[in omnia paratus]

Up on Olympus, the gods must have been smiling down on Camp Half-Blood. It was Dale's favorite kind of day in the valley: a clear azure sky, a brightly shining sun, and a sweeping sense of camaraderie that radiated through camp. Sunlight shimmered on the canoe lake as a few demigods raced the naiads, music carried on the wind from the strawberry fields as satyrs charmed the plants, and overall, Dale felt alive.

"What's got you all smiley, Carnation?" Mark Akagi, Dale's best friend, asked, jabbing her gently in the side with his elbow. As always, the son of Iris was smirking like everyone was about to fall into a major prank, one that he and Dale set up. The warm breeze ruffled his obsidian hair and his almond eyes glinted with curiosity.

Dale returned the jab. "Nothing, it's just...today's going to be a good day. I can tell."

Mark quirked an eyebrow. "We're supposed to be reffing a game between a bunch of teenagers," He huffed. "I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"Not about that, you nerd," Dale aimed a half-hearted blow at his shoulder while they walked. "Today just feels nostalgic, like any minute now I'll see Reese and Flynn walking out of the Apollo cabin, and we'll meet up with them to go to lunch, or something."

Mark cast a look at the omega of cabins they were approaching, at the demigods filing out of their cabins towards the arena. Dale watched as his gaze softened; he felt it too.

"I wish it was the good old days," Mark said softly, a whisper on the wind.

Despite it all, Dale did too. She missed the time where she and Mark could spend their days hanging out with their friends, goofing off, reveling in the eternal summer that camp could create. She missed Capture the Flag led by Reese and Tessa and Kaden. She missed the classes, the quests, and damn it, she missed the danger. If she could relive the quest to stop Deimos, even if it meant being chased by monsters and fighting off demons, she'd take it, because it meant being surrounded by those she loved most in the world once more.

Because now, things were different. Their merry band of heroes had seen tragedy and heartache and desolation, and now they were separated. Kaden was in New Rome, ruling the Romans alongside Kaya Blackwood; Reese was an emissary to both camps, darting back and forth over the year like Persephone between the Underworld and Olympus; and Tessa...

"Hey," Mark nudged Dale, tearing her out of her reverie. "Don't get mopey on me now, Dale, I can't handle this kids on my own."

Someone snorted nearby. "You're right; you can't."

Mark's face changed entirely, and Dale stifled a laugh; she knew that voice. As Mark turned around, Dale looked from behind him and saw Chase Ferguson, a son of Nike, stop outside the arena's entrance. He was polishing his Celestial Bronze sword, which glinted as wickedly as the look in his eyes. He saw Mark's expression, a smirk lacing his lips.

"What, did you expect me to lie to you?" Chase asked incredulously. "Without Dale, you can't handle us 'kids'."

Mark pointed a stern finger at the boy, and Dale bit back her laughter; her best friend was practically fuming from confusion. "You..."

Chase arched his eyebrows, waiting.

Mark's expression deflated only slightly. "You have a competition to compete it. Go get ready or you're disqualified."

Chase smiled like how a cat would when a mouse was within reach. He chuckled under his breath, sheathing his sword and sauntering into the arena.

Dale looked up at Mark expectantly, an impish smile on her face. "You really showed him."

"Just..." Mark waved his hand around, in search of words. "He's sixteen! Who does he think he is?"

Dale snorted. "A son of Nike. They're all cocky show-offs, remember?"

Mark squinted as he and Dale started for the judge's box in the arena, no doubt planning some sort of revenge plot. "Were the Nike kids when we were his age that arrogant?"

Dale could think of only one, a girl named Lyric who acted as a sort of mercenary when it came to Capture the Flag. She was so talented with fighting that she hardly ever participated, because it would've been an unfair game that way. However, she wasn't that arrogant.

"Lyric wasn't," Dale responded. "But when you combine arrogant with evil, one surefire answer comes to mind."

Mark looked at her, a glare flashing in his eyes. "I asked about good campers, not a demon who crawled his way from Tartarus."

Of course. Vinny Maxwell was the son of Victoria, the Roman version of Nike. When Dale had first met him, he'd been as impish as Mark and had apparently been one of Kaden Gray's best friends when they were kids. However, Vinny had gotten tangled with darkness, and was now wanted by Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter, the Hunters of Artemis, the Amazons, the Furies, and even the Olympians. No one knew where he'd disappeared to after the War three years ago, but thanks to his disappearance, life had returned to normalcy.

