Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Okay! After this chapter we have two more of TTC, and then we shall be getting into a part that I am sure y'all have been wanting for a long, long time lol. 70-some chapters in the making. Whew!

Also, I just wanted to say thank y'all for having come with me this far, I appreciate you very, very much. Reading your comments is always a delight and a treat, and I always look forward to them. :)

Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoy. Until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 71: A Friend Says Goodbye~

We landed at Crissy Field after nightfall.

Dr. Chase stepped out of his Sopwith Camel, grinning brilliantly. "That was amazing!" he exclaimed. "I've never gotten to use the Sopwith Camel in battle like that. I think it's given me some good ideas for my next thesis. And the celestial bronze bullets turned out quite – "

He stopped in his tracks as he realized that none of us were celebrating with him.

Iphigenia and Artemis were kneeling at Zoë's side, binding the huntress' wounds. Silena, once again with a hand over her mouth, and I were right next to them, but there wasn't much that we could do. We had no ambrosia nor nectar. No regular medicine would help. It was dark, but I could see that Zoë didn't look good. She was shivering, and the faint glow that usually hung around her and Iphigenia as Hunters of Artemis was fading.

"Can't you heal her with magic?" I asked Artemis. "I mean...no offense, but you're a goddess."

Artemis looked troubled. "Life is a fragile thing, Percy. If Ananke desires for the string to be cut, there is little that I can do. But I can try."

She tried to set her hand on Zoë's side, but Zoë gripped her wrist. She looked into the goddess' eyes, and some kind of understanding passed between them.

"Have I...served thee well?" Zoë whispered.

Iphigenia choked out a wordless sob.

"With great honor," Artemis said softly. "The finest of my attendants."

Zoë's face relaxed. "Rest. At last."

"I can try to heal the poison, my brave one."

But in that moment, I knew it wasn't just the poison that was killing her. It was her father's final blow. Zoë had known all along that the Oracle's prophecy was about her: she would die by a parent's hand. And yet she'd taken the quest anyways. She had chosen to fight him, and Atlas' fury had broken her inside.

She saw Iphigenia, and took her hand.

"My sister," she murmured, "it has been an honor to hunt alongside thee for so many years."

"And I can say the same for thee, sister," Iphigenia said. Tears were pouring down her cheeks.

Zoë then looked over at me. She smiled weakly. "Do you still have the sword, Percy?"

I couldn't speak, but I brought out Riptide and put the pen in her hand. She grasped at it contentedly. "You spoke the truth, Percy Jackson. You are nothing like...like Hercules. I am honored that you carry this sword."

A shudder ran through her body.

"Zoë," I said.

"Stars," she whispered. "I can see the stars again, milady."

A tear trickled down Artemis' cheek. "Yes, my brave one. They are beautiful tonight."

Silena lowered her head. Iphigenia choked out another sob. Dr. Chase took off his aviator cap, since he'd come to stand just behind me and Silena. I watched as Artemis cupped her hand above Zoë's mouth and spoke a few words in Ancient Greek. A silvery wisp of smoke exhaled from Zoë's lips and was caught in the hand of the goddess. Zoë's body shimmered and disappeared.

Artemis stood, said a kind of blessing, breathed into her cupped hand, and released the silver dust into the sky. It flew up, sparkling, and vanished.

For a moment, I didn't see anything different. Then Silena gasped. Looking up into the sky, I saw that the stars were brighter now. They made a pattern I had never noticed before – a gleaming constellation that looked a lot like a girl's figure – a girl with a bow, running across the sky.

"Let the world honor you, my Huntress," Artemis said. "Live forever in the stars."

It wasn't easy saying our goodbyes. The thunder and lightning were still boiling over Mount Tamalpais in the north. Artemis was so upset she flickered with silver light. This made me nervous, because if she suddenly lost control and appeared fully in her divine form, we would disintegrate by looking at her.

"I must go to Olympus immediately," Artemis said. "I will not be able to take you, but I will send help."

