Dawn made some random affirmative noise as she looked out the window.

"I'm almost considering going back to my apartment tonight if my brothers end up not backing off," she said. "At least it's quiet there."

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Seth shrugged. "It's up to you. We'll be back in another hour, maybe two, depending how much traffic we hit."

Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Your dad is the patron of travelers, and you're worried about hitting a bit of traffic?" she teased.

"Exactly. Patron of travelers, not patron of timely arrivals." Seth shook his head.

"Not that we're really in any rush," Dawn pointed out. "And we're technically still traveling." Reaching over, she changed the radio station as they got out of range of the first one.

"No, we're not in any rush, but I hate being stuck in traffic." Seth shrugged.

"I do, too," Dawn replied. "My car has a nasty habit of stalling when it idles. You know, red lights, stop signs, bumper-to-bumper on the highway..." She shrugged. "I have no idea what the problem is, and I don't have the money to get it fixed."

"I can get one of my brothers to take a look at it," Seth offered. "He works with cars. He says he can fix anything. This could be a good test."

"Worth a shot," Dawn replied. "I was about to break down and ask one of the Hephaestus kids to take a look at it, and for all I know it might fly once they've gotten their hands on it."

Seth snorted. "Oh I'm sure they'd do something, especially with an older car. It wouldn't come back the same as you gave it to them."

"It's not that old," Dawn protested. "...It's only a '96, still not as old as I am." Of course, in addition to the obvious vacuum problem, the transmission slipped and the exhaust leaked back into the engine a bit. The car had definitely seen better days.

"That counts as an older car, especially to Haphaestus kids." Seth shrugged. "You can't avoid that. Hell, my car is old to them."

"Which is exactly why I didn't want to have to go to them," Dawn said. "Like I said, chances are I would get it back and it would spew fire or something."

Seth just chuckled. "I'll get my brother to take a look. No worries."

"Thanks," Dawn replied, going back to looking out the window. The scenery was very familiar, now, and she unconsciously relaxed as they arrived back at camp. Something seemed a little off, though, but she wasn't sure what.

Seth parked in the parking lot next to Nika's car and got out, stretching.

"Ooo, it feels good to get out and stretch," he said with a smile.

Nika got out as well, stumbling a little. She didn't say anything, just started slouching back towards the Ares cabin.

Dawn got out of the car and stretched as well. It felt good to be back. One of the cars in the lot caught her eye. It was a brand-new gold Pontiac, and the license plate looked vaguely familiar, but Dawn just waved it off. Maybe one of the other campers got a new car.

"Whose gaudy new car?" Jason commented, echoing Dawn's thoughts.

"No idea," Dawn replied, shrugging.

There was a pause, and then, "Hey... aren't those your plates, though?"

Dawn stopped, and turned around.

"What?"

"Seriously?" Seth immediately went to go look at the car and started laughing. He had an idea what might have happened, and that idea was rather hilarious.

"Those are my plates," Dawn said after a moment of examination. "Son of a bitch!" She glared at the car. Now that she could see the make AND the model, it was blindingly obvious. A gold Pontiac Sunfire, with her license plates on it.

"I'm not sure whether that's really cheesy or if I should be jealous," Jason said after a moment.

"Don't even start," Dawn threatened.

"Go with both," Seth suggested teasingly, grinning. "Well, I guess now I don't need to get my brother to look at your car."

"He took my car," Dawn said incredulously. "He took my car and replaced it with--this!"

"It's better than your old pile of scrap," Jason said bluntly.

"It was my car!" Dawn replied. "My car!"

"And now this is your car."

Seth decided to stay out of that argument, retreating back towards the camp.

"Hey, there's food!" He perked up considerably at that.

Jason perked up at the mention of food and followed Seth, forgetting his inherited distrust for the moment. Food was more important. Still fuming, Dawn followed them both back into camp.

Seth piled his plate high with food, since this would be the first real food he'd had in a while. Then he sat down, glancing around.

"Where's Nika?"

"I think I saw her heading towards the cabins," Jason replied. His plate was piled high, as well. Dawn, on the other hand, was a bit more moderate in her choices, and her plate looked normal. She was still annoyed about her car being replaced by a gaudy gold 'toy'.