Dedicated to LilyAnt03

Jason

We head out of the cave and Calypso peers upwards. We seem to be slightly under halfway up the mountain. Calypso must have been slightly off when teleporting, but I suppose we needed somewhere to stay out of the cold and this is the only cave.

"Calypso can you get us any closer?" I ask.

"I believe so," Calypso says. "It is a short jump, so I should be able to make it."

We all join hands and Lit looks at Calypso warily, since she's the only one with a free hand, and offers his hand. Calypso glares at him until he places his hand on my shoulder.

We reappear just out of sight of the flat mountaintop and Calypso stumbles forward slightly, resting her hand against the mountainside. Leo offers Calypso a flask and she gladly gulps down some nectar.

Leo raises an eyebrow when Calypso stuffs the flask into heffect own bag but doesn't say anything. She carefully creeps up so she can see past the summit.

"Okay," Calypso says quietly. "You four should distract Enceladus while I free Thalia. She is directly opposite us when we come in so I will move around the outskirts."

"Distract!" Leo protests. "Are you just assuming that we can't kill him ourselves?"

Calypso raises an eyebrow. "Not without a god, I don't think you can. And I do not believe that Artemis would be willing to help a group with three boys. She would, however, be inclined to help her best friend and her lieutenant."

"Okay," I say after a pause. "That makes sense. Go up on three?"

"Eh," Leo shrugs. "I can only count to two." And with that he charges up to the mountaintop.

"Idiot," Calypso mutters, jogging after him.

Piper and I exchange a bewildered glance. Piper shrugs and gives me a quick kiss, "In case I die." Then she follows Calypso.

I follow her closely up the mountain and I hear Lit's footsteps behind me. What I see when I come up, makes me immediately draw my weapon.

"So guys?" Leo gulps, nervously meeting Enceladus' harsh gaze. "The plan? I think he heard it. Like all of it."

I calculate the distance quickly, Enceladus is at least twelve metres away, but I'm sure he could easily cover that distance with a few strides.

Our advantages: Enceladus is much bigger than us. He probably isn't slow like in the movies but if we stay close to him we can hopefully use his size to our advantage. He can't be outsmarted but maybe he can be tricked or distracted.

His advantages: Enceladus is much bigger than us. He can't be outsmarted. We will be fighting with a man-killing goddess. She is just as likely to kill us as Enceladus is, possibly more likely. He is stronger than us. We're on a rescue mission, which means our attention will be divided. And right, Enceladus is much bigger than us.

Great odds so far.

My attention changes to a movement behind Enceladus. A girl wriggles forward so she is just in the firelight. Her eyes widen when they meet mine and I know the exact same expression is on my face. Thalia Grace. The only person who had ever cared about me before Camp Jupiter. The girl that had protected me from my drunk mother, the girl I hadn't seen since I was a toddler, my sister.

Thalia's wrists, legs and ankles are bound together by thick lengths of rope and there is duct tape over her mouth. She has various cuts on her arms and legs and an angry gash on her face, covered by dried blood, otherwise she seems to be fine. Thalia is wearing a sliver parka and silver leggings, her open parka shows a black t-shirt. I can just about make out the words on it. Death to Barbie. I raise my eyebrows at her choice of t-shirt.

I switch my attention back to Enceladus. "-Gaia is creating a better world. One without the gods! You will be treated as royalty, as heroes! All you have to do is join us."

"Thanks for the offer but I kinda think we're gonna die either way. At least this way I won't have the murder of a couple hundred gods on my conscience. and besides, we aren't exactly weak. Introducing Sparky," Leo gestures to me. "Beauty Queen," he gestures to Piper. "Suns-" Leo sees Calypso's glare and hurriedly changes what he was saying. "And me, the Amazing Flaming Valdez!"

Calypso pushes Leo behind her and steps forward. "Excuse our Repair Boy. What he meant to say was, we're not interested."

Calypso throws one of her knives at Enceladus' head which goes a few inches to his right and lands right next to Thalia, sticking itself an inch into the snow and probably hitting the dirt underneath it as well. Thalia's eyes widen with... admiration? Shouldn't she be scared that Calypso almost just killed her?

Thalia closes the gap between her and the knife and starts furiously rubbing the rope thing her wrists together against it. Of course! Calypso never misses, with both her bow and her knives. The knife landed where she wanted it to land, and just where where it needed to land.

Enceladus laughs, a deep booming sound that sends shivers up my spine. "You missed," he says mockingly.

I decide to skip his inevitable speech and go back to watching Thalia quickly.

The lasts few strands of rope that are left break and Thalia moves her wrists around, unraveling the rope. The rope finally falls off and she quickly rips off her gag, not even wincing. Thalia grabs the knife from the ground and starts sawing away at the rope around her legs.

My eyes swivel back to Enceladus when he draw his sword. It makes a sound like a thousand nails on a chalkboard and I have to cover my ears.

