3375 words

I found Raiden in the throne room, eating a ham sandwich. She sipped from her goblet of Diet Coke (who allowed her to have caffeine is beyond me) and then beamed when she saw me. "Hey!"

"Hi," I said. "Why are drinking Diet Coke? Doesn't caffeine make you a bit...crazy?"

Raiden shrugged. "Technically, yes. But it's not that bad."

"You caused a boycott in Houston against KFC last time you had caffeine."

"Their chicken wings were disgusting!" Raiden protested. "They didn't deserve to stay in business!"

"Or maybe you were just juiced up on caffeine."

She elbowed me in the ribs. "Shut up, Leafy."

(I can thank my mother for that nickname. You just had to be the goddess of the wilderness, Mom. You could've picked to be the goddess of fire or war but you just had to pick to be the goddess of trees.)

Lucky for me, Raiden had only come up with that particular nickname a few months prior, and I had a few aces up my sleeve. "Whatever you say, Sargent Stopwatch."

"Don't call me that, Professor Planty."

"I'll call you what I want, Captain Rewind."

"Lieutenant Loony."

"Miss Tick Tock."

"Are you two finished?" an amused voice called before Raiden could retort.

We looked up to see Dad approaching, carrying a goblet full of coffee. He was in thirty-six-year-old form, and his scruffy black beard was stained brown.

"Not yet, Father Fishy," I replied.

Dad arched an eyebrow. "Watch the nicknames, young Padawan."

"Yeah, okay, Master Yoda."

Dad's sea-green eyes twinkled. "You really think I'm Yoda? Am that I wise?"

"Nah," Raiden smirked. "Just ancient."

"Agreed," I said.

"I will ground you both."

"You can't do that," I reminded him. "Mom's in our lives now, and her word as a goddess trumps yours. Besides, I don't think Zoë will like..." I faltered, and my heart dropped. "Never mind."

I stared at the marble floor, the corners of my eyes burning once again. I heard Dad step forward, and he pulled me into a hug. "It's okay, kid," he murmured in a choked voice. "It's okay." Raiden joined the embrace, and I was struck by how much these two loved me. They'd embarked on a quest to save me, faced countless obstacles, and then battled on top of Mount Tam for me. Dad had even rebuffed Aidan, his son, for me. Raiden had killed Aidan to rescue me and used a power she'd sworn she'd never use. All that sacrifice, for me.

Dad kissed my forehead and released me. He studied my face for a moment. "I'm sorry, kid."

I was surprised. "Why?"

He sighed. "Because I didn't go support you after you, uh, came back from the dead. I didn't go and hug you. I was too distracted with Zoë..." He sniffled. "With her dying I didn't go and make you were okay. For that, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Dad," I said. "No, seriously. I get it. Zoë was your best friend, and you needed to say goodbye."

"That's still not an excuse for me, kid. You're my daughter, and I should've been there to support you. That's my job as your father."

"Dad, you don't always have to look out for me. I can take of myself sometimes, so you don't need to feel bad."

Dad smiled weakly and ruffled my hair. "I still can't get over how much you've grown up. You're more like your mother every day."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Definitely good."

I nodded, although I wasn't sure that statement was entirely true.

We found Thalia conversing with Artemis in a corner. The daughter of Zeus appeared much calmer. The tension had left her shoulders. She was fiddling with a silver circlet, and she grinned when she saw us. "Hi."

"Hey," I said. Then I asked Artemis, "Mother, we're returning to Camp Half-Blood, aren't we?"

"Yes," the goddess agreed. "I will send us to Camp Half-Blood and then we depart with the other Hunters."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Raiden pumped her fist into the air. "Let's go! I wanna see my sisters."

"Very well." Artemis snapped her fingers.

The goddess began to glow silver, and we vanished in a flash of moonlight. We reappeared in front of Cabin Eight which blazed like a homing beacon.

"Oh, it's good to be back." I sprinted inside the cabin.

All of the Hunters were awake, wearing anxious expressions. Pax paced up and down the aisle between the bunks.

"Ainsley!" Hunter jumped down from her bunk and rushed toward me, along with several other Hunters. "You're okay. Woah!" She skidded to a stop and stared at my ruined clothes. "What happened?"

"'Okay' isn't the best term, Hunter," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"Zoë. She...she..."

"Zoë has passed into the stars," Artemis said solemnly. "And Bianca Di Angelo has passed into Elysium."

