AN: And we're back! Sorry for being gone for so long, but I decided that the best way to move forward if I didn't want to abandon the story would be to pick up the pace of the story a little bit but take my time actually writing it. So, things are going to start moving a little faster now and there shouldn't be a whole lot of story left. But now, we're back to daily updates up until the end! I promise! I know I've been absent for quite a while, so you may want to skim some of the previous chapters to refresh your memories.

/

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:

Percy hopped off of the Japanese warship and onto the icy surface of the Hubbard Glacier, followed closely by Artemis and Thalia.

"So where's the Eagle Standard, Perseus?"

"For that matter, what's the Eagle Standard?"

Percy frowned at Thalia. "Didn't we tell you about it?"

Thalia looked at him and deadpanned, "No. You were both too busy sucking face."

Artemis skillfully hid her blush, but Percy just looked back at her blankly, double-checking in his mind that Thalia never had solid proof about whether they actually had kissed, and made a mental note not to confirm anything. "Ha ha, Pinecone Face. Very funny. Anyway, the Eagle Standard is the symbol of the Twelfth Legion, the Roman Legion that we went to visit. It was said to have been given to them by Lord Jupiter himself and imbued with his powers. It was lost in a quest during the 1980s when Praetor Michael Varus led a suicide mission here."

"Uh okay. Cool. So where is it?"

Percy looked around. "There's an ice covered imitation of Camp Jupiter on top of the glacier. The Eagle should be kept there."

"Great."

The trio trudged slowly up the side of the glacier, careful not to slip on the loose snow or slick icy trail.

/

"Why are we hiding, Percy?" Thalia hissed from their spot behind a large boulder, overlooking the frozen replica Camp Jupiter.

"Last time I was here, there were shades of the fallen legionnaires. We might have to fight them again," Percy whispered back.

Artemis turned away from the icy scene and faced her questmates. "Thalia. You are the only one connected to Father's domains. Can you sense it on the Standard?"

Thalia closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. "Oh yeah. I think so. I can tell what building it's in at least. The one called… the Principia? Or something?"

Percy nodded. "That makes sense. It's where it's housed at the real Camp Jupiter."

Artemis gazed once more at iced-over buildings. "Perseus. If there are shades lurking around the camp, you and I have the best chance against them."

Percy narrowed his eyes, analyzing the landscape as a potential battlefield. "Artemis and I can engage the spirits on Temple Hill on the other side of the camp. Thalia can run to the Principia to grab the Eagle, then get out of there. The shades will be difficult to kill without a child of Hades, and last time we had Thanatos helping us, so our best option is to just hold them off and distract them long enough to get the Eagle and get out."

Artemis and Thalia nodded.

"Start sneaking your way around. Let out a crack of thunder when you have retrieved the Eagle Standard and reached a safe distance. We will join you at the base of the glacier. Godspeed, Thalia."

Thalia nodded firmly. "You too, Milady."

Thalia turned, crouched low, and began making her way across the icy ground.

/

Percy stood up and stretched, starting to walk toward the frozen temples that decorated the top of the clone of Temple Hill.

"Let's make some noise, shall we?"

Artemis smirked. "What did you have in mind, Perseus?"

"Percy," Percy corrected automatically. "And I was thinking hand to hand. It's rather fun and it'll cause a ruckus, keeping the heat off our sparky little friend."

Artemis laughed lightly, drawing her hunting knives. Percy reached out with his right hand and drew Klepsydra from the air. He gave the xiphos a few experimental swings and nodded, satisfied.

"Ladies first," Percy inclined his head.

"After you then," Aremis jeered.

Percy laughed. "Y'know, your lieutenant told me very much the same thing. I'm beginning to question my gender identity."

Artemis laughed along with him. "Don't. I'm more into guys anyway."

"Really?" Percy drawled sarcastically, "I never would have guessed. As a matter of fact, nobody would have ever guessed, you know, seeing as how they have no basis to guess off of."

By this point, several armored, shadowy figures had begun to converge on their location, seeming to be checking out the source of sound.

"You just want me to go first so that you have an excuse for when I kill more of them than you do," Artemis taunted.

Percy smirked at her. "Is that a challenge I smell?"

Artemis scoffed. "How do you smell a challenge?"

"All I smell is the bullshit you're spewing if you think you can beat me," Percy shot back.

Artemis grinned at the prospect of a competition. "You're on."

"May the best fighter win, Arty."

"Don't worry, I will. Good luck to you too, Perseus– you'll need it."

Percy rolled his eyes and watched fondly as she threw her first throwing knife into the head of a ghostly legionnaire. The fallen Roman soldier burst into black shadows that pooled onto the ground before it began slowly reforming and congealing into another soldier.

/

"Twenty three," Percy called as he sliced the head off of another shade, causing it to dissolve into a shadowy puddle.

"Twenty four and twenty five," Artemis shouted back as she thrust her hunting knife through the throat of a shade and quickly drew her bow to fire off two arrows into the head of another.

Percy cackled with glee as he jumped from enemy to enemy, cutting them down and leaving them no chance to strike back. It had been far too long since he had fought in close quarters back-to-back with Artemis, just like the old days, and he was having a blast.

"How's this for a first date, Arty?" Percy hollered out as he pierced the chest of a legionnaire.

"You call this a date?" Artemis asked incredulously.

Percy scoffed. "As if you would prefer a romantic candlelit dinner with flowers over an exciting and heated battle in which we're woefully outnumbered. You forget that this isn't my first time courting you."

