The thing that gave away the fact that Ren and Grian had been kidnapped was the fact that Ren's axe was still in his cabin.

It had taken a lot of negotiating with (and threatening) the Ares cabin before Tango and Zedaph were let inside to inspect it. Once inside, they realized that Ren hadn't left much behind. Clarisse had sneered at Zedaph and claimed that his pajamas had been left on his bed, as if he had dressed hastily.

One Ares kid, Isaac, said he woke up partway in the middle of the night and heard voices, but he couldn't place who it was.

Tango and Zedaph, after grabbing Ren's axe, left the cabin almost as confused as they were when they came in.

When they met up with Gem and Bdubs in front of the Hermes cabin, the pair's faces told Tango that Cabin 11 held no more answers.

Chiron and the other campers seemed to be pretty worried as well. Many of them had made friends with the Hermits. Heck, some of them were Ren's siblings.

The only person who seemed not to care was Mr. D, and that was to be expected. He assumed they had been dragged off and eaten, despite there being no evidence of a struggle, and insisted that they burned shrouds in a few days. Scar's would be burned with them, since he hadn't turned up.

However, the Hermits knew better. Grian and Ren, knowing them, had found some way to survive, probably by annoying the monsters into leaving them alone. But when they tried to tell Mr. D, he dismissed them with a snort. "As much as you want to believe it, Terry-"

"Tango," Tango corrected.

"Your friends are probably dead. And good riddance."

Tango left the big house with clenched fists, muttering about how he would strangle the camp director.

------

"I have come to a conclusion," Zedaph declared at the campfire that night, as he roasted a marshmallow. They all knew he wouldn't be able to eat it. Not until they knew what had happened.

"Great," Gem said, staring into the distance.

"And?" Tango said, taking his head off of his fists, where it had been resting.

"I think they ran away."

"Oh, nice job, genius!" Bdubs scoffed.

Zedaph shot him a look before continuing. "And I have concluded that we need to go after them."

"Of course you say that," Gem muttered.

"We don't know where they went," Tango said.

"The thing is," Zedaph said, ignoring both of them. "If they had just gone out for a little midnight stroll, they would be back. We would never have known that they were gone, except Ren would be terrible at lying as always."

"Grian's really bad too," Tango said. "Remember the whole thing with Poultry Man?"

Gem snorted. "What?"

"I think part of that was that he kind of wanted us to know," Zedaph said.

"So kind of like Worm Man," Tango said slyly.

Zedaph did not answer.

"So anyway, letsh plan," Bdubs said eagerly, rubbing his hands together.

"Not now," Gem warned. "There's people here!"

"Yeah, maybe we should wait until later..." Tango said. "Meet at the arena tomorrow morning ASAP?"

They all agreed, and didn't talk about it for the rest of the night.

Later, in his bunk, Tango couldn't help but feel a thrill run though him. He was going to be leaving, to be discovering something new. He knew that Gem and Bdubs didn't exactly feel that way. But Zedaph did. Both redstoners knew the excitement of trying something new, of experimenting, of tweaking the design until it worked smoothly. The gentle whirr of machinery usually put Tango to sleep in minutes, but right now he was too scared and excited at the same time.

Tango turned in his bed and wondered if the Hermes and Ares cabins were as panicked as he was. He assumed they were, because Ares had lost a brother and Hermes had lost someone who may as well have been. Two people, actually.

He really hoped Scar wasn't dead...

It was past midnight when Tango finally fell asleep.

------

I just realized how many of these skippy things I do lol

------

"It's simple," Bdubs claimed. "Tonight, we pack bags. We go outside. We find Grian and Ren. BAM! SELF-ASSIGNED QUEST COMPLETE!"

"I can see a slight flaw in that plan..." Zedaph said, frowning. "And that is that it isn't really a plan."

"Gem?" Tango said.

"Sorry," she apologized, tearing her gaze away from where Luke was teaching a group of kids. "I was watching the swordfighters. Also, this is still a bad idea."

"I can swordfight too!" Bdubs said, and slashed a straw dummy. "Ha-HA!"

"Yeah, but they're better at it," Gem said casually.