Silence filled the room. My heart dropped. Bianca was gone, too? She was thirteen. Pax stopped pacing, staggered over to their bed, and collapsed. Joan clutched the rail of her bed, and Phoebe hurled her dagger at the opposite wall. "No," she muttered. "No, no, NO!"

Finally, Ash asked in a choked voice, "Lady Artemis, is there going to be another lieutenant? Or is Ainsley going to be the only one?"

In response, the goddess stepped aside. Thalia walked forward, her circlet clearly visible on her forehead. She stopped beside me. "Hello."

Ash sniffled. "That answers my question." She gazed from Raiden, to Dad, to Thalia, and then to me. "What happened on the quest? What happened to you, Ainsley?"

"I'll explain later," I said, "once we get outta here."

Ash nodded. I announced, "Hunters, pack up! We're leaving Camp Half-Blood."

***

We camped in northern Canada on Hudson Bay. We erected our tents on a beach, and Celyn started a fire. As I'd lost all of my Hunter gear except my weapons during Aidan's ambush, I got new stuff. Hunter gave me a new outfit, which I changed into immediately (although Raiden insisted I keep her parka). I received a new rucksack, change of clothes, supplies, moon water, and a bear skin blanket from Phoebe (Dad, Raiden, and Thalia also received things since they'd lost most of them on the quest).

Afterward, we all settled down by the fire, and Thalia and Raiden sat next to me.

"So, what happened?" Pax asked. "How'd it all go down on the quest?"

"Uh..." I shifted in the sand, aware of everyone watching me. "Uh...it's hard for me to talk about."

Raiden took my hand. "You can do it. I'm right here if you need me."

"Okay." I inhaled deeply. "Okay. Here we go." I looked around at everyone. "So after I...um...left, I tracked Lady Artemis through the country. I passed through the National Air and Space Museum..." I glanced up at my mother. "You went there, didn't you?"

"Yes," the goddess said. "Continue, please, Ainsley."

"Alright. So LAdy Artemis's scent was strongest at Lake Henshaw in California, and we stopped there. But turns out...it was an ambush. Seven of Kronos's henchmen came out of the woods led by my brother."

"That little--" Joan called Aidan something extremely nasty in medieval French.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Whatever you just called him, Joan is pretty accurate. Anyway, Aidan did a whole spiel about how he missed and I could join him, the gods abandoned him, blah, blah, blah. I told him, 'I'm loyal to Artemis. I'd rather die than betray her and join you. Now, tell me where she is!' He said, ''Fraid, I can't do that, sis. I didn't want it to come to this, but it has.' Then he told his men to take me."

"And then you kicked their butts?" Pax asked.

"Yes and no. I fought with half a dozen of them. I knocked three unconscious and I'm fairly sure I gave another permanent brain damage. But more came out of the woods and then..." Tears welled in my eyes, and my voice shook. "And then Aidan ordered for Zade to be killed. And he was. One of them shot a poisoned arrow at him and Zade...he...he..."

I couldn't continue. I covered my face with my hands and started crying again. Raiden pulled me close, and I sobbed into her shoulder. Agro finished the story while licking my hand, and her ears drooped.

Zade died. The arrow was covered in Hydra poisoning, so he died in a lot of pain. His body sank under the surface of Lake Henshaw. Ainsley didn't want me getting hurt, even though I'm immortal, so she surrendered. She ordered me to stand down. Aidan confiscated her stuff, and his troops put her in chains.

"Boys," Phoebe snarled. "Aidan is..." She faltered, glancing at Artemis for permission. The goddess nodded once. "Aidan is a monster."

He is. Agro growled. After Ainsley was captured, we were marched to Mount Tam, where Mount Othrys was rising. Lady Artemis had been captured, too. She was holding the sky. Aidan ordered Ainsley to take it. This made her mad, so she fought back. She ended up being cut by his sword in several places and getting a black eye, although she broke Aidan's nose. In the end, Ainsley took the sky and held it for four days.

"You held the sky for four days?" Hunter looked astonished. "That's...that's..."

"Amazing," Pax finished. "So, what happened to Aidan?"

"I killed him," Raiden said grimly.

Everyone stared at her.

"Care to elaborate?" Ash asked.

Raiden described her battle with Aidan. When she arrived at the part about his blood manipulation, my head shot up so fast that I got vertigo. "He nearly killed you? That's what you're telling me?"

"Yes," Raiden said.

I glared at the snowy sand, my face soaked. "How is this fair? You kill him and then he comes back to life."

