"They really think… we did it?" Arianna whispered, probably to Kieran. Diego figured he'd let someone else answer that, mostly because he didn't wanna scare her by turning around suddenly.

"Probably," Kieran admitted. "You're new and I'm… me, so it doesn't look great."

"Dude, you're probably fine, it wasn't a sea monster – I guess people'd blame Percy for that though – and most of them know that other thing wasn't your fault at all," Brenna pointed out as she did the exact thing Diego had been trying to avoid… with predictable results.

If she'd been talking about the last big campfire incident… yeah, that was entirely Drew and Aiden's (well, maybe not Aiden's, she might've charmspoken them) problem. "I dunno, I'm still 'that weird kid that sleeps in the ocean,'" Kieran said.

"But at least they know something about you," Arianna replied.

Diego was pretty sure he had nothing to contribute to the conversation, so he tuned it out. Maybe he could figure out what other people were talking about; it was always easier to deal with rumors when there was advance warning. But from what little he could make out he wasn't hearing a lot of accusations.

People mostly seemed to be wondering what was up with Jake, and what was keeping Chiron – it was 20:57, so he could show up any minute. If he did, probably Jess or one of the others would stay with Will in case they needed to call him back for an emergency. "Hey. Percy went to get an ETA from Chiron," Brenna said. "It won't be much longer. Got any advice?"

Not really, but he could try. "As long as you tell the truth, you should be fine," Diego responded. Lying never went well for him… aside from earlier that night, but that didn't count. It wouldn't have worked at all without Chris… or if they'd seen his face at all.

"I hope so," Arianna murmured. She didn't sound too sure about that.

"Well, it's not like this was the only crazy thing that happened this week – like, Mr. D.'s been gone for a couple days now and –" Brenna stopped talking for a couple seconds. She'd just realized something for sure. "– and I think we might finally learn something about that," she finished lamely.

"Oh good. Chiron does most of the work anyways though so we'll be – we've been – fine," Kieran said. "I guess I am kinda curious. Normally Chiron would've at least made an announcement that he's gone by now."

"I'd bet five drachma we're gonna talk about that," Brenna replied. She was definitely on edge – her left leg was rapidly bouncing up and down. "Oh fuck, here they come."

Apparently "they" meant Percy and Nyssa (who had a couple new bandages but otherwise seemed fine). "Where's Chiron?" Malcolm called out to them.

Percy answered, "On his way, he was leaving instructions for… uh… the other people with Jake… Grover! Hey!"

Grover had been approaching the campfire but immediately changed course to run straight to him instead. "Percy! It's been a while – there's so much going on right now!"

"Important council business?" Percy guessed.

Grover nodded furiously. "First Mr. – er, Lord Dionysus, disappears, then there's a bronze dragon running around in the forest –"

"Did anyone see where it went?" Nyssa interrupted. "Any of the nature spirits?"

"Sort of… I got several reports that it just vanished into the ground," he replied.

"Vanished…?"

"I figured I should come tell Chiron, in case it's the… the Labyrinth… again," Grover continued. "And the Council wanted me to… never mind, that can wait until he gets here."

Oh man, this was a big deal. Diego was a lot less aware of what went on with the satyrs and nature spirits now that he couldn't talk to Rory (well, he technically could, he just wouldn't get any response), but he knew that the Council of Cloven Elders never interacted with the demigods if they didn't have to. Sure, Grover did sometimes because he was friends with Percy and Annabeth, but if he was at the campfire on Council business…

"So Mr. D.'s not with the satyrs, then," Brenna whispered. "He's gone gone. This is gonna be so much harder."

"What is?"

She tilted her head up and to the left. "I'll tell you later, unless someone else points it out first."

Okay, that was… worrying. They'd worked out a few nonverbal signals over the years because he couldn't read lips and sometimes saying things out loud wasn't an option. If she was using her head to gesture to someone, she didn't want that person to hear what she wanted to say.

So why in Tartarus wouldn't she want Arianna to know whatever it was? Weren't they trying to defend her?

