Alright, I know it's been a while, and I apologise for that, but here we go. Trying to get back into writing and posting at least relatively regularly. :D

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CLAIRE POV

Sitting in the lounge, I tried to calm myself by reading one of the many books from the library, until Lucas and Orion, who had been talking animatedly to one another as they walked into the room, had sat down on the sofa talking ideas about what was wrong with Helen and Amy, their respective girlfriends of course, leaving, both of them incredibly worried, confused, and sad at the departure of their girlfriends, as one would naturally be at the news. It felt wrong to eavesdrop on their conversation, even though I was deeply missing Jason, my own soulmate, but though it was difficult, I was doing my best to hide it, if only to help the others a little bit more, so I stood and went to leave the room, but that caught the attention of Orion who put on a forced smile and waved me over.

I had slowly made my over and sat on the chair next to the sofa the two of them had claimed and the first question I received was Lucas' after the momentary awkward silence that fell upon us as I sat down.

"Was there anything strange about Jase before they left, do you know?" He asked, incredibly softly, which was odd considering the situation the three of us were in. Lucas was always one to leave when he was hurting, staying away until the pain was gone, as were the other Delos', but this time was different. He couldn't leave. The rest of us were in the same boat as he was. I shook my head and looked down to the book in my hands, which I had closed, noting the page number, and, placing it on the chair arm, I turned in my seat to face the two guys, tucking one leg under me, deciding to indulge the plan they were so obviously trying to create in their heads.

"Aside from him not letting anyone, not even me, touch him, and visibly tensing whenever anyone got close to him, and then his more and more frequent whispering sessions with both Helen and Amy, no, not a thing. We already know that it was something to do with powers that made them leave, Lucas." I told him, trying not to think that all five of them could have any alternative reason for leaving us. "What about Helen? Or Amy? Or any of the others for that matter..?" I asked the two of them, looking to Lucas and Orion in turn, my mind running a-mile-a-minute as I went through a thousand different reasons for any of them leaving without letting us know.

The two of them looked at one another. Of course they knew something. Something the rest of us might not have thought of perhaps? The two of them often knew things before the rest of us it seemed.

Orion lifted his hand in a gesture for Lucas to go first. I looked to the slightly younger man. He sighed before speaking. "After that incident in the woods, Helen just wasn't the same. I know it was only a couple of days, but something changed that day. There was the big mishap with her lightning and her letting loose on Johanna. Then Jason had told us all about her eyes being completely black for a moment before returning to their normal blue after she blinked. She spent the next day or two sat on the deck outside on her own before Jason and Amy joined her..." Lucas trailed off, not saying anything else, prompting Orion to take up the conversation.

"The same with Amy I guess. Something happened in the woods. I know that it was something to do with her powers, but that's all. I found her and Cassie in the library, studying Scion's power changes and I could feel the worry and fear and confusion emanating from the both of them immediately. She isn't usually half so worried about anything as she was over those days after we found Peeta in the woods and brought him back here." He stopped and looked at me. I thought for a moment, taking the time to think over everything I had heard about the situation so far and remembered something that was said that morning during the impromptu 'house meeting'.

"This morning, you said something about Helen's emotions. Do you remember what exactly was wrong? What you saw?" I leaned forward a little in my seat. He seemed to think for a second before going to speak, thinking better of it and stopping. "Something to do with black?" I prompted, eager to hear what he had seen. It wasn't like Orion to hold back on something like this unless someone, namely Cass, or Amy, had asked him not to say anything, but even then, he would tell us if it meant that the people in question were in trouble. His mental debate only lasted a moment before he relented and spoke, quietly, but speaking none-the-less.

"It was like there was just a void in her emotions. There was just nothing there. Not completely gone, but disappearing slowly, as though something was... eating away at her emotions. All the positive ones anyway. Anything darker was, it seemed, left behind. Anger. Hatred. Jealousy. That was all that was clear. Untouched." As he was our resident expert on emotions, and that wouldn't really make sense to anyone but him, and probably Helen, all I could do was nod and try to put at least some of the peices together.

After a while, I heard Lucas gasp and, looking to him, expecting him to express what had made him do so, he was looking down as if at a puzzle board, obviously linking things together in his head, his eyes moving quickly, putting things together in his mind before he looked up at the two of us in turn, eyes wide enough to border on insanity.

I nodded my head slightly, encouraging, silently telling him to speak, to which he sat up straight, rolled his shoulders slightly, and spoke. "Scions don't get wounds. At least, not physical scars, unless we have nothing to help with the healing process and Helen can't be physically hurt at all. The Cestus prevents that." He stopped for a moment, looking at us as though we would understand something. Evidently we didn't, though something in the back of my mind told me I should know, so he simply carried on. "So the only way she'd be able to be hurt, is mentally..." He said, waving his hands, pointedly looking at Orion, who frowned for a moment, before his eyes widened and he looked at me, then Lucas, then back at me, somehow a little more excited, though the concern shone through that easily. I still had a face on that showed my confusion apparently, and it only took a moment before Orion took up the conversation again, looking to me as he spoke.

"So when Jason had his power malfunction, while everyone else was hurt physically, it would have hit Helen differently..."

"It would have altered her mind. Right. Yeah." I knew that they were confused that I wasn't as excited as them. "So the changes in her behaviour, emotions, and the leaving. They'd both be because of this change. Her mentality has changed somehow." They both nodded at me, their eyes showing both excitement at this new find, and the sadness that they both felt still, though it was amplified due to this new addition to the situation. "Great. My best friend and my boyfriend, both gone. Marvellous." I stood from my seat, leaving my book where it was. "Thanks guys.". I left the two of them in the lounge, my mind running through everything that had happened so far and what we could possibly do to help our friends.

LUCAS' POV

We watched Claire leave, allowing the 'excitement', as she'd call it, to leave with her, and we sat in an oddly comfortable silence for a moment. Startled out of the silence at the noise of a knock on the front door, I looked to the window on impulse, though I knew that the window lead to the side of the house, not the front. It took only a moment for myself and Orion to have yet another silent conversation. It really was odd, after all that had happened with Helen and the gods, that the two of us were so comfortable with one another.

'Go.'

'Why me?'

'You want to, I know you do'

Orion sighed and stood from his place on the sofa, flipping me the bird, before turning and leaving the room to greet our new arrival. I laughed silently as he did so and sat back in my seat, before deciding against the loneliness of sitting alone and getting up to head to the library, where my sister should have been, finding her skipping out of the room as I got close. Clearly she was heading for the front door. What was it with skipping recently?

Shaking my head, I headed into the library anyway, and picked up the nearest book, sitting in the chair in the corner of the room, as it was the comfiest in the room, and beginning, trying to occupy my thoughts somehow, though Helen was my top priority as I planned away, barely registering the conversation happening at the front door of the house.

Soooo.. There we go. :)
As always, feel free to send in any ideas you have for new stories or chapters or whatever you would like me to write. :)