We sat there in silence for five minutes. Behind me I could hear the trudging footsteps of demigods walking back to camp. They all walked in silence, walking off one by one when they felt the moment was right. I knew that Chiron would still be behind us, along with Jason, Piper, Leo, Will and Nico.

It was Poseidon who broke the deafening silence, he stood up, scooping Sally's limp body up easily in his arms.

"A shroud will be needed." I heard him say to Chiron, his low voice breaking.

"No." I tried to say, knowing that I was probably the only one here that knew of Sally's wishes. We had been together after all when we both wrote our wills.
"No." I repeated, louder this time, and Poseidon stopped walking. He turned around, and looked at me questioningly.

"She wanted to be buried. It's all in her will." I said in a hollow voice. Poseidon gave me a nod, and carried on walking back towards the centre of camp, where I knew they'd either put Sally in the infirmary or the Big House. I turned back around to find Percy still kneeling next to me, with the same forsaken expression on his face. But his hand was still holding mine tightly.

Jason POV

"Let's go." Piper whispered, tugging on my hand. Her face was fresh with tears and her eyes bloodshot. But my eyes were trained on Percy and Annabeth.
"Jason." Piper, whispered, trying to get my attention. But my brain was in other places. Mainly on the fact that I'd just seen my best friend nearly 'kill' a God. Now I knew why he was offered immortality.

"Do you think it's safe to leave them?" I murmured to my girlfriend. She looked at me curiously.
"What?" She hissed.
"You saw how angry he was a minute ago. What if he goes back to that? Annabeth would be helpless against him in that state." I explained in a whisper low enough that the couple in front of us couldn't hear me. Piper considered this for a moment.
"No," She decided. "He won't go back. I can feel it rolling off of him. Pure and utter heartbreak, not anger. It's all out of his system now." I looked at them in front of us, holding hands, and looking the same as they did the day we arrived in Camp Jupiter, and they saw each other for the first time since spending a year apart.
"Jason, she's safe with him. Annabeth's the only thing he needs right now. He couldn't hurt her if he tried." She murmured comfortingly. I nodded in agreement, and we turned away from the beach, and walked back to our home.

Annabeth POV

We sat there in silence for the next five minutes, staring out at the calm ocean in the orange glare of the sunset. It looked so serene, a picture perfect view. I knew the ocean calmed him, so I let us sit in the moment for a while. But eventually I felt him stiffen up, and I knew that he was fighting off emotions.

"It's okay to be angry Percy." I said, breaking the silence. He didn't look at me, so I continued. "It's okay to be angry, to want to scream and shout and cry. It's okay to be heartbroken. It's okay to grieve." He was silent for a couple of seconds, but I could see him debilitating what I had said.

"I don't know what to do." He said, his voice hoarse from his screaming, and his voice so low I could basically feel the weariness rolling off of him. But still he stared out at the ocean, ignoring my pleading looks to him.
"You don't have to do anything." I whispered, and finally he turned so that he was looking at me. For the first time I saw him properly. His eyes were bloodshot and a murky green. His face was streaky and splotchy from his tears, and his hair was sticking up everywhere from the wind he had churned up around him. Hesitantly, I placed a shaky hand on his cheek, and he leaned into it gratefully. Then he was leaning against me and I was cradling his body against my own. His face was buried into my shoulder, and I stroked his hair with my hand. We sat like that for at least ten minutes, simply relishing each other's company.
"I wanted to kill him." Percy finally mumbled, sitting back up, but remained holding my hands. I let my thumb brush across his knuckles soothingly.
"But you didn't." I whispered, attempting to stop his worrying. He needed to grieve, not focus on Ares.
"Because my Dad stopped me." He argued, his voice getting louder. "Without him, I honestly think I would have killed Ares." I was silent for a couple of seconds. We both knew that it was very possible that Percy might actually have killed Ares.

"But you didn't." I finally said. "And there's no point focusing on what could have happened to him. Because what could have happened didn't. And therefore it's irrelevant." Percy was silent in response to my words. Mostly because he knew I was right. He knew I was right because he had said those exact words to me a year before. During the war with Gaia, on one of those nights on the Argo II when we had been attacked by countless storm monsters and the like. I had gotten distracted from my assigned job (protecting the statue of Hera) when one of the monsters mimicked Hazel's scream, and I went running to find her. Luckily Nico found the monsters just as they were about to destroy the bottom of our boat freeing the statue, and he killed them. I had spent the remainder of that night awake, peering over the front of the stern as I felt sorry for myself. Percy found me there in the early hours of the morning, and told me off for kicking myself. He said those exact words to me that I said to him now.

