This went on for months. It was wildly known that Alana and Clarisse hated each other more than anything. Clarisse had gotten more adjusted to camp and quickly made a reputation. She controlled things. The Ares cabin was known for being... pushy, but Clarisse was the icing on the cake. She was a bully. New kids were terrified of her, hell even old kids were terrified of her. She didn't mess with certain people, something about glory, as Luke put it. She didn't mess with Luke or Annabeth, but she did mess with Alana. She didn't seek out anyone except the new kids, but she sought out Alana.

Alana was sitting peacefully at the dining pavilion with the Aphrodite cabin, talking about the capture the flag game later. It was the first capture the flag game of the year, and this time the teams were quite interesting. They were Athena, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Artemis vs Ares, Apollo, Demeter, and Hephaestus.

"Allie, you said Luke and Annabeth are running things, right?" Silena asked.

"Yeah," Alana answered softly, it was early and she wasn't a morning person. "Their cabins always lead and, after their huge help with last game, the whole team decided they should tale charge. Luke's putting me in charge of something, hasn't told me what yet."

"Probably scare control," Joella pointed out. That's what everyone called Alana usual job. She sat on some sort of ledge and shot arrows in people direction. She never hit anyone, just startled and distracted them.

Alana suddenly felt something hard hit her back. She whipped her head around to see a stale bread roll on the ground. It shockingly hurt pretty bad. Whoever threw it must've had a good arm- oh. Alana looked up to see Clarisse snickering at her. "Oops," she laughed. "Hey Lana."

Alana stood up, ignoring the glare that the Aphrodite kids were giving the Area girl. "Y'know, has anyone told you that you look really pretty today?" The whole area turned to the girls as Clarisse looked at Alana confused. Her face flushed slightly, but she didn't know why.

The Artemis girl picked up her cup of water from the table and dumped it all over Clarisse. "Oops. Sorry Risse," Alana smirked to her. She was happy to finally one up the newfound bully of camp. Everyone went silent. Clarisse gasped and Alana swore she saw fire coming out of her nose. Alana simply shot her a sickeningly sweet smile and headed back to her cabin.

Clarisse went back to her cabin as soon as Alana left. That was utterly humiliating. "I hate her!" She screamed as she opened the door to her cabin and squeezed some water out of her hair.

"We know," one of her siblings commented while sitting on his bed.

Another one of her half brothers sighed. "Clarisse I think you're the only person who hates her. She's been at camp for so long and everyone knows her."

"She just- I- UGH!" Clarisse stormed off to change her clothes, ignoring all her siblings. Did she really have a reason to hate her? I mean everything she'd done was in response to something or an accident. No. That girl needed it. Humbling, in a sense.

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The Aphrodite cabin was right. Alana would be standing on a cliff distracting people near their flag. She loved doing that. It was the only reason she started liking capture the flag games. When Alana was younger, she would fake sick or injured to skip them. Now, she loved them.

Clarisse was beyond excited for the capture the flag game. Her team, especially the Ares and Hephaestus kids, were more than happy to have Clarisse this time. They were determined to get a win to start the year and Clarisse was just the strong force that they needed. They had told her they had a special mission for her, but not what yet. All she knew was it had something to do with targeting people and that one of Hephaestus's sons, Xander Wright, was helping her.

The two teams gathered in the middle of the field, with Annabeth, Luke, and Alana standing in the front of the blue team's group. Clarisse, some of her siblings, and some Hephaestus kids stood in the front of the red team's group.

Chiron came between the two groups and any talking slowed. "Heroes... it's time. The game begins. The first team to retrieve the opposing flag and return it across the river shall be the victor. As always, there will be no maiming and no killing. I trust these rules will be respected. Any magical items you may possess, are permitted as well. Every camper who is not injured has to play. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged." A conch shell blew and cheers erupted from the campers. "Let the games begin!"

The teams all started splitting off. "You ready, Bullseye?" Luke asked Alana, elbowing her lightly.

"Of course. You guys go get that flag," Alana smiled fondly, grabbing her necklace to get her bow.

"You know what to do," Luke smiled back, then started to call his group to head out.

"Aye aye captains," she teased, saluting. She looked at Annabeth and gave her a hug. "You got this."

"Thanks Allie," Annabeth gave her a high five before Alana headed to her cliff.

It took surprisingly long for anyone from the red team to show up near Alana. She sat in the tree she jumped onto, swinging her legs peacefully. That was until she spotted a few helmets and shot in their direction. One screamed, clearly a newer kid, while the rest started cursing. "We've been spotted!" One yelled.

"Where the hell is she?" Another questioned, clearly referring to Alana. The aforementioned girl laughed and shot another arrow toward some more camper coming through the woods.

Alana heard shuffling in the woods on the cliff behind her. She left her tree and hid behind a rock to see what it was. No one has ever found her before...

