Cpov

Now I'm not saying all Ares campers are meat headed morons, but Broderick most certainly qualified as one.

While I was initially surprised to run into a drenched Evelyn, it took all of five minute to hear what had happened to her and her friends. It took even less time to figure out who was behind it.

"What the hell?" I snarled, cornering Broderick as he and a few of his siblings exited the stables.

"What do you want Cass?" he asked looking irritated but waving his brothers away when they instinctively backed him up. "No go ahead. I'll see you guys in a bit."

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about." I said furiously. "What did you do that to Evelyn for?"

"Why do you care what happens to the Underfreak?" he asked blandly, pushing past me and walking after his siblings as if this subject wasn't very interesting to him.

"Why do I care?" I asked indignantly, chasing after him, unable to believe someone could be so obtuse. "You remember who she is right? She's the most powerful demigod in camp. She could level this place if she wanted to and you'd be too busy battling an army of the undead to lay a finger on her. Are you seriously stupid enough to think that-"

"Evelyn's not going to do anything." He muttered his tone callous.

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do." He said simply. "And so do you. Besides, the freak had it coming."

This stunned me into silence for a moment.

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"She had it coming." He repeated. "After what she did to Viv…"

"Are you kidding me Broderick?" I almost shouted in frustration. "Your sister had her friend at knife point. Of course she reacted the way that she-"

"You know what I've noticed about you Holt?" he asked, cutting me off. By the use of my surname, I knew to expect an insult.

I decided to go with a preemptive strike.

"Honestly, I'm shocked you had the brain power to pick up anything interesting on anyone." I said as we halted our steps, and faced each other. "You're more of a brawn type Broderick. Don't hurt yourself."

I expected an explosive reaction to this, but to my surprise, he smiled. It didn't reach his eyes and there was something off about it. Something I didn't like. And he continued to speak as if I hadn't just tried to offend him.

"You're very protective of the Underfreak."

"Why? Because I don't think it's a good idea to humiliate the Underworld demigods in front of the entire camp?" I asked sardonically. "Yes, how foolish of me. It's clearly outrageous to think that provoking a group of powerful halfbloods that already don't like us-"

"But you didn't ask about the other two, did you?" he interrupted, causing me to give him a blank look.

"What?"

"You only asked about Evelyn. Why I did it to her, not her and her friends. Leads me to believe you don't really care so much about them, or the other Underworld kids. So," he smirked. "What's so special about the Underfreak?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that, one because he had a point, and two, I didn't like the smug look that he was giving me.

"You know you'd better be careful Holt." He said in a mock cautionary tone. "Because the way it appears to me, you might actually like her." He gave me a significant look. "In fact, I'd go as far as to say you could actually care about her." He let out a hollow laugh. "How well do you think that would go down with our friends?"

Again, I had no response and he gave me another smirk before saying.

"Just a thought."

With that he turned and walked after his siblings and I watched him go, feeling a frown mar my features.

I shouldn't let Broderick get to me. He was an idiot after all, and he didn't like me. Of course he'd tried to get under my skin, but still…

Why was I getting so irritated? I mean, he wasn't the one who had to deal with Evelyn's anger. It was sort of my job to talk to the Undeworld campers for others when they needed something from them, this was only going to make my life harder, but if I was honest with myself, when I'd heard about what happened, I wasn't thinking about how I could fix the situation. I was just angry. Furious that he'd done that to them, well... her.

But so what? Did it really matter if I'd started to care a little about Evelyn since I'd gotten to know her? It wasn't that big of a deal.

I shook my head and followed him at a slower pace, heading back towards the cabins, deciding I might as well try and talk to Evelyn so I could smooth things over.

It wasn't long before I found myself outside the Hades cabin. I raised my fist, about to knock on the door when I hesitated. Was Broderick right? Was I getting too involved?

Usually when I'd interact with Evelyn, I took the role of a middle man, dealing with her or her friends for someone else, but lately, it seemed like the lines had been blurred. No one had asked me to be here. On the walk over I'd justified it to myself saying it would be good just to make sure she wasn't upset, but again, Broderick was right. Even if she was angry, she wasn't going to do anything about what happened earlier.

The fact was, I was here for me. I wanted to know if she was ok.

I debated for a moment, a war raging within me, as I stared at the dark obsidian walls in front of me. Torches of green fire were burning next to the door above which rested a skull. I knew how weird it would look for me to be standing out here, what people, especially Broderick, would make of it.

