Chapter One: Of Flukes & Failures

Clang! Swish! Slice!

Reyna's spear swung through the air, colliding with first one blade, then another as she knocked the strange bronze weapons away from her face.

It was the second day of the battle at Camp Half-Blood, and neither side had gained any ground. However, Octavian had taken an arrow to the bicep yesterday and declared himself out for the rest of the fighting, which put Reyna at an advantage: she wasn't trying to counter some crazy augur's decisions with orders of her own, and as a result was a much better fighter (and leader) than yesterday. Really, Reyna owed some Greek archer a favor. Maybe she'd grant that camper immunity if – no, when – Camp Jupiter won this war.

But none of that mattered now. She was under attack by at least five different campers, all of them bearing the emblem of Mars. She had made herself an early target with her skill in battle, and the centaur in charge had no doubt assigned the five campers in front of her to take her down. Unfortunately for them, Reyna had no intention of making it easy.

She was distracted for a moment as two of them swung at her at once, a spear and a dagger bearing down on her from two different directions. If she twisted in just the right way...

CLANG! The dagger hit her armor, leaving what felt like a very painful bruise, but she was able to block the spear. It was just as the spear went flying in the opposite direction that Reyna realized she'd fallen right into a trap.

In the next second, she was stuck with an electric spear, disarmed, and shot with an arrow to her calf - at the same time. A cry of pain tore itself from her throat before she could bite it back, and she dropped to her hands and knees, her calf unable to support her weight. She muttered a curse and reached for the dagger in her boot.

"Don't move, girly," a gruff voice muttered above her, but Reyna already had the small, lethal dagger concealed in her hand, and she froze. "Good."

Reyna was hauled roughly to her feet and pressed against a sweaty, muscular body in full Greek armor. Not a second later, there was a dagger at her throat. Ignoring the weapon, Reyna began mentally reviewing her camp training. There should be a soft spot for her to stab her back-up dagger in on the side of the armor...there.

Reyna thrust her tiny dagger into the side of the camper with all her might, then jerked away from the knife at her throat. The camper who'd been holding her fell to the ground, and Reyna's back-up dagger was ripped from her hand. She swore. That was her last dagger. Her cloak (with two other daggers in it) was too far away, but her hairpin would transform into a spear if she could get to it...

But she never had the chance. An arrow pierced her forearm as she raised it, and the explosion of pain made her stagger, just enough so that the burly daughter of Mars - no, Ares - could grab her.

"Nice try," the girl said, sounding mildly impressed. "But not good enough. I can tell you've got plenty on you – this hairpin, for one, and those daggers in your cloak. Hand 'em over. I don't want to have to search you."

This girl was good, Reyna had to admit grudgingly as she handed over her last weapons.

"Now, we're gonna take you to Chiron and we'll see what he wants to do with you," the girl informed her, yanking Reyna's arms around behind her back. This time, her years of training paid off and kept the cry of pain from escaping Reyna's mouth as her injured arm (with the arrow still in it) was handled so roughly. Reyna thought the burly girl looked impressed for the space of a second, but it was gone too fast for her to be sure.

"Come on, Clarisse," one of the boys with her said. "Let's go get this surrender over with."

Surrender! A hot wave of anger spiked in Reyna's heart, making her throat clench. There was no chance she would ever surrender Rome to these people. Not without a fight. She lashed out at them, kicking and biting for all she was worth. Her captor, surprised, let her go, and she nearly toppled over. She leaped the rope holding her hands and managed to get her hands awkwardly in front of her. Clarisse, the burly girl, had just pulled out her electric spear when a voice cut through their fighting.

"Stop! Stop! Don't hurt her!"

It was Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. He and the rest of the members of the quest for the seven had arrived last night in the Greek camp. Not one of them, including Hazel and Frank, had come to see the Romans, and Reyna couldn't pretend that wasn't a blow. The seven of them had valuable information about the quest – information the Romans needed to know.

"Clarisse, don't hurt her," Jason panted. "Don't hurt her. Chiron will want to talk to her, and..." his voice faltered as he met Reyna's glare, but he stiffened, "and so do I."

"Chiron assigned us to her, dude," Clarisse said belligerently. "We're taking her to him so she can surrender."

"Never," Reyna spat, putting as much venom as she could into her voice. "I'll die first."

Jason looked worried. He would know she wasn't kidding. He turned and waved his arms wildly, then turned back to their little group. "Clarisse, she's not kidding –"

"And neither am I," snapped Clarisse. "She'll surrender or die, or maybe watch from the steps of the Big House as her army is destroyed!"

