Authors note: Yo guys, so after realizing that chapter 29 was twice the number of words as every other chapter in this story and also realizing that after this chapter I didn't have any real reason to write for Raven anymore I decided I wanted to split this chapter into two parts. So yea... It's just that every time I write for Raven I do it in at least groups of four so when I realized that after this scene it made more sense to change POV I decided it just made more sense to split it into two separate chapters and maybe write in a flashback while I'm at it to make it four chapters before I start writing for someone else. I started writing the next POV and be like "HAHA there's no structure here! I don't care anymore" but I couldn't I need my structure. ;_; anyway yea if you haven't seen that I edited and re uploaded chapter 29 than go check it out. It's not just edited I added in a few extra details and changed things around so if you don't read the re-uploaded version you might get lost...

-With love, Piper-Audrey

Raven

The last time Raven had fallen that far was when she'd fallen off the St. Louis Arch in Percy's arms. She remembered every heart pounding second of that fall and she still had dreams in which she could feel Percy's arms around her. It was frightening and thrilling and magical. She supposed it was a bit too clique to say that as she fell off that arch she'd also fallen in love. But that didn't stop her from thinking it...

Raven remembered every second of that fall, but this time her mind went blank. The last thing Raven could remember was grabbing Octavian's arm and then suddenly she was in a rope net dangling 5 feet off the ground in the most uncomfortable position she'd ever been in in her life.

She groaned and shifted kicking Octavian in the ribs.

"Ow!" He complained, "Watch it would you?!"

Raven struggled and wormed her way into a more comfortable position, turning her head from side to side, squinting in the darkness. There was a small patch of sunlight, pouring down on them from the surface above them, but beyond that was darkness. She reached for Artemis, suddenly aware of the danger Octavian and she were probably in. Traps and nets didn't just sit in the middle of nowhere for no reason after all.

She cursed in Ancient Greek.

Raven unsheathed Artemis and began to cut away at the ropes. She started at the top of the net but no more than a second or two later she realized, she wasn't making any progress.

"Ugh! What the heck!?" She said through gritted teeth, "These ropes won't cut!"

"Of course not," Octavian said, trying to yank his arm free, which he had somehow gotten hopelessly tangled in the ropes, "These ropes are woven with Imperial gold, they aren't going to break."

Raven huffed and began to try and find a way out while Octavian continued to try and yank his arm free. The whole net shook and twisted at all the movement and Raven heard Octavian yelp in pain.

"Would you quit moving!?" he glared at her, "You're making it worse!"

"Then get untangled! How'd you even manage that?" Raven shook her head shifting her weight to try and stand.

"Gee, I don't know Raven, maybe; just maybe, it had something to do with a certain someone dragging me down a hole- Ow!" He said as Raven stood up in the net twisting his arm. Octavian yanked his arm, hard, and thrashed around slightly in pain. The net wobbled and Raven squeaked as she lost her footing and tumbled face-first on top of Octavian just as he sprung his arm free.

Raven was confused for a second as she processed the faceful of Purple shirt she'd received. When she realized what had happened less than a moment later she squeaked, her cheeks turning pink. She gripped around for something solid to hold onto. Her hands settled on Octavian's shoulders and Raven sat up, glaring at the blond roman under her.

"You suck..." was all she could think to say.

"Dearly noted" Octavian replied, rolling his eyes, although his cheeks were just as red as her's, if not more so.

"Looks like we caught something ladies," Raven heard a girl's voice say and she sat up reaching for Artemis. She scowled when she realized she'd dropped the blade when Octavian made her fall, "Bring up the lights!"

Raven shielded her eyes, squinting as bring lights flooded the area around them.

The first thing Raven saw when her eyes adjusted to the lights was the large group of girls standing there in black pants suits around them. Each of them stared at Raven and Octavian with stern expressions painted on their faces as they pointed their weapons at their prisoner's faces.

Octavian fell silent as his eyes scanned over the crowd and scowled as if he'd just landed in Tartarus. Raven didn't follow her companions lead, instead shouting at them with an annoyed expression, "Hey! What are you standing there for? Let us out of here!"

