Of Demigods and Wrackspurts (PJO/HP - Luna Lovegood)

When Luna Lovegood first showed up at Westover Hall, Bianca didn't think much of her.

Well, actually, no. She did think something of her - the same thing everyone else in their uptight military academy of a school thought at first sight of her.

Wow, that girl is a weirdo.

Yes, it was snobby and more than a little mean, but come on.

Bianca hadn't been able to help it - with her mismatched and oddly colored clothes, the outlandish accessories and that bottle cap necklace she never went anywhere without, Luna was a show and a half right from the beginning.

Her fashion sense was a serious hit against her - it looked like someone had pulled their best wardrobe picks out of a used-goods charity drive and accessorized out of a dumpster for good measure.

Stack that on to the fact that she was, at first glance, a total airhead who went off on tangents no one understood almost every time someone asked her a simple question )or talked to her period) and her getting labeled as the school loser was a done deal by the end of her second day at Westover.

Bianca was pretty sure Luna set a record for the fastest anyone's ever been ostracized by everyone in their year group - They even gave her a spiteful little nickname and everything - Luna 'Loony' Lovegood.

Yeah. Someone probably thought they were being clever.

For the first week, Bianca didn't pay her much attention.

How could she?

She was busy enough as it was, and it wasn't like she could exactly afford to be more unpopular. Before Luna showed up, it was Bianca who was their year group's outcast - odd, friendless, never-knew-what-to-say-or-when-to-say-it-Bianca who none of the other girls wanted anything to do with and was already run ragged trying to wrangle class work and a much too excitable ten-year-old of a little brother who was all she had in the world.

She just didn't have time to be nice to the one person in school who was lower on the totem pole than she was - and wasn't that a heck of an achievement - no matter how appealing (very) it would have been to make a friend (Finally).

In her defense, it didn't look like Luna ever needed it.

No, for all that the other girl stuck out like a square peg in a round hole, no one ever went out of their way to bother her.

Oh, there were mean whispers and snide insults and all the other garbage you could've expected, but there was something about Luna that meant no one ever said anything to her face or tried to start something with her head-on.

Most even went out of their way to avoid her.

No one could put their finger on why, though.

Maybe it was because they saw the way Luna walked through Westover Hall without a care in the world - like nothing and no one could bother her, eyes always at least a little distant, head lost in the clouds.

Maybe it was because even the teachers seemed at a loss as to what to do with her - none teachers ever called her out on the blatant dress code violations, her strange way of speaking, or anything else. Not even one - Once, Bianca caught Ms. Gottschalk blinking and looking at the girl with this odd, mystified expression - it was as if she'd forgotten she even existed.

(Or maybe everyone avoided her because of the feeling - the flash of something that Bianca had once felt the first time she and Luna had locked gazes, black on cloudy grey, and an odd, eery shiver had run down her spine in the half second before the other girl turned away.)

In the end, it didn't matter. The student body ignored her, Luna kept to herself, and Bianca was fine doing just the same.

Until eventually, and rather quickly, things started to change.

...

Bianca couldn't even remember the exact thought process that led her to try her luck. Maybe it was the exhaustion - she blames the sleepless nights she spent preparing for their pre-algebra test that week on her bout of temporary insanity.

Either way, instead of sitting with Nico at their designated lunch table (and inevitably having to sit through an hour of mythomagic babble), she tried to grab the seat next to Lori Templeton.

Lori was as close to a big deal as an eighth grader could get at Westover. Smart, pretty, and friends with everyone - except Bianca Di Angelo.

Typical

That day, though...

She was lonely, alright?

She just wanted to try something different (Less Lonely), maybe have a conversation or two.

(Try and make one friend. That's all she wanted. Just one.)

Needless to say, it didn't work out for her.

At all.

She's not sure how it happened, exactly, but one thing led to another and the next thing she knew someone was shoving her out of her chair. She landed roughly on the ground and managed to avoid bringing her tray of food down over her clothes by the skin of her teeth.

Not that that helped much.

"As if, loser." Lori had spat, looking down at her contemptuously. Her friends and hangers-on all tittered and giggled "Get out of here. And brush your hair while you're at it. It's gross."

