Note: This chapter is a little quick paced :D Sorry!

Hannah's POV

Kirin Dave is a man of many talents and abilities; it is well known to everyone that he is dangerous and should he be approached in the wrong way, it would mean that whoever did it would end up being dead-or worse. 

He is powerful. His very presence commandeered attention, and he had an aura of self assurance hovering around him like a spirit-on some occasions, it felt as if he was probing people, rummaging around their head uninvited to find a detail or story that he could latch onto and use against you. He never did, but everyone recognized his authority and respected him.

So it is of great surprise to Hannah, who had found it incredibly difficult to meander around the hidden chemical bombs which she had watched him place intently for hours on end to memorize the path to his front door, to find this powerful man scrunched up on the floor, his face screwed up with pain and an unsightly grimace across his pale face. 

"Bad day?" Hannah murmurs, raising an eyebrow at the wizard.

Kirin's eyes snap open, revealing those unnatural black eyes which make Hannah cringe, even after seeing them many times before. He tries to get to his feet, but stumbles halfway. Although she is wary of the man, Hannah is a kind, caring person at heart, and she helps the man to stand and regain his balance.

"Thank you" he coughs, and she doesn't fail to notice the blood on his hand from a wound.

"What happened, Kirin?" Hannah frowns in concern, inspecting the blood and trying-and failing-to see past the blackness inside Kirin's sleeve to the source of the liquid.

"Nothing major...just a little run-in with everyone's favourite demigod."

Hannah grimaces, not bothering to hide her distaste. Despite the new start for everyone, Ridgedog and what he did to them still hung over them like a black cloud that wouldn't go away. Everyone found hope in Kirin, after discovering that the man could almost match the demigod's power, and most of them, Lewis included, viewed Kirin as the protector, to shield them all away from the demigod. However, Hannah and a few others had noticed that Ridgedog still overpowered the mage who only really had surprise on his side, but she didn't want to comment on it. Kirin is the symbol of hope for them all-and who would she be to quench that light?

"Did he come visiting?" she enquires, leaning against the counter casually, though in fact she is alert-she didn't trust Kirin for some reason. She dismissed it as nothing, but she knows that her instincts have never failed her, so she can't help but be suspicious about the mage. 

"No, I went to his robot's castle to ask for something they had. They ambushed me as soon as I went in," he sighs, wincing and groaning as he tries to sit down.

A faint, inward twinge inside Hannah's body causes the suspicion to arise again. Why would they ambush him for entering their castle? Hannah hates Ridgedog-everyone did-but it seemed so...unlike him to be jumping on people as soon as they enter. Ridgedog preferred an audience, wanting attention. 

The mage is lying, that much she knows for certain. But she doesn't comment on it.

"Why are you here, anyway? And how did you get past the traps outside?" he muses aloud, watching her with those black eyes, the pain mysteriously gone. Hannah stiffens, tensing her jaw as she feels the probing begin. It feels like something is in her mind, burrowing into her memories, and she shakes away the feeling.

"I was careful. And I came here to tell you something."

Kirin smiles humourlessly. "What do you need to tell me, my Lomadia?"

A flash of anger, regret and hurt pierces her thoughts, causing them to derail and she narrows her eyes at the mage. Only Lewis called her "my Lomadia" and that was when they were together. The nickname forced painful memories to the surface but she pushes them down again, inhaling sharply before continuing, her blazing blue eyes glaring into Kirin's black ones.

"Stay away from me."

Kirin continues smiling, not even twitching. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I told you."

Kirin laughs, standing abruptly. "I don't follow orders, darling. I do what I want to do."

"And what do you want from me?" Hannah backs away shakily, fear leaking into her eyes. Kirin doesn't miss it, and his smile turns into a dark grin.

"Everything" he whispers, and she sees too late the ball of energy gathering in Kirin's hand. It strikes her before she even has a chance to blink, and she hits the floor hard, blonde hair spiralling outwards onto the marble floor.

The last thing she sees is a huge gash on Kirin's leg, no doubt from his recent spar with Ridgedog, before the darkness swallows her whole.

Alicia's POV

The sunlight is blinding, piercing through the gap in the palm leaves ruthlessly, leaving Alicia dazed and confused. How long had she been asleep for? Where is everyone else?

Now wide awake, she dizzyingly scrambles from the makeshift den onto the beach, and blinks warily at her surroundings.

The sand beneath her fingers is a pale yellow, and is soft and smooth, providing generous traction for her hands to grip on it as she wrenches herself upwards. Around the rest of the beach, excluding the resplendent blue of the sea, the little beach is surrounded by huge palm trees, and in the distance she can see taller, darker trees. Clearly, this island is no ordinary island-it stretched for miles, as far as the eye could see.

"Good morning," a quiet voice greets her from behind, and Alicia turns, momentarily confused until she spots her.