"You will never defeat the legion," Reyna snapped. "The might of Rome stands with us."

Clarisse just waved her hand, looking unimpressed. Suddenly, Piper McLean appeared next to Jason.

"Let's all calm down," she said, raising her hands, palms up. The tension in each of the boys' shoulders loosened and the sons of Ares even lowered their weapons. Clarisse and Reyna, however, both stood staring suspiciously at Piper. "That's better. Now, we don't want to hurt Reyna, so why don't you take her up to the Big House and let Chiron deal with it?"

Her words, powerful and sweet as honey, flowed over their little group. Jason and the sons of Ares all nodded eagerly, and even Clarisse relaxed a little.

"No," Reyna snapped. "You won't take me to him. I have a better idea." Although not a charmspeaker by any means, years of making speeches in front of the Senate had given Reyna a powerful voice. "I challenge you to a duel, Jason Grace," she declared, twisting her head awkwardly to look him in the eyes. "Just the two of us, one-on-one. If you win, I will surrender to your camp, and you will treat us fairly. If I win, your camp will surrender to ours and we will treat you fairly."

Jason stared at her, and she knew what he was thinking: he had beat her in a duel only once, and that had been nearly a year ago (and a fluke at that). The odds were entirely in her favor, and Reyna was confident that she could win. All he had to do was accept...he had to know how desperate she was to make that bid...

"I accept," he said, just as Piper opened her mouth. "It's okay, Pipes. Clarisse, get her healed and then let her halt the legion. I'll duel her."

"Jason," Piper began, but he shook his head.

"It's fine, Piper. Come on, we've got to tell Chiron and stop the army." He took her hand and they hurried off. Clarisse, meanwhile, turned to Reyna and eyed her suspiciously.

"You must have been desperate, girly. He's a great swordsman. Percy's better, but Percy was hard to beat. . ." her eyes darkened and she turned away.

Reyna wondered what had happened to Percy on the quest that would make Clarisse react in such a way. When she asked, the girl only stared at her, then shook her head.

"You'll see soon enough, whether you win or lose," she said. "It's...hard to talk about." No one would say any more on the subject, so Reyna accepted the nectar given to her with dignity and sat tall and straight, her face impassive, while they yanked out the arrows.

"Alright. Go stop your legion, then get back down here so we can resolve this," Clarisse said, cutting the bonds on her hands. "And I'm warning you...don't betray us."

"A Roman always keeps her word," Reyna said fiercely, her dark eyes boring into Clarisse's. She didn't wait for a response before sprinting off up the hill.

"You did what?" Gwen gasped in horror. "Reyna, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking there wasn't a better way to get out of it, Gwen! I can beat him, the entire camp knows that, and then this can all be over."

The two girls were standing on the top of Half-Blood Hill, their backs to the valley that held Camp Half-Blood, instead facing the grassy slope that was the barracks of Camp Jupiter. The sun was shining brightly, making Reyna uncomfortably warm inside her armor, and the grass under her feet was brittle and brown from lack of watering. Naturally, everything was perfect inside the valley; another reason Reyna didn't trust it there. She knew from experience a pretty face too often masked an ugly secret.

"I still think it was a bad idea," Gwen was saying. "Jason's learned new techniques from the Greeks. You don't know what he's capable of now."

"You make it sound like I haven't grown at all over the past nine months," Reyna snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, I've grown rather adept at blocking Greek attacks."

"I wasn't trying to slight you, Reyna, only to warn you. Even you can't win everything," Gwen pointed out, her voice tainted with a weariness Reyna knew all too well.

"I don't have to win everything," Reyna murmured. "Just this one fight."

Gwen didn't say anything more, and instead, the two girls stood facing the Camp Jupiter side of Half-Blood Hill, each mentally preparing for the future.

"Good luck, Rey," Bobby said quietly, handing her her chosen dagger. She nodded once, and he moved aside, giving her a view of the impromptu fighting arena that had been set up in the Greek pavilion where the campers of Camp Half-Blood took their meals. One side of the pavilion, lined with orange shirts, was silent as they watched the preparations, but the sea of purple on the opposite side was abuzz with chatter, with campers no doubt placing bets and sharing theories on who might win and why. In the middle of it all, Reyna and Jason stood facing each other, ten yards apart, each contemplating strategy and weighing the others' weaknesses. Greg, a rather mellow son of Mars who was trusted by both Jason and Reyna, was standing in the middle of the pavilion, ready to referee. He raised his hands and the legion slowly fell silent.

