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Camp Half-Blood
Year: 2003
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Rin remained crouched behind the bushes, her eyes tracing the path where Luke had stumbled past her, his figure disappearing in the distance. Her curiosity piqued, she couldn't help but wonder why he was heading in the opposite direction of the cabins, but before she could make up her mind to follow him, she was interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing ahead of her.

"You can come out now, Rin."

She straightened slowly, feeling a sheepish embarrassment creeping over her features as she met the gaze of the centaur who stood there appraising her. His wheelchair stood forgotten behind him and he had risen to his full height, but despite her apprehension, Chiron didn't appear angry; instead, there was a thoughtful glint in his eyes, as if he was contemplating something.

He regarded Rin, his gaze piercing yet gentle, as if he could see right through her. 

"Would you like to see the Oracle too?" he asked, his voice low and resonant.

Rin furrowed her brow in confusion. "Why...it's not my quest," she replied uncertainly. "Why would I need to see the Oracle?"

Chiron nodded, his expression sombre, "Yes, I suppose you're right. It is not yet time for you."

"Okay..."

Standing there awkwardly, unsure of what to do next, Rin absentmindedly picked at the latest callouses on her palm, avoiding his gaze. 

"Another day, then perhaps."

His suggestion bewildered her. It's not like she'd ever get a quest of her own —she was too trivial for that— and she found it frustrating that she could not decipher the careful look in Chiron's eye. He knew something. He knew more than he was letting on and he knew something about her she didn't. She wondered if he knew her mother. 

When Chiron spoke again, his voice carrying the weight of ages, Rin nearly rolled her eyes. She was tired of the cryptic nonsense.  

"Your fate is tied to his, in ways even I cannot even begin to understand yet, but you have to remember that it is not the only way. There are many paths that lie before you, but remember, the journey is just as important as the destination. The means just as important as the ends."

"I'm not sure I-"

"Go on then," he interrupted, gesturing in the direction of the cabins. "It is late. Do not linger long where it is not necessary."

When he turned around, it was clear that their conversation was over, leaving Rin with another plethora of questions. She had never been one for obedience, and so she headed off in the direction of the camp borders where Luke had wandered off. This was her chance. He had a quest and she wanted in. 

As a year-rounder, it would be the first time she stepped out of grounds, and although Camp Half-Blood had become her home in ways a place becomes a home when you have nowhere else to go, she longed to be in the mortal world once more, even if it was briefly. 

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As Rin continued on her way through the camp, she passed by the mess pavilion, where the warm glow of firelight spilled from within, casting dancing shadows across the clearing. The scent of smoke wafted through the air, mingling with the gentle rustle of leaves in the evening breeze.

It was there, that Rin spotted one of her friends—a girl from the Hephaestus cabin—perched at the base of a marble pillar. Her copper skin glistened with smudges of grease, she wore strange goggles atop her nose, her focused gaze fixed on the intricate device cradled in her hands.

As Rin approached, her friend started at the sound of her footsteps, dropping the contraption into her lap with a clatter. An annoyed expression crossed her features until she recognized the intruder, at which point her demeanour softened, and she let out a hearty laugh.

"Gods, Rin, you always do this," she exclaimed, shaking her head in amusement. "It's like you melted out of the shadows, and there aren't even any here."

"Hello to you too, Sam."

"No, seriously, how do you do it? It is weird!"

Rin simply shrugged in response, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips, "I just have quiet footsteps, I guess."

Her friend chuckled, a loud hearty sound. "Well, I suppose that's one of your many talents," she remarked, pushing her goggles up onto her forehead to get a better look at Rin. "So, what brings you here past curfew, isn't your cabin counsellor going to miss you?"

Her voice was teasing and Rin rolled her eyes, knowing very well that the Hermes counsellor was most likely sitting out by the pine tree at the camp's border, with no care for who made it back to the cabin in time for curfew. 

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Certain perks of being me, I guess," the Hephaestus girl, Samarah, winked.

"Right because you definitely weren't planning to sneak into our cabin for a clandestine meeting with Cybil?"

For a moment, Samarah looked abashed, a hint of guilt flickering across her features. However, she quickly composed herself, shaking her head with mock innocence. 

"Oh, please," she scoffed, feigning indignation. "The Hermes cabin is far too crowded to sneak into unnoticed. One misstep, and I'd have over two dozen sleep-deprived campers glaring at me. Trust me, I don't need the headache of dealing with their pranks for the next few weeks."

