Alright guys, like I promised, this chapter came up soon. As a pre-warning, these next few chapters are actually longer than my normal ones (I'm debating if that's a good thing or not).

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I've worked super hard on it to make it epic. Kayla actually helped on this one and she takes credit for the biggest portion, which I guess I can give her considering the rest of the story is mine =)

Anyway, here's chapter 9. Enjoy =)

Chapter 9: Destiny's Call

Reyna

Reyna was making her way through the woods to find a clearing for Blackjack to land in so she could reach the top of Olympus sooner. She had been traveling the entire night, but it didn't bother her. As adopted daughter of Artemis, Reyna had great night time vision. She eventually did find a large clearing that would be easy for Blackjack to find. Unfortunately, right as she was about to whistle for him, she heard the howls of Lycaon's werewolves. Reyna quickly dove into a nearby pond as the werewolves past by. She swam over to some cattails and hid among those, that way she could listen in. She didn't understand most of what they were saying, except for Lycaon. His voice seemed to carry straight to Reyna's ears:

"They say they have captured three of the Greeklings and a child of Rome," he said.

"Excellent," a chilly voice said. Reyna couldn't see who it was that was speaking, but she could tell two things: 1) the person/thing was female and 2) she wasn't a werewolf. Actually, it was three things: this lady was definitely a bad guy. "Was that... fiery nuisance one of the ones captured?"

"I believe so madam," Lycaon replied. "The other three are girls; the two Greek girls and one of the daughters of Rome."

"So that annoying daughter of Aphrodite is locked up too? Good. I've never liked that girl. It is because of her Jason Grace is alive right now."

Reyna's breath caught in her throat. Who was this person? And what did she have against Piper, Jason and Leo?

"We have locations on the son of Neptune and the son of Jupiter," Lycaon continued. "Only the blasted Hunter has evaded my scouts."

Reyna couldn't help but smirk. Only the blasted Hunter she thought. You might as well stop looking Wolfy, because you won't find me.

"If you can capture the two boys, then you should still have enough power to raise the Great Mother, even without the puny Huntress."

Puny? Reyna thought.

Just then, the ground seemed to shutter.

"The mistress calls us," Lycaon said.

"Go," the other voice replied. "And make sure you and your pack are well rested. If there happens to be a fight, you will be needed."

Lycaon nodded in response. Reyna watched as he walked off. A freezing cold breeze blew past her. Suddenly Reyna realized who Lycaon had been talking to.

"Khione!" she whispered. Reyna quickly climbed out of the pond. She took off running in the direction she had seen Lycaon go in. Suddenly, a blinding light flashed behind her eyes, and a vision replaced her line of sight.

Once again she saw the scene on Mount Tam where she shot the giant about to kill Halley, except this time, she saw it in clips like her second vision had been. She saw the giant raising his axe- of which she got a great close-up of- and saw her bow being pulled back and the arrow flying through the air. But instead of hitting the giant, Reyna saw the arrow fall and pierce itself into the ground.

The next scene was Jason lying unconscious at the foot of Kronos' throne, then him with his sword drawn with a murderous look on his face.

After that came Halley. The scene was of her flying through the air, dodging weapons as she went, until she got hit with one and was thrown to the side. Then there was a clip of Halley hugging Leo, her face hidden in his chest. Leo looked to like he was on the verge of tears, and it was pretty obvious Halley was crying. Following that was Leo standing with both of his hands lit with flame, looking like he was preparing to fight someone.

The scene changed to one of Piper, standing with tears in her determined eyes. She looked like she was pleading to someone.

The final scene was of Percy and Annabeth. Reyna saw it, and immediately recognized it. She wished she could look away, but that wasn't possible with visions. All Reyna could do was watch as Annabeth, tears running down her cheeks, drew her knife and stabbed Percy.

That's when the vision shut off, and Reyna found herself lying on the ground. It took her less than a second to jump up and start running again. This time, she let out her best taxi cab whistle as she ran. Within seconds, Blackjack landed down beside her with a whinny.

"Thank the gods!" Reyna said with a quick sigh of relief. "Blackjack! Percy's in trouble! I need you to get me to Mt. Olympus ASAP!"

Blackjack whinnied again and stopped to let Reyna get on his back. She was barely on when he took of to the sky.

