[fiat iustitia et pereat mundus]

Reese was numb. The second that his combat-boot clad feet landed on the lush grass of Camp Half-Blood, he felt each and every one of his nerves shut off. The portal dissolved into nothing after Mark and Tessa fell through, and suddenly, seven demigods that were expected to go through the portal had become five.

"Where's Dale?" Amelie's voice was muffled as she spoke, sounding to Reese like she was underwater.

Thunder answered her as the storm around the valley fell. Rain splattered the barrier and Reese wondered that if he wished hard enough, it would shatter the enchantment protecting the valley from weather.

Reese shut his eyes for a moment, suddenly back in Crystal Cavern all those years ago. Dale's screams echoed through his mind as she witnessed her greatest fear, and Reese had dropped everything to go and save her. Flash forward to standing right outside the cave-in that had supposedly taken Mark's life, leaving their number down to four.

"Reese?" Amelie's voice was stronger now, such that Reese opened his eyes. Everyone was looking at him with a mixture of expressions: Amelie and Imogen were concerned, Kaden was blank, wheras Tessa and Mark were both heartbreakingly furious.

"Yeah, Reese," Tessa spat. "You gonna answer?"

Reese's attention slid over to the daughter of Poseidon, whose turquoise eyes were as electric as the lightning arcing the sky above them. Of course, she had every right to be mad at him, but knowing Tessa, she wouldn't stay mad for long. But still...there was something about Tessa's gaze that was unsettlingly familiar about the look he'd witnessed on the General when she'd discovered who he was. Like he was an imposter, an excuse for who she'd really known.

"We had no choice," Imogen spoke up in Reese's silence, an air of hollowness to her words. "There was a barrier preventing us from saving Dale."

"Why did she need to be saved?" Amelie questioned, her kaleidoscopic eyes flickering.

"Because she was taken," Reese's voice was gruff. "The Masks managed to capture her as we were escaping."

Thunder rumbled above them, and Reese wondered if somewhere above them, the gods were mad too. Demeter had taken out her wrath at having a daughter imprisoned before, why not do it again?

Amelie opened and closed her mouth like a fish, trying to search for the right words. She turned to look at where the portal had once been, and Reese caught the glimpse of guilt in her eyes. Had there not been a deadline on the portal, they could have rescued her.

"You," Mark's voice was raw, so unlike his normal flippant tone that Reese was shocked when he faced the son of Iris. "You absolute, insensitive, terrible excuse of a human being!" He stalked forward and shoved Mark.

Everyone sprang into action, with Imogen yanking Reese away and Tessa prying Mark off of him.

"She needed you!" Mark howled. "She needed you and you abandoned her! How could you?"

"Mark!" Kaden bellowed, and the son of Iris gave Reese one last shove before recoiling. "What's beating Reese up going to do?"

"What, the golden boy can't take a few hits?" Mark retorted, whirling to face the son of Venus. Kaden had some height on Mark, but right now, they were of equal stature in heart and mind.

Kaden's expression flickered. "Dale's strong. She'll be fine in the time that it takes for us to devise a plan and go in to rescue her."

Mark scoffed. He looked between Reese and Kaden and back again before shaking his head and storming off.

Tessa stepped forward in his wake, utter disappointment on her face. "I hope you're happy with your ever-so-strategic decision, Hale." And with that, she prowled away from the group, hell in her steed.

"Well, someone give them an Oscar," Madi chimed from where she'd stood, silent, nearby the railing of the Big House. "But I can't say I don't agree with them."

Reese exhaled, feeling like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. "They have every right to be mad at me." He muttered. "I cost them their best friend."

"We're soldiers, Reese," Imogen nudged him. "Shouldn't they be used to things like this happening?"

"Who are you to talk?" Madi cocked her head, eyeing Imogen cautiously. "People from your camp go missing left and right, two causalities in one day caused by one of your own, et cetera, et cetera. But then again, can't expect a Roman to be sympathetic."

"Watch it," Imogen snarled, beginning to seeth. "At least I didn't get myself captured."

"HEY." Kaden's voice echoed through the valley, and even Reese couldn't help jumping at the severity in his voice. "One of our own was just taken, and you all have the nerve to start flinging accusations at one another? Our own people make up Aether's army, are kidnapped and brainwashed every single day, and you have the audacity to start a civil war? How dare you all?"

No one spoke. Reese watched as Kaden took on the stature of a praetor, and wondered if he'd ever heard his best friend so angry in his life.

"Now, we have a serious problem here. We need to commit all of our energy into saving our friends and destroying Aether's forces rather than bickering like the petty teenagers we used to be. You're all leaders," Kaden held each of their gazes. "Now act like it."

And with that, Kaden stormed off. Not shortly after, everyone began to peel off as well. Amelie escorted Madi to the infirmary, where Flynn would run checks on her. Imogen muttered a quick goodbye to go let Kaya and Julius know about Mallory's true location. And Reese...

