[A/N: Heads up for a heavy feminist chapter. Don't like it? Don't read it. Simple as that. Tbh Artemis has always been one of my favorite goddesses and she needs more appreciation. Literally a feminist icon. On another note, have yall heard about the spoiler for The Burning Maze? I'm literally shaking!]

"So what will it be Jason Grace?" Porphyrion stood smiling over Jason.

The Argo II's bronze hull was the only source of light in the dark sky. Green fire still blazed around the plains of the destroyed reserves of Tartarus' army. The only monsters who had remained were Porphyrion, the giant king, and Orion, the hunter.

Both giants were waiting on Jason to decide between saving Leo or Piper from their impending deaths, but Jason already knew what to do.

Orion's assortment of weapons were glowing in the dim lights. The giant was also carrying a water bottle. Did giants drink? But the water gave Jason an idea. He just hoped he would be able to throw from this far away with perfect dug a gold drachma out of his pocket and threw it at the hunter. The coin landed a few inches near his foot, right where Jason needed it to be.

"A golden coin?" The giant stepped forward "This is your last resort? You couldn't even throw it at me."

He'd never done so before, but Jason said his prayer in silence as he focused on the tiny ray of rainbow reflecting off of Orion's dagger. O goddess, accept my offering.

"You may call yourself a hunter, Orion" Jason stalled "But ARTEMIS at THE HUNTER'S BASE will always be the best huntress of all time."

The light shimmered and in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Lady Artemis. The glow of the Iris Message almost caught Orion's attention, but Piper looked like she understood his plan, so she squirmed harder in his arms.

"Jason Grace," Porphyrion sneered "Choose a friend to save or we'll kill them both and then we'll bash your skill into theirs"

"Never!" Jason said "I destroyed your entire army, and we're standing here in the ruins of your reserves. The way I see it, you're already dead."

"We're two powerful giants," Porphyrion bellowed "You're only one hero"

"And an Olympian" Artemis appeared out of nowhere besides Jason. She nodded at him while she nocked an arrow on her silver colored bow "Shall we, brother?"

Together, they charged. Jason quickly projected more lightning bolts at Porphryion, while Artemis fired multiple arrows, hitting Orion's arms with surgical precision until he couldn't hold Piper anymore.

While Porphyrion was down, Jason quickly sheathed his gladius and scooped Piper away from the hunter. He hugged her tight, and she positioned herself so she was hugging him too. They were nose to nose.

Her breath smelled like cinnamon. She said, "This feels a little like déjà vu."

Jason smiled. She wasn't angry at him. It felt exactly as if nothing changed at all. "Have we met before? I feel like I have some sort of amnesia."

She bared her teeth in a more than perfect smile. Her hair rippled in the wind and her eyes glittered. Gods of Olympus she was beautiful. At that moment, Jason was sure Bacchus had blessed her because Piper McLean gets finer and finer with age, just like wine.

They landed atop the deck of the Argo II. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She answered "Go. I'll take care of Leo."

Jason drew his gladius and jumped over the rails of the war ship. He towered over Orion and Artemis. The goddess was a blur of silver. She had two hunting knives, each as long as her arm, and was slashing wildly at Orion, dodging and leaping with unbelievable grace. She changed forms faster than Frank Zhang could ever manage, from a gazelle to a puma to a bear. Orion also had his hunting knives drawn and despite his size, he moved as fast as Artemis, dodging and attacking.

"You were never a match for me" Artemis announced as both of them stopped to catch their breaths.

"On the contrary," Orion said "I was always stronger than you. After all, you are nothing more than a woman."

Artemis growled and charged at him again, but Orion anticipated her moved and blocked the attack.

Orion laughed "You haven't changed a bit, Artemis. Remember the old days? When we I was a part of your hunt, when we were actually friends... maybe even more."

"What are you babbling about?" Artemis mumbled, but it had sounded like she knew what he had meant.

"We both know that if it wasn't for you brother's scorpion–"

"It was your mother's." Artemis gritted her teeth in anger.

"–You would no longer be a maiden." Orion announced.

Artemis attacked in such speed that Jason's mind barely had time to process. She jabbed her knife at his shoulder, which started dripping golden ichor.

"You never admitted it," Orion continued to get under her skin, as if the injury didn't even bother him "But you had loved me, goddess. Your brother saw your maidenhood about to slip away, so he eliminated the threat."

"Gaea brought forth that scorpion because you had been driven mad, Orion. You killed many innocent souls. You deserved death. You deserved Tartarus."

"Tartarus taught me that being in your hunt was the biggest mistake I have ever made." He growled "I loathe the moments I associated myself with such a weak female deity. It is the law of nature that women are held under the dominance of men."

Jason could feel Artemis' anger even from a few feet away. Orion was a smooth talker. He made sure that every word he fired at his prey was carefully calculated.

The goddess charged again with her knives but Orion sneered in anticipation for her attack. As she attacked, he swung his leg, tripping her over. Artemis fell on her back while one of her knives skidded away.

Orion got on his knees, and gripped Artemis throat with one hand and placed the other on her leg "You have called yourself the goddess of nature for millennia, but how can you not experience the basic concept of nature?"

Jason knew where this was going. His blood boiled as he watched the scene unfold of the sexist giant that wanted to degrade one the most powerful goddesses ever. Jason hoped he still had enough charge in him to will lightning to form from the sky without passing out.

He closed his eyes in concentration, but the skies and clouds refused to obey. He was too weak. His only hope was that Orion wasn't as good a sword fighter as he is with his hunting knives.

Luckily, he didn't have to find out.

