A/N: If you're going to review this and write nothing but hate on the Rachollo/Rapollo (lol idk what they're officially called) ship, just go away. If you don't know what Rachollo/Rapollo is, I've written something to sort of get you an idea of it: prettyproudpureblood(.)tumblr(.)com(/)post(/)21033634571(/)percy-jackson-and-the-olympians-rachollo-please

(Also, it's going to be a pretty long story because I'm going to have to try making them as in character as possible and adding events and twisting things around so that Rachollo will end up for a good reason. I will tackle all the problems getting in the way of their possible relationship, etc etc so it's going to have to be only a little less than novel long. Bear with me. I have cookies.)

The following is a part a little more than halfway through the story, so naturally things have happened before those and will be revealed and explained in due time.

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:D -

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As Perseus Jackson caught a glimpse of the sight, the wind was knocked out of him. It was like one of his lungs collapsed, the walls were closing in, and he couldn't breathe. He ignored the intense piercing pain on his shoulder and side and ran as fast as he could, almost tripping numerous times, to where the lifeless, bloody and broken form of Rachel Elizabeth Dare lied.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled, running to him. "Don't run! You're badly hurt—"

But Percy was deaf to her screams. All he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears…his loud, erratic breathing...and his thoughts of NO, NO, NO, NO!

"Rachel!" Percy cried out her name in anguish, praying to every single god and goddess he could think of. He dropped to ground by Rachel's side and, with trembling fingers, slowly removed the long deadly silver rapier brutally embedded into her. He threw the bloody blade aside and proceeded to desperately look for a pulse, even a faint pulse, as long as it was a pulse, as long as it would mean that she was still alive, that she was still with them…because Percy refused to believe that a girl like Rachel would go so easily...

Annabeth finally reached them, and upon seeing the scene became paralyzed with shock and horror. "N-no…"

Percy looked at Rachel's pasty pale face, the tiny smattering of freckles by her nose and the blood spatters more vivid and visible against it. He gently removed a curl of fiery red hair that blocked her closed eyes and managed to smear a drop of blood with his thumb into a line. A stillicide of tears on Rachel's cheek, Percy forgot when he started crying.

He began shaking her and screaming her name, again, and again, and again.

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:D -

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"Someone has prayed to a lot of us," Artemis informed her brother.

Apollo shrugged. "Yeah, I heard it too."

"You are not going to check?" Artemis glared at her brother. Always irresponsible.

"The odds of it being a hot teenage girl is one out of a hundred," he grinned, and raised his glass of coke (regular, not diet!) to his lips.

"Oh, it is Percy Jackson…"

"Percy Jackson, huh? What did he say?"

"The Oracle girl is dying…how very unfortunate," Artemis shook her head sadly. "She was a brave and talented girl—"

The glass crashed at Apollo's feet, also spilling it's contents of Coca-cola.

"Apollo?" she looked at her twin, concerned.

"Not was. Is."

Artemis curiously inspected his expression with her butter-yellow feline eyes, but his face was unreadable. "What do you mean?"

Apollo took the keys of his sun chariot off the table, and walked towards the door. "I'll be back in a while, sis."

The goddess could not understand the thoughts running through her younger brother's head. "But…where are you going?"

"I'm just going to pay a visit to Uncle Hades," he replied, nonchalant. His hand was on the doorknob when Artemis realized what he was going to try to do. Bargaining with Lord Hades was dangerous, even if you were a god, especially when it came to matters of life and death, of soul and spirit.

"Apollo, no!" Artemis stood up quickly, and within a second she was next to him, her hands clutching his sleeve, restraining him from leaving. He was many a feet taller than her twelve-year-old stature, but she appeared to have more authority despite her young form. "You know how it is. You cannot get directly involved with the demigods—"

"She's not a demigod!" Apollo snapped somewhat harshly, and the god's eyes flashed with conviction. The siblings stared at each other, and Apollo broke off, slowly pulling away his sister's hands. "She's just a mortal." His voice was only a strangled whisper.

Artemis let her hands fall limply at her sides, but her stern gaze did not waver. "Apollo. You must listen to me. Everyone has to die. You cannot prevent that, it is a natural—"

"Don't tell me if my Oracle has to die or live," He cut her off with a jarring voice. "The only reason we say things like that is because we're immortal! That's why we take death and dying so lightly; we will never fully understand anything unless we're directly affected by it! And we never will understand because the only threat to our lives is fading, and that's not going to happen any time soon! Don't say things like that! It's hypocrisy!"

Silence followed, disturbed only by the sound of the god's heavy breathing.

Artemis sighed, and bowed her head. "Even so, how are you going to convince Lord Hades, Apollo?"

"He'll listen. I'd trade anything for—"

"Wait. Wait," Artemis interrupted, comprehension dawning. She gasped, and looked up at him, scared. "You…you are not…trading your own life, are you?" she whispered, worried for her brother. Wrong decisions, terrible consequences.

Apollo laughed bitterly. "That would have been much easier. But no, I'm not. And Hades doesn't really want my soul. What can he do with it? What can he gain? Nothing. But I know what he would want," he added, and absently looked down at his feet.

"No!" Artemis cried, realizing where he was looking at. "Are you serious? Your anklet, Apollo? …Why...It is…It is the only thing we have left from mother! I can only rarely take off mine. I feel safe when I wear it, I feel like she is always with me…" She looked at her own ankles, specifically at the ornament she wore around it. It was a simple thin chain of plaited gold and silver.

"He would want the powers it possesses. It's the only thing Hades would want that I have."

"...You are giving this up for Rachel Dare?"

"I would give everything up for Rachel Dare."

Artemis let him go.