He had successfully escaped. It hadn't been that hard. No one would have expected a crippled demigod to do anything but sit meekly in his bed and wait to be cared for. But that wasn't Ryker, it would never be him. He had slipped out of the back of the tent, taking with him a few vials of nectar and the clothes on his back. It had been painfully easy to make his way out of camp. He had waited until the dead of night and slipped past the sentries without them even knowing he had moved past them.

He was done, completely and utterly. He had never wanted to be a part of this stupid war that Artemis had dragged him into, and look what it had gotten him. He was broken. He would never fire a bow again, he would never be the hunter he had been. Every day's survival would be a struggle. He would have to find some other way to hunt, if at all he even survived. Fighting monsters would become almost impossible. He would have to turn tail and run more often than he would be able to fight. That in of itself was…. Unacceptable. Will and the other doctors had told him that he had ripped off his hand after Victoria had imprisoned him against the ground. He believed it. Any animal's instinct when trapped was to escape at any cost. He was no different. Escape was survival. Survival was everything. But that escape had come at a great cost for him. His life. For that he hated Victoria. He hated every single one of the demigods who had pulled him from his forest. He had done everything he had been asked, more so in fact, and what did he have to show for it? A missing hand and time lost in caring for the woods he so loved.

He didn't bother running, didn't bother even checking where he was going. Moving away from Camp Jupiter was the only thing that he cared about. Everything else was secondary. The creatures of the night sensed his eagerness to escape and did not disturb him in his flight, and for that he was grateful. He occasionally borrowed the eyes of an owl to get a better view of the area in front of him, ensuring that he was remaining well within the confines of the forest. He did not want to be anywhere near a city or anything that held other people. He did not want to be near other demigods in particular. If one came across his path… Ryker was not sure what he would do. He was seething with fury and hatred, both of them warring for superiority in his mind. Neither was willing to give ground however, and the combination of the two made it exceedingly difficult to keep moving. He wanted nothing more than to go back and show them the same fate he had met. To be crippled for the rest of his life. That sort of justice suited the Code of the Wild perfectly. An eye for an eye. A hand for a hand. Balance in all things, even in revenge.

His mounting anger proved to be greater than he had expected and Ryker eventually did something unlike him. He punched a tree with his remaining hand, his face drawn and tight with the signs of his rage. "They did this to me." He growled, his teeth gritted. "This is their fault. They brought me into this, this is their fault."

"Yes, that seems like a good stance to take on the matter." Orion chuckled as he appeared out of the earth in front of Ryker, his glowing red eyes giving away his position in the gloom. Ryker immediately backed up several steps and brought up his remaining hand defensively. He hid his stump behind his back and glared at Orion. The Giant laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry, surprisingly I'm not here to fight you this time. I'm not even here to capture you."

Ryker heard no deception in Orion's words, surprisingly, and slowly straightened out of his crouch though he remained tense. "What do you want then?" He challenged, eyes narrowing even further.

"To offer you a chance." Orion said easily, leaning on his massive black bow. "A second chance, actually. A better deal so to speak."

"A better deal?" Ryker repeated cautiously.

"You have to know that the gods won't allow you to walk away." Orion reasoned, gazing up at the moon. "You are too unknown, and that scares them. They are going to want to bring you back and lock you down like a beast in a cage. But you already saw how they work. How's the arm? Still a bit sore from having to rip off your own hand?"

Ryker snarled but he slowly pulled his handless arm from behind his back. If Orion already knew of the injury then hiding it would do him no good. "So what are you saying?" Ryker demanded. "That you can hide me? Make all my problems go away?"

"Oh, no." Orion laughed again and rolled his glowing red eyes. "No, I'm not that nice and neither is the guy who sent me here to ask offer you his deal. No, if you want to make your problems go away you will have to do that on your own. But that's sort of why we are offering you this deal."

"What deal?" Ryker demanded. "Explain."

"Right to the point?" Orion nodded. "I respect that. No beating around the bush. Alright here it is. You want to go back to your forest, right? Fine. We have no problem with that. The gods do though. They won't let you live in peace like you want. So here's the deal: You fight for us, you help us take down the gods and you go back to your forest. No questions asked. We won't bother you and you can live in peace."

"Just like that?" Ryker asked suspiciously. "What use do you have for a crippled hunter? My prey would have no issue escaping from me."

"Oh did I forget to mention this?" Orion wondered, pulling a glove from his pocket and tossing it on the ground before Ryker. The demigod glance at Orion in confusion and glared at the glove suspiciously. "Don't worry, it's not a trap. But you can tell that."

Ryker picked up the glove slowly and stared back uncomprehendingly at Orion. It was a right-handed glove, but he had no right hand. The material of the glove felt odd as well, almost like the glove was alive. The material was like nothing that Ryker had ever felt before, and it was nearly invisible in the night even with Ryker's excellent dark vision. "What is it?" He asked finally turning over the glove in his hand.

"Call it a gesture of goodwill." Orion suggested. "Put it on. You'll see."

Ryker pulled the end of the glove over his stump and gave a soft sound of surprise. The glove sank into the flesh of his stump and Ryker's arm felt like it had been shocked. Even as he watched the glove resolved itself into the exact shape his hand had been, turning into a dark replica of the original. To Ryker's amazement his new fingers responded to his commands and he could even feel. He clapped his hands together and smiled slightly as his new hand tingled gently from the impact. He tested the limits for several more minutes, and he turned to Orion when he was satisfied. The Giant had been examining an arrow, running a finger over the flat surface of the arrow, and looked up when he saw Ryker had finished his tests. "Happy?"

"Satisfied." Ryker corrected. In truth he was overjoyed by the replacement hand. It was precisely like his old one had been, perhaps even better. It responded perfectly and it seemed powerful. Powerful in a way that he could not figure out. Like the hand's purpose was far more important than simply replacing his lost one. "So this deal. You want me to fight with you, against the gods right?"

"Pretty much." Orion nodded. "And once our boss is happy, you are free to go back to your forest and no one will bother you. He will swear on the River Styx if you would like."

"How long?" Ryker demanded. "How long until I can go back to my forest?"

"That depends on how long it takes for us to overthrow the gods." Orion answered easily, smirking. "I guess if you want to go back sooner, then you should probably move with a purpose."

"What do you want me to do?" Ryker asked, coming very quickly to a decision. If it meant going back to his forest, he would do anything. He crushed down any lingering feelings of loyalty he might have been developing towards the others and let the anger out a bit more.

Orion smiled, recognizing Ryker's rage and hatred. "You will be helping me capture demigods." The Giant answered, straightening and pulling his bow over one shoulder. "But first you are going to need some weapons in case we are caught. The gods have been making things difficult. But with two of us they don't stand a chance. Oh. And one more thing. That Blessing of Artemis that you have around you? You are going to need to get rid of that."

Ryker gazed down at his new hand and then looked back to Orion with cold eyes. "How?" He asked simply. The question was short, but it spoke volumes about what he was prepared to do. He would do anything that he needed to do in order to return to his life of solitude. Anything.

"Simple." Orion said with a smile. "Kill a Hunter."

"Done." Ryker let a slow smile spread across his face. "I have just the one in mind."

"Careful now." Orion warned. "Artemis is very protective of her hunters. If she senses any sort of malevolence from you she will put an end to it in a heartbeat and your chance at the forest will be gone."

"Don't worry about me." Ryker told him, his voice as cold as his eyes. "They won't see me coming. I'm going to need a bow."