"Screw Broderick." I muttered and knocked.

No response.

I was about to walk away when I thought I heard movement from inside, so I knocked again, harder this time and I heard steps coming towards the door.

"Jeez Micah," Evelyn's voice said as the door swung inward. "I heard you the first time you don't have to-"

But she cut herself off, her dark eyes surprised when they landed on me.

"Cass?" she asked, as if she couldn't quite believe it.

It was then I'd realized, I'd never been in the Hades cabin before. The light in the hall was dim, and I couldn't make much out, but I thought I could see jewels glittering farther down the hall.

"Hey," I said for some reason feeling a little awkward. "I'm guessing you were expecting someone else?"

"Micah's usually the only one who comes here," she said cautiously. "What… what are you doing here?"

While she'd changed her clothes, her hair was still wet and a surge of anger towards Broderick and his sister went through me. I ignored it though and focused on Evelyn in front of me.

"Look, Broderick's a jerk." I said with a sigh. "I wanted to check on you, see if you were alright."

It was at that moment, I knew I'd made a mistake in coming here. Her expression hardened and her eyes went blank as the air between us froze.

"It was just water."

"I know," I said faltering under the look she was giving me. "But still."

"Still what?" she asked coldly and I was surprised by this. She was never this hostile, at least, not to me.

I didn't respond and she raised an eyebrow.

"What do you want?"

"I don't want anything." I said honestly. She looked as if she didn't believe me.

"You always want something." She said quietly, her eyes flashing. They looked forbidding.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"And if I wasn't?" she challenged.

That threw me for a loop.

"Uh, what?" I asked uncertainly.

"What if I wasn't ok?" she asked evenly, but her tone was dark. "Were you going to do anything about it? What exactly was the plan here?"

I hadn't considered that and I looked at her not exactly sure how I should proceed. Evelyn never lost her cool so I hadn't really thought of it as an option. I'd expected to come over here and for her to say it was ok, or even if she didn't, that she wouldn't be too angry. But what if she had been? I mean, she had every right to be, if I had to put up with half the things she and her friends did I would have been furious, but she never let stuff like this get to her before.

If she had been mad though, well, what exactly could I do? I might be able to put Broderick back in his place for a day or two, but we both knew he wasn't going to change. I couldn't force people to like Evelyn and her friends. Gods, my own sister couldn't understand why I even spoke to her.

I didn't have an answer, and she seemed to know it. I could sense danger in the expression she was giving me.

Eventually, she made an irritated noise and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You should probably go." She said quietly reaching up to shut the door, but I held it open.

"C'mon Evelyn…" I said frowning.

"Let go of the door Cass."

"Don't be like that."

"Be like what?" she snapped her eyes hard and while there were plenty of things I wanted to say, none of them made it into words.

"You should probably get out of here," she said quietly, avoiding my eye. "Before your friends catch you talking to the Underfreak."

"Don't call yourself that." I said annoyed and she let out a dry laugh, her gaze meeting mine this time.

"Why not?" she said, her words acerbic. "It's what everyone else calls me."

"Ev-"

"Just drop it," she said shaking her head, but she didn't sound angry anymore. She sounded tired. "You've got your friends, I've got mine. It's probably best if it just stays that way."

And with that she stepped back into the dark hall and closed the door on me.

I stood there for a moment in shock. She'd just shut me out. Girls didn't do that to me, no, in fact, no one at camp did that to me. Even if people didn't like me they never just shut me out. I was so surprised, all I could do was stand there like an idiot for a few seconds until I realized what I was doing.

Part of me was tempted to simply follow her in, but I knew that would be a bad idea. Another part of me wanted to knock until she opened the door again, and if it had been anyone else I might have, but I knew she wouldn't come.

So, with nothing else to do, I walked away from the cabin, shoving my hands in my pockets, not really sure what to make of this feeling.

Not knowing what to do or think, I walked to my next activity, nodding and waving to the people who greeted me. Eventually, a few of my friends caught up with me. They wanted to plan a party on the beach after the capture the flag game and while I tried to pay attention to the details, I found I couldn't. My mind was in other places, well… one place.

It was back in the Hades cabin where it seemed Evelyn was alone, reclusing back to her own dark little world. One that didn't involve me, and one in which I was sure her friends and the rest of the camp wanted her to stay.