Bianca didn't yell, or burst into tears (that was the hardest fight of her life). Instead, she silently snatched her bag, left her half-eaten lunch and walked out of the lunch room and out into the yard. She found herself a nice, private corner where no one could find her and plopped down with all her stuff.

Then she started crying

(It wasn't fair, being this alone. She didn't do anything to be treated like this - it wasn't her fault she never knew what to say, had no idea how to make friends. She never understood the other girls her age. All the secrets and the gossip and the fun they had- all of it flew right over her head. It was like they lived in an entirely different world, one where she didn't belong, and it wasn't fair. Even Nico had a handful of friends to play that stupid card game with - Bianca didn't have anyone.)

She was getting herself back together (crying her eyes out), knees hugged to her chest and head pressed down when she felt someone plop down next to her.

"You shouldn't listen to them, you know."

When Bianca blinked and looked up, she found Luna sitting beside her and smiling at her gently.

"Your hair looks wonderful. I think Lori thinks so too. She's nasty to you because she's jealous. It's very spiteful of her - She'll attract all sorts of nargles like that."

Bianca had never spoken to Luna before then, but she leaped into the conversation almost before she was even aware of it (She was that desperate for someone to talk to)

"What are nargles?"

"They're funny little creatures that like to live in mistletoe. Whenever they come out, they're known to cause all sorts of mischief, and they often like to go after the most mischievous or mean-spirited people they can find."

...Was this a joke? Or some kind of children's story? But Luna was nodding and staring at her very seriously as if imparting some great wisdom.

"I don't get it." She said at last. It didn't seem like she was joking, and Bianca didn't want to push the other girl away by mentioning how stupid the words sounded, so settled for not mentioning them at all.

"That's alright. Most people don't."

... Right

Luna tilted her head - Bianca could have sworn she looked amused.

Bianca should have been upset - she didn't need yet another person out to make fun of her or have a laugh at her expense, but instinct stopped her. Nothing about Luna's words or mannerisms was malicious. Odd, far out, and most of it went right over her head, but she could tell that none of it was meant to hurt.

A refreshing change of pace.

"Why did you follow me?" She paused and frowned. "How did you follow me?"

She was sure no one had seen her squirrel herself away, and she'd deliberately found the most isolated place she could hide in and didn't intend to stray.

"I don't like it when nice people get upset by silly words. It's familiar, in a bad way. You're very clever, Bianca Di Angelo, and you love your brother a great deal. Those are good qualities for a good person - don't let the drivel weigh you down. It's no good for you" Luna tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear and hummed lowly. "And as for finding you - I just followed the wrackspurts."

Bianca paused, frowning from underneath the haze of pleasant embarrassment that had flushed through her system at the unexpected (and almost painfully earnest) praise.

"Wrackspurts?" She shook her head. "What are those?"

In response, the blonde girl hopped up to her feet and extended a hand. "Come with me and I'll tell you. It's still lunch, after all, and you've barely eaten a thing. I've got some old fish crackers in my dorm - always good to have a food stash handy."

Bianca hesitated - Was this really happening? With Luna Lovegood of all people?

"Are they any good?"

Apparently so.

"No. They're absolutely disgusting. But I think company will make them taste better. Care to find out?"

Bianca didn't have anything to say to that, either, so up she went.

And you know what?

Those crackers were the most god-awful, revolting thing Bianca ever tasted, but damn if Luna wasn't right - company really did make them taste better.

(It wasn't much - Just two girls, two packets of hideous crackers and a half hour of a conversation she could barely make heads or tails of.

And somehow, it still meant everything)

The next morning, a commotion spread through the dorms.

Lori Templeton woke up half the school an hour before breakfast, screeching and screaming like a wild banshee, completely inconsolable at the sight of her formerly blonde hair, which had somehow been dyed a bright, hideous shade of neon-green that refused to wash out for days afterward.

No one knew who did it, but everyone - everyone, even her so-called friends were happy to laugh themselves sick at the sight of her.

Bianca tried (and failed) not to feel too viciously smug about that.

And later, when she sat by a certain blonde girl at lunch and told her what happened, Luna just smiled, cloudy eyes suddenly a bit too sharp and smile just a little too knowing (and just a teensy, tiny bit vindictive)

"Oh dear. I suppose the nargles got her after all."