A horn sounded through the arena, and Dale was grateful for the distraction. The Games were beginning. Dale and Mark sat down in the judge's box, a ways from Chiron and Mr. D. Down in the arena, the chariot racers were preparing for the game to begin. Dale spotted the duo of the goddess of love, Bianca Windsor and Nina Khalis hopping onto their chariot. Even though Nina was a Roman, the exchange program between both camps had allowed for her to participate and she seemed determined to win. Further down the row, Dale watched as Chase and his partner—Parker Andrews, an Athena kid—got into position. Six chariots lined the track, and as Chiron stood to signal, everyone in the arena held their breaths.

And they were off. Horses neighed as they kicked off around the track, and from the judge's box, Dale could hear the clang of swords as the contestants fought one another over the roar of the audience.

"Who do you think's going to win?" Dale asked, her eyes glued to the game. When Mark didn't answer, she turned to look at him.

Mark had his eyes glued to his phone, and a stream of unreciprocated text messages met his eyes. Dale sighed and snatched the phone out of Mark's hands as he tried to send yet another.

"Would you cool it with the pining?" Dale beseeched.

Mark pouted. "She hasn't answered any of my messages in a week."

Dale gave her best friend a look. "Mark, you know that Adhara's busy doing work in Nepal right now. She's probably climbing Mount Everest, and I doubt that there's cell service out there."

Mark bit his lip, and Dale almost was inclined to give the phone back. Since Mark had met Adhara when he was 18, he'd been fascinated with her. The daughter of Nemesis was known at camp for being an anomaly, but Mark had fallen head over heels for her in a short time. They'd had a rocky relationship to Dale's knowledge, but a few months ago, Adhara left camp to go do research with some of the Amazons and Hunters around the world. If Dale had to choose one way to describe Adhara and Mark's relationship, it was 'it's complicated.'

"Mark, if you keep bothering her, she's not going to respond!" Dale chided. "She'll call when she's able to."

That's when the phone started to ring, and after everything Dale had witnessed in her life—including Mark's faked death—this was quite possibly the most shocking.

Mark made some inhuman noise, snatching the phone out of Dale's hands. However, she was able to spot the Caller ID; Mark hadn't.

"Mark, don't--!"

"ADHARA, I MISSED YOU SO MU—oh. Hey, Reese." Mark squeezed his eyes shut, cheeks flaming. Dale stifled her laughter. "I thought you were Adhara!"

"Adhara and I look nothing alike! Didn't you check the contact picture that came up when I called?" Dale heard Reese exclaim through the phone.

Mark sighed. "Can I help you?" He asked, getting up and walking to the corner of the judge's box, one hand pressed to the shell of his other ear for quiet.

Dale watched as Mark's expression changed into astonishment. He got off of the phone and grabbed Dale's sleeve as he walked by, forcing her to follow.

"What's up?" Dale asked, knitting her eyebrows together.

"We have visitors," Mark said quickly, darting out of the judge's box and down the steps. Dale, in a daze, followed.

They emerged from the arena, the roar of the audience quieting as they ran further and further—towards the Big House.

"What do you mean we have visitors?" Dale asked as they ran.

They'd reached the Big House, but Mark didn't slow down. Dale cursed as they ran up the steps, and skidded to a stop when they reached the living room. She and Mark weren't alone.

"Thank the gods," Reese Hale exhaled. "I thought you guys were going to make us come to you."

~~
Reese hadn't come alone, it seemed. Kaden Gray had come back to Camp Half-Blood as well, and once the greetings and hugs were out of the way, Dale spotted a third figure seated on the couch behind them.

"Jesse?" Dale asked incredulously.

The son of Hephaestus looked up, and Dale was taken aback. His eyes were haunted, which was a far cry from the normally exuberant demigod Dale had gotten to know these past three years.

"Hi, Dale," Jesse greeted, his voice scratchy—like he'd spent his free time at Camp Jupiter screaming.

Dale looked up at Kaden and Reese, and the former took a deep breath, stepping forward. "I'm sorry we came on such short notice, but we're afraid we have some bad news."

"How bad?" Mark asked, perching himself on an armchair.

Kaden's emerald vision darted to Jesse, who had taken back to looking at his feet. "Pretty bad."

Reese cleared his throat. "Jesse was co-captain of a mission we'd orchestrated to go investigate a possible lead on the disappearances. The task force came back yesterday, but only Jesse and his co-caption, Marcellus, came back."

Dale's golden eyes widened. "How many campers were on the task force."