"Oh, so you have Cybil meet you instead, huh?" 

Samarah's cheeks flushed a bright shade of red, and she rolled her eyes, swatting Rin's arm.

"Shut up!"

 "Not a chance."

"Oh yeah, let's talk about you then."

Rin shrugged nonchalantly, "There's nothing to talk about. Every few months some Aphrodite kid comes up with a new matchmaking scheme and tries to set up the wayward campers, but it never works. They haven't tried it in a while so they must have given up."

"That's because they're doing it wrong."

"Or you know...they've just learned their lesson."

Samarah snorted, "No, they're looking in the wrong places."

"Oh gods, Cybil has made you a dreamer," RIn scrutinized her friend with a suspicious look in her eyes. "Who are you and what have you done with my Sam?"

"Shut up, Rin."

"Yes ma'am."

"Sooo..." Samarah's voice trailed off in a sing-song voice and Rin felt her guard rise. 

"Sam no."

"Sam yes. You know I gotta ask."

"You really don't. You can choose peace. You can choose my mental sanity and your own and spare us this conversation."

"I really can't."

Rin mustered her most fearsome scowl, "Sam, you'll regret it."

"You're no Hermes kid, you don't have their skill with practical jokes, so forgive me, friend, if I say I'm not particularly afraid of you."

"I'll..."

"What?" Samarah challenged a mischievous gleam in her eye. "You'll psychoanalyze me? Tell me that I need a better work-life balance? No thanks, Chrison does the therapist act better."

"You're awful, you know that," Rin sighed in exasperation but it did not halt the Hephaestus girl's line of questioning and she finally uttered the inevitable words. 

"So...how's Luke."

"Samarah Ali, I am going to demolish you during the next game of Capture the Flag."

"Yeah, you sent one of my brothers to the infirmary today so I guess I should be afraid."

"You should," Rin snapped.

"But then again, I think he was actually quite grateful for it," Samarah mused playfully. "He got to see that cute Apollo kid he has been mooning over for a while, so you did him a favour. Look at you, giving cabin 10 a run for their money."

"Cybil isn't in cabin 7, you won't get to see her if I send you to the infirmary."

"No, but she'd visit, and I'm pretty sure any excessive mutilation gets your dessert privileges revoked, so I wouldn't do that if I were you. Don't try to change the subject, Rin. You never answered my question."

Rin avoided her gaze, putting off answering for a while longer, until her friend repeated herself, uttering each syllable slowly as if speaking to a child. 

"How is Luke doing? You know, Luke Castellan. Head counselor of cabin 11. Swordsman extraordinaire, Chiron's pride and joy."

Rin chuckled, "I'm telling Luke you called him swordsman extraordinaire."

"Gods, please don't. He doesn't need the ego boost. Anyways, how is he?"

"I don't know!" Rin's lips twisted in a grimace. "Troubled."

"Aren't we all?" Samarah deadpanned. "But not what I meant."

"Well, what did you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. Has the idiot finally gotten his head out of his arse to do something?"

Rin couldn't help but laugh at her blunt assessment, shaking her head in amusement.

"I'm not sure what you're expecting him to do," she replied with a grin.

Samarah rolled her eyes, falling back to slump against the floor dramatically, "Well, he better hurry up before I die of old age waiting for you two morons to figure it out."

"Demigods don't die of old age."

"Yeah, well we will. We have to. We have things to do, places to go, people to meet. I'm not letting some stupid monster kill me before I get into college. And I have to see you kick some criminal arse before I die you know."

"Prosecutors don't physically fight criminals, you know that right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I gotta see you do whatever it is they do. Point is, don't go and make this depressing Rin. We're going to make it."

"You seem awfully sure..."

"You'll see. Anyways, where'd you disappear off to after dinner? Cybil was looking-"

At Samarah's words, Rin suddenly felt a pang of guilt as she was reminded of her original destination. Her eyes widened in realization, and she abruptly stood up from her spot, causing the other girl to pause mid-sentence.

"Sorry, I have to go," she blanched, her voice tinged with urgency as she turned to sprint off.

The daughter of Hephaestus watched her friend's abrupt departure with a bemused expression, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. 