Nargles, she said - the creatures that supposedly went after mischievous, mean-spirited people.

According to Luna.

"Oh."

And just like that, Bianca knew and understood exactly what had happened and why, even if she had no clue how it had been accomplished.

"I-" She swallowed the lump in her throat and focused very hard on keeping a straight face. "...Thank you."

The words felt so inadequate, but they were all she could bring herself to say.

Luna just frowned (the sharp awareness never left her eyes).

"For what? Never mind, you can tell me later. It's time for class."

She grabbed Bianca's hand and tugged her behind her, and Bianca went with her.

And that's how she and Luna became friends.

It took Luna all of five minutes to wrap her brother around her little finger - or was it the other way around?

Eh, who even knew?

All that mattered was that over the course of one conversation of mythical (probably) nonexistent (hopefully) creatures that Luna always went on about and a single one-on-one match of Mythomagic, Luna and Nico became the best of friends.

"She's so cool!" Nico had beamed, almost bouncing off the walls with how excited he was.

"Sit down, you little lunatic." Bianca had chided, but she grinned despite herself - He wasn't wrong.

Luna really was cool.

Their life took an immediate upswing after that.

Bianca wasn't alone. She had a friend who had her back, who smiled and listened to her day in and day out and told her the oddest, most fascinating stories and helped her with her school work (And wasn't that a surprise, learning that for all of Luna's apparent air-headedness, she was almost terrifying smart and witty in anything even vaguely academic. She ran circles around Bianca almost without trying, and she was so helpful about it Bianca couldn't get upset about it even if she wanted to - which she categorically didn't)

That was probably why Nico loved her too - She indulged him almost every chance she got. She played games with him and indulged his endless questions and even managed to sneak herself and Bianca into his dorms past curfew (somehow, no one ever noticed them) to have these big late-night get-togetheres (Somehow, no one ever heard them, or even saw them - really, Bianca should have started questioning why that was, but she hadn't dared for fear of it all coming apart)

Those nights were unironically the best of her life (As far as she could remember, anyway). They shared stories and played card games and told silly, stupid jokes that had them laughing themselves to stitches. Best of all, they brought on Luna's horrible snacks and dared each other to eat them.

Bianca was sure that stunt alone shaved off some thirty years of their collective lifespans, but she didn't care. None of them did.

(Because they were warm, those moments. Warm in a way that had nothing to do with a temperature and meant everything to all of them, she could tell. It was obvious, from the achingly melancholic, bitterly grateful light in Luna's eyes that she only partially understood and the way Nico clung to her almost without noticing, the way Bianca never strayed too far from both of them herself.)

It was amazing and special, and it was theirs.

And that was all that mattered.

And then came the school dance.

Dr. Thorn turned out to be a manticore and tried to kidnap them, the asshole

Gods and demigods turned out to be real because the vice-principal with the ugliest mug she'd ever seen clearly wasn't enough.

A goddess tried to recruit Bianca to an immortal (and very tempting) eternal girls club complete with matching outfits and a mission to kill savage monsters for sport. Somehow, she turned her down and lived to tell the tale.

And Luna, predictably, knew all about everything all along and was more concerned with finding a way to corner the goddess of the hunt and asking her about something called a 'crumple horned snorkack'

Because of course she was.

"So this.. mist is why none of the teachers ever seemed to notice you?" Bianca asked dubiously, still struggling to wrap her mind around it all.

Her life had gotten so, so weird.

"They noticed me." Luna countered, still staring up at the dark sky expectantly. "They just never noticed that I didn't belong. The mist - the topmost layers, anyway - alters perception more than anything else. The more experienced you are in directing it, the more focused, the better the results."

"Oh, that's how Dr. Thorn turned into a manticore!" Nico piped up, jittery as a four-year-old on a sugar high.

"Not quite - Dr. Thorn was always a manticore. He used the mist to alter the perception of his appearance - all monsters can do it, more or less, but only the very intelligent ones can consciously use it to disguise themselves from even demigods like he did with you. Very clever, and very patient."

Bianca frowned. "That sounds... bad."

