The ride back from his mother's apartment was long and uncomfortable, somehow even more so than the awkwardness he felt on the way there.

Ryker couldn't stop staring at the small wooden box he'd been given, absentmindedly tracing his finger over the elephant insignia carved into the corner.

He didn't feel right opening it without Milli and Ally there, but at the same time... He really didn't want to open it at all. Every time he thought about trying, he choked up, the air thick like he was breathing rubber. He always felt much smaller when he thought about his mom. He couldn't afford to feel weak when there was a war on the horizon. She could wait until they were safe.

So he was not going to open the box. Yet.

Which, of course, meant he needed to hide its existence from Milli. If she saw it, she would ask about it silently, with her eyes, steel gray drilling into him, and he wouldn't be able to lie to her. Even if he tried she would see through it. At that point she would either force it out of him or purse her lips and allow him to keep his secret, and he wasn't sure which option was worse.

He wasn't ready to open it, but also he wasn't prepared to see Ally's face if she knew that their mother's words were in a box that he was too cowardly to open. She had always been much stronger than him, after all.

The camp van jolted over a pothole, and Ryker clutched the box closer to him on pure instinct, body curling around it. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, knocking his head against the window in frustration.

He could feel Argus's eyes on him, probably judging him, but that might also just be because he had so many eyes it was impossible not to look at him.

He kept his gaze solidly averted for the rest of the ride.

_______________

As he wandered past Thalia's Pine and into Camp, Ryker heard what his brain could have only equated to a battle cry before a body slammed into him from behind.

"I smell blue cookies!"

He reacted on instinct, grabbing it by the arm and ducking under its weight, tossing it over him. His fingers were on his necklace immediately, sword in hand and pointed towards a very winded looking Percy Jackson.

"Quite the Judo flip you've got there," he wheezed, "And I would know."

Ryker rolled his eyes, reaching down to haul his brother to his feet.

"You shouldn't tackle people if you don't want to be thrown," he sighed, boxes tucked under his arm.

"I know, I know. Now let's go see what's in those boxes. My nose is never wrong."

Ryker opened his mouth to snap defensively before thinking better of it, plastering on a smirk and taking both containers farther away from him.

"You know," he said teasingly, "Mother said I didn't have to share these with you if I didn't want to."

He knew that Percy's eyes were trained on the boxes with all the focus of a starving puppy, waving it side to side as if he was taunting Styx. Then his words registered in Percy's brain and he snapped back to attention.

"One, rude," Percy pouted, instantly softening and becoming more serious, "And two... how did that go?"

Ryker searched his face for some sign of anything, anything, but care and concern, but he couldn't find it. He supposed that was to be expected, having been raised by the woman he'd just met.

"It was nice," he murmured eloquently, "Nice. Mother... she was nice."

"I know," Percy grinned, as if he could see all of the words that Ryker couldn't find, "She is. So are you."

Ryker still felt too raw from everything between meeting his mother and being given the box, too vulnerable, so he steeled himself and smiled back, changing the subject.

"How about we go back to the cabin and eat these cookies?" He offered, almost shyly. That would also give him the opportunity to hide the box before Milli came back and saw him.

"Yes!" Percy whooped, "That was all totally a ploy to steal your cookies!"

He slung his arm around his brother's shoulders, dragging him away.

Though he stiffened under the touch, Ryker couldn't find the strength to shove him off.

And suddenly he didn't want to, either.

_______________

Ally was not having nearly as good of a time.

She was supposed to be supporting Ryker or Milli as they took on equally daunting tasks, meeting his birth mother and escorting demigods through the city. She was supposed to be with her family as they faced another one of the biggest changes in their lives. She was supposed to be preparing for the war that would make or break the future.

Instead, she trailed behind a boy around the same age as her as he rambled on about the Camp, before turning to her with an uneasy smile.

"Okay," he said, stopping abruptly, "Tell me if this is a stupid question, but why is there a Hellhound following us?"

He'd barely finished before she was responding. "That's a stupid question."

"Humor me."

"Styx is protecting us."

"Us? I think he's glaring at me."

"He's making sure you don't do anything to me, and that I don't skewer you."

"Is that a genuine concern?"

