"I just can't believe the Titans would be dumb enough to keep such a supposedly valuable item in a place like this."

Clarisse la Rue and Michael Yew were scouting the enemy base that they would be conducting their raid on within a few hours. Michael had to agree that the setup did not look very impressive as he quickly scanned it with a pair of binoculars from their hidden vantage point several hundred yards away within a small wood. The Titan "outpost" consisted of a modest area of farmland in the scenic countryside of upstate New York. The house where the chariot was supposedly kept was two stories high and looked like something from the Victorian period. The defenses placed around the house were remarkably light, only two laistrygonians on patrol. A pair of half-bloods stood guard from the balcony of the house, although they seemed far less concerned about watching for intruders than on their game of mythomagic. Clearly the element of surprise was still on their side.

"They aren't expecting us here," Michael replied absently as he continued to scope the area, unable to believe that Luke would allow something like this to happen. In all the years he'd known the sly leader of the Hermes cabin, he'd never known him to overlook any strategic detail this egregiously. Then again, if what Percy Jackson had been telling them was true, then Luke wasn't really in control anymore, was he?

"Sentry count on the ground is two, two more on the second floor."

The Ares and Apollo cabins numbered greater than thirty put together. Nearly three dozen skilled warriors against four unsuspecting guards. If they played this right, they could easily overwhelm the outer defense and create chaos for the enemies inside. It was just like capture the flag, except his fellow campers put up far more of a fight than this. All of this should have been comforting to Michael, instead, it worried him to death. If Luke wouldn't be this foolish, how much less so would be Kronos, the lord of time, who'd had millennia to plot his revenge? There had to be a snag.

"Great, I'll get my cabin together and-"

"No wait." Michael was treading thin ground here, Clarisse was the ranking cabin leader on this mission, she ultimately had the final say, but Michael simply couldn't allow her to do what he knew she wanted, which was to lead an all out charge with the Ares cabin. Not if he had any hopes of returning home, of seeing Drew again.

"Don't you see? They knew we would come eventually. They wanted us to find out about the chariot so we'd send half-bloods to take it, and walk right into this trap. They planned for this."

"That's impossible," Clarisse snarked. "You've been listening too much to Annabeth and her pointy headed Athena siblings. The path is wide open, we need to take advantage of it now while we still can."

She started to rise from her position, presumably to return to the temporary camp that had been set up by the Apollo and Ares cabins less than a half a mile away. Michael grabbed her arm suddenly, with far more force than he'd expected. Clarisse froze and slowly turned her shocked gaze to him.

"I won't let you lead my cabin to their deaths, Clarisse." Michael gulped, he'd really done it now. Standing up to Clarisse la Rue, now of all times? What had gotten in to him? Clarisse's features rapidly turned from shock to rage, her eyes lit with black flame as she abruptly grabbed Michael by the collar of his shirt and pushed him back, he stumbled and instinctively drew his knife to defend himself. Was this really happening right now? This could get them all killed if the guards overheard their scuffle. Nevertheless, he wasn't about to let anyone kill him today, not even Clarisse.

Clarisse almost looked as though she might draw her own weapon before she must have realized the futility of it all. To Michael's surprise, not only did Clarisse back off, but her gaze even seemed to soften a bit.

"...It's Drew Tanaka, isn't it?"

"Huh?"

"Don't play coy with me now, Mike. It's Drew Tanaka, she's the reason you're acting like this. Not even Lee Fletcher would've done what you just did. So you must have a pretty damn good reason for it."

Michael sighed, he knew he couldn't keep his feelings for Drew a secret from the camp forever. His earlier concern about being known as "that hopeless guy dating an Aphrodite girl" seemed so silly now after all that had taken place in the past year. So yeah, he liked her, so what? His feelings had never distracted him in battle, in fact, they sharpened him. They made him a better leader. Clarisse was right, he never would have had the courage to stick up for his brothers and sisters to her if not for the belief that Drew had in him first. He'd never seen himself as a leader, but Drew did, and suddenly he had discovered a part of himself he'd never known was there before.