Annabeth/Halley

Things were quiet in the cage. Halley and Leo were working to set up a bomb they hoped would let them escape. Annabeth didn't think it would work, though. She and Piper just stood to the side watching as the other two worked. Occasionally Annabeth would glance off to the side out into the mist. She couldn't see anything really past a hundred feet.

"Okay guys," Halley said. "I think we almost got it."

Leo finished strapping on one more explosive to bar of the cage with duct tape. "There's enough explosives here to blow up the Empire State Building. If this doesn't get us out of here, I don't know what will."

The two of them backed off quickly.

"This won't, like, explode us, will it?" Piper asked.

"It shouldn't," Halley muttered.

"You don't sound very reassured," Piper responded.

Halley gave her a look that read are you trying to tell me how to do my job? Then she said "I've exploded tons of things, Piper. Relax."

"It's not your skills I'm worried about," Piper said.

Halley laughed as Leo glared at Piper. "What is that supposed to mean?" he asked.

Piper was about to respond when Annabeth called out. "Guys!" she said. "Look!"

The other three looked to where she was pointing. A person was coming out of the fog. Leo, Piper, and Halley didn't recognize at first, but Annabeth did.

"Percy? Is that you?"

"Yeah it's him," another voice called out from the fog.

Halley cursed. "Aiden," she said. "He captured Percy too."

"What?" Piper asked. "How…"

That's when Aiden and Percy came into better view. Percy's hands were tied behind his back, and Aiden was spinning his battle-ax around.

"Found this guy trying to sneak onto Olympus," Aiden said. "He's a friend of yours, right?"

"Why don't you go crawl back in your rat-hole, Aiden?" Halley called out.

"Easy there. I'm just making sure your friend gets here nice and safe."

"Safe my butt," Halley muttered. "Being tied up and threatened with an ax is not what I consider safe!" she called to Aiden, who had reached them by this time, but Halley still yelled at him. "Now why don't you let us go?"

"See, that's where there's a problem," Aiden said. "You see, we still need to raise Gaea, but we can't capture a god. Luckily, we came up with a back-up plan."

"And what is that?" Annabeth asked, though she had a pretty good idea of what it was, and wasn't too thrilled with it.

"Well you see, demigods all have a minimized form of godly powers. We figured that if we could capture enough demigods, that maybe we could raise Gaea with their powers."

"WHAT!" Halley, Leo, and Piper all said.

Aiden chuckled. "We just need one more."

"Jason," Annabeth and Percy said.

"That would be nice," Aiden said, "But we would accept any of the other children of the Big Three. If we got all five of them, then you four could go free." He pointed at the four in the cage.

"Or you could just set us all free and forget about us completely," Percy suggested.

"I like his idea," Leo said.

Aiden gave an evil smirk. "There is one way that you guys can be freed," he said looking at Percy. "On one condition."

"And what's that?" Percy asked.

Halley realized what was happening before the others did. "Say no Percy!" she said.

Percy gave her a confused look, and then turned back to Aiden. "What's your condition?" he asked again.

"Well, Percy, it's actually pretty simple. Your friends can go free, but you will have to die in order for them to do that."

Thalia

"Give me crazed Titans any day," Thalia muttered as she tried not to collapse.

"You took a pretty nasty hit out there," Grover said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

They had been fighting the Giants when Thalia had gotten hit by the butt of one of their spears. She had a pretty decent sized knot on her head, and could barely stand up.

"Not really, goat-boy," Thalia said with a sigh. "We've been fighting these guys for three days now, and we've only succeeded in killing a few. Most of the time, they just fall and bounce right back up. My Hunters can't keep fighting like this."

"Neither can mine," Adria said as she walked over to where Thalia and Grover were. The fighting was still going on around them, but Thalia was in no condition to fight, and Grover wasn't much help since he wasn't a demigod.

"This is crazy," Grover muttered. "I told Jason and Percy you guys weren't ready to come out here."

"And I bet they told you that they had no choice," Nico said. He had a nasty cut on his leg and could hardly walk on it.

"Glad you guys are making me do all the doctoring stuff," Grover said.

"Well our healers can't right now," Thalia said. "They're sort of tied up at the moment."

"Those Giants are brutal," Nico said. "I can barely turn away from one without having another swing whatever weapon he has at me."

"They are not tiring very easily either," Adria stated. "While we are about to drop where we stand, they just keep coming."

"I hope the others are having better luck than we are," Thalia sighed.