"Depends."

He laughed as if she was making a joke, as if he wasn't actually one wrong move away from having a Hellhound on him. "Hi, Styx," he said, holding his hands out like he was approaching an actual dog, "I'm Kenny Parker, please don't eat me."

If Styx understood, he gave no acknowledgment other than the low growl building in the back of his throat.

"Okay!" Kenny cheered, turning quickly, "I think he likes me now. So I just have to win you over, Lightning Bolt."

Ally wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't call me that."

"But you're the daughter of Zeus," he pointed out blankly, "What else am I supposed to call you?"

She'd been claimed the second she stepped into Camp boundaries, and if the revelation that she was a child of the Big Three had been any surprise to him at all, Kenny hadn't shown it, instead introducing himself as the child of Hermes and leading her through the Camp. Ally was glad about that much, at least.

"By my name."

"Aw, you're so boring!" Kenny pouted, crossing his arms in a huff.

She rolled her eyes entirely unapologetically. "I'm sorry to hear that."

He shot cheesy finger guns at her and winked, spinning on his heel to continue the tour. "Don't worry about it. We'll work on that."

"So... you already saw the cabins and the infirmary, right?"

A hum of agreement.

"Do you wanna see the Lava Wall next or the Canoe Lake then?"

No response.

"Just pick one. Please."

A shrug.

The boy let out a groan, shoving his hands through his dark hair.

"Yo, Thunder Head. Talk to me."

"My name is Allison," she reminded him, because at this point, she wouldn't have been at all surprised if he'd forgotten it, "Use it."

"Well you're being annoying," he argued, as if that was the perfect excuse, "And you didn't like the other one. So it's this or Bird Brain, you know, since eagles."

He paused and tilted his head, furrowing his eyebrows before she had the chance to respond.

"Actually, now that I think about it, you can use that one for anyone," he mused, tugging on the collar of his shirt, "Like, every god had a sacred bird. Eagle, dove, owl- oh wait. Not owls. If you called a child of Athena Bird Brain I think they might actually smite you."

Ally let out a short breath of air that Kenny took to equate to an amused snort, which made a grin split his face in victory.

"So I guess we'll go to the Lava Wall next," he decided, emboldened, "I think you'd probably like it better than the lake, anyway."

He chattered on as they walked, filling the gaps that Ally refused to with empty conversations about Camp life and stories about the other campers.

"Oh, let me introduce you," he grinned, not elaborating, "Hey, X!"

"Parker, where have you been?" A blonde boy sighed, turning around with an exasperated look on his face, "You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes- eep!"

Ally raised her eyebrows at him as he flailed, obviously thrown off by her presence, eventually drawing himself up straight and clearing his throat.

"HEy," he squeaked, coughing and trying again, this time an octave lower than the voice she'd heard before, "Hey."

Eventually he settled for an awkward wave in which he held his right hand up and just bent his fingers before snapping it back to his side.

"Um, okay," Kenny chuckled, looking seconds away from death by second hand embarrassment, "This is Xavier, son of Hebe. I would let him introduce himself, but he seems incapacitated at the moment."

"Maybe I shouldn't have brought you to the climbing wall after all. Would you like to continue, or wait for this absolute goob to compose himself?"

Ally watched him for a second through narrow eyes before shrugging, walking off in the direction she knew the lake was in.

"Sorry about Xavier," Kenny said as he caught up to her, "I don't know what's going on with him, but, well, I'm sure he was happy to meet you, too. I- wah!"

"Kenny, can I talk to you?" Xavier hissed, having grabbed the other boy by the wrist and tugged him back.

"I mean, sure?" He replied with a raised eyebrow, shaking out of his hold, "But we're kind of in the middle of a tour, so make it quick. She's already annoyed enough at me."

"They gave you the Daughter of Zeus to lead?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"What- are they- are they crazy?" Xavier was wide eyed and frenzied.

"Uh huh," Kenny snorted, "Because giving me Percy Jackson's twin brother would've been the better option, right?"

"Listen, X," he continued, flapping a hand, "It's not a big deal. I mean look at her-"

"Yes, look at her!"

