The arena was quiet in the early winter mornings, personal in the hours that no one was awake unless they had to be. 

Cabin 7 was, of course, up with the sun as Apollo decided that it was time to get up as he drove over camp in that ridiculous sun chariot that looked like some cherry red sports car playing what she was fairly certain was heavy metal music because while she heard the music a little bit, she couldn't hear it fully -- and her siblings complained endlessly, whined and cursed at the horrible sound until she too was dragged out of bed when she could no longer ignore it. 

So in classic Lee fashion, he let Kassandra off to do whatever she wanted instead of tagging along for classes since she was on break. 

It was how she found herself alone as she wailed on a training dummy, fist tightly wrapped to keep from busting her knuckles needlessly. 

There were few things that she enjoyed having in common with her father -- boxing, a sliver of his physical prowess, that made her feel distinctly violent and aggressive when she wanted to be, and while she assumed that he was much more refined than her somewhat slugger, mixed with a handful of multi-style moves, it was one of those things where she strived to be as good as or even better than him. 

(In the first Olympics, the very first Olympics of the gods, Apollo had beaten Ares in boxing and if she couldn't strive to beat everyone else around her, then what was the point? Kassandra wanted him to see her as that spectacular, wanted him to know that she was more than capable of taking care of herself.) 

(When Kassandra was ten, almost eleven, Luke had dragged her to the Ares cabin and dropped her down in front of Oriana when she had nearly broken her hand after beating up on Michael in a spar. 

She had been angry, destructively so, because he was saying something about his claiming and how lucky he was to have been accepted so easily, so quickly by Apollo, and while most she didn't know for certain, she sort of did know and it had infuriated her so much that she had tossed her sword to the side during training and went at him with her bare fist. 

He left with a broken nose and a bruised cheekbone. 

She left with busted and split knuckles, and a nasty slice on her arm that she refused to get healed. 

Luke had dragged her away by the scruff of her collar like she was a bad puppy and let her cry angry tears into his shoulder when they were out of sight. 

At the time, it was like only he understood, only he was willing to hear the truth of how much the gods sucked as he shared his own hatred, his own trauma. 

Oriana had taken one look at Kassandra's angry ten, almost eleven, year old self and promised to teach her how to defend herself properly with her fists if she truly wanted to get down and dirty. )

(And really, nothing could beat the feeling of hitting someone, the sense of knowing that it was her strength that was knocking into them, her strength alone that was hurting them -- and Kassandra was strong from years of training and archery, she was a fierce force to be reckoned with if people you got on her bad side.) 

"You'll hurt yourself if you keep going like that." 

Kassandra snorts, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and brushing her hand down her face to wipe away the thin beading of sweat from her temples. 

"I haven't hurt myself since I was eleven," she says, pushing up the sleeves of her sweater to her elbows. "That's not to say that people haven't hurt me." 

"Is that why you're destroying the training dummy instead of sparing with an actual person?" Percy teases, swaggering his way over with a hand tucked into his pocket. 

"I'm alone because it's so early. It's good to see what my limit is for the couplet curse. It didn't last as long as I wanted," she snips. "What got you up?" 

"Had to apologize to your siblings since they didn't accept my apology last night," he says easily. "You're lucky you missed it. I gave this embarrassing performance of a terrible rhyme in apology to Apollo before the dining hall." 

She pouts. "I wish I would have been there. I never would have let you live it down."

"Then I'm thrilled you weren't," he says, gaze tracing over her wrapped hands. "You want a partner?" 

She lifts a brow. "You ever actually get any hand-to-hand combat training?" 

"I've picked up a bit," he says non-committedly, shrugging off his jacket to leave him in a sweater. 

"Great. I don't want any water breaks where you power up or anything," she says, rolling her shoulders and lifting her hands. "You want to wrap up or are you good like that?" 

"I'll be good. We can visit your siblings later for a quick heal-up." 

Shrugging, she advances on him, throwing a punch for his head that he leans back to dodge. She doesn't give him a chance to steady himself, knowing that getting hit by him would hurt. Following through with the motion, she keeps him moving back dodging her blows as she spins a kick at him. He goes stumbling back when she clips his stomach. 

