A/N: It's been a long time...more at the bottom!

-Three weeks later-

-Apollo-

Three weeks almost felt like an eternity. For a being that was almost four thousand years old, that was saying something.

Apollo had looked everywhere for his sister, combing every forest and park in the United States. Even for a god, the world was a big place. With the others, they looked at Artemis's favorite haunts, venturing to other countries around the world. The truth was, despite all their godly powers, if Artemis wanted to stay hidden, she could. They might catch a trace of her essence, a shadow of where her power had recently roamed, but even that was nowhere to be found. She was just as powerful as the rest of them, and her hunting abilities made her a lot harder to find. It was no surprise that they'd had nothing to go on: no one had seen her, no one had heard from her or the hunters.

Their table was scarce today. Only Orion and Athena sat with him, which was in itself a kind of personal torture. Orion had not forgiven the others yet for hiding him from Artemis all this time. Athena wasn't about to apologize to a mortal, even one as important as Orion. Apollo had to give him a lot of credit; he managed to keep his temper in check and treat Athena with indifference despite the hate in his eyes. Orion was a lot more open with him, though. After all, Apollo didn't know about him being alive. After a very extensive Styx oath, Orion believed him.

Mortals loved to get Gods on a Styx oath.

The bell rang for class, the masses of students wearily standing to continue the day. No wonder kids complained about high school so much. It was repetitive, the only excitement coming from the petty drama of the mortals. Even that was not enough to entertain Apollo the past few weeks, and he enjoyed the drama.

"Where are we going tonight?" Athena asked warily.

"I think we should go to South America."

"Didn't Hermes check it two weeks ago?" Orion questioned.

"He did, but she loves hunting there. She may have ventured that way again, and with more eyes, we might have a better chance on finding her."

"Plus, if she's hunting, she may have her focus on that and not blocking us out," Athena added.

"Artemis doesn't lose focus, ever," Orion countered.

"You are biased," she retorted. She didn't add what they both knew: Orion was right.

"Whatever. We're not going to find her if she doesn't want to be found," Orion grumbled. He was angry at himself, for the disaster Aphrodite put him through. She wouldn't apologize either, to anyone. All of them had their secrets and motives, long enough that they knew better to try to reason or pry into the others affairs. That led to wars. They just had to play their own games.

Neither of them responded. Orion left them without preamble, heading down the stairs to his next class.

"I hate it when mortals are right," she ground out.

"It happens. We are also occasionally surprised."

Athena snorted. She claimed she was never surprised, that she also knew this whole fiasco was a possibility. She shook her head. "We just need to alter our strategy. I'll talk to you this afternoon when we are done with these pointless classes."

She stalked off down the hallway. His class was a few doors back. Apollo hadn't even realized that he'd passed it. He walked back down the hall, barely noticing that the hallway was empty, the doors about to close as the next class began.

A blur of color appeared in front of him, almost startling him. Cas materialized, grabbing him by the arm and tugging him into the nearest classroom.

"You know, I'm kind of getting use to you popping in and out of my life," he teased her in a dry tone.

Cas nicely asked him to leave the others oblivious to her knowledge of their world. Apollo agreed, his reasoning teetering on the fact that should was an advantage, an ace up his sleeve, and the fact that he wanted to keep her as far away from other immortals as possible. No mortal may ever believe her, but the curse didn't apply to his immortal brethren. They would use her as a tool. Gods and goddesses knew a lot, but the future wasn't always concrete and something they were privy to. Having someone that could alert you to changes and ways to circumvent them held a precious advantage.

"I think you like feeling important," she rebutted. "We have maybe two minutes. I can't afford to be tardy to class again, but this couldn't wait."

"You've seen something."

"I have, but it wasn't enough on its own. I had to do some research, but the news is good. It changed things, so I'm feeling pretty confident. Can you meet after school?"

"Why can't we talk about it now?" Excitement at having any kind of lead spurred him into action. The need to find and fix things with his sister was eating away at him. She was his other half, the opposite side of the same coin. When they seriously fought, which wasn't very often, it affected both of them, like an itch that he couldn't scratch.

