[reconciliatio]

Reese's static-filled message reverberated through the metallic room, each loop sending another pounding tremor into Tessa's heartbeat. Her eyes were fixed on a hazy point in the horizon, like she was picturing Reese giving the message, a desperate look on his face. He'd be weary, his sapphire eyes filled with longing to go home, but determination would be etched into the hard lines of his face.

By the gods, her heart twisted even more at that.

Tessa stirred into action with trembling hands. As Reese's message continued on in the background, she dug out her phone and dialed the first number she found—Kaden's. He answered after the first ring.

"Hey, Tess, what's up?" Kaden asked. He sounded tired, like she'd awoken him from whatever haphazardly timed nap he'd decided to take.

Tessa took a shaky breath. "I need you to come down here. You and all the others."

"Alright, but is something wrong?" Kaden's voice took on a level of imperative, like Tessa's own tone had shaken him awake.

The daughter of Poseidon glanced at the computer's glowing monitor, at the cadences of Reese's message bobbing up and down on the screen as it repeated.

Tessa breathed, her heart squeezing in her chest. "Reese is alive."

~~

Word spread quickly. In less than ten minutes, the Principia's basement was filled by those possessing access. The group was made up of pajamas and armor, winter coats and weaponry, as if they were about to fight a monster made of wintertime magic. However, what they faced on that computer screen trumped whatever they could have been facing.

Kaya shook her head, mocha irises wide with disbelief. "How the hell..."

"I know," Tessa managed. She inhaled sharply, slowing in her pace as she prowled around the room. "It makes no sense."

Dale pushed away from where she leant against the wall, golden eyes gleaming with theories. "That message was sent through the bracelets, it had to be. But...how?"

"Reese is tactful, he's probably been able to evade discovery for all this time," Kaden chimed. The son of Venus dragged a hand through his bedhead, as if that could tame the mess.

"Yet again, I ask how," Dale countered, padding over to join the rest of the group.

"Where the hell is Allistairs?" Sophia asked, glancing around the room. "He built the bracelets, he probably knows how this was able to send."

"He should be with Kiara," Tessa responded, to which Sophia quirked a poised brow.

Kaya turned away from the monitor, a visage of confusion on her face. "Why's that?"

Tessa shrugged. For the past two months, Eli had been disappearing at odd times to go visit Kiara, the quiet girl who had been Flynn's cell-mate in the alternate universe. The blue-eyed girl never spoke a word as far as Tessa knew, but the more the son of Ahklys disappeared to her aid, the more Tessa wondered their connection.

Sophia rolled her hazel eyes, marching off of the central platform. It was then that Tessa noticed that the daughter of Athena had come storming down to the Principia directly from bed—a fuzzy robe was tied around her lithe frame...and fluffy penguin-shaped slippers sat on her feet.

"I'll go get him," The redhead muttered. "Anyone else I should retrieve?"

"Imogen," Dale remarked.

At that moment, the doors burst open before anyone could agree. Imogen Cadwell burst into the room, jade eyes blazing. She was in a flimsy pajama set, and given the news, had hardly cared to grab something warmer to beat the winter chills. The pallor of her skin radiated that cold; she looked like she'd seen a ghost.

And yet, the daughter of Cupid wore a visage fiercer than that of a lioness. "What are you all standing here for? Why haven't you gotten to work at rescuing him?"

Glances were exchanged around the room. Tessa cleared her throat, stepping forward. "We only just now received intel that he's alive, Imogen. We're working on it."

"Then work faster," Imogen's words were clipped with rage as she stalked forward, oblivious to the chill of the room. She padded around to the platform, and as she staggered to the front of the monitor playing Reese's message, Tessa watched as she began to relax.

Reese's voice, no matter how broken or far away, still had a reach on the daughter of Cupid. A flicker of hope danced in Imogen's jade eyes, but just as quickly, morphed into an inferno of determination.

"This is to be our top priority," Her voice was gravelly.

"Imogen, you know we can't guarantee that." Kaya started, sweeping her mane of mahogany hair over a shoulder.

"You better guarantee it!" Imogen roared. "Reese Hale has been held as a prisoner in another universe and you mean to tell me that we can't rescue him?"

"We aren't saying we can't," Kaden began, his voice soothingly soft. "We're saying that we can't rush into this without thinking."

Imogen scoffed. "This, coming from his best friend. You're all his friends! Flynn is over here struggling to recover, while yet again, he's worlds apart from his brother? I don't even..." Her breaths became ragged, and tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

Dale swerved around to the daughter of Cupid, draping a blanket around her shoulders as she stumbled into a chair. Silently, Imogen began to deteriorate, soft sobs shaking her body.

