Chapter 23: We have some problems at sea

Running out of the maze had never felt so freeing.

We headed back to the plane, where Oman was sleeping in the front. I guess we had been there a good couple of hours. Upon our arrival, Oman perked out of his chair, as if he had been shocked with a taser.

"Rootin-tootin!" Oman shouted as he woke up with a start. "That's a fine establishment you have there, bucko!"

Kai, now awake and having a large plaster on his stomach, looked at him like he was a zombie. "Is he drunk or something?"

"Maybe he's just testing out his southern words," I suggested. Oman was still saying random southern terms as we sat around the bar, each ordering food and a drink.

"Ugh," Geneva moaned. "This burrito is to die for."

Arthur nodded in agreement. "It's been awhile since we've gotten to settle down and eat."

"Why can't we just do this all the time?" I asked, snarfing down a sandwich.

Amethyst took a sip of tea. "I know! It'd be nice just to relax for once and not do a single thing."

"More food!" Alexander cheered, stuffing down two hot dogs in his mouth. The dude had one big appetite.

Kai looked at Alexander with wide eyes. "Dude, chill! You've eaten at least fifteen hot dogs! That's pig slaughter!"

"Anyways," Amethyst said. "What happened to you back in the coliseum? That was great and all, but definitely not normal."

Alexander shrugged. "I saw those two dragons trying to attack us, and I got up. That's all I remember, actually."

"You don't remember anything?" Geneva asked quizzically. "You took down those stupid giants and were surrounded in a huge red glow, like a red light bulb."

"Yeah! You single handedly took down Otis and Ephialtes by yourself!" I added.

Alexander shook his head. "I don't remember doing that. Sounds cool though."

Geneva and I just looked at him, both confused out of our minds. How can you just forget beating up two giants? Did Alexander also forget about slaying the serpent?

"Hold up," Kai said. I completely forgot he had fainted before Alexander became the world's largest lightbulb. "What happened?"

Arthur quickly filled in Kai on the details.

Kai patted Alexander on the back, his eyes full of pride. "Good job, buddy! Looks like you were just given a blessing."

I looked at Kai with a confused expression. "By who?"

"Red glow? Sudden power? It looks like Ares blessed him with strength," Kai answered.

Amethyst's face radiated pure shock. "Ares? How do you even know that?"

"Because after the Second Titan War, people talked about Clarisse, a daughter of Ares, getting blessed by Ares and charging Kronos's army," Kai explained.

Amethyst had quickly filled me in on what happened during the Second Titan War during Greek mythology, excluding the part about Clarisse, which she probably didn't remember.

"Wait, didn't he try to kill you guys a couple days ago?" Geneva asked.

Kai shrugged. "He did, so I'm not really sure why he would bless Alexander. Maybe he accidentally did it or something."

It was quite strange. My only plausible theory was that part of Ares, the good part and not the war-driven, possessed one, had blessed Alexander.

"Regardless of why, we should probably rest up before we land. We've had a long day," Arthur suggested. Geneva gave him a kiss as we all headed to our cabins to get a bit of rest.

As I laid in bed, I couldn't stop thinking about Marianne. A part of me was still horrified at what Nemesis had shown me.

As terrifying as it was to see Marianne die over and over again, it shocked me even more that as much as I missed her, I had also hated her. Part of me wanted to believe that it was a simple trick to make me go crazy, but there was still the other part of me that believed it was true.

In the other rooms, I heard Amethyst whimpering. I guess I wasn't the only one still a bit horrified at what Hypnos and Nemesis had shown us. I walked over to her cabin and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Amethyst answered hoarsely.

I opened the door and entered. Her room was similar to mine, with a twin sized bed and a closet with other necessities. She had hung up a poster of the Earth and had a neat stack of books on her dresser.

"Hey," I said gently. "Are you ok? I heard whimpering from here while I was in my room."

Amethyst shook her head. "Not really. I'm still shaken by the entire Hypnos thing. What he showed me...was terrifying."

I sat next to her. "Well, maybe if you talk about what happened, you'll feel a lot better."

"M...maybe," She took a deep breath before elaborating. "In the nightmare..I..I was in some strange reality in which..I didn't exist."

I fidgeted with my fingers. "You didn't...exist?"

Amethyst nodded. "Kai lived his life without me. He got to go to normal school and have normal friends without me always screwing it up."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, before Kai and I went to camp, our mom would send us to normal schools. In the first couple of weeks, Kai became popular while I was an outcast," she explained.

"After a while, I would start to get bullied and insulted, which led to Kai ruining his reputation so he could protect me. He would start fights with the bullies that led to us constantly getting expelled and him getting hurt," Amethyst continued.