"A few hours aren't going to affect anything. In fact, bombarding her will just make her stay away longer. Trust me on this."

Sincerity rang in her words. Apollo's need to fix things warred against taking a mortal's advice. This mortal was a little different. He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a resigned sigh. "Right after school?" He'd have to move things around with Athena, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Cas nodded her head. "Meet me at the coffee shop on 4th. It's only a few blocks away. And before you ask, yes it's the building that you spied me at with Actaeon."

His lips quirked slightly to the side. "Just a little box of surprises, aren't you?"

She strode towards the door, pausing as she opened it to look back at him. "Make sure you aren't followed."

She vanished, the door slamming shut just after the bell rang.

Apollo picked a seat near the back of the coffee shop, a couch surrounded by enough curtains that it offered a bit of privacy. He'd ordered two cups of coffee, thinking that the caffeine was a good peace offering. He sipped on the beverage, not even surprised when Cas appeared right beside him, her hand materializing on her cup.

"You are a natural," he noted with appreciation. Her ability to appear and disappear, to remain hidden in both the magical and mortal world, was yet another invaluable asset she offered. It was no wonder that Isis used her for work. Even he was tempted to contact her for services after all this was over.

"I've had a lot of practice," she murmured as she brought the cup up to her lips. She inhaled the scent with closed eyes, a soft sigh leaving her. "How did you know that I liked skinny vanilla lattes?"

"Perks of being an immortal."

She nodded her head, not needing any more explanation than that. "On to business! The question isn't where Artemis is. Actually, she's all over the place. The better question is who she is with."

"Go on," he encouraged with a wave of his hand. He thought she'd be with the hunters, certainly, but beyond that? He wasn't sure.

"There is someone that you've thought about talking to recently, I'm guessing. It wasn't very concrete, so it must have been a fleeting thought. He'd have blond hair and blue eyes, young, but a little older looking than me. He was really attractive, actually."

Apollo raised a brow, thinking that if she found someone who looked similar to him, then she probably found him attractive as well. Maybe she wasn't as aloof to his charms as she seemed.

"Get your head out of the gutter, sunshine."

"What gutter?" he questioned innocently.

Cas rolled her eyes. "Anyways, he'd also have a sister-"

"Freyr and Freyja." She was right about the fleeting thought. It was maybe a day ago that in his desperation, he considered seeking help outside of his pantheon. They'd been looking for her at her hunting haunts, thinking that she's resort to her normal actions when she was angry or stressed out, which was going on a hunting spree. Apollo considered the fact that it might just remind her too much of her old companion, so maybe she would take another route to take her mind off things. Freyja was her friend, so maybe she'd made contact.

"Norse immortals? Wonderful," she mumbled. "I think Artemis is with her. If you go talk to him, it should start a chain reaction. You won't find her, but it will get the ball rolling. This is the only thing I've seen so far that will get her to come back."

"How?"

"You go talk to Freyr, he'll be honest with you. I think you will tell him what you want to tell Artemis. He'll deny telling you where they are, but he'll feel bad enough that he'll seek out a little chat with his sister. That's what I saw. I did a little research with some of my magical community contacts, and it seems that a certain immortal pirate has been going to town recently with a bigger group than normal in tow. Sounds like Artemis and the hunters joined up for the fun. As long as the conversation between Freyja and her brother happens, it will spur her to speak to Artemis, and eventually, she'll come to the conclusion on her own that she needs to come back."

"Eventually?"

"Well, if you made a concrete decision to go talk to him, it would be more certain," she reasoned, giving him a knowing look. He'd have to make the decision concrete to lock that version of the future into a serious possibility.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow."

She closed her eyes, her mouth pinching. "Not tomorrow. He'll be in a bad mood. Try again."

"This weekend then?"

She nodded her head in approval, the tension on her face easing. "It's varying a little, but I think it will be before the equinox."

"Thinking isn't what I want to hear."

"I can't see a calendar in my visions, Apollo."

"Well, if she doesn't, the world might just end with my father's wrath."

