Finally I've reached double digits, yay!

Things should really start heating up now ;)

Forgive any grammar mistakes and please excuse the changes in formatting. I make it nice and neat and then I upload it and things go haywire, haha. I noticed that there are controls on the page now so you can zoom in or out and also change the font of the text. Try reading this story in Times New Roman, it looks way better :)

I'd also like to mention that if anyone has an issue with the heterosexual Nico pairing, please keep in mind that I started writing this story in 2011, before the last few books were released. Also, if you don't like it, I'm not forcing you to read it :)

Here's chapter 10, enjoy guys.

Nico's POV

"YASMINE!" Where'd she go off to? I stood to my feet and frantically searched around for her. I'm not going to lie, that dream I had was creepy as hell. Who was the guy in the fiery chiton that smote me to death? I don't recall ever seeing him before.

I was just about to go find Chiron when I heard snickering coming from the volleyball courts. "What the..." I edged closer and closer until I saw Leo and Yasmine sitting cross-legged on the court eating dinner. There was a plate wrapped in aluminum foil sitting next to Yasmine. Leo looked up when he heard my approaching footsteps.

"There you are, Sleeping Beauty, awakening just in time for dinner!", the elfish-looking boy grinned before shoveling a forkful of baked ziti in his mouth. It looked delicious.

"Are you okay, Nico? I'm sorry we left you asleep in the grass, but I didn't want to interrupt your nap. You look a little pale, did you have a bad dream or something?"

Leo laughed out loud, "He always looks pale!" Yasmine and I both rolled our eyes. I sat down beside her and she handed the plate to me. "How did you guys manage to steal this food from the mess hall without anyone saying anything?" Yasmine pointed her thumb at Leo. "It was all him, I was just in the right place at the right time."

"Yea, I was able to sneak some stuff for you guys since you never came back for dinner. What were you two doing out here together and ALONE, at that?" Leo raised his eyebrows suggestively. I had to restrain myself from wrapping my hands around his neck.

"We were just talking Leo, calm down." Yasmine explained. "Just talking, right. Well eat up guys and enjoy. Especially you, Yasmine. Clarisse went to Chiron after dinner. She convinced him to speed up your training so now you're going to have two opponents instead of one."

My eyes widened. Yasmine shouted out, "What the hell! Why would she do that?!" Leo shrugged. "Beats me, but get ready, Cupcake, because you're going up against Big Daddy Leo!"

"So I'm fighting you next, fireball? Bring. It. On."

"I'll make you eat those words like that baked ziti, but you might not like the taste. See you later kids!" With that he made a spark and used it to illuminate his way back to the cabins. Yasmine looked down. "He left his food."

I put a hand under my nose to stifle my laugh. "It's getting late and we don't need Chiron trying to send a search crew after us. Come on, I'll walk you back to your cabin."

Yasmine rose to her feet, clutching both of our plates. "Calm down, you act like we haven't snuck out before." she smirked. I scratched behind my neck, "True, but I don't want Jason to kill me and you need your rest for tomorrow."

"True, very true. Alright, lead the way, my Dark knight." I smirked, "It would be my pleasure." I whispered softly, letting the cool breeze of the night air carry it off my lips and into the darkness.

The Next Morning

Yasmine's POV

Thalia woke me up at the crack of dawn again. I took a quick shower and changed into a pair of dark brown pants with my black lace up boots, a long-sleeved dark gray top, a black under bust corset, a silver necklace with a pendant shaped like Mississippi that I tucked into my shirt, small silver stud earrings, some lip chap, and finally, I slipped my bangles on my wrists. I tied on my black vest and strapped my daggers behind my knees, then untied my hair and let my loose curls fall down my back. I grabbed an elastic and pulled my hair up into a tight bun.

"Ready or not here I come!"

I walked with Thalia and Jason to the mess hall for breakfast. Ella and Ari had gone off on an adventure somewhere. Once I sat down with my breakfast, the other Stoll brother, Connor, came up and sat beside me. "Hey there, Yasmine!"