Everyone else suddenly got quiet; Chiron had arrived. Percy and Grover quickly sat down in the front row. Nyssa stayed where she was. "How's Jake?" she asked. "Did he wake up again after I left?"

"No," Chiron replied. "Will will send word if he does while we're here."

She nodded and went to sit by her half-siblings.

Diego assumed that meant that Jess would be staying with Will, then, so he moved his spear to the ground in front of him. Chiron continued, "There will be no sing-along tonight, as we have much to discuss. First, I must ask that no one enters the forest alone, as I have been informed that the dragon remains at large. As such, until it is dealt with, there will be no more Capture the Flag."

"What?" Laurel or Holly (Diego knew it was one of them, but he couldn't tell their voices apart) protested. She wasn't the only one – a lot of other people, including his siblings, were grumbling. "We don't even know who won tonight's game!"

"There was no winner. Neither banner crossed to the other side," Chiron said.

Disappointed groans rang out – that many people still cared about the game? Really?

"We'll handle the dragon," Nyssa stated. She'd stood back up. "Then we can have a re-match game or something." Harley nodded, and Shane looked like he couldn't believe she'd just said that out loud. Hell, so did she for that matter.

"Are you sure?" Chiron asked. "I'd intended to involve everyone in finding a solution."

"We're sure," Harley said. "They almost got him to let them fix him!" The kid wasn't much older than Diego's little sister back home (Alicia had turned six over the summer and thank the gods she wasn't attracting many monsters yet, he really didn't want her in the Ares cabin) but he still wanted to try fixing the dragon. Even though it'd just cost his cabin their head counselor (hopefully temporarily). That took some serious guts.

"Winter break is coming," Nyssa added. "Once more people start coming back it'll be easier."

Chiron sighed. "All right, but after the solstice we'll re-evaluate; assuming the dragon is still an issue by then, of course. Onto the next order of business: Dionysus has gone missing."

They'd really dodged a bullet; no one asked about the dragon. Maybe they'd been worried for nothing. "Yeah, we know, since Monday," Damian called.

"Does that mean you don't know where he is?" Pollux asked, sounding frantic. "I thought he was visiting Olympus or something!"

"Did he say he was leaving? Seems like kind of a random time to me," Chiara commented.

"It is! Usually he's only allowed back for like the solstices!" he responded.

"Has anyone contacted Olympus?" Malcolm asked.

Chiron's expression grew stern. "I've tried several times. Iris hasn't been able to patch me through."

Pandemonium broke out. Iris could connect to anyone, no matter where they were. So for her to not be able to reach Olympus… "It's even worse than we thought," Diego whispered to Brenna. Well, more like shouted, but it was a whisper compared to how loud everyone else was being.

"Oh, it gets worse than this," she replied. "It always does when Chiron talks to us like this."

She was right. "Did the delivery come this week?" Miranda managed to yell over the noise.

No one else seemed to have considered that; it got quiet again real fast.

The weekly delivery was how they got more nectar, ambrosia, and celestial bronze. "No," Chiron answered, and suddenly there was more shouting than before. It took fourteen minutes for him to restore order. Diego knew, because he spent that whole time staring at his watch, trying to process just how fucked they were. Celestial bronze was one thing, they had so many extra weapons lying around, but nectar and ambrosia were really important. They had a reserve supply, but how long would that last? People got hurt all the time! Like… well, like Jake.

"So we can't contact Olympus at all?" Jasmine wondered. Oh, that's who was sitting in front of him. He'd figured, but…

"Weren't you just listening to Chiron? If Mom can't get through to them, neither can we!" Butch reprimanded.

…and because he'd been listening to them, Diego missed part of what Chiron said next. "…may as well take questions. In an orderly manner, please."

Twenty hands immediately went up. Chiron called on Simon from the Athena cabin first. "How long has Mr. D. been missing, exactly?"

Brenna cursed under her breath. Diego wasn't sure why, it wasn't like much else happened earlier in the…

No way. A ton of people at Camp were superstitious, but they couldn't possibly think someone who showed up unconscious had anything to do with a god going missing. Even if that god was Mr. D.

But sure enough, when Chiron confirmed that Mr. D. was last seen on Monday, people started whispering. Great.

