DISCLAIMER: Rick Riordan owns PJatO and HoO. We don't. Nor does Hollywood – what you see them producing is something the internet can't even find words for.

REVIEW RESPONSES:

Lara of Hecate – Nyx: *narrows eyes* Good thing I have access to the Underworld and all those people you just put into my service, Gaea.

Guest – Oh, that's not rude. Not at all. We're all entitled to opinions. In fact, when Jason appears here in the Fanfic, he actually has that anxiety issue you mentioned. I don't find it so prominent in Riordan's version, however. And his decision to leave Camp Jupiter was indeed random to me – it seemed that throughout the whole book, his Roman side was emerging more. And if you go back to TLH, he says NOTHING about CHB seeming natural to him. Not to mention that the flaw Hazel noted of him – the lack of emotion – hasn't gotten him into trouble once. Perhaps it'll get Nico into trouble, because Jason totally missed the suicide threat he dropped, but not Jason. I rather like the version I have and deem him one of my favorites, but Riordan's just falls flat to me. Hazel also, becoming a Mary Sue in HoH, though she did finally acknowledge Nico at the end and has erased some of the personal hate I have for her. And in my opinion, if all that Piper has done is what Charmspeak entails, you shouldn't give it to a character. There's no way around calling that a Mary-Sue. That's worse than the Pravus powers in Vladimir Tod (who came close to being a MS only in that aspect). And then there's Gaea – Kronos's evil plots were much more interesting. There were twists and hidden things and surprises. Nowadays it's just Gaea saying: okay, I'm doing this. Then the heroes have to do that. And we build anxiety just on those two things without integrating them. Kronos was a better villain, and so was Luke. I believe that the HoO series had a lot of potential and then just tumbled downhill and – ha – into Tartarus. But, again, that's just my opinion. More of a discussion between book reviews. No harm done or intended ;)

Sydy – Yay! I'll try to stay on track and update on time, then.

oOo

"So… no meeting with your leader, then?" I guessed. The iPod's corners were biting into my palms.

The blond-haired girl – the nicer one – cast me a sideways glance. "No. We're not doing anything without her authorization, and I'm sure she would like to meet you for authentication and judgment purposes, but your case only goes so far. We still cannot allow an enemy of Rome – three, at that – into our base, much less to our leader. Not to mention that if we acknowledged that you had a pet or let him inside we'd have to… ah, handle him."

Her red-haired, scowling partner sighed. "We'd have to put him in his rightful place, she's trying to say. And that would be inconvenient at the moment. Unfortunately."

We shuffled through Seattle's darkest alleys, weaving along the lower buildings and the thick shadows. They were almost suffocating here. The deepest silence hung here, as if even the humans had sensed something amiss.

Who was I kidding. Of course they had.

Up ahead, the docks were dark shadows atop the gleaming Sound.

Helen – the blond girl – waved for us to follow and dove into the alley on our right. We followed wordlessly. The docks were cut off from sight.

She stopped and turned to face us. Her expression had turned serious. On our heels, a dozen more Amazons also halted. Helen motioned for us to sit, and we found ourselves places among the trash bags on the concrete.

Nico kept close to me, eyeing the girls closely. Several of them had refused to sheath their bows in his presence. Alex, the red-haired girl, was one of those.

I'd been fighting the thoughts all night, but when I saw him, they came rushing to the forefront of my mind. I flinched and looked away.

How could I think such horrible things while he sat here next to me? While we silently offered one another comfort and a point of reference? And while we were still in danger to boot?

But the thoughts came nonetheless. Hunter's whispers.

Traitor.

Could he possibly work for Gaea? Gods knew how much he hated her. She'd messed with his Underworld. She'd taunted us. She'd tried to kill him and capture me and had driven Orpheus insane. He would never stand for someone so murderous.

But things happen. The dark thoughts had gathered on my mind the way wilting first begins to gather on a flower's petals. I had worked for Kronos, had I not? Hadn't Ethan? And no, no, all those things had to be coincidences, what Hunter had said-

But Bianca?