Jason

After waking up from his dream, Jason had searched every inch of Athens, trying to find Halley. For some reason, he felt that she was still in the city.

"Where could she be?" he thought out loud.

"Jason," a voice said from behind him.

Jason spun around with his sword in his hand. When he saw who had spoken, he lowered his weapon, but didn't put it up. "Juno," Jason stated. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you…"

"Be fighting with the others?" Juno supplied. "Oh but I am. I'm also here, talking to you. You know that the gods can exist in more than one place at a time."

Jason frowned. "But why are you here?" he asked again.

"I knew you needed help."

"Yeah I need to find Halley," Jason said skeptically.

"You will not find her here," Juno said. "She is with your other friends. They need your help, Jason, much more than you need mine."

"Reyna's vision?" Jason asked.

Juno nodded. "You must go now Jason. I cannot tell you where, but I think you know."

"Olympus," Jason stated. He didn't even wait for Juno's conformation. He took a running start and leapt into the air.

Percy

Aiden's words took awhile to sink in. Leo, surprisingly, was the first one to register what he had said.

"Whoa? Wait! You can't kill Percy, man."

"You're right, Valdez," Aiden said, with too much joy in his voice. "I can't kill him. With the whole Curse of Achilles and everything, only he can kill himself."

Percy was still fighting to understand everything. Slowly, he said "So if I kill myself, you'll let them go?"

"That's right, Perseus Jackson."

There was a good deal of swearing from the cage when this voice spoke.

Percy turned and found himself face-to-face with Gaea for the first time. "I'm glad you understand my condition, Perseus. You can probably tell I'm not fully raised yet. It shall take much more power to ensure my full rise. But the question is: will you accept our most generous offer?"

Before Percy could answer, all Hades broke loose. Halley and Leo had detonated the explosions on the cage, which worked. The four in the cage ran out with their weapons drawn. Halley charged Aiden and the two of them started fighting in an intense battle. Annabeth ran to Percy and Piper and Leo charged Gaea together.

Gaea paid no attention to Piper and Leo, but instead turned to Annabeth and Percy.

"Ah, Annabeth, I should've guessed you would have raced to your boyfriend's side. Is it true that you are the only one who knows where his Achilles spot is?"

Piper and Leo froze in their tracks. Halley looked up from her fight, stopping long enough for Aiden to grab her arm. He set his hand aflame and Halley cried out in pain.

"Aiden stop!" Percy shouted out. He turned to Gaea. "You want my life! Take it! But let my friends go."

Evil smiles spread across both Aiden's and Gaea's faces. Aiden let go of Halley's arm. She backed away towards Leo.

"Glad you came to your senses, Perc," Aiden said. "But there is one more point to the condition we haven't covered yet."

"What more do you want?" Percy asked.

"Annabeth must be the one to kill you," Gaea said bluntly.

Third Person

"Say what?" Leo asked.

Suddenly, three cages shot up from the ground. Halley, Leo, and Piper were all trapped. Only Annabeth remained free. She untied Percy's hands.

"I can't kill you," she told him. "We'll find a way out of this. You don't have to die for us."

"You know there isn't another way out," Percy said. "This is how it has to happen. I die, you guys go free. Then you go find Jason and Reyna." Percy looked over at Gaea. "You have to swear that they'll be set free. Swear it on whatever you consider holy."

"I see you have learned some lessons from your brother," Gaea said. Percy grimaced at the memory. "Very well. I swear to your terms. I swear it on my own immortal life."

The earth shook violently and thunder clashed. It was easy to tell that swearing on Gaea's immortal life was much more serious than swearing on the Styx.

Percy took his sword and gave it to Annabeth. She looked up at him in disbelief "I can't kill you Percy," she said again, tears falling down her cheeks.

"You're the only one who can," he said, his face solemn and full of grief. "Annabeth... you're the only one."

"You don't know what you're asking me to do, Percy... I… this is harder on me than you."

"Please, Annabeth."

Tears were rolling down both of their cheeks as they hugged one last time. Wrapped in each other's arm, they were safe. With a final kiss they split apart.

Percy turned his back towards Annabeth. He stood with no fear; tall with his head high. He would die the death every hero wanted to die: noble and brave, serving a cause greater than them.

Annabeth stood behind him. She raised the sword but Percy said "Use your knife Annabeth." So Annabeth stabbed Percy's sword into the ground and unsheathed her knife.