"Gee thanks for the conversation Sam," she muttered to herself with a scoff, mimicking Rin's hurried tone. "Lovely conversing with you. Hope to see you again. Give my regards to your brother and tell him I'm sorry for breaking his nose."

Rin was already halfway across the pavilion by the time Samarah made up her mind to follow her, bundling up her tinkering components into the infinite pockets of her coveralls before setting off after the dark-haired girl. 

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Luke Castellan sat at the base of Thalia's tree, his gaze fixed on the innocuous sneakers before him. The cool night air whispered through the branches overhead, casting dappled shadows across the floor, but despite the tranquillity of his surroundings, his mind was a whirlwind of chaos, the words of the prophecy still echoing in his ears.

His breathing had finally calmed, the adrenaline of his earlier meeting with the Oracle fading into the background, leaving him only with a sour taste in his mouth, strangely reminiscent of green smoke and grief. Losing something precious... the words taunted him, haunting his every waking moment. He was going to lose more? Had the gods not taken enough from him? 

Perhaps they would take and take until he had nothing more to give. It would be fitting for them, a cruelty to match their pride. 

But who or what was he going to lose this time? And how could he possibly prevent it?

He knew he had to tread carefully, to choose his companions for the quest wisely if he hoped to stand any chance of fulfilling the prophecy without bringing tragedy upon himself or those he cared about. His companions would have to be skilled, for even Hercules wasn't able to complete his labour without difficulty, and he had a titan help him out. 

As he pondered his options, Luke couldn't shake the feeling of helplessness that gnawed at his insides. The prophecy had spoken of loss, of sacrifice, and he knew that he would have to make some difficult decisions if he hoped to come out on the other side unscathed.

Prophecies had an uncanny way of fulfilling themselves in unexpected ways, and there was only so much he could do to avoid his fate.

As he sat there, lost in thought, he tried to go down the brief list of names that he would consider precious to him. There weren't many, but each one brought with it a wave of conflicting emotions. How could he protect them from the dangers that lay ahead? How could he ensure their safety?

There was Annabeth of course, but she would be safe here at camp, far too young to come along anyway. Grover, the satyr who had accompanied them to camp, would remain here too, and so would Chris. Luke would never risk them by taking them along. 

And then was Rin. Brave, beau-

"Luke."

Ah, speak of the devil. 

The dark-haired girl stood there a stone's throw from him, arms crossed over her front. Her concern was evident in the furrow of her brow and the crease of her lips as she approached him, her eyes scanning his form for any signs of distress.

However, before Rin could utter a word, Luke preemptively shook his head, his expression firm and resolute. "No," he stated firmly, cutting her off before she could even begin. His tone brooked no argument, his eyes flashing with determination.

Rin's confusion was palpable as she furrowed her brow, her concern quickly turning to puzzlement. "No to what?" she asked, her voice laced with uncertainty.

Luke's gaze hardened, his jaw set in a stubborn line. "No, you cannot accompany me," he replied tersely. He had realized that it was Rin who had followed him to the Big House, and if she was here to ask him to take her along, he would not entertain the notion. Not her, never her. She was the one thing he could not lose, and he'd do anything to ensure that she stayed behind. 

"Actually," she retorted, her voice tinged with annoyance, "I came here to ask if you had Chiron look at your injury. You refused to go to the infirmary, so I thought..."

She could feel her irritation flaring at his blunt refusal, her frustration evident in the way she jabbed her thumb in the direction of his ribs.

"I'm fine," Luke insisted, his voice clipped, merely shrugging off her concerns in a dismissive gesture. "You don't need to bother yourself with it. If that's all you had to ask me, then you should leave."

Rin stood her ground, her gaze fixed on Luke with a mixture of determination and apprehension. Despite his dismissive attitude, she refused to back down, her stubbornness matching his own.

When Luke found her still lingering, he felt a surge of frustration rising within him. The dreaded question hovered on her lips, and he knew he had to shut her down, even if it meant risking their friendship, even if it meant she'd hate him. Better she despise him and be alive than love him and be dead for it. 

"No," he repeated firmly, his voice unwavering as he met her gaze head-on.

"You haven't even heard what I have to say yet!"

"I don't need to. My answer is still no."

"Please," Rin's voice softened with desperation. "I can be useful. I won't get in the way, I promise."

"I doubt that."

