Wow... sorry I haven't updated in so long, SORRY SORRY SORRY! I've been working on a story that I hope to get published as a book someday. If you're interested, you can read the excerpt at the bottom of the page that I've included. So, this is it. Last chapter! Thanks so much for reviewing; you know how much I appreciate it.

Muchas gracias signores y signoritas! And here it is...

Mrs O'Leary's fur is coarse and greasy, so much that I can almost mould it into handholds. Nico just holds onto her collar (lucky) and steers her carefully towards our target. I'm forced to cling to his shirt with one hand, and with the other, grasp some of Mrs O'Leary's oily fur.

Her paws constantly thumping against the path is enough to make me feel sea-sick. She claws her way up a narrow hill overlooking the sea, our firing point. Percy's wave is distracting Meneotius- it sprays at his face, shooting salty water into his unprotected face. He roars with pain and clutches at his rapidly turning bloodshot eyes. I don't blame him. It's bad enough when you get salt water in your eyes in the sea- imagine a high-pressure hose being emptied into your eyes. Full of stinging salt water. Yeah, it would be painful, wouldn't it?

I can't see Emma, but by the way the Titan keeps swatting at his shoulders, I suspect she's there jabbing away with her knives. I still can't get over her sudden appearance. Hades must have pardoned her. But what is her mission on Earth? And why is it so important that even death cannot prevent it?

Mrs O'Leary grinds to a halt, sending up a choking cloud of dust from her paws. I cough, quickly stumble off her back, and unhook the watch-bomb from my belt. The time-bomb, in fact. Ha, how funny. Only a few days ago I remember being called that. It feels like a few months.

The craggy overhanging cliff is in perfect position. The Titan's back is turned to it, revealing pale sweaty skin through the chinks in his leather armour. Nico's scooping sticky gelatine-like stuff out of his pack and plastering it over the bomb. I frown, remembering something suddenly. 'So how come Percy wanted your zombies?'

Nico smiles, fleetingly however. 'The monsters never suspected an attack from above. Especially with ninjas, I think.'

'You... what?'

'Watch the professional do it, Jade.'

He extends his long fingers, positioning them just above the earth. Eyes closed, he mutters something unintelligible, then exhales deeply. Then he clenches both hands into powerful fists.

Ghosts come scrabbling up from the ground, clawing their way out of the dirt. I stifle a scream and jump back. There's a pattern- they're all wearing long black ribbons tied around their faces, showing only their hollow eyes and nose. Though they shimmer with ghostly luminance, and the injured ones have gaping festering wounds, they all look as murderous as real humans can be.

Nico, suddenly pale, waves a hand over the cliff. The ghosts launch themselves over it, executing perfect swan dives. More crawl out of the dirt, knives gripped between their teeth, or clutching long garrottes. A torrent of bluish-white ghosts seethe out of the hillside, all ready to meet their targets. I only gape.

Then the torrent stops, and as the last leap off the cliff, I stare at Nico. 'You were being serious about the ninjas?'

He raises an eyebrow. 'Why wouldn't I be? Perfectly good idea. Why don't you look what's going on down there now?'

I tentatively peek over, and almost smile at the chaos ensued from the ghost ninjas. The enemy definitely didn't expect an attack from above. Neither did the campers, but they look relieved and shocked as the ghosts drop in one by one. Knifes are thrown, garrottes are used; even poison darts are flung in the sudden assault. Monsters disappear one after the other in clouds of grimy dust. The campers retreat to their catapults and arrows while the ninjas fend the demons off.

I clamber back onto the surface and watch and Nico gives the bomb one final coating of the pale white substance. 'What the heck is that anyway?'

'Magic glue.' He responds quietly.

I decide not to ask. Instead, I watch Menoetius scrap with Percy's tsunami. He's drenched- his tangled beard is sopping, and his armour is waterlogged. Perfect time to attack. I signal to Nico, and he weighs it up in his hand.

'I've never been much good at baseball.' He confesses.

'Shut up and throw the damn thing!' I snap, exasperated at his time-wasting.

He throws it. And it's a terrible shot.

At first it speeds steadily towards the Titan, aiming for a perfect gap in his armour. Then it drops in a delicate arc, curving towards his shoe. Then it just drops, falling quietly. I gasp, panic-stricken. 'No!'