Unsurprisingly, Drew was the first to make an actual accusation. She'd take any opportunity to cause drama. "So, like, the day the new girl showed up. That's suspicious," she said, just in case anyone somehow hadn't made the connection.

"Wait, what?" Arianna whispered when she heard the murmur of agreement from the people sitting near Drew. "I don't even remember most of Monday!"

"Better not say that too loud," Brenna advised. Yeah, that wouldn't help her case at all. But he had some information that would.

Jess had told him all about that extremely fun drive back. Arianna couldn't have done anything, Will and her nymph friend (he was blanking on her name) were in the back of the van with her the whole time and they only stopped for a couple of restroom and fuel breaks. They made it back to Camp before lights out hit that night… somehow (Jess was probably speeding) and Arianna hadn't regained consciousness at all that whole time.

Will and Jess weren't at the campfire to vouch for her. He was.

This was gonna majorly suck.

"You have an idea," Brenna noted. Her ability to read him would never not be annoying.

"Yeah, yeah, mark it on the calendar I know you don't have." Diego really wanted to ask her to talk for him, he'd never addressed the whole camp before and oh gods what if he started speaking Latin or something? He'd never hear the end of it!

"I'll steal Chris's later. And Jess's. They'll be just as surprised as I was."

Kieran tapped him on the shoulder and Diego did a great job of not breaking the hand that did it. "Geez, dude!"

"Sorry. What's up?" This was why he usually initiated contact.

"I… uh, we… we might need to know if there's a plan? I mean, we might need to know, if there's a plan, what the plan is?"

"Right, sorry. It's not much of a plan, but since my girlfriend did drive you to Camp, people might back off a little if I –"

" – remind them I was half-dead," Arianna interrupted. She looked like she didn't wanna be reminded of that fact. Or maybe he'd scared her or something. "Okay, sure."

Brenna reached back and patted her on the shoulder (and she didn't jump but then she could actually see it coming… and she hadn't just been in a war, that probably helped too). "Don't worry, Diego hasn't completely ruined his reputation yet so they'll probably believe him."

Normally he would've protested her use of "yet" but that night… yeah, it was completely fair. He hadn't thought about that; Brenna talking would make their case worse. There wasn't really a way out of it then. He waited for a gap in the conversation, and one came after Chiron said that the two events weren't likely to be connected. He raised his hand. Great, now his leg was bouncing like crazy, he'd definitely picked that up from Brenna.

When he was called on, he said, "Jess and Will were with her the whole time, she definitely didn't do it; she wasn't even conscious when they got to New York."

"Okay, sheesh, it was just a theory," Drew snapped. "But, like, she could still be cursed or something, no one's been able to prove that yet."

…ugh, that came up? He really needed to pay better attention. "We can just ask her," Clarisse pointed out. She was far in the front with Chris (it was definitely them, he knew what they looked like from behind). "Is she here?"

"Somewhere," Miranda sighed. Wait, how did they not… oh. Of course they didn't, he'd sat in front of her for a reason. The seats at the amphitheater were tiered, but their height gap was big enough that it didn't really matter. "C'mon guys, you can't really think the dragon –"

"She saw it first," Hunter said. No wonder it just… felt like fear was in the air; he tended to have that effect, being a son of Phobos and all. Though Diego could've sworn that feeling was coming from a different direction…

"Yeah, but my cabin's not the one that talks to machines," she retorted. "Wait, that came out wrong, I'm not accusing –"

"You're right," Nyssa spat. "That's us. And I already said we're gonna deal with him! We haven't even seen him since Beckendorf –" She didn't finish her sentence.

Diego couldn't even be mad at her anymore. This was definitely not her night.

Everyone had gone quiet again; it was clear that they didn't all agree with her (since some people were still muttering) but no one was about to press her further.

After about a minute, Pollux broke the (relative) silence. "So about finding my dad… what are we gonna do?"

"We will send parties out to investigate," Chiron said. "Grover, does the Council have any search plans?"

