Ugh, sorry. This one is depressing. But I made it longer. And less cliffhanger-y.

Leo

For once, Leo had thought he'd found a friend who had neither freaky demigod powers nor a burning desire to kill him. As it turned out, his new friend Zoe, or as she was actually called, Zoí, was the supreme commander queen of all freaky demigod powers.

"I am the child of all the gods," she breathed. Leo noticed that as she spoke, wispy tendrils of silver and gold curled out of her mouth occasionally and dissolved in the air. Her hair was growing down past her waist and was now streaked with the same colors.

"Okay, hold up. Child of allthe gods?" Piper asked skeptically. "How is that even possible?"

Zoí tilted her head to the side, as if deciding whether or not to answer her question.

"Well, okay. There were once seven demigods. The daughters of Wisdom, Love and Death. The sons of Water, Air, War, and Fire. These seven were on a very important quest. There was also a daughter of Travel, a son of Wine, and a daughter of Agriculture, however these three were not part of that quest. These were my ancestors," she told them.

Wait. Did that mean that Leo would end up with either a daughter of Hermes or Demeter? Frankly, he'd rather have the Demeter girl.

"I was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. I was invited to Hestia's hearth. I joined the hunters, and have been serving milady Artemis for millennia. And very recently," Zoí paused and looked at the astonished demigods circled around her, "Hera wiped my memory and sent me here to you. To help you. As you see, I carry the blessings of all the gods on my shoulders. I have powers that the olympians couldn't even dream of. And as it seems," she continued as she slowly approached Annabeth, "it is time for me to use them."

Not even Piper could argue with her as she took Annabeth's hand. Annabeth shuddered. Her forehead broke out into a sweat. It didn't look like she had very long.

"There, there, child. It will all be over soon." Zoí turned to the seven demigods around her. "First, someone needs to take her pain."

Percy

First someone needs to take her pain.

Before he even knew it, Percy was stepping forward.

"Tell me what I need to do. Do it quickly, get her out of her pain as soon as possible. I don't care what it does to me," he said. Annabeth convulsed again. Tears streamed down Percy's face.

"Help her, please, help her…" he sobbed. "Kill me if you have to. Just please…"

Zoí knelt down next to Percy. This is going to hurt. A lot." Percy nodded. "Okay. Take her hand."

As Percy clasped his girlfriend's hand, Zoí closed her eyes for a full count of five. When she opened them, Percy felt a stabbing pain in his side. He inhaled sharply. Suddenly, Annabeth regained consciousness. Her eyes widened as she looked at Percy.

He saw the question in her eyes. What did you do?

And then the pain came. It was like needles poking through his skull. Sword points through the chinks in his armor. Tiny little teeth biting at his brain. Forget holding up the sky. Forget the arai and their curses. That was nothing compared to what he felt now.

Hazel

Percy stumbled from his crouching position and fell onto the floor. She could only imagine what he was going through right now. Annabeth was fully conscious now, and fully aware that something was amiss. She inched forward off her cot and reached out to grasp his hand, but Zoí warned, "Don't touch him. it will only make things worse." Sure enough, Percy recoiled at her touch.

Hazel was pretty sure that tears were streaming down everyone's faces, including Zoí, but hers were tinted with gold and silver. Well, everyone was crying except Nico. He stood there, emotionless, as Percy attempted to stand up, but lost his footing and fell to his knees. He grimaced and lowered his head to the ground, shivering on the floor.

Hazel looked at her friends. Piper had tucked her head into Jason's chest. Jason closed his eyes and kissed her head. Leo was staring at the ground glumly. Hazel wasn't sure why they were doing it, out of privacy or respect or fear, but she grabbed Frank's hand and closed her eyes, tears rolling down her face as she leaned her head on his shoulder. He lowered his eyes a moment later.

Annabeth

Annabeth noticed that she was still dying. She noticed that all her friends weren't watching anymore. She noticed that Percy had raised his head and let out a guttural, tortured scream. All of this mattered. But her vision zeroed in on Nico di Angelo. He was standing tense but motionless, a terse expression on his face. And suddenly, so quick she almost could have imagined it, she saw a tear spill out of his eye. As fast as it appeared, he wiped it away with a quick flourish of his hand.

Percy looked up at her, his eyes pleading.

"It's okay, seaweed brain. It'll all be over soon," she managed between sobs. He curled back into a rock on the floor and pressed his hands over his ears. That sent a fresh stream of tears running down her face. Eventually, the spasms that clenched his body became less violent and less frequent. The tenseness in his muscles relaxed and his hands clamped over his ears fell to the floor. Her friends all looked up at him.

Annabeth looked at Zoí.

"It's over, right? Please tell me it's over…"

"For him," she replied.

"What do you mean, for him?" Piper demanded. "You told us he had to take the pain, and the Annabeth would be all better!"

"Something taken, something given," Zoí mused sadly. The pain is taken, a life is given."

At this Percy sat up. Annabeth wanted to yell at him to sit back down, and carry him herself to his bed and make him rest for three days straight, but instead she watched him as he gulped and said, "Okay. I'm ready."

Suddenly it dawned on her what he was about to do.

"No! You can't! I won't let you!" she shouted.

"Annabeth… I have to. You have to live. You have to live on for me." He planted a kiss on her lips and turned to face Zoí. "Go ahead."

"Ah, but young son of Poseidon," Zoí said. "It's not you who must give the life. it is I."

Annabeth stared at her, shocked.

"This is why I was born. To help the greatest heroes the world has ever known." Zoí closed her eyes, and this time, when she opened them, they were hers again, no longer glowing pools of light. "And I go willingly."

Zoí rose up on a cloud of silver light, and dissolved into golden radiance, brighter than the sun. Annabeth was living, still, but that wasn't enough to let her forget about all the people that kept her alive. The ones that died for her, they were the ones that were the world's saviors. Not her. She wasn't a hero. None of them were. They were only the people who hadn't yet died.

Sorry. Anyways, Please review!