By the time the sow made it to Gila Claw, Arizona, Thalia was well and truly saddle-sore. It had been fun for a few minutes, but by minute ten the novelty was gone and in its place was pain, and minute seven hundred was even worse.. Horses weren't too bad to ride - you could move with the horse and usually had a saddle. More importantly though, most horses weren't forty foot tall and covered in bristling steel wool hairs.

When they reached a lake outside the tiny ghost town, the Erymanthian Boar stopped to drink its fill and rip some cacti out of the ground. "We need to get off," Grover said, "While it's occupied and not going to kill us."

Nobody complained much, and they slid off while the boar kneeled for water. Then, it tore off back to the east, leaving a trail of dust in its wake. "It likes the mountains better," Thalia said. The others murmured agreement and surveyed their surroundings. There was a town sign, a boarded up post office in white stucco, and a set of gas pumps that hadn't been touched since gas was thirty-two cents a gallon. A few rusted cars were scattered around the town's few remaining clear-ish lots. Everything else was shin-deep in blown sand and random scrap metal, ranging from microwave doors to pickup truck frames and just about everything in between strewn on top for good measure. Surrounding the town on all sides, an enormous heap of even more junk, like a junkyard for hundreds of years of random nonsense.

Thalia turned to Grover. "Got another wild boar hidden anywhere? Somehow I don't think we've got much chance of getting a cab."

The satyr didn't have any pigs, but he did still have acorns - and evidently, a different spell to use with them. Playing a quick ditty on his pipes, he scattered a fistful of acorns onto a clear patch of asphalt near them. "That little group of five, that's us," said Grover. "And this big cluster… that's trouble. I don't smell anything, but the acorns never lie."

Thalia looked at the group of five acorns clustered together, each rocking around slightly. "Hey, Percy, is that little deformed one you?"

Percy ignored her pointedly, but she could see a smile playing at his lips. "No, I'm pretty sure it's Bianca. Anyways, G-man - where are we supposed to go? According to the acorns, I mean."

Grover pointed directly towards the junkyard.

"Great," Thalia said. "I was afraid you were gonna say that."

"We can't deal with anything right now, in the dark," Percy pointed out.

Zoe agreed, so they made camp for the night. Somehow, the Hunters pulled five sleeping bags from their rucksacks, along with five rather substantial foam mattresses. Thalia was incredibly jealous - where had these magically-appearing featherlight bags of magical enormity been when she was living out of a backpack and her mother's purse? Zeus could have given her one, it wouldn't be that hard - but she quashed that feeling and focused on channeling electricity between her fingers to light the wood that Grover had scrounged up. Bianca even managed to catch a rabbit from somewhere, and soon Percy had it roasting on a spit over the fire. Thalia had taken the Nemean Lion's coat for the day and rolled it up into a pillow, placing it under her head as she lay back.

It was pretty darn comfortable, for a ghost town a hundred miles away from nowhere and a quest to save the world. Thalia could live like this. Above them, constellations danced and warred in the night sky. Thalia had never seen it before, but the Milky Way was visible, soft white light and dark spots hinting at the unknowable vastness of the cosmos above. Unbidden, Thalia realized it would absolutely suck to be an immortal and get thrown into space. Drifting slowly for eons at the mercy of nothing but gravity and time, unable to control anything and knowing that this was your fate for the rest of time.

"Amazing," Bianca said, and Thalia agreed wholeheartedly. "I've never seen anything like this, not even as a kid."

Zoe frowned sadly. "This is nothing. Eons ago, there were millions more stars visible. Human light pollution has literally erased constellations."

"You speak like you're not human," Thalia said, and Zoe raised an eyebrow at the daughter of Zeus.

"I am a Hunter. I care for the natural places of the world, what happens there, how they evolve and remain healthy. Can thou say the same?"

Thalia nodded, but paused. Most people didn't care, really, even if she herself did. This junkyard of a town was evidence enough of that - nevermind the huge overpopulation and overconsumption the world was experiencing. Inclining her head, Thalia conceded the point. However, there was still a different way she could get back at Zoe.

"It's just you, Zoe. No thee, no thou, just you."

Zoe groaned in exasperation and threw her hands in the air. "This language changes too damn much!" The rest of the group shared a laugh at this, and after a moment she joined in as well. Grover, however, was still pondering the stars.

"If only Pan were here, he'd set things right," said the satyr. "After this is all over I'm going straight back to New Mexico and drinking as much coffee as I can get. We were so close! This is the best lead we've had in two thousand years!"