"Competitors, shake hands," he announced into the silence. Reyna met Jason in the center of the pavilion. His hand was warm and sweaty in hers, his eyes flitting to hers and then away.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Arellano," he muttered as they brought their blades in front of their face in a traditional Roman salute.

"Have some faith, Grace," she retorted, then turned to stride back to her spot. When they reached their respective ends of the field, they stood facing each other, dueling arms (Jason's left, Reyna's right) extended, daggers pointing at each other's chests.

"On your mark...steady...begin!" Greg yelled, and hurried out of the way. The legionnaires of Camp Jupiter knew all too well that a duel between Jason and Reyna was volatile and often unpredictable, prone to starting long before the referee was out of the way.

But for a moment, both hesitated. For just the space of a moment, no one existed but Jason and Reyna, who knew each other's moves so well, who had been friends for years, and on the path to so much more before Juno/Hera interfered. For a moment, all that they'd shared stood thick and heavy in the air between them. And then the moment was shattered as Reyna realized that Jason, wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, was no longer on her side.

He ran forward to face her, and she leaped to her left, intending to make him barrel past, but had to defend almost immediately as he turned faster than she thought possible for him. His style, though still what would be considered Roman, showed a definite Greek influence – something Reyna hated.

She backed up, letting him follow her, limping on her injured leg. It didn't hurt any more, but she knew Jason's biggest weakness was her well-being - and hers was his. If he thought she was hurt, he might not –

Jason's dagger swung through the air and Reyna brought hers up, catching the weak part of his blade on the strong part of hers, knocking it out of his hand and scratching it in the process, drawing a shallow line of bright blood down his palm. He hissed, then rolled to the side, grabbed his dagger, and came up standing. It was a move Reyna was used to and knew how to execute well, and therefore didn't startle her.

They circled each other, watching the movements of each other's arms and limbs. Reyna knew surprise, brutal attacks were not her forte, but at the moment, she didn't see any other way to end this quickly. And it was something Jason would have never expected. She circled with him, making two more complete rotations, then lunged.

A burning pain erupted in her right arm, making her head spin. She gasped and backed away. Both her dagger and her arm were covered in blood. Reyna looked over at Jason to see that he, too, had a bloody dagger and arm, and something clicked. Her dagger had sliced open his left forearm, and his her right. They had both lunged at the same time, clearly intending to use the same tactic. Even when angry and in pain, Reyna had to bite back a smile. It was a trademark of how alike she and Jason thought that they'd managed to split each other's arms open.

There was a muttering from some of the Greek campers, but no one moved to stop them. Reyna reflected that it was lucky she could fight with both her right and left hands equally, or she would have been down for the count. She and Jason had both had to switch hands due to their injuries, and it was in her favor that Jason couldn't fight as well right-handed.

She lunged again, and he parried sloppily, going for the counterattack, but she danced out of his reach. Frustrated, he ran after her, managing to nick her collarbone as she turned. She gasped, cut a shallow scratch across his face, and skipped backward before he could return the favor. He attacked again, but she parried with ease. For a long time (or so it felt to Reyna, with the blood draining out of her arm), they attacked and parried, counterattacked and counterparried once more, neither able to gain an advantage.

Finally, Jason stumbled over a crack in the pavilion, and Reyna realized how tired and drained both of them were. Jason's face was white from the pain in his arm, and his attacks were sloppy. Reyna knew she wasn't in a much better state. She could feel the fuzzy edge to her consciousness that she got when she hadn't slept for several days. That wasn't good. She needed to end this before one or both of them passed out.

So she hung back, pretending the pain in her arm was too much for her to handle. Jason, of course, wasn't fooled, but Greg and Bobby took a half-step forward as one, natural concern for their friend and praetor taking over. Jason's eyes flickered to them for a second. A second long enough for Reyna to lunge forward, twist her hand down to Jason's to yank the dagger from his grip...

A gold dagger flew across the arena, landing with a clang on the ground in front of Chiron the centaur's hooves. The other dagger pressed against a throat, two faces inches from each other, their panting heavy, faces streaked with sweat and twisted with pain, but wearing identical expressions of shock mirrored on every Roman face in the pavilion. The unthinkable had happened.

Jason Grace had just bested Reyna Arellano at swordplay.