The girls looked at each other before finally one of them waved their hand.

The net jerked and Raven and Octavian hit the ground below them with a hard thud. Raven rubbed her shoulder and yelped in pain. What is it with people and abusing my poor shoulder! Raven whined silently it's still sour from when Cameron hit it, geez!

The girls kept their weapons pointed towards the two. Raven felt around for Artemis, just in case she needed to fight her way out of this one. Although Raven had to admit that idea seemed pretty hopeless even for a Bringer of Hope. She gripped around keeping her eyes trained on the girls in front her. Her fingers just grazed the blade before it was kicked out of her reach.

Raven looked up to see a skinny redheaded girl who looked to be in her twenties looking at her with a hard expression. She wore a black leather jumpsuit with her short red hair pinned off her face. She folded her arms and looked down at Raven, which reminded Raven of her old teachers, freshmen year, who'd given her that look whenever she forget to do her homework. "Tell me your names and why you're in my camp." She ordered looking at Raven, completely ignoring Octavian, who'd for once decided it was better to shut his mouth.

"I don't know! What are we doing in your camp?!" Raven growled, "I think you should be answering that question!"

"Okay," The girls said, "I'll tell you what you're doing down here. You're trespassing."

"Trespassing!? Are you kidding me! It's your fault we're here in the first place! Now who are you people!?"

The girls looked at the redhead, who Raven was guessing was their leader, for instructions but she just raised her hand and the group lowered their weapons. She gazed down at Raven like she was a problem that needed fixing. Raven's eyes drifted down slowly as something around the girls waste caught her eye.

The red headed girl sported a shiny gold belt. I looked odd, like a golden links making a golden labyrinth that draped over her hips. Raven's eyes widened as the puzzle pieces started to come together.

"Amazons..." She said slowly her blue eyes filled with wonder and surprise as she lifted her head to meet the redhead's eyes once again. The girl merely smirked in a half amused, half condescending way.

"Ah, so you've heard of us."

O*O*O*O

Raven had never been completely sure how she felt about the Amazons. She'd always kind of preferred the Hunters of Artemis. They were both pretty cool but the Amazons had never given her that jumpy giddy feeling the way the Hunters had. The Amazons had always just been there. Never good nor bad so Raven didn't really have an opinion on them.

Until now.

Raven. Fricken. Loved them.

Once whole misunderstanding of how Raven and Octavian had ended up in their camp had gotten sorted out both Raven and Camilla, the red headed girl, apologized to each other and ended up laughing about the whole thing. It was actually kind of funny. At least Raven knew the Amazons were going to kill them...

Raven had been kind of scared when she realized these girls were the Amazons but as it turned out, when they didn't have an undead ex-queen threatening a hostile takeover and a possible civil war on their hands, the Amazons were pretty cool. Not to say they were any less strict or lethal or anything, but they were much less gung-ho about killing intruders, which was comforting to know. And since Raven was a girl and Octavian had become so quite, the Amazons were patient enough with them.

Camilla was pretty cool too. Raven wasn't surprised to hear she was the current Queen of the Amazons since she sported Hippolyta's Belt, just as Hylla had. She was a pretty good Queen too. The way she talked and acted was enough to convince Raven of that. She was confident and smart and seemed to know exactly what she was doing. It really made Raven wonder what made her step down so Hylla could take over. She remembered reading something about that in the books but she couldn't remember... Camilla ordered the other Amazons to get back to work and helped Raven to her feet telling both her and Octavian to follow.

"Even if this was a misunderstanding," Camilla sighed, "We have to writing down your stories and report everything and all that. A business is nothing without paperwork, as they say."

Raven worried briefly about Jason but she imagined he'd be for a few minutes.

Camilla walked along the catwalk of the huge factory where Raven and Octavian had landed. Maybe not as big as the main on in California but it was the size of few football fields at least. Camilla talked about the factory as if she were a tour guide, telling the two how the factory was made and how long it had been in the Amazon's possessions. Raven was too busy marveled the whole at everything she saw to listen. There were shelves and magic items and mythological creatures she'd never seen before as far as the eye could see. They walked all the way to a small office on the other side of the Factory. Raven was starting to get the idea that Octavian had heard of the Amazons before and knew what would most likely happen if he went running his big mouth because he seemed to be struggling to bite his tongue the whole way there, eyeing the male workers in jumpsuits and collars.