Artemis let out a tinkling laugh. "Fine, this is pretty great. You're setting the bar pretty high for the second date, Perseus."

Percy kicked off the falling body of a fatally wounded phantom soldier and spun in midair, thrusting his sword through the ribcage of another. "Thirty eight. And if I recall, your only complaint was about proposing before the second date. Therefore, on the second date is fair game."

"You had better not propose to me on our second date, Perseus," Artemis growled dangerously.

Percy just laughed. "It's Percy. And don't worry, I won't. But our perilous adventures have to convert into dates somehow, don't they? I mean, they've been pretty great."

Artemis turned her head to look at Percy and found that he was looking right back at her with an intense look in his eyes. She turned her whole body to face him and began to close the distance between them.

"Yeah," she murmured, "They have."

She absently stabbed an approaching shade without tearing her gaze away from Percy's lips.

"Forty one."

"Damn it!" Percy cried. "Thirty nine!"

"Well they're still reforming," Artemis suggested. "You still have a chance to catch up."

Percy grinned at her. This was real progress. In the past, it had taken years for her to get over her competitive nature and say something supportive, rather than rubbing her victory in his face.

"Nah, Thalia's done. Can't you sense her aura leaving? We only have a bit until we need to leave to rendezvous with her."

Artemis nodded. If she was honest with herself, she really hadn't noticed Thalia finishing her task. She was far too focused on Percy and the fun she was having fighting at his side. He was right– this was her ideal idea of a date. Perhaps that was another perk of being together with Percy. Being with someone who knew you so well was sure to be a positive experience, seeing as how they would know exactly what you liked and how to avoid what you didn't.

A bright flash from the side of the glacier quickly followed by a loud boom cut through Artemis' internal musings. Thalia's lightning and thunder, she quickly realized.

"Time to go," Percy grinned and offered her his hand.

Artemis grinned back at him and laced her fingers between his. "I won, Percy."

Percy scoffed, still smiling. "You started first."

Artemis laughed heartily in response.

Percy decided that he could listen to her bright, beautiful laughter all day. But then again, he always had been able to– it wasn't much of a challenge, after all.

/

They let go of each other's hands just before they came within Thalia's line of sight, her aura crackling with potent energy as she clasped the golden Eagle Standard of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata.

"Hey Sparky," Percy grinned at her, "Is it just me, or does the electricity from the Eagle make your hair stand up even more than usual?"

"Shut up," Thalia growled as she pointed the Eagle Standard at him and let out an arc of pure white lightning.

The energy from the bolt collided with his chest, sending him flying back several feet to end up sprawled on his back, with a black spot emitting smoke at the center of his shirt.

"Percy!" Artemis cried as she rushed to his side.

Thalia gave her back an inquisitive look as she quickly followed behind her mistress, briefly wondering when Lady Artemis had started caring about the wellbeing of anyone of the opposite sex, but brushed the thoughts aside as she too was quite worried about her cousin.

"Oh god, Kelp Head, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you that hard, but that Eagle thing is strong as fuck."

Percy laughed as he sat up, waving her off. "Don't worry about it Thals, I'm fine. I've developed something of an immunity to lightning from all the times you've zapped me over the years. Your dad could throw his Master Bolt at me at full power and I'd only be out for like half a week."

Thalia and Artemis gaped at him in disbelief, but he could clearly see the concern in their eyes.

"Not that I've ever had to test it," Percy added hastily before muttering quietly, "Much."

"What was that?" Artemis asked sharply.

Percy fumbled with his words for a few moments before scratching his head sheepishly. "Uh… you're really pretty?"

Artemis rolled her eyes and smacked the back of his head. Thalia snickered as she joined her mistress as they walked back onto the docked ship, leaving Percy to scramble up after them.

/

"Ugh," Annabeth muttered in disgust as she nudged Arachne's severed head with her foot. "Of all the possible spoils of war, it had to be her head that was left behind?"

Annabeth's brother Malcolm peeked over her shoulder and asked, "What do we do with it?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Around two years ago, me and Percy sent Medusa's head to Mom after we killed her, maybe we should do that with this, too."

One of the Minerva kids from Camp Jupiter scrunched up his nose. "Isn't that kind of disrespectful?"

Annabeth shrugged again. "She seems to like having the heads of her enemies. Plus, after all the shit we just went through, I'm kinda too exhausted to give a fuck about propriety."

Mutters of agreement ran through the small party of Athena and Minerva kids that were crowded around in front of the Athena Parthenos. They had only lost one camper– a Minerva kid– that Annabeth felt very guilty that she could not remember the name of.

"Alright," Annabeth announced, "Anybody have a box?"

There was some restless shuffling until a 12 year old boy finally came forward with a large filing box.

Annabeth gave him a funny look. "Why do you have a filing box?"

"Why don't you have a filing box?" The boy shot back without missing a beat. This drew some much needed laughter from the drained demigods.

Annabeth rolled her eyes fondly at her little brother. "Fair enough."

Gingerly, and taking care to touch it as little as humanly possible, Annabeth transferred Arachne's head into the filing box provided to her by her sibling. She shut the lid and tossed a handful of drachmas onto it.

"Lord Hermes, please transport this package to Lady Athena on Mount Olympus."

The box vanished with the gold in a flash of white light.

"Whoa," Malcolm breathed with wide eyes, "I didn't know you could do that."

Annabeth chuckled at her brother's stunned expression and shrugged. "Neither did I."