{2 days before funeral}

Madeline ate breakfast and lunch in silence. She showed up early, ate very little, then left the dinning hall as soon as possible, before the stares started to burn too painfully, before anyone tried to talk to her.
Since it was very near the end of the summer, it was time to pack everything up for the kids who weren't staying year-round. That included Madeline. She wondered what it would be like back at home. She would see her father again for the first time since the beginning of the summer. With a sharp ring in her mind, she remembered how he had never gotten to meet Connor like she had planned. He had no idea what had happened all summer in his daughter's life. She could go home and not speak of any of it, make it seem like she had a good summer at her training camp for demigods, and he would never know how her heart was broken.

Madeline made her way to the Arts and Crafts pavilion to retrieve the sculpture she had been working on all summer. After a few minutes, she had it out and was carrying the heavy sculpture to a table. As she walked, she looked over it with her eyes, remembering all the time she had spent working on it over the past several months. She noticed a small chip in the marble surface and smiled as she remembered the day that Connor had tried to help with her sculpture; he wasn't much of an artist and had chipped the marble by mistake with the chisel. They had both laughed so much.
The next thing Madeline knew, everyone in the Arts and Crafts pavilion was staring at her and the sculpture that was shattered on the floor. She had accidentally dropped it as she had gotten lost in her memories. She hadn't noticed as it slipped out of her numb arms as the pain flooded back into her mind. With a sinking feeling in her heart, she knelt on the ground and picked up the largest pieces of marble closest to her, holding them in her hands and staring at them.
'It's gone,' she thought, holding back a sob as tears came to her eyes. This was unbelievable. Everything was falling apart.
A few nearby campers rushed towards the loud sound of the sculpture breaking, and then they all froze as they saw her crying, kneeling on the ground of the pavilion with her face in her hands as she sobbed. One girl knelt next to Madeline and wrapped one arm gently around her. Looking up, Madeline saw that it was Lucy, Connor and Travis's half-sister.
"C'mon," Lucy said softly, helping Madeline up. She began steering her out of the pavilion before Madeline turned around to look at the few campers who were picking up the shattered marble on the ground.
"Don't throw it away," Madeline called out quietly. She couldn't bear throwing away all that time, all the memories.
'I look as broken as my sculpture,' she thought as she grimaced at their pitying faces.
"Don't worry about it," Lucy spoke to her reassuringly "They won't."
The older daughter of Hermes then turned Madeline away from the Arts and Crafts pavilion and began walking, gently guiding the tear-stained girl with her.
"Where are we going?" Madeline asked, regaining her composure and wiping away the tears from her face. She looked at Lucy with a confused look.
"I'm taking you to the infirmary," Lucy said worriedly, stopping and looking at her. "Madeline, your hands are bleeding."
Madeline looked down and turned her hands over slowly, looking at them in surprise. Her palms were bleeding heavily; they were cut badly and now covered in blood, some of the red liquid slowly dripping down to her wrists. The sharp, shattered marble had cut her, she suddenly realized.
'I didn't even notice,' Madeline thought in horror.
"C'mon," Lucy said gently, softly pulling her along.