"That's actually why I'm here. Since so many new demigods are popping up, most of the satyrs and nature spirits are already off on assignments. I- I can ask them to keep an eye out for him – I already have, but now we know you don't know where he is either – but we don't have a lot of resources right now."

"I see." It was never good when Chiron said that. "Getting the message out will certainly help. In that case… Percy, are you able to contact our oracle?"

"Yeah. I'll see if she's seen anything."

Chiron nodded. "Good. Then if there are no other questions –"

"Who's going?" Laurel (it was definitely her that time, Diego could actually see her) interrupted.

"We'll assemble all of the head counselors – that includes the cabins that have yet to be constructed – directly after lunch tomorrow to decide that. By then, we should all have had more time to think. Nyssa, will you represent the Hephaestus cabin? Jake will need more time to rest."

"I guess."

"Excellent. You're all dismissed. I may call a Camp meeting later in the afternoon, so please stay in the cabin area around that time. Don't start anything that can't be interrupted."

No one was in much of a hurry to leave (well, except Arianna, who'd whispered a quick "thanks" before taking off in the direction of her cabin) but gradually the fire died down from bright yellow to a dull red. That'd been… it was something, but it could've been so much worse.

All Diego wanted to do was go find Jess and try to explain what the hell just happened (and to get an update on Jake, and… other things) but Chiron had other plans. "Diego. A word, if you would?" He'd just finished talking with Percy and Grover.

"Busted," Brenna whispered. She hadn't left yet either; something about not wanting to be in her cabin for a while. "See you tomorrow."

"Definitely. I finally found an English VHS of… you know what." Diego wasn't about to let Chiron (or anyone else for that matter) hear that they were gonna watch The Aristocats. There was just no way. His cabin knew he liked Mulan, they knew he liked Aladdin and The Lion King, they didn't need to find out just how obsessed he was. Brenna and Jess were the only living people at Camp who knew and he was gonna keep it that way.

"Fuck yeah! Let's watch it after supper. Don't keep Chiron waiting!"

"Right… uh, I'm coming, sorry!" Normally he would've thought he was in trouble, but he never had given a report about the dragon earlier so it was probably just that.

And for once he was right. As he gave the report, he and Chiron started walking away from the amphitheater. "I just thought Jake might know how it worked, I never… I didn't think this would happen!" Diego said after he finished.

"Even had you not asked for him, he would've insisted on leading the charge," Chiron replied. "The Hephaestus Cabin has been having a difficult time since August. When he was… briefly aware earlier, he said he wanted a chance to prove himself."

That made sense; it couldn't be easy being the HC after Beckendorf. Or… "Their inventions haven't been working." Even if he didn't spend too much time at the forges (it was so much easier to fight with weapons that weren't constantly sending new information to his brain) he would've known that; people had started calling it the "Curse of Cabin 9".

"No, they haven't," Chiron agreed.

"Is it actually a curse?"

"There is not enough evidence to know for sure."

Translation: there wasn't anyone they could've collectively pissed off. "Okay… off-topic, can I see Jake?"

Chiron smiled. "I assumed you were on your way to the infirmary. You may, but keep it brief; it's almost time for lights out."

It was? …yep, 22:36. "I will, I promise… hey, do you need Jess and Will overnight?"

Chiron shook his head.

"Want me to make sure Will actually leaves the infirmary?"

"That may be a good idea. He already stayed overnight Monday. I don't believe he slept."

That sounded like Will, all right. If Brenna hadn't gotten herself put on infirmary duty, he probably would've just stayed up for two straight nights.

As they entered the Big House, Diego noticed immediately that Nyssa had beaten them there. "On second thought, maybe I should just head out…" he said.

"No, it's okay," she replied, "I was way out of line earlier. It wasn't even true, I've seen you make things. Even helped a couple times."

"Yeah, but I use them for… you know." He couldn't bring himself to actually say the word; he'd left that interaction out of his report. "Don't sweat it. How's everyone doing?"

"Jake's sleeping. He's got a full-body cast… I guess there's only so much nectar can do. Christopher's back at the cabin, he'll be on crutches for a couple weeks. I'm on my way to join him, actually, we've got a lot to talk about, so…"

"Go ahead. Thank you for the update," Chiron said. "I can get the details from Will."

