Heart throbbing, head spinning, the thrilling sensation of a fight pounded with in me. My eyes were closed and one hand was behind my back. That was my part of the boast. Blame my prideful nature but I told the boss that I could beat whoever he threw at me with one hand behind my back and my eyes shut. It earned an amazed stare from Silena, I could've sworn I saw something like admiration swirl in her irises. But, then the second it appeared it washed away with a strange look of concern. I pushed her gaze away by looking away. We weren't friends- I must've read her emotions wrong.

Beckendorf had come up and jabbed me in the side with his elbow. "What was that for?" he hissed, "We're on a mission here, you can't just pick non-winnable fights to boast your huge ego when as Ares, himself, kind of put it, 'the whole fate of the world is in your hands, Clarisse."

I turned towards him and smiled. "Don't worry about a thing Beckendorf, after all I am the daughter of a war god. What can possibly go wrong?"

My opponent's and my sword clashed. The boss decided to have a sword fight, he said he hasn't seen a real good one in a long time. I put all my strength into my blade and my opponent lost his grip on our joining. His sword slipped off mine. I lunged forward, but he quickly parried it. People were watching in amazement. I could tell, not one sound rolled of their tongues. Like I said, I am the daughter of Ares. War and fighting is in my nature in my blood. When fighting I can feel my opponents movements pulse through my body. I know what they are going to do even before they perform the action. They only thing that distracts children of Ares is unexpected things, the stuff we consider dirty. For example, turning invisible while fighting (Stupid Athena kids.) or having a huge wave come out of nowhere and hit the person (Percy Jackson will pay eventually.) Fighting must be what you have and what you got, no hidden surprises, just to make it fair so that the best man wins.

I sensed the man lung forward. I stepped out of the way and then with a slash scraped my blade across his hip. The man yowled in pain. I smiled, I knew fresh blood now was forming. Blood only heightened my senses. Each attack he thrust at me I quickly reversed it. Each triumphant move I made only made me more ready. My power was coming out of his embarrassment, his anger, his hatred, and his weakness. There was one thing that wasn't coming from him that me less powerful than I should've been at that point-fear. He should've been afraid. Ares kids also get some of their power from fear- fear is an emotion tied to war. Just another reason that Phobos and Deimos had to come back.

For awhile, I was dragging the fight on. It was fun to play with my opponent's emotions, letting them bring more of my powers out. But, then I got bored. Nothing new was going to come out of him. With ease, I lodged his sword from his hand. It flew across the arena and clattered on the floor. The man looked away, a big mistake. With all the power surging with in me, I easily kicked him down and brought the tip of my sword to his neck. I opened my eyes and looked down at his pathetic figure. A smile crept up upon my face, "I win." I stated the fact.

Nothing happened. A heartbeat later - thunderous applause. I tried hard not to look smug . . . that is, until I saw the look of shock plastered on Beckendorf's face. I suppose I should be insulted. By now he should know just how incredible my skill was. But I decided instead to bask in the adoration of my admirers.

It was good to be home.

But like all good things, it didn't last. Soon enough, Beckendorf was called to the mat, I snorted as he lumbered out, hand clutching the cheek Silena had kissed for luck. I barely registered when in passing he congratulated me, my eyes were fixed upon his opponent.

Six foot tall, caked in muscle and brimming with confidence. I was pissed. Of course he would get the actual competition! Too add insult to injury, the boss called for a fist fight.

Glaring at anything that dared move my way, my fingers began tapping relentlessly against the hidden knife in my jacket pocket, as the roars of the crowd started up and Beckendorf began his fight. My whole being was itching to use the shiny little weapon, consequences be damned!

I could only seethe as Beckendorf dispatched his opponent seemingly with ease. My blood boiled as the crowd howled louder for him than me! I hated them. It shouldn't be possible for them to forget me so easily!

When the Boss stood up to calm the crowd, and to begin the next fight, my feet started moving on there own. I was determined to beat the damn child of Hephaestus to the punch and volunteer to take the stupid daughter of Aphrodite's place first.

Naturally, nothing was that easy. If my blood was boiling when the crowd screamed Beckendorf's name . . . let's just say, it was nothing compared to the feeling of pure and utter hatred that steamed my entire body as he laughed and called Silena to the mat. I was paused for a second in shock. But then my brain did overtime and screamed at me, Dam it, Clarisse, you should've known this was going to happen. And you know what? It was right, judging form that smirk on his face, I should've.

Once I got over my initial shock it was almost easy to begin moving his way, fingers enclosing around the sharp dagger and tugging it from it's confines. I could hear Silena shrieking my name, telling me to stop. But, it sounded far off, nothing I was about to pay attention to. Besides my blood was heating, preparing for a battle, nothing was going to stop me.