Tango stifled a laugh as Bdubs fumed.

This was why they couldn't have meetings without people like X to organize them. They never got anything done.

"We should get going as soon as possible," Zedaph said, putting them back on topic. "We don't know how far away they are or even which direction they went in. We need as much time as we can get to find them."

Tango nodded in agreement.

"So, tonight, then?" Bdubs asked, leaving his sword impaling another scarecrow and bouncing over.

"I think that'll work," Tango said.

"Be ready," Zedaph said. "Because we could be out there a while."

After that, they actually started practicing.

Later, Luke came over to them and immediately accused, "You're plotting something."

"What?" Gem said.

Luke narrowed his eyes. "Scar's dead. Grian and Ren are missing. I know a plan when I see one."

"No," Bdubs sputtered.

"You've got it wrong," Tango said, glad Impulse wasn't there to give it away. His voice tended to go an octave higher when he was lying.

Luke still looked suspicious but walked away.

"Be extra careful tonight, Gem and Bdubs," Zedaph warned.

"I know!" Gem said cheerfully, and skipped off toward the strawberry fields.

Bdubs stared after her and then declared, "If we're not gonna be shreeping tonight, I need a nap."

Tango laughed. "Nice to see you taking charge of your own sleep schedule."

Bdubs huffed and walked towards the Hermes cabin.

Tango headed to the forge, and Zedaph back to his cabin.

Tango wanted to finish his project before he left - the communicator Gem had asked for. He was almost done. But by the end of the day, he had decided that he wouldn't be able to finish in time.

Tango looked around the forge as everyone started cleaning up in preparation for dinner, aware that he wouldn't be seeing it again for a while. That was sad. He loved the forge. It was probably his favorite place in the camp, and that was saying a lot, because the entire place was great.

Of course, the forge came nowhere near Decked Out. That was the best place ever.

Tango vaguely wondered if he could somehow bring his favorite creation into this world, where half-bloods could play the game. It would be a fun trading card game that they could do, with a side benefit of practice running from monsters.

Nope. It couldn't happen. That much redstone here would be complicated, and where it was hard to get materials here, Tango doubted that he could do it in one summer. And surely, over that crazy cold season they had called winter, it would be ruined.

What a shame. Tango tore his thoughts away from the trading card game and finished cleaning up his stuff.

At the sound of he conch horn, Tango and his siblings filed put of the forge for dinner. Tango fingered the mostly-finished wristband in his pocket, wondering wryly what Xisuma, who was sixteen versus almost everyone else being twelve to fifteen, would think when he heard that they were running around outside of camp.

Tango felt a little worried about the Hermits back at home. Boatem would be devastated if they found out that Scar was possibly dead and Grian was missing. Doc would be worried as well, but he would actually do something useful about it. Tango admitted freely that Boatem would run around screaming, fall into the Boatem Hole, die, respawn, and try something stupid like coming to Camp Half-Blood when they were mortals and couldn't enter.

While he was eating, Bdubs came over and whispered (loudly, because he was Bdubs), "Zedaph says meet at the pine tree at the top of Half-Blood Hill as soon as  your cabin is asleep."

Tango nodded slowly, and Bdubs walked back to the Hermes table to sit next to Gem.

Tango knew he needed to eat. He was going on a rescue mission that he didn't know how long would last. But despite his growling stomach, Tango couldn't find his appetite.

"You should eat, " Beckendorf advised. "We have Capture the Flag tomorrow."

Tango had forgotten about that, but there was no point in remembering since he wasn't going to be there for it. He shoved a bit of roast beef into his mouth and felt his desire for food return.

After dinner, Tango followed his siblings back to the Hephaestus cabin. His dad's cabin. Despite being her for a while, Tango still had a hard time thinking about it.

An hour after lights-out, Tango whispered, "Is anyone else still awake?"

"No," someone else whispered back.

"Wow," Tango said.

"Whoops," the person said, and then fell silent.

Tango did as well. Thirty minutes later, he said again, "Is anyone awake?"

Nobody answered.

Tango got out of bed, dressed, grabbed his sword, and slipped outside.