So, I finally got my copy of MoA back from my friend. Yay! Now I can re-read the book and pay closer attention to the Piper bits!

This chapter may be a little bit Jason-centric, but the next chapter is going to be mostly Piper. :)

Thanks for all the reviews! Also, special thanks to The-One-And-Only-Piper-Mclean for pointing out a plot hole and to Hannah for providing a way to plug up said plot hole. I trule appreciate the help. :)

I own nothing.

He had let go of her hand

Why?

Well, Piper understood why. He was a jerk who had chosen to save his own skin by dropping his girlfriend into Tartarus.

It wasn't his fault the floor collapsed, she chastised herself. Jason would never have let her fall if the situation hadn't been hopeless; he wasn't selfish like that. Anyone would have done the same thing. What had she expected him to do? Fall with her?

Piper felt a stirring of malice in her heart.

Well, maybe he should have fallen with her. Percy would have fallen if it had been Annabeth. Why hadn't Jason?

He would just die with you. What's the point in that?

The answer was nothing of course. There was no point in dying for love.

Or at least love that wasn't real.

Piper didn't care if there was no reason for Jason to fall with her.

She hated him for abandoning her to suffer this alone.

Piper fell into endless darkness.

Jason had expected many reactions from his confession, anger among them. He had fully expected them all to hate him.

However, he had not expected Percy to punch him in the face.

Jason whipped his head around and clutched at his nose. It didn't feel broken, but it was gushing blood.

Percy grabbed his shoulders and turned him roughly to face him, so they were nose-to-nose. His normally smiling face was full of rage. "How could you? You…you Roman!" he hissed.

Electricity crackled around the room. The remaining demigods of the prophecy looked nervous.

"Percy!" Annabeth took his arm and yanked him back. "There is no way in Hades that I am going to let you two go at it in the middle of the mess hall. And don't use 'Roman' as an insult!"

Percy looked askance at Frank and Hazel, his expression softening a little. "You're right. Sorry guys. But," he glared at Jason "If you think I'm going to let this go…" He seemed to search for words before awkwardly saying: "…you're wrong." He turned sharply and stormed out of the mess hall.

Jason looked at his shoes, feeling like a student facing his teacher after failing a test. I am a Praetor of Rome. I do not act like I have fallen from power. He raised his head and gazed steely at Annabeth.

Annabeth examined Jason like he was a piece of slime under a microscope: with interest and perhaps a little bit of disgust. After a moment she spoke. "Okay, everybody out. I'll talk to him."

Hazel, Frank and Leo filed out through the door. Hazel looked betrayed, like she had when Jason had voiced his distrust of Nico. He hated to ruin her illusion of him as the 'Great Praetor Jason Grace' but, well...all illusions came to an end.

Frank wouldn't meet his gaze. Jason was discouraged. He had thought, out of all of them, Frank would understand that there had been nothing he could have done. He was a Roman, and a son of Mars to boot - surely he could understand that sometimes, sacrifice was necessary for the greater good.

Maybe not. To be honest, Jason didn't blame the guy.

He couldn't bear to look at Leo.

When the door swung closed behind them, Annabeth turned back to Jason. "You have blood all over your shirt." She stated.

Jason looked down. It was true; the blood from his nose had turned his shirt a ghastly shade of blackish-purple.

Annabeth made no move to hand him the box of tissues on the conference table next to her, even though his nose was still bleeding. Instead she spoke. "I never trusted you, you know."

"Excuse me?" So she thought he was in league with Gaea? His stomach ached with the injustice of it. "I let her go because I thought we'd have a better chance to defeat Gaea with six demigods instead of five. You need my lightning and powers of flight, not to mention my leadership skills."

She glared daggers at him. "So why didn't you use your oh-so-amazing 'powers of flight' to just fly her up?"

Jason glared back at her "You're a daughter of the wisdom goddess, you should know that Tartarus has a strong force of gravity. I barely got away myself. Besides, I had just fought, and defeated, two ballerina giants and was completely drained. I've never given you any reason before to doubt my loyalties. Why do you suddenly think I'm working for Gaea?"

Annabeth looked at him sideways. "I don't think you're a spy for Gaea. I just never trusted you as a person; to have my back in a fight. And you proved me right. You dropped Piper to save your sorry skin, and she was - is - your girlfriend. How can I be sure you won't switch sides when the going gets tough?"

He was so insulted he could barely speak. "What did you expect me to do? Die with her? Because maybe Percy won't sacrifice a single life for the greater good but…"

"She's not dead" said Nico Di'Angelo, who stepped out of the shadows in the corner behind Annabeth. He had been almost invisible before; no doubt some power of the children of Pluto.

Annabeth whipped around. "Nico! I thought I told you all to leave!"

"You did" he said calmly. "But I couldn't resist eavesdropping."

There was a very confused look on Annabeth's face. "She's not dead? How…that's not possible…"

Nico shrugged. "I don't know how, but she's alive…for now." He turned to Jason. "It actually might have been better if you did fall in with her. I mean…" Jason tried to protest but Nico held up a hand and continued. "I can't really speak since I haven't met her, but from what I've heard, Piper isn't exactly the most powerful demigod ever. Charmspeak…she won't last a day with that. Believe me. I've been there. You're much more experienced; if you had fallen too, you guys might have been able to survive long enough to get to the Doors of Death."

"She doesn't just have her charmspeak" Jason argued. "She has her cornucopia, and Katoptris. We could head for the Doors and meet her there if she survives…" He felt a spark of hope light in him. If Piper wasn't dead...

Annabeth broke in. "Oh no. You don't call the shots here anymore Mr. 'Sacrifice Piper for the Greater Good.' We have to decide whether or not to stop the Romans from attacking Camp Half-Blood before we tackle the Doors. I will talk with the others and we will decide what to do next. You are going to stay in your cabin and not cause trouble. Nico…" her expression softened slightly as she looked at him. "Go get some rest. You need it. And don't let me catch you eavesdropping again." She turned and marched out of the mess hall.

Jason felt so light-hearted that he turned to Nico and attempted to make a joke. "Did she just ground me? We should start calling her Coach Annabeth, huh?"

Nico didn't smile. Jason had never been very good at jokes.

The darkness was filling her lungs; her brain; her soul.

How long had she been falling? She couldn't remember.

She was falling fast, Tartarus itself was pulling at her as gravity did its job.

She would never survive the impact.

I'm going to die.

It was all his fault. She'd been so stupid to think he was a perfect Prince Charming. He was no different from the rest of them; in many things, he was less.

I will never forgive him.

Then she heard the sickening sound of a muffled thump, a squish, and the crack of her bones snapping as her body hit the ground.

Until next time!

Lyzzie out.