Epov

I ran through the woods, Micah hot on my heels as we dodged arrows and spears, darting between the trees several people on our tail.

"Got a plan?" he asked ducking under a branch and muttering a quick spell.

I heard a shout of pain and a thud as one of our pursuers hit the forest floor, hard.

"Yeah," I said between pants. "Keep running."

I had the other team's flag and we were almost back to our territory, but they weren't far behind us and we were greatly outnumbered.

A grenade went off somewhere to our right, and we dove for cover into a clearing, throwing our hands over our heads trying to avoid shrapnel.

People were shouting and everything around us was chaos.

Flash bombs went off disorienting me as figures darted between blasts of light and noise. I tried to find a shadow to manipulate but was forced to cover my eyes from the blaze. By the time my ears had stopped ringing and I could see again, Micah and I were surrounded.

"Well shit." He muttered as campers from the Hephaestus, Apollo, Ares, and Athena cabins circled us, encroaching from all sides.

We both raised our swords.

"How much magic you got left?" I asked him.

"Almost nothing." He admitted and I gritted my teeth. This was not good.

"I think you've got something of ours Underfreaks." A voice said and I saw Broderick's massive form break from the group. "We want it back."

"What do you think?" Micah asked as they started to advance, weapons raised, all pointed towards us. "Can we get a little help from the Undead?"

"Probably not." I admitted quietly as we put our backs together, ready to fight. "I'm at my limits too."

Because we were so outnumbered, Micah and I had been the only ones on our team sent over enemy lines. Most of our team had been devoted to guarding our flag. This meant Micah and I had to spend a lot of power just to make it to theirs.

He swore again. We were going to have to fight this out, and considering the numbers and our lack of powers, it looked like we were going to lose.

I wasn't looking forward to being captured by Broderick or any of the Ares siblings, and was frantically trying to come up with an escape plan when suddenly, the air around us chilled. With the flash bombs exhausted, the shadows around us started to swell as the light peeking through the branches of the tree started to dim. Seconds ago, where the sky had been tinted orange by the setting sun, darkness was creeping across it.

Both Micah and I smiled.

"Maya." He muttered in satisfaction, his expression proud as the campers around us looked around in confusion.

"What the-"

But everything around us went black and I heard a voice say.

"C'mon!"

A hand grabbed mine and my sight was restored.

Maya, who's powers gave her perfect night vision, had clearly extended her abilities to Micah and I as she dragged us between members of the other team, who were all stumbling around in the perceived darkness.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Maya in amazement as we started to run.

"I thought you guys might need some back up." She explained. "We weren't getting a lot of action at my post so, I came to check things out. See if you guys needed help."

"You are amazing." Micah said with a laugh, beaming at his girlfriend with adoration, and almost smacking face first into a branch as a result of not paying attention.

She smiled and we sprinted for our territory.

It was close, but eventually we made it to the creek that served as the boundary between the two team's sides. Scouts from Broderick's team had intersected us, but there were only three of them.

"You two go ahead," I said tossing Micah the flag which he caught and I took out my sword. "I'll cover you."

He and Maya shot off towards the water while I turned, readying my weapon.

Immediately, the scouts hesitated and I knew they weren't keen on the idea of taking on a child of one of the Big Three without a game plan. They hadn't realized I was running on empty. I could work with that.

I didn't have much reserve left, but they didn't know that. All I had to do was make them think I was ready for a fight, Maya and Micah weren't far from our territory. It wouldn't take long.

"Who's first?" I asked grinning as they fanned out, clearly preparing to rush me.

They charged in unison, the two on the flanks rushing with a spear each, while the center trained a bow on me.

I felt the shadows around me twist up my form automatically, and I disappeared.

"W-What? Where'd she go?" the boy with the bow asked turning his head wildly before I tackled him into the ground.

The other two, a girl and boy from the Apollo cabin rushed to his aid, but I was already on my feet. They still couldn't see me, but I knew I couldn't keep it up much longer. Already I could feel my fingers shaking with the effort of controlling the last of my power.

I easily grabbed the girl's spear and snapped it, tangling her in the nearest shadow, and turning to face the last remaining scout. He was younger than the other two had been, I put him at about twelve or thirteen, his armor was too big, as was his helmet and he clutched his spear like it was his life line.

"Wh-where are you?" he asked his voice shaking, his wide eyes darting around in terror while his friends tried to disentangle the girl from the shadow.