A little while later, Madeline sat in a cot in the infirmary, silently looking down at her bandaged hands. After she had tended to them, Nina had returned with a clean cloth and a bowl of water, handing Madeline a hand mirror. As she held the mirror up, Madeline barely recognized herself. Her face was striped with red from her hands and her eyes were dull. She slowly got to work and washed the blood away. Lucy sat a few feet away from her, also silent. Finally, the older girl cleared her throat. Madeline glanced up at her.
"What are you thinking about?" Lucy asked cautiously, lightly furrowing her eyebrows in concern. They had become friends over the summer, but despite that, Madeline didn't feel close to her at the moment. She didn't feel close to anyone now.
"Everyone's looking at me differently " Madeline answered, vacantly flexing her sore hands. She had eaten an ambrosia square to heal them. "Everyone pities me now," she continued. "Now I'm just the sad girl who lost her boyfriend, and that's all they see me as...I don't blame them though," she added with a watery smile. "All I do is cry now."
"You're allowed to hurt," Lucy said exasperatedly, leaning towards Madeline. "No one thinks any less of you. If you think we're all just gonna drop you like a lost cause-" Lucy stopped herself, slowing her words. "You're still the same girl I met at the beginning of the summer," she continued. "It just so happens that something terrible happened. But the last thing I would do is turn my back on you. No one is gonna do that do you. And we all miss him, too, Mads."
Madeline winced as she heard the nickname she had earned over the summer.
Connor had been the first one to call her that. He had thought it had been extra clever, since Madeline didn't get really mad. She hadn't had a reason to during the happiest time of her life. She would miss his stupid jokes.
"I know," Madeline said after a moment in thought, snapping back to reality. "Everyone misses him. But it doesn't make it any easier. I get that the world's not ending, but it's not the same... I guess all I have to say is that there's nothing anyone can do right now beside just carrying on. That's all there is to do. And I'm no exception."
After a moment's hesitation, she added, "Don't worry about me. I'm just not good at not crying is all."
With that, Madeline stood from the cot she sat on and walked out of the infirmary.


{1 day before funeral}

Madeline stood next to Travis, watching as the funeral pyre for their lost boy was built in the center of the amphitheater. The other children from the Hermes cabin were constructing the burial shroud for their late brother.
Travis was now the only Head Counselor of Cabin #11.
"It's gonna be ready for tomorrow," he said certainly.
It already felt like too much time had passed, even though at the same time it felt like time itself had stopped.
It felt as if everything was going by Connor's clock; the clock that had stopped.
Madeline simply nodded beside him, her eyes dark as she watched. She had barely said two words all day, and he wasn't alarmed by her silence.
'Connor must be getting impatient,' Madeline thought, feeling the ghost of smirk almost come to her face.
She sighed silently and walked forward, lightly drawing her fingertips across the smooth surface of the wood. Travis watched her as she drifted around the pyre.
Madeline had become like a sister to him over the summer. As she and Connor had grown closer together, she had simultaneously become a member of his family. Now Connor was gone, and she was still here. And Travis was thankful for that, he realized.
He had lost his brother, but now he at least had a new sister. Connor could never be replaced, but Madeline was all that was left of him. He wouldn't stop caring for her now that Connor was gone.
A pained expression came to her face as Travis watched.
Madeline found she could pacify herself if she didn't burrow too deeply into her thoughts, but looking at the shroud for Connor, she slipped.
Turning away, she closed her eyes and placed a hand on her forehead, breathing deeply.
"Madeline," Travis said quietly, walking closer to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "You should go to the Big House. Ask Chiron if my mother has called back."
Madeline looked at him and nodded. She was about to say something, apologize, but instead she turned away, furrowing her brow as she left the amphitheater.
She couldn't keep doing this. She had to be there to support Travis, and for everyone else, too. She couldn't just keep leaving every time she fell off the wagon. She had to carry on, and it couldn't be like this. How much time had to pass before she would be able to reappear in her life? Or at least before she would be able to act it?