"Five," Jesse answered, the fortitude in his voice shocking Dale. He looked like he'd been to hell and back, which in this case, he probably had been. "Five campers left, and only Marcellus and I came back."

Dale pursed her lips. "Can you tell us what happened, Jesse?"

The son of Hephaestus took a moment, but nodded. Dale took a seat beside him, listening intently.

"The mission was going well," Jesse spoke slowly. "We made it up to the hit zone without any complications. After we scanned the perimeter and decided it was clear, we headed inside."

"Where was this?" Mark asked as Reese handed him a case file, surveying it.

"Up by Mount Shasta in Northern California," Jesse reported. "The Hunters had reported seeing some shift activity, as well as a Camp Jupiter shirt, so we investigated."

"Did you see anything shifty?" Dale asked.

Jesse shook his head. "At first, we didn't. I mean a rundown cabin in the woods is shifty enough on its own, but it looked abandoned, so we were going to head back. But one member on the team, Sam...she got frustrated during the stakeout, so she stormed into the cabin to prove that there was nothing there."

Mark raised his eyebrows, to which Kaden responded, "She's a child of Mars. We weren't really that surprised."

Jesse nodded. "So we all went after her because, y'know, that's the number one thing you don't do in horror movies. But when we went inside, it was like we were somewhere else entirely. The cabin was only one room and it was filled with skulls and bones and human remains. Sam was standing in the middle of it all, staring at some crack in the wall. We were creeped out enough, but right as we were heading to the door, that's when we saw them.

"These people in cloaks and masks had surrounded the cabin, like they were watching us the whole time. I swear, had I not been trained as a demigod, I would have screamed. These guys were straight out of a horror movie, it was terrifying. They were quiet, too, which only made things worse."

Dale knit her eyebrows together. "Figures in masks? But that's exactly what Mallory last saw."

Reese nodded, his face dark. "Whoever these people are, they took Mallory and the others."

Dale returned her attention to Jesse, who was bouncing his leg up and down through the nerves. Dale glanced at Kaden, who sighed and started to talk.

"Jesse, tell us the rest of the story," His voice was laced with charmspeak, and Dale had to fight the affect to start spinning a tale at the son of Venus' request. She had to hand it to Kaden though; over the years, his charmspeak had gotten stronger.

Jesse inhaled slowly, like he was building up the energy to fight through his panic. "We fought our way out. Marcellus went one way, I went the other, and I couldn't tell where Same and the others went. We managed to escape, but it wasn't until we were halfway through the forest when Marcellus and I realized that we weren't being followed. By anyone. So, despite it all, we went back to check and...they'd taken Sam and Joey and Lexie. The masks were gone, but all that was left was this."

Jessa dug into his pocket with trembling fingers, and drew out a tattered photograph. Dale took it from him gingerly, and when she met his gaze, it was like despite all Jesse had just been through, he felt worried for her. She knit her eyebrows together, looking down at the photo.

Then, she knew why.

The photograph was of Dale, Mark, Kaden, Reese, and Tessa from their quest to find Deimos five years ago. They were standing at Pier 39 in San Francisco, outside the Pier's aquarium where they'd found Theseus, Tessa's mythic half-brother. Dale had seen photographs like this before, however, three years ago.

Mark crowded next to her, taking a look. He realized the same thing. "Lukas found these same pictures after the war. After they tracked Vinny to that asylum in Pennsylvania."

Kaden nodded, his arms folded across his chest. "We thought there wasn't a connection until we did some research and found this exact picture in the photograph of the wall that Lukas took."

"So whoever dropped this photo was there, in Pennsylvania?" Dale theorized. "Where Vinny was last seen?"

Reese dragged a hand through his blond hair. "And now, we know that Vinny is somehow in league with these masks."

"Unless he was taken by them," Mark drew his eyebrows together. "Think about it. The last place Vinny was seen was in that asylum, with all these crazy pictures of us. The first disappearance was Mallory, three years ago, when these masks started to show up. It makes sense!"

Dale averted her vision to Kaden. He'd last seen Vinny in the War against the alternate universe, when Vinny had warned of something called Project Maelstrom that destroyed New Rome. They'd rebuilt the city to its former grandeur, but the dozens of lives that Vinny had taken hung over the praetor like an anvil.

"Vinny aside, we think we have a connection." Kaden said, his voice gruff. "The disappearances all took place near abandoned buildings, asylums and mental hospitals in particular. If we can gather some more evidence, we'll have a route that'll take us straight to these masks, and if Vinny's there too, then all the better."

