Dawn wondered for a moment why Nika suggested she wait in the car until she realized her hands were shaking. She shook her head.

"No, I'll be okay," she said. She picked up her brother's weapons, clearly intent on hanging on to them for now. After a quick look around the room, she spotted her brother's lyre, between his bed and his night stand. She grabbed that, too. Better than she keep an eye on them than some random person walking in and taking them.

Nika made one last sweep of the apartment to be sure she hadn't missed anything before she grabbed his keys, intending to lock the apartment once they left. Hopefully he'd paid his rent; she hadn't bothered to go through his mail. "Are you ready to head back?"

Dawn nodded.

"Let's go," she said. She had no idea how she was going to tell her brothers that Aaron was missing, but she would have to figure something out. Jason and the twins all knew Aaron at camp, before he left, and they would take the news the worst.

Nika locked up the apartment and walked back to Dawn's car, frowning as she tried to figure out what had happened. It wasn't easy to take a demigod somewhere he or she didn't want to go, unless you caught them by surprise. And even then, you had to take them somewhere away from any kind of civilization, and you had to have very good restraints to hold one.

Dawn didn't want to think about it, not while she was driving. Absently, she turned on the radio, trying to ease her anxiety. A few moments later, she realized it wasn't working.

"What...?" Reaching over, she changed the radio station. A moment later, she changed it again. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure." Nika frowned. "I think it's time to drive faster and get back to camp. Just in case." She didn't think they'd be attacked, not right there, out in the open, but one could never be too careful.

Dawn nodded quickly. She wasn't going to say anything just yet, but she knew something was terribly wrong.

The drive back to camp was short, but it seemed much longer. As soon as she parked the car, she reached for Aaron's lyre. Even though it wasn't hers, she knew it should work for her. She flicked her wrist, willing it to become a guitar. Nothing happened.

"Oh no..."

"Fuck," Nika hissed, running to go find Chiron. As soon as everyone else at the camp figured it out, things were going to go all to hell. And that was not going to be fun."

Dawn worked on not panicking. She didn't pay attention to Nika, instead, she went towards her cabin.

"Dawn!" Kevin ran towards her. "Dawn, what's happening? The guys keep saying something is wrong, and that it's not normal, and none of them will tell me what's happening!"

"Kevin, go back into the cabin," Dawn instructed. "I need to talk to the boys."

Nika started talking to Chiron quickly, telling him about everything that had happened and that she'd discovered.

Seth frowned as he and his family went back to their cabin, starting to talk. They were all getting worried, the tension from all the other cabins getting to them. They couldn't tell immediately that their powers were going away.

Dawn shouldered her way into the cabin. All of her brothers were all trying to talk over one another, trying to figure things out. Taking a steadying breath, she stepped up onto her bed.

"Cabin seven, fall in!" she shouted, over her brothers. They all immediately shut up and got into line. "Okay, I realize what's been happening. We've all lost our gifts. I realized this a little while ago. So sit down, shut up, and let me go and talk to Chiron and figure out how to get this fixed." She hesitated, then continued, "If I have to, I'll contact Dad." THAT stunned her brothers into absolute silence.

"What?" Ben and Steve chorused. They all knew how much she resented their father.

"If I have to, I will," Dawn replied. "I'm the head of the cabin, it's my responsibility." Stepping down from her bed, she made sure her weapons were in place, and left to go talk to Chiron.

Nika glanced over when she saw the heads of the cabins start to head over, and she frowned. "This is bad, Chiron," she said quietly. "This isn't going to end well. You know our parents. They're not going to give us our powers back just because we ask nicely. We're going to have to go to drastic measures."

Chiron nodded his agreement. "I know," he said quietly. "I would suggest you see what you can do first, so you can instruct the others. Ares will talk to you if you call him."

Nika nodded, and a bloodthirsty little smile adorned her lips. "I know exactly what I'm going to do. Keep everyone else over here, if you can. Unless Dawn wants to come see how bad things get when demigods talk to their parents."

"What exactly is going on?" Dawn asked when she got there. She spoke before any of the other cabin leaders had a chance to. "My brothers are all freaking out. Kevin and Jake are both too new here to understand, but the others know something is up." She bit her lip a little, forcing herself to stay calm. "This isn't right, why are our parents suddenly taking our powers from us?"

"Because this has happened before," Chiron said, watching them. "An entity is stealing demigods and draining their powers from them, and thereby gaining the gods' powers. The gods are taking back their powers so they can't be comprimised any more than they already have been."

Several of the other cabin leaders started protesting, even though Chiron had nothing to do with it.