I smiled at her sympathetically. "He did that for you?"

"Yeah. For the first ten years of our lives, it was always like that. The constant moving was hard on our mom as we were sent to about five different schools every year."

She twirled her hair. "Anyways, the nightmare showed me a world where I never existed. Kai became the most popular student and my mom never had to move him to different places. They were both much happier without me."

"Amethyst...I can't believe you had to go through that. If it makes you feel better..I had to continually see my sister die over and over again until I finally realized that I had to accept her fate."

Amethyst looked stunned. "I-I'm sorry you had to see that, Rose."

I waved away her concern. "It's fine, really. But you should know...without you, Kai never would've been the warrior he is today. You've had a lot of impact on his life, and I'm sure he's grateful for you."

"Thanks but...still. If I had been more popular, more likeable…Kai would be so much happier."

I shook my head with disgust. "You can't say that, Amethyst. You are likeable and you have friends. Friends that genuinely care for your well-being and are grateful for you. Do you think we ever would've been able to get the two masks without you? We would've been dead or lost if not for your intelligence and smarts."

Amethyst smiled weakly. "Thanks, Rose. It'll take me awhile to process everything, but I feel a lot better."

"No problem. Now get some sleep."

With that, I headed back to my cabin and fell asleep quickly, nightmares surprisingly not plaguing me. I woke up about fifty minutes later to the sound of heavy winds blasting outside the window.

For a moment, I thought a monster was attacking us before Oman made an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we've got some turbulence so you might want to buckle up. We'll be landin' in Chicago soon."

I grumbled a few colorful words before changing into a black hoodie, black jeans, and black tennis shoes. I tied my hair into a sleek ponytail before leaving the ship and going into the main deck where everyone was.

"So we're landing in Colorado? I've always wanted to visit the Washington Monument!" Alexander squealed, bouncing up and down.

Amethyst rolled her eyes. "Chicago, Illinois firstly. And secondly, the Washington Monument is in Washington D.C." It was nice to see Amethyst back to her regular, nerdy self.

"Don't worry, buddy," Kai said. "We'll see the Washington Monument in Colorado someday."

Alexander seemed satisfied with that answer as he and Kai sat down on one of the couches.

As we descended over the city, it's tall buildings coming into view, Oman oddly started landing the plane towards Lake Michigan.

"Whoa, Oman!" Amethyst shrieked. "You're landing right above the lake!"

"I know what I'm doing, sweetheart!" Oman shouted back. Just as he was about to crash the plane into the lake, the jet began morphing into a submarine, with the wings of the plane retracting back into the sides. The plane turned into a large, cylindrical shape and the top deck had disappeared, now part of the main deck. A big scope grew onto the top of the now submarine, with a big cannon on top.

The inside of the plane had also changed. The main deck and cabins were now on the same deck, as well as the bar. The walls were made out of a different, darker material that made the plane seem dimmer in lighting.

"Welcome y'all, to the Great Gatsby!" Oman announced from the front.

Kai looked around the place, impressed. "Sweet submarine, dude."

Amethyst huffed a strand of loose hair on her face. "What in the world just happened?"

"I just transformed this plane into a rootin-tootin submarine!" Oman explained, clearly joyed with himself. "And now we're headin' to the next mask!"

The submarine continued forward, propelling through the beautiful waters of the lake. Underneath, the waters were mostly calm. I gazed out of a nearby window in awe, and wondered about the wildlife in the lake, assuming that there was.

But of course, something had to get in the way. As we neared land, we were suddenly stopped by something.

"Y'all, we have a problem!" Oman shouted.

I rolled my eyes, expecting him to say something about Mr. Crabs invading the ship for some quality chicken patties. "What is it this time?"

"We got a big giant-folk blocking our way!" Oman yelled again. He pressed a button, elevating the submarine upwards. The roof of the submarine opened up as we began climbing up. The roof then retracted in, leaving us at the top of the now boat.

The rest of the submarine began transforming into a large boat. The cabins were brought up to the top deck while the minibar went to the bottom deck. The scope on the top became the main sail and cannons were brought out from the sides.

"Whoa!" I yelled, seeing the hideous monster Oman was referring to. It had fifty heads, each a different shade of blue. It had dark hair tangled with seaweed and was completely shirtless. (Come on, why can't monsters ever wear shirts?) It was about twenty-feet tall and carried a ten-foot tall sword wrapped in seaweed. It's legs were sea serpents and don't even get me started on its one hundred hands.

"How dare you attack the great Aegaeon!" the twenty foot tall monster boomed. "You will die for your sins!"