Zoe sympathized, but looked hesitant. Nobody really knew what to say to that - nobody wanted to encourage Grover too much or too little, and so they all settled for saying nothing at all. Eventually, she spoke up.

"Regardless, we must continue west for now. I feel that our best chance is to make it through this junkyard and find a road, then hitchhike as best we can up towards Las Vegas. From there…"

But Bianca was already staunchly protesting. "No, not Vegas. Anywhere else, just… not Vegas." Clearly she had some bad memories there. "Nico and I stayed in a hotel for a while there… Anyways. Not Vegas."

Thalia was willing to leave it at that, but Percy leant forward with a question. "Bianca, this place you stayed at. Was it called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?" Thalia knew the name. Annabeth had told her the story of losing days in an architecture game in a strange hotel where time moved faster. But Annabeth had only been there for an hour, and days had passed. If Bianca had spent a long time there…

"How could you possibly know that?" Asked the girl.

"Bianca, this is important. How long were you there? At the hotel?" Thalia asked.

"I don't know, maybe a few months, tops? Like… maybe eight months," she decided.

"Holy shit," Percy said eloquently.

Zoe joined in on the questioning. "Bianca, who's president of the United States?"

Bianca looked on the edge of tears, but answered the question correctly. "What does that have to do with anything? Why the hell are you guys asking these questions?"

Percy reached out and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Bianca, the Lotus Hotel and Casino is a terrible place. I got trapped there once, with Annabeth and Grover. We were there for maybe an hour. Five days had passed when we left. If you were there for eight months… That's almost eighty years."

"Who was the last president, Bianca? The one before now?"

This one took her a little longer, and her brow creased with concentration. "Uh… FDR?"

Zoe nodded to Percy. "That was about eighty years ago also. One of the last presidents I liked," she said, as though that mattered when Bianca was suddenly realizing that she'd spent eighty fucking years trapped in a hotel. The poor girl was staring into her hands as though they were about to crumble to dust.

"I'm not that old!"

"Right," Percy said, changing the topic. "Not Vegas. We can take the Colorado River - it's just on the other side of the junkyard, the Naiad in that lake says - down to Lake Mead. Then we can just grab a flight from Vegas or something - no spending the night, as little time as possible. I can't think of any other way." He shot Bianca an apologetic look.

The girl steeled herself. "That's… I'll be okay with that. I'm sorry."

Before any of the others could respond, though, a harsh beam of white light cut through the night and across the group. A stunningly white limo cruised to a stop with the back door just feet from Percy. As it opened, a sword leapt from the door to point at his throat, tip digging into his Adam's apple slightly. Thalia reached for her spear, but Percy stopped her.

"Everybody, meet Ares. Ares, everybody."

Without lowering the sword, the God of War stepped out of the limousine. "Not so fast now, are you, punk? Not without daddy's help, anyways." The god dressed a lot like Thalia - leather jacket, combat boots, dark sunglasses (although even Thalia wasn't dedicated enough to wear hers at night). He was burly but not like a strongman - instead he looked like a bodybuilder who'd taken a few too many steroids, muscles bulging awkwardly like balloons under his skin. For some reason, Thalia wanted to wipe the smirk clean off his face, but Percy's warning look held her back again. "At ease, people, this is a friendly meeting."

Even Percy's predicament couldn't stop Thalia from speaking up snarkily. "You're not being terribly friendly to us, are you?" The god's blazing eyeballs turned towards her, and she stood up a little taller.

"Well, well, little sis, I heard you were back. Of course, I'd love to take little Jackson's head for a trophy," said Ares. "His ugly mug would look great on my wall. But unfortunately, I try not to decapitate anybody in the presence of my girl."

"What girl?" Percy asked. Ares tossed his chin back towards the limo.

"You'll find out. She wants to meet with you and my dear sister… separately, of course. Why don't the rest of you go grab some tacos, or something?"

"But Lord Ares," Grover said. "There's no taco place here."

With a snap of his fingers, a taco place appeared.

"Go on, guys," Thalia said. "Percy and I can handle this."

That objection cleared up, Grover trotted off, Bianca and Zoe reluctantly following behind.

"So, uh, Ares." Thalia cleared her throat. "Who's in the car?"

"You first, then the punk here," Ares said. He lowered his sword and opened the limo door for her.

