Chapter Text
The nice thing about joining an all-girls immortal friend group is you suddenly get a lot of free time.
Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano is not used to the feeling. For the last few years, she’s served as Camp Jupiter’s praetor. The job was rewarding, but it was a lot of work. There were rules, procedures, meetings, and responsibilities, and… well, she doesn’t miss it as much as she thought she would.
Now that she’s a Hunter of Artemis, forever an 18 year-old-girl, she has more freedom than ever before.
Reyna curses as Thalia Grace hits a curb, sending their twelve-passenger van jolting into the air. The daughter of Zeus just grins maniacally, muttering an upbeat ‘oops’ before righting the van and continuing to speed down the highway.
Reyna begged to drive. Begged. But Thalia Grace is stubborn, and since she’s their leader, Reyna had to give in. Unfortunately, Thalia never got her license before joining the Hunters at age 16. So she’s a shitty driver. Reyna was forced to take the passenger seat instead; she’d be lying if she said she hasn’t been gripping the handle above her head for most of their drive today.
Reyna clenches her eyes shut and mutters a few prayers to various gods as Thalia swerves down the highway.
Fortunately, their surroundings start to get more familiar. Ever since joining the Hunters, Reyna has traveled all over the country. They galavant around the world, chasing down monsters and treasures in Artemis’ name. Reyna’s favorite trip was one to the Redwood National State Park in California, where they’d tracked down a baby chimera.
Now, though, they’re not on a mission. They’re headed to Camp Half-Blood on Long Island for the annual game of Capture the Flag. The game has become a bit of an event in recent years; even Camp Jupiter is sending a team of Romans to represent.
Greeks versus Romans versus Hunters of Artemis competing against each other for a week in various chariot races, gladiator fights, and games of capture the flag. At the end of the week, the team with the most points wins glory and honor for their home. More important than that, though, they win bragging rights for a year. It’s sure to be an eventful week.
Thalia parks the twelve-passenger van in a lot at the bottom of a green hill, where a few other vans await. Two have the signature Delphi Strawberry logo of Camp Half-Blood. The other two vans have California license plates. Reyna’s heart lurches in her chest and excitement flutters up in her stomach. She’s excited to see some of her friends from home.
The Hunters of Artemis file out of the van, pulling their various packs and gear onto their backs. Reyna slings a large hiking backpack over her shoulders. It’s strange to think that all of her belongings can fit in a single bag, now.
They hike up the large hill, Thalia avoiding looking at the massive pine tree on the crest of the hill. Reyna knows a little bit about Thalia’s past, but not much. The other girl is quiet and stubborn, much like Reyna herself. Neither one of them has talked much about their pasts; instead, they focus on the present. The future.
Reyna is similar to Thalia Grace in so many ways it’s almost comical. They’ve both been leaders of their respective homes. They’re both daughters of powerful gods. Both have a complicated history with Percy Jackson. Both are incredibly secretive and protective of their families. While they may not know much more about each other, respect has bloomed between them.
Reyna follows Thalia into camp, which is already a chaotic shit show. Greeks are running back and forth, greeting their friends from Camp Jupiter or pranking each other. Romans are mingling with the Greeks, thumping each other on the back and shit-talking each other already.
The Hunters wade through the crowds of demigods and legacies, aiming for the Artemis cabin in the center of camp. The cabin goes unused for the rest of the year, but when this week rolls around, they make it home.
The cabin itself looks like a normal cabin during the day, but at night, Reyna knows it glows a bright silver. This is her second year attending Camp Half-Blood for the games as a Hunter. She can’t believe it’s already been that long.
Thalia pushes open the door. The silver walls are covered in various animal pelts and trinkets. The beds, though stiff from lack of use, are also covered in pelts.
Reyna sinks onto the edge of a bed in the corner, wondering if she maybe has enough time for a nap…
“Alright girls, circle up,” Thalia calls.
The Hunters of Artemis circle around her, everyone’s eyes on their lieutenant. Thalia, forever 16, still has the rounded face of youth. Her electric blue eyes are narrowed and focused, and the expression looks just like one Reyna saw on Jason’s all the time years ago.
The pain of losing her friend is still fresh, even though it’s been nearly a year since he died. If she thinks about Jason Grace for too long, she gets all choked up and angry. So she doesn’t think about him.