Percy seems to sense what's happening. At least, his wave does. The bomb drops onto the crest of it, and quickly, it flicks it up towards Menoetius. It's still too low. As drops of water cascade off it, it plummets back to earth again.

My hands fly to my face, and Nico turns ashen. The bomb tumbles against his leather sandals, striking straps on its descent. I wait in horrified tension, and then realize what I'm supposed to do when this happens. I stop time.

It's getting easier to do this- just a flick of hands and time stops. But this is no time to marvel. I stare at the bomb, working out what I could do. Nico stares with me. We watch the bomb intently. Then it slowly glides upwards.

My mouth falls open as Emma appears crawling up the Titan's sandals, bomb tucked to her chest. She's oblivious to time stopping, and doesn't seem to have realized that the Titan's stopped moving. In fact, the world's stopped. She must have defied time with death, I realize. She crawls on upwards as Nico and I watch, wondering what we could do.

I get it, I finally get it. When time stops, there's a space between. A space where gravity does not exist. Since things are frozen, so is gravity. So, I too, throw myself off the cliff.

To my surprise, it feels like banging against a hard glass wall. I peel myself off the empty air gingerly and start awkwardly clambering on the sheer drop. It feels just like walking on thick, heavy glass that appears beneath my feet with touch. So I set off on a clumsy run, jumping where I can onto constantly forming stairs. Only holding time is tiring me, and the sudden running is making it harder with each pant of breath. But I'm gaining ground on the Titan, and on Emma. As I finally reach his shoulder, Emma crawls up on the other side.

I smile weakly. 'Hey. Not a lot of time to explain, but time stops gravity. So shove that bomb somewhere before I lose hold and fall about thirty feet down into the ocean. OK?'

Her gobsmacked look resigns to one of worried selflessness. She pulls me up onto Meneotonius's shoulder, where I gasp for breath. She takes the bomb from her chest, and looks for somewhere to jam it. I pant slowly, but gasp, 'You know where to put it.'

She smiles evilly yet distractedly, and sticks the bomb firmly on his chest. I frown with mock disappointment, but she's dragging me down, onto the glass-air again. 'We need to move before you lose grip.' She commands.

I nod, and try to jog, but I'm wheezing so hard I'm doubling over in pain. She keeps dragging me, feet drumming against empty air. I cough, retch, wondering how much a jog in this time warp can take out on me. Emma moans something about not vomiting on her good shirt, but starts hurrying. I try not to puke, but my guts are heaving with stress and panic. I desperately rasp, trying to get sweet oxygen into my lungs. I'm practically blacking out, horrified at how much this has taken out of me in so little time. And then I let go.

The wind whistles past my ears, and now I do puke, as the sound of Emma's scream fills my ears. We plummet straight down, tumbling head over heels in our sudden descent. My stomach heaves with that awful feeling of falling, the one often followed by a sharp pain in the ankles from landing. Unfortunately, this feeling's gone on too far. I suddenly extend a hand, barely aware of what I'm doing. The Titan looming above me fades in and out of my vision. But I use all my strength to execute one final act.

Then I'm thrown like a rag doll against grainy sand, head reeling, ears popping again and nostrils filled with the stench of burnt flesh and smoke. My vision's blurred even more with clouds of ash rolling over the sea, and my head lolls. My strength is gone, sapped out of my limited supply. I hear a thump next to me, and am dimly aware that Emma has landed. Then my vision dissolves into merciful black, and I slump against the grainy sand.

"How long has she been out?"

"Twelve days. No sign."

"I don't know how you keep surviving like this, man. Twelve days, I reckon she's gonna be a vegetable."

"SHUT UP!"

Loud noises, a sudden thump. A young man's voice, scared. "Calm down, dude, I'm only trying to tell you the truth."

"It's not the truth. Go, just go. I'll be fine here."

"Whatever, dude. Laters."

Heavy tread of Doc Martens scraping against the floor. The quiet squeak of a chair being pulled up. The heavy sigh of a boy, a sigh too heavy for one so young.

"Hey Jade."

The name, the colour, the gemstone, the person... it suddenly comes back in one huge rush. I AM Jade. He's talking to me. But who is he? He sounds so familiar, yet so far away. I strain to think in the murkiness which is my head.

