The music "free-for-all", as Will had put it, proved extremely chaotic. The kazoo feud continued in earnest, though Will wasn't really involved at this point.

As it turns out, it's quite hard to focus on playing piano when a) a group of Apollo kids are arguing the merits of kazoos and whether they should be considered an instrument or a toy and b) when Will is sitting directly next to me, right arm pressed against my left, watching my every move.

The good news is that I had already had a muscle memory for playing piano when I first remember learning (implying I learned originally before the Lotus Casino), which makes it so much easier to fall back into habit. When I first sat down, I pecked at a few keys experimentally. It slowly morphed into the first two notes of Für Elise, which slowly gave way to the actual song itself.

Eventually, however, I faltered, and part way through the song, my fingers froze and came crashing down on the keyboard in a dissonant chord of scattered keys.

"That was really good," Will said, eyebrows raised in an impressed expression.

"What, the agonizingly slow beginning or the glorious crash-and-burn ending?" I asked, only a hint of bitterness in the question.

"The part in the middle," Will retorted, almost defensively, bumping my shoulder. "It was nice."

I gave a noncommital hum, but inside, a spark of pleasure lit at the notion of Will enjoying music I made.

After my dabble of a return to the piano, we went our separate ways so I could practice sword fighting and Will could try to corral the Apollo cabin towards the lake for a final water training session.

It was during lunch that Annabeth and Percy, looking worse for wear, showed up from their quest for Iris. They stumbled into the dining area, exhaustion etched into their faces. "Well," Percy said as the camp stared at the two in shock. "Iris is fine. Nothing to do with the communication."

He swayed slightly and Will jumped up. "Let's get you two off to the infirmary, just to make sure you aren't seriously injured. Nico, help?" said the son of Apollo, the last sentence shot out as he glanced backwards at me, mild panic on his face. I leaped up and made quick strides over to him.

"Hey, guys... what happened? Are you okay?" I asked, placing a hand on Percy's shoulder, hoping to stop his staggering.

Annabeth nodded. "We had some trouble by the camp border, I'm mostly okay. Percy... overexerted himself, I think. He definitely lost more blood than I did."

I sent a glance Will's way. He was trying as best as he could to make sure Percy wasn't in immediate danger, but since we were walking, I doubted that it was effective (or even necessary).

"Really," Annabeth assured us. "Everything's fine, we just have some injuries. Will can fix us up pretty fast, I'm sure."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah..." I trailed off, thoughts roaring in my mind as I frantically tried to solve this mystery. "Iris is fine... who could possibly have to do with this, then?"

I glanced at Annabeth, her grey eyes dark and stormy. "I've got a feeling," she said lowly, in a foreboding tone, "that whoever caused Iris messages to go out, has to do with our prophetic powers going out."

"Wait, what?" Will asked. Panic flashed in his eyes for a moment before disappearing.

"Yeah, Rachel's powers aren't working. Like, she hasn't had a prophecy in a while, which isn't necessarily odd, but it feels different this time, she says. She said she feels... empty, like her powers are gone."

I exchanged a glance with Will. This wasn't good.

"So, uh, what exactly did you find? How do you know Iris is fine?" I asked.

"Well, we found Artemis while looking for Iris. She said that Iris wasn't the problem, and that the communication problem wasn't ours to fix," Percy explained as he gingerly lied himself down on an infirmary bed. "Finally, a problem that isn't my responsibility."

"Artemis?" Will echoed, confused.

"Yeah. We're not entirely sure why it was her. Then we went back to camp. Got attacked on the way. Now, we're here," Annabeth said.

Will finished bandaging Percy, handing him a square of ambrosia. "You'll be fine, just take it easy for a few days, and don't stand up until you finish the ambrosia, okay?" He turned to check Annabeth, which only took him a few moments. "You're both fine."

"Could've told you that," Percy muttered. "But thanks."

I stood there, watching the other three demigods, but completely tuning them out. My thoughts were racing, going much too quickly to explain to anyone else– hell, I could hardly understand them.

I felt a growing pit of frustration in my stomach as I repeatedly tried to make sense of my thoughts. But no matter how many times I went over the facts again in my head, I just ended where I started: Artemis?

It was a loop, circling in my head- Iris, Artemis, prophecy, what? For a second, Apollo came to mind– between the lack of prophecies and the involvement of his sister, it wouldn't be farfetched to believe that the sun god could be involved. But I also felt like there would be some signs within the Apollo cabin. And it didn't explain the communication problems.

I was so sucked into my thoughts that I didn't notice Percy and Annabeth leaving. Or Will approaching. I flinched when he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry," he said, removing his hand. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, I just... got sucked into... thoughts," I explained, trailing off.

"Alright, what're you thinking?' he asked, perching on a counter behind him. "I have a feeling you have some thoughts."

"I don't know." The three words are filled to the brim with frustration. "I'm spiraling, I can't connect all the dots. Iris to Artemis to prophecy– Apollo? Doesn't feel right. This isn't connecting, and it doesn't feel right. Doesn't– none of this feels right!"

I ended at a yell, hands gripped into tight fists, slightly hunched over.

"Hey," Will said softly, not moving from his spot. "We'll figure it out. We just don't have all the pieces yet."

"Yeah..."

He hesitantly patted me on the shoulder. "Now... wanna help me cut bandages?"

A/Nand another chapter agonizingly cranked out. imma be real, im only continuing this fic because i feel like i have to. i dont know if anybody's reading, but sorry if quality drops beyond how low it already is. i had angst to work through when i started this fic and i started seeing a therapist partway through so now i just want fluff. but thatll come soon hopefully, im just worried this is becoming more repetetive and completely implausible/out of character. so if you are reading still, please tell me what youd like to see. thanks everyone for reading