“The games will kick off tonight,” Thalia is saying. “There will be a big ceremonious dinner in the pavilion where Chiron will introduce everyone and discuss the rules. The first games start tomorrow afternoon. Chariot races.”
Thalia continues talking, giving the new recruits a detailed description of what each and every event will look like. They’ve taken on five new recruits since last year, which Reyna is always surprised by. According to Thalia, the Hunters used to be a large group — well over forty of them, she’d said. Lots of them died in the Titan War. Even more died fighting the giants.
Now, there are barely twenty of them.
Reyna tunes out for a while as Thalia talks. Reyna is familiar with the games, after last year. Instead, her mind wanders to the friends she might encounter this week. She’s looking forward to seeing some of them; mainly Nico, Frank, and Hazel. She’s missed Nico’s wry smile and deadpan humor. They got close last year while transporting that fucking statue back to Camp Half-Blood. She’s missed him.
There are a few people Reyna is not looking forward to seeing, though. Most importantly: Piper McLean.
Reyna doesn’t hate Piper, and she isn’t jealous of her anymore. Not like she was a few years ago, when she first discovered Piper and Jason were dating. That jealousy has long since passed.
But she still doesn’t want to see the daughter of Aphrodite. She doesn’t want to look at Piper and think of Jason, or his death, or the fact that Reyna was powerless to stop it.
“Reyna, can you get this event sheet to Chiron? He needs it by dinner tonight.”
Thalia hands her a piece of parchment detailing which Hunters will participate in each event. To her surprise, Reyna is an active participant in every game. She arches an eyebrow at Thalia, who shrugs and grins. Reyna takes the paper and nods an affirmative.
She dismisses herself from the cabin, then, and sets out across the camp to find the centaur. As she walks, Reyna allows herself to imagine what it would have been like to grow up in Camp Half-Blood rather than Camp Jupiter. Would she still be such a hardass if she’d grown up here?
Reyna shakes her head and keeps walking, putting one foot in front of the other. She passes the canoe lake on her walk to the Big House. Tyson, Percy Jackson’s Cyclops brother, lifts a hand and waves as he assembles a paddle boat on the shores of the lake. Reyna, despite herself, waves back.
“Is that who I think it is?”
Reyna pauses, her hand still in the air. She smirks as she turns around, though, to face Will Solace. The son of Apollo is grinning, his golden curls bouncing around his tanned face.
“Hey, Will,” Reyna says with a smile. “Where’s your scary boyfriend?”
“Probably off doing scary boyfriend things,” Will says, waving a hand through the air dismissively.
“So... napping,” Reyna says.
Will laughs, a sound that echoes through the forest around them. He doesn’t confirm or deny Nico’s whereabouts, but he doesn’t have to. They walk companionably down the path toward the Big House, exchanging small talk and updating each other on recent missions.
“Heard you guys were tracking down a chimera in California,” Will says. “You find it?”
Reyna nods, “Yeah. In Redwood Park, actually, which was pretty cool. Then we went to New Mexico after hearing about a hydra, but… well, we never found it. I think Thalia wants to head back there and start the hunt up again when we leave here.”
Reyna had really liked staying in New Mexico. They’d been there for nearly two weeks trying to track the hydra. While New Mexico is nothing like Puerto Rico, it was almost familiar.
Reyna loved her home in Puerto Rico. She loved the sound of Coquí frogs in her neighborhood and the smell of the ocean and magnolia and citrus trees. She and Hylla used to walk down the Calle San Jose, counting cats and making up stories for each one…
Reyna stops at the bottom of the porch stairs leading to the Big House and turns to Will, whose lips are pursed.
“Tell your dumbass boyfriend to come say hello during dinner,” Reyna tells him, smiling fondly.
Will cocks an eyebrow but nods happily. “Will do. Um… do me a favor, will you?”
Reyna shrugs, hoping her friend knows she’d do just about anything for him. He grins, then, and says, “Maybe don’t go back to the Artemis cabin for a while, yeah?”
Reyna groans and rubs a hand down her face. “What did you do?”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “ I didn’t do anything! But other people did. And as your friend, I am kindly asking you not to go straight back to the cabin when you’re done here.”
“You Greeks and your pranks,” Reyna says with a shake of her head. Then, “Thanks for the heads up.”
Will grins and gives her shoulder a quick squeeze before jogging back down the gravel path, heading toward the dinner pavilion. Reyna turns and climbs the stairs to the Big House to give the event sheet to Chiron.
