"What are you doing here?" Bren asked, quickly pulling his hand from the tree.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I..."

"It's okay. I don't need an explanation. But I would like to know what happened here..."

"It... I-it wasn't m-my f-fault..." Bren stuttered, his voice shaking, "I d-didn't mean t-to..."

Arelyn tried to keep her expression gentle, which was difficult considering all her past experience with scared children was normally caused by her, "Do you know what happened?"

"I-it was an a-accident!" Bren's large eyes started to well up with tears as he rested his forehead against the charred bark, "I-I didn't..."

Arelyn put her hand on Bren's shoulder, "Hey, hey, it's ok. It's ok. Like you said, it was an accident. Everyone makes mistakes."

"D-does everyone b-burn down a f-forest as a m-mistake?"

"Bren." Arelyn crouched down so she was sitting on her heels and looking up at the boy's shaking figure, "You have no idea how many mistakes people have made that are worse than this. Compared to mistakes I've made, this is a birthday party. It's ok."

"I h-highly doubt t-that..."

Arelyn sighed, "Would you like me to give examples? Or will you take my word for it?"

Bren glanced at her for a second before looking away, "I c-could've hurt s-someone..."

"But you didn't." Arelyn grabbed Bren's shoulders, "Bren, I want you to listen to me. Ok?" She waited for Bren to nod before she continued, "Nobody got hurt here. I get that it's still a shock for you that it happened at all, but you don't need to worry about 'What if someone got hurt?' because they didn't. It won't be on your conscience forever. I, on the other hand, have done things that a human trial could probably have me killed for. I have hurt people, and I do have to worry about 'What if they hadn't been hurt?' 'What if they hadn't died? '" Arelyn lifted Bren's chin so he met her eyes, "So you shouldn't be so scared. I've made most of my terms with what I've done. But you haven't done pretty much anything." She smiled, "It's ok."

Bren's eyes were wide with hesitant curiosity and fear, "You k-killed someone?"

Arelyn looked at the burnt ground, "I'm told that it wasn't me, but I still blame myself. I will always accept full responsibility for their deaths."

"What happened?"

" ...you really want to know?" Bren paused a moment before nodding, "Ok... I'll be vague. Some bad guys launched a Chimera attack on some big city in the L- a ways away," she caught herself before she slipped, "I told some of my...half blood acquaintances who started fighting it. Something happened, and I just couldn't move. Two of them, including our 'leader' were killed by it. Our leader was burned and her cousin was poisoned."

"And you couldn't save them?"

Arelyn slowly shook her head, "Had I actually helped them fight, I probably would've died instead of them. Everyone probably would've liked that more than this..."

Bren looked at his feet a moment before wrapping his arms around Arelyn in a hug, startling her. "If you had died instead of them," he started, "we wouldn't be talking here right now. I would still be in the dark with Emma. I never would've come back here. Some people might've been happy if the others were still alive, but there's a reason you are. If you had died, those bad guys would probably have attacked the good guys while they were still upset about you dying. But with the leader gone, they don't see you as a threat. You and the others can get rid of them."

Arelyn smiled and glanced at the burnt trees behind Bren, "Would... would you like to be one of those 'others'?" She asked quietly.

"...You want me to help you take out the bad guys?" Arelyn could hear the panic in his voice.

"You don't have to." Arelyn told him as he pulled away from her, "I wouldn't care if you didn't want to. Heck, I just told you not to hurt people. I'm such a hypocrite."

Bren looked behind Arelyn at the burnt mess he'd made. She guessed it looked better with the setting sun hiding the char and ash. "I don't want to hurt people who helped me. But I'm not sure about these bad guys."

Arelyn thought for a moment before she had an idea, "Grab my hand." She told him as she fumbled through her pocket, looking for a pathfinder, "We need to move before the light dies."

As she pulled out a clear pathfinder, Bren grabbed her free hand, "Where are we going?"

"To one of the bad guy's bases." Carefully, she wrapped her concentration around the both of them and gently pulled Bren into the crystal's beam.

________________________

"Woah," was all Bren could say when they arrived just outside the Neutral Territories. Arelyn had finally figured out how to get as close as she could to the Neutral Territories with a Lost Cities pathfinder, and she'd learned it wasn't too far from the boarder. Only maybe 6 miles.

Ok, maybe that was a long ways for a 10 year old - or however old Bren was - but hey, she wasn't the person who chose the base's location.

"Pretty cool, right?" Arelyn couldn't keep herself from letting a little pride seep into her voice.

"How'd we get here?"

"Um.... Apollo's blessing on a group of people?"

"Isn't that the sun god?"

"Yup."

"He blessed you to use light to teleport?" Bren asked.

" ....yes. "

"Cool! I wish he were my dad... um... I'm gonna sound stupid, but who's the fire god?"

"That would be Hephestus. He also makes a lot of stuff. You know Leo?"

"Oh yeah. The guy who kind of died but not really?"

Arelyn smiled, "That's him. He's technically your half brother."

"Who's your godly parent?"

"Aphrodite."

"And your half brother is fully human?"

"You could say that."

Bren turned in a full circle, taking in the sights, "Where are we?"

"Um...Italy? I don't really know." Arelyn admitted.

"How do you not know? I thought you had to."

" ...Have you met Nico di Angelo?"

