PJO and HoO belongs to Rick Riordan and not me. :(

Luke Castellan's POV

After much discussion, we finally came up with an idea. First, we go find Artemis and dig out the truth. Then, comes the hard part - proving that Thalia was completely innocent. If Artemis doesn't believe us, oh well, things would get nasty and it doesn't matter if we were in the Fields of Punishment as we would be together with her anyway. Our pleasure. It would be better if Artemis believe us though...

Well, how did we go find Artemis? We certainly won't wait until she visits! I think by then, Jason and I would have a complete meltdown or something. I'm really sure Jason's going to have one in front of Artemis, judging by his super-depressed looks. I could tell, out of the corner of my eye, that Reyna and Piper are both jealous that the most important was his sister, not them. He completely ignored them fighting over him this time. He earned glares from both, a punch from Reyna and a slap from Piper and attention level to them now, zero! Ha! I was glad he loved Thalia that much because if he bothered with the two girls, I will personally punch and slap him.

It took forever, or what seems like it, to get Nico to finally agree to break a law letting out 5 souls, namely Annabeth, Percy, Jason, himself and me of course. We traveled to Olympus flying, courtesy of Jason. As we're ghost, it was apparently easier to fly so her could bring all five up at once. Amazing, he was.

As we arrive, who did we have to spot but Grover. Grover, after having done things beyond any satyr, had been allowed to be an immortal God, taking over the job of Pan. He looked as surprise to see us as we were to see him.

"What..." he started but Percy pulled him down and shut his mouth. How did he touch Grover, I didn't know though I think it is probably because they had the empathy link.

"Listen," Percy hissed and told the whole story to Grover. If you thought Grover would say, okay, and walk away pretending not to see us, you were wrong. Grover was a great friend of Thalia too and thought this was outrageous, even if it was done by Artemis, and that's saying a lot. Grover forced us to let him come along, though the force part wasn't really necessary. We were more than happy to have a God on our side. Gosh, it still feels weird to call Grover a God. I mean, he used to be that clumsy little satyr, didn't he?

We moved on, or creep on, until we found Artemis by a corner. She was crouched down in a strange position. We were about to tackle her when we noticed that she was crying.

"What the..." Grover begin a bit too loudly. Artemis turned and spotted us and her eyes widened. We exchanged uneasily looks. Uh oh, mission unaccomplish it seems like.

Artemis did not yell at us. Or call security. Or call her brother. Or call others. Or continued crying, which would be pretty bad. Artemis regain her composure and asked, "It's Thalia, isn't it?" We nodded, unable to speak. She seemed to have read our minds and she seemed pretty mad herself. She stood up and exclaimed, "Aphrodite! It was her!"

Tears flowed out of the tough goddess' eyes. She recounted the story. Aphrodite threatedned to torture Apollo, whom Artemis would normally claim she didn't care about but inside she really loved him, if Artemis didn't sack Thalia. And then Aphrodite morphed herself into Artemis and killed Thalia. Artemis admited that she actually vowed to herself that if Thalia survived her million years, she was going to make her a goddess, like Grover had become a god.

"So... Thalia was so close to becoming a goddess and because... because of that idiot of a goddess, she is now stuck in the Field of Punishment for doing nothing!" I exclaimed. I was ready to rearrange the pretty goddess face. Who cared if I would probably be sent to Tartarus for doing it? Jason kicked the Olympus floor in agreement.

"Off to the goddess, then," Annabeth announced as we rushed off to Aphrodite's place. It's a good thing they haven't changed Annabeth's design or we would have a hard time finding their way around. Annabeth smiled as we arrived, as though thinking of the perfect punishment for Aphrodite. I didn't care for planning. I would go hit her and do whatever I can to hurt her until she gives Thalia justice. She doesn't, then we get sent into Field of Punishment with her. I would have to apologise to Silena later though.

When we arrived and knock on her oh-so-grand castle, she opened the door to show the most priceless expression. I would've laughed if the situation wasn't so tense.

"So, what can I do for you, little dead demigods?" Aphrodite asked. She seemed worried which was strange for a goddess. I mean, we're just dead demigods, right?

"What did you do to Thalia?" exclaimed Jason. Annabeth tried to pull him in but he leapt forward. He was completely out of control. He grabbed Aphrodite's shoulder and shook her hard. "Why my sister?"

Aphrodite seemed amused by Jason's reaction. She shoved him aside. Whoa, the Goddess of Lovejust shoved a boy. And, if I had to admit it, a cute boy even. I held back a giggle.

"My dear, shaking a goddess can send you to the Field of Punishment. Oh, you might want to go there to see your sister though," Aphrodite said, infuriating Jason. Jason took out his Gladius and stabbed at Aphrodite. Aphrodite simply walked aside and annonunced, "Jason Grace sentenced to Punishment for attacking a goddess. Hermes, I know you realized that there're escape souls." My heart skipped a beat. The last person I wanted to see was my father but he appeared.

"Aphrodite, he was..." my father began.

