Remember The Good Times, Sing The Blues, and Practice What You Preach

Aspen Virgo had been home for roughly a month now. She had been doing the mundane tasks that were involved in the day to day life of a centurion, the kind of stuff she missed out on for over a year. The centurion felt like it had been her duty to catch up on all the work she had missed while she was gone that others had to pick up at one point or another. The brunette was fairly quick with paperwork and usually when she had finished that she would go up into the attic to store the archives that needed to be stored.

Honestly there was always so much stuff in the attic that you could never see it all in one glance or one trip up to the attic. Just when the legacy of Victoria thought she had seen it all she had been surprised by a little piece of paper stuck in the crack of the window. It had probably been there to stop the window from rattling and this one looked fairly aged, probably been there years and years, at some point soon it probably would be dissipating into dust and never to be seen again. The girl had replaced the paper with something else and sat down to open the folded piece of paper.

Upon opening it the legacy had been surprised with the writing that was on it. All the words had been in Latin, but when she had translated it out into English it had read;

Nine influences surround us
The founders are frail
They must be found or there’ll be a hush
The northern tip of the giant west coast rock houses the jail

Seeking is only half the fight
Once secure, the real test starts
Each has a series of tasks that can end in significance or gripe
These will test and challenge the sisterhoods heart.

Aspen hadn't been sure entirely on what it meant, but she knew that it had to mean something and that she needed her sister for this. Of course before she could even go to her sister Sophia she had to go through getting the quest approved to seek out what this had meant. To the legacy of Volturnus it seemed obvious that it was a prophecy.

After the approval that was what led the brown haired girl in the SUV behind the wheel driving. The girl who had mentioned that she was never going to set foot on a quest again seemed to be pulled back into the madness, but this time she had her sister Sophia with her. It was a road trip for the two of them as far as she could tell. Aspen was flicking through the radio stations a bit as she briefly glanced over to her younger sister, "The map should be in the glove box there if you want to grab it."

Sophia had honestly been pleasently surprised to hear her older sister wanted to go on a quest. Aspen had been very adamant about never wanting another quest, ever, with good reason of course. Sophia didn’t blame her. But even if this would end up being her sister’s last quest ever, Sophia was still glad she got to go on it with her.

“Yeah...” Sophia answered, taking the map out of the glove box. She unfolded the old map, really they needed to invest in new maps for the quest cars, cause this one like all the others hadn’t been updated since the 80s, and they were falling apart. Sophia looked over the map, as her sister started the short drive out of camp and New Rome. By the time they got to the main road outside of camp, Sophia had figured out a general area of where they needed to go. “Mount Robson, Britsh Columbia. Make the next left.” She says, leaning back in the seat.

The legacy continued to watch the roads and the scenery pass by as they left New Rome and got onto the road. It was sad to say, but the roads out here were more familiar to her now than Camp Jupiter. She got used to seeing the outside world for so long it just became normal and at one point it was even hard to imagine what home had been like, what it had smelled like and all the likes of it. Now instead of cherishing the things she didn't have when she was home she was sitting in the drivers seat heading out on another quest and honestly this was probably her last one unless the gods were willing her to continue her time in the legion.

A lot of things had been conflicting for Aspen lately. She didn't know how things were going to go with her and Christian, he had been so busy lately and so had she they just never really got time to talk more about what was going on. Other than that everything had seemed fairly normal, her mother started making her favourite meal over and over again and giving Aspen a lot of hugs and forehead kisses. Aspen could tell that her mother loved her so much and she couldn't believe the amount of pain that she probably put both her mother and siblings in.

At least this time if this was going to be her last quest she was doing it with Sophia. So much nostalgia started to fill in the car for Aspen. She could remember all the times growing up with Sophia and all the risky things she would do that Aspen would have to cover up for her, or the times when she taught Sophia the little tricks to avoid getting caught by their mother. It was an interesting time being a Virgo, that was for sure.

"Left towards Robson, it is." Apsen said as she turned the blinker on and she merged over into the other lane to take the exit. "You know, I'm glad I get to do this with you. I feel like we haven't spent a whole lot of time together lately. With all the centurion duties we got going on and being in different cohorts and all. How have things been for you?"

Truth be told, Sophia’s life was fairly boring. Nothing new had happened for her since her sister got back. She didn’t have a lot of friends outside of some of the centurions that were closer to her age, and Rowan. It also hadn’t helped her social life when she basically went on autopilot and spent most of her time at either barracks or the senate building on hyperdrive working day and night for the first couple weeks her sister had gone missing. It had taken both Rowan and her mom to drag her back home to end it. The only good that came out of it, was the newer campers in her cohort were now terrified of her.

These days she spent her time being a centurion, going on quests, or trying to sleep and eat food. “Ehh you know. Its been good.” She answered, smiling a bit awkwardly. “How have been?” She asked.