"This is just a small branch of our operation. Our main headquarters is located in Seattle. Normally I'd be there but..." Camilla trailed off. "Well let's just say we thought something else might fall into that trap..."

Camilla opened door to the tiny office and took a seat behind the desk offering Raven the seat across from her and she took it. Octavian stood in the doorway looking like he wanted to bolt as soon as he got the chance. Raven got the feeling that Octavian didn't appreciate "being put in his place" as the Amazons would call it. Raven wasn't surprised. His ego was too big to let anyone damage his pride. The fact that he had to just let it happen was killing him. Camilla just laughed softly.

"Your boyfriends rather quiet isn't he," She smiled, "I see you're a girl who knows how to keep her man in line. You'd make a good Amazon, Raven."

"No! Nononono!" Raven shook her head, "That fool is NOT my boyfriend. The day I date him, is that day Hades freezes over."

"Hey!" Octavian spoke up for the first time in nearly an hour, which was just a little bit impressive.

"Shut up," Raven said quickly and Octavian looked like he wanted to say about a million nasty things but held his tongue mouthing insults as he turned away and folded his arms across his chest. Raven could help but smile. Maybe she would make a good Amazon, she giggled to herself, which was something she hadn't felt like doing since she was on her first quest with Percy and Annabeth. She supposed now that she was on a real quest again she was beginning to feel a bit like her old self.

Camilla smiled, "You'd still make a pretty good Amazon, Raven Blouse, now..." She shuffled through some papers and shifted in her seat, "You two are from Camp Jupiter? You're a long ways from home. What are you doing out here?"

"Well, we're actually on a quest right now," Raven explained about the scales and their quest and what happened so far and about them having to get to Houston to catch their next train to get to Alabama, "Although it seems that we'll be missing it now. There's no way to make it in time... Not that there was much of a chance before."

"Hmm," Camilla said leaning back in her chair, "I normally wouldn't do this but, since these aren't exactly normal circumstances, I'm going to make you an offer. If you promise not to cause any problems and you keep your man here in line, you and your friend can stay the night here and in the morning I'll provide you with transportation to your destination in Alabama."

"Really!?" Raven said wide eyes.

Camilla smiled a little, "Amazons and Romans haven't always been friends but there have been times when I've sent a girl or two to train with Lupa. Ya know girls who really aren't really 'Amazon material.' But still I'd hate to see anything happen to my friends there so if Camp Jupiter's in trouble I'd like to help out in any way I can. After all it's the least we could do, after we caused you to miss your train in the first place."

"And what about my friend, Jason?" Raven asked.

"I'll send a group of Amazons to collect him, while you two set up camp. As long as you keep your two men in line it shouldn't be a problem." Camilla said, then adding with a cheerful smile "If they do cause any sort of problem, we'll have to execute them painfully... But I trust you have that under control."

"For the most part yea..." Raven shrugged. Octavian seemed to be behaving himself and she doubted Jason would be running around making mischief.

Meanwhile Octavian looked like he would rather strangle himself than stay the night with the Amazons but he didn't protest, probably for fear of being mistaken for ungrateful.

Camilla lead the two out of the office, stopping for an only a moment to order two Amazon warriors to go grab Jason. Somewhere in the back of Raven's mind she couldn't help but wince, knowing that Jason probably wasn't going to get the star treatment being escorted to camp. She just hoped he had the good sense to shut his mouth and cooperate like Octavian, which was a rather weird thought for Raven since she'd always pictured it being the other way around.

Camilla showed them to an area in the back of the factory, almost entirely closed off from the rest of the building by the surrounding shelves. It was like a giant cubical, made of three storage shelves against the steel back wall of the factory. There was a small opening in the side opposite the wall where Camilla slipped in followed by Raven, and then Octavian. To Raven's surprise there was already a stack of supplies waiting for them when they got there. Some food, water, sleeping bags, lanterns, and a change of clothes for each of them stacked on top of a pile of air mattresses. Raven looked up at Camilla.