Nika started to move away, motioning for Dawn to come with her. She wanted Dawn to see why demigods weren't supposed to interact with their parents.

Dawn glanced at the other cabin leaders before following Nika. She didn't want to be around when Hephaestus Cabin and Aphrodite Cabin started arguing. She felt terribly vulnerable and unprotected as it was, she didn't want to get in the middle of inter-cabin politics.

Nika moved away from the others, moving off to the side. "I am going to talk to Ares," she said. "I thought you might be interested to see how much we don't get along, even though he likes me. I'm one of his favorites, and that's saying something. I know you will still be angry at your father, and I know you will still want to know him, and I don't blame you for that. But it's not all it's cracked up to be. Talking is okay once in a while, anything more than that gets explosive."

Nika moved away from Dawn so she'd have room, taking a deep breath. "Ares, I summon you to human form, you son of a bitch."

Ares appeared before her, wearing dark sunglasses, his dark hair left loose for the time being. He wore a leather vest over a black t-shirt, along with black leather pants tucked into leather biker boots. He pulled off his sunglasses when he saw his favorite daughter, revealing bright green eyes.

"Nika," he greeted her. "What's this about?"

Nika smiled coldly, an exact reflection of his smile. "This is about me needing my powers back so I can go kick some ass. I know you're not going to give them willingly."

"No, I'm not." Ares crossed his arms over his chest. "Sorry, kid, can't help you. Go away."

"Sorry, Dad, can't do that." Nika literally tackled the god, bringing them both to the ground, and the two started brawling until Nika got in a good hit over his head, and he fell still briefly. Nika took that time to grab his sunglasses, sword, and shield before she backed away from him, knowing he'd likely return to Olympus to nurse his wounds and wounded pride. He wouldn't even notice she'd taken them from him for a few days, most likely, unless he got involved in or started another war. Which really wouldn't surprise her.

"It's not nice to call Hera a bitch, you know," Dawn said mildly once the scuffle was over. She'd stayed well out of sight while Nika was preoccupied. There was no way she was attracting the attention of the god of war. Her bow was in her hand, but for the first time, the familiar feel of it in her palm didn't comfort her. The uncanny accuracy that she shared with her brothers was one of the powers that was just taken away from her. She could only pray that her muscle-memory would pan out for her. "That wasn't as bad as you implied, by the way."

Nika smiled darkly. "Well, I started it this time," she said, touching her split and bleeding lip and grimacing. "Besides, just wait until he finds out that I actually stole these. Think god-bolts. Think Hellhounds. Think everything he can get his hands on, plus the wrath of the God of War. I will be dead a thousand times over, but hopefully we'll have gotten rid of the Void by then so you lot can go back to your normal, regularly scheduled programs."

"We'll see what happens when we kick the Void back into whatever pit it crawled out of," Dawn replied. Her grip on her bow tightened, but she made no move to talk to her own father. She wasn't that desperate, not yet. Besides, she had his email address, now. She grinned slightly. "Did I tell you I got my dad's email? It's got to be the most obvious screen name ever created."

Nika grinned broadly. "Very good. I'm glad you got that. Just be glad your father is tech-savvy enough to have an e-mail. My father doesn't have an email, although a couple of my half-siblings do. Although if I emailed Calix he'd probably come visit and bring Eros and a couple others along, and that is just not going to end well."

Dawn snorted.

"I stole the address from Aaron's computer," she said. "That's who he was emailing. And like I said, cheesiest screen name ever. Anyone with any shred of mythological knowledge would see right through it." She slung her bow over her shoulder. "We should get back... I want to check my emergency bag, make sure I have enough ambrosia and first aid supplies... Obviously, none of my brothers are healers anymore."

"Yeah, I figured." Nika sighed and shook her head. "Come on, let's go. We can gather our supplies and go. One of my half-brothers should be able to help us at least find out where the Void is."

"Right," Dawn replied. "My bag is in my cabin... I want to check on the boys before we leave. Jake and Kevin are still young, they have next to no training at all, and now they have no powers to help them, either. Alexander, Ben and Steve, Jackson, and Jason all have training, so I have to let them protect the younger ones."

Nika nodded. "They'll be safe enough here as long as they stay here. Besides, Chiron and those damn satyrs are still here." She glared in the general direction of the satyrs. "Go get your things, and then we're taking my car. It's faster and he knows my car."

Dawn nodded and went back into her cabin. Her brothers were still all in chaos, so she quickly grabbed her bag. After a moment of thought, she took Aaron's arrows from his quiver and added them to her own. She might need them later.

"Jason, you're in charge," she said on her way out. Her brother looked a bit uneasy, but nodded all the same. Then Dawn went to meet Nika.