The goddess set her hand on Silena's shoulder. "You are brave beyond measure, my girl. You must never forget that."

Silena gave her a watery smile. Artemis looked over at Iphigenia, then opened out her arms. To my surprise, Iphigenia went into them willingly, still sobbing. They hugged for a brief moment, like a mother and her child, before Iphigenia backed away.

Then Artemis turned to me.

"You did well, half-brother," she said. "For a man."

I wanted to protest. But then I realized that it was the first time she hadn't called me a "boy."

She mounted her chariot, which began to glow. We averted our eyes. There was a flash of silver, and the goddess was gone.

"Well," Dr. Chase sighed. "She was impressive; though I must say, I still prefer Athena."

"Dr. Chase, we left your car up on Mount Tamalpais," I began to say, then my eyes widened. I smacked a hand to my forehead. "Oh my gods, we left your car up there!"

"What's wrong with that?" Silena asked, frowning.

Iphigenia opened her mouth to speak.

But, a familiar voice beat her to it, calling out, "Don't worry, Boss, Lady Artemis and Lady Despoina have got you all covered!"

The voice was accompanied by the whoosh of large wings. Three pegasi descended from the fog: one black, one light brown, and one white. And on top of the black one was my saber-toothed kitten, Bob.

"Bob! Blackjack!" I cried out, rushing over to where the pegasi had landed. I scooped Bob up in my arms and practically squeezed the life out of her, to which she mewled, but allowed the action. I felt so bad. I'd almost forgotten about her...

"Yo, Boss," Blackjack whinnied. "You managed to stay alive without me?"

"It was rough," I admitted. I pressed a kiss to Bob's head. "And I'm so, so sorry that I left you in Dr. Chase's car, Bob. I should've come up with a different plan."

Bob meowed again, but it seemed like I was forgiven. She snuggled into my hold.

"I brought some friends with me," Blackjack said, stretching out a wing partially in their direction. "Cinnamon and Nieves."

"Hello, Percy," Cinnamon said.

"How ya doin'?" asked Nieves.

Blackjack looked me over with concern, then checked out Dr. Chase, Iphigenia, and Silena. "Any of these goons you want us to stampede?"

"No," I said. "These are my friends. We need to get to Olympus pretty fast."

"No problem," Blackjack said. "Except for the mortal over there. Hope he's not going."

I assured her that Dr. Chase was not. The professor was staring openmouthed at the pegasi.

"Fascinating!" he exclaimed. "Such maneuverability! How does the wingspan compensate for the weight of the horse's body, I wonder?"

Blackjack cocked her head. "What?"

"Why, if the British had had these pegasi in the calvary charges on Crimea," he continued, "the charge of the light brigade – "

"Dr. Chase," Silena interrupted kindly.

Dr. Chase blinked. He refocused on all of us and managed a smile. "I apologize. I know that you have to go."

"Thank you for your help," I told him earnestly. "And tell Annabeth the same from us, and that we'll see her next summer, if not before then."

"I will," he promised. "Don't worry."

We all mounted our pegasi. Dr. Chase gave us a wave before he trudged away across the dark field. Then our pegasi took off, and together we soared over the bay and flew towards the eastern hills. Soon San Francisco was only a glittering crescent behind us, with an occasional flicker of lightning in the north.

Iphigenia must've been so exhausted between the battle and losing one of her closest companions that she fell asleep on Nieves' back. I knew that she had to have been really tired to fall asleep in the air, because I wouldn't have been able to do that unless I was to the brink of sleep deprivation, but she didn't have much to worry about. Her pegasus flew with ease, adjusting herself every once in a while so that Iphigenia stayed safely on her back.

Silena and I flew along side by side.

She didn't speak for a long while, and that worried me.

But what worried me even more was what she said when she finally did speak.

"Percy," she said as quietly as she could but so that I was still able to hear her, her shoulders shaking in the light of the moon and stars. She sounded absolutely wrecked. "I'm so – "

"Don't," I said. "You have nothing to apologize for."