I thought about disarming him, but when I caught his expression, I lost all interest. He was scared. Scared of me.

With a sigh, I stepped out of the darkness and allowed him to see me. My sudden appearance must have startled him because he let a cry of shock and raised his spear, pointing it at me, gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white. He put on a brave face, but I could see his lip quivering and the fear in his eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt you." I said sheathing my sword.

He didn't lower his weapon.

"Go help your friend." I said gesturing toward the girl, and the first scout, who were still struggling with the shadows that bound her.

I turned and walked away, feeling his eyes and weapon trained on me. When he was convinced I really was leaving, I heard a scuffling of footsteps as he ran to his teammates.

The game didn't last much longer. It was about five minutes later that I heard the horn go off, signaling the end of the game.

I jogged back to my territory to see my friends had gathered, with Micah and Maya on their shoulders as together, they held up the captured flag.

Everyone was laughing and cheering as they walked, celebrating the win. I smiled and jogged over to them.

We made our way back to the main part of the camp, meeting up with the other team just before we hit the edge of the tree line.

Several of them glared at us, clearly irritated we'd won, but we ignored them, still enjoying our victory. We'd made it out of the woods and were about to join the rest of the camp at the campfire when there was a loud shout.

"CASSIAN HOLT, YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

Everyone stopped and turned towards the girl storming towards us, tears and fury in her eyes. It was April, still dressed in armor from the game, and she was distraught.

"WHERE IS HE? WHEN I FIND HIM I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"

She barreled through the crowd that was headed towards the campfire, pushing people out of her way as she searched, looking a little crazy.

Immediately, people looked towards the Aphrodite cabin, scrambling to get out of her path as she raged.

I saw Micah and Maya glance at each other looking a little surprised, but I had a feeling I knew why April was upset.

She must have found out.

People started to whisper, a variety of emotions sweeping through the faces around me. But as more people arrived trying to find the reason behind the commotion, the crowd seemed to make a collective decision. All at once it migrated in mass after April to watch the show down.

It wasn't long before Cassian was found. While I was pretty sure most guys would have been terrified to find their girlfriend, heavily armored and carrying a weapon, coming for them, Cass didn't look phased. His composure was almost intimidating, he was scarily calm. He walked towards the crowd, his hands in his pockets, followed by a few of his siblings including Angela, who looked a bit worried. He, however, did not. His expression was neutral, in fact, he almost looked bored.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at his reaction. This wasn't the first time he'd been confronted like this, and I was certain it wouldn't be the last.

Campers quickly cleared the space between them as a circle began to form around the couple. It was clear the lines were being drawn between the two sides, Cassian, his siblings and his friends vs. April, her siblings and her friends.

"We should go." Micah said quietly. "This doesn't involve us."

Several of our friends looked as if they agreed with him, and while Maya grabbed my arm to drag me away with the rest of them, I didn't move. I was too focused on what was going on in front of me.

"Ev-" Micah started but his voice was drowned out by April's as she glared daggers at Cassian, her words shaking with fury.

"How could you?" she asked as he considered her. "Amy told me everything! How could you do this to me?"

More tears formed in her eyes as she spoke, but she didn't look sad. She looked pissed and from what Cassian said next, I didn't blame her.

He looked at her for a good thirty second before responding, and when he did his voice was calm, almost disinterested.

"What exactly did you expect?"

I could feel the tension rise in the campers around me as silence stretched between them and April looked astonished.

"What did I expect?" she asked incredulously. "What did I expect? I expected you not to cheat on me!"

"Why?" he asked starting to look as indignant as her.

"Why?" she shrieked. "Are you kidding me Cassian, are you seriously asking me why I expected-"

"Yes," he said cutting her sounding irritated. "What on Olympus made you think you were different from anyone else I've dated?"

What he said seemed to divide the on lookers. Some people looked incensed, as if they couldn't believe Cassian was being so callous, whereas others seemed to think he had a point.

"You knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to go out with me. Why are you so angry I did exactly what everyone knew I was going to do?"

I hadn't noticed when my friends had slipped away, but at some point, I became aware that I was standing on my own now. Micah was probably right, this wasn't my business and I should probably get out of here before I somehow got involved. I didn't want to pick a side, but when Cassian's eyes landed on me, a new emotion flickered across his features. He shut it down quickly, but I noticed he didn't look nearly as composed and I found whether I wanted to or not, I already had chosen a side.