"I know what you're going to say. That I'm only a cabin counselor because Lee died, that I have a conflict of interest, that I'm letting my feelings get in the way of the objective."

Clarisse shook her head. "Well yes, but after that, I was going to tell you that despite all those things, I admire the fact that you put your duty first and accepted this mission...and I understand what you're feeling more than you could ever know. I still think you're being irrational, but...if I'm being honest, you're more of a leader than many children of Ares...and don't you dare tell anyone that I said that," she jabbed her thumb at him, lest he get the idea that she'd gone completely soft.

"I...I won't," Michael replied, trying to hide his incredulity at the compliment she'd just given him. Clarisse who had just moments ago seemed on the verge of engaging him in a one on one battle that she would have easily prevailed in.

"It takes true leadership to stand up for your troops the way you just did. I don't say this often, but you've earned my respect. And...look, you really better not tell anybody about this, I swear- no, nevermind that, I don't feel like being struck down by lightning right now. Just don't tell anyone. But...do you remember Chris Rodriguez?"

Huh? Michael was confused for a moment at the seemingly abrupt change in subject. But he remembered Chris. Mostly he remembered how he had suddenly disappeared one day and turned up as a member of Luke's Titan army. Why would Clarisse choose to bring him up now? Unless...

"Yeah, but-"

"He was lost in the Labyrinth for months, it drove him to literal insanity. He returned just before the Battle of the Labyrinth, and Mr. D cured him...one of the few genuinely kind things the old man has ever done...Anyways, we started dating soon after that. Most of the camp still doesn't know, and my half-siblings? Forget about it. What would they think of me, our camp's fiercest warrior, dating a former traitor?"

Michael tried to digest all of what Clarisse was telling him. The fact that she'd even fallen for someone was a miracle in itself. The fact that it had been for Chris Rodriguez, an honest to gods turncoat until recently, was even more jaw dropping. But the most surprising thing was that this conversation was even happening at all.

"Wait...why are you telling me this? Aren't you worried that I'll blab to the camp? Reveal your secret?"

Clarisse sighed. "No, you airhead. I'm telling you because I sincerely think you are the only other person in this camp who understands what I'm going through. I always knew Tanaka had a thing for you. She's an Aphrodite kid though, love is sorta their thing, and it's normal for them to develop crushes on everybody at some point. But Tanaka's eyes were only for you. Even when she was flirting with other guys, it was always you. I thought you might feel for her too but...I don't know, identifying every division that Patton commanded during WWII, dissecting the stand of the three hundred at Thermopylae...that comes more naturally for me than picking up on this lovey dovey stuff. And anyways, I figured Fletcher would have knocked some sense into you, convinced you to stay away from those ditzes."

Michael nearly chuckled as he remembered how Lee had actually given him the exact opposite advice. He'd never understood why Lee was so determined for them to make it work...not until he lost Lee forever.

"But you see, Mike, when we get these feelings for someone, everything else goes out the window, Styx knows that I've learned that from experience. You can't help who you fall for. And you can't help how they make you feel. If it wasn't for Chris, I don't know if even I could have remained strong after what happened with the labyrinth...and I got a feeling Drew is doing the same thing for you. So what I'm trying to say is...I get it. You don't want to die out here on this piece of dirt in the middle of nowhere, you don't want to be separated from her any more than I want to be separated from Chris."

Michael gazed up at Clarisse's eyes. They looked far more sympathetic than they had just a minute earlier. He'd learned things he never expected to discover about her in that brief time, he'd learned that they had far more in common than he would ever have thought. Maybe there was a way forward for them after all.

"So...what do you propose we do?"

Clarisse extended a hand to Michael, who was still sitting on the ground where she had pushed him.

"I think the better question is, what do you propose we do, hotshot?"