We slipped through the trees that surrounded the fortress-like school. Glints of silver and faint whispers filled up the edges of the forest. Every movement was part of an extravagant dance, perfectly planned and yet entirely free flowing. When one moved, each moved. We were not a group of individuals. We were a wall of death, closing in on this unsuspecting school and its manticore. We could smell him. And our target? We could feel her.

The quest had seemed simple enough: kill the beast, save the girl, recruit the girl, and leave with said girl. And it was, until we reached the walls of the school and felt it…them…her…

It couldn't be her though. I tried to convince myself it wasn't, but all the same...I could feel her. I could feel her in my bones: her heart beating in my chest as though it were my own, the rise and fall of each breath as though her breast was pressed against mine, the smell of her all around me. I felt all it long before I ever laid eyes on her. As I grew nearer the castle, every sense magnified until I could hardly stand it.

I looked to my Lady and when our eyes met I knew she saw my distress. Her eyes grew wide in understanding and then flickered up to an open window. I understood her meaning.

I scaled the wall up to the window with the practiced movements of a hunter. As I reached the sill and peered down towards what I knew to be a typical high school dance, I caught a flash of golden hair and I found myself needing to clamp my eyes shut and look away.

Did I want to see her? No. I needed to see her. I needed to look upon my angel, to see her smile…even if I was not the cause of that smile….even if he was. I needed to know she was okay. I needed to look. Just look, Thalia. A look won't hurt, I reasoned.

I gathered my nerve and took a deep breath of the cool night air. My head turned back toward the cheesy music and fumbling adolescents and I opened my eyes. Immediately, without searching, my gaze was drawn to a head of blond and a tall, lean, wonderful figure. I smiled softly to myself at how she had grown since I last saw her. Beautiful.

Then…then my eyes drifted to the form that she was dancing with. Dark, unkempt hair and green eyes like the sea. It was Percy fucking Jackson. I mentally hit myself. Of course it was Percy Jackson. Of course it was, you idiot. Who else would it be? Not you. Never you.

Anger built in my chest. My breathing became erratic; losing the soft steady breathing that had echoed hers. I flung my fist into the brick that surrounded the window where I was still perched. The stone shattered. My heart shattered. All over again. Pain. All over again.

I looked back to the room and let my eyes dance over the crowd. Grover was here with them. That meant it was a recovery mission. They were here for the girl and her brother as well. Then there was the manticore. He should have looked up when I punched the wall, the noise was easily loud enough for him to hear, but it looked as though his focus was on two dark-haired, olive-skinned students towards one corner of the room. Those had to be the di Angelo kids. The girl, what was her name? Bianca. Yes, Bianca. She was beautiful.

I leapt from the window. Landing with perfect balance before my lady and the other Hunters. I looked up at them, fighting the tears back from my eyes. I looked to Artemis. I knew she could feel what I was feeling, but I mentally thanked her when her only gesture to me was a slight nod.

I cleared my throat, "Two demi-gods and a satyr. Campers. They're probably here for the same reason we are."

Artemis spoke, "Very good, lieutenant. Your suggestion."

I looked to the Hunters. It was times like these that the silver ring felt a bit heavier as it sat, braided into by dark, now longer, locks. "We wait," I said.

They looked at me, confused.

Zoë questioned from her place at Artemis' side, "Lieutenant, are you sure? We have position. Our markswomen have the manticore in their sights."

I straightened myself to my full height, putting forth the full weight of my position, "Yes, Zoë. I know Perseus Jackson. He is rash and impulsive. He will do something stupid. When he does, opportunity will present itself. We, dear Hunters, will wait for his stupid. We will wait in the trees. Back to cover, all of you."

Zoë looked briefly to Artemis before nodding toward me in acceptance. Even the favored companion of the Lady did not have authority to question my orders. Only the goddess herself could override my word and I knew she would not. I knew she understood what was at stake for me, now.

Not minutes after the Hunters had retreated back to the forest, the doors of the castle-like school burst open. The manticore was dragging the two dark-haired demigods behind him, heading for a cliff and, from what I could tell, calling for backup. My Hunters were chomping at the bit. Zoë and the archers were already drawn and ready.

I called for them to hold. I needed to see her.