Just because Orpheus was gone didn't mean the threats he'd made weren't. Why hadn't I considered that? Because I knew now how real that was. How simple it'd be.

I was the last person who could deny it. Again and again, I saw him grieving at night, I saw him wake from the nightmares, I saw him slumped over in that broken piece of metal, and I knew. It was a fact. A law of physics no less sure of itself than gravity.

He would die for her. He'd do worse. He'd lie and fake every word and kill… For her…

I watched now as he glanced up at the sky and searched for the stars hidden behind Seattle's lights. A painful twist went through my stomach.

Gods, how I didn't want it to be true. I could remember all those nights we'd spent stargazing in and outside of LA. Surely, that couldn't be fake.

It couldn't be.

"As if we needed another reason," Helen sighed heavily. I jolted out of my thoughts, suddenly aware that I'd been ignoring her previous speech.

"Whatever killed Kambrya," Hunter said, "also attacked us. And when we tried to run they cut us off. It seems that both sides have decided that this is where the next big play is."

"It would seem so," Helen said, narrowing her eyes. "What would the things hiding in the docks want you here for, though?"

Hunter shrugged. "Why'd they want Jason? Why'd they want Shay? I don't know for sure. Only that it doesn't have to happen like that. Else Apollo wouldn't have sent us here."

There was no lack of confidence in her, no doubt that betrayed her theories. She sat with a straight back and attentive eyes. Eyes that missed nothing.

Helen sat down as well, meeting us at eye level for what seemed like the first time. Her sisters – or, that's what the Amazons called themselves – followed suit. "The gods are… moody, if you will. You realize that Apollo may not care whether or not you come out of this alive?"

"You think we're not used to that by now?"

Helen smirked and shook her head. "Of course. I'm sorry. …Brook? You've been silent for a while."

"Silence be nice," Moon whispered with a flickering tail.

Brook made a signal of agreement. "Sorry. I'm thinking. So, Amazons have been going missing. Weird magic blips. Undead people showing up. Monsters gathering. That's not unlike what went down in LA."

Alex bared her teeth at us. "What went down in LA?"

We exchanged glances. Eventually I managed, "Long story."

"The Patron wouldn't try the same thing twice, though," Nico argued. "And they can't revive the stars in a city. That was proven."

"What we need," Hunter cut him off, "is to know what her other options are. What her minions are capable of. How much easier would it have been to realize what was going on if we'd known Orpheus was involved in LA?"

Silence.

"Exactly. We need recon."

"That's what Queen Hylla suggested," Helen nodded. "We've sent five different groups in already. Not one Amazon has come back."

"Geez. I see why Kambrya didn't like her watch," I muttered.

Hunter closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "…Hm. Did you try different ways of entrance?"

"Several," Alex drawled dryly.

"You guys just crept around? No magic aid? No distraction planned?"

"We did plan a diversion once," Helen mused. It was no wonder that she was ranked above Alex – she was so calm yet involved, it was hard to let yourself be anything different in her presence. "We unleashed some of our prisoners onto their eastern flank while the stealth group came in from the north. It didn't work."

Nico grumbled something about the gender of the prisoners while Hunter smiled wickedly. "Guys. You own Amazon. Don't tell me you lack materials."

"We have plenty of materials," Helen sighed. "If we didn't, we'd have faded away a while ago."

"Explosive materials?"

Helen froze in place. "Those are illegal."

"Most of them, not all," Hunter smiled. "I know a guy. And we're not exactly human. With combined forces we may stand a chance of getting in and out unnoticed. If we can figure out what The Patron is up to and who she has locked away, that'd be amazing."

"Please no C4," I whimpered.

"Oh, no. Not that. Firecrackers will work and be harder for the enemy to locate once they've gone off. We could tape a few to some of Death Breath's buddies and have them run around making a racket."