Madeline smoothed her expression from the frown she had on as she walked up the steps of the Big House and into the room that was Chiron's office. "Hello?" she called out. Her own voice sounded like a stranger's to her ears. She brushed off the unsettling thought and walked into the room. Maybe she could just wait here. It was quiet in here, peaceful. She sat down in the worn chair at Chiron's desk and look placidly around the room.
The old TV drew her back to her first day at Camp when she had watched the orientation video. It, too, almost brought a smile to her face.
'An orientation video for being a descendant of the ancient Greek Gods,' Madeline thought humorously.
'Nothing prepares you for this, though,' her mind whispered.
She lightly shook her head and looked away from the TV, the memory now tainted.
Her gaze came to the most cluttered wall in to room; there were countless pieces of paper, all of them stuck to the wall, creating a masterpiece that had grown over an obviously long time. Old letters and notes, mixed in with new ones. And mixed into the immense collage, acquired over dozens of generations of Camp Half-Blood, were pictures.
Madeline looked at them with a sense of sympathetic nostalgia; so many lives had passed through the very camp that had become a second home to her. So many other demigods -other teenagers who had once been completely normal -had found themselves in the same, unbelievable reality that had indeed become the life that Madeline was now a part of.
An old, brown-tinted picture showed a trio of boys. Two of them had their arms slung around each other's shoulders and their heads thrown back as they laughed at something beyond the little moment in time that the picture had captured. The third boy was smiling sheepishly. They were wearing familiar, orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirts.
Carefully, Madeline removed the pin that was holding the fragile picture to the wall and turned it over, reading the words that she had hoped would be there to satisfy her curiosity; "Maxwell, Samson, Eliot. A brotherhood to surpass lifetimes. 1947."
"Those boys were inseparable " a calm voice said from the doorway. Madeline turned around in surprise to see the familiar centaur. She hadn't even heard or noticed him approach.
"Samson was a son of Apollo," Chiron continued, rolling over in his enchanted wheelchair beside Madeline, pointing to one of the laughing boys. "Max, a son of Hephaestus," he continued, pointing to the other laughing boy,"and Eliot, a son of Aphrodite. They all hated each other at first. But oddly enough, they grew to be brothers. I believe in this photo they are all laughing at...hmm. Ah, yes. They are laughing at a girl named Eleanor, a daughter of Athena, who they relentlessly tormented. It was actually Max and Samson who did the tormenting, because they knew Eliot was hopelessly in love with her. Those two ended up getting married, but that's besides the point..."
The old centaurs voice drifted away as he smiled lightly down at the picture, reminiscing the memory of the long past heroes.
"Do you remember them all?" Madeline asked, looking at the many pictures of demigods on the wall, all just like Eliot, Maxwell, Samson, and even Eleanor, from times long passed.
"Yes," Chiron replied, a shade of sadness in his sagacious voice. "I remember them all. They deserve to be remembered."
Madeline, forgetting about why she had come to the centaur's office, turned back to the wall, pinning the picture of Max, Sam, and Eliot back into its place, and continued looking through the images. She found the oldest ones were to the left, the newest to the right. Slowly walking along the wall, she found more captured moments of Camp Half-Blood.
With a small smile, she found something Connor had mentioned at the beginning of the summer; a picture of Mason smiling. The big, intimidating boy who she could never get to smile, and he was grinning from ear to ear. It was a lovely smile.
'He should do that more,' Madeline thought.
The next picture she saw made her small smile turn into a sad frown.
"Is this..." Madeline asked slowly, the names feeling foreign on her tongue, "Selena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf?"
Chiron nodded, closing his eyes for a moment.
The picture wasn't sad at all; Selena Beauregard, more beautiful than Madeline had imagined, was on Charles Beckendorf's back. She was giving him a kiss on the cheek, her arms wrapped gently around his neck. He was holding up his free hand, the other one holding onto Selena, to his face, trying to block himself from the camera, but his small smirk was still visible. They looked blissful.
What brought a sad frown to Madeline's face was what happened to them next. They had no idea what was going to happened to them. But in that moment captured in the photo, they were so happy. It was very sad to think that their happiness didn't last.
The next picture that Madeline's eyes met as she looked away from the two lost lovers made her face glass over.
She slowly reached forward and gently touched her fingertips to the photo on the wall, looking at it with misty eyes.
In it, she saw herself and Connor, sitting underneath the shade of a tree. She was asleep on Connor's shoulder and he had his arm around her, looking down at her with his lopsided smile that warmed her heart. He looked so absolutely happy and in love with the girl in that picture, with her, Madeline.
People would tell her that she had Connor tripping head over heels for her, that he was a different boy around her, and she would just sheepishly accept the compliment and pass it off. She knew Connor loved her, and that she loved him, but seeing it clearly in front of her eyes made it feel like her heart had stopped beating. She could see everything she had lost.
Madeline turned away from the painful reminder of her lost love and cleared her throat.
"Has Travis' mother called back?" she asked simply.
Chiron looked at her wisely, making Madeline feel like she was transparent, and replied, "No. Not yet."
Madeline politely nodded, thanking him, and then walked out of the Big House, wiping her eyes as a stray tear fell.


