Sorry for not updating for like, 3 months, but I had this horrible, horrible writer's block... so I got a slightly longer chapter this time. Wish you like it, and remember to review!

IX

"I believe that you will not speak of our existence or location to anybody in this world?" Reyna Ramírez-Arellano raised an eyebrow at the twins, who both nodded.

"You better not," the girl with black hair and electric blue eyes-who they had found out is named Thalia- glowered, mainly at Apollo, who flinched slightly at her glare. Artemis almost rolled her eyes. You are a Firestorm assassin, idiot!

"If you do, we won't be so certain about your life," Annabeth, the pretty blonde girl with scary gray eyes said. "We've seen you fight: you guys are good. But trust me," at this she glared at the twins, "we are much, much better."

"Where did you guys learn to fight like that?" Thalia asked.

Artemis and Apollo exchanged looks, then shook their heads. They doubt that they're allowed to start spouting random information about Firestorm to strangers. Especially scary, dangerous strangers like the four girls around them.

Reyna sighed. "We won't push, though that does make you seem more suspicious, you know."

The twins nodded.

"Are there only girls?" Apollo suddenly asked. Artemis looked like him like he's crazy. Why in the world would you ask that question?

When their four guards turned to frown at him, Apollo shrugged. "Well, there are only girls here…"

Then, Piper, the girl with brown hair and kaleidoscope eyes asked, "Are you stupid?"

"Of course he is," Artemis answered before Apollo could even open his mouth. "What did you expect?"

"Hey!" the younger twin protested while Thalia and Piper chuckled. Annabeth only smiled a little and Reyna remained stoic.

"Where are we going?" Artemis asked cautiously. This is a dangerous question to ask when the people around you are dangerous and very likely enemies.

"Our camp." To her surprise, Reyna actually answered. "We will decide what to do with you two when we get there."

Apollo gulped. That did not sound good…

στριμμένα

After walking for some time, the group of 5 girls and a boy arrived at a tall hill with a tall, healthy pine tree on it. Something gold glittered on the branches of the tree.

"Welcome to Camp," Annabeth said, not sounding welcoming at all.

"This is the Greek Camp," Reyna said. "The Roman Camp is somewhere else."

"Greek and Roman?" Artemis said, slightly puzzled.

Thalia nodded. "The Greeks and Romans are huge rivals in the ancient times, which were mainly why we named our two camps that. Piper, Annabeth, and I are Greek. Reyna is Roman."

"But the Greeks and Romans aren't the only groups of Hunted," Piper added. "There are also the Hunters and the Amazons. Thalia joined the Hunters."

"But if you guys are rivals, why…" Apollo trailed off.

"We are currently at war," Reyna said, not really answering his question. "But not with each other. We have come together to defeat a greater enemy that will benefit all of us when defeated."

"Who's that?" inquired Apollo.

However, Annabeth only said, "You have your secrets. We have ours."

And that was the end of the conversation.

People stared, pointed, and whispered as Artemis and Apollo were led past towards a large building.

"The Big House," Piper told them.

"Creative name," Apollo muttered, then yelped when Thalia cuffed him on the head. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"Please ignore my brother," she said apologetically. "He's unnaturally stupid."

Piper snorted softly while Thalia crossed her arms. "Well, of course he is. He's a boy."

"Do you have a problem with that?" Apollo snapped.

"Yes, and you can't do anything about it," Thalia shot back.

Both growled and glared at each other, trying to stare the other down. Artemis sighed. What did she every do to deserve being in this situation? Just why exactly is she between the two of them?

"You two, can you please stop?" Annabeth's glare was the scariest of them all. The two of them averted their gazes, Apollo with a scared expression and Thalia looking annoyed.

"For your information, Thalia is a Hunter," Piper piped up. "And not just any Hunter. She's the lieutenant of the Hunters."

"I'm sorry?" Artemis and Apollo were confused.

