[I know, I know. It's been a hell of a long time since I wrote anything related to the Percy Jackson 'verse. If anything seems off - anything at all - comment and I'll do my best to fix it. By the way, this is just a slight spoiler about the newest character I have in this universe - Rhein! You'll get to see more of our emo redhead~ Enjoy!]

Frozen | A "Revenge of the Abandoned" Oneshot

There it was again.

That horrible, relentless pounding in his head, a cacophony of voices swirling into a disorganized crescendo. It didn't hurt; not in the least. In his opinion, the gloom was worse than the headache. It was, in an understatement of the matter, tolerable.

Being submerged in a hazy world of various shades of black and gray. A monochromatic world of shadows. Fitting, considering what he went through a year or so ago. He couldn't tell - it was hard enough to look into the mirror, see the vibrant hue of his hair, and be reminded of the liquid coating her face, her smile, her blank, dead eyes. He didn't want this curse - of being different from his roguish siblings, of having that wisdom goddess' immortal blood in his veins from his accursed mother's side.

He didn't want to be blessed with photographic memory. It was enough to look at himself and be disgusted day by day; what more to close his eyes and remember exactly how it happened?

"Rhein," an unfortunately familiar voice called, followed by the slightest hint of hooves hitting the floorboards meeting his keen ears. "Chiron called for you. Said you had to show the newbie around; the greenie's name is Adrienne or somethin'."

The boy's eyes slowly opened, an unfathomable emotion lurking within his cold blue eyes. "I don't care." He uttered simply, yet sitting up from his bunk all the same.

As much as he claimed it to be otherwise, it was an ephemeral saving grace to get the hell out of his cabin; his so-called half-siblings had turned up the caterwauling they called music yet again (at Clarisse's insistence, no doubt.) Rhein didn't want to be part of it, as much as he abhorred being different.

He'd had enough of the insults made at his expense; once, some of his more... goon-like cabin mates had decided to use his hair to paint the outer walls of the Ares cabin - claiming it wouldn't even show after they were done, as his hair was only a few shades darker than the walls themselves. He ended up with a split lip and broken knuckles nearly half an hour later. His siblings weren't much better.

"They're down by the lake." Aaron muttered, glancing at the brooding redhead in slight nonchalance. There was a tense set to his shoulders, a nervousness to the way his hooves clopped across the floor.

Rhein stood, carefully making his way through the cabin. Once or twice, a sibling of his attempted fo trip him up, to which he responded with a blank, uncaring gaze. "Do I look like I care?"

It was more of a statement than a question, really. There was no inflection, no change in the monotone set of the words as it rolled of his tongue and into the late afternoon sunlight. The satyr flinched, inching away from the silent son of Ares as he walked past.

"You do care, Hisame." Aaron said in a brief whisper, causing the aforementioned to tense, whirling around on his heel as a rarely seen spark of immense loathing emanated from his cobalt eyes.

"What would you know?" He growled, his teeth gnashing against each other as he dug his fingernails into his palms. "That name no longer belongs to me."

"Why? Is it because Kayla d--"

"Don't speak her name as though you knew her most."

A saddened smile curled the satyr's lips as he watched the boy march off to gods-know-where.

"Only proves that you still care. Keira would agree."

END

To clear some things up:

"Kayla"'s real name is Keira. She's Japanese, and she was Rhein-- rather, Hisame's childhood friend. Notice how I said was.

That's it, I guess. The names "Kayla" and "Rhein" are aliases, so to speak. Those are their apparent American names as well. Might change in the future though.

Dedication is to illousionlarry !mentio
n a user
-Zoe