§Annabeth§

I woke up with my face smushed against Daedalus's laptop. I must have fallen asleep while viewing that 3-D model of the Lincoln Memorial I had found. I got up quietly so as not to wake Ginny and Hermione, and went to the bathroom to brush my hair and teeth. I winced when I looked in the mirror. My whole face was covered with little square indentations. I yanked the comb through my knotty blonde hair, and brushed my teeth half-heartedly with a plastic toothbrush from Leo's toolbelt. There was a knock on the door to our room. I had just enough time to wipe toothpaste foam from my mouth and leave the bathroom before Percy, Harry, Leo, Jason, Ron, Grover, and Coach Hedge entered. The lock to this motel room was so ancient it broke as soon as we slid the key in, so now everyone came and left as they pleased.

"Man, that toilet was delicious. It's a five-star breakfast." Said Coach Hedge, shutting the door. Just then, someone knocked again. We all exchanged glances, and ten weapons were taken out. Ginny cautiously inched towards the door, only to be stopped by Ron and Harry.

"It might be dangerous." Said Ron.

"I can handle dangerous. Dangerous is my middle name."

"No. Your middle name is Molly."

"It's a figure of speech you idiot."

She shoved past the two boys, and snapped open the door. A small girl no older than twelve with silver eyes and auburn hair stood in the doorway. "Er… can we help you?" Asked Ginny, confused. As soon as the us demigods saw her, we got down on our knees.

"Milady." Said Percy, smoothing out his batman pajamas.

"Hello Perseus. Nice to see you again." She replied, shoving past Ginny without invitation. She wore khakis, a slightly crumpled T-shirt, and combat boots, and slung over her shoulder was a bow and quiver.

"Artemis," I said, rising to my feet, "What can we do for you?"

"Artemis?" Asked Ron dumbly, scratching his head as if he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

She smiled, and Ron turned red. Hopefully he would register that she hated boys in general before he embarrassed himself. "I have heard of your current position in the quest. The… incident was unfortunate, I must say, but it seemed to have speeded things up a bit."

I remembered Artemis was one of the few who had been on our side back at Olympus. Her visit to this crummy motel might be just what we needed.

"I am sorry you were unable to reenter the headquarters. Of course, I'm not permitted to divulge anything vital to your quest." She sighed. "However, I will tell you that one who mistreats captivity and justice can be found in the place he least belongs. "

We stared at her, trying to decide if it was safe to tell a goddess, In English, please? She smiled, turned around, and quietly left the room. Leo chased after her. We could hear him in the hallway: "May I escort you to your group of extremely hot ... I mean kind hunters?" Ginny laughed, Ron and Percy raised their eyebrows. Though while Percy was wiggling them like Someone likes someone else, Ron was like I will murder you later.

Grover cleared his throat. "Um, guys? I got an Iris message this morning. I'm really sorry about this, but I'm needed at Yosemite. Some stupid satyr thought he could..." He shook his head with disbelief. "Anyway, I can't finish the quest with you. So, good luck, I guess. And it was very nice meeting you," he acknowledged Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"Okay, we understand. Seeya," said Percy.

"Seeya," replied Grover, and slipped out into the hallway. I could hear him leave, and a faint voice yelling at Leo to stop flirting with the virgin goddess.

§Ginny§

We were just about to (finally) leave the motel when from the front desk a bored teenager asked, "Is one of you a Ms. Granger?"

Hermione stepped forward. "Yes?"

"Letter for you. It was on the doorstep this morning, covered in owl poop." She pulled out an envelope. Who would want to contact us? Oh yeah, only the Minister of Magic. Hermione thanked her and we walked out of the building before daring to open it.

We crowded around her while she read the letter out loud.

"Hermione-

Thank you for the informative update. As we had almost half of the Ministry working on it, we have been able to locate and destroy…" her eyes widened, "all twelve horcruxes. Now it is up to you to finally defeat Lord Malum. Wishing you the best of luck,

Kingsley Shacklebolt"

We all stared at the letter in her hands with disbelief. Had they really been able to destroy all the horcruxes? It had taken three skilled teenagers a whole year to find five. The Ministry was stronger I had thought. This had shortened our quest by a gargantuan amount. Now all we needed to do was find the entrance to Lord Malum's headquarters, battle him and his supporters, and not die. Easy enough. Leo was the first to speak.

"What are we waiting for? We have a stinky gorilla to find!"

As much as Leo got on my nerves, I admired his enthusiasm and sense of humor even in such a hard situation.

"So, where do we go? If Artemis's riddle made any sense at all."