Inside, Thalia's jaw dropped. The most beautiful woman she'd ever seen - hell, the most beautiful person she'd ever seen - was checking her makeup in a hand vanity mirror, dabbing on a fresh coat of ruby red lipstick. The woman wore a red satin dress that hugged her very tightly but didn't show too much flesh, leaving the curves to speak for themselves. She looked a little bit like Annabeth for a moment, then a lot like Zoe, then somehow like the girl Thalia had had a crush on in freshman year, who'd smelled so good and always smiled at Thalia like they had a shared secret that made them both laugh. Thalia couldn't explain it, but the woman seemed to shift between every idea Thalia had ever had about what was beautiful and attractive in a woman.

"Aphrodite," Thalia said. "What…" Her voice caught in her throat for a second and she fought hard to free it. "What can I do for you?"

"Ah, Thalia! How lovely to see you." The goddess turned and finally looked at Thalia, who'd donned the Nemean Lion's coat but wasn't any more fashionable. Her clothes were a day old and covered in pine sap and sand and skeleton dust and pig scent. Thalia felt self-conscious beyond belief. "Do you know why you're here?"

Thalia shook her head and swallowed heavily for what felt like the tenth time since she'd gotten in the limo. "What do you mean, 'why I'm here?' Like, in the limo?"

Aphrodite smiled, and Thalia's heart decided to have a boxing match with her tonsils as she locked gazes with the goddess's eyes - which had shifted to green. "Oh, dear. No, darling. On this quest." Outside, Percy and Ares were bickering, though the limo was so soundproof that Thalia couldn't pick out the words.

"Uh… To save Artemis and Annabeth. To save the world." Why else would she be on this quest?

Aphrodite opened the mirror again, as though her makeup had somehow spoiled in the minute she'd been talking to Thalia. She frowned and dabbed at the corner of her eyeshadow - and when she turned back to face the daughter of Zeus her eyes were a clear, crystalline blue. Thalia's blood chilled. "Oh, pah, Artemis, Annabeth, friends, monsters, boring goddesses who don't even date. I pity the people who kidnapped her! Surely, if you're going to kidnap someone, it should be somebody beautiful, somebody worth admiring, somebody who looks good in chains and handcuffs… But I digress." Thalia fought back her blush as she thought of Aphrodite - or Artemis - in handcuffs. "No, honey, you're on this quest for love. The others, well, they're here for those other reasons. But you… you have much bigger things at stake."

"W-What?" Thalia stammered. True love? Who was she supposed to be in love with? She may love Annabeth, but she sure wasn't in love with her. Artemis was even further than that. Zoe? Well, maybe she wasn't as bad as Thalia used to think, but again - there wasn't any romance there, and Thalia almost shuddered at the thought. The huntress was beautiful, of course, and Thalia was just as big into women as men - but love? No. "Who am I in love with?"

Aphrodite chuckled. "Well, sweetheart… That's for me to know and you to find out. He's waiting for you, of course. He loves you too, always has. He's just waiting for you to come along and save him. Forget about all this 'joining the hunters' nonsense you and Annabeth had going on. Focus on him! Focus on the real reason you're here!"

Thalia took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Oh, don't worry," the Goddess of Love continued. "I won't make it easy for you, of course. So much intrigue, and drama, and indecision! Oh, I just love good television. And, darling? Do watch out for hidden monsters."

Thalia slammed the door shut on the Goddess of Lipstick. "Your turn, Percy."

Despite his obvious reluctance, Percy stepped into the limo. He and Aphrodite held a hushed conversation but Thalia's mind was spinning too fast to even attempt to listen in. What the hell did 'true love' have to do with this quest? And who was waiting for her to save them? What was going on with Aphrodite's eyes? At least Ares didn't seem to interested in talking to her.

When Percy came out of the limo, much earlier than Thalia had, he looked pissed. Ares did too, though. "You're lucky I haven't already killed you, punk," he growled. "If it weren't for the lady in there I wouldn't be playing so nice. But she seems to think you're some kind of soap-opera star. Besides, word around town is that you - the two of you actually - are going to start up the biggest war in a thousand years. I can't mess that up."

Thalia opened her mouth to retort, but Percy beat her to it. "Why don't you try it, big fella? How's the ankle healing? I can give you a neck to match," he said, the venom in his voice sending a cold thrill down Thalia's spine. But Ares didn't rise to the taunting.

"Not bad, kid. But it's going to be much more fun to watch you suffer the wrath of Ares. Remember, bud - when you need it the most."

Then, the limousine, the aroma of sickly-sweet perfume, and the rage Thalia felt (like she wanted to pummel Ares through the pavement and a few miles into the ground) disappeared all at once. Percy stood still, fuming, breathing heavily. Behind him, the others arrived, carrying carne asada tacos and iced tea.

"So, uh, what was that about, guys?" Grover asked nervously.