I held the hilt firmly, my fist became raised. It only took a mere second for his bodyguards to realize what I was doing. In a flash one grabbed me from behind, twisting the dagger sharply from my hand. "You son of a - " I howled, cut off as a guard slapped my cheek. I outright ignored the painful sting. The crowd was dead silent, backing up quickly to avoid anyone's wrath. I struggled viciously against the guard, but he held me in a firm grip.

Think, Clarisse! How do you get out of this grip? Except it was impossible to do anything other than struggle violently. He had my wrist pinned against my shoulder in a death grip, and held me against the ground so I couldn't kick at him.Dammit, think!

Then something weird happened. He unbuttoned the back pocket of my jeans. The boss couldn't see me because with so many fighters in the room, chaos was bound to happen. "Keep struggling." He whispered against the crook of my ear. It was only then that I realized I had stopped moving. My confusion increased tenfold when I felt him slip something into the pocket. Something small and metal. Across the room my eyes connected with another man, a red head, with a thick mustache. A son of Ares. Nonchalantly, he reached into his coat, extracting a glinting object. My brothers eyes shone as he tossed it underneath the table, nodding at me, before turning and slipping through the crowd unnoticed.

It was about then that the Boss, whatever his name was, had recovered and took control of the room.

Straightening out his jacket, he furrowed his eyebrows, motioning for the guard to release me. I couldn't even smirk. Slowly but surely, my heartbeat went back to normal and I began to realize just what I had started. Oh crap. Turning I met the eyes of Beckendorf, he was breathing heavily. Also being released my another group of guards. Silena wasn't far behind him, standing so close to the wall, she might have blended in if she wasn't wearing such obvious clothes.

In another time, in another moment, if I was a completely different person, I would have found the entire situation odd. First with the guard. He had re-buttoned my pocket when my brother had thrown the object, and when I reached backwards to feel my pocket, he hurriedly smacked my hand away. "Not yet!" He hissed.

Also, what son of Ares avoided a fight? Maybe, I was wrong. There was a whole throng of big guys in here, he could just belong to them.

It didn't matter. Thanks to my own stupidity, I regretted to admit. I was now standing here defenseless, weaponless, confused, and in the mercy of a ticked of Mafia Boss. Speaking of weaponless, my eyes trailed the short few feet to where the shiny dagger had been tossed. A dusty corner two feet from Silena. She looked up to meet my eyes, shaky and fearful. But nonetheless, she walked over to it as carefully as possible, bending down as if to straighten her boots and quickly slipped it underneath her sleeve. Luckily with the crowd beginning to cause an uproar in the background, nobody noticed.

So I turned my attention back to the man who caused all this in the first place.

The man smiled as he somehow took control of the room again. The men glared at him. "Joe," the boss simply said. A big man stepped out on the mat, a man even bigger than the one Beckendorf had fought.

Then the boss looked directly at Silena.

My anger boiled over even more, Control yourself Clarisse.

"You promised," I seethed, "You promised she wouldn't have to fight!" Beckendorf slid in front of Silena, if I was upset, it was nothing compared to him. His teeth gritted together, scraping. His eyes were narrowed into tiny slits, glaring across the room.

It just wasn't right.

The boss laughed loudly, "Oh, what's the harm of a little fistfight?" He said the words tauntingly, as if daring me to find a way out of this.

"A little fistfight?" Beckendorf shouted, "Look at him, she'll get crushed!" He gestured behind me, towards the man on the mat. The man smirked towards us, showing a few missing teeth.

The boss seem to complete for awhile, obviously enjoying teasing us. "All right then . . . I'll tell you what," he said after awhile. "If anyone of my people, are willing to step up and fight, then please, step forward."

Silena looked around frantically with a hopeless look shining in her eyes. Nobody was going to question the boss, nobody was willing to – "I will go in her place!" A voice declared.

My face lifted up immediately, hopefully. Only for it to drop back down a second later. The only sound to fill the room was a drawn out sigh from another man, "Sit back down, Hannah!"

I looked back up to the girl in front of me, fruitlessly, hoping that what I saw before was just a trick of my imagination. It wasn't. She was . . . tiny, five-two at the most, wearing green flats, jeans, and a flowing white shirt. Her blonde hair fell in delicate curls all around her face, her eyes were the brightest green I've ever seen, and her lips were painted pink. "I will not sit back down. I will fight in the young girls place." Her voice was soothing and beautiful. I felt like I should know her, but nothing was coming up in my mind.

"I really wish you would." The boss said, there was something in his voice that was different, a tenderness. As if they went way back, before all this.