"I didn't want to wake you. You were exhausted," Tia smiles, twisting a little stick that is lodged above the flames of a small fire that had a long, blanched looking fish on it. The rest of her travelling companions-Echo, Ember and Liam-are sat around the fire, sluggishly attempting to wake themselves up.

"How long was I out?" Alicia muses, yawning loudly and stretching, ignoring the cracking noises of her back complaining at the action.

"I woke up first, 'bout an hour ago. These guys woke up about half an hour ago. I caught us breakfast." Tia gestures to the ghastly looking fish on the fire, its dead eyes staring blankly into the sky. Repulsed, Alicia wrinkles her nose.

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"More for me," Tia grins, taking the stick from the fire and detaching the fish onto a palm leaf, before cutting it with a little stick and eating a small chunk. She swallows it, and cringes.

"Needs salt," she scowls,  and offers it to the others, who decline, before continuing to eat it in dismay.

"What's the plan, then?" Liam asks, looking at Tia when he says this. Alicia feels a pang of annoyance at her brother's continual ignorance, as if he is deliberately refusing to look at her.

"I guess we look for signs of life. There has to be someone on this island, somewhere."

"And what if there isn't?" Alicia cuts in, hovering near the edge of the fire but refusing to sit down. "What if there isn't anyone here, and it's just us?"

Tia is quiet for a moment, chewing her fish thoughtfully, before she answers. "Then we'll have to find a food source, a clean water source and building materials to make a shelter. We have to survive somehow."

The others seem to agree, as they nod in approval of this plan as they stand up, getting ready to set up. Echo stamps on the fire cautiously, until only thin wisps of black smoke remain, leaving the hypnotising scent of it clinging to the air.

"Who said anything about 'we?'" Alicia replies, and Tia studies her closely.

"You'd drop your travelling companions-your own brother, the two people who helped you in your mission, and the one who tried to help all of you-so easily?"

It is an open challenge, and Alicia rises to it.

"I'll survive with my brother. Only my brother, no one else."

Tia glances over at Liam, who looks confused for some reason. Alicia glares furiously at him; she had believed that Liam would follow her anywhere, no questions asked.

"Fine, if that's what you want Liam. You may leave us to go with your sister. Either way, we're leaving-with or without both of you." Tia pauses, and turns her attention to Echo and Ember. "You two have a choice too. You can stick with them, or me, or go solo, or together."

The two girls glance at each other, and it is of no surprise that both have made their decision.

"We'll stay with you. She got us into this mess, and you tried to get us out of it," Echo shrugs, making her way over to Tia. Alicia huffs quietly, but doesn't say anything.

Ember glares at Alicia, but doesn't say a word, and simply joins Echo's side.

"Whatever, then," Alicia snaps, "we'll go our own way."

Liam hesitantly joins Alicia's side, and the two of them enter the forest.

Liam's POV

At first glance, Liam is the kind of person who lives in his sister's shadow. He follows her obediently, even when the decisions she made were incredibly stupid. When she first told him of her plan to release Mexxy, he had meekly agreed, despite the fact that he wasn't overly convinced it was the best idea. Alicia was the only one who had a connection with her father-his sister had told him of how he would recognize her in a crowd and give her a flower or chocolates. She would even show him the wrappers from the treats he gave her, and the petals from the flowers.

Still, it never made sense to him. Why did Mexxy only go to her? Alicia had told him over and over again that Mexxy knew Liam was his son, and that he was destined for greatness, and blah blah blah. But he had never witnessed Mexxy do or say anything special towards Alicia or himself. He would look at everyone in a huge crowd of people, and Alicia would stand there chanting his name along with the rest of the crowd, but not once would he look at her, or him. It just didn't add up.

Liam was somewhat of a dark horse. Where Alicia had barely scraped through school as she thought it was pointless and a waste of time, Liam aced all of his classes. He was quiet, thoughtful and smart-but still, he obeyed his sister. He, more than anyone, knew what would happen if she got angry.

Both he and his sister had powers. Though both of them were mortal, they had abilities that surpassed even demigod ones. They weren't fully in control yet, especially Alicia's, and Liam feared about the consequences her lack of control could have.

Liam's power involved magic. He could tap into any sort of magic, good or bad, fairly easily. Unlike normal mages, he didn't need spells or a magic book; it came to him as easily as it came to a human who goes to lift a pencil. Unfortunately, if he ever got angry (which was rare) the magic would boil and bubble in his veins and explode in various ways, causing chaos to erupt. It had happened once before-and he still had nightmares about it.

Alicia's power, however, is more powerful and destructive. Her power involves the ability to shape shift.

She couldn't do it on impulse-it was more of a panic response. If she was scared or upset, her control would snap, and her body would morph into an animal or monster of some kind, depending on what emotion she was feeling and how violent it was. For example, when Alicia heard about what Cisco had done to Mexxy, her anger caused her to change into a grizzly bear and stampede several buildings down before Liam managed to contain her using his own powers. The crying came later along with the shift of her human form into a small silver wolf, and she howled the whole night long.