April looked at Cassian a range of emotions crossing her features, confusion, incredulity, heart break. She continued to stare at him in disbelief.

"I thought… I thought…"

"What?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "That things would change because you were different? That it wouldn't happen this time? That I would change for you?" he scoffed. "Please."

His tone was derisive, cold, and full of distain. April just continued to stare, as if she couldn't quite believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. Eventually, she did speak however.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"What made you like this? Why are you so cruel?"

At this he let out a laugh, but it was patronizing.

"Don't make this about me April." He said shaking his head. "You can try to take the moral high ground her but you've always known who I was. How I act. It never bothered you before."

He gave her a knowing smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"You only had a problem with it when it affected you. Just like every other girl before you who didn't care what happened to the one before her. Not as long as you get what you wanted. Who cares how the others felt?"

These words sparked her rage back into life.

"Is that how you justify this?" she asked also laughing but it was sarcastic. "What you tell yourself to help you sleep at night? That it's ok to hurt the people who care about you because they should know better. That if they don't see it coming they deserve it?"

Her words had an effect on him. For the first time, anger flashed across his features and people started to whisper.

"Care about me?" he asked with distaste. "You think you cared about me?"

"Of course," she said in disbelief.

"Name one thing you 'care' so much for about me then," he said with a sardonic inflection on the word. "Why don't you tell me one thing you like about me April? If I was so cruel, why would you want to be with me? If I didn't look the way I do, would you have even cared if I'd shown any interest?"

She faltered under his glare. He was as angry as she was now and people were starting to look uncomfortable. I noticed Angela looked conflicted, as if she knew Cassian was in the wrong, but couldn't help but feel sorry for him at the same time.

"The truth is April, you're no better than me. You don't care about me, you care about the idea you created of me in your head. The only difference between us was that I didn't pretend this was something it wasn't."

April seemed not to know what to say. Her eyes were burning with fury but her lip was quivering. Cassian however, didn't seem to care. I had a feeling he knew what he'd done was wrong, but was too angry at the situation he kept finding himself in to bother changing.

With one final look of contempt, he turned and started to walk away from the crowd.

Whispering broke out again, people swapping opinions of what had just happened, but it was cut short when April called after him.

"You are so full of crap Cassian." She said acidly.

He turned to face her, apparently surprised at this reaction.

"Don't pretend like you have feelings." She spat. "Don't act like there's a reason for the things you do. You're nothing more than a selfish, low-life cheater, someone who's ugly on the inside. People are going to see you for who you really are. I'll make sure of it."

At this he gave her a slight smile. As if what she'd said amused him.

"We'll see." He said quietly then continued to walk away.

A few of his siblings looked at April a little awkwardly before following him back to their cabin. Angela was the last to leave, she continued to look at April and I noticed she looked extremely worried.

I knew why. While this wasn't the worst blow up with an ex girlfriend Cassian had been involved in, there was something about what April had said that made a strange feel of anxiety gnaw at the bottom of my stomach. It only grew worse when I saw Broderick, the head of the Ares cabin walk over to April, and escort her and her siblings back to their cabin, talking in low voices and serious expressions.

Girls had been angry at Cassian before, but this felt different. What April had said had sounded less like an insult and more like a threat. Unless I was mistaken, she had every intention for getting back at Cassian for what he'd done to her.

'It doesn't involve you.' I thought trying not to care as in twos and threes, people broke away from the crowd, all gossiping excitedly about what had just happened. 'This is none of your business.'

I'd just recently told Cassian myself that we belonged to different sects and it was probably better if it stayed that way. So why did I feel involved? I knew I shouldn't have cared, and that sometimes Cassian was an enormous jerk, but I couldn't help but feel on his side.

This made no sense. Where was this loyalty coming from? Maybe they were both wrong, but that didn't give him an excuse to do what he did. After all the things he'd done over the years, he probably did deserve a little pay back, but I was worried.

Something told me that whatever April had in mind was not little.

It looked like after the blow up everyone had decided to skip the campfire, and I found myself walking back to my cabin on my own still feeling anxious.

'Do NOT get involved.' I thought. 'Let the Olympian kids figure out their drama on their own.'

I stepped inside the dark cabin and went straight to my bed, trying to think of anything other than Cassian and his friends. I had little success. Something told me the nightmares were going to be worse tonight.