sword held at ready, back-to-back with Chris who held his celestial bronze sword in a mirrored stance.

Aurora crouched on the ground with her charm bracelet, unclipping the sword charm and standing as the charm grew into a full length celestial bronze sword.

The 15 year old daughter of Ares, Vivica, who had been sitting at the back for the whole trip stood on one of the seats with her short double duelling swords. Her black hair tied back with an elastic rubber band but her blonde tipped, dark pink bangs framing her face with her dark brown near red eyes. The back of her head was covered by the hood of her zip up grey hoodie she wore over her jeans.

Hearing another two similar sounds, Aran turned to see the 'danger bros' as he nicknamed them. Neil and Draco Khalid. But call him Draco and you were basically asking for an early grave. Neil and Draco may look similar but don't think for a moment that that means they're similar. The two had pitch black hair that hung slightly to their eyes, Neil's dark green eyes and Draco's obsidian eyes and they both had mild brown skin tone.

Draco wore his zip up hoodie jacket with the hood pulled up over his face mask with his dark jeans and black trainers. He looked unguarded but everyone knew he was wearing the fur coat of a nemean lion under it. His sword has a curvy three foot blade that looks like a snake made out of
Celestial Bronze with the tip adorned with a thin conical piece of 1 inch long stygian iron. Trust him, you do NOT want to be sliced with that sword!

Draco scoffed and pressed against the edge of the hilt of his sword, turning it into a solid gold imperial lighter. Removing his hand from the gas marker and flicking the lid closed. The 17 year old son of Athena then stuffed it back into his pocket and sat down on one of the chairs at the very edge of the airplane, staring out the window.

Neil simply looked around at everyone and lowered his plain celestial bronze sword, shrugging around with a innocent smile on his face. The 16 year old son of Poseidon dropped his sword down beside his seat. He gave a nervous laugh which caused a ripple of giggles to spread through everyone present.

A yawn caught their attention and they all turned to the middle of the centre row near the back of the plane. A head of midnight black hair slowly stood up, a tanned hand rubbing along the equally tanned face. Two sapphire blue eyes blinked tiredly open and widened as Kex stared at them all and squeaked out "Is something wrong?" He asked, pushing out from the row and standing behind Michael, gripping the end of his oversized camp T-shirt in one hand and the arm of his orange teddy bear in the other.

He gulped and looked around at them all, eyes comically large at the sight of their weapons drawn. "Is it a monster?!"

Charlotte Yu, the 16 year old daughter of Poseidon, sighed and folded back her twin daggers she had named Storm and hurricane, causing them to turn back into small charms on her leather necklace which she quickly tucked underneath her purple tanktop before kneeling down to face the frightened son of Ares.

"Don't worry Kex, there's no monster…we're all just a little on edge from being in the air so long. I mean, Michael and Chris even forgot about their game!"

"Holy Hera!" Said demigods shouted, throwing their swords onto the chairs beside them and grabbing their DS' to return to their game.

"Oh man, now I'm 6th!" Michael complained.

"Atleast you're higher than I am, I behind stupid Bowser!" Chris groaned.

Charlotte rolled her light green eyes at them and pushed a stray strand of her wavy brown hair behind her ear. "You see, everything's fin-"

"Gah dude, who's flying this thing!"

Everyone turned to the back, staring at the two figures emerging from the bathroom stall.

"Um, what's everyone staring at?" The 15 year old son of Phanes whispered beside him to the 14 year old son of Apollo.

The son of Apollo, Ryan, shrugged, also looking around at everyone staring at them with his light blue eyes that were slightly concealed behind his brown hair. His light weight camo jacket tied around his waist by the sleeves, creating a green/brown barrier between the orange of his camp t-shirt and dark blue of his baggy jeans.

"Wait, we didn't miss a monster attack did we?"

The son of Phanes, Jason, shook his head, causing his golden hair to sway slightly in front of his electric blue eyes. Jason clearly stood out amidst the plane of orange camp Half-Blood T-shirts with his royal purple Camp Jupiter T-shirt and grey jeans.