Nico frowned and knit his eyebrows as he imagined that. Then his lips began to twitch.

Helen glanced from him to Hunter. "…Must we involve a male?"

"The male stays with us. You can ignore him if you like," Hunter offered, "but he's not as helpless as you may think."

The lie was so smooth. Or, at least, what she believed to be a lie. Or perhaps it wasn't exactly a lie at all.

I couldn't meet my brother's eyes. I'd already made my decision to stand by him and wait until I had solid proof to start pointing fingers. Time to let the darker thoughts fade away and the guilt to put me back into place.

Brook stood to stretch. "Alright. Recon it is. When should we work?"

"First," Alex growled, "we must clear it with Queen Hylla. Second, we'll need supplies. Third, the moon has already traveled too far tonight. Gather everything you can possibly get a hold of and meet us back here tomorrow an hour after sundown. If you're late, we'll assume you are lying traitors and hunt you down as we would an escaped prisoner – no trial, no clever aiming. Shoot to kill. So don't push us." She stood in a huff and marched down the alley.

Helen stared after her. "…As much as I'd like to trust you, I must urge you to take her advice. This is not a nice time for strangers to meet strangers. I guess one way or another we'll see you tomorrow."

And with that, she stood and followed her sister. The other Amazons left to follow them one by one.

oOo

We walked back to our hotel in silence. It hung heavily above us not threateningly this time but rather placid – too calm, too content. It was waiting for something.

Eventually Brook started up conversation. "So what do you think is in the docks?"

"I have no idea," Hunter sighed. "Quite frankly, I'm out of ideas. I don't trust the Amazons at all but they're our only help; unless we'd like to stage something at the docks ourselves, which I'm not eager to do, then we've got to work with them. Especially since we're suspects. They didn't give us much of a choice."

"They're desperate," Nico added in his usual low voice. "Like a starving dog, they're willing to eat – to blame – anything that comes into their sights. But they're too timid to take on something unrealistic. They can't fight what's at the docks, but they needed someone to beat on, at least to make themselves feel like they're doing something. So it stands to reason that so long we are indeed there and they have a shot at overtaking the docks, they're no longer starving. At least we could keep them somewhat trustworthy."

Hunter glanced at him. "Since when is it you convincing us to trust people?"

"I'm not telling you to trust them. I'm giving you ways to control the people you mistrust at least by the simplest and humane boundaries. You're welcome."

My stomach twisted into knots.

She turned away with a lingering glare.

"Don't… Don't use that tone," I whispered to him once we'd fallen back and out of earshot. "It's provocative."

He gave me a bewildered look. "She's provocative. What's wrong with it?"

It's going to get you killed. It's proving you're a traitor.

"She just doesn't need to be riled up right now. Leave her alone."

"If she doesn't want a fight, then she shouldn't pick one," he muttered. But he did indeed quiet.

I let out a long breath. Then shook my head – no, no, of course I hadn't been worried. Why should I? I had nothing to fear. My brother wasn't a traitor and had no reason to fight with Hunter in the first place. No need to get excited over that.

"We're not sleeping indoors again, are we?" Brook sighed as we walked past yesterday's residence.

"Nope," Hunter agreed. "First we're getting explosives. Then we're bunkering down in an alley somewhere again. While we're out, we need food, too…"

As if in response, my stomach growled.

Nico chuckled at me and nudged my arm with a playful elbow. "You like seafood?"

"Please. It's nasty. The most I'll take is fried catfish, period the end," I snorted.

"Snow, seafood… how did you survive here?"

"I imagine Natalie's fairing worse," Brook chuckled. "Did you see the way she kept sniffing her hair?"

"It probably smells like fish," we all said at once. Hunter and Nico exchanged a hot glance before both tearing their gazes away.

Brook gave me a curious look. "Is she still mean to you? Natalie?"

"Not intentionally, to her credit," I admitted. Then I remembered a few side conversations and grimaced. "But… She's…"

"Got the values of a different world," Brook suggested.