Reese stood in isolation off the edge of the Big House, staring into the distance like his life depended on it. He was trapped in another time, another dimension, another vision. This wasn't really happening, right? He hadn't just abandoned one of his best friends, he hadn't just caused civil war between his other best friends, between his two camps. Right?

The son of Apollo released a shaky breath, wondering if it was tears rolling down his face or the rain from above.

~~

The rest of the day felt like an out of body experience. Reese made an order to put Camp Half-Blood on lockdown, and had Nina and Bianca spread the word. Given that the Masks were really the captured demigods, no wonder they knew how to get into camp and isolate other recruits. No, camp needed to be protected at all costs. With as little information slipping through the barricades as possible.

From that point forward, he locked himself in the Library of Athena, forcing himself to draft a report on the mission. Successful in its own rite, tragic in every other one that mattered. He wrote and shredded and rewrote and tore as he saw fit, hardly able to keep his mind focused long enough to write one measly sentence.

He'd cursed and trashed his desk, the report for naught. He swept everything off of his desk. He threw around the books and the scrolls until it looked like a tornado had swept through his workspace.

Breathing hard, Reese stalked over to the investigation board, grabbed the red dry erase marker and removed the photos of the missing. He pooled them all together in the center of the board, erased the word 'missing' from their prior locations, and scrawled 'MASKS' with trembling hands. He tossed the marker away, vision going as red as the words he'd written.

Was this some sort of universal payback? Was this the gods' way of torturing him for what he'd done all these years? Was every enemy he'd ever fought laughing, watching as he descended into the madness Flynn had warned him about?

Reese looked at his trembling hands, leaning against the board. Soon enough, Dale's blood would be on his hands. Adhara's. Mallory's. Everyone's. Maybe even his own.

"Are you done brooding?"

Reese whirled around to see Tessa, arms folded across her chest, standing at the top of the staircase. Her face was still hard as stone, but some of the tension had left her eyes.

"I could ask you the same question." Reese pushed himself away from the board.

Tessa smiled sarcastically, then flicked her attention over to Reese's desk. As silly as it was, Reese felt a minute flare of embarrassment. "Sign of a focused mind much?"

"What do you want, Tessa?" Reese responded smoothly, but not without venom.

The daughter of Poseidon sensed it, her turquoise eyes narrowing. "Madi's ready to talk about how she was captured. Given the...circumstances, I saw it fit that you were there too."

Reese arched an eyebrow. "You did?"

Tessa blinked. "No. Madi's idea at peacekeeping. If I had it my way, I would have held Tempest to your throat until you ordered Amelie to create another portal back there, but according to Madi and Flynn, that would have been 'reckless' and 'a bad idea.'"

Reese scoffed. "I'm sure."

Tessa rolled her eyes. "Are you coming or what?" She cast a snide look over Reese's area again. "Or are you otherwise occupied?"

With a deep breath, Reese nodded. "I'm coming."

"Then hurry up," Tessa turned to leave, but Reese was faster.

"What would you have done?" He called. "Had you been in my place."

Tessa froze, her back to Reese. For a moment, Reese thought she was going to ignore him, but then her voice filled the air.

"In a perfect world, I would have saved her."

"But it isn't a perfect world. What would you have done?"

Tessa looked over her shoulder, her sea-green eyes as prominent as poison. "Exactly what you did." She raised her chin. "But don't take this confession for any sign of reconciliation between us, Hale."

Reese smiled wryly. "We're one and the same, Tessa. It's why we've meshed for all these years. When it comes down to it on the battlefield, we make the same exact decisions, reckless or not."

Tessa was silent. Then, without another word, she stalked back down the stairs, leaving Reese to follow.

~~

For someone who'd just been to hell and back in the past twenty-four hours, Madi McKinley looked pretty good. But then again, Reese knew her story, and how Madi's calm hid a storm unlike any other.

"Oh, good," The daughter of Poseidon noted upon Reese's arrival. "You're here."

Reese nodded, not feeling up to saying much, but surveyed the room. Aside from Madi and Tessa, Flynn was scribbling something on what must have been Madi's file, and Ben King, Madi's boyfriend, brooded nearby. The latter was nearly seven feet tall to Reese's knowledge—how he could stand dating a girl who barely broke five feet was beyond him—so Ben was seated in a chair at Madi's bedside.

"Anyone else you'd like me to fetch?" Tessa asked her half-sister.

"Heel, Tessa," Madi fixed her sister with a pointed look.

Reese stifled a laugh. Somehow, Madi was the only one that could get Tessa to calm down nowadays.

"Now," Madi settled against the pillows, crossing her ankles. "I suppose you all want to know about my entrancing tale."

"Madi," Ben warned, but the daughter of Poseidon shot a look at her boyfriend.