As Rin opened her mouth to protest once more, Luke's gaze shifted over her shoulder, where he recognized the daughter of Hephaestus who stood by one of the other trees, watching them with a curious expression, trying to remain inconspicuous. An idea sparked in his mind, and he seized upon it with a sense of determination.

"In fact," he said, his voice taking on a note of finality, "I've already made up my mind. I'm taking Samarah with me instead."

Rin's eyes followed Luke's gaze as the girl stepped out of the shadow of the tree. Sensing the tension in the air, Samarah eyed the two Hermes cabinmates with apprehension.

"And where exactly am I being taken?" her voice cut through the silence, her eyes wide with bewilderment as she looked to Luke for answers.

Luke met her gaze squarely, his expression serious as he replied, "I have selected you as my companion for my quest."

"You have a quest now?"

"Yes."

"And might I ask if I have any say in this?"

Luke raised an eyebrow in mock politeness, impatience dancing in his eyes. 

"Very well then, would you like to accompany me, oh great and noble spawn of Hephaestus? Your skills would be an asset, and your company unparalleled." 

"Save me the snark, Castellan, you ought to use a nicer tone when making a request."

All the same, Samarah considered his question for a brief moment. She wasn't a year-rounder, so she had plenty of experience navigating the mortal world, and the prospect of venturing out during summertime held a certain allure. It could be fun. 

With a shrug, she finally replied, "Sure, why not? It would be an interesting change of pace."

Luke turned to Rin, a smug expression crossing his features as if to say, see, I have my companion.

But Rin wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily. "Well, three is the sacred number," she interjected, her voice firm. "You need another."

Samarah glanced between them again, "She's right, you know. You wouldn't want to tempt fate by going against tradition, now would you?"

"I'll ask someone from five to come along."

"You'd take an Ares kid, but you wouldn't take me?" Rin snapped. 

"Yes. I'd take anyone but you."

Rin's heart sank as his words hit her. She stood frozen, the sting of his hostility cutting through her like a knife. She couldn't understand his sudden change in demeanour, not when they had been getting along perfectly fine just earlier that day.

"Why not?" she managed to whisper.

Luke's expression hardened, his frustration boiling over as he finally exploded, his voice rising with each word. 

"Because you have nothing to add by coming along," he spat, his tone laced with venom. "You're just a nobody kid of a nobody god. Even your own mother hasn't deemed you significant enough to claim you. So why should I endanger my quest by taking you along?"

Ouch. 

He might as well have slapped her. 

Each word felt like another dagger to her heart, tearing and shredding at her sense of self-worth with merciless precision, and yet he kept going, a looking glass into her worst self-doubts. To hear her own insecurities thrown back in her face by one she considered a friend was a new kind of hurt, and she didn't even know how to respond to it. 

Luke watched her stand there in stunned silence, unable to find the words to defend herself against his onslaught of insults and he felt sicker by the minute. Every fibre of his being screamed at him to shut up, to stop talking, but he couldn't. He wished for her to fight back, to lash out and retaliate against his cruelty, but she didn't, choosing to simply listen, eyes rooted to the ground. 

He couldn't stand the shuttered expression on her face as her guard went up and she stiffened. It tore at him from the inside, a sharp pang of guilt twisting in his gut. He hated that he had to hurt her like this, but in his mind, it was the only way to stop her from being so stubborn. If he pushed her far enough, she'd never want to be near him again, and she would stop insisting on coming along. 

The ends justified the means. Always. 

Behind them, Samarah let out a low whistle, her voice tinged with disbelief. "Oh, you should not have said that," she muttered under her breath. "You definitely should not have said that."

She hadn't meant for them to hear her, but Rin's head snapped up at her words, her eyes blazing with rage. In an instant, she was right in front of him, her movements fueled by a surge of strength Luke hadn't known she possessed. Before he could react, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, dragging him up and slamming him into the tree behind him.

The impact sent a jolt of pain shooting through his ribs, the injury throbbing in protest as he struggled to catch his breath. The shoebox tumbled from his hands, spilling his shoes onto the ground in a haphazard heap.

For a moment, there was nothing but stunned silence as the two stared at each other, the air thick with tension. Rin's chest rose and fell with each ragged breath, her eyes still ablaze with fury as she glared at him, daring him to say something.

Luke's mind raced as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. He hadn't meant to provoke her like this, hadn't meant to hurt her so deeply. An apology sat on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed it down. He knew her. If he just told her about the prophecy, she would only insist harder on coming along. No, for this to work, he needed to see this through to the end. He had to do his worst. 