"Yeah. That," I muttered. I'm sorry, but the way clothes are wrinkled or a boy glances at another girl doesn't matter, whether it effects you or me or even the U.S. President. It's not worthy of a squealing conversation. And it's definitely nothing in comparison to seeing your friend get his head smashed in.

I flinched. That thought had come out of nowhere. Perhaps I should stop ranting. It wasn't as beneficial to me as it was for Nico…

"She's smarter than average, though," said brother murmured. Something dark was flickering in his eyes again. "Something about her… I don't know if I like it or not."

"Smarter than average. Sorry, but that's not earning any credit in my book," my younger sister rolled her eyes.

"That's not the 'smart' I was talking about," Nico sighed. There was a moment of silence before he caught her gaze and added, "Though I agree with you on that one. That last person I asked couldn't even tell me what two plus two was."

Brook raised an eyebrow. "And how might that question have come up?"

"I don't know. Phil brings up lots of weird stuff."

"So Phil's not so smart, then?"

"Phil's plenty smart! He was only one off!"

Hunter glanced over her shoulder at us, but didn't comment.

"One off. Three or five, then?" Brook challenged.

Nico narrowed his eyes. "Five."

"Bet you ten bucks Phil's dumber than average. Ask the next teenager you see what two and two is."

"Is this you trying to prove that guys are stupid again?"

"You want ten bucks or not?"

"If I may object," I said timidly, "Phil was from a different time period. Therefore he was probably smarter than people are now."

"Oh, so you're taking the boy's side now?" Brook asked.

"Male's team?" Moon gasped, astonished. Her ears flattened.

I threw my hands in the air. "Well, most girls I meet seem pretty stupid, too! I can't stand Natalie's friends!"

"Guys," Hunter snapped. "Cut the chitchat."

We stared at her. There was silence for five minutes.

Then Brook snickered at Nico and held ten fingers in the air.

He grumbled and looked away. It'd take more than wounded pride and ten bucks to make him approach a stranger, I knew. The look on his face made me laugh.

He gave me an astonished look and to our utter amazement waved down the nearest kid.

The boy was probably around Hunter's age and, not surprising of someone going solitary on Seattle's streets at this hour, had a gun hidden inside his jacket. I spied it easily on his thin frame; the sight was achingly familiar. He gave Nico a questioning glance.

"Bet," my brother said curtly. "What's two plus two?"

The boy smiled hugely. "Fish!" And off he went.

Nico seemed to be frozen in place. Hunter burst into laughs and kept walking.

I sighed. "C'mon. She's going to leave us behind."

He made an odd sound and continued to stare after the boy.

"Yeah. People are scary. You see what happens when you let one of us bait you into something? Now let's get a move on! I'm starving!"

oOo

"Here. We're all getting up at noon to meet the supplier, so be ready to get going as soon as you wake up. That means you, Nico," Hunter said with a glare. My brother shrank back behind me and overtly stole a fry from over my shoulder. He hadn't said a word, nor moved from my side, since the two-and-two-makes-fish incident.

"We're all going?" I asked through a mouthful of burger as I sat down on the concrete. Nico curled up and hugged his knees beside me. "Moon's on that shift with the pack. Just send her. Something tells me he'll give a talking wolf what it demands."

"Talking she-wolf," Moon added.

Brook pointed to her. "Exactly."

"I'm the one the guy will recognize," Hunter dismissed in an alarming monotone, "and I'm not leaving you guys alone. You've proven you can't handle that."

I raised my eyebrows. "When?"

"Not even an hour ago. Now go to bed. We're wasting time."

I stared at her as she unrolled her sleeping bag, astonished. It'd been years since Hunter told me to go to bed.

Nonetheless, I got ready. I handed Nico the last of the fries and foraged through the bags for blankets. There was not a word spoken as we set up camp. None of us were happy about sleeping in three feet of snow, either, but with several extra layers it'd have to suffice.