Monsters as a concept were something she'd only had a couple of hours to digest, huddled against Luna in the tent the campers had set up for her and the other two demigod girls - Thalia and Annabeth. The idea of any monsters at all was bad enough. Intelligent ones - more intelligent ones like Dr. Thorn - that just sounded horrifying.

"Bad? No, it's awful. Monsters this patient are almost unheard of. Very ominous." Luna smiled. "I like it. Life is going to get very exciting, I can tell."

...

"Of course you think that." Bianca sighed - why was she like this? "So... what is the mist? Is it magic?"

To which Luna smiled even more brightly "I have no idea."

"You don't know?"

"Not at all!" She replied cheerfully. "Father wasn't very forthcoming on the topic and my prayers to Lady Hecate haven't been answered, so I suppose I'll have to figure it out myself. Isn't it exciting?"

No. No, it really wasn't.

"Sure, Lu."

Gods give her patience.

She paused as the thought registered.

... Did that count as a prayer? Did she just talk to the gods?

... No.

Bianca shook her head, this time to herself.

Best not to think about it - that way lay madness. The scary, lock-you-in-a-padded-room kind, not the Luna kind.

"How much longer do you think we have to wait?" Nico asked for both of them, piping up from where he'd been reshuffling his deck (Bianca silently despaired - he'd already been way too obsessed with that game before finding out that all of this Greek mythology stuff was real. How much worse would he get know?)

"I don't know," Luna answered patiently, still staring up at the heavens unerringly. "Whenever Lord Apollo's schedule permits, I suppose.

The three of them stood in the snow, unbothered by the biting chill (Luna had tapped each of their shoulders and a burst of lingering warmth spilled over them - 'warming charm' she had explained over Nico's gleeful questions) and tentatively watched as Artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something.

Thalia, Annabeth, Grover and Percy sat off to one side, whispering among themselves and pointedly steering well clear of the goddess's hunters, who seemed to return the whole I-want-nothing-to-do-with-you vibes and occupied themselves with packing up their tents faster than should have been humanely possible. They broke camp as quickly as they'd set it up.

Artemis assured them that dawn was coming, but you could've fooled her. It was colder and darker and snowier than ever. Up on the hill, Westover Hall's windows were completely lightless. Bianca wondered if the teachers had even noticed that the three were missing yet.

There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon. A blast of warmth. "Don't look," Artemis advised, her voice ringing loudly. "Not until he parks."

Parks?

Bianca averted her eyes, and saw that the other kids were doing the same. Luna slapped a hand over Nico's face when he tried to take a peak. The light and warmth intensified until Bianca felt almost too warm, between the warmth and the heat.

Then suddenly the light died.

She looked.

She hadn't known what she'd been expecting, but what she found was... a car?

A red sports car, like the kind she saw hanging on one of the posters in their art classroom. A bit on the small side, but Bianca didn't know whether or not that was a good thing.

The heat wafting off of it almost fooled her into thinking it was summer - even the metal was glowing red-hot. The snow had melted around the Maserati in a perfect circle, which explained why they were now standing on green grass and why her trainers were wet.

The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, with short sandy blonde hair, blue eyes and sharp features. If she squinted, she could even see the resemblance to Artemis even if the coloring was all off. He wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt.

"Wow," Thalia muttered a distance away. "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," She heard Percy whisper back.

"That's not what I meant."

Bianca didn't get it either.

"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter he could've blinded us without the sun car. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"Hey, I was born first."

"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"So what's up?" he interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

"Sure, sis!" Then he raised his hands in a stop-everything gesture.

"I feel a haiku coming on."

The Hunters all groaned. Apparently, they'd met Apollo before. He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.

...

"Well." Luna hesitated (and it should say a lot that even Luna hesitated at all). Her voice echoed in the clearing. "That... was, in fact, a haiku."

Yeah, the most gods-awful one she'd ever heard. Bianca was pretty sure a part of her soul just shriveled up and died on the spot.

"Except for the last line." Luna muttered under her breath, though Apollo seemed to hear her anyway "That was four syllables"

Apollo frowned. "Was it?"

"Yes." Artemis said - she sounded like Bianca whenever Nico drove her up a wall - devoid of patience and on the edge of exploding "What about I am so big-headed?"

Definitely like Bianca then - good to know.