She gaped at me, and I could tell even from a slight distance that her kaleidoscope eyes were shining. "But Percy, I killed– "

"No, you didn't." I shook my head. "Luke's not dead, Silena."

"But he fell fifty feet! Not even a demigod can survive that kind of fall, Percy! And his body – "

"He's not dead," I insisted. I felt confident in it – extremely so. I had nothing to prove it, but it was something that I felt in my bones, along with all that pain from holding up the sky. "I know he isn't."

Silena went silent at that. Whether she thought I was crazy or she was considering that maybe I was right, I didn't know. Probably the former.

We flew over a town, an island of lights in the middle of the dark. It whisked by so fast that we might've been in an airplane.

"Thank you for rescuing me," Silena finally said.

"Hey, no big deal. That's what best friends are for."

"You didn't believe I was dead?"

"Never."

She wiped at her eyes. "I'm not sure how much longer we're going to be just best friends, though."

"Are you referring to how our parents are maybe dating?"

Silena laughed. Her laughter was not something that I had been without for longer than basically a week, and yet it felt like even that had been too long, with everything that she had been through. "I wasn't sure if you knew about that. I was thinking about telling you, but..." She trailed off.

I swallowed. "Yeah."

"They might just be dating now, if they've gotten that far, but I don't think it's going to stay that way," she informed me. "I think...my dad really loves your mom, Percy. And I think she really loves him, too."

I didn't know what to think about that. I mean, besides Gabe, and even then everything seemed more business-transactional with them than anything else when it wasn't rampant with abuse, I'd never seen my mom care about romance that much. Obviously, she'd cared about romance once, because she'd fallen in love with my dad and they'd had me. But I mean caring about romance in terms of another person after that, a mortal. One who, and I don't mean this with any disrespect, would have more of an impact on my day-to-day life than my dad did, because my dad couldn't be around due to being a god and the Ancient Laws and all that. I knew that he wanted to, but that was something that would never happen. Could never happen.

I didn't really mind the thought of that person being Silena's dad. He always seemed nice whenever I interacted with him. And I didn't mind having another mortal step-sister or half-sister in my life, either. The more, the merrier, although I doubted that my dad had broken the oath he'd made with Zeus and Hades to not have anymore children more than twice. Twice made sense, because apparently Zeus had broken the oath himself twice, if Thalia's brother had been by him, which was probably the case. But any times more than that...

Still, I didn't know what to think. It was all weird. And this quest had afforded me the opportunity to not think about it too much, but not anymore.

"Speaking of my dad," Silena said.

Oh, no, I thought.

"How did he take the news that I was – "

"About that," I said. I paused before I said anything more – not for dramatic effect, but because I knew what was going to happen next. "I, um...didn't tell him or my mom that you got kidnapped."

"What?" Silena screeched. She just about fell off of her pegasus. I was kind of impressed that she didn't wake up Iphigenia to go along with it, but the huntress must've been truly out of it.

"Careful!" Cinnamon whinnied, righting herself. "If you fall, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to catch you!"

"Did you at least tell Ally?" Silena demanded. "Because if you did, he would've told my dad."

"Um...no."

"Percy!"

"Our parents seemed happy when I Iris-Message'ed them!" I defended myself. "I didn't want to mess that up! And if I told Alabaster, what do you think he would've done? He would've gone to Mount Tamalpais to rescue you and probably gotten himself killed!"

That wasn't the reasoning for why I hadn't told Alabaster at the time, but it was one that was valid – and Silena knew it. She sighed. "You're probably right about that," she acknowledged, running a hand through her hair. "Still...my dad's going to be so proud of me, but he's also probably going to ground me until the age of eighteen for doing something that stupid."

I frowned. "You saved us, Silena. That's not stupid."

"...You're right about that, too," she mused. She looked up at the stars for a moment, then back at me. "Did you find out what happened to the Koskinen twins?"