"Ben, I'm allowed to be flippant. I'm one of the lucky ones." She held Reese's gaze at that, and the son of Apollo forced himself to look away.

"So," Madi exhaled. "Ben and I were on our way to camp after we'd gotten message after message to come to safety."

"She didn't want to come," Ben quipped. "Something about her pride being wounded."

"That sounds familiar," Reese muttered under his breath, but just loud enough to be subject to Tessa's dagger-like stare. "But continue."

"We were spending the night at a hotel in Harlem, planning to make the rest of the journey the next day." Madi explained, and Reese noted that given Madi and Ben's residence in Boston, Harlem seemed like a pretty good midpoint from there to camp. "I'd ordered a pizza for the both of us, and when I went down to get it..." She shivered. "It's scary how nightmarish they are. I turned a corner and one was just...there."

"But if they're all just demigods, how can they just materialize like that?" Flynn knit his eyebrows together.

Tessa shrugged, a haunted look on her face. "It probably has something to do with Aether himself. When we encountered Mallory, she just..." She snapped her fingers. "Just like that."

Madi nodded. "The next thing I knew, I woke up in a prison cell. There were two people standing outside. A boy with really curly dark-blond hair and another with this sort of silvery gold glow around him."

"Aether," Reese voiced. "And whoever his little henchman is."

"Were you able to recognize Aether?" Tessa asked her sister. "Because if we can find him, we can try to figure out his powers."

Madi shook her head. "I'm sorry, but no. Maybe it was his power, maybe it was how I was feeling, but everything was blurry. Anyways, Aether was talking to his henchman, something about how I would make a great addition to the Masks and how great of a purpose I'd serve."

Flynn made a confused face. "What sort of purpose?"

Reese's eyes widened at the realization blooming in his mind. "Tessa."

"What?" Tessa asked.

"No, well, yes, but," Reese took a deep breath, clearing his head. "The Masks want you, Tessa. We have no idea why, but you're some sort of objective for them. It's why Matthew came to find you, it's why you went into the coma, and now it's why they took Madi."

"Tessa's a powerful demigod, that's for sure, but so is Madi. So's Dale." Flynn figured. "Half the people in their clutches are powerful demigods, what do they need Tessa for? No offense."

"Oh, none taken," Tessa assured Flynn. "But yeah, what do they want with me?"

Reese shook his head, his memory trailing back to what Jared Knight had told Kaden and Dale. "There's a man named Jared Knight. His son was taken, and then the Masks attacked him for something they wanted, leaving his mind in shambles. But he believes that you'll return his son to him."

Tessa blinked, utter confusion in her eyes. She couldn't form words, merely shaking her head and saying, "What?"

"It's crazy, but this is another step in the right direction," Reese waved to Madi.

"Glad I could help," Madi said spitefully. "Can I finish now?"

"Of course."

"Now," Madi cleared her throat. "There were a few other people in the cells across from me, but today, they were taken out. I'm assuming to become Masks in that weird ceremony of theirs."

"What do we know about the ceremony?" Ben asked, fingers drumming against the arm of his chair.

"That it took place on the vernal equinox, in some weird Mist-hidden palace. It's when the Masks turn their recruits into Masks?" Reese theorized.

Flynn shook his head. "But how do they have so many Masks if there's only been one vernal equinox in the time of their presence? They probably turn people into Masks whenever they get the chance."

Tessa slipped into what Reese and Kaden had once dubbed the Thinking Face: biting her lip, her eyebrows drawn together, her eyes looking into every which way for answers like a gif that Mark had shown them once.

"Unless it was planned that way," Tessa figured. "Adhara mentioned how she was the one that decided when the Masks hunted for recruits, maybe she also controls when they're turned?"

Ben gawked for a moment. "Adhara? The Luna Lovegood-type daughter of Nemesis? She's working with the Masks?" He exhaled. "The plot thickens."

Tessa nodded along. "Adhara can sense the balance of things, she probably made the Masks host another ceremony tonight so we could come save Madi."

"But that still doesn't make much sense," Madi countered. "How much does Adhara know for the Masks to trust her that much? Especially when Vinny and Matthew are there to tear down her credibility."

Reese shook his head, dragging a hand through his hair. "All we know for now is that with Dale in their midst, she could probably use Adhara to help relay messages back to us. We'll know when to strike."

"So Dale's a pawn now?" Tessa asked casually, avoiding Reese's gaze.

"Okay!" Madi clapped her hands together, ending the argument before it could begin. "That's all I've got for you guys so thanks for listening. Hopefully it's of some use."

At her sister's dismissal, Tessa left the room before either she or Reese could say something they'd regret later. Flynn ushered himself out, with Reese in his wake, to leave Ben and Madi alone, but as Reese wandered the trails of Camp, he couldn't stop himself from running over and over everything in his mind.

They were missing some crucial piece of the puzzle. But what was it?