"That wouldn't be good," she muttered. She tucked her hair behind her ear, the emerald green piece of her hair peeking through. "If it helps at all, it's the possibility I'm most certain about. It's your best chance." She bit her lip, before sighing. "World's best chance, actually."

He nodded his head, taking another sip of his coffee. He knew she was right. All of what she said sounded too much like Artemis to not be true. The Norse ships couldn't be tracked. He could ask Poseidon for help, but the Norse had their own sea god to counter theirs. Artemis hated being pushed or cornered into anything. She was the huntress, and it wouldn't be turned around on her. The open sea would provide the freedom she desperately needed. Even Athena had come to the same conclusion earlier that maybe they needed a different strategy. Their impatience might be the biggest obstacle, but if Apollo managed to get everyone to back off, this plan might just work.

"All right. I'll find him this weekend, and we'll have our talk. You'll let me know if anything changes, if anything new happens."

Cas snorted and offered him a salute. "Yes, Sir."

His lips twitched, almost breaking into a smile. "Thank you. You didn't have to help."

"I did owe you. If I didn't, I'd risk you blasting me into oblivion. No thanks."

"I wouldn't do that." Cas raised her brow, giving Apollo a speculative look. "Okay, I'd try very hard not to."

"Which I commend you for," she added with a wink. "Immortals are always wild cards. It's hard to predict what you'll do when your pride and tempers get in the way."

"And you saw that'd you'd die at my hands?"

"It was a remote possibility, if our tempers escalated. Out of the immortals I've been around, you've been the least likely to kill me, if that makes you feel any better."

Apollo sat back, considering her words. "And how often do you see your own death?"

Cassia fiddled with her cup before taking a sip of her coffee. She set it down, her face betraying the riot of emotions she attempted to contain. "A good bit."

Apollo wanted her to elaborate, but he also didn't want to push her. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. He was curious though, what she'd managed to do in her young life, what she accomplished…

"I've made a lot of enemies," she admitted before draining her cup.

"I find that hard to believe," he responded softly. Cas had a temper, sure, but she seemed so inherently good to him.

"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of. To gain favor with one immortal, I piss off another. You can't make them all happy."

Apollo heard the anger, the regret in her voice. He suspected that she was deeper into their world that he first realized. How tangled had she been in Isis's schemes? What had she done that kept her up at night? He doubted her family knew of her escapades. He sat forward, resting his arms against his thighs. "You are better than that. Maybe you have done things, but I'd wager you did them for the greater good. You play the part of the villain so others don't have to."

She stood up, and for once, Apollo could see the danger in her: the ruthlessness, the cunning, the drive to leave the world in a better place, free from what she considered a danger. Stronger beings didn't matter. She was dangerous, which could make her a great asset or an even greater enemy. She leaned forward, her eyes glittering with unspoken knowledge.

"Hero…villain…it doesn't matter. I play whatever part I need to as long as it keeps innocent people alive."

She pulled away, a smile on her face. "I've given you what you need, so as far as I see it we are square. Thanks for the coffee."

"No problem," he murmured.

"Next time, I expect to get paid," she added in a teasing voice. "I've got things to take care of. Mind if I head out?"

Apollo nodded his head. He watched her leave, vanishing just as she walked out the shop door. A mortal did a double take, shaking his head at what he probably assumed was a gust of wind. Apollo finished his cup. What he said earlier about surprises was more of a dig at Athena than the truth, but every once in a while, they were surprised, which Cassia had achieved. His opinion on her character hadn't changed, but her determination was something he'd underestimated.

One thing was certain. Apollo did not want Cassia Woodard as an enemy.

Hope you enjoyed this long awaited chapter!

A few things:

-I plan on updating weekly, most likely on Saturday or Sunday

-Thank you for sticking with me through this absence. I had other stories and my own book to work on, and with moving, a new job and puppy, this story fell to the wayside. Now that I'm plotting and wrapping up editing my book, I'll have more time to dedicate to this.

-Thank you for the reviews and follows. I wish I couple reply to the guests, but sadly, I can only tell you here. Thank you so much! It means a lot for you to read it, let alone take the time to leave a review

You guys rock! See you next weekend! :)