"Where should we go?"

Alicia's voice interrupts his thoughts. 

"Not sure. Maybe those dark trees over there-they are usually found next to a flat moorland or plain, I read about them in Biology," he suggests, and ignores Alicia muttering under her breath about how he is a know-it-all. He had heard it before many times, and in worse ways.

They walk in silence to the trees Liam had mentioned and then they come to a stop.

"Now what?" Alicia sighs, raising an eyebrow to her brother. "Your book didn't mention which way the moorland or plains were, did they?"

Liam opens his mouth to reply, but stops when he sees something and he feels his face drain of colour.

"What?" Alicia demands. She turns, and immediately begins to back away.

Fire. It spreads too quickly for them to keep up with, lighting the trees rapidly and heading straight towards them. The crackling becomes louder and louder and the fire becomes higher and higher and faster and faster until it is upon them like a pack of wolves, devouring them hungrily. And all at once, quicker than he can blink, Liam is lost in the flames, and the smoke, the orange embers thrusting out and coiling around his legs.

"Alicia!" he screams, and begins to cough. The smoke fills his lungs and he erupts into a coughing fit. He spins around, desperately. This is no ordinary fire-it is moving too quickly and it's filling his lungs too fast and he can't breathe and he can't see, his eyes streaming from the heat and his throat is burning and he's choking; he falls to the floor, wrenching away from the nearest flames straight into the others, being ambushed from every side, trapped by the heat like a cornered animal-she left him.

His sister left him alone to die.

He begins to splutter, his vision becoming blurry. The fire burns, it burns, and he tries to conjure his magic-but his magic required focus and right now, he couldn't focus on anything other than the torturing sensation of his legs, arms and face burning. He's going to die, burn, here in the woods, alone, away from everything-

Two strong arms grab him roughly and he is yanked upwards. He feels himself going faint, but he manages to keep conscious as he is hurried away from the trees by the stranger. The crackling, though it takes a while, slowly becomes quieter and quieter until all he can feel is his own heart pounding and the thudding of the stranger's feet as they sprint across the plains.

Before he finally passes out from heat exhaustion, Liam focuses on his saviour. A young man, with short blonde hair and glowing green eyes.

"Thank you," Liam chokes out, before he welcomes the darkness.

Tia's POV

For a quartgod, you would think that fire wouldn't be much of a threat.

When the branches began to light on fire, quicker than the eye could follow, Tia stayed calm. She could simply fly out of the woods with the two girls and escort them to safety. Fire didn't hurt her, she could stand in a burning room and still be home in time for tea.

But when the fire lit around them, Tia realized two things.

One. This fire was not natural. And two. The smoke was toxic.

It invaded her lungs, making her choke and wretch. It stabbed her eyes viciously, and the heat felt like someone was taking a piece of paper and slicing it everywhere on her skin. Panic set in, and she reeled round to try and see the other two girls, but the fire was too big, too strong. It towered over her, blocked her from seeing anything, feeling anything. Tears streamed from her eyes involuntarily, the heat literally cooking her alive.

She tried to fly, but she kept banging into things. She couldn't tell if she was upside down, or if she was flying in circles. So she did the only thing she knew best.

Planting two feet on the ground as firmly as someone being burned alive could manage, she ran.

She ran for ages and ages and ages, even after the fire had disappeared from sight. Despite her pain, only one thought kept drumming through her head.

Someone lit that fight, and it wasn't one of them. Someone else was on the island, and thought that it would be nice to burn some people alive. They were dangerous, and Tia was paranoid that whoever did this wouldn't hesitate to do it again. So she kept on running until she couldn't run any more. 

Panting, she collapses, desperate for oxygen. Crawling and wincing in pain, she props herself up against a tree and waits.

Slowly, sluggishly, her powers kick in. They soothe the burning sensation in her lungs, her eyesight becomes clear again, the stabbing and cutting pain disappears. But slowly.

So slowly that by the time she can stand again it's night time.

For a while, she wanders around aimlessly, trying and failing to locate the others. And as if things couldn't get any worse, thunder rumbles in the not-so-distant distance. Thankfully, rain doesn't come, which is a blessing since Tia didn't have any shelter, but also a curse as she is so dehydrated her mouth is dry and it could have put out the fire.

Lightning flashes, and thunder rumbles again. Sighing tiredly, Tia drags herself through the woods before pausing.

She stiffens in alarm, and hides behind a tree quickly, peering up through the canopy to the night sky.

In front of her is a huge castle. A black and white building, with gorgeous towers and extensions, and looking around she sees a stone brick road leading to the front of it. But that isn't what scares her.

On top of the tallest tower, lying down, as if they are sleeping, is a man. And though she is far away, she can just make out the black and gold colours on the signature styled demigod coat.

Note: Sorry for the quick pace, I just wanted to speed the plot up a little :D