"The Hunters are a group of girls who, instead of taking refuge here, decide to risk their lives out in the wild and hunt down monsters that the Giants send our way," Annabeth explained. "But you can't just become a Hunter. You have to swear an oath to never date, never fall in love, and well, basically remain a virgin for the rest of your life, until you are killed in combat or during a hunt. Falling in love would either kick you out, or even worse, you'll be executed."

"A Hunter…" Artemis whispered in awe. This was definitely her type of group, just like those back in school…

And suddenly, for the first time in almost a year, a painful grief filled her chest. Zoë, Phoebe, Asia, everyone… and also her family: Hermes, Hebe, Athena, Auntie Hestia… hell, she even misses Hera and Demeter!

But Firestorm had taken her and her brother, tore them from their peaceful, care-free life.

Firestorm had taken away everything.

But then, Artemis had the best idea ever. What if Apollo and her just run away like this? They could take refuge here at this camp, and maybe she'll even be able to join the Hunters!

But her hopes were crushed when they arrived at the Big House and Annabeth told them, "We'll just ask you some questions before we send you back to where you came from."

"Can't we… stay here a little bit?" Artemis asked, flinching a little.

Annabeth stared at her with her piercing gray eyes. "No. You are not one of us, and we don't know who you are yet. You could be a spy or an enemy. In here, especially now, we, the Hunted could not afford to take risks."

"Why do you guys call yourselves the Hunted?" Artemis asked before she could stop herself. "What's so special about you guys?"

She was met by silence. But just when she was about to think that her questions aren't going to be answered, Annabeth spoke up, "We're special."

Well, that sure explains a lot.

"But not special in the good way," the blonde continued. "In a way, it might be good, actually, and cool, but it comes with a heavy, heavy price. Most of us don't live past adulthood."

"That doesn't explain a lot," Apollo informed her.

"Good," Annabeth nodded stiffly. Suddenly, she stopped, pointing to a door at the end of the hall. "Chiron is in there. He might answer your questions. But you'll have to answer truthfully as well. Remember, your life is on the line."

Artemis heard Apollo gulp before the two of them walked the rest of the way down the hall, conscious of the four pairs of eyes watching them carefully. Artemis raised a hand shakily and knocked twice.

"Come in," a voice said. The voice sounded nice enough. Maybe this wouldn't be that bad…"

Apollo pushed open the door hesitantly, and the twins almost screamed.

"Holy crap!"

Artemis was sure that she heard stifled laughter behind them, but she didn't care. All she could focus on currently was the man on a horse in the room. Not a man sitting on a horse. A man literally sewn onto the lower body of a horse.

A centaur.

Artemis thinks she's going to have a heart attack.

The centaur looked up from where he had been reading a book. "Ah, come in, come in."

"He talked!" Apollo whisper-screamed.

"Of course he can talk!" Artemis whisper-screamed back at him. "He has the upper body of a man!"

Apollo then let out a string of murmured curses; Artemis was extremely appealed to imitate and let out some shock that way as well.

The centaur looked nice enough, with graying brown hair and a twinkle in his brown eyes that reminded Artemis of Dumbledore. He beckoned them in, and trotted over to close the door gently behind them.

And then, something even scarier happened.

The centaur's lower body suddenly folded and overlapped, and within seconds, instead of a centaur standing in front of them, the twins were looking at a man sitting in a wheelchair, his legs covered by a blanket.

All they could do was gawk. "In the name of Zeus…" Artemis chocked out.

The centaur held out a hand, smiling warmly. "Hello children, my name is Chiron. Would you like to introduce yourselves?"

To Artemis's surprise, Apollo recovered first to answer the question, though his voice was still shaky as he said, "I'm Apollo, and this is my twin sister Artemis."

"Which one is older?"

Artemis raised a hand.

"I see," Chiron nodded, then gestured at the worn sofa at one side. "Please sit."

Artemis and Apollo did just that, though they sat a bit closer to each other than usual, as if they're afraid if they sat too apart, the centaur would suddenly gobble them up one by one.

…That didn't really make sense, did it?

"I would like to ask you a few questions first, and then, if you two have any question, I'll gladly answer, unless it's too private."

