The demigods' boots made soft sounds in the snow as they walked towards the remains of the castle. It had stopped snowing some time during the last battle. They hadn't noticed. They'd been busy.
The sun was beginning to set, casting patches of shadow across the upturned, ravaged snow on the Alaskan plain. High in the sky, the Aurora Borealis was beginning to show, growing brighter and stronger as the sky darkened.
The ice castle was in ruins, levelled by the Javelin's rockets at the beginning of the battle. The ballistae and onagers had caused them some problems in the beginning until Lisa had turned the Javelin's arsenal on them. After they had been destroyed, it only seemed natural to carry on firing until the entire castle was demolished.
Ice crunched under their feet as they came to the foot of the wall. The broken chunks of ice didn't look stable enough to climb, so Thalia blasted them out of the way with the Master Bolt.
Steam curled around them as they walked into the newly-made breach. The metallic scent of lightning hung in the air. The Master Bolt crackled and hissed in Thalia's hands as if it wanted to strike again.
They found Selene lying in the gap between the wall and the inner building, the three silver arrows still sticking out of her chestplate. She gave a low moan as she spotted them, trying to crawl away.
Thalia took a flying leap into the air landing knee-first onto Selene's back. Selene cried out in pain as Thalia's weight slammed her to the ground.
"You're not getting away." Thalia growled.
"It's over." Jordan told Selene.
The Titan of the moon sneered at him. "Destroying me won't earn you any recognition, boy. You're just another pawn in their hands."
A day ago Jordan would have lashed out at such a remark, but now he knew better.
"I'm not looking for recognition. I know who I am."
"Then you're a fool."
"I'm a son of Athena."
"I'm tired of Alaska. I want to go home." Nico stepped forward, raised his sword. "Any last words?"
"Wait." Thalia said.
"What now?" Nico asked, annoyed.
Thalia stared down at Selene, her eyes blinding white like lightning. "I won't let you go that easily." She raised the Master Bolt.
"Thalia, no." Jordan took a step toward her. "Destroying her won't bring the hunters back."
"No," Thalia agreed. "But they'll rest in peace knowing I've done them justice."
"This isn't justice," Jordan shook his head. "It's vengeance."
"Vengeance," Thalia said. "Is the only thing I've thought of for the last three days."
"Thalia, don't do this." Nico urged her. "It's not necessary."
"It is," A tear ran down her face. "You don't know what she did to me." Her face tightened with anger and she brought the Master Bolt down.
They laid the bodies of the fallen hunters on the tables in the coffee room, wrapped head-to-toe like mummies in clean white linen. The name of each girl was written on post-it stickers stuck to the linen, for lack of a better idea.
Jordan strapped himself into the pilot's chair in the cockpit and passed out after setting the autopilot on course for Camp Half-Blood. The Javelin's speed would enable them to arrive within half an hour, upon which it would hover, invisible, above the Greek Camp until he decided to land. With all that had happened, he thought it best to get out of Alaska as quickly as possible.
Strapped into the second chair was Jason Grace, miraculously alive, but in critical condition due to blood loss and internal bleeding, made worse when he'd been thrown across the ship when it crashed. Nobody knew if he would live or die, and all of them were afraid to even think about it.
The rest of them crashed in the living room. Alabaster, who'd passed out after using up the last of his magic reserves on Lisa's ankle, was tucked into Jordan's upper bunk. Lisa had carried him back to the ship after the battle had ended.
Lisa herself was sprawled on one side of the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table. Thalia took the other side, while Nico, left without a sleeping space, unrolled a sleeping bag on the floor and curled up in it.
Lanesra, the one person they'd managed to rescue from Selene's clutches, was in the lower bunk, bandaged all over like a half-wrapped mummy.
All of them had been too tired to remove their armour or take a shower. With the weapons hanging at their sides and snow-spattered clothes, they looked like a group of teens who'd passed out after a Halloween party.
That night in his dreams, Jordan found himself in Athena's flower garden.
"Mother?" He knew his consciousness hadn't wandered back to the garden by accident. Athena had summoned him.
"You did well, my son." Athena was seated at a stone table, dressed in a simple grey t-shirt and jeans.
"Did well?" Jordan walked over to the table. "We set out to rescue all the hunters. Now there are only three left." he said bitterly. "Three!"
"You destroyed Selene and Khione, did you not?" Athena reminded him. "You broke an uprising before it even began."
"They killed twelve hunters!" Jordan shouted.
"Victory comes at a price." Athena was remained impassive. "Imagine if the uprising had been allowed to gain strength. It would have been ten times worse."
"We should have done more." Jordan's voice was filled with anguish.
"You did all you could," Athena said gently. "Sometimes that just isn't enough. You know this better than anyone."
Jordan turned away to scowl at the flowers, hating that she was right.
"I thought you couldn't speak to me in Alaska," he turned back to her at last.
"I can't," Athena agreed.
"But you did. When I fought Selene."
Athena shook her head. "It could not possibly have been me."
"Then how-" Jordan didn't understand what was going on, and he hated not being able to understand. He played the sequence of the fight back in his mind, trying to recall what had happened. The voice had been Athena's. He was certain. He'd definitely heard it when he…
He reached to his waist, somehow knowing that the sword would be there. He drew it out.
"Ah." Athena nodded in understanding.
"What is it?" Jordan asked.
"You heard the direction of my sword."
"Your-" Jordan thought he must have misheard. Her sword?
Alabaster got this from Olympus. The realisation hit him at once. His eyes grew wide as the Javelin's cannon muzzles.
