Okay so I wasn't gonna post this until Monday but I felt kind of bad about the last chapter after reading a lot of you guys' reactions, hahaha. See what happens when you review? You get chapters more quickly!

So just bear with me for a little bit, okay? I'm not gonna throw away the trust I've been asking you all for, haha. Just read on ;)

Thanks bunches for all the reviews! Enjoy!


LII
PIPER

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Piper had just decapitated one of the weird shadow-men that had been wreaking havoc across the camp and raised her sword to stab another when all of a sudden it had vanished. She froze, muscles tensing, expecting it to appear behind her or tackle her from above, but nothing happened. It was just gone. Glancing around, she saw a few other people nearby reacting very similarly, standing up straight and looking around in confusion. It looked as though all the shadow-figures had simply disappeared at the same time, leaving them nothing in the immediate vicinity to fight against.

"What just happened?" Jason asked apprehensively from her left, his grip on his sword tightening while his eyes darted back and forth as though waiting for a trap to spring.

"I don't know," Piper replied with uncertainty. "Can you see anything? It's like they just—"

"Look!" somebody nearby shouted as there was a collective chorus of shouts and gasps. Piper whirled around, ready for another attack, but hesitated when someone else said, "The sky!" and more than one arm pointed upward. Alarmed, Piper looked up and sucked in her breath—she could see stars. Real stars, tiny pinpricks of light against the black-and-blue night sky she hadn't seen in many weeks. The rain had stopped, and the cloak of darkness was gone. And that could only mean one thing.

Erebos was defeated, and the war was won.

A wide grin spread across Piper's face as her sword slipped from her slackened grip, falling forgotten to the ground. She turned immediately toward Jason to see him staring in utter disbelief at the sky above, sword arm hanging lax at his side. When he lowered his gaze slowly to meet her eyes, she let out a giddy laugh and hugged him tightly, saying with excitement, "It's over! It's really over!"

"But… how?" Jason wondered blankly. "What happened?"

"Does it matter?" Piper responded, smiling up at him as they separated. "We won!" Finally he cracked a tentative grin and laughed in disbelief. All around them, people were having the same reaction, smiling and hugging their neighbors as they all realized that they were finally free of the King of Darkness.

The only one who didn't act excited was Nico, who was standing nearby and frowning at something down the hill to Piper and Jason's left. Piper shook her head and walked over to him. "Lighten up, Nico," she said, punching him loosely in the shoulder. "The war's over! It's okay to be a little happy for once."

"I am, it's just…" His jaw slid back and forth and his eyes narrowed as if in suspicion. "Something's not right," was all he said.

Piper exchanged a look with Jason, who prompted, "You… wanna elaborate on that?"

Nico tilted his head to the side, still staring at something to the east of where they were standing. Piper followed his gaze and saw the canoe lake a little ways off and, farther in the distance, the amphitheater. As far as she knew, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"It's my death sense," Nico explained finally, though his tone made it sound like he didn't fully understand what he was saying. "A minute ago, I felt a huge surge of power somewhere over there. Then it just… disappeared." His eyebrows drew more tightly together. "I think it was Erebos."

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Piper said uncertainly. "That means he's really gone?"

"Yeah, but that's not the problem. It was a little overwhelming so I can't be totally sure, but at the same time I felt a really strong chill." His eyes darkened as he turned to look at Piper and Jason. "Like the one I get when somebody close to me dies."

This time, Piper felt a cold chill of her own. She glanced up at Jason to see a slightly anxious expression on his face as well. "So that means…?"

Nico shrugged weakly. "Like I said, I don't know for sure." He turned back toward the lake and his serious look told Piper that though he may not have known for sure, he seemed to have a pretty good idea.

"Do you know where it came from?" Jason asked.

"Somewhere over that way. I can't tell exactly how far."

"Then let's check it out," Jason suggested. "So we can know for sure."

Piper's stomach started to tie itself in knots as the three of them set off immediately toward the lake. She glanced up at the sky again and reminded herself that at least Erebos was gone and the war was over. She wanted to be happy about it, but the sudden news that one of her good friends (she and Nico were part of the same crowd, after all) might be dead had a serious dampening effect on that desire. Maybe it was nothing, she told herself hopefully. Maybe it was like Nico said, and the feeling of Erebos's defeat had confused his senses. That could be it. No, that had to be it. After losing Drew and thinking for a time that she'd lost Leo, she couldn't take the same feeling again.

The few campers they ran into around the canoe lake didn't know any particulars about Erebos's defeat, so Piper and the others left them alone to celebrate and continued on toward the amphitheater, the last structure before they would hit the camp's eastern border. As they neared, Piper felt her heartbeat quicken as her vision came to focus on the amphitheater; the top stand, which just rose above the ground, had been partly collapsed on the far right side. Dim, gray smoke was rising from the rubble, which she could just make out at a distance. As they neared, she realized that there was someone there—a figure kneeling on the ground beside the wreckage.