++++++
When Reyna slides onto the bench at the Hunters’ dinner table, she eyes her companions warily. No one mentions a prank, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Even Thalia looks to be in good spirits as she claps Percy Jackson on the back, grinning at her cousin.
Reyna smiles at Percy but doesn’t get up out of her seat to talk to him. She wants to. She wants to be his friend. She wants to tell him that all has been forgiven, that is well between them. But every time she looks at his green eyes and bright smile, she thinks of that day so many years ago when he unleashed pirates on Circe’s island.
She doesn’t blame him for what he had to do to escape. Circe was a horrible mistress to serve, and Reyna was glad to see her taken down. Annabeth Chase sidles up next to her friends, wrapping an arm around Percy’s waist as she leans into him. Almost instinctually, Percy wraps his arm around her shoulders.
Reyna vividly remembers Annabeth from Circe’s island. She remembers being struck by the girl’s bravery and wisdom. Reyna had committed the other girl’s features to memory as she did her hair and makeup that day. She’d known how to braid Annabeth’s hair, which had brought a bright and shining smile to the young girl’s face.
Years later, Reyna can still recall the roiling in her stomach when she’d watched Annabeth and Percy sail away after destroying her home.
Reyna and Hylla were left with the pirates for months. Hylla endured the worst of it. She was beaten and humiliated by the pirates, who wanted to take their revenge after being turned into guinea pigs. Reyna had to watch as her sister was hurt.
Eventually, Reyna came up with a strategy to take the pirates’ attention off of her sister. She began to compliment the pirates on their sword techniques, often droning on and on about how talented they must be. They started to teach her, if only to show off and receive more compliments. She was a quick learner. She learned how to wield dual swords, swing a spear, and fire a bow — all from her captors.
Hylla caught on and started to do the same. And then Hylla surpassed them all in skill and overthrew the pirates. And they escaped.
“I wonder where the Romans will stay?” one of the Hunters asks, cutting off Reyna’s memories. “I don’t think there’s enough room in the cabins, per say.”
Reyna’s eyebrows knit together.
“Why are you talking like that, Violet?” Thalia asks, looking at the girl with concern. “You sound like a poet.”
Oh, shit.
Reyna’s eyes widen in realization at the same time as Thalia’s do. The daughter of Zeus mutters a few rhyming curse words under her breath and scans the pavilion. Her eyes narrow on the Apollo table, where a few golden-haired demigods are laughing.
As your friend, I am kindly asking you not to go straight back to the cabin, Will had said.
The children of Apollo are exceptionally skilled at the rhyming curse. Reyna has the sudden urge to make sure she hasn’t also been cursed. Under her breath, she whispers, “Please don’t fucking rhyme.”
When she is not overcome with the desire to finish the sentence with a rhyme, Reyna breathes a sigh of relief. Thalia stands up and points at the Apollo cabin, “You ASSHOLES dare disrespect the Hunters of Artemis? I am going to toss you into the abyss!”
Raucous laughter greets Thalia’s outburst. The children of Apollo laugh so hard they have to wipe tears out of their eyes. Before Thalia can launch herself at the campers, Chiron walks through the pavilion and clears his throat.
“Welcome!” calls the centaur. His tail swishes back and forth as he walks to the front of the pavilion, his booming voice carrying. “We are honored to host our friends and peers from Camp Jupiter. While we do have a Roman basilica under construction for your use next year, I’m afraid it is still unfinished. For this week, you will bunk up in a cabin from which you can draw your ancestry. If there is any confusion or uncertainty, please see me after dinner and we’ll figure out where to put you.”
A Roman basilica here? In Camp Half-Blood? Reyna has no doubt the idea was Annabeth Chase’s. She searches the crowd for the hero and finally finds her sitting at a table with Percy, Tyson, Rachel Dare, and Piper McLean.
Reyna quickly looks away.
“We would also like to welcome the Hunters of Artemis to Camp Half-Blood,” Chiron says. Everyone in the pavilion looks to Reyna’s table. “It is always an honor.”
Thalia raises her hand mockingly and waves to the crowd, earning a few laughs and chuckles. Reyna is used to attention. She’s used to being seen, being judged, being noticed. She forces a small, polite smile and nods her head to a few demigods she recognizes.