She ducked back down when the noise got closer in order to not get spotted. She curled into a ball and tired her hardest not to panic. The best part of her job was the lack of fear for being taken prisoner. Right now, Alana had a HUGE fear of being taken prisoner. She felt something pressed onto her side and shuddered. She looked up to see a boy with blonde hair and a girl with dark curls. Xander Wright and Clarisse La Rue.

"Hey beautiful," Zander smirked with his hand made sword creeping closer to the girl.

Clarisse made a face at the name. It was no secret that Alana was gorgeous, even Clarisse, who hated her, could admit to it. But the tone of his voice and their age gap made Clarisse uncomfortable for the girl.

"I'm honestly impressed you guys found me," Alana commented, glancing at Clarisse instead of looking at Xander.

Clarisse chuckled and grabbed the other girl's wrists. "Thanks Lana, but you're not gonna be distracting anyone else anytime soon."

Alana noticed that it was the second time today that Clarisse had called her Lana. Usually she didn't address her at all. If she did, it was her full name. Everyone either called Alana by her first name, or Allie. The occasional other nickname came out, but none used her name besides Allie. "You just always have to make things difficult, don't you?"

Before she knew what was happening, Alana was being bound to a chair by Xander, while Clarisse watched for anyone else to come by. Alana's breathing picked up as she tried to get out of being tied up. Being tied up meant she couldn't move. Not being able to move made her helpless. Helpless like a baby. A baby that had nothing. Left for dead. No one cares about it. No one there to hear it cry. No one. Nothing.

"Dude, we can't tie people up." Clarisse mentioned when she realized what Xander was doing.

Xander rolled his eyes. "Oh cool it. We just lose dessert privileges for a little. It's fine, she's their most valuable player." He continued tying Alana until she physically couldn't move.

Breathing got harder. Her face got hotter. Chest tightening, tears rushed down her face. She wanted to scream, but her body wouldn't let her. She wanted to kick and flail, but the binding wouldn't let her. A sob escaped her lips, marking the first sound Alana had made since Xander finally got her into the chair.

Xander said something to Clarisse followed by a "watch her," then left. Clarisse turned around and saw the state the shorter girl was in. "Woah, hey it's just a game. Calm down. You don't have to win everything all the time," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Alana tried her hardest to calm her breathing enough to speak. It wasn't working very well. "C-Can't... breathe!" She wheezed out.

Clarisse's eyes widened and she ran over to the chair. She may not like the girl, but there was no way she was dying on her. She looked around her frantically. "There's nothing on your torso or neck!" She exclaimed, trying to find an issue.

Alana used all her might to shake her head. She knew talking wasn't going go work, so she went with signaling instead.

"Fuck. Shit. Stupid boy what the hell," Clarisse started untying knots desperately. "You're having a panic attack aren't you?!"

Alana choked on her own breath, but felt some relief when Clarisse tapped her arms twice, signaling that they were untied. Her hands flew up to her chest as she tried to calm herself down. She started clawing at her armor because it was all too much. Clarisse untied all her limbs and stepped in front of Alana. She grabbed the shorter girl's arms and started rubbing her hands up and down on them.

"Hey. Look at me. They're not there anymore," she grabbed Alana's left hand and put it on her chest to feel Clarisse's breathing pattern. "See, you can move. Feel my breath?" Alana shakily nodded. "Good. Good girl. Now can you try to recreate it?"

Alana pulled a deep, shaky breath in. It took a while for it to come all the way out, as she kept taking quick breaths in during the long one out. They did this a few more times until Alana was breathing at a normal pace, just slightly heavier than normal. However, she was still sobbing and shaking. In Clarisse's opinion, that was the best case scenario.

All she did now was pull the girl into a hug. Thank god no one else was here. Clarisse did not want to be known as a hugger.

"It's ok, you're safe Starshine," Clarisse whispered, rubbing circle's onto Alana's back.

Alana regained true conciseness and sniffled, pulling back from the hug. Her throat hurt from feeling constricted, her wrists and ankles hurt from being bound, her head hurt, her vision was still blurry, and her chest felt like there was a dumbell sitting on top of it.

"Are you ok?" Clarisse asked softly. She pulled back from the hug to look at the other girl. Even after sobbing she was pretty, how is that fair?

Alana nodded, barely noticing the worry in Clarisse's face. "Thank you."

The two stared at each other for a while, Alana trying to make sure she was returning to normal, and Clarisse watching her to ensure the same thing. The sound of a conch shell startled the girls.

"Damn. Who won?" Alana asked, as Clarisse stood up.

The Ares girl shrugged and offered the huntress her hand to stand up. "Dunno."

Alana took mental note of everything Clarisse just did. It was nice to see this side of her.

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A/N: goddam this is a long chapter. Babies are starting to get along 🥹