"The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap." she said, looking at the knife in her hand. "I'll never be able to use this knife again."

She raised the knife, aiming it for Percy's back. Then she closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks, and stabbed him….

Annabeth POV

She couldn't do this; no she wouldn't do this….

Tears were streaming down her face; she felt like someone had literally just ripped her heart out of her chest and stomped on it till there was nothing left.

She barley heard the words that Percy was saying…

"You're the only one who can," he said, "Annabeth… you're the only one."

Every fiber in her body was screaming at her as she stabbed Percy's sword in the ground and unsheathed her knife…

"The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap." She stared at the knife in her hand. "I'll never be able to use this knife again"

With her whole body shaking, rebelling against what she was about to do…she raised the knife, squeezed her eyes shut as tight as they would go, and with that in one quick motion she stabbed him…her Percy, the only boy she had ever loved…the one she had dreamed about spending the rest of her life with…gone…forever…

Jason

Jason was pushing himself flying faster than he ever had before, bending and twisting the air currents to propel himself faster and faster…after he and Percy had gotten separated he got this gut feeling of where he needed to go…Mt. Olympus. He had this feeling that something terrible was going to happen, something that was going to end with someone dying.

Come on, just a little faster… Jason thought.

Then he saw them…Annabeth and Percy standing on top of Mt. Olympus; Annabeth poised to run her knife through Percy's back…Jason was still too far away for them to hear but he screamed anyway.

"ANNABETH! STOP! NOOOOO!"

Then, almost faster than Jason could comprehend, Annabeth stabbed Percy…he could only watch as Percy crumpled to the ground as Annabeth tried to catch him…and in that single moment the two emotions that were battling for his attention were shock and anger…shock at what had just happened, and blinding anger at Annabeth for killing Percy…

Annabeth

"What have I done? Why…why did I do this…it's all my fault."

Was what Annabeth was thinking just as Jason toppled onto the top of the mountain about 50 feet away from where she was sitting crying over Percy's body…

"HOW COULD YOU ANNABETH!" Jason screamed as he stormed up to her.

"You…you just killed him in cold blood…You. Are. A. Traitor." Jason ground out the words as he drew his sword.

"Jason, stop it. You don't know the whole story…Jason stop right now" Piper said, she was layering on the charmspeak thick but Jason was somehow just ignoring it. He was too focused to even realize that Piper, Halley, and Leo had just appeared.

"WHAT IS THERE TO KNOW? I just watched Annabeth MURDER Percy… that in itself is enough"…he raised his sword over his head.

"Jason please don't do this…you don't want to…please "Annabeth said as her voice broke, "I can't kill you to"

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jason screamed as he slashed his sword down with every ounce of strength in him….

Only to be stopped by the fact that his sword uselessly sunk into the ground…Annabeth was now a good 10 feet away Percy behind her, knife drawn, tears streaming down her cheeks…poised and ready to fight.

Jason

He charged at Annabeth…sword swinging ready to strike the fatal blow; he was so completely beyond anger; he was being drowned by the myriad of emotions that was swirling around inside of him right now…they were blocking everything else out…he felt no pain, no remorse. He was being driven by his anger.

He jabbed his sword to the right and then straight at her thinking that he could fake her out…but he didn't stop to think that Annabeth's emotions were running even higher than his were at the moment…she parried his strike and went straight for his middle. Jason jumped backwards just in time to miss her blow, but at the same time fell onto the ground…but instead of rushing in and just finishing him off like any fighter with any training would of, she just stood and stared at him. An Iris Message appeared between them then, and Nico's face appeared.

"You guys! Percy still has a chance but you've got to get him help fast!"

"He…he, he's not dead?" Annabeth managed to choke out.

"No, he's not. But he will be soon if the two of you don't stop fighting and do something!"

The fight drained out of Annabeth then… in one slow motion she turned her back to Jason, and stooped down, grabbed one of Percy's arms and swung it over her shoulder…

Then finally, finally she turned to look at Jason…looked him straight in the eyes…

"Jason, I can't carry him all by myself." Her voice quiet and broken, as she lowered her head.

"Please" she pleaded in a whispery voice, "Please Jason, if there is going to be any chance of Percy living you have got to help me"

Annabeth

Annabeth watch Jason warily as he slowly stood and walked toward her. She could see the emotion draining from his face as the full realization of what had just happened hit him.