Once Thalia had filled in the rest of the group, and Percy had calmed down a bit, he managed to tell them what was apparently the only important thing he learned during the meeting with Aphrodite. This was Hephaestus's scrapyard - absolutely, one hundred percent do not touch anything under any circumstances. That was all they'd managed to get out of him, though, and Thalia could sympathize - she sure hadn't fessed up all the details of her meeting, either. Regardless, they were all uneasy, and just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible - screw waiting for morning. So, once they'd finished their tacos, they set off to the west, guided by Zoe's intimate knowledge of celestial navigation.

Trudging across the junkyard was an exercise in caution and self-control. Thalia spotted so many cool things that she desperately wanted - an honest to gods lightsaber (that wasn't very good, but still), a set of combat boots that turned into armor when you clicked the heels together, a leather jacket with a similar function - but she walked past them as quickly as she could force herself to. If this place was bad enough that Aphrodite had warned Percy about it, well… she didn't want to find out what that meant.

The others were doing their best, too, and they'd paired off to try and keep each other out of trouble. Percy was guiding Grover, pulling him away from the various things he tried to eat, and Zoe and Bianca walked together, keeping their gazes locked on the horizon. When the group crested a hill in the junkyard, Bianca gasped. A highway, resplendent in its 'not actively trying to kill you' glamor, shone brightly under towering streetlamps.

Thalia spotted something else, between them and the highway, though. Not a neat gadget, but a massive triangular pyramid. She stared at it for a while, not entirely understanding what it was, until she looked further to the south and spotted the ten-foot-tall toes. Shit.

"Uh, guys," she said cautiously, "Do you see that buried statue in front of us?"

"Yeah, I do, and I don't like it. Nobody's picked anything up, right?" Percy asked, voice uncharacteristically nervous. "Cause, I mean, this is the land without rain."

That got everybody to look over at him. Shit. How hadn't they realized that? It was the fucking desert, of course it was a 'land without rain' most of the time.

"Well, uh… I don't really want to find peace."

Thalia silently agreed with Bianca. Then, aloud, she said, "Right. Let's go around… far around. I don't wanna find death, either."

So they struck out north, circumambulating the bronze nose which gleamed in the dim light of the crescent moon. As they neared the junkyard boundary, however, Thalia paused. For as terrifying as the concept of a three-hundred foot tall man was, he was still submerged beneath a mountain of trash. The same could not be said for the cloaked figure in front of her. It took her a long time to pick the silhouette out against the murky darkness that layered itself over most of the junkyard, but once she had, she knew instantly who it was. She'd met him, briefly, as she turned into a tree.

Thanatos.

Percy stiffened, clearly coming to the same realization, though Thalia didn't know how he knew the personification of death. Zoe snatched Bianca by the shoulder and Grover came to a halt on his own, the five forming a line as they faced the black cloak and the silver scythe.

"Oh, fear not, demigods," the Reaper called. "I mean you no harm. In fact, I come to you with a minor quest of my own."

However, as they exchanged uneasy glances, a metallic rumbling came from behind them. Thalia whirled around to see the great bronze statue sitting upright, red eyes glowing as its head swung around to stare directly at them. "Talos," Zoe whispered. "The guardian of Europa, in Crete. But he was much bigger - this must be a defective prototype."

Evidently, Talos didn't like being called defective. Rising to a crouch, he swept one enormous arm out at the group, flattening a pile of scrap and sending junk flying towards them even as the bronze hand continued to cleave through the air after the heroes. They scattered, Zoe launching arrows at Talos's eyes while Percy shoved Grover to the ground under the swipe and Thalia fought to summon a lightning bolt. Nothing happened.

"Land without rain, Thals!" Percy roared, and she swore. Of course - she couldn't summon lightning without clouds, at least not without a hell of a lot of work to produce a terribly weak bolt. The bronze automaton's foot lashed out towards her, and Percy tackled her out of the way, dragging her behind a trash heap at the last second. On the bottom of the foot, she saw a hatch labeled 'MAINTENANCE WORKERS ONLY.' Bianca was standing stock-still in her original position, staring down at something tiny in her hands.

"Bianca! Throw it away!" Zoe screamed at her huntress friend, dashing back to her side even as she launched dozens more arrows uselessly into the statue.

"Thalia, can I have the pelt? I have a crazy idea," Percy said as they recovered from the dive out of the way of the foot. She shrugged it off and handed it to him. "Just trust me on this one."

She hadn't been expecting him to snag a handful of gadgets off the ground and take off at a sprint, hollering at the gigantic creature as it stood up.