"Annabeth?" Jason called, recognizing her first. Annabeth jumped and turned sideways, and Piper noticed with a jolt that her eyes were red like she'd been crying, though the damp traces of rainwater on her face made it difficult to tell for sure. Jason started to ask, "What's…?" but he trailed off as they approached and the reason for her despondent expression became painfully obvious.

"No," Piper muttered weakly before placing both hands over her mouth, eyes sliding over the still, unmoving form of Percy Jackson and refusing to believe what they saw. She tried to convince herself it wasn't real. He was completely fine—off somewhere else in the camp laughing about the war being over. And even if he was here, he definitely wasn't deathly pale and covered in blood, lying beside Annabeth with his eyes closed and his chest clearly not moving. Something like that couldn't ever happen. Not to him.

But the look on Annabeth's face—there was no way Piper could have imagined that. The heavy combination of grief, anger, and what looked like guilt was heartbreaking, even more so as it meant that another of Piper's friends was dead. This war had taken far too much from them—even now that it was over. How many more times tonight would her heart break with the news of one more fallen comrade?

Piper stepped sideways and leaned against Jason as a heavy weight pressed down on her at that thought, like her blood was slowly filling with cement. Jason numbly wrapped an arm around her waist but didn't look at her; his eyes stayed transfixed blankly on something no one else could see, a look of pained disbelief on his face.

"What happened?" Nico finally asked, his voice strangely hoarse. He looked like he was trying to keep a neutral expression, and failing miserably.

"His bond with Erebos," Annabeth replied in a quiet voice. She reached out and slowly threaded her fingers through Percy's rain-soaked hair, and Piper couldn't even imagine what she was feeling. Percy and Annabeth had been closer than any two people she knew. "'A death through death,' just like Rachel said."

It wasn't much, but Piper thought she understood. Whatever it had entailed, Percy had given his life to defeat Erebos. He'd saved them all.

Nico stepped forward, shaking his head, and dropped to his knees on Percy's other side. He reached a hand toward Percy's arm, but as soon as he touched him he yanked his hand back as though he'd been burned and brought it to eye level, staring at his fingers with a sudden bewildered expression.

"What?" Piper asked, worried.

Nico's face screwed up in a confused frown. "He's… not… gone," he said very slowly.

Piper blinked and repeated, "What?"

Annabeth looked sharply at Nico. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. "You mean… he's not dead?"

"No, he's dead, alright," Nico informed them. "But his soul is… It hasn't left. Annabeth, I think…" He looked up at her. "I think it's you. You're the one keeping him here."

A pained look crossed Annabeth's face. "Are you saying I have to let him go? Because I—"

"No!" Nico said at once, holding out his hands. "No, the opposite—I'm saying if you don't, it might not be too late to save him."

The three of them fell so silent Piper could hear the people celebrating in the distance. "Nico," Annabeth said in a brittle, steady voice. "You'd better be sure about this, because if—"

"I am," Nico insisted firmly. "But we have to hurry. We need water. And electricity."

Starting to feel oddly excited, Piper nudged Jason in the ribs a bit harder than she meant to. He didn't seem to notice, though, as he'd already started saying, "I've got electricity."

Annabeth frowned. "We're too far from the lake, though. If we need water—"

"I think I can help with that."

Piper jumped a mile high at the deep voice directly behind her. She and Jason turned around and she felt herself seem to shrink as she stared up into the somber face of the sea god, Poseidon—Percy's immortal father. And he wasn't alone. Beside him, the goddess Athena was standing stony-faced with her hands resting on her hips. Annabeth's eyes flitted to her mother and her eyebrows drew together, but neither of them said a word. Both gods were dressed in Greek battle armor and looked tired and worn, but even then they still cut a very impressive, intimidating figure. Quietly, Piper backed away from them, pulling Jason along beside her.

Poseidon's sea-green eyes studied his son for a quiet instant before locking on Nico, who seemed to tense under the god's stare. "The water is meant to heal his body, correct?"

"Y-Yeah," Nico replied. "If we heal the wound and then give him a good jolt, it should restart his heart. If all goes well, anyway."

"Then let's not waste any time." Poseidon stepped forward and dropped to one knee as Athena stood still and quiet, watching with an air of indifference. He raised a hand and swept it in a circle in midair, and Piper felt an odd, cool breeze as the air seemed to rush toward him. She could have sworn her eyes were playing tricks on her when a thin stream of water appeared from nowhere and swirled around the god's fingers, growing thicker by the second, until she realized in slight awe that he was actually pulling the moisture from the air itself. What kind of incredible power did the gods have to be able to do things like that?