{Present Day}

Gasps rippled through the crowd to where Madeline, Travis, and Katie were from the direction of where the wind had come from. They pushed through the crowd as they bulleted to the where everyone was turning to.
Madeline was the first to reach the edge of the crowd and she nearly collapsed at what she saw.
She turned around to call for Travis or Katie or Chiron or anyone, but nothing came out. She saw her sister break through the crowd and locked eyes with her, a horrified look on her face. Katie looked past Madeline, her face going slack, and slowly took a few steps towards her sister. Madeline did the same before sprinting towards Katie and throwing her arms around her sister, a sob replacing her staggered breathing.
Madeline squeezed her eyes closed, trying to forget the image that burned in her mind; Connor's lifeless body lying on the ground.
Whispers rippled through the arena in horror.
After a moment, Madeline stepped back from Katie, terrified of turning around again. Katie met her eyes and slowly nodded.
Madeline lethargically turned around, her breathe coming in short bursts.
Travis was on his knees beside his little brother's body, his head bowed and his eyes closed.
He looked up as Madeline silently walked towards him, slowly kneeling beside him.
Madeline swallowed with her dry throat and looked down at Connor's still face. She slowly raised a shaking hand to his forehead and brushed away one of his brunette curls. Another sob escaped her mouth and tears filled her eyes, streaming down her cheeks, as she took in his pale skin and closed eyes, his skin feeling cold against hers. She turned her head to her left and looked at Travis.
His eyebrows were furrowed as he starred at Connor's face with watery eyes. He glanced up at Madeline and then looked down, tears silently falling to the ground. Madeline reached out and grabbed his hand as they both wept over Connor Stoll's body. Katie slowly walked over and knelt beside Travis, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and whispering soft words into his ear.
The tears stopped streaming from Madeline's eyes and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she thought she noticed something; the eyelashes of the boy in front of her had fluttered for a small fragment of a second.
She held her breathe as she slowly lowered her ear to Connor's chest. She gasped with wide eyes as she heard it. It was weak and quiet, almost unnoticeable, but sure enough there was a heartbeat.
She held her ear close to his mouth and was reassured of the impossible thing that was happening as she felt a very faint breathe.
"Travis," she whispered, turning to the boy next to her. "Travis. He's alive."
She looked up to the crowd where Chiron was standing several feet away and repeated it, catching her breathe and speaking louder. "He's alive!"
Gasps reverberated through the crowd at Madeline's words.
She looked back down at Connor with a watery smile, gently holding his face in her hands.
"Connor," she said quietly. "Connor, please. Please wake up. Come back to us. Please, come back to me."
He didn't respond. His eyes stayed closed and he lay still.
Madeline's face fell, but she held onto the miracle in her hands; Connor was alive.
She didn't know how, but that didn't matter. He was alive.
She could hear the hands of the clock slowly beginning to tick again.
She lowered her head and kissed Connor gently on the forehead, holding him close to her. She laughed out loud, shaking her head as she smiled.
Out of the edge of her vision, Madeline noticed movement in the shadows of the amphitheater.
Her eyes widened as she watched a boy step out of the darkness
"Nico?" Madeline asked, furrowing her eyebrows again.
The raven haired boy only looked at her grimly.