She nodded and hurried past them. Once she'd left and they entered the actual infirmary Diego breathed a sigh of relief because Jake actually did look like he was sleeping. He'd heard that word used as a euphemism too many times. "Oh, hey, guys," Will said quietly. "Here for information?"

"That would be nice. I'm here to take over," Chiron replied. Will and Jess were standing on the opposite side of the room from Jake, probably to avoid waking him. That didn't stop Will from staring at the monitor and IV stand hooked up to him, though. "You've done well, both of you."

"Will did all the real work," Jess corrected. She must've changed clothes at some point, there was no sign of blood on her. "But thanks. It was… hectic."

Will nodded, causing Diego to notice the string of yellow Mardi Gras beads hanging next to his Camp necklace. Those were probably from Jess – she carried a bunch of them around to hand out as rewards for victories she witnessed. Stabilizing Jake had to count. "That it was. But give yourself some credit, you managed that bleed like a champ. We do need more medics…"

"No thanks, I'm good with assisting. If we had anyone else, I wouldn't be here," she responded.

"If only," Will sighed. "Olivia won't stay for winters, Peter retired, and no one else from my cabin wants to. Sometimes Pollux helps out, but…"

"…it's a lot of work," Chiron continued after Will trailed off, "especially with the numbers we have this year. I appreciate everything you've done; you can rest now."

"Let's go out to the hallway, this could get loud," Jess suggested.

Chiron smiled like he already knew how it was gonna go. "I'll stay here and keep an eye on Jake."

Really, Jess and Diego had no room to talk when it came to not resting, but at least they'd cop to their hypocrisy; Will wouldn't. He followed them out, and as soon as the door was closed he started, "I'm not tired, even if I was I can rest here, someone needs to be around when he wakes up –"

"Oh hey, that sounds familiar," Jess interrupted.

Diego almost laughed, but he figured that wouldn't help. "Yeah, that's what you say when he's trying to kick you out."

"There's a difference between visiting and working, and how do you know what she says when she's usually talking about you?" Will argued. "I need to stay with my patient."

"You've already barely slept this week," Jess pointed out, "let Chiron handle it."

"Practice what you preach, man," Diego added. "You always tell people to rest before they go back to fighting? Guess what, you need rest too."

Will shook his head. "That's a low blow. And by that logic, Chiron should be resting, he's had a busier week than me."

"He also out-ranks you," Diego said bluntly. "And he's immortal. So let's go back in, you give him that update, and if you still don't wanna go I'll just carry you out."

"He'll do it," Jess confirmed. "I see you looking at that door. C'mon, it's gotta be getting close to curfew by now."

She was right, they had less than twenty minutes. "Okay, fine," Will relented. "But only because Chiron out-ranks me and I feel like he's on your side."

"It's okay, Will, you can just say it's 'cause your little gay heart couldn't take it," she teased. Oh. Right. That might've made things a bit awkward if he'd needed to follow through with his threat.

"Uh, no comment," Will said. Then he made one anyways. "But I guess you would know."

"Well yeah, but with the girls I've dated I'd be the one doing the carrying. And most of the guys, now that I think about it."

Diego figured he'd change the subject before they could get too far into Jess's… extensive… dating history. He could count his exes on one hand, she'd need an abacus. Not that that really bothered him (as she would say, he was winning) but they didn't have the time. Especially if her most recent ex came up – Staci sounded like an absolute monster. "Will? Chiron's still waiting."

"Right," he replied, opening the door. Oh good, they hadn't woken Jake up so they couldn't have been too loud. Diego couldn't help but wonder why he needed that body cast… were they really that low on nectar? He could probably ask Jess later… or in the morning… maybe he didn't need that question answered after all.

"Hm," she said, and he reflexively held out his arm to her. That was her way of warning him about contact in advance. He really needed to work on not being so combative, but he was a son of Ares so that could only go so well.

They stayed in the doorway, hand-in-hand, waiting for Will to finish his report. "I'm sleeping in tomorrow," Jess muttered. "If Laurel and Holly have a problem with that, too bad. I'm exhausted."