Artemis and Apollo nodded their understanding.

"Okay," Chiron leaned forward a little, putting his elbows on his knees and resting his head on fisted hands. "Why were you two fighting that man?"

The twins exchanged glances before Artemis opened her mouth hesitantly. "Well… you see…" And suddenly she found herself blurting out everything to Chiron, starting from the day they woke up in a plane, tied up, to the horrid training, to passing the tests, to Ariadne's death on her first mission, and finally, to being sent to kill Alexander King. Something about Chiron just seems to put you at ease and trust him. "And then, well, you know the rest: we were brought here, and now, here we are."

Through the whole explanation Chiron had listened on patiently, occasionally nodding. There was no change in his expression, though Artemis noticed that his hands were clenched a little bit tighter when she was talking about the whipping.

"I see," he said when she was finished. Then, "Is there any way I could help you? Maybe lend you a hand in escaping or anything? No one," Chiron's eyes suddenly turned cold, the twinkle dying, "No one, especially children, should receive such treatment."

Artemis almost asked him to help them escape, and she knew that Apollo was ready to agree at any moment: Firestorm was horrid, and true, no one should deserve that kind of treatment, but suddenly, she remembered Melinoe, Kymopoleia, and Eileithyia.

Over time, the twins had discovered that both Melinoe and Kymopoleia were extremely homesick. Though they had always been the distant, seemingly-uncaring ones, they had loved their family very much. And it had been so many years already… Such a long time…

But Eileithyia, however, was different. She was the exact opposite. The twins found out that she hates the Olympians with passion, especially Zeus and Hera, her own parents, as they had abandoned her at the age of two. Artemis and Apollo were shocked; they didn't even know she existed, though that just made Eielithyia even more furious.

"See, they don't even care!" she had said angrily. "Even after I was kidnapped they didn't even send search parties!"

But still Eileithyia helped the twins, despite saying that she hated the Olympians.

"No," Artemis said, cutting Apollo off when he began to protest. "We still have people in Firestorm that we want to save."

Apollo's protests died, and he lowered his blue eyes. "Right, Melinoe and Kymopoleia."

"And Eileithyia," Artemis added.

Apollo gave her an incredulous look. "If we bring Eileithyia back home, she'll kill Dad and Hera!"

Artemis was silent for a moment, before saying quietly, "I don't believe that Dad and Hera would have actually abandoned her. And I doubt that Eileithyia truly hates us, the Olympians." She took a shuddering breath. "We just have to take the risk. If she does try to attack anybody, we'll subdue her. Two against one. We have a chance."

Apollo was still looking at her, shocked, while Artemis turned to Chiron, who had been watching with a thoughtful expression. "We would like to contact our families, telling them that we, along with Melinoe, Kymopoleia, and Eileithyia are safe. That is all. Then, we would like to return to Firestorm."

Chiron raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

Artemis nodded solemnly while Apollo just looked away, sulking slightly.

The older twin quickly typed up an email, sending it to Athena's email (because that's the only email address she could remember), and very soon, Apollo and Artemis were ready to leave.

"I'm glad you two survived the interrogation," Piper winked at them.

Artemis shrugged. "It was nothing."

Reyna gave them a long, hard stare and a stiff nod. "Good luck."

"Thank you," Apollo nodded his gratitude.

"Wish you punks have fun!" Thalia slung an arm around Artemis's shoulders, ignoring Apollo completely. "You would make a great Hunter, you know?"

Artemis's lips twitched into a small smile. "I would love to join someday."

Annabeth nodded at them, a small, barely visible smile on her face. "May the odds be ever in your favor."

The twins laughed, and waving behind their shoulder, made their way down the hill.

Making their way back down to hell.

στριμμένα

Athena almost screamed when she read the email, but she kept her cool as she calmly walked down the winding staircase to the living room where most of the adults were gathered.

She showed them the email, but her mind was blank, not recalling the adults' shocked reactions.

But in her blankness, all she could remember was one name: Eielithyia.

The girl that had killed a man in front of Athena's very eyes.