"I don't think so Ryan, otherwise there'd be a pile of gold dust on the ground" Jason pointed out.

"Uh, guys…why were you two in the bathroom together?" Carina asked, trying to stifle her laughs at their red faces.

"All alone?" Aran added.

"N-nothing, I mean…" Jason stuttered, his pink tinged cheeks gradually growing more noticeable.

"No reason…" Ryan carried on, trying to force his face to cool down by sheer will power "I got air sick so Jason sat with me in the bathroom so I wouldn't get bored just standing around and waiting to see if I puked"

"Okay, too much info Ry…" Thana shook her head, sitting back down on the window seat, her back to everyone.

Charlotte sighed and stood and brushed down her stretchy skinny jeans and turned to walk back to her chair, her hair swinging behind her.

Vivica scoffed and swung her two swords absentmindedly in each hand. "So much for a fight"

Aran and Carina cast a sideways glance at each other and laughed before Aran turned to Vivica. "You know Vi, if you wanna fight so bad, why not go threaten the pilot and see if he can get us to Greece any faster?"

Aran stopped smiling the moment Vivica started "Good idea i̱líthios" Vivaca smacked him on the shoulder before pushing past him up to the front of the plane.

"I was kidding!" Aran shouted after her… "And I'm not an idiot!"

Aurora rolled her eyes, laughing along with Carina. "Sure Aran, just keep telling yourself that"

Aran pouted and crossed his arms, causing another round of laughter from those on the plane.

Kex looked around at everyone in slight confusion before running after his half-sister. One arm wrapped around the torso on his teddy and hugging it close to his chest while the other held onto the arm rests of the chairs he ran past.

Vivica, hearing the light padding of footsteps behind her, looked down at her little half-brother.

"Oh no, you go wait back there with everyone else" She told him, the last thing she wanted was a little kid trailing after her like a lost puppy.

Kex stubbornly shook his head. One of the only traits he inherited from their father.

"Yes, uh…look, go sit with Chris and Michael and play a game with them?" She prompted, nodding over to the two demi-gods.

"Nu-uh" Kex shook his head again, wrapping his other arm around his teddy. "Wanna go with you"

Vivica groaned, planting her hand on her forehead and running it down her face. "Fine, but don't get in the way" She turned and started walking up the aisle of the plane again.

Kex smiled and jogged after her, unwrapping one arm and reaching up to hold her swaying hand.

Vivica pulled it back "No holding hands, just walk" She said without looking at him.

Kex pouted but none the less, followed. The last thing you wanted to do was get on Vi's bad side…or any child of Ares for that matter.

Vivica glanced down at him and inwardly groaned. Why he insisted on hanging around with her, she didn't get. There were plenty of other half-siblings that he could bother, so why'd it have to be her? Though she had to admit, she slightly enjoyed it when he skipped his classes that she wasn't in with him and went to her classes with her instead. It showed he actually had a little spunk, ignoring the teachers trying to get him to go to his other activities.

Now, most of the teachers just ignored it and told him to sit down and watch.

They stopped outside the door to the pilot's cabin and instead of knocking, burst the door open.

Kex smiled slightly up at her and walked in ahead, looking around at the controls in front of the two chairs…

But the chairs were empty too.

"Sissy…there's no one here?" Kex told Vivica.

Vivica walked in after him, looking around at the empty shadowed cabin. The dark sky and clouds visible out the windows. Why'd they have to pick an overnight flight again?

"I noticed, and don't call me sissy…" She said over her shoulder to him as she walked towards the empty leather chairs, looking at the screen on the control panel.

"Auto-Pilot…" She whispered to herself.

Then she felt the eyes watching her.

"Vi-humph!" Kex's muffled voiced shouted from behind her.

Gripping the hilts of her swords, Vi spun around on the ball of her foot. Adrenaline rushing through her as she scanned the now empty cabin. "Kex?"

Her breath caught in her throat as the cold tip of a dagger was pressed against the side of her neck.

"Not a sound, or I slice your throat"