Percy disappeared over a crest, and Talos stomped off after him. Then, the demigod hero appeared once more, throwing stones at the monstrous mechatronic as though it would do anything. One of the statue's hundred-foot-long legs swung upwards, then stomped downwards as though Percy was an ant or other pest to be disposed of with ease.

Thalia held her breath - but when the statue lifted his foot to check, Percy wasn't there.

Talos seemed satisfied and turned back to face the group - but before he could begin covering the ground to return, his left fist swung up and smashed into the statue's right shoulder, severing it in one blow. Thalia couldn't help but cheer aloud, ignoring the dread she still felt from when she'd thought Percy dead. The statue wheeled around from the force of its own strike, its hand next going down to tie itself between the bronze legs as a tripping hazard. When it took its next step, it toppled itself, head spinning comically slowly in terror as thousands of tons of celestial bronze tilted over and tumbled towards the ground with a great groaning shriek.

As they watched, the torso and head separated, torso collapsing into the junkyard once more - now truly junk where it belonged - and the head tumbled through a set of power lines that ringed the scrap piles, enormous sparks leaping off the head as it was thoroughly electrocuted.

The daughter of Zeus felt sick.

No threat remaining, she whirled around and raced towards Bianca, intent on berating her for killing Thalia's friend. But as she drew nearer, she could see Bianca on her knees, sobbing, while Zoe awkwardly attempted to comfort her. Grover, despite the tears streaking down his face, played a calming tune on his pipes. When Thalia arrived at the others, she took one look at the despair on Bianca's face and simply couldn't bring herself to scream. Instead, she gently pulled Bianca's hands apart and removed the item that had apparently cost her friend his life.

It was a tiny silver figurine, painted sparingly using bright colors, of Artemis. Mythomagic, Thalia realized. Bianca explained herself through her sobs. "It's the only one he didn't have… I just thought that maybe it would help me explain why I was going away, help him forgive me… I fucked up."

Thalia placed the figurine back in the huntress's hands and wrapped her fingers tightly around it.

"I… I think Percy would want you to still have it. He died so that we could live, he'd want you and Nico to be as happy as possible." The explanation sounded incredibly shallow, far too simple, to Thalia. Bianca knew it too. But they both knew that that was the kind of guy Percy was - simple, easygoing, and caring. He would have wanted Bianca to be happy. If he were there, he probably would have cracked a joke about "not wanting to have died for nothing."

Thalia nearly sobbed herself.

"I don't mean to interrupt, heroes."

Thanatos's voice was silky smooth, like sliding a perfectly sharpened knife through a sheet of paper.

"But your friend… he may not be alive, but he's not quite dead either."

Thalia's head snapped up, but Zoe beat her to the punch. "How can we bring him back?"

"Ah." If the Grim Reaper could look embarrassed, Thanatos did, shrinking into his cloak somewhat. "Well, now, um. I was rather hoping not to have to play this card, but… Those skeletons which are chasing you are the corpses of long-dead heroes who had fallen to evil, and managed to hide from me. I cannot fool the Fates, but what I can do is bargain with them. If I were to offer them the remaining ten skeletons in exchange for looking the other way for your friend… well, I think I could manage to return him to you."

"That's it?" Thalia was suspicious. A deal this big didn't come without a catch. "Besides, we don't know how to destroy them anyways."

"Alas, I must ask for one more favor. This scythe, you see… it's not my true weapon. Typically I carry an inverted torch. This scythe is something foisted upon me by the mortals, for some strange symbolic reason. They call me silly epithets like 'the Grim Reaper,' and portray me as reaping souls like grass…" He looked around and realized that his audience was not particularly receptive. "A tale for another time, perhaps. What is important is this - you must return my inverted torch to me, and exchange for it my scythe."

Zoe nodded. "We can do that, Lord Thanatos. Simply tell us where to find it."

"It is… with Akheron, brother of Styx. His river resides inside the Colorado River, but he himself cowers beneath the Hoover Dam. You must trick him, take my torch, return it to me. This scythe should prove ample trade if you cannot trick him - and it will allow you to dispatch the skeletons to me."

Right. Simple. Take Death's scythe, kill immortal and undying heroes who had escaped Fate itself, trade scythe with personification of underworld river (at the bottom of a dam more than five hundred miles away), return Death his true symbol of power, and return their friend from being dead.

Easy.

Appreciate all the support, folks. Hopefully this was a little bit of a surprise and different enough to be interesting. The prophecy being different is good and bad - forces me to write things differently, and forces me to go further off script than I anticipated. Anyways - thanks for the reviews/favorites/follows. See you soon(ish).