Tessa knelt down before her friend, looking her in the eye. "Imogen, I know what you must be feeling right now. Reese is one of my closest friends, and to know that he's alive is giving me the same emotions as it's giving you right now. But trust me when I say this: Reese would be miserable if he knew we put him before matters that were more pressing at the moment."

"Tessa's right," Kaden continued. "It's half the reason he stayed behind in the first place. Reese is all about precision on a mission, he won't go along with something if it isn't planned out to the second."

"Then we plan it out," Imogen whispered. "We work on it as soon as possible to get him home."

"We will, Imogen, we will," Kaya spoke. "But before we do that, there's something else we need."

They'd been lucky the first time, to catch a break in the space-time continuum so quickly to its discovery. The first mission across the dimensions had been risky enough, but at the end of the day, it was sheer luck that their window was so close to when they needed it. Now, they didn't know when the next window was. It could be in days, weeks...maybe even years.

But there was one person who could jump between dimensions, in and out of situations whenever his cowardly ass depended on it...

"We need to find Vinny," Tessa stood from where she knelt, addressing her comrades. "He's the only one who has access to both dimensions, and can jump between them at will."

Kaden's jaw set, his muscles tightening as he folded his arms across his chest. "That rat is never going to come willingly."

"Then we lure him to us and trap him." Tessa theorized. "Hold him hostage while we work out the kinks in our plan."

"Not to add more pressure onto this mission but now that Mark's here—you know, everyone's favorite son of Iris who survived being held hostage in his own body by his dark side—we should work with him on how we can overcome our doppelgangers in case of confrontation." Dale added, biting her lip.

Kaya shook her head. "There are too many variables at play here. We can't have one group go off to find Vinny, another to work on the portal, and another to train on overcoming their dark sides when there's about eight of us within this circle."

They needed skilled fighters, friends that could be trusted... But who would be willing to go on a quest for a madman?

"I know who," Tessa answered, energy beginning to pump through her veins. It was a long shot, but the people she was thinking of could pull it off. They had strength, wit, stealth on their side. It'd only be a matter of debriefing them on the matter at hand.

"Who?" Dale asked.

"Don't worry about that," Tessa brushed off the question, looking at Kaden. "I need you to get in contact with Kassie and request a meeting with the Hunters. Your sister's second in command might be able to help us out."

Kaden's eyebrows arched. "Her? But...we haven't seen her since the battle of New Orleans."

"She's got the stealth of the hunters, as well as the spheres of two Olympians power in her veins," Tessa shook her head. "That could help."

Kaden nodded, digging out his phone and walking away from the group as he spoke with Kassie.

Tessa knelt down to Imogen again, who was slowly but surely recovering from her lapse. Jade met turquoise as the girls met one another's gaze, fury combined with determination.

"I promise you that we will get Reese back as soon as possible," Tessa began. "And until then, I need you to be on high alert."

"Oh, trust me," Imogen began wryly. "I will."

~~

It felt like Tessa had been placing phone-calls all morning. From the moment she woke up, she was surging with energy like the sea before a storm. Waves of thought crashed into one another as she darted around her room and chattered into her phone, explaining and persuading her way into what she needed.

Her first call had been to one of the remaining three members of the reconnaissance group. It'd been a while since Tessa had heard his voice, given his new responsibilities, but she had a feeling that he'd be up and ready to go. And he was. He promised to relay the message to the second member of the group, and that they'd be there by nightfall.

The second call had been to Camp Half-Blood, to ask Chiron for the presence of one camper in particular. She wasn't apart of the recon group, but she served a greater purpose with one of their other tasks. If they were going to get this whole dark side thing right, they needed the girl who'd hacked the system on their side.

Thankfully, Chiron allowed the recess, and she would be in New Rome as soon as possible.

The third call, and by far the longest, was the one Tessa was in now. She paced around her room, her ear blazing from having her phone pressed against it for nearly an hour. While she ached and was on edge, she couldn't fight the wave of happiness that hit her with each word her mother spoke on the other line.

"You must be so stressed, Tessa," Sera Brennan spoke on the other line.

Tessa exhaled, looking around her room. "Mom, you have no idea. But a demigod's work is never done, I guess."

"You know I'm proud of you for taking initative, and call me a hypocrite for saying this...but I think you and all of your friends need a little rest from all this," The former Huntress continued.

"A break right now would cause for Imogen to personally run me through with an arrow."

"Then if not now, in one week. You do know what's in a week, right?"

Tessa knit her eyebrows, whirling around to walk towards her desk. Spread across the wood was her calendar, and sure enough, a certain winter holiday was in one week's time.

"Well, that's inconvenient," Tessa exhaled.