"He deserved to die." Percy snarled, breaking me out of my déjà vu. I narrowed my eyes at him and said, "Maybe he did. But you heard your Dad. That's not for us to decide."

"Why not?" Percy exploded, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. "We have done everything for the Gods, for our parents for thousands of years! And we never get anything in return. It's that sort of treatment that caused the war with Kronos, and if there not careful, it will happen again…." He trailed off, staring out at the ocean distractedly. I knew he was thinking of four years ago, when we were younger, less scarred and more ignorant to the workings of the world. But not as ignorant as our immortal parents were to our failing loyalty to them. It created a giant rift between the mortal and immortal sides, one that we know will never be fully repaired. For how can someone that knows they will someday die have complete trust in a person who has been watching their children die for thousands of years? It's hard to feel love when you're one in a million others.

"You know that that's something that can never happen. Equality cannot be achieved when one side created the other." I stated quietly, ashamed at the truth of my words.
"They don't deserve the powers they were given. They're ungrateful, power-hungry, self-absorbed twats who don't know-"
"Be careful what you say Percy!" I cut in as the sky around us began to rumble at Zeus' own intervention. "You're distracting yourself from what happened with your anger. And last time you did that you nearly killed the God of War." Percy looked down at the sand in shame, and I felt a dagger enter my heart seeing what I had to do to calm him down.

"It hurts so much." He finally whispered after a moment of silence. I took one of his hands in mine and stroked it with my thumb. I had no words to reply with, having not experienced a death as significant as the one Percy was now experiencing. And yes, it hurt for me too. Like a red hot knife was being dragged up and down my body, leaving scar after scar after scar.
But this was Percy's mother. The person who had raised him, and loved him, and sung him to sleep, and kept him safe from his Stepfather, bearing the hits and abuse to keep them in a home. I tried to imagine what it would be like living and knowing that my Father, the man who single-handedly raised me, was no longer on this world. It wasn't something that I could fathom.

"Lucy, and Paul…." Percy whispered. He'd realised what this meant on the whole. One frantic glance at my face told him that I'd already thought of it. He buried his face in his hands, and I knew that he was thinking of Lucy growing up without a mother. The same way that he'd grown up without a Father.

"Percy. I will be with you every step of the way. We all will." I told him soothingly. "You just have to take it one step at a time. And eventually, you'll reach the end and realise that there's no more pain. Only memories." He lifted his head up and looked at me.
"She's so young." He said in a broken whisper. I nodded and leaned forward so that my head was resting on his shoulder.
"I know. But she's like you. Like her Mum. She's a survivor. She'll come out of anything, scarred and maybe a little bit damaged, but she'll come out alive and thriving." I told him encouragingly. "The majority of us here spent our whole lives living with only one parent. She can learn to too."

"Why did she have to jump in front of me?" Percy moaned in agony suddenly. "That spear was meant for me. She's never done anything wrong in her life, how could she have thought that she was more worthy of living than I am? I deserved to die. Not her." I grabbed a hold of his face and made him look me in the eyes.

"Percy Jackson, I never want to hear you talking like that again." I hissed, my face inches from his. "You are not allowed to think that your life is less important than anyone else's. You are the most compassionate, loyal, self-giving person I have ever met. You do not deserve to die." I saw recognition in his eyes, but he still didn't believe me fully. I suppose a small part of Percy will never come to terms with who he is and what he's done. After all, he did nearly 'kill' a God today.

"But she didn't deserve to die. She shouldn't have died." Percy whispered, torture filling his voice. I rested my hands on either sides of his face gently.
"No she didn't." I told him softly. "But that doesn't mean she died in vain." Percy looked at me curiously, as if I was speaking in Italian.
"She spent her whole life protecting you Percy. Keeping you in a home, happy and healthy. It's only fitting that she died protecting you as well. It's how she would have wanted it." I said softly, attempting to reason with him. Slowly, I saw him begin to understand what I meant. She may not have deserved to die, but that doesn't make her death futile. She died to save her son, making her death more meaningful than we can ever imagine.

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I closed my eyes and let the moment hold me. Just me, him, the ocean and the sand.

We stayed like that for five minutes, until the sky went navy and we both realised that it was time for us to return to Camp.

"Percy…." I began, sitting up to get us moving.
"I know." He said, except he didn't move.

"You'll be there?" He asked, finally turning round after me waiting patiently for him to come to terms with what he had to do.
"Every step of the way." I promised, taking his hand in mine.

Together, we walked back to Camp. Back to our home to face angels and demons alike. But we would face it all together. We would come out of every new adventure a little bit more scarred, but alive.
Alive together.

What did you think? Let me know in a review if it's worth making this into a full story. Because I will if you guys think it's good enough.