The next second, Percy burst through the doors. Alone.

Idiot.

He fought well…for a Seaweed Brain. But he was still losing.

I don't know when she showed up. But I felt a twinge on my peripheral senses and out of nowhere was Annabeth.

My breath hitched, my fingers tingled, my heart raced as I watched her spinning, fighting, diving. She was an angel of death. One moment, at a pause in the fight, as the manticore teetered toward the edge of the cliff, she looked toward the forest. Her eyes met mine.

No, Thalia. That's not possible. She can't… then she blinked. And in that split second I knew. I knew that she saw me as clearly as I saw her, that she felt me as I had felt her heart in my chest the minute we came upon the castle, that she felt the same pull that I did. But then she blinked again and I didn't see Annabeth anymore. No. I saw a broken, fractured little girl. A girl that couldn't be my Annabeth.

It scared me, what I saw in those formerly vast gray pools of intuition and ferocious life. It was so…dead.

And the way she looked at me, like she wasn't sure if I was actually there, it made me feel that I was nothing but a ghost to her. I could see the struggle in her eyes. Those eyes that I could always read better than anyone. They demanded things of me. They demanded my purpose, my intentions, my existence. They drew me out.

Cautiously, I stepped from the cover of the trees towards her. I could hear the other Hunters gasp as I broke formation. I looked to the ground as I paced forward. Each step was heavy, heavier than the step of an immortal should ever be. Slowly, I looked up, letting my eyes meet the shattered and cold gray ones of my love, my heartache.

Our eyes met and the world faded, even as Percy continued to battle the manticore in the background, and it was just the two of us.

I reached out my hand and she reached out hers and our finger tips met between us. I shivered as my callused finger-tips met smooth, warm, clammy skin and accidentally let a small shock pass down my arm. I looked up to see her jump slightly, but remain staring at the place where our fingers met. Her eyes rose to meet mine and I could see the cracks there begin to smooth over. Cold and shallow slowly became dark and passionate.

I pressed our hands together further, so that our palms touched and a ghost of a smile spread across her face, still not the full and beaming blessing of a smile that I was used to, but close enough to make my heart flutter. I smiled back.

"Annabeth," I whispered. "I…"

Before I could finish, one of the manticores spikes flew towards us. I pulled her to the ground just in time to avoid being hit.

We both rolled into fighting stances. My pepper-spray extended to its spear form in my hand and Aegis grew from the bracelet on my left hand. Her knife was already drawn.

Over my shoulder, I yelled, "Archers, fire at will! Avoid the boy!"

As the last words left my lips, silver arrows flew from the trees and rained down with surgical precision on the beast.

It screamed, now with at least twenty arrows buried in its chest.

"Hunters! Forward!"

I felt Annabeth tense as thirty young girls in silver and white robes similar to mine ran from the cover of the trees, swords and spears and bows drawn and ready. I hadn't realized her hand was still in mine until then. I blushed and looked up at her, but she only looked forward. I slid my hand from hers and headed for the beast, dodging spikes as they flew at random from the beast's poisoned tail.

After only moments, he was at the cliff's edge again, short an arm and his tail thanks to the Hunters. I signaled to the others to hold and looked to Lady Artemis. She nodded, so I approached the beast.

"Who has sent you, manticore?"

A roar build steadily in his throat, "That is not your business, Daughter of Zeus."

I brought Aegis hard across is face and he growled loudly.

"I asked you who the fuck sent you for these children, beast! Who?"

At first, he said nothing. Then, he began to laugh, darkly and slowly. Had this been another time, I might have backed down in fear, but with the Hunters and my love at my back I couldn't find it in me to fear the sick bastard. Instead, I once again brought my shield across his face.

"Speak, you bastard child of evil, or I will dismember you slowly." My anger was beginning to blind me of sensibility. I turned to pick up an arrow that had met the ground so that I might drive it into the beast's mocking eye, or the one that wasn't already swollen shut.

I should have seen. I should have sensed, but it wasn't until I looked up to see the horror-stricken faces of my sisters and felt the weight of the beast on top of me that I knew my mistake. I had turned my back on a wounded animal.

I covered my neck with my hands, but couldn't protect my back from the fury of the manticore's sharp claws. I prayed for intervention, for a quick end, but instead, I was granted with relief.

