Disclaimer: Percy Jackson is not mine and never will be. I wish, one day, to come up with something as epic, but I will probably fail. So, yeah. Not mine.

A/N: This chapter is one big conversation. I like sentences fragments.

How to avoid melodrama? I hate melodrama. And yet, I throw Percy, Nico and Zoe in a room together with Sam and whomever else happens to be around, and all I get is melodrama. Siiiiiigh. Hang the lantern. Or jump the shark. Huh...

...I get way to much information from Stargate SG-1. I don't even really like most of that show.

Hang the lantern: in a story refer to someone or something as per the author's convenience. Exaggerate intentionality of author to make stupid, rather poor ideas sound infinity important.

Jumping the shark: term refers to some show in which a guy on a motorcycle jumped over a swimming pool with a shark in it. The term has come to mean when a story/series/most commonly a TV show, as reached its limit of productivity and starts making exaggerated, sometimes pathetic, pleas to keep an audience.

This has been the first and hopefully the last of "Runt the Brave's Sesquipedalian Lexicological Constructions."

Try and enjoy. That would make me happy.

Chapter Eleven: Προφητεία Προφητεία (Prophecy Prophecy)

"Think carefully, Son of Kronos," Erebus said, a sneer in his voice.

Hades shifted in his throne. He glanced at the throne beside his, but his usual voice of reason was in Olympus. He had always hated summer. What was the best choice?

"Will you support the ones who cast you from Olympus, or will you serve the new reign?"

The god of the dead stood, his decision made. He just didn't see a way out of this. Help his brothers – bleh - and be blown to smithereens, or join the Protogenoi. "I will support the Ancestors."

"Excellent." Erebus said. He pointed his finger at Hades and golden strings attached them, binding the two of them together. "You have joined the ranks. Welcome to our service."

OoOoOoOoOoO

In the mortal world, the day started off as perfectly normal.

OoOoOoOoOoO

"N-no!" Nico jolted upright, sweat on his brow, hands clenched at his sides. He looked wildly around the room, fear gripping his soul. Dad. No, you can't. Please, Dad!

"Nico?" A soft voice said. Nico managed to reign in his rampant mind and focused.

"Huh?"

"It's me, Sam. Welcome to the infirmary."

Nico rubbed his head. He was sure he had just been in the Underworld, watching his father side with the Protogenoi. Why? "What happened?"

"No one's telling me," Sam said. Nico located him as sitting on one of the beds, two away from himself.

"THE MOUNTAIN LIONS ARE ATTACKING THE WATERMELON!"

Both Sam and Nico looked at the bed between them. Percy had jolted upright, not unlike Nico had a minute again. But he was obviously still asleep.

"Perseus!" Nico said, laughing, despite the fact that he felt like curling into a ball and crying.

Percy rubbed his eyes blearily. "Wake me up in an hour," and he conked out again.

"Do you know what happened?" Sam asked Nico, after he was sure Percy was completely asleep again.

"I don't remember anything. I don't know why I'm here."

"They brought you in after capture the flag." Sam said. "Along with Percy and Zoe."

Nico rubbed his forehead. "The three of us were guarding the flag, along with Hope."

"I haven't heard anything about Hope," Sam said, worriedly. "They moved Zoe into a separate room, but the healers never told me what happened. Something about Nyx and Erebus trying to break down Chaos's prison. It didn't make sense."

Nico shivered, "Yes, it does."

"Huh?" Sam said, playing the sheets on his bed.

"Uh..."

The door opened and both Nico and Sam looked up to see Zoe step inside. Both boys were quiet as she collapsed in a chair and buried her face in her hands. She looked the exact picture of grief, anger, rage, and complete hopelessness all wound up in one package.

"Zoe?" Nico said, breaking the silence.

She looked up, dropping her hands to her lap. "Is Percy awake?"

"No," Percy muttered. He rolled over and opened his eyes. "What WAS that thing?"

"What thing?" Nico and Sam demanded together.

"You don't remember?" Zoe asked Nico.

The son of Hades shook his head.

"A really big serpent thing that Hope couldn't see," Percy said, sitting up. "You, Zoe and I were fighting it, but neither Riptide or your sword did any difference."