Frank Zhang, seated at the same table as Percy, grins broadly at her. Her smile widens as she meets his eyes. He’s gotten leaner and more muscular since Reyna last saw him a year ago. His praetor toga seems to finally him now, as if he is wearing it and not the other way around. Hazel sits next to him in a matching praetor’s uniform, her eyes shining brightly. Nico Di Angelo — the bastard — is sitting right next to her.
“... for the games, there are several rules I would like to announce,” Chiron says. “No killing, no maiming, and no cheating.”
Someone boos. Chiron frowns at an entire table of campers — the children of Ares. One of them, a burly, muscular woman with a red bandana in her dark, curly hair, grins at the old centaur.
“The games begin tomorrow afternoon!” Chiron says.
The campers cheer — Greeks, Romans, and Hunters alike. Reyna enjoys a little competition every now and then. Back at Camp Jupiter, she often had to referee the war games instead of compete. It’s nice to be included, now.
As food appears on their plates, each dish filling with something the demigod is craving, the campers stand and carry their plates to the front of the pavilion to make their offerings. Everyone stands at once, with no decorum or procedure, and jostles to the front. Reyna is elbowed to the back, separated from the Hunters, but she doesn’t mind. She waits her turn and then scrapes some of her food into the fire.
She murmurs a quick prayer to her mother, Bellona. Then she prays to Artemis, the goddess she currently serves.
As Reyna turns around, eager to return to her table and plot revenge against the Apollo cabin, she runs straight into Piper McLean.
Piper stumbles back, her plate clattering to the floor. The noise of the pavilion — chattering, laughing, rhyming — covers the noise of the plate falling to the ground. No one pays the two girls much attention as they stand there gaping at one another.
Piper looks so different than she did a year ago. She’s still the same height, and her dark brown hair is still cut into choppy waves. Instead of trying to obscure her face through choppy bangs, though, Piper has styled the shaggy cut to frame her face. To highlight it. She’s wearing a little bit of eyeliner and mascara, both of which make her kaleidoscope eyes pop.
“Sorry about that,” Reyna finally says, motioning to the plate and spilled food. Her heart rate has increased, so she tries to take deep, steadying breaths.
“No, sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Piper says. She squats down and pushes the food back onto her plate. Piper frowns at the dirt-stained pizza. “I don’t think Mom will mind a little dirt on there.”
Reyna cracks a smile, surprised to find a small laugh coming from her own mouth. Piper smiles too.
“It’s good to see you,” Piper says, voice unsteady. “I meant to reach out after… after… well, you know. It’s been a rough year.”
Reyna nods, turning her gaze to her combat boots. “It has. Much has changed.”
Piper scoffs, “Yeah, you’re a Hunter of Artemis now! What’s that like?”
Reyna looks at her friends, who are currently bemoaning the prank pulled on them. Even their complaints sound like poetry. Thalia looks absolutely miserable.
“It’s been good,” Reyna says, voice soft. “Really good.”
“I’m glad,” Piper says, and it really does sound like she means it. “I imagine traveling the world with a bunch of badass women is pretty great.”
Again, Reyna looses a laugh. “It’s definitely a nice change of pace,” she agrees. “Though, I’m sure things will get a little chaotic now that they’re stuck rhyming for the foreseeable future.”
Piper scoffs and waves a hand through the air, “It’ll wear off by tomorrow morning.”
The pretty daughter of Aphrodite pauses, then, when she realizes what she’s given away. Reyna cocks an eyebrow and leans into the other girl’s space. “And how do you know that?”
“Uhhh…” Piper blushes and looks away from Reyna. “I may have helped the Apollo cabin fine-tune the curse. Actually, my entire cabin might have helped them work on it. And cast it.”
“Interesting,” Reyna muses, enjoying the way Piper squirms under her gaze. “What issue does the Aphrodite cabin have with us?”
“Just a long-standing desire to prove ourselves as more than himbos and bimbos,” Piper says, shrugging good-naturedly.
“Duly noted,” Reyna says. She knows better than anyone not to underestimate someone because of beauty. She grew up on Circe’s island, for fuck’s sake. “It’s an impressive curse, I’ll give you that.”
Piper beams at her — Thalia curses poetically in the background — and Reyna’s stomach flutters.
“Oi, Reyna, get over here!” Thalia calls. “We’re going to show those kids of Apollo who they should really fear!”
Reyna swallows down a laugh and says goodbye to Piper, who looks sad to see her go.