"This is your sword?"
Athena nodded. "It is a part of me. It contains part of my immortal essence, so, in a way, I was there with you in the battle."
"But…" Jordan couldn't comprehend what she was saying. "How in the world did he manage to steal your sword?"
"He didn't steal it." Athena said simply. "I gave it to him. I knew you would need it."
Jordan's eyes widened even further. All his life he'd dreamed of the day she finally commended him, but never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined that Athena would help him.
"Why?" he asked. "Why did you help me?"
"Did you not hear my voice during the battle?" Athena's stormy grey eyes fixed on his. "You are my sword."
The words seemed to resonate within him. Jordan struggled for a reply.
"Why me?"
"Why not you?" Athena regarded him calmly, a sharp contrast to the shock and disbelief on his face.
"I-I'm not the best. Annabeth Chase-"
"I would have given it to her already if I thought she was worthy."
"You picked me?" Jordan was stunned. "Over her?"
"Why does that surprise you?"
"She's better than me," Jordan stammered. "She survived Tartarus!"
"Strength is not everything. It never was. And it is precisely because of all she has achieved that I could not give it to her." Athena shook her head. "She is mortal, for all her merits, and mortals have their limits. She has reached hers'."
Jordan looked down at the sword, feeling the power radiating from it even in his dreams. "So now that we've defeated Selene, I suppose you want it back."
"No."
"No?" Jordan blinked. "Why not? Isn't it over?"
"Over?" Athena piercing eyes fixed him with a stare. "Who said it was over?"
"You mean she's still out there?" Jordan's hand unconsciously tightened on the handle of the sword. "I thought Nico banished her back to Tartarus. Unless…you're not referring to Selene."
"Danger comes from many directions, often where you least expect it." Athena warned. "You must be ready, Jordan. Gather your allies. No one is an island."
And on that happy note, his dream faded to black.
Jordan woke first, stiff and sore from the exertions of the day before. He groaned as he sat up, spasms of pain running up his back, shoulders and ankles. He must have injured them sometime during the fight, he thought. Probably against Selene. Muttering unhappily, he walked through the coffee room and into the living room, swearing when he found the bathroom door locked.
"Hurry up!" he slammed his fist into the door.
"Shut up," Nico's voice came from inside. "I'm wiping my arse."
"Close the lid before you flush!" Jordan told him. "Otherwise all the toilet paper will be sucked out of the ship again."
Showered, shaved and sparkling clean, Jordan emerged from the bathroom to find that a queue had formed. A smile broke out on his face as he saw that Alabaster was the last one in the queue, behind Lisa, Thalia and Lanesra. Girls, he knew, took ages in the bathroom. Alabaster would be bursting at the seams by the time they came out.
"Took your time," Alabaster complained as Jordan walked out.
"It's my ship," Jordan grinned.
Once everyone had finished with the bathroom, Jordan opened the freezer to see if there was anything left to eat.
"I didn't pack for six people," he said apologetically.
"You have enough food in there for twenty, if I know you," Alabaster snorted.
The six of them ended up eating ham sandwiches around the coffee table in the living room, the three hunters taking the couch while Jordan, Nico and Alabaster sat on the floor. The silence stretched long after they'd finished eating. Jordan dug around in his freezer and came up with a pack of apples.
"How are we supposed to eat these?" Alabaster held up an apple, hard as ice.
"There's an oven, you idiot." Jordan snatched the apple out of his hands and marched off.
No one apart from Jordan himself had any appetite, or mood, left for the apples. The son of Athena grabbed one and threw the rest back into the freezer, biting into it as he sat back down.
"We've arrived at Camp Half-Blood. You can head down anytime you want to."
Nico got up immediately, leaving to bring Jason to the infirmary and report what had transpired in Alaska to Chiron. Alabaster scoffed at the thought of setting foot in Camp Half-Blood. The three hunters sat unmoving.
"They are grieving," Jordan said, his voice low. "We should leave them alone."
The two men walked into the coffee room, past the fallen hunters and into the cockpit.
"So what now?" Alabaster asked. "Will you go back to Alaska?"
"After what happened?" Jordan snorted. "Every monster in Alaska will be out for my blood. No way."
"Where, then?"
"I don't know. Somewhere quiet," Jordan sighed. "I hear Canada is a nice place."
"Brr. Too cold for me."
"What about you?" Jordan asked. "Back to the RV?"
"Of course," Alabaster shrugged.
"What about Lisa?"
Alabaster's eyes widened. "What about her?"
"You think I'm blind?" Jordan asked.
"No, of course not." Alabaster struggled for words. "You don't sound angry."
"Why should I?" Jordan shook his head. "It's time she grew up."
"But she's a hunter." Alabaster said.
Jordan snorted. "All the hunters are dead. Artemis herself has vanished. There isn't a hunt. Not anymore."
"I wish we could have done more." Alabaster shook his head, clasping his hands together. "For all our effort, we only managed to rescue two hunters."
"We did all we could," Jordan shrugged. "Sometimes that just isn't enough."
The sound of the platform activating came from the coffee room. A few seconds later, Nico walked into the cockpit.
Jordan swung his chair around to face him. "How's Jason?"
"Stable. He'll be out for a few weeks at least." Nico sat down in the third chair. "I'm going to summon a few skeletons to move the bodies out. Then we'll need to build a bigger shrine to house all of them."
"You do that," Jordan grunted. "Right now all I want is to fry myself the biggest pork I can steal from Camp Half-Blood."
"Pork chop." Alabaster corrected.
"Whatever."