Nico refused to ask why he mentioned Riptide. Percy had given Riptide back to Zoe...

"It sent Hope flying," Zoe said, "and then it sent you crashing into a tree, and then I collapsed. But Percy, what happened to you? You're invincible."

"Mr. D appeared, locked it in a refrigerator and disappeared," Percy said with a shrug, "then I pretty much went straight to sleep. Like you guys, except I was conscious."

"No. Way." Nico said, with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. "Zoe?"

Zoe swallowed, and the looked at the ceiling, "It's Hope. She's dead."

OoOoOoOoOoO

In the mortal world, colorful lights appeared in the sky, lighting up the blue sky with greens and purples and reds and oranges and every color imaginable.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Maira collapsed, letting the current carry her. Olympus. Olympus. Reach Olympus. Her fingers closed on a fish, and it responded to her touch. Exhausted. Weak. Alone. "Carry me," Maira whispered. The fish bobbed in understanding and surged forward. The girl's fingers slipped, but then clenched again around the tail fin of the fish.

Barely three feet long, the fish swam doggedly on, its cargo mostly unconscious.

OoOoOoOoOoO

In the mortal world, only a very few percent of the people actually were scared. Everyone else thought the people crying 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling' where only crying wolf.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Calypso stood where her garden met the beach, her eyes trained on the ocean. She leaned against one of her supports for the climbing roses. She could feel it coming. Ever since it started, she could feel it. The end of the world.

A man, dressed in a tailored suit with coat tails, his hair windblown and scraggly, appeared on the sands in front of her. "Calypso."

"Aether," Calypso said. "Haven't seen you in awhile."

"No," Aether said, his stiff, hard voice still sounding floaty and energetic. Of all the Ancestors that Calypso had met, Aether seemed the most schizophrenic. "I shall insert the phrase, 'long time, no see' here."

Calypso found herself smiling. "What is it you want?"

"Come with me, Daughter of the Titans," Aether said, "you are of a good heart, you are loyal and strong. It was wrong of the Olympiade to lock you in this island."

"And yet you would destroy the world," Calypso said, even her island, she was well aware of world events.

"Only to make it better," Aether said, a pleading quality in his ever shifting voice. "Please Calypso."

The girl's fingers clenched around a rose thorn. "I'm sorry Aether. I will stay here."

"You will lose your immortality," said the man, his voice turning deadly cold in a split second.

"But I will not lose my soul."

Aether pointed a finger at Calypso.

She catapulted through the air, tumbling backwards, head over head, flying higher than any one dared. And then she crashed, striking the ground with force almost enough to destroy the island. Aether was already gone.

And all that was left on the island was a collapsed cave, a wrecked garden, and the body of a once immortal girl.

Calyspo had been freed.

OoOoOoOoOoO

In the mortal world, people had their phones and Ipods and doohickeys out, taking pictures of the blaring, colorful lights in the sky.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Sam let out a strangled sob.

Percy hopped off of his bed and onto his younger brother's, pulling the boy into a hug. Both of their hearts were heavy. Nico tried to move, but his head hurt so much that he just lay back, contemplating the first death of the new era. It had to be a new era. No Olympian, not even Ares or Hades, would let that beast out.

The beast that killed her was worse than a manticore, worse than almost anything that heroes had faced. As long as you don't count Kronos, seeing as that was plain cheating.

Through hooded eyelids, Zoe watched Percy and Sam grieve. She herself was quiet, grieving for another matter. She could feel Artemis's pain. The Fifth Age was ending. The Age of the gods, the Age that Zoe knew and loved. Ending. Ending. Ending.

Brokenly, she sobbed, "It's ending."

Nico nodded, "It's ending."

"What?" Sam asked, tearfully.

"The world as we know it," Nico said.

"Don't be so dramatic," Percy said, rolling his eyes and trying to smile. "This would be a lot easier to accept if you weren't shouting off cliches."

"PER-cy," Nico said, "I'm a son of Hades. I'm supposed to be melodramatic."

The jokes didn't lift the mood.