The mention of the two had guilt churning in my gut. I shook my head. "I saw them once on this quest – we were at the Hoover Dam, and so were they. But they disappeared again then the same way that they had before. In that flash of golden light. Artemis said that she sensed the magic, but it wasn't one that she recognized."

Silena processed this information. "The General and Luke did," she spoke at last. "I...I didn't want to believe them, but – "

"'But,' what?"

"I'm not even sure if I heard them correctly," she tried to downplay it. "Really, it's probable that it didn't. I was so out of it, I had no idea what was going on most of the time. But even if I did hear them correctly, they said that it had already happened before, about like one hundred and twenty years ago or whatever, and that he spent up all of his energy doing it then, which is why he's so weak now. And she didn't do what they wanted, and nor do either of her descendants, who are both still alive apparently, have her powers. And he wouldn't be able to do it again in this state even if he want – "

"Silena, please, just tell me," I commanded gently. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

She again took her time to respond.

Then:

"They said that the magic was that of a mortal descendant of Kronos."

As I am sure you are expecting, my reaction to this was very precise:

"What the fuck?" I exclaimed.

I wasn't alone. Even the pegasi all jerked at the news, having been listening in on our conversation. "What?" Blackjack nickered. "How is that even possible? Isn't he all cut up to pieces?"

"He is," I agreed.

"What?" Silena asked.

I translated for her what Blackjack had said.

"Oh. Yeah, he is. I'm not...not sure how it happened. If they said how, I wasn't aware enough to remember it. But if I had to guess, he must've been able to make a part of his essence...corporeal," Silena explained. Her nose wrinkled. "It sounds like something more out of Christianity than it does our pantheon."

She had a point with that. I couldn't help but shudder at the thought of Kronos getting it on with some mortal woman when he was basically nothing more than a tangible ghost. And, moreover, I had a feeling that it wasn't consensual. Granted, that was acting like Zeus, like my own dad, hadn't done their own fair share of raping back in the day, but...it was easier to compartmentalize with them, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of Zeus since he'd said before he would kill me, as bad as that sounded. It was easier to pretend that they weren't the same gods from the myths that I knew, like Danaë and Caneus and so many other people who had been victimized by them.

I wondered what it must've been like to be that child of Kronos. What they must've gone through. Somehow, I doubted that they had ever gone to Camp Half-Blood; it probably wouldn't have been allowed. Just the fact that they had gotten to the age where they could choose to reject their father was remarkable enough on its own; it signified that the gods hadn't chosen to destroy them from birth outright.

But how did that explain Lauritz and Ausma vanishing in a gold light? Since there had never been a mortal descendant of Kronos before besides apparently one person who had been born more than a century ago, I had literally zero idea about how the gold light could fit into the puzzle. Not to mention, did they know about being descendants of Kronos? I hadn't thought that they had had any clue about the gods. But if they did, it was probably a good thing that we couldn't find them. While they couldn't be the children of the Great Prophecy, it was undoubtedly still a good idea for them to stay away from this mess – as far away as they could.

Our conversation didn't last for much longer. The towns were zipping by faster now, islands of light thicker together, until the whole landscape below was a glittering carpet. Dawn was close. The eastern sky was turning grey. And up ahead, a huge white-and-yellow glow was spread out before us – the lights of New York City.

"How's that for speed, Boss?" Blackjack bragged. "We get extra hay for breakfast or what?"

"You're the man, Blackjack," I told her, before I realized my mistake. "Umm...girl. Horse. Mare. Whatever."

She whinnied out a laugh.

"There it is," came Iphigenia's voice; she'd woken up. She was pointing towards Manhattan, which was quickly zooming into view. "It has started."

"What's started?" I asked.

Then I looked where she was pointing. High above the Empire State Building, Olympus was its own island of light, a floating mountain ablaze with torches and braziers, white marble palaces gleaming in the early morning air.

"The Winter Solstice," Iphigenia spoke. "The Council of the Gods."

Word Count: 3,153

Next Chapter Title: The Gods Vote How To Kill Us