When Sophia had mentioned that she had been doing good, she nodded and was glad to hear it. She knew that for the most part Sophia was kind of a hermit and didn't socialize more than what she had to unless she was already friends with the person. She would have tried to do something more about it, but if her sister was content and happy with that than so be it. Aspen's fingers began to drum the side of the steering wheel as she drove down the freeway. There was some stuff she found out while she had been gone that she can't just unlearn, and she hadn't confronted any of the parties that were involved in it, but still it had been burning her on the inside for the whole time since she knew, and she just needed to tell someone.

"Well..." Aspen said trailing off as she thought of a way to word her response, "I have been doing okay. My night terrors have lessened a little bit, but still fairly prominent, I don't get much sleep these days." There was a little nervous chuckle and a pause before she picked up again. "But, I may have found out something while I was gone, and it has sort of been eating away at me." Aspen admitted and now there was a longer silence as she was trying to get the words out and trying to think of the right way to deliver the news to Sophia.

"You know Mr.Davenport, right? Of course you do, we grew up with their family just down the street... Well while I was gone, I may have found out that he's my father. I don't know if it is all true, I haven't had time to ask mom yet, but uh yeah." After speaking she let out a breath for a few moments and just remained silent waiting for her reaction.

“I have noticed that.” Sophia said, nervously chuckling also. Sophia and her sister were different in a lot of way. However, they were the same in at least one aspect. Neither of them liked to talk about their problems with each other. Whether it be because they didn’t want the other to worry about them, or just because both of them were stubborn. Sophia was happy that her sister was sleeping easier, even if she was still having issues with it.

Of course she knew who Mr. Davenport was. Everyone knew who Mr. Davenport was, you had to be really really dumb not to know who the man was. Personally Sophia was terrified of the man, whenever Rowan and she had sleepovers, Sophia always insisted on having them at the Virgo’s residence that way she could avoid the scary man Rowan and Liam were forced to call their father.

Let’s just say, if Sophia had been drinking something as her sister said that, she would have choked on it. “Are you sure?” The younger sister asked, not that she didn’t believe her sister’s word. But more because.... well she didn’t have a reason, other than utter shock. She hadn’t been expecting it.

"Not entirely." Aspen replied to Sophia's question about if she were sure or not. It was hard to know if it were real, maybe it had all been in her head, but there was no way that it had been. A lot of weird things had happened on that quest and it was hard to really talk about to anyone. Their travels led them all over America and eventually into Europe and back over to America. It had been a bleak situation that the legacy had been stuck in a couple months ago and she hadn't been sure she was going to get out at the time.

She remembered being stuck in a room that sucked any kind of energy and power out of you and the whole time there were mental torture games being played on her. It was safe to say that Aspen didn't really like to close her door at night anymore and had to put a weight near it to make sure it stayed open, the thought of being in a closed room alone scared her beyond her night terrors. Even though it happened so long ago she could remember clearly being slipped the smaller but slightly thicker paper under the door. Aspen still couldn't tell if that was given to her because she had been so compliant or if it had been given to her to mess with her even more. When she looked at the paper she saw the birth certificate with a note explaining that it had been thrown away, but not destroyed like her parents thought.

The brunette pulled the paper now out of her pocket and handed it over to Sophia. Aspen wouldn't normally carry something like this around with her all the time, but she didn't want to lose it or someone else to find it, so instead it was a heavy reminder of everything she had gone through. "This is a fairly solid piece of evidence though."

Sophia took the piece of paper, and looked at it. “It does look real.” She admitted, “but you should find out for sure. Anyone could have taken a birth certificate and written any name they want on it. Whoever gave it to you may have only wanted to mess with you.” Sophia reasoned. But even Sophia had to admit that their moms signicture was almost completely identical to the one she was currently looking at. She handed the paper back to her sister. “Well at least it won’t be awkward when you meet his other kids, cause you already know them.”

The brunette hadn't been sure what to think since she had seen the birth certificate. Sure it could have been a fake, but everything about it just seemed so real. Aspen wasn't sure what to do about it, or if she should even tell her mom she knows or try to get the right information out of her. In some ways, Aspen wondered if maybe that's why their families had been so close over the years, it could have been a good possibility, but she was sure their families hung out a lot also because they wanted to.

"It would still be awkward telling them that I'm their half sister." Aspen said and took the birth certificate back so she could put it securely back in her pocket. It was true, how do you tell people you had grown up knowing for so long that 'surprise I'm your sister too', it just felt wrong in a sense. It was conflicting in a way to know that she was technically a Davenport. Of course that spiraled into other thoughts about wondering why she lived with her mom, was she not good enough for her dad? Not that she hated her mother, Aspen loved her completely and couldn't have been happier to grow up with a mom like her, but she couldn't help the sinking thoughts.