"Hey! I thought you were into boxing." 

"Boxer plus. I like traditional boxing, but my opponents aren't going to play by the rules."

He laughs, ducking under the next punch that she aims for her head -- getting into her space and hitting her around the shoulder. It smarts, bad, and she has to pull back to shake out her left arm. 

Cocky smirk in place, Percy throws another punch, this one wide. She moves in close and double taps the inside of his shoulder. 

"Shit," he hissed, coiling back away from her fists. "How the Hades does that hurt so bad?" 

"What? I'm hitting you, Jackson. What did you expect?" 

"I don't know," he whines, stepping back to avoid her next series of strikes. "I didn't think it would feel like getting slugged with rocks." 

She laughs. "Put your hands up, Jackson, defend yourself. It hurts more to get hit than to block them." 

He throws up his arms, letting her hit against the forearm, and she uses the distraction to kick his thigh. 

"Come on, Percy," she taunts. "Hit me back." 

With a huff, the boy throws himself at her. They pass the time dodging in and around the arena, jumping around and using training dummies as obstacles until Percy knocks her into a pillar and trips her up. Kassandra uses the chance to bring him to his knees, locking her legs around him as she grabs him in an armbar. 

They lie there panting on the ground, her holding him in place, and she knows that it wouldn't be enough to keep him pinned if he really wanted to get up -- he had Riptide in his pocket, he could have turned the blade on her at any moment if he really wanted to win, especially when she didn't have an actual weapon on her to defend herself (which, now that she thinks on it, she might want to start going around with her dagger and maybe something else to carry around, at least. Personally, she was thinking along the lines of a hunting knife might be cool to use. Kassandra was alright with one of those). 

"Annabeth might have been thinking of joining the Hunters," he blurts, gaze locked upward, refusing to turn her way. 

"What?" she asks, letting him go and sitting up quickly to look at him. "Did she say something to you?" 

"Grover found a pamphlet for the Hunters in her bag. He thinks that's why they were in the area," he says, overly bitter, and she can only watch as he jerks into a sitting position to glower at his feet. "They were scouting her, apparently." 

She sucks her teeth. "Yeah, that can happen sometimes. It's a really big decision to make."

"Have you ever thought of it before?" he asks. "You met them before, right? And Artemis is your aunt, technically." 

"I wasn't ever able to commit to it before, but I had thought of it. There were moments where I just couldn't stand my father, you know, moments where I just couldn't deal with this--" she waves a hand around her in a vague gesture-- "Joining the Hunters meant freedom, to me. It meant acceptance and acknowledgement. I was never able to give up what it took to become a Hunter, though. I would have been leaving far too many things unfinished."

"You think you might have joined them if..." 

"If I wasn't so full of angry self-doubt, a poor sense of self-worth and a sky full of daddy-issues?" she asks sarcastically, unable to help but truthfully answer the question. "Sure, probably. I had planned to when I first got to camp. I was going to find out who my parent was and maybe meet my siblings. Learn a bit about who I was. It didn't turn out in the end." 

Percy winces, hesitantly meeting her eye. "I am sorry about the things that I said yesterday, Kass. I shouldn't have taken it out on you." 

"I know. I shouldn't have been so mean either. Or have broken your nose." 

He shrugs. "It wasn't that bad." 

She shoves his shoulder. "Don't lie. I know it hurt." 

"Shut up, Kassie," he mutters, resting his elbows on his knees and dropping his head. After a moment he looks up. "I had a dream last night about Annabeth." 

"I regular dream or demigod dream?" she asks, almost afraid of the answer. 

"She was climbing this hillside with dark ruins everywhere. Luke was on the ground, he was struggling with something. And he asked Annabeth for help and she went to him," he says, seething. "She went to him and she lifted whatever he was holding. it was like the ceiling or something had collapsed on them and she held it up only with her strength. She yelled for his help be he left her to hold it up on her own. It's crushing her." 