When he opened his mouth to speak, however, Rin cut him off with a dismissive wave of her hand, her anger still simmering behind her dark irises. 

"Don't you fucking dare."

"Rin!" Samarah called out behind her, but her warning fell on deaf ears. 

Rin pressed Luke harder against the tree, her face mere inches from his, her eyes ablaze with a murderous fury. The intensity of her gaze sent a shiver down his spine as he felt her anger radiating off her in waves. 

"Never speak to me again," she hissed, her voice low and dangerous. "Or I'll gut you."

Luke's eyes widened in shock at her words, the venom in her tone surprising him. He had never seen her like this before—so full of rage and hatred. Sure, he had seen her angry before, but this was something else entirely. It was as if she had tapped into a primal darkness within herself, unleashing a side of her he had always known to have existed but never seen. 

For a moment, he was speechless, caught off guard by the sheer ferocity of her words. He had never imagined that his actions could elicit such a visceral reaction from her. But as he looked into her eyes, he realized that he had truly hit a nerve—one that ran deeper than he could have ever imagined.

But instead of apologizing or trying to reason with her, all he could manage was a cold, indifferent response. "Good," he replied tersely, his voice devoid of emotion. "I wouldn't want to speak to someone like you again."

The words hung in the air between them, heavy with the weight of their animosity. Rin's lips curled in disgust at his callousness, her rage boiling over as she released him, sending him stumbling backward clutching his right side.

Luke winced as pain shot through him, the ache in his ribs intensifying with each breath, but he barely noticed it as he watched Rin storm away, her figure disappearing into the darkness with each angry step. A sense of emptiness settled over him, knowing that he had pushed her away, perhaps forever. 

"Idiot," Samarah reprimanded, still appraising him. "Now, why would you go and do that?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"And may the gods ensure that I never do. I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you, she just might make good on her threat."

A choked incredulous laugh burst out of Luke. It wasn't as if he was going to be getting sleep tonight.

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That night neither Luke nor Rin returned to the Hermes cabin. Luke remained by Thalia's tree, his thoughts swirling with regret and guilt, while Rin found herself sitting at the foot of the cluster of rocks the campers had dubbed Zeus's Fist. She was determined not to sleep, her rage keeping her awake as she stared out into the darkness, her mind consumed with disturbing thoughts. She did not know where they came from but they set something alight inside of her. She was filled with the desire to hurt, with the thrill of retribution. She wanted to hurt him like he had hurt her, and the thought surprised her. 

She was usually a person of mild temperament, always making a conscious effort not to let her temper fly, and this was why. She could scarcely recognize herself when she was like this, vengeance and fury tearing her mind in every direction. It was the occasional times like these when she wondered what kind of utter psychopath her mother must be because her father was just about the gentlest man there ever was. 

There was not a thing in the world that could anger Taro Nakamura, and he seldom raised his voice, not even when Ethan and Rin kept being expelled from the various strings of schools they attended. The strange occurrences that seemed to follow them everywhere were perplexing but he had never made them feel as if it was their fault. 

She found herself hating her mother even more. She did not want to be like this. She was her father's daughter. She wanted to be like him, and not some unknown deity who —Luke was right— probably thought her too insignificant to be worth claiming. 

As the hours dragged on, exhaustion began to weigh heavily on her, her eyelids growing heavier with each passing moment. Despite her best efforts to stay awake, she found herself succumbing to the pull of sleep, her body betraying her resolve.

As she drifted off into a fitful slumber, Rin's dreams were plagued by voices whispering of inadequacy and bloodshed. It was a different dream than the ones she usually had, darker and more sinister, with shadows lurking in the emptiness that surrounded her. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring herself to look more closely, a sense of dread holding her back from the abyss that beckoned invitingly.

There were cliffs and edges that dropped off sharply, where something far below called out to her by name, a darkness so deep and unfathomable that it seemed to defy human understanding of depth. It made promises she couldn't quite grasp, stirring the hungry thing inside of her that thirsted for justice. 

Eventually, she would gain the resolve to look, and she would learn that if you stared into the abyss long enough, the abyss stared back at you. 

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A/N: As usual, don't be a ghost reader. I live for yalls comments/questions/concerns/reactions, even a keyboard smash is highly appreciated and encouraged <3