"What did I miss?" I hiss quietly to Calypso.

She shrugs and uncovers her ears, "Just the usual bragging and undermining of us 'weak demigod upstarts'."

"Unlucky for him, I'm not a demigod," Calypso continues casually, drawing her bow.

I chuckle. "Save some of him for the rest of us. I'm sure my sister would like a little revenge."

The rope around Thalia's legs gives way and she starts working on the rope around her ankles.

Calypso fires an arrow into Enceladus' chest and he stumbles back. He growls in annoyance and spreads his arms. All around us the ground erupts, monsters appearing from the earth.

I scan them quickly, a couple dozen Cyclopes and earthborn, a couple empousa and dracanae, a dozen wild centaurs. Easy enough. Then my eyes land on the drakon. Great, just what we needed. A tougher enemy.

Thalia stands up ahead of me. A spear appears in her left hand. No one is moving besides her but no one is looking at her either. Thalia balances the knife in her right hand. She moves her arm back then as quick as lightning, snaps her arm forward. The knife plants itself into the throat of a particularly large cyclops and it dissolves quickly.

Calypso sets fire to the cyclops' ashes and calmly picks her knife back up. It reappears on her necklace. That's when the monsters snap to their senses and attack.

Thalia switches her spear to her right hand and a shield appears in her left. She and Calypso charge towards Enceladus. While Leo, Piper and Lit attack the monsters, I do my best to defend Thalia and Calypso.

Calypso

"You're Thalia?" I yell as we attack Enceladus.

She spins to the right of Enceladus' blade as it crushes to ground she had previously been on. "Yeah!" she shouts back. "Who are you?"

"Calypso. Of Ogygia," I reply, rolling under a strike intended to slice me in half.

Thalia's eyes light up. "Really? Artemis talks all the time about you. She's still furious that you got banished."

"Good to hear," I laugh, dancing out of the way of Enceladus' strike.

I slash at Enceladus' arm and roll between his legs to avoid Enceladus' sword as he drives it straight down where I was standing. I come up standing between his legs and stab directly upwards, both Thalia and I grinning at Enceladus' agonised scream.

"Here. Catch!" I yell, tossing the flask of nectar under Enceladus' overstretched arm. "It looks like that cut on your face is bothering you."

"Thanks," Thalia says as I divert Enceladus' attention.

"You're welcome," I grin. "So you're Zoé's replacement?"

Thalia scowls and deflects Enceladus' blade of her shield. "Unfortunately," she spits. "Atlas killed her in front of my eyes. I would do anything to put my spear through his back. You are her sister aren't you?"

"Yes," I say solemnly. "It is good to see that there is a good huntress in her place as lieutenant. Although, you do not have the standard weapons for a Hunter of Artemis, do you?"

"I know- WATCH OUT!" Thalia tackles me just as Enceladus' sword flies above our heads. She helps me up, "It was my condition for being lieutenant. I got to keep my usual weapons. Artemis demanded in return that I must be able to handle a bow and hunting knives and I have to carry a bow on me at all times. The second part didn't work though, when I was captured, they took all of my obvious weapons."

"I've got a spare Hunter's bow and quiver in my bag, you can have it afterwards," I drive my knives into Enceladus' left leg as he tries to kick me.

Thalia looks at my bag doubtfully. "It's bottomless," I quickly explain as Enceladus roars in pain.

Jason knocks a trident that was flying towards me out of the air. "Thanks Jason!" I call.

"You're welcome!" He yells back. "When do you reckon Artemis is going to show up?"

"Lady Artemis, Jason," I shout over my shoulder. "And she will be here soon. Don't worry."

Jason

I stab an empousa in the stomach before ripping my blade out and slashing a cyclops in half. I rush to intercept a dracanae coming towards Calypso, making quick work of it by lopping off its head. I summon a gust of wind to scatter the monster dust on the mountain before continuing to fight.

I glance over to see Piper taking on a whole two dozen cyclopes by herself. She slashes a diagonal line through one cyclops' chest then spins and stabs another one in the chest. Vindex leaps up and snaps his jaws around a cyclops' neck while Venator tackles a cyclops sneaking up on Piper.

I dodge a dracanae's trident and drive my sword through it's chest. I glance at Thalia quickly just to see a centaur aiming an arrow at her turned figure. I lunge towards Thalia and shove her out of the way, the arrow instead hitting me in the left shoulder. I grunt in pain.

"Thanks Jase!" Thalia yells. "You okay?"

I stumble forward, my shoulder aching- more than it should be. I snap the arrow in half clumsily. Strangely the feather on the arrow is coloured green. Poison, I gulp. "Yeah, I'm fine," I call to Thalia, probably unconvincingly.

A flash of light distracts Thalia. "Artemis!" she yells. "Hades yes! Now we've got a real fight."