But when she spoke towards him, her voice was cold, "You might, people wish for a lot of things. I wish for balance, and I fear every day that this world will tilt it's scales for my father's or mother's favor. But, I know the chances of that are as good as these three young kids getting out of here with everything they need and happy smiles on their faces for the world thrives on almost opposites. Still, I wish for their endeavor to be a successful one, so I will do everything in my power to ensure that will happen."

My head turned to connect with Beckendorf and Silena's before I could stop myself. They were both staring at the girl wide eyed and confused. She seemed so familiar, and she was staring at me as if willing me to realize something

After her speech, the woman named Hannah walked into the arena and faced the man. He glared down at her and smiled, not the friendly smile, but the 'you don't belong here' kind of smile. "Go home little girl," he sneered, "I would hate to make you cry."

Hannah calmly took one of her shoes off and tossed it to the side. "Not all girls cry," she said simply, "in fact, I do recall my brothers crying more than me."

She took off her other shoe and threw it at him. The man caught and his smile became even larger as if trying to surpass a laugh. "Is that suppose to frighten me, little girl? Am I suppose to run into the crowd in retreat?"

He hurled her shoe back to her, Hannah caught and then she tossed it next to the other one. She flicked her hair back and pulled it back into a pony-tail. "Actually yes," she said tying her hair back, she finished and looked him squarely in the eye, "I was hoping you would."

The man laughed and the crowd joined in. "Did you think that shoes would scare me?" he said, Hannah didn't reply, she stood there firmly not backing down, "Well in fact it did not, it will take more than that to get me to give up a fight," he then turned to the crowd, "do you think I should give this little girl a chance and let her back away before I totally demolish her?" The crowd cheered, I guess it was a 'yes'. The man turned back to Hannah, "Last chance, little girl, run away, go home. I would hate to bust up a pretty face like yours."

Hannah looked at him, "Scared are you? You just want me to go so that you won't have to worry about getting your butt whooped. Right?"

The crowd was hushed. I could sense everybody peering at the man. I just thinking, how can this possibly get worse. But of course, the Fates where against me on this one, it did. The pressed his lips together and then forced a toothless grin. "If you insists, little girl," he said walking closer to her. He stopped when the were close together, one of them could reach out and touch the other. "Of course," the man continued, "what kind of gentlemen would I be if I didn't insists that ladies go first," he turned to crowd, "what do you think boys? Should we give her the first opportunity, just, you know, to make it fair." The crowd roared with approval. The man spun back to Hannah and opened his arms up, "Go ahead, hit me."

Hannah yawned and stretched. Then she focused her eyes on him. I didn't know why she was playing games with him. I just wanted this fight to be over a done with. "Actually," she said, "that's not what I had in mind." She bowed sarcastically at him, "Lady yielding in favor of the gentleman." This time the room filled up with timid laughter.

The man growled, obviously annoyed at her. He pulled his arm back, exposing his mid-section, that would've been a perfect place to attack. She had to attack then, I thought it was her only chance. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Silena place her hands in front of her eyes, I didn't blame her, after all, what was about to happen was a girl that resembled her was about to get beaten to a pulp by a big brawny man. His hand made a huge fist and then with immense force he pushed it towards Hannah. I heard the whole audience inhale a sharp breath of surprise. She had dodged the first blow.

The man was stunned. But before he could do anything else Hannah nailed her small fist on his jaw. A crack sounded and the crowd gasped. She had just broken one of his bones. The man staggered back clutching his face. Hannah smiled. "Done yet?" she asked.

The man just let out a grunt and lunged at her, she side stepped out of the way and he went tumbling past. The crowd laughed. He turned around, his teeth were painted in blood. He then got up and started swinging punches at the girl.

Hannah simply either dodged or blocked every single one of them. But he was advancing on her, I hoped that she wasn't getting tired. I silently prayed to my father that he would help her win this fight- you know like maybe give her his blessing or something. But instead I heard his voice inside my head, she's going to be fine Clarisse, just watch and learn.

The man finally gave up on punching and he lunged forward tackling Hannah to the ground. Silena next to me gave out a slight whimper, I too was holding my breath.

"Finished now little girl," the man said.

Hannah smiled up at him. "Not quite." Before he could respond her legs pressed into his abdomen flipping him over her.

Hannah quickly jumped to her feet. The man slowly got up. Right then he said the most cheesiest lines in the history of lines. "Alright little girlie, no more mister nice guy."

Hannah clenched her fists and held them up. "I never wanted him."

The man came after with a punch. Hannah dodged and pounded her fists into his ribs. The man let out a "oof" sound. But before he could recover another punch hit him in the temple and then a kick across the mouth sent him spinning to the ground.

The whole fell silent. Astonished stares followed the girl named Hannah as she went to retrieve her shoes. Against all odds, she had won. That was the fact.