"No excuse, take them all away. They trespassed a goddess," Aphrodite replied with a smirk. Hermes looked pained as he dragged us back to the Underworld. We struggled, especially Jason. You should've seen how he attacked. He kicked and punch wildly like he was some desperate madman. It didn't work but it sure gave inspiration. Annabeth started trying to get free. I won't miss a chance to hit my stupid father of course. Percy looked uncertain at first but he still tried to slip out as Hermes struggled with us. Grover was ordered to go back to his post.

As we entered the judges the second time in our lives, something none of us expected happened.

Artemis appeared out of thin air. "Does my words count?" she mused aloud. The judges looked uneasy. They weren't often visited by Gods. Hermes disappeared, pretending he didn't see Artemis but he winked and mouth something. I couldn't see what he told Artemis but Artemis smiled and nodded. Artemis turned to the judges, "I changed my mind." With that, she disappeared too. Of course we were sent to Punishment with no doubts.

We all did the same thing so of course, same punishment. We were to try shoot down doves apparently because we attacked Aphrodite. Only one problem, we were all terrible with the bow. Jason tried sending an arrow by wind but it wasn't strong enough even scratch the bird. Worst, the bird was flying around, sometimes even nearer as if to taunt our incapability to shoot well.

"What now?" asked Jason in despair. "We can't even exit this area until we shoot the stupid bird. How do we find my..."

At that moment, a girl, her hair flying behind her. Behind her, a hellhound leapt at her and she slashed her dagger. It disintegrated and we were about to cheer thinking that she've succeeded when a minotaur appeared out of nowhere and lunged at her she pulled out a mace canister and opened it, revealing a spear, and stabbed the minotaur. Nothing was left but dust but then, a fury appeared. She tapped her bracelet and a shield, with the head of Medusa, appeared and she pushed the fury with it. She smacked the dazed fury and it disappeared. We watched as she fought and fought but every time one monster disappears, another appear. Finally, she wore out and she laid on the floor as a gorgon attacked her. She's dead so she didn't die but we saw her wince.

Jason's head seemed to process the same thing I did. Mace canister to spear. A bracelet to the shield with Medusa's head.

"Thalia!" I yelled at the same time as Jason yelled, "Sis!" Thalia lifted her head slightly and peeked through the gorgon. Her eyes widened in surprise. With newfound strength, she pushed her spear through a gorgon and pushed the other gorgon out of her way and she ran towards us. The dazed gorgon, luckily remained dazed.

"Why're you guys here?" she panted. Jason ran to her and sobbed into her arms as a reply. She quirked an eyebrow at me as though asking what the heck? I stiffled a giggle.

The gorgon, finally getting out of her dazed mood pounced at Thalia from behind. Percy stepped in front and intercepted, slashing the gorgon with Riptide.

"We'll help," Annabeth said with a smile. Thalia smiled back at her at her weakly but she shook her head.

"Helping? Do you even know my punishment?" She asked. I wanted to reply that I didn't care, I'd still help. But that statement sent me in rage. Punisment? Did she deserve that?

"You don't deserve it!" I exclaimed, my eyes burning with rage. She smiled at me and untangled herself from Jason.

Holding me in her arm, she whispered, "It's okay."

"What?" Nico asked. "Kill a thousand monster?"

"No," she replied simply but her I'm-not-gonna-say-and-you're-not-gonna-help tone made it clear that the conversation should end there. But it didn't.

"So, what is it?" Percy asked impatiently after disintegrating another monster. "We're still helping."

"Help yourself," she retorted back. "What are you people doing in the Field of Punishment anyway?"

"Thalia's back," announced Annabeth, slashing at another hellhound. Jason cracked a smile. As another which was too far to identify ran towards us, a blinding flash of light appeared and the monster turn and ran. The dove above us also disappeared at the same time. We turned to thank our saviour and they were...

Hermes (yes, my father), Artemis and Hades. How was Hades involve, I wasn't sure. I mean, I saw Hermes and Artemis exchange in front of the judges earlier but Hades? Unless they're going to...

"Fine, Elysium for all," Hades grumbled. Artemis glared at him.

"I haven't even made my offer!" she exclaimed, outraged.

"She's not going to say yes, Artemis. You know that," Hermes said rolling his eyes. He grinned at Percy as though he was a long lost friend and looked uncertainly at me like I was a bomb about to explode anytime. He wasn't wrong. I was about to explode. I was just holding together for the time being.

"Thalia Grace, would you like to join me as a Goddess?" Artemis offered, her face holding a hopeful face.

"Umm... My lady... You do know that I've been... waiting for death, right?" Thalia asked uncertainly. Hermes gave Artemis a I-told-you-so expression.

Artemis at the sight of Hermes face, snapped at him, "And she wouldn't be waiting for death if not for a certain some of Hermes!"

"Whatever," Hermes replied. "She wouldn't even be a Huntress if not for my son." Artemis looked thoughtfully at Hermes.

"She wouldn't even be alive, in fact, because he saved her so many times," Hermes commented again.

"We're here, you know," I said.

Artemis puffed up her chest, "And he has an attitude."

"Hey!" I complained. Hermes smiled slightly.

"So?" He asked Artemis.

"You're playing favourites towards Luke!"

"You're biased towards Thalia!"

"This is interesting," Hades replied and both of them turned beetroot red.

"Whatever," Artemis said. "Anyway, to Elysium all of you." We didn't need a telling twice, we were there in a second.