"Sorry to spring this all on you suddenly." The legacy mentioned to her younger sister. She knew it was a lot and it kind of just came up, but it had been on her mind for far too long now, and she needed to talk to someone about it. She thought about telling Christian, or one of her friends in the third, but she had a few reasons for why she hadn't brought it up to either. It was hard, and no time ever felt right.

Sophia smirked. “It’s fine. Actually if it ends up being true, then it makes a lot of sense cause mom and Mr. Davenport definitely had a thing for each other at some point.” Sophia mumbled, trying to lighten the topic just a bit. The demigod went back to reading the map. “Uhh... take the next left.” She says, then puts the map back on the dashboard until they would need it again “I think you should ask mom about it though.” Sophia says after thinking a bit. “No harm in asking her, and at least you’d know for sure.”

Aspen just nodded in agreement when Sophia mentioned that it had seemed like Michael Davenport and their mother had a thing for each other. Aspen had seen the way that they had looked at each other every now and then and it just made sense at this point. Maybe they never fully got together because they didn't realize their feelings until after they had children, or something like that. Aspen had no idea and she couldn't even begin to ask.

"I should ask her. I guess part of me is scared to, if that makes sense. If it got confirmed, I just don't know how I would feel about it." Aspen admitted. She still didn't know how she would feel about it in general, but she knew that she at least had to ask. Aspen turned the signal light on for her to move over into the left lane before making a left turn again.

“You should just ask. Thinking on it too much is just gonna make it harder to ask in the long run. No point of worried or scared about something you don’t know yet.” Sophia said, fiddling with the map again. Sometimes Sophia wished that monsters couldn’t use technology to find them, then they would be able to use a gps, instead of some 80s road map, that was definitely inaccurate and probably going to get them lost.

“Might be fun to have more siblings, Rowan and Liam are cool. Me. Davenport is a uhh... off... but that’s an entirely different issue.” Sophia rambled.

"I guess." Aspen said as she began to grow a little quiet on the topic. She wasn't feeling like going into the small detail stuff anymore and she knew it was crappy on her part for bringing it up and then not offering much else to say for it. Aspen continued to keep her hands on the wheel and her eyes on the road. She drove for a little bit in silence not saying much before she spoke again.

"So.." The legacy said trying to think of something else to bring up, but nothing was really coming to mind at this point. "Those maps look as old as mom." She said cracking a joke with a small smile forming on her face.

Sophia settled into the silence that filled the car, she didn’t mind it being quiet. Part of her was just glad to be with her sister on one last quest. Even if thinking that was a bit cheesy. The demigod continued looking at the maps in front of her, they knew where they were going, but Sophia was still worried the maps were going to take them to the wrong place because of how outdated they were.

“So...” Sophia smirked back, she didn’t have much to talk about either. “They really do.” She smiled laughing. “Mom probably used them when they were brand new.” She added.

Aspen couldn't help but laugh back when Sophia added on her own comment. It was good to get a bit of a laugh out, even if it was a jab at their mother who did so much for them. The legacy never felt like she went without when her mom was around, she felt safe and secure with her and always felt like she had the support she'd need.

The drive they had to do could have been a lot longer than it needed to be, but it also could have been shorter. The fact that they had to drive for twenty hours just to get to the base of the mountain was ridiculous, so it was likely to assume at some point tomorrow they would make it to the mountain. Aspen wanted to get as much driving in as she could. Her plan was to drive fifteen hours and then stop and sleep for about six or seven hours and then drive the last five. Hopefully getting them to the mountain around ten in the morning. "Did you want to go through a drive thru or anything on our way there for some food or?"

Sophia thought for a moment. The suggestion of food was always enticing for the young centurion, who was always so active she burned off more calories than she could consume sometimes. But right now she wasn’t hungry yet. “Maybe in a hour or so we can drive thru or stop somewhere, unless you’re hungry now?” She says, glancing up from the map so she could see the road signs. They had already driven for 3 hours, and were making fairly good time. She figured the next time they could even stop for food would be in a couple hours anyway. “Up to you, you’re the driver.”

Aspen continued to drive, they had only been on the road for three hours. They had gotten some breakfast before they left around six in the morning and it was now nine in the morning. "I think we could probably stop closer to noon as I will probably have refuel up at some point before we get there." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

I had been a long drive, but regardless the pair had made it. They made it to the town of Valemount, British Columbia and it wasn't too far from the base of Mount Robson. They took a bus from Valemount to the national park that was around the mountain that they needed to go to. It was around eleven when they finally got to the base of the mountain and she looked over to her sister Sophia, "I guess this is when we get to go on a hike. Hope you're ready for exercise today, Soph."