I swirled my spoon around in my bowl of Apple Jacks. "Wassup Connor? Why are you so cheery this morning?" I asked, looking up at the tall boy. "You didn't hear? You're fighting Leo and I today!"

'Dang, another trickster and then Leo. This is going to get annoying really fast.'

"Wonderful." I stated blandly and Connor just grinned. "Hey, don't be like that! I'm not as bad as my brother, I swear!"

"Yea, you're probably worse!"

He didn't say anything, but he smirked and quietly walked away. 'There's no telling what these two are going to have in store for me...' I thought to myself. Just then Clarisse walked up with Leo. Chiron rolled up in his wheelchair with Annabeth, Piper, Kitty, and Nico not far behind him. I guess Kitty is feeling better after our fight.

"Good morning, Yasmine. I hope you are well rested and have eaten a nice breakfast. I'm sure you've already heard, but to speed up your training I've decided to put you against two opponents instead of just one."

"Oh I've heard alright," I said, cutting my eyes over at Clarisse. She rolled her eyes and looked away from me as if she was over the entire situation already. Hmm...

"Well let's not waste anymore time shall we? Everyone to the arena."

When everyone was settled in their seats and comfortable, Clarisse, Leo, Connor, and I walked to the center of the arena. The crowd was larger due to the Hephaestus cabin and Hermes cabin being in attendance. Clarisse opened her mouth to state the rules and start the fight when she was interrupted by Leo. "Ooo, Clarisse can I start it, please? In this corner standing at 5'7", weighing 145 pounds-"

"How do you know how much I weigh?!" I shrieked.

"I know everything-now as I was saying-"

"Shut it, Valdez! Get in your positions, shut up, and FIGHT!" she yelled then stomped off the battlefield.

When she was safely out of the way, I cracked my neck, then my knuckles and flicked my wrists outward, bringing out my swords. Leo grinned and Connor just stood there looking bored. Oh boy...

"Ok, so are we just going to stand here all day or is somebody going to attack?" I asked, stepping back to put some distance between myself and the boys. Leo was still grinning.

"You ready, Connor?"

"I was born ready, Leo. Let's do this." I had no idea what they were planning, but I immediately put myself in defensive mode. Leo reached into his tool belt and pulled out a bronze dagger and tossed it to Connor, who grabbed it swiftly. Suddenly, Connor lunged at me. I immediately blocked him with my left sword.

"Nice reflexes!" he laughed and jumped back. I kept quiet because if I got too distracted it'd give either of them a chance to sneak me.

"What's wrong, Yasmine? Cat got your tongue?" Leo teased as he charged at me with a pillar of fire radiating off of his right hand. I waited too late to jump out of the way because I smelt burning hair as soon as he charged past me. I reached up and a few strands of my hair came off in my fingers.

Oh. Hell. No!

"You're going to pay for that, Valdez!" I shouted after him. Right after Leo had stopped in his tracks, Connor came out of nowhere and tried to stab me in the shoulder, but I kicked him in the leg, causing him to go down.

"Her reflexes are getting faster." Jason noted. Connor didn't stay down for long, however. He was back on his feet in seconds, lunging at me again with the dagger pointed towards my throat. I was barely able to dodge his attack, losing my footing and falling to the ground. Leo took this as his chance to attack, but I rolled away from him and hopped back on my feet.

"You might get her down, but she won't stay down for long." Piper commented.

"Taking notes, Pipes? You know we're her next opponents." Jason smirked.

"You know me so well." Piper smirked backed.

3rd POV

"She's quick, but she's still inexperienced with sword fighting. I need to try something different. Leo!" Connor called out to the Hispanic boy who was trying to encircle Yasmine in a ring of fire, but it wasn't working out too well.

"What? I'm kind of busy here." Leo said as he conjured a fireball and threw it at Yasmine, who quickly ran out of the way to dodge it. Connor rolled his eyes and stormed up to Leo. "I need a sword."

Leo swiveled around to look at him, "Excuse me, but a "please" or "thank you for being so awesome" would've been nice!"