"He's still alive?" Raiden demanded. "That's impossible. I ended him."

"But I came back to life. Maybe the same thing happened to Aidan."

"You died too?" Pax demanded.

I waved an impatient hand. "Yeah, I was impaled by Atlas's spear. I'll explain later."

"You got impaled?"

"I'll explain later, Pax. Anyway, Ray, what do you mean you ended him?"

Raiden fiddled with her axe and stared at Hudson Bay. "I mean, I destroyed his life force. I have that power as a child of the Titan of Time. I...I can freeze their time or "life force" and then they die." She looked around at everyone. "You have no idea how much I hate that power. It makes me a murderer, essentially. I don't ever use it because of that and because it saps some of my own life; it takes off however many years old the person I've killed is and takes it away from my own life."

"You're not a murderer, Raiden," Thalia said. "I killed Luke, remember?"

Raiden huffed. "Still. I hate myself for doing it."

"You didn't have much of a choice," I reminded her. "Aidan had to go."

"I agree," Artemis said. "Raiden, you were fighting against an enemy. Your objective was to defeat Aidan, and you needed to do that to complete your quest. So, even if your methods were not your favorite, you were justified in using them."

"It wasn't my only option though," Raiden grumbled. "I could've easily just hit him over the head with my axe."

The goddess raised her hand. "That is enough, my champion. I do not wish for you to slander yourself anymore. What is done is done. You cannot change the past."

"Don't I know it," Raiden muttered.

"I wish the hear about your quest," Artemis continued. "Please tell me what happened."

And so they did. Dad, Thalia, and Raiden took turns explaining everything that had occurred during the quest. They interrupted each other to add a point several times, but other than that, no one else spoke (although when Dad explained the occurrence with Nemesis in New Mexico, I was furious and made Hudson Bay explode. I still feel bad about your marshmallows, Pax. That was one killer dessert sandwich). Once they'd finished, everyone was silent, processing the information. The parts about Zoě, Bianca, and my impalement were particularly difficult to hear.

"Uh..." Pax ventured after ten minutes of depressing quiet. "What happened down in the Underworld?"

I laced my fingers together. "I'm not ready to talk about it again, Pax. It's nothing against any of you, it's just..." I shuddered. "It was horrible down there. So cold and-and dark. So much suffering and death. And then the voice from the River Styx..."

I suddenly realized that my breathing was shallow, so I inhaled deeply several times and tried to steady my nerves. I looked up at my mother, silently asking for escape. Artemis understood.

"We will be finished here," the goddess announced. "Raiden, Thalia, Orion, and Ainsley need to rest after their quest."

Everyone stood up.

"Uh, Mother," I mumbled, blushing. "I don't really wanna...um...wanna sleep, um, alone." I stared at the ground, my head looking like a tomato.

"You can crash with me," Raiden offered.

I sighed with relief. "Great. Thanks, Ray."

"Of course."

We bade everyone good night. Just before I entered my tent, Dad jogged over and hugged me one more time. I was slightly embarrassed, but internally, I was extremely grateful for the comfort. Dad kissed my forehead and then walked over to his own tent.

I entered my tent. Agro yawned and settled down at the fore of my sleeping bag. I crawled inside it and laid my head on Agro's soft fur. "Good night, Ray."

"Night, Professor Planty." Raiden squeezed my hand.

"Don't call me that," I muttered, concealing a smile.

I closed my eyes, and my exhaustion took over. Within moments, I was sound asleep.

I was hoping that maybe, after all I'd been through the last few days, I wouldn't have nightmares. Maybe the Fates would cut me some slack. NOPE.

In my dreams, I found myself in the stateroom of the Princess Andromeda. Aidan and Luke were in the room. Aidan wore black jeans, a purple t-shirt, a black Converse, and a bronze breastplate. His sword was sheathed from his belt, and he was pacing up and down. His face was deathly pale, and he was drenched in sweat.

"I can't do this," he muttered. "I can't do this. I can't do this." He looked up at Luke and whispered: "This is crazy. I can't do what he's asking, Luke! I can't!"

"Neither can I." Luke ran shaking fingers through his hair. He glanced furtively at the golden sarcophagus in the corner, then lowered his voice to barely audible. "We should run away."

"And go where? Camp Half-Blood? They'll kill us!"

"You could ask your-"

"I'm not asking my sister for anything," Aidan said flatly. "She hates me, and I'm not going anywhere within a thousand miles of Raiden." He shivered. "She's terrifying. When she...she killed me, I felt like my soul was being ripped from my body. It was horrible. I've never been in so much pain before."