"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmm." He started muttering to himself.

Suddenly, Bianca was struck by how surreal all of this was. How ridiculous. Last night, she'd been just another student at Westover - and now she was watching the actual, literal god of the sun argue poetry semantics with his irate sister.

What even was her life?

"Luna," Bianca said. "I think your crackers might have been spiked with something."

She was only half joking too.

"Now-"

Luna paused, expression shifting contemplatively.

Bianca whirled to face her.

No.

"You know," Luna tapped her chin thoughtfully. "That might explain a few things. Carli gave them to me, so you may not be far off the mark, actually."

"Luna!"

"What? I told you she was dotty."

Bianca nearly tackled her, and Nico's laughter could have roused the dead.

Things moved quite quickly after that.

Artemis entrusted them to Apollo, who turned his odd-looking car into a decent-sized bus for them to ride.

"All aboard!" He said, clapping h. "Great - Who wants to drive?"

Oh, heck no.

She smacked Nico's hand down the second it started twitching.

"Hey!"

"Over my dead body - no, not even then."

"She's right, Nico." For once Luna didn't let him have his way, even when he rounded on her with eyes full of betrayal. "You're far too young. Remind me to tell you the story of the last child who rode the sun-chariot - it isn't a pleasant one."

And wasn't that ominous?

Eventually, though, Apollo's eyes snapped to Thalia and pinned the honor of driving the legendary camper bus of the sun to camp half-blood on her.

She didn't look very honored (low-key terrified, actually)

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said when she tried to protest. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

"Um... Luna?"

"Don't worry, Bianca." Luna's hand latched onto her wrist and gripped tightly. Her free hand snagged the back of Nico's shirt "I'll apparate us out if we're in trouble."

Now, see, that was supposed to be reassuring (and in some ways it was) but the implication that even Luna was a little worried had her blood pressure tripling in under a second.

Nico just seemed delighted, bless his little idiot soul.

"Go on then." Apollo dragged Thalia to the driver's seat and manually placed her hands on the steering wheel (yeah, she was that reluctant) "Take it from the top - Trust me, you'll be a natural!"

Thalia was not a natural. Thalia was very much not a natural.

"We're going to die!" Bianca hissed as the sun chariot rocketed across the heavens, its trip wild and disjointed and constantly at risk of ending via them crashing into a mountain!

They arrived at Camp Half-blood with a thunderous, disastrous landing, Thalia slamming the brakes hard enough that Bianca imagined she could feel the impact at the back of her teeth. The sun bus pitched forward and nearly flipped off-kilter, slamming into a canoe lake with a massive FLOOSH!

A great big billowing cloud of steam exploded up, sending several terrified naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.

"Well," said Apollo with a brave attempt at a smile. "Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"

Apollo disappeared with a wink and burst of golden light (sunlight, because sun god, of course)

Camp Half-Blood was a sight.

Snow had been allowed to fall lightly. Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle of Delphi dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body.

"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?! Why is there lava pouring down it?"

"Little extra challenge," said Percy, patting Nico on the back. "Come on — We'll introduce you guys to Chiron. Zoë, have you met—?"

"I know Chiron," Zoë said stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."

"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.

"We know the way."

"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't" — he tripped over a canoe and came up still talking — "like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"

Zoë rolled her eyes, but it was clear she figured there was no getting rid of Grover. The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins.

"Well then." Annabeth turned to them clapping her hands, but her smile was strained - clearly, the Hunters' dismissive attitude was starting to rub even her the wrong way. "Let's go meet Chiron."

"Say, who's Chiron?" Nico asked. "I don't have his figurine."

"Our activities director," answered Annabeth. "He's really nice, and he's—"

"Let's let them see for themselves," Thalia cut in with a smile. "It'll be a good surprise."

The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.

As for being a surprise, it was.. sort of.

Aside from the sheer mind-bender that seeing an actual centaur was (Grover being a satyr only halfway prepared her for the sight) meeting a third god in less than twenty-four hours almost had her sitting down from how weak in the knees the concept made her.

The fact that Mr. D looked one step removed from being a homeless bum and was clearly, unrepentantly a jackass didn't help any.