Silence filled the room, and Dale looked back down at the photograph. All four of them were here, save Tessa Brennan. Her heart panged with longing; she missed her other best friend with everything she had. She respected Tessa's decision to heal on her own, but with all that was happening, Dale knew that they'd need Tessa at their side.

"Well," Dale said, getting to her feet. "We'll have to discuss all this tomorrow, particularly with a war council. You three are free to spend the night either in the Big House or your cabins. And Jesse," She waited for the son of Hephaestus to lift his gaze to hers. "Thank you."

The meeting was mostly dispersed, and Dale took that initiative to take a step outside. Her temperament had gone hot, and the breeze outside helped cool her down. Footsteps echoed behind her, and Dale didn't have to turn to know it was Mark.

"So here we go again, huh?" Mark exhaled, bracing his hands on the railing.

Dale bit her lip. "It was only a matter of time before we got dragged back into the front lines, Mark."

Mark turned, reclining against the railing. "We're only missing one big piece of the puzzle."

Tessa. Her absence loomed in the air like a storm about to break, it always had for the past three years. But Dale knew in her heart of hearts that Tessa had to come back. Yes, she and her friends were still strong without her, but she was almost the glue that held them all together. Something would always be out of place without her, and wouldn't cease to be until she came back. And what with all these disappearances...

"Hey," Mark snagged Dale's attention. "She'll come back."

"I'm not worried about us getting her back," Dale countered. "I'm worried about other people getting to her first."

~~
In the dream, Dale was walking through a meadow while a storm raged on above her. The waves of lavender and grain were up to her waist as she walked, brushing the strands with her hands as she passed. Thunder shook like laughter in the sky, but Dale wasn't fazed.

Rather, she was following an orb of light, bouncing its way through the meadow. She heard voices like gales of wind, shaking the plants surrounding her. And when Dale turned around, she saw only the carrion remains of the meadow she'd passed.

"What's happening to me?" She spoke, her voice sounding like it was underwater.

Dale turned back around as thunder echoed through the valley. Somewhere in the distance she could hear singing—or was it chanting? Either way, the sirenlike voices were luring Dale deeper and deeper through the meadow. She could see figures hidden in the meadow, but they didn't pay her any mind.

The voices got louder, the thunder shook her bones, but the light was growing stronger, growing closer, she could almost see it—

Dale shot awake, breathing heavily. Each one of her nerves felt like they'd been electrocuted, like the lightning from her dreams had actually gotten her.

With a soft groan, Dale slipped out of her bed. As head counselor of the Demeter cabin, she got her own sector of the cabin; in her case, an upstairs bedroom that she had to climb an ivy-covered spiral staircase to reach. She slipped a hoodie on over her pajamas and hopped into her converse. Nightmares never left without clearing her head first.

Dale shuffled out of her room and down the small staircase to the main level of the Demeter cabin. Her four other siblings were fast asleep in their beds, even Willow—Dale's second in command—had torn herself from her work to get some rest. With a soft smile, Dale slipped out the front door and into the central clearing.

The night was quiet over Camp Half-Blood, with a half-moon lightning the sky. Wispy clouds hid some of the stars from view, and crickets chirped in the emerald blades of grass now dotted with dew. Dale didn't know what time it was, but that she wished she woke up in the middle of the night more often: the days were hectic, but the nights were irrevocably solemn.

Dale started for the central path to circle camp, but she spotted a blur moving towards the trail to Long Island Sound. It escaped from Dale's sight, but not fast enough to slip by her unnoticed.

With a curse under her breath, Dale grabbed her lipstick tube from her pocket. In its dormant form, it was nothing to admire but when one flash of light later, and the tube became a Celestial bronze knife. It glinted in the moonlight, and Dale started after the blur. As one of the head counselors at camp, she'd have the reprimand of a lifetime for a camper breaking curfew. As a demigod, she'd have the fight of a lifetime for an intruder.

The trail turned into sand, and Dale hedged her way onto the fireworks beach. The waves crashed calmly on the shore, and standing in the tide was the figure. It was dark, so Dale couldn't see, but the figure must have noticed her presence.

Dale gasped when they turned around, the moonlight illuminating their face.

"Hey, Daley Dear," Tessa Brennan spoke, looking like she did in Dale's memories. Her chocolate hair escaped from where she'd tied it back, floating in the moonlight. She wore leggings, sneakers, and a hooded sweatshirt to fight the chill of New York. "It's been a while."