"Hades' son? Hazel's mentioned him, but I've never met him myself. Why?"

"He has an ability that is kinda like this. That doesn't mean he knows where he's going every time." Arelyn wasn't actually sure about that. She just remembered Hazel talking about Nico's shadow travel ability when describing how the defeated Gaea. Something about a magic statue of Annabeth's mom.

"Really? Cool! But, why are we here?"

"I already told you, we're going to an abandoned base of the bad guys. Come on," she gestured at him to follow her.

"How'd you discover it?"

"Our leader got rid of the bad guys. Simple as that."

"How do you know they won't come back?"

"They don't come back to their known bases."

"How do you know?"

"Um... Let's just say I've had lots of experience with them."

"This is going to sound annoying, but does that mean you've had experience against them or with them?"

Arelyn sighed, "Does it matter?"

"If you want me to trust that you're not just going to kill me."

"Fine. Both."

"Which was longer?"

"Why... I was with them for a few years. Long enough for them to trust me. I've been against them for not even half a year."

Bren nodded in understanding, "Alright. How far away is this base?"

"You still trust me?"

"If you were really trying to bring me to these bad guys, you wouldn't have caved so easily. It also would've taken longer for you to come up with that in the fly. So, how far?"

"Right now? Maybe five and a half miles."

"Then maybe we should go faster."

"You want to?"

"If we need to get rid of bad guys, the sooner the better."

"I thought you were still deciding."

"I am. But, if I agree, sooner is better than later."

He had a point. Arelyn smiled, "You're a smart kid."

Bren grinned, "I try to be!"

They continued talking all the way to the base. Bren was an interesting kid, even without the whole "I lived in a weird dark place and now have no idea where I came from" thing. Arelyn actually figured out that he and Emma were the two kids she'd seen at first; the ones who she'd taken out and then had left together. No wonder Emma was so important to Bren. They'd lived in the dark together, they'd left it together, they'd gotten to Camp Half Blood together, everything was done just those too.

Soon, the base showed up on the horizon. "That's where we're going," Arelyn told Bren, pointing at the abandoned base.

"Aren't based supposed to be well hidden?"

"Well, how many people do you think just wander out here?"

"True." His grin kind of reminded Arelyn of Leo's, "Race you there," he took off running. Arelyn smiled and followed.

Bren was fast. Like, really fast. Arelyn meant no offense to Hephestus, but it definitely had to have come from his mom. Arelyn was also pretty fast since she had to get away from suspicious mortals often, but Bren was giving her a run for her money - no pun intended.

Bren stopped and grinned at Arelyn, who arrived shortly after him, "I think I won."

"You had a head start."

"Excuses, excuses. Come on," Anxiously, Bren walked into the base. Arelyn rolled her eyes and followed.

"Bren, I should probably lead you around. You've never been here before." Arelyn told him, but Bren didn't say anything. The smile had fallen off his face, and he wandered through the halls as if he'd seen a ghost. She wouldn't have been so worried about it - it was pretty creepy - had he let her lead. But he was walking through the base as if he knew it by memory. And he was taking the shortest route to the base's center. "Bren, are you ok?"

Bren still didn't say anything. He made his way to the center, putting his hands on the table the Neverseen had held meetings at and where the elves and demigods had eaten breakfast. "How'd they get rid of them?" He asked quietly, though Arelyn could still hear the shaking in his voice.

"I don't know. I was... I was working with the bad guys when this happened."

"Do you know if they found anyone?"

"No. They never talked about it, and I wasn't here."

Bren ran his hand through his hair, staring down one of the halls. Arelyn knew where that hall led. She'd been "imprisoned" there by Tam and Keefe - literally the only thing they could ever agree on.

"You've been here," she guessed , grabbing his hand. Bren nodded, and Arelyn glanced down the hall, "Do you want to go down there?"

"I don't know. I'm scared of what I'll find."

"Well then, let's go." She told him, gently leading him to the hall, "The best way to deal with fear is to face it head on."

As they walked, Arelyn could guess why Bren was so worried. The hall was full of holding cells. If she knew anything about the Neverseen - and she did - it was that they probably didn't sleep in holding cells. The only purpose of them was prisoners, or experiments led by Gisela.

"I was here." Bren whispered, "They kept me here."

"I was kept here too. By the good guys. This was used by more than the Neverseen." Arelyn caught her slip too late, but what did it matter? Bren had already been here. He probably knew who they were already.

"The Neverseen... That's what the eye on your sleeve is." When Arelyn nodded, he glanced back at a holding cell he'd stopped in front of, "This is where they kept me and Emma. It was terrible."

"I thought you couldn't remember where you were from."

"I couldn't before." His voice was as cold as ice and every word dripped with venom more deadly than the Chimera's, "I'll help you. I'll help you find the Neverseen, and we're going to send them to whatever afterlife they believe in."

Yes! A chapter on a Saturday!!! My chapters have been getting consistently longer, I just realized... Eh, who cares? I couldn't find a good ending until that let line, so now you get a chapter that's double the average length!! Yay! But, on another note, there will be no more than 2 chapters (including the epilogue) left in this story!!! Man, I may have started in May, which was, like, 7 months ago, but I still feel like time has flown since I started my crossover writing. Geez.... Well, that's enough from me for one day. I'll see y'all tomorrow!! Bye!!