Her jaw clenches, fingers stretching in and out. "The ceiling was crushing her? Only her or her and Luke?" 

He looks over at her. "Just her." 

Kassandra bites the skin at her lip, pinching it between teeth until it hurt before letting go. She wasn't as smart as Annabeth could ever be, she didn't know enough about Greek myth to make sense out of anything that didn't involve her father or something that came from lessons (and as much as she paid attention in lessons, she knew that she could have paid better attention). 

But there were some things she knew, some things that almost all demigods knew about, that made her at least a little bit suspicious. 

"You have to tell Chiron about it. He'll know what's happening to her for sure," she says quickly, rolling to her knees so that she was crouched at his side. She touched his shoulders gently. "I think I might... I think I might have an idea of where but I can't be sure." 

"Where?" he asks, pleading. The sea-green of his eyes glowing like water in the sun. "Where could she be?" 

Kassandra quickly shakes her head. "I don't want to say something and be wrong. I'm only sort of okay on my mythos, but I- I might know where she is and what's happening. Is there anything else that you can tell me?" 

"Uh, um, Grover said that Zoe went running to the Big House last night a little bit after I had my dream. She was demanding that she be allowed to leave with the Hunter's, something about Artemis being in danger." 

"Lady Artemis?" she demands, heart pounding painfully in her chest. She takes a moment to breathe deeply, centring herself carefully. "Okay, okay. We'll figure it out, Percy. I promise that we'll get them both back, even if I have to beg Apollo himself to issue me the damned quest." 

"You'd ask your dad for help?" he asks in surprise.

Kassandra nods, brows furrowed and nose wrinkled in distaste. "For Annabeth and Lady Artemis? Of course, I would. Even if it was the most humiliating thing I could ever do." 

He moves like a striking snake, like the feeling of heat instantly on your skin the first moment that you step outside. Percy wraps her in his arms, clinging her close to his chest so tight that she swears she could feel his heartbeat -- she could certainly hear it, resonating in her ears like a rushing drum beat. 

"Thank you, Kass." 

She slowly wraps her arms around him. "I'd humiliate myself for you, too." 

"I know," he teases, squeezing her tighter for a second, making her gasp silently as he cuts off her air. "Come on. I don't want to miss lunch and I think I might have a few bruises that need healing before tonight." 

Kassandra laughs. "Alright, big baby, let me go. I'll take you to get healed and then we can go for lunch." 

That night before diner, she was quick to pull on her armour and strap it into place. The metal plating against her chest was a reassuring weight, the distinct Greekness of it a familiar aesthetic, that she had no trouble in getting herself comfortable and settled. 

Cabin 7 armed themselves with bows and took an extra full quiver for each of them. They were the only archers in camp that could hope to best the volleys of the Hunter's and she was not above admitting that she wanted to be able to show them up just a little (this was a friendly competition, after all). 

She pulled tight on her ponytail and accepted the fingerless gloves that Michael hands her, tugging them tight over her fingers and working them into a comfortable position. 

"Here, you should take this," Michael says, handing her a short blade sword, almost like a long knife. "You never end up with enough blades when you need them." 

"Right," she says, attaching it at her hip next to her flute with the spare quiver and an emergency first aid kit on the other side. She adjusts the sheath so that it doesn't interfere with the daggers strapped to her thighs. "You're better off giving me a sack of rocks to throw at people." 

Christa giggles, holding her smaller bow in hand. Shaking her head at her younger sister, she checked over her armour to make sure that she was fully covered before sending her off to sit with Lee. 

She glanced around the pavilion, checking on the campers and the Hunters. They were about evenly matched even with so few people actually here, so it would likely prove to be a good game. 

The Hunters, however, looked like they would rather be anywhere else, and she didn't really blame them. If Zoe had told them about her dream of Artemis, then it wasn't a good sing, for sure. It didn't mean that they would take the game any less seriously. 

"Blue team! Follow me!" Thalia called. 

The team cheered and followed. Kassandra slowed to the end, waiting for Percy to catch up. He tripped over a shield and stepped on some kid's foot. 