"They won't," Diego reassured her, "you did so good today and tomorrow's Saturday and they've got that meeting…"

"They do? Wanna meet up during that?"

"Sure, it's right after lunch. You missed a lot at campfire, I can fill you in."

"…that's not what I meant but now I'm curious."

A whole year of dating, and he still wasn't good at picking up on those kinds of cues. "There's time for both." He'd make sure of it. Somehow. With his luck, Chiron would end up calling that all-Camp meeting after the HC one.

They didn't say anything else until they were walking back to their cabins with Will (except goodbyes to Chiron, of course). "My cabin will be surprised to see me back… at all," Will commented as he cheerily waved to the harpies.

"Mine won't," Jess muttered. "I love them, but I'm too tired for a play-by-play of Capture the Flag tonight. Maybe I'll just sleep outside."

"Not a good idea," Diego advised. "Remember last time?"

"There's no way she forgot last time," Will responded.

The last time was right after the war ended, before any of the new cabins were finished. A bunch of people in the Hermes cabin (including Jess) decided sleeping outside on the porch was a good idea because it was still part of the cabin. The harpies didn't see it that way and Diego was honestly surprised no one died that night. There were a lot more harpies than most people realized.

"I did, actually, I blocked it out," she said sarcastically. "Hey, is it just me or are there way too many people still out right now?" There were too many people, especially behind the arts and crafts pavilion. He couldn't tell who they were, but they changed course to go find out.

"Pretty sure the Hermes cabin got the post-campfire slot this week for showers, unless Brenna managed to trade it after I beat her at arm wrestling," Will replied. "You know they always cut it – wait, Grant?"

They had less than ten minutes, what was he doing up? As they got closer, Diego recognized half his cabin – aside from Grant, Natalie, Josh, and Tasha were there; and Julie and Alice from the Hermes cabin. Judging by how quickly Grant froze in place when he heard his name, they were up to no good. "What are you kids doing?" Diego asked.

Julie and Alice took off running towards their cabin. That was fine, they weren't his problem. "Okay, so don't tell Clarisse…" Grant started exchanging nervous glances with his other three siblings.

"I'm out," said Will. A wise choice: anything that started with "don't tell Clarisse" could only go so well. "Night, guys, try not to give me any more patients." Like they would, that wouldn't be a fair fight at all.

"Coward!" Jess called after him. She stayed to watch the fireworks.

"Wait, when he said 'more patients'…" Josh trailed off. "You're not gonna –"

"Pssh, no, idiot, it's Diego, not Mark," Natalie interrupted. Wait, she and Grant had just turned thirteen (they were twins) and she hadn't objected to being called a kid earlier? That was suspicious, considering she'd spent the last year complaining about it.

Tasha walked right up to him and Jess, completely unintimidated. "I tried to tell them to stop," she said. "But Grant said our cabin was insulted! We can't let that slide, can we?"

"Oh gods, what did you do," Diego sighed. "Actually… will it get us killed in the next five minutes? Cause staying out here might."

"No," Grant replied. "We didn't actually do it yet."

"Okay, so let's just –"

"We were gonna prank the Hephaestus cabin!" Josh blurted.

Natalie glared at him. "He was gonna let us go, dumbass! You know we didn't have to tell him anything? He's not the boss of us!"

"Well maybe he'd help!" Josh defended himself.

They were gonna prank… of course they were, Grant had been right there. "Not with this. I won't tell Clarisse on you, but you can't go through with it. Don't you think they've been through enough tonight?" Diego asked.

"But Nyssa… you… you know what she said about us!" Grant protested.

"I know. I just talked to her a few minutes ago, she apologized. It's okay," Diego responded.

"Oh yeah? To you or to us?" Natalie retorted.

Both? It seemed like both, he thought, she didn't come out and say it was to the whole cabin but she also probably didn't know most of the cabin was mad at her. "Us. So let it go, like I told you to earlier, Grant."