Satisfied, Poseidon flattened his hand and angled three fingers downward, and the water shot toward Percy like a jet stream. It hit him in the stomach and soaked into his shirt, disappearing in under a second. Poseidon then nodded at Nico, who turned sideways and said, "Jason, now!" Jason raised an arm and as it started to spark with electricity Piper took a step back, feeling the hairs on her arms stand on end and her ears pop from the decreased air pressure. He stretched his arm and pointed a finger, and as a tiny bolt of lightning shot from his hand and hit Percy in the chest everyone seemed to freeze in anticipation.

After barely half a second, Percy's eyes suddenly shot open and he jolted into a sitting position with a heaving gasp. Nobody moved as Annabeth tentatively reached out a hand and touched his shoulder, saying in a breathy voice, "…Percy?"

Weakly his eyes rose to meet hers and he frowned in vague confusion, glancing around a bit dazedly before saying between heavy breaths, "Anybody else smell fried seafood?"

Immediately the weight seemed to lift from Piper's shoulders and in a rush she let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. As Annabeth grinned wildly and threw her arms around Percy, Piper couldn't help but laugh. She stepped forward and gripped Jason's arm as he laughed in relief as well, grinning down at her. Nico breathed out heavily and sat back on the ground, actually smiling for once, and Poseidon slowly stood and stepped back next to Athena.

When Annabeth released Percy, his eyes landed on his father and widened in mild alarm. "What's going on?" he asked, looking around at the odd assortment of onlookers. "What happened?"

"You died, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said pointedly, smacking him on the back of the head.

"I know, but—Why am I, you know… not dead… anymore?"

Annabeth glanced up at Poseidon, who gave a small smile and answered, "Because there are those of us who aren't quite ready for you to be."

"Hades isn't going to like this," Athena said airily, speaking for the first time since her arrival. "You heard him earlier, complaining about the 'laws of death' and how 'no one follows them like they used to'." As the goddess looked upward and shook her head, Piper thought of Leo and bit her lip, remaining silent. For some reason, she noticed Nico shift and glance sideways, looking oddly guilty.

"He'll get over it," Poseidon replied, waving a hand. "He has more important things to worry about. I hear the Underworld has been in a bit of disarray since the war started."

"He isn't the only one with a kingdom to repair," Athena pointed out. "Olympus has been all but destroyed thanks to Erebos's poor supervision."

"Nothing we can't take care of," Poseidon said confidently. "Besides, haven't you been wanting to do some redesigning anyway?" Athena's gray eyes shifted to Annabeth and her lips turned up in a small smile.

"Either way," Athena went on, "we should return to the city for now and assess the damage. There's much to be done. I'm sure we have minutes until we receive a summons from Lord Zeus." A dry touch entered her voice as she added, "I suppose it would be best if he wasn't kept waiting."

Poseidon nodded in agreement before turning back to Piper and the others. "Get some rest," he told them. "At daybreak, you five and your other leaders come to the palace. I like to think I can speak for my brothers as well in saying that we have a few things to discuss together. And Percy, from me..." His eyes rested on his son and he smiled, prompting Percy to grin in return. "Well done." With that, there was a bright flash of light and he and Athena vanished.

Percy, Annabeth, and Nico all climbed to their feet and for a long few seconds none of them spoke, until Piper started to smile and said, "Guys… We won." Identical grins slowly spread simultaneously over every one of their faces, and before long they were laughing, hugging, and high-fiving in relief and excitement.

"Come on, let's go find the others," Annabeth suggested, gripping Percy's hand with both of hers and smiling like she'd never been happier. "I think we've got some celebrating to do."


HA! Okay, yeah, maybe it was a bit of a cop-out to write that really sad, dramatic death scene and then go and bring him back. But I couldn't really do it! I can kill side characters, but I just can't permanently nix the main kids, not after this super long ordeal. I love 'em too much :D I'm sure you guys understand, right? Right…? Heh heh. Heh.

Anyway, there're only two chapters left, and I'm both happy and sad to say that the nerve-wracking drama is completed. It's all smooth sailing from here. Still a good deal of resolution and a few ends to tie up; both the next two chapters are longer than this one, especially the last one. I was gonna post two next week, but since this one came up early there'll only be one next week and one the following week. And then we're done! *tear*

So hopefully this'll make some of you hate me a little less. How 'bout a review? Glad I fixed everything? Disappointed I took the cheap route? This was a tough decision to make, but I'm happy with how this ends. Know that at least :D

Later days, guys!

-oMM