She winced in sympathy. 

They set their flag at the top of Zeus's fist. It was about twenty feet high and visibly insight while staying hard to climb. It was a good place to hide a flag even if it was a bit predictable for a team stationed West of the woods. 

"We'll send out a decoy to the left," Thalia told the team. "Silena, you lead that."

"Got it!"

"Take Laurel and Jason. They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise," the girl says, organizing her teams. "Cabin 7, you think you can watch the border? Only go on offence if you need to." 

Lee raises a brow at the tactic, acknowledging that it was typically a good play to have cabin 7 split offence and defence when they were full. Kassandra herself didn't see the point in keeping her here when she had almost always been set as offence because of her speed but wasn't about to put down a snipping job when she was equally as good at that. 

"We'll split along the creek and keep out as many as we can," he says, turning to his siblings. "Michael, Kass, you're on the ground. I'll take Christa skyward." 

"Cool," she says, ignoring the rest of Thalia's planning. "We going in pairs or splitting the difference?" 

He shrugs. "Guess it's up to us. We'll go heavy on one side with me and Christa. Michael and you stretch out. Make them think we're to one side." 

They nodded and her eldest brother went off to the side with Christa. Michael turned to her. "You want to take the side closer to the flag and your dear friend Percy?" 

She wrinkles her nose at him but doesn't comment. They had been teasing her all day since she brought the boy back to their cabin to heal. They had refused at first, seeing as they had literally healed his nose the night before, but after watching Kassandra complain after every little hymn she has sung, they had thankfully taken over and finished the job in time for them all to take a refreshing nap. 

"I would, in fact, love to take the closer post," she says honestly, snottily. "That's where the best action will be." 

"Oh, right. I forgot that you tend to just run off into danger now. You're a bonafide hero through and through." 

"Uh, excuse you, I've always been a hero," she sasses. "I'm just a much better one now than I was before." 

Her brother snorts. "Sure you are. Maybe you can sign the roof of the cabin or something, write it clearly so that everyone will know that you were there -- the great Kassandra LeClaire, hero of cabin 7." 

A grin breaks across her face at the thought. "That's exactly what I'm going to do," she beams at him, "We should all do it. Write it right above our bunks so our siblings to come will see it and know, so that they'll think of us. The ones that came before. Oh! Oh! We should leave a journal for each summer and a picture of everyone in the cabin!" 

She lets out a happy shriek of laughter, pushing to the tips of her toes as she contains the urge to just jump around. 

Michael laughs with her. "I'll mention it to Lee, but I'm sure he'll be down for it. The Head counsellor should be in charge of that, right? So we don't have to be?" 

"Yes," she hissed as if that in itself was a triumph. 

"Sorry," Thalia says. "Now, is everybody clear?"

They share a look and shrug.

He begins to head out to his position, having the longer run to get there. Lee and Christa had already left, it seemed. 

Just as she's ready to find a spot to hide, she meets Percy's gaze and feels her stomach twist at his expression. 

"You good, Perce?" she asks, coming up to his side. 

"Yeah, I'm good." He doesn't sound good. "Where are you gonna be?" 

She gestures toward the creek. "Over that way. Not too far, but close enough to keep a wide range. I'll be listening, so I should hear if you call for backup," she teases, nudging him with an elbow. 

His eyes darken. "Yeah, well, I'll be expecting your yell first," he counters easily. "And for you to keep them off us." 

Snickering, she shakes her head and starts forward. "Don't worry about me too much, Aquaman. I've got a few archery tips to show the girls." 

His laugh followed her as she went for the creek and hid herself the best she could among the bare trees and foliage.  She drew her bow, arming herself as she waited. 

The horn sounded, and the game began. 

She was able to see the entire front line, able to watch as Selene's group moved forward and met with the Hunter's and Thalia from the distance as she took off from Lee's end. The center was left wide open.

Her bow raised as she set her sights, pinning a hunter in the chest with an arrow as they ganged up on one of the scouts and let out another three for good measure. 

