Collin POV

I was still in shock.

The Fourth Cohort was at its highest point before today's war games. Crystal and I had spent years trying to build up a reputation. At long last, we got what we deserved. We were the Cohort that everybody feared; the one that no one ever beat.

And then comes Ethan Jackson, who screwed everything up.

According to some of the other campers, it was Ethan's idea to have all the offensive fighters attack the fort at once. The concept was so unstructured, so disorganized, so un-Roman, that the enemy thought we would never see it coming.

They were right.

Why couldn't we have gotten Ethan? I mean, Jess was okay. From what I had seen, she was actually pretty good - for a newbie. But Helena . . . Helena was awful.

I had chosen to stand for her for obvious reasons. She looked powerful, but looking powerful and actually being powerful were two different things. That was something I should know well.

I was not looking forwards to dinner. Because of our parents having guests, Russell and Jade allowed the five of us (Helena, Ethan, Jessica, Sammy, and I) to return home after legion training everyday. Jade also convinced Russell to let us have the weekends off, which was supposed to be a nice offer, but it made me kind of mad. I much preferred training and fighting to sitting around with my family and nothing to do.

I walked down the path in New Rome, kicking rocks as I did so. The others strolled ahead, still chatting about today's games. Seriously, I thought, doesn't the subject ever get old?

We finally arrived at our house. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by Emily Marie, who of course wanted to know all about our day.

"We won, Em!" exclaimed Sammy. "Can you believe that?"

She smiled and started jumping up and down. "Mommy! Guess what? Sammy won!"

Mom turned corner to greet us. Her cinnamon colored curls were pulled back into a loose bun and she had a dish towel in her hands. Her gold eyes were gleaming with pride. She pulled Sammy into a hug and said, "That's fantastic!"

He simply grinned and said, "It was all Ethan's idea, really. He was the hero here."

"Oh, wait until Percy hears. I guarantee that's all he'll talk about tonight."

"Where's everybody else?" asked Helena.

"Well, Percy and Jason decided to have a quick spar, for old time's sake, and naturally Annabeth and Piper went to cheer them on. Leo left to go "get supplies," though what he needs supplies for, I'm not sure. Frank and I were just trying to clean up around here. We're certainly not used to all these people! You kids get a snack if you want. Dinner's in a couple hours."

"Why do you like exaggerating so much?" asked Jason. "I won by a landslide."

Percy's face turned red. "No you didn't! Well, okay, maybe . . ."

I stabbed my fork into my baked potato. It was excellent food (Mom's cooking always was), but I wasn't in the mood for eating.

"Hey, Dad! Guess what?" said Ethan. He was about to burst with the news he wanted to share. I wanted to crawl under the table in shame, but that wouldn't be very Roman of me.

"Yeah, son?" replied Percy, his mouth full of potato.

"We played war games today and I got this great idea for attacking and then I totally smoked Helena and I got the banners and we won and I got the Mural Crown!" He showed his father the badge on his chest.

Percy grinned, his face gleaming with pride. "That's awesome, Ethan! Victory for the Fourth, right?"

Could this moment get any worse?

"Uh, no, Dad . . . I'm in the Second."

"So . . . the Fourth lost? But I thought you guys were like, invincible!"

At that point, I wanted to die. This was so embarrassing.

Helena spoke up. "It was my fault. I let Ethan in." She stopped to glare at her brother. "Though he could have been a little nicer about it."

Ethan shrugged.

"So, what happened? Give us all the details!" said Annabeth. I began to tune them out.

I gazed out the window, watching the sun set over New Rome. The fiery orange light of the sun burned across the horizon. I stared at it, waiting for it to disappear completely. It didn't.

And that's when I realized the light was flickering. As I listened closer, I could hear shrill screams.

"Oh my gods," I muttered.

"Collin?" asked Helena, who was sitting next to me. "Are you okay?"

I gasped and stood up in alarm. "Camp Jupiter is on fire!"

A/N: Sorry this is so short. I figured that was an evil place to stop! :)

To kat callan: Thanks!

To Natsucrush106: I read your review and thought, "Sure, why not?" So here you go! Thanks for answering my question, and, uh, sorry you hate Frank?

I'm not even going to bother saying when I'll update, because I am just too unpredictable for my own good.