As we settled in and snow began to fall once more, my eyes landed on Nico. He was in his typical corner.

I shook my head. "Nico, you're going to freeze to death. Get over here."

He didn't protest. For a moment I wondered if this was good or bad, then shoved it away – yes, yes, it had to be good. My pessimistic nature was getting ot me again. This is what happened when I had too much time to think.

At least there was one thing my mind was clearing on. Nico was no traitor. I was certain of it now as he willingly came over to cuddle. The thought was so amusing I nearly chuckled.

He dropped his bag beside mine and flopped down, burying himself in it to escape the snow. A frustrated snarl came from inside as Star – a wolf – settled on his feet.

Brook stared at her bag for a long while before climbing in. She stuck oddly close to Hunter, who wrapped a protective arm around her.

"I'm a lousy hunter," she said.

"You're not, honey," Hunter sighed. "What gave you that idea?"

She was quiet for a moment. "…Lots of things.

Brook's still keeping secrets.

Though yet again, so was I. Hunter was probably the most truthful one of all of us.

Sleep came disturbingly fast, especially for going to bed so early. I hardly recall lying there at all; it was cold and we were lucky the snow hadn't leaked into our blankets yet and then nothing.

Night poked me awake for my watch, firm but somewhat withdrawn, his nose wet and his teeth gently nipping my fingers. At first I shoved him away. It was comfortable here. The ground and air were cold but I was not, I was lying so safe with Hunter and Brook and Nico, my arm beneath the young girl's head and my own on my brother's shoulder and his jacket was warm and the smell was like morphine among the fresh and crisp scent of new snow and I was not going to move.

But he bit my hand harder and I sighed. "Fine. I'm up."

I rolled to a sitting position and gently took Nico's arm off me and laid it at his side. There was no twitching today, but there was something about his eyes. They didn't move, didn't tighten, but somehow I knew he was dreaming.

If only Shay were here. We wouldn't have to be so tense with the Amazons or fear the docks at all with her around and she'd be able to confirm, from the times she'd spied on him, that Nico wasn't faithless.

I felt the gangrene emerge again. Desperately shoving it down, knowing it was because I'd had too much time to think, I got up and sat cross-legged right there on my sleeping bag. Time to think wasn't good for me. No, perhaps this peace time I was so afraid to lose was the very thing depressing me. I did better in action – so rarely did I trip in front of Kronos, I'd known exactly what to do when time was short and I had to hide the fact that I'd found the dark-haired boy dead in a torture chamber, and I'd gotten out of bed and found the resolve I needed to help when Nico had been trapped in the garden. As scared as I was of war, something told me that it wasn't something I could ever leave behind, no matter how many of the world's problems we solved.

"Are you at least considering it?"

I sighed. "I did all day, Hunter. And I can't help it. It's as solid as a rock now. I don't think he's lying."

There was silence for a moment. Then, "…Would you be mad if I began to consider your opinion tainted?"

I turned to look at her. "Tainted?"

"Influenced. You're the one he plans to kill first, you know."

I snorted and untwisted myself. I had a good view of the alley from here; it wasn't too big, had no exits save shadow travel, and had plenty of old trash bags to help hide us from view. They didn't smell too bad. I stared at them as I answered. "And what makes you say that?"

"Your opinion. You don't know him. Isn't it odd that you can't trust strangers, that you're so scared of even people you're told you can trust, that it took you three months to trust Kyle with the fact that your real name is Brianna, yet with him… you let him sleep with an arm around you. And when you met him just in August, he hated you."

"And I hated him," I agreed. "Now we don't."

"Bree. There's a problem with that. Don't tell me it's not odd."

"That doesn't mean it's bad. I'm odd, but am I bad? No."

"Listen to me. He has your trust. You'd do what he asked. That's a liability."

"A liability?" I spat.