Every bit of me hurts. My mouth tastes like dried blood. My eyes seem to be trapped within my very skull. I can't feel my fingers. My nose is clogged up with bitter-smelling antiseptic. I can only hear, though surreally, like I'm trapped within a fishbowl.

'Jade... you were really brave out there. I know this is the fifteenth time in twelve days I've said this, but still. You gave your every bit to save the Camp. And, I miss you. Everyone does. Except nobody knows what to do, not even Chiron. I guess it's just-'

A sudden burst of unused energy hits me, and I instinctively twitch, my muscles suddenly coming loose from their iron holders. I know who it is. Nico. The one who I love, my best friend, the guy who'd been with me for so much. As I suddenly twitch, he breaks off in mid-sentence. 'Jade?' Jade! Are you... are you there? Can you move?'

I want to scream with all the sudden tearing pains which lash at me, but I manage to flick a finger. The pain is so bad there are tears dribbling out of my closed eyelids. Nico's getting excited. 'Jade, you can move! Can you hear me? I've got to tell Chiron-'

'No.'

It's my voice, the one that hasn't been used in TWELVE DAYS. The blood in my mouth spills onto my chin, as my voice rasps like sandpaper rubbed against stone. It's barely a whisper, as my throat is so sore I can't manage any full words. I try to swallow, but choke down blood. My spit isn't working yet, and I make a weird hissing sound.

I can feel him pausing over my bed. His sudden, choking sobs strike me, and in my befuddled brain, I realize it isn't good to hear him cry. But he seems so happy at the same time, hugging me despite the blood oozing off my chin.

He sobs and holds me, rocking as he would a baby, gently trying to pour nectar from a little pouch down my throat. I gulp and splutter, splashing blood, frothy spittle and nectar over me, yet swallowing some down. It warms my throat, frees my painful limbs from their stiffness, un-cricks my neck, and most importantly, smoothes over my sore voice box. As Nico gently levers off the nectar, I manage to croak out three little words. Three words I couldn't die without saying.

'I-love you.'

Well, that's a rap folks! I'm thinking of making a sequel, but when I've got more time on my hands- I don't want to disappoint you guys any longer! I really hoped you liked it. As promised, here is an excerpt from the book I've been working on...

I heard the horrid, terrible thrum I'd become so used to over the past few years, hearing it nearly every night. I knew exactly what it was- a British plane engine. I'd never seen one in daylight, but I didn't dare look up. I knew I had to run, had to get to shelter, but I couldn't. I was just frozen to the spot with terror, like when a wasp crawls over you, or when an injection needle's about to pierce your skin. You don't even dare to breathe. And the plane was getting nearer every second- ready to deploy its bombs on the city. And me, I thought hopelessly.

You know when people talk about near-death experiences, and they say your life flashes before your eyes? It's complete rubbish. My life certainly didn't flash before my eyes at all. All I could think about was how the bombs were going to fall on the city, that the siren hadn't even warned us, how perfect it was to strike when we were unsuspecting. Yet I still couldn't move. The planes were practically soaring above me and I couldn't do a thing.

Kris saved me. I pretty much owe my life to her. She must have looked back and seen me still with panic. She risked her life to run back, and give me one heck of a slap in the face. She knew exactly what to do- once, on a school trip, a girl had a panic attack next to a beehive. Kris immediately grabbed a bucket of water and poured it over her. It stopped her straight away. It's the sheer shock that kick-starts your brain into working again.

I blinked, gasped, and finally woke up. My limbs suddenly came free from their invisible concrete bindings, and I started running before I was even aware of it. Kris was pulling me along, shouting in my ear. I couldn't hear here because of the planes, but it seemed to be quite simple. Run. Run. Run faster!

And I did. I ran for my life, quite literally. I charged down the street, and Kris says that I was screaming, though I didn't know I was. I didn't really know anything, apart from that the planes were coming closer with every second, every heartbeat. And that my face was throbbing agonizingly. Kris's hand print was a red impression in my face.

A faint whistle shrilled through the air, and somehow I realized the bombs were beginning to fall. I swerved, sprinting towards the nearest building I could find. It was the greengrocer's, but this was absolutely no time to be picky. My shaking hand found the door handle, and I dragged Kris to me. Then I twisted the handle.
It didn't click open.
The door was locked.

I hope you liked that! I really hope to get it published someday… maybe in a few years time. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! Love you reviewers!

So long for now…

ManUnitedFan