He had the decency to look sheepish. "Oh… okay, I guess we're all chill now then… we can save the prank idea for later. Better get back to the cabin before Clarisse –"

"Before I what? Why is half my cabin standing behind the arts and crafts pavilion?" Clarisse demanded.

Tasha smirked like she'd seen her coming and chose not to warn anyone. She probably had. "Sir, with all due respect, why are you behind the pavilion?"

"When there's four minutes left to lights out and only Mark and Sherman are even in the cabin, maybe I'm gonna go find the rest of you punks!" Clarisse bellowed.

Honestly, the kids should've expected that. But then none of them had ever been dragged back to the Ares cabin by the ear before. "Well… we were looking for Diego!" Grant lied.

"Don't drag me into this, for once I have an excuse," Diego warned. He said he wouldn't tell her why they were out, he never agreed to get them out of trouble, which wasn't exactly his forte anyways (that was more in line with Brenna's skillset, so why would he need to be good at it?).

"I know," Clarisse said, "I ran into Will. When we get back to the cabin these other losers have some explaining to do."

"Nice going," Natalie complained.

"Hey, Will's the one who ratted you guys out," Jess pointed out.

Clarisse sighed. "Diego, take your girlfriend to her cabin. The rest of you, march."

They actually did, and it looked like Natalie was off-step on purpose. Pretty much as soon as they were out of sight, Jess cleared her throat. "We'd better kiss goodnight before we get to my cabin. Y'know, since Clarisse just gave us actual privacy…"

He could absolutely get behind that. She stood on her toes, he leaned down, and something good came out of that night after all. Too bad they only had a couple minutes. Jess didn't care about curfew too much (she'd spent a long time in the Hermes cabin) despite getting caught outside multiple times, but the one time Diego actually broke curfew with her (instead of just cutting it way too close) they'd gotten put on KP for a month. Separately. He didn't even end up killing any of the harpies that came after them, that was just excessive!

"Race ya there!" she called as she broke away. Damn it, she would've won without the head start. If they hadn't been down to… a minute and a half, he wouldn't have even bothered running. "Meet here tomorrow?"

They could get in so much trouble for that, unless she was planning on finding a third person… but only if they got caught. Well, only if he got caught. "Sure. See ya then!" He booked it over to the Ares cabin (good thing the Nike cabin was relatively close) and got in just as Clarisse was turning out the lights.

Sherman turned on a lantern and set it in the middle of the floor. "Look who decided to show up! Cabin meeting, hermano."

Gods, why, he just wanted sleep. "The 'h' is silent, genius," Diego replied. Which Sherman knew, but he was just joking around.

"Oh, snap! He called you out!" Mark called from his top bunk.

"Everyone, circle up," Clarisse ordered. They didn't have a ton of open floor space, especially because there weren't cabin checks on Saturdays so of course no one cleaned, but there were only nine of them, they'd fit. "Hunter, you too!"

"I miss the Hermes cabin," Hunter muttered as he plopped himself next to Josh. Where'd he been earlier? He was part of the cabin at the moment… maybe Clarisse had just caught him first. "We never had to do this crap there."

That was maybe the one benefit of being in the Hermes cabin. Diego didn't miss that place at all; it was kind of fun living with Brenna, but it was way too crowded. And the beds were definitely not designed for someone his size. "Why are we having a meeting?" he asked as he sat down between Sherman and Mark (the easiest way to make sure no one fought and made it go longer).

"Why do you think?" Natalie snapped.

"Cause you're in trou-ble," Tasha sang like she hadn't been out late too.

"That's part of it, yeah," Clarisse said. "Let's take care of the more important stuff first: we are not getting stuck with all the grunt work again. There's no war going on right now so they have no excuse to just send us out."

Good. Missions usually sucked (they never called them "quests" since they didn't get prophecies) and the people who usually did them were mostly dead or retired. Really only Clarisse, Mark, Sherman, and himself were left out of the year-rounders. "But what if we wanna go?" Grant complained.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you actually give a fuck where Mr. D. is," Mark said.

"Who cares about the 'why'? I don't wanna be stuck sitting around doing nothing again," Sherman responded. He had a point; sitting around for most of the Battle for Manhattan was the worst.

