I've got a particular goal with this chapter. Let's see if I can accomplish it.

Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy!


LI
PERCY

For the first time, all expression vanished from Annabeth's face. It was like her brain had completely shut down.

After a tense silence, she gave a very forced half-smile and said weakly, "This really isn't the time for jokes, Percy."

"It's not a joke," Percy argued. "You remember what Rachel said. 'A death through death the sun to wake.' I don't know why, but I can feel it. It's this bond. He said that if he kills me with darkness, it finishes the spell and my power goes straight to him. I think if we do it with light, it'll work in reverse. I can't explain it, but I know this is right. If you kill me, it'll kill him. 'A death through death.' Erebos's death through mine."

Annabeth's gray eyes grew steadily darker and more intense as her mind seemed to work through this explanation. Percy did his best to appear calm and sure, even though inside he was terrified. He'd stared death in the face dozens of times, but he usually didn't have all that long to think about it ahead of time. Now he was making a conscious decision to give his life in an effort to end a war that had ravaged Camp Half-Blood and turned so much of it to ruins. He didn't have to waste time deciding whether or not it was worth it—that was something he was one hundred percent sure of. But even that wasn't enough to totally stamp out the fear.

"I don't care," Annabeth said stonily, a glare in her eyes. "I'm not going to kill you. There's another way. There's got to be."

"We've tried going against prophecies and warnings before," Percy pointed out wryly. "They always have a way of coming around to bite us in the tail."

Annabeth gave a frustrated sigh and demanded, "What if it were me, huh? If I asked you, would you kill me?"

Percy shrugged, her tone somehow helping him relax a little. This could have been any ordinary conversation between the two of them. "Probably not," he admitted. "But that's my fatal flaw, remember? Besides, you're stronger than me. You always have been."

Annabeth shook her head. "Not this time."

Now it was Percy's turn to sigh shortly in frustration. They didn't have a lot of time, and he needed a way to make Annabeth understand that this was what they had to do—that stopping the war was more important than anything else. "Look…" he began, stepping toward her and rubbing the back of his neck. "Our lives haven't exactly been easy."

She crossed her arms and snorted half-heartedly. "You can say that again."

He gave an admissive half-smile. "But… even after everything we've been through, look at all the great stuff we have. We've got… the best family anyone could ask for. People that love us—that would fight for us, die for us. We've got a home, a place we belong. And we have each other." He grabbed both her hands in his, sliding his fingers over hers. "We got to know what—what this feels like. And I wouldn't trade this—any of it—for the easiest life out there." The corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile, and he knew this was a sentiment she shared. "Our life… It may have been hard. But you know what else it was? It was real, and it was ours. And now, this war is trying to take all that away. Everything we've done, everything we've worked for." He squeezed her hands, again remembering his last dream and watching her die. "Everything we love. And I… I don't want to let that happen if I have a chance to stop it. And if I know you at all… I don't think you do, either. I know this is the hardest thing I could ever, ever, in a million years ask you to do. But it's also the most important. I need you to trust me on this. Please."

For the longest few seconds Percy had ever experienced, Annabeth stared into his eyes, a solemn, heartbreaking understanding making its way across her face. It was like she was reading his mind like she often teased she could—like she could finally see and believe that this really was the right thing to do, however much it would hurt them both. For the good of so many other people, they had to do whatever was necessary.

She didn't respond right away, though their time was running out. Percy heard Erebos call his name from below and when he chanced a glance past the ruined stands down into the amphitheater he saw that the shadows had begun to swirl and thicken, gathering around the King of Darkness as he drew power from the black moon and prepared his final strike. It was now or never.

Percy looked back at his best friend and gave her a weak grin. "Come on, Wise Girl," he said with as much sure finality as he could muster. "We've saved the world before. Let's do it again."

Her chin quavered just barely as though she were fighting the urge to scream or cry. Then she slowly slipped her hands under his jaw and leaned upward, pressing her lips to his and leaning against him. He could hear and feel her breath catch in her throat as for that brief instant he allowed all the fear and danger to vanish and his mind and body to focus only on her and nothing else. After everything they'd been through, this was really, finally it—the end of the two of them together. Right then, all he wanted was for that instant to last a lifetime.

But it couldn't, and too quickly Annabeth backed away and wrapped her arms around Percy's neck, pulling him into a tight embrace he couldn't help but think would be their last. "I love you," she said in his ear, voice quiet and shaking.

He took a slow, steady breath in an attempt to calm his racing heart. "I love you, too."

Annabeth kept her face resting against Percy's shoulder as he felt her lower her arms. She drew one back slowly, and after a second that felt like an eternity her entire body tensed as she jerked her arm, and almost all of Percy's senses were suddenly overcome by sharp, searing pain.

He bit down hard on his tongue in an effort not to cry out, knowing that that would only make this that much harder for her. It certainly didn't help matters, though, that the darkness inside him seemed highly displeased with this turn of events and was leaping and twisting worse than ever before. The combination of pain and nausea made Percy feel like he was about to be sick. But he swallowed hard and tried to ignore the feeling, instead turning his head to his left and squinting through the darkness to see if Erebos had decided to make his move.

Except the darkness suddenly didn't seem as dark. The shadows that had congregated around Erebos were thinning by the second, and Percy could almost see the King of Darkness clearly through them. He'd started up the stands below Percy and Annabeth and had halted halfway, hands shaking as his eyeless gaze lowered toward the ground.