Artemis brought her other hunting knife and jabbed it in the giant's gut. Orion howled in pain. She then grabbed him by the head and bashed his skull right into the ground, creating a sinkhole about three feet deep.

"Men like you cannot be anything more than rapists, batterers, plunderers and killers. Men like you have claimed the earth, claimed nature and ruined it. You are the reason the great god Pan is dead. You are the reason Gaea, one of the most gentle spirits, had turned angry and vile. Do not attempt to teach me anything about nature, because men like you are the reason nature is seizing to exist." Orion attempted to speak but Artemis stepped on his neck "You cannot feel good about yourself unless you force women to live in fear and weakness. I chose to be a virgin goddess to prove to those women that they can be powerful if they desire to be, that women can be as powerful as men if not more." The goddess raised her face to look at Jason, who was still floating in the air. "Brother?"

Orion laughed "You can't even kill me without the help of a man."

Artemis shook her head "I hope this time Tartarus teaches you to be kind."

Jason joined the goddess and together, Jason and Artemis drove their blades into the hunter. He vaporized on the spot, nothing remaining of his evil existence but ashes.

"Lady Artemis–"

"I don't need your sympathy." She interrupted. It bothered Jason that she had called him boy, even though he looked like her father "We have another giant to kill."

"I'm not sympathizing." Jason admitted "I wanted to say that you were right about Orion. Men like him shouldn't exist in this world."

"Unfortunately brother," the goddess said "We do not live in a perfect world." Porphyrion roared in the distance "And if we do not act fast, we won't have time to fix this not-so-perfect world."

They both climbed out of the hole where Artemis had slammed Orion only to see that Porphyrion was attempting to throw another rock at the Argo II. Seriously, does he not have any other tricks? Leo was nowhere in sight at the control panel so that meant he was still unconscious.

"Guard the ship." Artemis produced a javelin. "The Argo II is vital to this war. It cannot be damaged."

Artemis ran toward the giant king and Jason did as he was told, quickly ascending to the ship's control room. There were so many buttons, switches and levers, there was no way Jason could figure out how to set this thing on autopilot. He could get up on the helm and manually fly the ship back to camp, but that would take too long.

"Piper" He called across the main deck "Is Leo up?"

She entered the control room with a grim face "He'll be down for a while. He might have a concussion, and he got a nasty bruise on his stomach."

Jason cursed "Do you know how to steer this thing?"

Piper took a look at the set of keys and buttons. "Step back." She ordered as she touched the walls and closed her eyes "Argo II, fly us back to Camp Half Blood."

She spoke with so much confidence. Her voice was so firm and commanding that Jason felt compelled to start flying to Camp Half Blood immediately. The only thing that stopped him was the whole ship rocking, changing course and advancing at top speed.

Jason's eyes widened "Did you just control the Argo II with your voice?"

"I didn't spend all my time making movies." Piper smirked.

Both of them exited the control room. The Argo II was soaring across the sky towards Half Blood Hill. Jason glanced downwards and saw Artemis engaged in battle with the giant that was four times her size and amazingly, she was making him weaker.

"He's one hit away from vaporizing." Jason said, as he unsheathed his sword, prepared to finally end Porphyrion and send him all the way to Tartarus, hopefully for the last time.

"I got it." Piper interrupted as she produced a dagger from the folds of her ski jacket. It was Imperial gold with a brown leather hilt. Piper held it from its blade and with one swift move, she threw it with such force that it landed right in the giant king's forehead between his eyes. Porphyrion must have been at least half a mile away, but Piper still amazing to make that throw.

The giant king bellowed in anger as golden ichor flowed down his face. Artemis saw the dagger and immediately delivered the final hit with her javelin in the giant's heart. Porphyrion didn't have time to roar in pain this time, because his entire body had completely turned to ash.

I will rally my hunters and meet you in battle. Artemis spoke in Jason's mind then there was a silvery flash of light in the distance.

"How'd you learn to throw like that?" Jason turned to Piper, truly amazed by that shot.

Piper's multicolored eyes glittered "I'm a dangerous girl."

"That, I believe." Jason smiled, but his smile quickly faded. How could he begin to apologize for what he did to her? For forcing her a child all on her own, for hurting her. "Piper, I–"

"No, Jason." She stopped him "You don't have to go and start apologizing for the past couple of years. I already forgave you."

Jason shook his head "You can't just–"

Piper quickly shut him up with a kiss. He could feel the heat from her body, so familiar he could drown in it. Her cinnamon scent wafted through his brain, as intoxicating as ever. He felt himself succumbing to the smell, remembering every time he'd ever kissed Piper McLean, every moment he was with her, every moment his life had a purpose.

She pulled away "We said we'd start over as much as we need to," She took a few steps backwards extended her hand "I'm Piper McLean, nice to meet you."

Jason couldn't help but grin. He shook her hand "You always kiss strangers?"

"Gods of Olympus I love you." Piper laughed as she embraced him and kissed him again.

"ALRIGHT!" Leo's voice echoed from the P.A. system over the sound of the intro of Careless Whipser by George Michael. Jason and Piper stopped kissing and looked up to see Leo at the helm "GIVE IT UP FOR MY BEST FRIENDS GETTING BACK TOGETHER." A fake applause like the ones from old sitcoms played. "What are you doing, Grace? Kiss her again. I need to get the perfect shot."

Both of them laughed as they watched Buford holding a camera at their direction. They both knew there wasn't a point in arguing with Leo and his wonder table. Jason met Piper's gaze and kissed her one more time, trying to ignore Leo's light system, sound effects and his instructions on how to kiss better. He just enjoyed the moment for as long as it would last.