"Hoo-rah," The god had said in a bored voice after they were introduced to him. He wore a neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and purple running shoes. A golden laurel wreath was tilted sideways on his curly black hair, which must've meant he'd won the last hand of cards they were playing. "More brats hanging around."

"Come now, Mr. D. These new campers need their orientation tour."

"Yes, yes. You deal with it." He dismissed them with an almost contemptuous wave of his hand, and Bianca was perfectly happy to split - Between Nico's mythomagic comments almost drawing his attention to them and the fact that he obviously wanted as much to do with them as she wanted to with him (nothing), she was more than happy to be led away.

(No one noticed the way his brows furrowed and his eyes lingered on Luna as she stepped away, uncharacteristically silent. No one but Luna herself)

Outside, they explained the layout of the camp and cabins. The cabins were the oddest collection of buildings you've ever seen. Zeus and Hera's big white-columned buildings, Cabins One and Two, stood in the middle, with five gods' cabins on the left and five goddesses' cabins on the right, so they all made a U around the central green and the barbecue hearth.

The architecture varied - some of it was almost what you'd expect for the home of the children of the gods - archaic, glamorous buildings shaped almost like temples in some respects.

Others, Like Poesidon's cabin, looked like a high-end beach cabin. The kind you'd find in a fancy vacation resort.

Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.

"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You guys check out the cabins. Tell everybody about Capture the Flag tomorrow."

"Uh, what is Capture the Flag?" Nico said.

"It's a war game, of sorts," Annabeth said, then she paused.

Something must have flashed across Bianca's face, and even Luna had stopped in her intent inspection of everything around them to turn and frown.

"War game?"

What the heck kind of camp was this?

"It's nothing dangerous." The daughter of Athena hurried to explain "It's a traditional camp exercise - A mock battle between cabin-groups. It's good practice for combat tactics and strategy preparation. It prepares untrained campers for real fights without the risk of setting them up against monsters, and a victory reflects well on you. It's even a way of honoring your godly parent, by showing off how capable you are."

"Our parents want us to fight?"

"No-" Annabeth looked pained "They want us to prove our capability - they don't want us to get hurt if we can avoid it."

"Probably," Percy muttered, then flushed when Annabeth rounded on him with a withering glare.

"It's alright, Bianca." Luna finally interrupted, nodding reassuringly. "It's only standard practice - far better to learn in here than you would out there."

Annabeth nodded "Exactly."

"Besides, a war game is hardly the worst way to practice. On my tenth birthday, Father set me up against a trio of Laistrygonian Giants to train my spear work."

Nico grinned, the little monster "What are those?"

"Eight-foot-tall cannibal giants"

See, it was hearing stuff like that that did bad things to her heart.

"Cool!" Nico cheered.

"Not cool!" Bianca snapped back

Annabeth and Percy just looked incredulous.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh yes. It was quite awful. Two of them were completely irredeemable, so I had to send them to Tartarus. The third was just a baby, though, and we got along wonderfully after I convinced him to switch to a poultry-based diet. Better for his teeth." She smiled wistfully. "Ah, I do miss Larry. I wonder how he's doing?"

She shook her head and resumed walking, Nico hot at her heels and already spitting out a hundred and one questions. While Annabeth stared after her, Percy just turned to look at her with the expression of a man desperately trying to hold on to the few scraps of sanity he had left.

"What the hades?"

"Don't ask." Bianca shook her head miserably. "Just don't ask. It always gets worse when you ask."

After that, it all became a little too...much.

The events of the last day and everything that had happened all caught up to her, and Bianca just... stopped caring.

She filtered out the rest of the world.

(Luna must have noticed because she didn't leave her side the entire night.)

She was silent when they set the three of them up in the Hermes cabin (She missed Luna's displeasure at the sight of all the crammed kids and how they barely had space to move around), and even silent when they got to dinner.

Torches and braziers kept the outdoor pavilion warm. Every cabin had its own table, and campers were apparently expected to sit only at the table assigned to their cabin. She wound up silently squeezed between Nico and Luna, and even the infinite variety of food and drink didn't manage to stir her out of her stupor.

(Was this shock? What was even happening to her?)

She startled as Luna grabbed her hand squeezed tightly. "Don't worry, it'll be alright."

I hope so, she wanted to say, but settled for a nod instead.