"What is this?" Erebos demanded, his whispery voice edged with apprehension. "What have you done?" He spread his arms and tried to call the shadows to him, but they didn't respond. His power was failing. Looking outraged, he raised his head and yelled angrily at Percy and Annabeth, knowing they must have been responsible. He stalked toward them up the stands and Percy turned to face Annabeth, gritting his teeth and steeling his expression when he noticed that she'd backed away to see what was going on. When she met his gaze, there was pain in her eyes.

Not trusting himself to speak clearly, Percy gave a short nod and hoped it properly conveyed his meaning. And when tears formed in the corners of Annabeth's eyes, he knew she understood. She breathed in deeply and her lips thinned to a narrow line, before she roughly twisted the knife in her hand and tugged it backward, pulling the blade from Percy's stomach in a quick, fluid motion. This time he was unable to keep from yelling hoarsely as another powerful flash of pain swept through him—but he wasn't the only one. Nearby, Erebos's voice roared in pain as well. Percy squeezed his eyes shut as his knees buckled and he stumbled forward, coughing weakly and tasting blood in his mouth, and Annabeth's hands gripped his arms at once to steady him. The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back amid the broken wood, Annabeth kneeling beside him with her wide eyes fixed on something just to his left.

Slowly he turned his head and his already-blurring vision focused on the King of Darkness—only something was different. Erebos had reached the top of the amphitheater stands and was standing at the edge of the wreckage, but he wasn't attacking them. His teeth were bared in a furious snarl and his gaze was pointed downward, toward the cold, gray light that seemed to be shining from something on the front of his tailcoat. The shadowy smoke in his eye sockets had faded, leaving only a pair of dark, empty voids. All the black on his body—his hair, his suit, his obsidian crown—all of it was fading, brightening to a steely gray. When the light on his chest intensified, Percy realized that it wasn't coming from his coat—it was coming from inside him, overcoming his darkness from within.

"NO!" Erebos shouted. He began clawing at his chest as though trying to scratch out the light, but it only grew in power until it was a pale silver, shining bigger and brighter by the second. "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? MY DARKNESS CANNOT BE DEFEATED WITH LIGHT!"

No, Percy thought with satisfaction, too exhausted to speak out loud. But mine can. And like you said—my darkness is your darkness.

The light swelled and flashed, turning white-gold like the moon and stretching to cover the greater part of Erebos's form. The King of Darkness screamed in rage as luminous rays spread in arcs from his body, now glowing so blindingly bright in contrast to the eternal night that Percy was forced to shut his eyes and turn away from the sight. Even behind his eyelids he could sense the burning glow that intensified until Erebos's scream became a rushing howl of wind that split the air around them, and then all at once everything fell still and silent.

Tentatively Percy opened his eyes and searched the place where Erebos had just been standing—but the god was gone. Much more of the upper stands of the amphitheater had been splintered and demolished, leaving a gaping hole nearby and considerably more cluttered rubble. Amid it, a dim, silver fog hung in the air just above the ground, the only evidence that Erebos had vanished from the spot, but even as Percy watched it thinned and dissipated, becoming part of the night air.

He almost couldn't believe it, but what he'd just seen made it perfectly clear—the Shadow War was over. Erebos, the King of Darkness, was gone.

A small smile forced itself onto Percy's face. "It worked," he said in a tired, gravelly voice, trying not to focus on how weak and sleepy he felt and instead to allow the relief and elation of the truth sink in. He turned his head and raised heavy eyes to look at Annabeth. "We did it."

He was glad when she smiled, no matter how much sadness still hung behind her eyes. "Yeah," she agreed simply. "We did."

She slid both of her hands over one of his, and though he saw the movement he felt a biting wash of loss when he realized he couldn't feel it. Most of the pain was gone, leaving behind an empty numbness that blanketed everything else. For some reason, Percy flashed back to their trip to the Cloud Nine Hotel last month, when they'd had to fight through Hypnos's sons' dream trial. He'd been fatally wounded then, too, and the last few moments before he'd woken up in the lobby had felt exactly like this. With a regretful glance at Annabeth, he realized with a flash of guilt that real or not, this was the second time she would have to watch him die.

As that thought as well began to fade, his gaze traveled over her shoulder and up to the sky, and he thought he felt his heart leap at what he saw.

"Annabeth… Look."

She twisted around to follow his gaze, craning her neck to look up, and gasped. The solid ceiling of darkness that had covered the heavens since the night of the eclipse was cracking and fading, revealing behind it the night sky they hadn't seen in over six weeks.

"Stars," Annabeth said in a light, breathy voice. Percy couldn't see her face, but he could tell she was smiling. "I forgot how beautiful they are."

Beautiful… The word repeated quietly in his head as his mind started to dull, casting away memories of the war as though they'd never happened. His eyes lowered and his dimming vision focused on Annabeth as she watched the sky. Slowly everything else faded—the sky, the camp, even him. All he could see, for those few lasting seconds, was his best friend, the one who trusted him enough to make an impossible sacrifice in order to save so many others. All that existed was her—the girl he loved more than anything.

And all he could think was how beautifully her hair glowed in the starlight.


Three chapters left! Peace out! (^_^)v

-oMM