"Tell your friends when you'd like but...I miss you, sweetie. I'd like for you to come home this Christmas, and all of your friends are welcome to join. Let go of the missions and the quests, let go of the statistics and strategies and training, and relax for one day. Remember that even the best soldiers can't fight without rest. Even Achilles—"

"Mom, I know all about Achilles and how he slept whenever he wasn't fighting but...there's just so much at stake here." Tessa dragged her hand through her hair in exasperation.

"I know about the stakes, Tessa," Her mother chided. "But think back to all the battles you've been in. All of the wars, all of the training. Even with your powers and your skills, would you have been able to get through it without rest? Without time to be optimistic?"

Tessa bit her tongue. Her mom had a point.

"Exactly," Sera continued. "I'll let you go now, but just remember that, okay? I love you, Tessa."

"I love you too, mom," Tessa managed through the migraine forming in her head.

Tessa lowered her phone from her ear as soon as the dial tone sounded, focusing on the beat of her heart and rhythm of her breath. Her mom, as always, had a valid point in her lectures. If Tessa and her friends didn't give themselves time to think, time to rest, they'd never be able to pull off this mission.

The daughter of Poseidon set her phone down with a long exhale, stretching her arms a bit as she padded to her vanity. She stared into the large mirror, examining the image looking back at her.

Turquoise eyes that had seen destruction and warfare.

Long chocolate brown hair that had been bound back through battle, run through in frustration, gripped and pulled when all hope was lost.

Peach skin dotted with fading scars and bruises from battles new and old.

She was a creature of the battlefield, a soldier against her own will. How strange it was to think that she'd walked into one camp without a care in the world of mythology, and had emerged a leader, possessing power beyond any mortal's mere ability to believe. She should have been a hardened, ruthless killer by now, even with that monster within her waking up and waiting to be let out more frequently.

But as Tessa stared into her crystalline irises, she only saw the reflection of a girl who bore the weight of a world thrust upon her at once. She saw the face of a girl who'd lost her mother, her friends, her grasp on reality.

And as if something clicked into place across space and time, Tessa felt that darkness within her pulse once more, like it was content.

Like it was satisfied.

~~

[Mark Akagi's Perspective]

Mark wasn't sure what to expect of Camp Jupiter, but it was sure exceeding his expectations in more ways than one. In the two months he'd been within the Roman training ground, he'd had enough time to get his bearings and a general idea of how it worked. Even if his friends were attending New Rome's university, Mark had his own room in a residence hall and access to all utilities in the valley.

However, he couldn't help but notice the looks of certain campers as he walked through the valley. They'd look at him like they recognized him, steering out of his path whenever they could. Now, Mark still wasn't entirely caught up on all that he'd been...in charge of under Orion's influence, but he got the general idea of why these kids avoided him.

It sent a familiar rush through his veins, one fueled by anger and that darkness he'd quelled.

"Mark?" Dale asked, shaking the son of Iris from his reverie.

Mark blinked, glancing around. He'd been lost in thought as he and Dale walked, on their way to await the arrival of Tessa's recruits.

"You good?" Dale queried.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mark cleared his throat. "Just...perceptive of certain things nowadays, I guess."

The daughter of Demeter at his side nodded, but Mark didn't have to meet her gaze to recognize the air of apprehension that clouded her golden irises. It was slightly unnerving at times, how well Dale could read him.

The best friends continued on their way, reaching the courtyard of the Principia where Amelie and Kaya, with the help of an Iris-Message from Chiron, sustained a portal to Camp Half-Blood. The swirling mass of light and energy, despite its radiance, made everyone veer away from it, even the two children of the goddess of magic controlling it.

"Are they on their way?" Dale asked Tessa as they approached.

The daughter of Poseidon tore her attention from the portal to her best friends. "From my knowledge, yes. Although I don't know what's taking them so long."

As fate would have it, they wouldn't have to wait much longer after that. The portal shimmered with another glow, and two figures emerged from the energy.

"Hey all," Lukas Abbott, son of Neptune, grinned. The Australian boy looked the same as Mark had last seen him; still disheveled and yet oddly put together like the plates of the earth he controlled. "Been a while."

"You're telling me," Sierra Hanson at his side spoke. The pistol of a daughter of Apollo was ready to go for a mission with her bow and quiver strung across her shoulders. However, the only counter to her fiery temper was Lukas' hand holding her own, rubbing a thumb across her own as if to calm her nerves.

"Sorry, we're late. Last minute recruit wanted to catch the same portal express," Lukas jerked a finger to the portal behind him.

Tessa's eyebrows arched. "She came with you?"

As if in answer, the portal glowed again. A small figured stepped through, the glow illuminating her bronze skin.

Mark's heart flipped as Adhara Wren marched through the portal, a scowl on her lips as her irises settled on his.

"Oh, good," The daughter of Nemesis deadpanned. "You aren't dead. Or should a 'yet' be following that?"