I felt the beast fall away from me as it let out a horrible scream of agony. I recovered quickly to my feet and looked up to see a flash of blond hair on top of the ugly, mangled monster. There, with her knife driven into a weak spot on the manticore's back, was my angel.

I looked up at her and smiled and she smiled back. Correction. Not my angel. My guardian angel.

Then, just as suddenly as her smile had appeared, a looked for terror replaced it. The manticore staggered towards the edge of the cliff. She couldn't get off. Her pants leg was snagged in the chinks of its armor. She wasn't going to make it away in time.

Everything in me screamed to run to her, but I was frozen.

Everything stopped.

The manticore slipped.

They fell, Annabeth's knife still buried in the beast's back.

Before she disappeared over the edge, I caught her eyes one last time. I love you, they said. It was final. Too final.

The beast roared as the two plummeted toward the craggy shallows that I was so sure sat at the bottom of the cliff.

Suddenly, something in me snapped. I screamed her name and sprinted toward the cliff, shaking off Aegis and throwing my spear to the side as I ran. I only made it a few yards through, before I was tackled to the ground. I kicked and punched and screamed and tried to fight my way out of the arms that held me, but with every protest, the arms grew stronger and less yielding.

"Thalia," my captor whispered. Artemis. "Thalia, you need to calm down."

"No, Artemis!" I screamed. "I have to go! I have to go get her! I can't lose her again!" I lost the will to fight. I couldn't feel her heart beat anymore. I couldn't feel the rising and falling of her chest. "I…I can't feel her anymore. Her heartbeat…it's…I can't feel it." I dissolved into tears in my Lady's embrace, dampening the front of her robes. I could feel my body shaking, barely soothed by the passage of her warm hand up and down my back, moving in only slightly comforting circles.

"Shh, my brave one. She is not gone. She may not be near, but look deeper. You will see the truth in my words. Her heart yet beats; her soul yet hums alongside your own. Look, my Hunter." I looked up into her bright silver eyes and saw no falseness there, so I shut my own.

My soul was in turmoil, so it made sense that as I searched it for some sign that my Annabeth was still alive, everything I found was indecipherable. I sorted through the tough layers of pain and anguish that had formed as I watched my angel fall over the cliff, through the conflict I had experienced when our hands met, through everything. I cut away months of calloused and emotionless memory that had formed during my time away from Annabeth. I shed years of tight stagnation that had built up over the years that I sat, waiting in my prison and sanctuary. I cut and sliced and peeled until I could see, in my minds eye, the glowing center of my consciousness. It was warm and tickled of electricity and summer breezes. There, in the core of all that was "Thalia" and my life, I could hear it: a faint thump thump thump.

It was a thumping I would know the sound anywhere and as I listened to its soft yet powerful rhythm, I knew.

My eyes shot open, "I can feel her."

Artemis just smiled knowingly and helped me to my feet.

"I can feel her," I repeated. "Where is she?"

"That, my brave one, I cannot know. You will have to seek counsel…"

"From the Oracle," I finished. She nodded.

Oracle. Oracle meant going back to camp with Percy and Grover, something that I did not want to do.

But for Annabeth…for Annabeth I would do anything.

I looked to my Lady, "Then I will return to camp with Percy and the satyr and the boy."

Percy protested, "And Bianca."

"No," I turned to him, more than a small amount of contempt lacing my voice, "Bianca will not return to camp. Not necessarily."

I turned to the girl, who looked confused. I ceded the floor to Artemis, who made her pitch to the girl as she had so many times. She finished, "You need only swear your allegience to myself and the Hunt, and all of these things: sisterhood, immortality, eternal maidenhood, will be yours."

Bianca looked to her brother, then back to Lady Artemis, "I will."

Nico made a move to protest, but was quieted by his sister, "Shh, Nico. I'll always be around to protect you, but this is where I belong." He looked to the ground, a couple of action figures clutched in his fists.

She made the Oath and immediately took on the soft glow signature to all Hunters. She was given robes to change into and a bow and quiver set identical to all those carried by the Hunters.

I looked to Artemis, Zoë and the Hunters and then to Percy and Grover, "We will leave at sun up. Be ready."