It wasn't just a battle now. It was pure hell. Demigods fell all around, screaming. I knew that they knew we had lost. The other side had weapons far greater than ours, guns and cannons, and drakons. I felt fire on my face, and wind at my back, a strong, foreboding wind that blew the very strength from my bones.

"Percy!" a voice called, and suddenly there was a body flying into me, and shrapnel raining harmlessly around me. When it ended, a body rolled limply to the side. My shield was gone, but the rain had stopped, and in it's place, Nico di Angelo's blood joined with the earth.

"Nico," I whispered. "Nico, are you there?"

"Yes," he breathed.

"Nico, we're going to get you help. We're going to save you."

Nico shook his head. "It was my…my choice." Blood trickled into his eyes. I wondered if he could really see me. "I wanted to…to be…"

"The hero," I finished. He shook his head.

"No." His eyes fixed on a point somewhere over my shoulder. "It's more complicated…than that."

I shook my head. "I don't understand," I said. "What you've done…you're dying."

Nico smiled. "Part of being a hero," he murmured, "Is knowing when to die." He looked determined. Strength returned to him as he commanded, "Now go. The fight isn't over yet. When you come back…I'll still be here."

I don't know how long the fighting went on after that. We killed monster after monster. Blood and dust rained down on us. Time slowed to a standstill, and the earth breathed with us as we charged to death. But we won. Somehow, the rain of blood ended, and the monsters were gone. I stood there, sword in hand, staring over the battlefield. I'd forgotten about Nico until I heard a scream.

"Percy!" Hazel was frantic as she shouted for me. "Frank! Jason! Annabeth! Anyone, help!" The screams lost their words, until there was only a high, keening wail. I ran to find her, and there he was again, bleeding sluggishly and deathly pale. As I knelt beside him, he tried to speak.

"Percy?" His voice was soft, and I strained to hear it. "I'm here, like I promised. But not…for long." He smiled. "It's only a pity… that Bianca won't be there to guide me home." The light drained from his eyes, and I heard his last breath leave him as he lay there, head cradled in Hazel's lap.

"He loved you, you know." Jason knelt to my left. "More than you thought."

I looked at him. "I don't understand. Bianca…he hated me."

"He never hated you for what happened to Bianca," Jason said. "He couldn't have." And it was all too clear. There I was, kneeling in the blood of a person who'd hidden himself away, afraid. And now he was dead. Now, there was nothing left for me to say, nothing that he could hear.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I am so, so sorry." And it may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard him whisper,

"I know."