"If you've got a friend from some other cabin that asks you, fine," Clarisse stated. "But no one here's gonna lead a search party. I don't know how those are gonna work, but I'm gonna make sure everyone who's doing that actually wants to."

"And we can't do it because…?" Josh asked. He'd missed the war by a month. Everyone else had been around at least since the last school year.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you later, here's the short version: we did everyone else's dirty work and got nothing for it."

"Yep. And they still haven't learned, but maybe they'll get it this time," Clarisse said. She didn't sound hopeful. "So, everyone good?" They all muttered their assent. Diego was hoping they were done, but he knew there was more. There had to be more. "Great. So, who can tell me why half the cabin almost missed curfew tonight?"

"We were planning a prank on the Hephaestus cabin and lost track of time," Josh admitted. He'd learned fast that it was always best to cop to whatever you did.

"I see. Why?"

"Nyssa totally disrespected us," Natalie replied. "You can save the lecture, we already got one."

Diego wouldn't exactly call that a lecture. "If you think you can talk to me like that you need another one," Clarisse growled. "Someone else tell me what happened."

"Uh… it's okay, we're good now and we're not gonna do it, I promise –"

"Grant. That's not what I asked. I wanna know what in Hades made you punks think this couldn't wait until tomorrow! You know what happens when you break curfew!"

"Why should they care, Sherman and Diego aren't dead yet," Mark pointed out.

"Permission to hit him?" Diego grumbled. It was one time.

Sherman smirked. "He's just jealous that no one can look past his ugly face and terrible personality."

"Hey, if Clarisse can get a boyfriend –" Really, Diego did Mark a favor by punching him in the gut before he finished that sentence. Mark seemed to realize that too, since he didn't immediately start hitting back.

"Permission retroactively granted, I guess," Clarisse said. "I'm still waiting for an answer."

"What'd she say, anyways?" Tasha asked. "Y'all just told me it was really bad 'cause Diego got upset."

Great, now everyone was looking at him. But that was actually kind of sweet. "And she insulted us, don't forget the important part," Natalie added as she very conspicuously turned away.

"Okay, fine, can I…?" Grant trailed off. Diego wasn't sure why he was asking for permission, but he sure didn't wanna explain that himself so he nodded. "Basically, she freaked out when Diego was over helping with Jake 'cause apparently all we're good for is killing people. I woulda just fought 'er when it happened, but…"

"…that wouldn't help," Clarisse finished. "Is that true?"

"Yeah," Diego confirmed. "But she didn't mean it, she was just worried about her brother. So let's not punish her cabin more. Please."

"They've had enough, yeah," Clarisse decided. "And you four are off the hook, 'cause if she had meant that, she would've deserved it. We can do other stuff besides fighting, none of you'd better forget that. Alarm's set for nine. Meeting over."

Finally. Hunter had fallen asleep… probably sometime near the beginning, and he wasn't getting up so Mark pointed at him. "Someone do something about that before we turn the light off."

"I got 'im," Diego volunteered. He'd moved his little sister plenty of times without waking her up, how hard could it be? As it turned out, not very; Hunter barely weighed anything and if he'd fallen asleep during that at all he must've been a pretty heavy sleeper.

"You don't have to tuck him in," Sherman muttered.

"I'm not!" Diego protested before he realized, shit, he was. Force of habit. "…whatever, I'm going to bed."

The lights went out (he could feel his siblings laughing at him, but at least they were trying to hide it) and they all said their goodnights. Despite everything that'd happened, the mood was light. It really made a difference to know they weren't gonna have to do everything again.

Although, if anyone asked...

Author's Note: ...this chapter really is as long as it looks lol (and the next one is longer if I recall correctly). But we're so close. Next chapter is the last one (for a while, anyways) that takes place at Camp Half-Blood!

Also a couple weeks ago I posted a new fic, Redacted, about that "quest" Brenna doesn't like talking about. I figured with the amount of times I ended up referencing events I should just write them all down and it... escalated. I expect it to end up being around 7 or 8 chapters once I finish transcribing it. It also currently updates monthly, but on the 14th instead of the 28th.