ONE

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Every story has an end.

But in life, every ending is just a new beginning.

-Dakota Fanning

(Uptown Girls)

In a way, the giant war had changed absolutely nothing at Camp Half Blood. The clang of swords still filled the arena, Cabin Counselor meetings were still held around the knife-marked ping-pong table, and, unfortunately for a certain son of Poseidon, Pegasus stables were still cleaned manually. With shovels.

"I mean," he said to Connor Stoll, one of the two other poop-covered demigods on Stable duty,"what is Chiron's problem with letting me use my water powers to clean up everything?"

A shovelful of said 'everything', which happened to consist of Pegasus excrement, hit him on the head.

"Maybe it's because he doesn't want you to become lazy, like Connor here," said Jason Grace, the third and final part of the poop-scoop trio, who was subsequently hit by two shovelfuls of dung.

Yet another thing that had not changed at Camp Half Blood: if someone throws a pile of dung at you, and you throw an acceptably-sized pile of dung right back at them, it means war.

And although this particular war ended in an unconventionally smelly tie, all three heroes unanimously (and unknowingly) agreed that it was the only kind they would consider waging again.

Piper brandished a paint-roller to emphasize a point in the pointless conversation that filled the atmosphere in the Aphrodite Cabin, which was currently being repainted by its occupants.

Every square inch of baby blue and hot pink was wiped out as each child of the love Goddess painted his or her bunk space with paint-rollers, or, in some cases, size 10 paintbrushes (shortage of supplies, don't ask).

To Piper, Camp Half Blood was home, more so than any single building had ever was hero-worship, yes. Even her own siblings treated her with slightly more respect than usual.

But there were friends, and there was family.

And for the first time in her life,Piper McLean was truly, completely, absolutely home.

Leo sat in Bunker 9, all was an hour past midnight, and his project was almost complete.

As he welded two metal plates together (Valdez-style), he heard the rock door sliding pen behind him.

In the doorway stood Harley and Nyssa. Without a word, the two came in and began buffing the automaton's breastplate. A cup of coffee was thrust ino his hand by Harley (black, of course. Even Harley wasn't stupid enough to give Leo sugar.).

When it was done, they all stood there, none of them saying anything.

Leo wondered why, this time, he didn't fill like breaking the silence.

Frank and Hazel stood at the entrance to Camp Jupiter, now Praetor and Centurion.

Hand in hand, they walked into the Senate building, and Hazel gave Frank a sideways glance.

"Well," she said,"It was time they formally elected you."

Annabeth halfheartedly asked Clarisse to take hr feet off the ping-pong table.

But then, everything she did nowadays was halfhearted. Everywhere she looked, she saw the horrors of Tartarus, like an overlapping image o what was really happening.

Everywhere she looked, she also saw the difference between what was and what had been. After all, there was not a single demigod who had been at Camp Half Blood longer than her.

There was not one single demigod who could say that they had watched the seasons come and go, and along with them heroes, for ten years.

And everything was different now.

Everything had changed.

Nico woke up for the second time that night, screaming and gasping for breath.

Tartarus. It was always Tartarus.

He lifted his right hand to his eyes. It was still slightly translucent - he could see the edge of the bed through it - but it was much, much better than it had been.

He turned to his bedside table to get a glass of water, and found Will Solace (not unexpectedly) asleep on a chair.

He closed his eyes, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

So much had changed.

Chiron sighed - a sigh of regret, a sigh of relief, a sigh of pride, a sigh of infinite sadness.

He watched all of them. Another set of heroes, another war another clutch of demigods who had been lost.

I failed them.

And how he wished he had not.

I failed them.