"Just give me a sword before Yasmine-"

"Before I what?"

Yasmine's POV

"Before I what?" I stepped between Connor and Leo and slashed at Connor with one of my daggers, ripping his shirt sleeve at the shoulder. A small trickle of blood ran down his arm. Leo quickly turned on me with two silver-tipped blacksmith hammers, one in each hand. He lunged forward and tried to hit me, but I blocked him with my left sword, a loud CLANG resounding throughout the arena.

He sneered, an expression I didn't even know he could make, and reached into his tool belt and pulled out a 3 foot long Civil War cavalry sword and tossed it to Connor who caught it with his other hand. I had only seen them in museums back home in the South, but when I looked down at my swords I noticed that mine were fashioned the same way as his, but mine were pure silver with no knuckle guards and Greek symbols engraved at the bases of the blades. Both handles were engraved with bulls' heads in silver and gold. Had they always been like this? The bulls' eyes were golden yellow sapphires.

Ok I DEFINITELY don't remember all of this. Either I've been drunk the past few days or my dad's been working some kind of magic while I wasn't looking. Connor's sword was bronze with a black and gold handle and gold knuckle guard.

I walked towards him, "I don't know what you're trying to do, Stoll, but you better be prepared."

He chuckled. "Prepared for what-" Before he could finish his sentence, I was on him. He was barely able to block me. Before I knew it, Leo came at me, his fingers glowing with fire. I tried to dodge him, but he was too quick and next thing I knew, I was screaming in pain as his fire scorched through my under bust corset, completely burning it off of me. I kept screaming as some of the melted leather clung to my shirt. The crowd grew quiet. Horrified faces stared out at me as I struggled to rip the offending material off of me. I ripped the entire piece of my shirt covering my stomach and my lower back off and threw it to the ground.

In the stands, Nico's mouth dropped open as he eyed the red, marred skin on my lower back. Leo and Connor stood in front of me with their mouths open. "Stop staring at me!" My face burned with embarrassment and rage. I brought both of my swords up and slashed them down at the same time, creating two large gusts of wind that knocked each boy on their feet and caused them to slide away from me. When the dust cleared, Connor was charging at me, putting me on the defensive again. He slashed at me ferociously and I defended him with my right sword while Leo charged at me from the left with his hammers again.

Leo pushed forward, his hammer clanging against my blade, while I kicked Connor away from me. To make matters worse, Leo started making sparks again. My back was hurting and I was just so done...

Leo started throwing fireballs at me, so I had to dodge him while trying to block Connor's strikes. Ok, you know what...

"AAAAAHHHH!" I screamed out loud. My clothes were totally scorched now and Connor just wasn't letting up. I raised both of my swords up and a loud crack of thunder sounded. The sky immediately darkened and a huge storm cloud covered Leo, Connor, and I. Everyone in the stands remained quiet. Nico looked on with his hand under his chin. Connor and Leo stopped attacking and were now looking on in horror. Lightning cracked behind me, lighting up my dark brown eyes making them appear as if I had streaks of lightning running through them. I brought both swords down and rain just poured down on all three of us.

After the storm cleared, I was trying to catch my breath. I didn't bother with trying to stand up, so I just stayed on the ground. My vision was blurry, but it adjusted after a while. Once it did, I could see Clarisse, Nico, Chiron, and the others rushing towards me. The medical team immediately went to take care of Connor and Leo, pulling them onto stretchers and hauling them out of the arena. When Clarisse got over to me, she examined my face then shot a concerned look at Chiron. His face looked calm with a hint of a smile. He nodded at me then looked at Clarisse. She grabbed my hand and raised it in the air.

"Yasmine Fairchild is the victor!" she shouted. The entire crowd erupted in cheers. I smiled faintly, then everything went black...

Well that's it for chapter 10!

A long chapter for you guys, I hope you all enjoyed it!

It's been a long week, but I just had to get this chapter out for you all.

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Remember, 10 reviews or 5 PM's for the next chapter!

Until next time!

AxD