"Something about captivity and injustice, in the least likely place….." started Percy "Well, if anyone, Lord Malum has already imprisoned us because he was bored of torturing Ron, and then Lyra…" He trailed off and looked at the ground. "Anyway, he's also the least fair person I can think of, if the whole thing about him wanting revenge on wizards just because some ignored him is true."

"What?" Harry was stunned. "How do you know? Why didn't you tell us?"

Percy began telling a long story starting with "So when Jason fell asleep…" but Annabeth cut him off.

"We'll have time for that later. For now, let's try to figure out where to go, because it's awkward to just stand here." She gestured to the window, where we could see the teenager at the front desk peeking at us curiously. I could totally read her expression, one I was seeing often these days: Errrr… should I call the police? They're just standing here.

"So, we know the first part refers to Lord Malum. So, he's in some place that we'd least likely find injustice. Does anyone know their way around Washington, D.C?" Hermione looked like she was translating a difficult rune.

Percy surveyed around him to see if anyone else would step forward, then said, "I was here once. At least, from the air."

"So then what's a place that is about justice and stuff?"

No one could think of anything.

"Well, there's a bunch of memorials for people around. Any famous presidents who…?" Leo lit up. Literally. He patted his nose to choke the flames, then said, "I'm not a history freak, but didn't Lincoln have that thing that freed all the slaves?"

Percy face-palmed sarcastically. "Of course! Why didn't we think of it before? It was so obvious, Artemis."

But I wasn't bothered by the vagueness of the godess's clue. We now knew where we were going- that was enough for me.

Pulling out the map we'd picked up yesterday, we all debated the best way to get to the Lincoln Memorial. Finally we went to the bus stop again, and were able to do most of the trip with wheels. Eventually, the bus driver told us we'd have to walk the rest of the way. It was some old, pinched lady who seemed not to trust having eight teenagers hanging out on her bus. Strolling through the streets of D.C, Ron and Hermione lagged behind. I didn't want to interrupt my brother's "alone time" with his girlfriend, but I was curious. I deliberately slowed down my own pace a bit.

Behind me I heard Hermione's voice: "Ron, I know you're probably sick of these questions, but how come you didn't stun me while that spirit was possessing you?"

Ron sounded like he was choosing his words carefully. "I- I think that for a split second I knew what was going to happen to me- I knew something was intruding my soul. I was forced to somehow disable you, but I didn't want to hurt you. Also I knew that if anyone, you would figure out what happened if someone needed to come… rescue me. So I immobilized you. I'm sorry."

"No! Don't apologize. You couldn't help it." I could almost hear Ron grimace- he'd hate to sound helpless. "Besides, I'm proud of you. You thought quickly."

"So I'm finally smart enough to be your boyfriend?" A thump and a yelp. I dared to turn around. Hermione must have tried to playfully shove Ron, but he fell into a bush on one side of the sidewalk. I stifled a giggle. Hermione helped him up, apologizing. My brother was brushing off twigs from his shirt when he saw me watching them.

"Ginny! I will KILL you!" He charged me. I turned around and ran. Hermione laughed, jogging to keep up with us.

§Leo§

Once we got to the Lincoln Memorial, we just sort of stood there, wondering what to do next, while Annabeth rambled on about amazing architecture. We still knew hardly anything about where the door could be. Just then, three hooded figures walked briskly by, whispering in hushed voices.

"Stupid mortals… be punished greatly… Lord Malum knows…"

We all looked at each other, then started to follow them, making sure to keep our distance. They walked behind the columns to the left of Mr. Lincoln, but by the time we got there, they had disappeared.

"This must be it," I said. In front of us a gigantic slab of stone on the wall, with words inscribed on it. Four score and seven years ago… Bored already. I looked around and noticed there was a stone eagle sculpted on each side of the plaque, as if guarding it. Maybe they were.

"Jason, your dad's animal is an eagle, right?" I asked.

"Mmhmm," mumbled Jason while listening to Annabeth as she blabbered about colonnades and entablature.

"So…" I gestured to the eagles. He finally got it.

"Uh, hey eagles, if you could let us, you know, pass and catch a bad guy." They stayed immobile. He walked up to one and stroked it. Suddenly, he jumped back as a rumbling sound filled the room. Both eagles rolled away from the wall, and the plaque slid up, revealing a dark chute leading straight down.

"Congrats, dude. Now do we just… jump?"

"If those minions could, why can't we?" Ron said, at the same time that Ginny protested,

"It's so dark! And dangerous! Can't we discuss this?"

"Already have," Jason replied, and with that sat on the edge of the chute like a child on a playground slide, and pushed himself in.