"It's exactly the kind of thing he'd need to gain our trust; to get yours first. Especially if you're target number one. And evidence suggests that you are. He's… Look, I don't want anything to happen to you…"

"And nothing will," I growled. "You're misinterpreting the prophecy. Or if you're not, there's another traitor we don't know of yet. Perhaps there's one on Olympus."

"Perhaps it's Apollo."

"Seriously! How can you be sure! Prophecies never turn out the way you want!"

"One," she sighed, "you sound just like Nico. Two, that's exactly why I suspect it's not over. For all we know, the one given to Julius Caesar about avoiding the Ides of March may still be active." She was quiet for a moment. "…And if he's already making moves on you…"

"He's not!"

"At least admit he's hiding something, and think on it from there. You can't deny that. Do you know anything about his past before he went to Camp Half-Blood? Or the way he's been acting weird. It's better now, but I saw it, right at the beginning. He fidgeted and didn't eat well. And I know you noticed that. There's something that we need to know, and he's not coming out about it. That's reason enough."

"He's not hiding anything!"

She fell silent. Then, "You know what it is, don't you?"

My breath caught.

"You're hiding things for him. Oh, my gods. How'd he convince you to do that?"

"Be quiet, Hunter."

"Bree! What the hell?! After Kronos kept secrets? After… After everything… I'd have a problem merely over him asking, let alone him getting his way! How could you lie to us?"

My head dropped into my hands. "It… It's not something that you want to know. Trust me. And for the record, I know about his past, too, and there's reason he doesn't want it told."

"It's something we need to know! Bree, can't you see what he's doing?! He wants you to know! He wants you to feel special! He wants you to think that no matter how hard he tries, he can't keep secrets from you. He wants you to trust him."

"Stop it. He's not like that."

"Listen to yourself! You didn't believe it when I said that of Kronos! It was your outside opinion that was right, and it's mine now! Shut up and consider it! The fact alone that you're not willing to is proof he's spitting lies!"

"…Fries? What about fries?"

We turned. Brook had lifted her head and was blinking at us.

Hunter sighed and stroked her head. "Nothing, honey. We were discussing the probability that the remaining three French fries alone are powerful enough to keep all of us going from here 'till Kingdom Come."

"Fries are like that," Brook agreed sleepily before laying her head down again. Moon yipped softly and snuggled into her.

Hunter didn't dare speak. Rather she gave me a look, a pleading display of gold so strong I had to look away.

My gaze found Nico again. His eyes – I saw what it was now. They weren't cracked open. Odd, I didn't even realize he slept like that until the odd chance came that he didn't. He must've still been dreaming.

You're target number one.

I shoved daunting thoughts aside, blamed them on the lengthy silence just begging to be filled with thought, and waiting for my shift to pass.

oOo

Nyx: There are things I must address.

First, I'm sorry for missing Thursday's update. But the thing is that Wednesday night opened up as more animation project time, and I couldn't pass that up. The project didn't get finished even with the extended deadline. Today is late because of computer issues earlier in the morning.

Second, we're nearly halfway through the book (though this was always longer than the others, so perhaps not quite nearly halfway), and my pace is too slow. I'll be fixing that yet trying to make the change as smooth as possible. Things are supposed to pick up right about here, anyway. Very sorry for the poor balance of plots and subplots so far.

Third, work on An Eye for an Eye is going to skyrocket. It should be a relatively fast project. However, you won't see it posted until DoD is entirely finished. I'll continue to give you updates.

Thanks so much for sticking with us and being patient. I do hope we've managed to maintain interest for all of you. Please review to give us your thoughts!

Nic: Am I supposed to stay silent again?

Nyx: *sigh* You know I couldn't do that if I tried.

Nic: Good. Because I have an announcement to make.

Nyx: ?

Nic: Ethan is still sexy. That is all.

Nyx: Hm. Oh, and Gone fans – the makers of Breaking Bad and people involved in Lost now have TV rights to the Gone series by Michael Grant. There's no guarantee but pretty good odds that there will be a television show on it. ;p I'm excited beyond belief.