She followed the other campers' lead after that. She dumped pretty much all her food into the brazier, a wordless, vague attempt at prayer on her mind, (No more surprises, please and thank you) and the slightest hint of a question to her divine parent (Who are you?)

(She wasn't sure she wanted to know, actually. It all still felt like a dream. Knowing proved beyond a doubt that all this craziness was real, and Bianca still couldn't decide whether that would exciting or viscerally horrifying.)

And that was it.

That night, they ended up back at the Hermes Cabin, Nico already off with a bunch of the younger campers on the other end of the gender partition while Luna and Bianca got a couple of sleeping bags and laid them out side by side.

"Hey, Lu?"

"Yes?"

"This is insane."

"That's true."

"Like, crazy insane."

"That's also true."

"And you're a bit insane for being so okay with it."

"Subjective, but also true."

Bianca laughed at that. It sounded a bit hysterical (and a little choked up)

Luna's hand found hers again, even in the dark.

"It's okay to be uncertain, you know," Luna whispered in the dark. "It's okay to be scared. I often am. But don't let it ruin the future for you. It's a whole new world for you, Bianca, and you're going to be amazing. Don't ever doubt that."

...

"...Thanks, Lu."

Loony her ass. Luna was the smartest person she'd ever known, period.

And hey, that meant she was probably right. Things would work out. They always did.

With any luck, tomorrow would be better.

It wasn't.

It really, really, really fucking wasn't.

Bianca woke up, had breakfast, and before she knew it she was being fitted and decked out in armor. The leathers were worn, but the bronze plating gleamed and her helmet settled over her head snugly, blue feathers distinctive.

Frankly, she thought it was all a bit much, but no one asked her and she didn't offer her opinion either way.

Then the participating cabins got together to prepare, and the game of Capture the Flag began with a thunderous announcement from Chiron.

"Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team — Camp Half-Blood — shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis — red team — shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"

The fact that the activities director had to declare maiming off limits should have been warning enough - seriously, what kind of hell hole was this?

As always, Nico was ecstatic.

"Percy, this is awesome!" Nico crowed from where he was trailing after the older boy. His blue-feathered bronze helmet was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big. Bianca would have laughed at how ridiculous he looked if she wasn't having heart palpitations at the idea of him getting maimed.

"He won't get hurt," Percy promised, clearly picking up on her worry. "Don't worry, no one's been seriously injured for a while in one of these games, and he won't even be on the front lines."

"I'll keep an eye out for him," Luna murmured lowly, which did more to reassure her than anything else she'd heard as of yet. The other girl wore the same leather armor as the rest of them (and it suited her far better than it did Bianca, or so she thought) and her black spear was already resting against her side, the black metal gleaming and almost appearing to drink the surrounding light.

(It had gotten her more than a couple of looks - some people had even flinched at their proximity to the metal, which Bianca didn't get. They acted like it was cursed, but it felt fine to her)

Her spear made her look like a warrior. By comparison, the off-balanced sword Bianca was holding in her hand just made her feel stupid.

True to Percy's word, the three of them were put into guard positions by the edge of the creek, a distance away from where the blue team had stashed their flag.

"Just don't go anywhere," Annabeth instructed them. "Unless the other team makes off with our flag, do. Not. Move."

Then she put on her cap and vanished.

("Cool"

"Nico, shh!")

And that's how they spent the match - Hearing shouts and scuffles and the occasional explosion (that she would not be asking about, for her sanity if nothing else) that all came to a head when a silver figure darted past them and into the underbrush.

"Well, that's bad," Luna murmured as Zoë Nightshade darted right back out, hefting their flag and making like a cheetah for their base.

"Finally! Let's go!" Nico roared and bolted, and Bianca and Luna were after him about half a second later.

What they would do when they even caught up, she had no idea - probably sic Luna on her or something.

But it was clearly already too late.

"No!"

Percy showed up, hefting the red flag (wasn't he supposed to stay behind?) and Zoe was so clearly going to beat him to the punch that Bianca just acted without thinking.

(It was instinct, more than anything else)

She didn't know why, but she found herself screaming and lifting her leg, before she stamped down hard.

