Disclaimer: I own none of these stories, all rights and characters goes to Cassandra Clare, JK Rowling and Rick Riordan.

OMG OMG I GOT THE MARK OF ATHENA BUT INWARDLY PROMISED TO WRITE ANOTHER CHAPTER BEFORE I READ IT SO IT'S PROBABLY GOING TO BE SHORT BUT WHATEVER.

I'm just going to do a short Jace because I'm going to wrap up Clary and Jace's argument but I need to get to the bulk of the story. DO NOT READ THE NEXT SENTENCE IF YOU ARE NOT A DESPERATLEY WORRIED CLACE FAN, I'm going to leave things frail but more or less where we left it, ok?

Great, here comes the story!

Jace

I stood there for a second, wetting my lips and trying to not look her full in the face. The venom and hatred that pored straight from her soul was staggering. It took all my willpower not to take a few steps back.

"I'm sorry," I said hesitantly. I knew I needed this to work. I couldn't lose her. Not now, not ever. And now, with all the successful hunters around her, promising an awesome time of maidenhood if she'd just leave the guy who was constantly a jerk to her, the stakes seemed even higher.

"You should be," Clary said, not snappily, more factually. Like if I wasn't, I couldn't be human.

"I am."

Clary breathed in deeply, blocking some kind of retort. "Why?" It was a simple, vowel-less, one syllabled word that got me. One of the first words we're ever taught. The word that pushed Scientists and Pioneers further and further each time. That simple question. Why?

"Because I was selfish," I said. "Because your feelings were never taken into account and they should have been." I took a step closer, trying to break through the guards she'd set around her. I'd lost Max and my parents and watched as the person I thought was my father's blood stained my shoes. I wasn't going to let her go. She was one of the good things that had happened to me in my lifetime. I would hold on to her forever and a bit. "Because you're more than a teenagers girlfriend. Because of that time you stuck by me, when Sebastian had taken me over. Because you need to be always put first and foremost and I forgot that, again. Because I love you, and I thought that hope was lost, and I was wrong. Because I realize how deep this goes. I know that the entire thing was insensitive."

There was silence when I finished. I had thousands of more things to say. But one more and she'd think I was insincere. But too little and she'd think I barely cared. I watched her face, openly earnest. She hadn't changed the entire time. It was as if, while I'd spoken, she'd turned to stone.

But then something wonderful happened. She gave a smile. A tiny one. But it was enough. "That didn't sound like you," she said. "It sounded like someone who was actually deep."

I smiled, small enough for me to deny its existence later if it was unwelcome. "Still surprising you, Fray?"

Her smile grew. "You never cease to surprise me. It's just nice for it to be positive for once."

I dropped back to the un-Jace-like me. "Are we ok?"

She dropped back to her guarded façade. "For now, Jace." Her voice was quiet. "Maybe forever."

"Prepare to be astounded, Nephilim," I said to her tenderly. "More then usual."

Annabeth

"Surprise!" Ginny and I yelled at the same time. I tipped Percy off the bed, where he fell in a muddled heap.

He yelled something random, probably referring to a dream he had the night before. He jumped up and landed on his mattress, looking around nervously and then frowning when he heard mine and Ginny's laughter.

"Not funny, owl head," he said, fighting back a smile when he saw Harry in pretty much the same pose as him, only this time Harry had pulled out his wand and conjured a raincloud to rest over Ginny. She was laughing her head off and he was apologizing and trying to reverse it.

"Suck it, Seaweed brain," I grinned, hitting him with a pillow. I cast my eye around the tent. It was mouldy and rank.

"Seriously glad I'm not a guy in an all-girls camp," I said, sniggering when I saw the open covers on another bed revealing a pool of honey. "I would be super paranoid."

"Why?" Harry asked Ginny. "I was sleeping!"

Ginny grinned up at him. "I was bored."

"Is this your excuse as well?" Percy demanded.

"Hardly," I shrugged. Then I grinned wickedly at him. "I just wanted to see your reaction."

He narrowed his eyes and picked up a pillow from a bed near his. "You're so dead, Annabeth Chase."

I wiggled my eyebrows at him. "Not if I kill you first. As a matter of fact, I'd like to see you try." He seemed to take this as a personal invitation because he jumped at me, bringing the pillow around to where my back was. I shrieked when I made contact but hit him back, cursing and giggling as it thumped his chest.

"Pillow fight!" Ginny yelled, jumping at Harry.

We jumped around furiously, grinning and laughing and tripping over the mess we created in the room.

A small cough caught our attention and we saw Thalia standing there, hands on her hips and a grin covering most of her face already prepped for travel.

"Nice to see you're treating our stuff with all you're respect."

"Nice to see you've gotten over your boy-phobia," Percy retorted, pointing to the honey that was kind of spread around now, I could feel that weird, icky feeling you only get when you touch something as think and sticky as honey.

Thalia just grinned.

"We have to leave, like, now," she announced, picking her way through the mess to stand next to us. "And lady Artemis refuses to move on before the entire area is clean. And," she raised her eyebrows as if she'd suspected what we were all thinking. "She told me that she threatens to zap you back if you're sleeping arrangements aren't perfectly neat and tidy."

Percy groaned loudly, falling back onto his bed and making just about as much noise as he could to highlight the unfairness.

"Come on," I sighed. "We need to tidy this up."

"We're helping?" Ginny asked, dumbfounded.

I nodded dejectedly, I moved to the honey bed and began to remove the sheet just as Percy and Harry began to move to there jobs, stretching and grinning, the euphoria from the morning still present on their faces.

When I got close to her I muttered a sentence. "Leverage, my dear Ginny. Leverage."

She grinned for the rest of the clean-up.

We stood outside, lined up, next to our fellow whatevers as Artemis gave us her farewells. She smiled at me as we left. Her eye was twinkling in the sun. I smiled back. She was still one of my favorite gods, even more now for all she did for us.

We followed Thalia through the forest. For the most part we were quiet, except for the hushed conversation between Harry and Ginny and sometimes me and Percy. Jace and Clary were silent. I knew what had happened. I could tell.

The forest was full. Roots crisscrossed underfoot, the feet of gigantic trees. Ones that spread high above our heads. Light trickled though, it felt almost eerie in the forest, as if the sun had turned lighter. More moon-like. The floor was littered with leaves and twigs, some snagged in the shrubs that hugged close to the trees. Darkness seeking plants, like moss or mushrooms.

When the sun hit the middle of the sky we sat at the bottom of one of the biggest trees in the forest. Thalia handed out cheese and avocado rolls. I accepted mine gratefully. The clean up had taken longer than expected and we didn't have time to get breakfast. I kneeled and sat on my heels next to Percy, who was already halfway through his.

"You're going to be sick," I told him.

"I'm hungry!" His words were muffled from all the food stuck in there.

"She's right," Thalia said. "And I'm not slowing down to let you keep up with us."

Percy narrowed his eyes at her. "Why are you leading?" his voice was clear now.

"Because I'm the tracker."

"But you're not tracking anything."

"But I'm still more accomplished than you."

"We don't know where we're going!"

"I do," Thalia looked surprised. "Don't you?"

"No," I said slowly, my heart beating faster. What did Thalia know?

"Artemis said you had to go south," Thalia was frowning. "She said something like that, didn't she?"

"South?" I muttered to myself. "Why south?"

"To reach Mexico?" Jace asked. I shook my head.

"That'd take weeks to reach."

"You did suggest south, Annabeth," Ginny said suddenly. "Maybe you were right."

"Maybe," I frowned at my food and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. I was the one who worked things out, now I needed to use my inherited ability as well as I could.

Thnx, gotta go, bye!