I spot the drakon and make my way over, wanting to get away from Thalia before she suspects anything. The drakon lunges at me as soon as I'm in reach. I barely mange to turn and dodge. I stab my sword into the drakon's back as it looks around to see where I went. Unlike I'd hoped the drakon doesn't disintegrate immediately and instead rears onto his back legs. Since when do drakons do that?

I desperately hold onto my sword as I am lifted into the air. A winged drakon? Really? The drakon shakes and jerks, trying to get me off his back. I manage to get into a somewhat comfortable position, sitting with a leg either side of the drakon.

I pull my sword out and hold it in my right hand. I feebly and slowly move towards the drakon's head, using my sword to pull myself forward and my left hand to keep myself secured. A fiery numbness is in my shoulder now and spreading to my arm and hand. When I can no longer feel my hand, I pitch myself forward as far as I can, stab at the drakon's face and by some miracle, hit it's eye. It disintegrates, leaving a pile of dust and the skull of it's head. It's a terrible spoil of war if you think about it, who's gonna lug around a giant skull to show off to people?

Calypso

The battle was basically won when Artemis arrived. I sprint towards Enceladus, dodging his sword and jumping as high as I can. Thalia gives me a boost with the winds and I step on a cluster of arrows in Enceladus' groin area, courtesy of Artemis. I stab a knife into Enceladus' stomach, using it to boost myself higher and stab my second knife into his chest.

I kick off his chest and land crouching. But before I can back out of range Enceladus stabs his sword towards me. Before I can react, I am pushed back and Lit is there, deflecting the strike with a shield he somehow acquired.

Lit makes his way back to Enceladus, dodging and weaving past Enceladus' strikes. When he's close enough, Lit drives his sword into Enceladus' stomach and drags it down. At the same time, two silver hunting knives land in Enceladus' throat, going through to the hilt.

Enceladus shudders and stumbles backwards before disintegrating. I look around to see Jason finishing off the last monster- the drakon. He spots me staring and make his way over, walking in a suspiciously uneven line.

"Jason?" I say worriedly. "Are you alright?"

Thalia looks at him in concern. Jason manages a nod before collapsing. "Jase!" Thalia yells, kneeling down next to him and resting his head in her lap.

"Do you know what happened?" I ask gently.

"I don't know," Thalia replies, looking at me with tear-filled eyes. "He took an arrow in the shoulder for me but it shouldn't be this bad."

"Poison," Jason grunts.

Thalia's eyes widen. "Why didn't you tell anyone?!"

Jason weakly shakes his head and falls unconscious. Thalia and I both turn to Artemis. "Can you heal him?" I ask pleadingly.

Artemis looks unconvinced. "Please," Thalia begs. "He took that arrow for me. It would've hit me if he hadn't jumped in the way."

Artemis sighs. "Fine," she says reluctantly.

Artemis waves her hands and Jason bolts up, his eyes immediately open. His eyes meet mine and I give a pointed look at Artemis. He seems to piece it together and stands up, facing Artemis and bowing. "Thank you for saving me Lady Artemis."

Artemis gives him a stiff nod and turns to address me, her face softening. "After you free Hera, your quest will have to come to Camp Jupiter. Polybotes and his army are attacking. Hestia, Poseidon and I will teleport your quest and Camp Half-Blood to Camp Jupiter to aid them in the battle. You will be safe in from Zeus' wrath in both camps. He has cut ties with the demigods and has forced many other gods to do the same."

I nod. "Do you think Hera will get us back to Camp Half-Blood?"

Artemis smiles. "I believe so. If not, I will personally bring you there."

"In fact, I shall bring you to my Hunters' camp. They have set up temporary camp outside the Wolf House and are waiting for your quest to arrive with Thalia. I believe I owe them a visit," Artemis says.

"Okay, one second," I say, pulling my bag off my shoulder.

I pull out the silver bow and hold it tightly closing my eyes. I murmur a spell in Ancient Greek and the bow shrinks down to a sliver ring. I hand it to Thalia, "Just take it off and it becomes a bow, imagine it as a ring and it will appear back on your finger as a ring. It will come back to you as a ring if you lose it so you can't really get rid of it once you put it on. Whenever you draw back the string, an arrow will appear, so no quiver is required."

Thalia looks shocked. "Thanks Calypso!"

I smile. "No problem."

Leo and I join hands as usual, same with Piper and Jason. Thalia places her hand on Jason's shoulder. I turn to Lit and give him a tentative smile, offering my hand. He takes my hand. "Thank you," I murmur in his ear.

"You're welcome," Lit whispers back, knowing I was talking about when he saved my life.

Artemis frowns slightly at the sight of me holding hands with two boys. I catch her eye and shake my head at her in a don't worry manner. She shouldn't worry because it doesn't matter. I wouldn't date Lit if my life depended on it.

Artemis places her hand on Thalia's shoulder and flashes us away.

-Stars