22 hours later Sophia and her sister found themselves at the base of the mountain where their quest would officially start. “I hope you can keep up.” Sophia smirked back. Checking her watch, Sophia assumed that it would take them 3-4 hours to get to the top. Assuming nothing attacked them, and nothing slowed them down.

The hike was going to be a long and uncertain one. There were many things that could happen. There could be monsters up in the mountains, or rock slides, or more common than that, the weather conditions. Aspen had her backpack packed for the different elements for this hiking expedition. Hopefully they would find who they needed to find up here and then get onto the second part of their quest. Aspen didn't want to be gone for a year this time.

As she started to walk on the trail she tried to keep a brisk pace to try and make good time, of course a few times in their treks they would need to stop and take a little breather and get some water. "Hopefully we don't see any monsters until we reach the top, that'd be nice, but probably wishful thinking."

Sophia kept up with her slightly taller sister easily. She had gotten used to climbing mountains and cliffs on another recent quest in Alaska. This was much easier, because there wasn’t any snow. Sophia nodded in agreement, it would be a good day if they didn’t run into any monsters. They had been lucky so far, but that probably had more to do with being in a car for most of the time, and they weren’t completely out in the open. Now that they were though, Sophia wouldn’t have been surprised if they got attacked in the next hour.

“Definitely wishful thinking.” Sophia smiled.

The trek for the two of them had been relatively peaceful. There wasn't much hiccups on the way up the mountain except for the few windstorms and snow falls that had happened in certain areas, but eventually they made it to the top where it was flatter with a few ridges here and there. "Now where do you think we should look?" Aspen asked her sister. It had probably been a good few hours after hiking when they finally made it to the top.

It was concerning to Sophia that there was no obvious entrance to the “jail” that they were looking for. For some reason she had gotten it in her head that it would be fairly obvious. But clearly, that wasn’t the case. “Well the enterance has to be somewhere on the top...” She says, she didn’t really know where to start looking, there wasn’t that many places to look either.

As she and Aspen started looking around, Sophia climbed up part of one of the taller ridges. Once she got half way up, she found a crack in the wall of the ridge. It was just large enough for people her and Aspen’s size to fit through. She reached for her flashlight, it wasn’t the first human sized hole they looked at today. She shined it in. It went deeper then the others, “Aspen!” She called. She took a step into it, then found herself falling. She gasped, and then attempted to reach for a rock to grab, but missed. Luckily it wasn’t as long as a fall as she was expecting.

She landed hard, but not hard enough that she was injured. Once she stood up, she turned her flashlight back on and shined it around. She found herself in a small room, there was latin words written along some of the walls. The young Centurion smirked. “Aspen I found it!” She called up, hoping her sister could actually hear her.

It had been quite some time up on the mountain. The sun was beating down on them as they searched as many places as they could on the top of the mountain. They looked along all of the ridges and they different caverns that were up there, but they still didn't see any sign of a jail. Of course it wasn't in plain sight, that didn't make sense for it to be, it was a quest it was supposed to be hard, wasn't it? Aspen supposed she was just used to harder quests, like the one she had just came back from.

The legacy heard Sophia call out to her, and immediately she started making her way over to where she had seen Sophia, before she had gotten there, she saw her sister disappear into the side of the mountain. Aspen rushed over as fast as she could before she looked into the crack. It looked like it would be a little tight, but if her sister could fit, maybe she would be able to fit.

"Soph?!" Aspen called out, but she could see a glimmer of light, and assumed it was Sophia's flashlight. She began to squeeze her way into the crack really quickly and before she knew it she dropped down and landed on her leg when she heard a slight snapping sound. She felt the pain radiate all in her leg and she let out a frustrated scream. "Son of a bitch!"

Sophia had tried to get underneath Aspen, to attempt to stop the fall, but she couldn’t get there in time. “Shit.” The younger girl hissed, she could also hear her sisters bone snapping, and the curse that followed suit. She ran the last couple steps over to her sister. “You ok?” She asked, “...well aside from whatever just broke? What hurts?” She asked, no she was definitely not panicking yet. Nope, not at all. Sophia Virgo didn’t panick... unless it was in situations like this. Any other random demigod, she definitely wouldn’t panick. The young Centurion wasn’t even sure what panicking actuslly felt like, probably like this. But she didn’t know that.

"My leg." Aspen managed to breathe out as she took many deep breaths in. She wasn't sure if she had broken it or fractured it, she just knew that it hurt really bad. She let out a few grunts of discomfort. "I don't know if we can, but a makeshift splint would be good until we can get home." The older girl said as she tried to sit on her butt this time and so Sophia could see her leg if needed be.

"I hope there's another way out." Aspen said trying to make light about the situation, but she wasn't sure if there would be one.