I wanted to scream at him: You deserve it!

"Okay, okay." Luke glanced at the sarcophagus again. "Okay. We can go to San Fransisco. Annabeth will help us."

"Are you serious? She'll never help us!"

"Yes, she will. She will. She has to. I'm sure she will."

"Are you trying to convince yourself?"

"No!" Luke snapped. Then in a quieter voice, he said, "We'll leave tonight. I'll pack the essentials. Meet me on the top deck at midnight."

Aidan gulped. "Okay."

Luke exited the room. Aidan staggered over to the couch and collapsed. He stared out the window at the sparkling blue of the ocean.

Aidan Theron, a frigid voice hissed from the corner.

Aidan jumped and fell off the couch. He landed on his butt by the sofa, trembling. He sounded petrified. "Y-yes, lord?"

Do not think to betray me, Kronos hissed.

"Never, my lord."

Do not lie! Do you think I did not hear your conversation with Luke Castellan?  I know very well your plan to flee and escape my service. I did not resurrect you and delay my return so you could betray me! You owe me, Aidan Theron.

"I-I know, my lord." Aidan clutched his sword, as though he longed to smash the golden sarcophagus with it. "I-I only-"

Do you not wish for revenge against the gods? Retribution against your mother for her neglect?

"I-I do."

And did I not promise that to you?

"You-you did, my lord."

Then, remember your oath. You pledged your loyalty to me, and you now must also repay me for your resurrection. Serve me as I wish, and you will receive your revenge. Your mother will become the prey for once. Betray me, and you will be the prey.

Aidan trembled. "I-I understand, my lord, but could I not serve you in another-another way? I-I could defeat my sister or-"

No. You will do as I instruct.

"B-but my lord, I-I can't bathe in the River Styx! Surely-"

Enough! That circumstance does not matter. I only need one to bathe in the Styx and that will be Luke. You will serve another purpose.

Aidan's eyes widened, and even though I was in a dream, I could his heart pounding in my chest. "And w-what is that, l-lord?"

Never mind that Kronos hissed. Now, leave my presence! Go inform Luke of the consequences if he chooses to flee.

"Y-yes, l-lord." Aidan shot to his feet and scampered out of the room quicker than Usain Bolt.

I expected the room to dissolve after that, but oh no, the Fates weren't done with me yet.

Beware, little huntress. Kronos's voice pierced through my soul like Atlas's spear. The worst is yet to come. You have not lost everyone yet you are destined to yet. Soon, you will regret not joining me. The darkness is coming for you. Soon, little huntress!

I was frozen in place. Who was he talking about? Who else was I going to lose? My heart pounded.

Soon.

The word echoed around in the cavern of my mind, alongside the cold laughter of the Titan. The dream dissipated. I plummeted through darkness and awoke with a yell.

Chief, Agro barked, what's going on?

"Ainsley!" Raiden sat bolt upright. "What's wrong? Why are you yelling?"

I just stared at her, my lips forming unspoken words. This seemed to frighten her more than my yell. "What did you see in your dream?" she persisted.

I just shook my head, pointed at the tent entrance, and croaked, "Water."

I stumbled to my feet and staggered out of the tent and to the water's edge. The frigid Canadian wind sliced at my uncovered arms, but I didn't notice. I was nauseous. I felt out of control, petrified.

I lurched into Hudson Bay, splashing water everywhere. I needed to wake up. I needed to escape from this nightmare. I plunged my head into the icy water, gulping down the refreshing liquid. It helped clear my head slightly. At least I didn't feel like vomiting anymore.

"Ainsley, what is going on?" Artemis stopped at the shore as I shook my sodden hair out of my eyes.

"Something's coming, Mom," I whispered. "Something's coming."

"What is it, child?"

I stared at Hudson Bay, at my reflection. I suddenly noticed a change: a streak of gray-white in my auburn hair, in the strands above my forehead.

"What is it, Ainsley?" Artemis asked more urgently.

I looked up at her, at her ponytailed auburn hair and silver eyes, full of concern and...fear? That was a change. I'd never seen my mother, the great goddess Artemis, look scared for me. I stared at my reflection again and touched the gray streak in my hair. Everything was changing. Artemis had changed. I'd already changed.

And I would have to continue changing If I wanted to survive.

"The darkness, Mother," I whispered. "It's coming for all of us. It's coming for me."