"But how..?" Raven questioned suspiciously. The Amazon queen waved her hand dismissively.

"We run Amazon dot com" Camilla reminded her, "We already had everything in stock we just had it brought over. No big deal or anything. Just set up and if there are any problems you know where to find me...But I am a very busy woman so please don't find me."

And with that the redhead turned on her heels and left. As soon as the Amazon Queen was out of earshot Raven yea a long exhale from Octavian, as if he'd been holding his breath the whole time. She looked at him for a second registering the relief on his face now that Camilla had left. Raven didn't get guys, they had no idea how to act around strong independent woman and it she had no idea why.

Raven turned and started to rummage through the supplies the amazons had left for them and trying to figure out how to work the gas lantern. She turned the knob of the propane tank and jumping as it hissed at her, quickly turning the knob back the other way.

Octavian turned and glared at her.

"Are you crazy!?" he said in a harsh whisper

"What- why? Am I not supposed to turn that knob? Because I don't see any other knobs..." Raven said, still fumbling with the lamp. Octavian groaned and face palmed.

"That's not what I meant! Can you focus here!?" Octavian growled, "I mean that you're crazy if you think we're staying here!"

Raven didn't bother looking up from her hands which fiddled with the steel propane tank. "Why don't you want to stay here?" She asked in a monotone voice, since she knew that's exactly what he wanted her to ask. She figured it was better just to play along.

"They're Amazons! Romans and Amazons have battled for years. They're repulsive, small minded controlling dictators! They're almost the worst group of demigods out there. Right behind the Greeks!"

Raven frozen at this and stood up suddenly, letting the lantern and propane tank fall to the floor with the deafening clatter of steel on concrete, and glass breaking. She stood about an inch front Octavian, their noses nearly touching as she stared into his eyes with a death glare.

"Trash talk the Greeks one more time, I dare you." She hissed. Octavian didn't waste any time accepting the challenge.

"You heard me! Greeks are scheming, lying dirt bags who sit out there right now and plot against our camp."

"Shut up Octavian! I'm warning you!" Raven shouted.

"They're evil, Raven, nothing but pure evil. All they do is cause death and destruction! They're half the demigods we are. They're nothing but parasites." Octavian said raising his voice to match hers.

"You're wrong! That's not true at all you don't know anything about them so SHUT UP!" Raven was screaming at him at this point, her blue eyes blazing with anger.

Octavian's face flushed red with anger, and shouted over the daughter of Nemesis to be heard "I'll tell you what I do know! They're a bunch of freaks-"

Octavian didn't get to finish the thought, though, because Raven slapped before he had the chance.

Raven breathed heavily, retracting her hand. She could tell how hard she'd hit him by how badly her hand stung. Octavian's cheek was red and she could already tell there would be some kind of mark there tomorrow morning. Both demigods stood in silence for a long time processing what had happened. Octavian lifted his hand to his cheek staring at Raven in shock, who was so shocked herself that she hadn't even noticed the hot tears rolling down her cheeks.

Raven cleared her throat and spoke quietly, "You don't get to speak like that about them. I don't want to hear you talk like that ever again."

Slowly Octavian nodded. Raven wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her orange sweatshirt. She stared at the shirt's orange hue for a moment. Orange just like the Camp Half-Blood tee-shirts she'd gotten so used to wearing. A knot formed in her stomach, making her feel incredibly homesick. She shook her head in dismay and turned, walking out of the campsite.

It was hard to explain what made Raven so upset. She'd wished for years to be a Greek demigod. People had told her that was stupid and weird for years. Being a demigod was ridiculous and childish. She'd been called a freak so many times she'd lost count. Now that she had her wish granted for the first time she had friends who cared for her and they were Greek demigods just like her. She'd gotten so used to being a part of something and feeling like she belonged she just couldn't take being alienated anymore. She wasn't going to allow other people to look down on anymore. And she wasn't going to let them look down on the people she loved either. She was done feeling like she didn't belong.