"-she doesn't do nicknames. She won't make small talk with me. She's probably a massive superdork on the inside, I'm calling it right now. It's fine."

Ally didn't even try to suppress the roll of her eyes. Boys. Maybe it was just these two, because Aaron and David had been fine and not on her nerves, but- ugh.

No wonder the Hunters hated coming to Camp.

She sighed, staring out to the large pine tree in the distance. No, she knew she was being short with them because she was worried about Ryker and Milli, her brother especially. This was something he needed to do on his own. Milli knew that, that's why she'd taken on the escort task in the first place. And as understandable as that decision was... Ally hated it.

She knew her brother wasn't weak. She knew he wasn't going to turn his back on the possibility of having a family. She trusted him to meet his birth mother on his own because she knew him.

But she knew him.

And that was a problem in and of itself.

She knew he loved so deeply the only way he knew how to cope was to ignore it. She knew that he was afraid and hiding it and not doing a very good job of it at that. She knew that was he was going through would change everything, and he shouldn't have to face it alone.

Ally believed wholeheartedly that she had appeared on her family's island by fate, not chance, and certainly not against the wills the Fates expressed to her adoptive parents. She was meant to protect him because for the life of him that boy did not know how to protect himself in the way that really counted.

She grunted, looking up to the sky, seeing the sun beginning to set. She squinted. The position of the sun meant that Ryker and Milli should be back or at least on their way back. But she knew the amount of time that had actually passed would mean they still had time.

She frowned. Had she been so invested in the tour that the time flew by? Was that even possible?

She glanced over to where Kenny was waving his arms wildly and bickering with Xavier, who for some reason was still flustered and hardly able to form full sentences.

No. That wasn't possible.

"Doesn't matter!" Kenny decided finally, "I'll bring her to Thalia's Pine then the Mess Hall, then I'll drag you to my cabin and interrogate you, got it? Come on, Megawatt."

Ally decided it wasn't even worth the effort to correct him anymore, sighing and following the two boys to the edge of the Camp.

"So you're the daughter of Zeus," Kenny said, beginning to ramble again, "And I figure you'd like to see the Pine, since Thalia's also the daughter of Zeus. She gave her life to buy time for her friends the first time she came to Camp and her dad turned her into a tree that made a magic boundary to protect us."

"The first time?" Ally asked.

"Oh yeah, she came back to life a couple years ago after Clarisse brought back the Golden Fleece. She's the Lieutenant of the Hunt now."

Knowing him, the son of Hermes was still talking, but Ally wasn't listening anymore, couldn't even hear him. All she knew was her heartbeat pounding in her ears. They'd left the Hunt so soon after news has reached them that Lady Artemis hadn't even returned from Olympus. After Zoë's death, of course they needed a new Lieutenant. That only made sense.

That didn't stop it from hurting though.

She shook it off as they got closer to the Pine, and she managed to catch the tail end of Kenny's sentence.

"Yeah she comes back to visit every so often- oh, I guess today's one of those times. Look."

Sure enough, the Hunt was gathered under Thalia's Pine Tree, looking far too grim for it to be explained away by their distaste for the Camp.

"Fiona!" Ally called out to a Hunter at the edge of the group, ignoring Kenny's obvious surprise, "What's going on?"

"Allison," she greeted cheerfully, lip curling in disdain when she noticed the two boys in her company, "It's good to see you again. Lady Artemis comes with urgent news."

Her eyes sharpened. "What's wrong?"

Fiona glanced around warily before leaning closer and lowering her voice.

"It's the dunce, Apollo," she whispered quickly, tone betraying her worry despite her words.

"He's missing."

"What do you mean missing?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Fiona murmured, "Gone. No trace. As Perseus Jackson had last year." She pointed a finger to the sky. "I know you've noticed the sunset. The days have been getting shorter much quicker. It's been happening slowly for a while, but today it is the most noticeable. It's because the Sun Chariot is not being driven."

Ally peeked over her shoulder at the boys, watching her curiously but well out of earshot. "Does Lady Artemis have a plan?"

"That's why we're here," she said, "First, we will assemble the Head Counselors."

"Then?"

"Most likely? A prophecy and a quest."

Ally's eyes narrowed.

And so it has begun.