"I'll help you…but only for Percy's sake, not yours." He said bitterly.

"That's fine, all that matters is we get Percy some help…before it's too late…."

And with that Jason gently grabbed Percy's other arm and swung it over his shoulder.

"Well you're the one with the plan. Where too?"

"I hav…"

"I know where!" a girl's voice called down from the sky. The group looked up to see where it had come from, but they couldn't see anything past the clouds.

"REYNA!" Halley, startled, called "Is that you?"

There was the sound of beating wings and the clopping of horse hooves. Reyna appeared out of the fog on Blackjack. When she saw Annabeth and Jason supporting Percy, her eyes started to brim with tears. "I know where we need to go," she said softly. "It's not very far, but we need to get Percy there as fast as we can if we want even a small chance of saving him."

"Reyna, you and Blackjack take Percy and Annabeth," Halley said. Out of all of them, she seemed to be the one who still had a working brain. "Jason and I will follow with Piper and Leo."

Reyna nodded and steered Blackjack to where Annabeth and Jason stood. Blackjack whinnied mournfully when as he gently sniffed Percy's head. Jason, Annabeth and Reyna all worked to get Percy onto Blackjack's back, then Annabeth jumped on.

"Where are we going?" Annabeth asked Reyna.

"Poseidon's temple," Reyna said. "Let's go Blackjack."

…

The Pegasus took off, leaving the other four behind. Jason turned away from the direction they had gone. He was furious, that much was obvious. None of the other three really wanted to say anything to him, but they knew that he needed to understand what had really happened.

"Look Jason," Piper started. "You're jumping to conclusions. You should know better than to think Annabeth would just plain out kill Percy. She loves him."

"Then why did she?" Jason snapped.

"To save us!" Halley said. "Gaea, she…she manipulated his fatal flaw. She captured us and said that if Percy sacrificed himself, she'd let us go."

"But Gaea and Aiden were working to destroy us indirectly," Leo said quickly. "They said that it would have to be Annabeth who killed him, or else they wouldn't accept the sacrifice."

"Aiden's working for Gaea?" Jason asked. His voice was calmer now, but there still was an edge to it.

Halley nodded solemnly.

"He's still alive, bro," Leo said. "Halley tried to attack him, but it was kind of hard since we were locked up."

"So Annabeth was forced to kill Percy?" understanding dawned on his face.

"Yes," Halley said quietly, head down, "She had no other choice, Percy made her... you know, he has the same fatal flaw as you," her shoulders were shaking now with silent sobs, "try and put yourself in that position Jason. What would you have done?"

Reyna

She was crumbling on the inside and there was nothing she could do about it.

I have to stay strong for Annabeth, I have to.

It was hurting so bad, Reyna didn't know how much longer she could go on without breaking down into tears. It was her fault this whole thing happened in the first place…she should've been able to stop it, should of found a way to save Percy…Annabeth…the whole world. But seeing Annabeth the way she was right now, broken and drained of everything, she didn't know how much longer she could handle all of this, the pain, the sorrow, the death and destruction that wars brought along with them.

"I can see the temple Annabeth! We're almost there!" Reyna shouted above the wind rushing around them.

Annabeth

When the temple finally came into view Annabeth felt the tiniest flicker of something…maybe hope and maybe just wishful thinking. She was afraid to hope. Everything was so unstable and unpredictable right now, she didn't know what to believe in it anymore.

"We're almost there Percy," she whispered desperately, "hang on a little bit longer, please…for me, for everyone."

A few minutes later they landed roughly on the hard packed dirt courtyard in front of the Poseidon Temple.

"What now?" Annabeth asked.

"We need to get him inside," Reyna said. "I… I'll try and heal him."

Annabeth stared at Reyna. "You know that will completely drain you, right?"

Reyna looked at Annabeth. Annabeth couldn't really read her expression. It was mixed with grief and something else… guilt. Reyna didn't say anything, but Annabeth was able to connect the dots.

"This is what you saw in your vision, isn't it?"

Reyna looked away. When she spoke, Annabeth could hear the tears in her voice. "I could have prevented this," she said. "I could have protected him… protected you. But I didn't. I don't care if it drains me, I have to try and save him. I've seen too many of my friends die when I could have done something to save them. I don't want that to happen to Percy."