Letting herself focus on the sound, she followed as she listened to everyone moved -- wincing at the pinch that began to form behind her eyes, the overload to her senses going to level her with a wonderful headache. 

Percy gave a rundown to his immediate defence. She watched him cross the border. 

She armed another arrow, notching it as she listened. 

The zip of an arrow firing had her jerking her head to the side and firing. Her shot hit true, knocking throw the silver arrow and cutting it in two. It was too late for her to do anything as Percy hit the tripwire so close to the border. 

"Percy!" Thalia yells, off to the right. "What are you doing?"

Slipping away from her hiding spot, she began to move closer to the center in hopes of giving him an open lane back through. 

"Incoming!" Michael's voice echoes. "Kass!" 

She's already running, hearing the sounds of arrows firing and the Stoll brother going down leaving her to wonder how the Hades she had gotten through. 

Bow dropped in favour of speed, she takes off, aiming to intercept Zoe but the girl was fast and already on the return so she had to pivot her way around -- running close behind, tearing after her just an arms space away. 

Jumping forward, she catches the girl in the side sending them both off balance. Kassandra twists, fingers grazing against the flag when she's hit with a volley of arrows at the back of her armour throwing her forward with an oof and a gasp as the air is knocked from her lungs. 

Zoe continues across the border and the Hunters win.  

Michael is dragging her up just as soon as she can regain her breath, puffing as she rips the stupid helmet from her head. 

"Oh my gods, that smarts," she complains. "If I'm bruised, I'm demanding a formal apology because that seemed like overkill to me." 

He snorts as he helps her out of the chest plate that had arrows sticking out of the back. "I mean, you almost hade her." 

"No, I absolutely had her," she argues. "No lie. I knocked her and had the flag back in my hand." 

He doesn't even phase at the information. "Well, damn, Kass, you're fast. Of course, you caught her," he says, honesty warming her through enough to brush away the slight sting of being shot half a dozen times and then losing. 

"Very fast," Zoe says, coming close to help get the chest plate off. "I was suitably impressed with how much thy've improved. You were able to hear from quite the distance as well." 

She feels her cheeks burn under the praise. "I'm not nine years old anymore, Zoe. I was going to have to get good at one point." 

A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe.

"Yeah," Percy growls. "I didn't mean to, either." 

Thalia was breathing heavily.

"Enough!" Chiron orders.

But Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

He raised Riptide, but before he could even defend himself, Thalia yells, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into his chest.

Percy sat down hard. 

"Hey!" Kassandra finds herself yelling, stomping toward the creek. Michael catches her wrist before she could get too close. "That's too far now. Stop it, you two!" 

Percy got to his feet and willed the entire creek to rise. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.

"Percy!" Chiron pleads.

He was about to hurl the water when he froze, staring behind Thalia and the water dropped back to the creek bed. 

Green mist swirled around a shrouded from that moved toward them slowly. She squints, willing her vision to clear enough for her to see. 

As it got closer, she heard her brother gaps and felt him drop to his knees and tug her frozen form down with him. 

"This is impossible," Chiron says. "It... she has never left the attic. Never."

She could not tear her eyes away from the Oracle, couldn't look away from one of the greatest treasures of her father -- the speaker of truths and prophecy, the vessel of clear sight and futures. 

Michael spoke a quiet prayer to their father. She didn't even wince as a similar idea ran through her mind. 

I am the spirit of Delphi, the voice says. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

The withered oracle turned her gaze to Zoe (Zoe that continued to stand right next to her, right at her side so close that she could almost feel as if those unmistakably dead eyes were pinned to her). Approach seeker, and ask. 

Zoe swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"

The Oracle's mouth opens and green mist pours out, swirling until images began to form, twisting in the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:

"Six shall go west to the goddess in chains, 

One shall be lost in the land without rain, 

The bane of Olympus shows the trail, 

Campers and Hunters combined prevail, 

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand."

☼ ☼ ☼

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this chapter sucked. that's it. that's the author's note.

unedited

written: 2021-02-08

posted: 2021-04-07