OoOoOoOoOoO

In the mortal world, a woman named Sally looked longingly at her phone, but didn't know who on earth to call. She knew it was coming. She could feel it, see it, taste it, smell it, hear it. It was around the corner.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Thalia watched the rest of the Hunters carefully, her bright eyes watching them. A few fidgeted, watching the sky from the confines of the forest.

"Why?" Penny Van Dike said, mournfully. "We should be at Artemis's side."

"We will remain," Thalia reminded her, "a pocket of the old times."

"A small pocket," Jenifer Vancouver pointed out. "And where's Rachel?"

Thalia reached down and petted the head the head of Nessa, her favorite of the wolves. "She is at Apollo's side."

"As we should be at Artemis's!" cried five of the hunters.

Thalia, in her heart, agreed with them. "I know," she replied.

No one said a word. Not a one of them would dare disobey Artemis's orders, not even to save her. But they cried. Because tears were all they could give their leader. With a crack, a vibrant red-headed girl appeared and pitched forward, clutching her stomach. Thalia and Penny leaned forward, and caught Rachel around the shoulders.

It took a few seconds, but Rachel managed to stand. Blood seeped from a cut on her head and her hands trembled. All of the Hunters were quiet, waiting for her to recover.

"It's awful," Rachel said.

"What's happening?" Jenifer asked.

Rachel leaned against Thalia, supporting herself. "Completely under siege. They're fighting and fighting and fighting. Apollo transported me here when he got a moment."

"Our lady?" Several worried voices asked.

"I don't know," Rachel stated. Her eyes misted over, she her voice became three voices in an echo pattern.

Two and Fourteen

Saviors of the Fifth

Two and Fourteen

Two shall defeat

The Ancestors of all

Worthy and Unworthy

Fourteen shall bring

Life, rebirth, renewal

One for each, one for all

Sacrifices e'er more

Never ending, never fading

Dying, living, loving, grieving

Death and life

Bound together evermore

Intertwined like never before

The Mortal World

Is the Key to the Past

And all things hidden there

And unknown darkness

Shalt defeat the light

Unless the Sacrifice is made

Her eyes cleared and she looked around at the group of Hunters. "What did I say?"

Thalia repeated the prophecy to her. The Hunters all watched, eyes wide. They had never seen Rachel give a prophecy before.

"What does it mean?" The youngest Hunter, a nine year old named Kayla, asked.

Rachel gave her a soft smile, "Prophecies have many meanings. Some of them are unclear. But this one, I think this one is saying that there is still hope for Olympus."

"But what about the Two? And the Fourteen? And all that craziness?" Kayla said.

"Don't pester her, Kay," said one of the older Hunters. Kayla nodded and backed up into the group.

Rachel looked at Thalia, "Has there been any word from camp about Percy, Nico, Hope and Zoe?"

The lieutenant shook her head, "Not since Artemis called us away. No."

Rachel stared at her trainers. "Now what?"

"We wait," Penny offered, giving Rachel's arm a comforting squeeze. "All will turn out okay."

No one really believed Penny, but no one said it aloud.

Kayla broke the silence with a stifled sob.

And that was when the Underworld broke loose.

On instinct, the Hunters, minus Rachel, had their bows up, tightening into a circle, back to back, facing the outside. In the darkness of the forest, they could see several hellhounds pacing. And then then one of the Furies appeared. She hovered above the Hunters, sneering. "Well. Well. Well. The Hunters of Artemis are scared."

"Tisiphone," Thalia said, angrily.

"Thalia Grace. Zeus's whelp."

Thalia raised her bow and pulled back an arrow. She let it fly, aiming for the air above the Fury. The flying-bat-thing swooped easily away from the cautionary arrow and laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

"Charge," Tisiphone ordered the prowling hellhounds.

With a growl, the hellhounds bounded in, jaws open and snapping.

And within the space of a second, the Hunters went from calm and collected, to fighting for their lives. Rachel struggled with her arrows, no good at using any weapon. Next to her, Kayla used her arrows for defense, keeping both herself and the Oracle of Delphi alive. Thalia and Penny, with no self-regard for safety, fought with all their might.

The Hunters of Artemis were losing.