As Reyna talked, Annabeth watched her. That's when something dawned on her. Reyna was sixteen. So was Percy. All of the seven were either fifteen or sixteen, and yet, they were out here fighting to the death with a bunch of Giants. Reyna was talking about saving friends lives. Percy was almost dead. Annabeth knew her life wasn't normal compared to a non-demigod teen, but she realized now that her life wasn't normal compared to the average demigod either.

"Is there a pool in this temple," Annabeth asked Reyna quietly.

"There should be," Reyna replied.

"We need to put Percy in that. Water usually has a healing effect on him."

"Good idea." Reyna and Annabeth knelt down to pick up Percy and carried him into the temple. There was a pool in there and the two girls laid Percy down. Annabeth knelt down and laid his head in her lap.

"Annabeth?" Percy said in a weak voice.

"I'm here," Annabeth responded.

"We need to turn him on his side," Reyna said. "Didn't you... I mean..." Reyna bit her lip, not knowing what to say.

"The small of his back," Annabeth said. Her head was lowered and she didn't look up at Reyna. "That's where I stabbed him."

Reyna didn't say anything, but gently helped Annabeth turn Percy on his side.

"Reyna's going to try and heal you," Annabeth told him.

"It's pretty deep," Reyna muttered. "Tell Percy this might hurt some."

Annabeth was about to relay the message when Percy said "I heard her, but Reyna you don't need to do this."

The door opened and the other four came in.

"Percy," Reyna said firmly, "I'm not going to sit by and watch you die like I did Alley. You don't know how much we need you."

With that, Reyna held her hands a few inches off of the wound and began to sing. Everyone could tell this was harder on her than healing Halley's wound had been. While she had been battling werewolf magic then, she was battling the magic of the Styx now.

Halley saw how Reyna was struggling and joined in her song. Halley had seen Reyna heal enough that she knew it helped when more voices were singing. Apparently Apollo liked that. Halley's voice matched perfectly with Reyna's. If you hadn't known better, you would've thought Halley was a daughter of Apollo too.

Jason joined in next. He wasn't the greatest singer, but at this point it didn't matter. After him, Piper and Leo both started, except instead of singing in Latin like the other three, they somehow were able to sing in Ancient Greek, even though normally both of them were horrible with the language.

A bright glow started to form around Reyna's hands. This time, it grew so bright that it engulfed Reyna, Percy and Annabeth. The other four stopped singing and watched in amazement. It lasted for what seemed like forever, and then with a flash disappeared. Reyna almost collapsed into the water, but Halley quickly ran up and caught her.

"I... I couldn't do it, Annabeth," Reyna said. Her voice was choked with tears. "I... couldn't heal him completely. I just bought him a little time."

"That's okay, Reyna," Annabeth replied, tears rolling down her cheeks and making ringlets in the pool. "You did the best you could."

Reyna covered her face with her hands. Halley, who was kneeling down beside her patted her back and cried with her. Piper, Leo, and Jason walked over to the others. No one spoke for a while, until Percy did.

"Leo?" he asked.

Leo looked up in surprise and walked over to where Percy could see him better. "Yeah bro, I'm here."

"Just thought you should know that you built the best boat I've ever seen or had the privilege to ride in," Percy said.

Leo gave a sad grin. "Thanks man."

Jason, Piper, Halley and Reyna moved over beside Leo.

"Piper," Percy said, "you're the first daughter of Aphrodite I've ever known to be able to fight while hooking people up."

Piper blushed. "It's a gift," she said.

"Halley, you kick butt, even mine, and you don't break falls very well."

"Don't embarrass me or I'll have to kick your butt again," Halley laughed.

Percy gave a slight smile then turned to Reyna. "Thanks for trying Reyna," he said sadly. "You care about people, and that's something to be proud of."

"I learned it from you," Reyna said.

"And Jason. Man, I don't see how you managed to kept those Romans straight all those years."

"I don't see how you kept the Greeks straight," Jason responded.

"Well now you've got to do both," Percy said seriously. "Think you can handle that?"

"You know I can," Jason said.

Percy nodded and turned to Annabeth. They both had so much they wanted to say right then, but neither of them could find the words to say it.

"You always had my back," Percy said. "Even when it didn't need protecting."

"Same here," Annabeth agreed.

"Be strong for the others," Percy whispered to her. "They'll need you to fight against Porphyrion. Promise me you will."

"I… I promise," Annabeth whispered.

"I will always love you, Annabeth."

And with those words, Percy Jackson died.