The earth rumbled like it was in the middle of an earthquake, and the dirt beneath her foot tore as a crevice erupted from the point of impact, a massive sinkhole tearing through the ground and growing, appearing to chase after Zoe.

At the last second, the Huntress looked back - her eyes widened, and she leaped straight up and to the side before the pseudo-sinkhole swallowed her, Percy following her lead almost at once. They managed to get clear by a fraction of a second.

Abruptly, the rumbling died. The sinkhole settled, and the earth slammed back shut with a thunderous CRACK.

And Zoe stood back up, eyes wide and staring at them, flag held aloft.

Bianca could almost feel the eyes on her, their gazes burning against her skin.

"I-"

"Sorry about that!" Luna's loud cry silenced them. "My new explosive spell is still a work in progress."

What?

When Bianca turned to her, Luna shook her head almost imperceptibly, grey eyes steely.

The message was loud and clear.

'Don't say a word.'

"Wait, what?" One of the campers bellowed - a son of Ares. "I thought she was one of Athena's kids!"

"The hell kind of godly parent even comes up with that kind of power?"

"Hecate, maybe?"

"Bullshit!"

The argument probably would spiral on from there, but it was Nico of all people who killed it dead.

"Hey, didn't Zoe cross the line? Isn't the game over?"

...

Slowly, everyone turned to stare at Artemis's Lieutenant, suddenly remembering what they were all doing and all hyper-aware of how she'd landed right over the edge of the hunter's territory line.

"Oh," The Ares Kid snarled and ripped off his helmet. "Son of a-!"

The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek, and Luna and Bianca were quickly forgotten (Zoe's eyes still lingered)

Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had the Stoll brothers on his back, and it looked as if both of them had taken some nasty whacks to the head. Connor Stoll had two arrows sticking out of his helmet-like antennae.

"The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

Perseus Jackson!" Thalia cried, storming toward him. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all Percy's willpower not to hold his nose and retreat.

"What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" she bellowed. "You were told to stay at your post!"

"I got the flag, Thalia!" He shook it pointedly. "I saw a chance and I took it! And it almost worked out! What's your problem?"

"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone! You cost us the win!"

"You had too many on you!"

"Oh, so it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that." He spat "You're the one tossing blame!"

"Alright, enough" Annabeth shimmered into existence, yanking off her cap. "Thalia-"

"Argh!" Thalia pushed Percy, and there was a burst of light that blew him backward ten feet into the water.

"Thalia!" Annabeth yelled, and the other girl paled.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to-"

A stream of water erupted out of the lake and blasted her in the face, dousing her from head to toe.

"Yeah," Percy said coldly. "Neither did I."

Thalia was breathing heavily.

"Enough!" Chiron ordered.

But Thalia held out her spear.

"You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

"Thalia!" Annabeth snapped

"Bring it bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

"Percy, don't!"

Percy raised Riptide, but before he could even defend himself, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into his chest. He sat down hard.

Thalia!" Chiron said. "That is enough!"

Bianca and everyone present bar Luna reared back as Percy leapt to his feet, looking downright apoplectic this time around. Behind him, the water of the creek exploded. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.

"Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

And then the son of Poesidon's gaze focused on something over Thalia's shoulder, and his expression went slack. The funneling cloud of water collapsed, and the water crashed back down into the creak.

"What-"

All of them whirled around.

Someone . . . something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.

"This is impossible," Chiron said. None of those present had ever heard him sound so nervous. "It . . . she has never left the attic. Never."

It was... Bianca swallowed.

It was a mummy a withered mummy draped in light fineries that was stalking towards them, the pits of its eye sockets glowing a baleful green, as if the mists were piloting it somehow.

Luna stepped in front of her as if to shield her.

"Stay behind me." She ordered quietly.

Bianca didn't have the presence of mind to argue.

No one dared to move until the mummy shuffled in between their group. Then her voice was hissing inside their heads. Everyone could hear it because several clutched their hands over their ears to protect themselves from the hideous rasp.

'I am the spirit of Delphi,' the voice said. 'Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.' She turned unmistakably toward Zoë Nightshade. 'Approach, Seeker, and ask.'

Zoë swallowed.

"What must I do to help my goddess?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. There was the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain.

The Oracle spoke:

And just like that, the future was sealed.

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