Reyna's POV

I was still dreaming, and the dream shifted yet again. Instead of being in Jason's loving embrace I was on the battlefield. I was battling three dracons back to back with Natalie. We finally defeated them and I turned around to congratulate her when I saw her on the ground lying in a growing pool of her own blood. "NATALIE" I screamed! I dropped to my knees and pulled her into my lap. I kept on screaming her name, until I realized that it would do no good. I quickly stabbed a cyclops that came barreling towards us and picked Natalie up bridal style, heading for the med tent. "I need help!" I screamed and set Natalie down on a bed. I held her hand as long as they would let me. I just sat there at her bedside for gods know how long until they finally told me to wait outside. That's when everything hit me like a tidal wave. I had enough time to make it to the back of the tent before I broke down. I started sobbing and screaming, my best friend was inside that tent fighting to stay alive. She was also in love with my other best friend and he had no clue that the love of his life was lying on a gurney which might become her deathbed. The thought of her dying made me puke. I threw up all of the emotions that I had bottled up for the past couple of hours, the fear, the despair, the hopelessness. I had to remain strong and brave for my people, give them my strength and in return take their fear. Now it all came back up, and I kept on hurling. All my fears from the past few hours came up, was Jason alive? Was Dakota? What was I going to tell him? Was Natalie gonna survive? All I knew was that I had to find Dakota. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and went to go find him. When I got to the front of the tent one of the doctors who had been working on Natalie stopped me and told me to come in. She was in rough shape, her skin was pale, the fire that used to burn bright in her eyes was flickering, her fiery red hair seemed to lack the once fearless sheen it was once known for. I sat at her bedside and held her cold and clammy hand, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"I'm dying, Rey." I snuffled and wiped away my tears.

"No-no, you're-you're gonna be okay alright?"

She just laughed. It wasn't her normal hearty laugh, it was weak and distant. " You always were a terrible liar Ramierez. I won't make it off this bed. You and I both know that. We both also know that Dakota won't make it in time. So that means I'm stuck with you. Just like old time huh Ramierez?"

"No-no don't say that alright. You're gonna walk out of here and have a great life. You're going to marry Dakota and give me a god baby. And be my maid of honor when I get married. And live. Alright?"

"Reyna," That was one of the first times she called me by my first name, "I won't make it off this bed. Dakota won't make it in time. I'll be dead in about fifteen minutes okay?" I knew she was right. I nodded my head through the tears that plagued my cheeks.

"I love you. Ya know that right? I love you so much. You're my best friend before Jason, before Dakota. It's always been you."

"I know Rey. You've always been mine. You need to take care of Dakota, you know he won't be the same. Make sure he's okay. And take care of yourself, let yourself grieve. Despite what you think and what I think sometimes you are human, you can't be a good leader without taking sometime to be human. Just promise you'll cry and then go back to being a badass bitch. Okay?" I nodded. "And go about your life, marry Jason. Be happy Reyna. I need you to promise me, Reyna, that you'll be happy. You need to let yourself be happy. Live your life Reyna, for me. Do the things that I'll never be able to do, live your life because I'll never be able to live mine. And smile more you never smile!" She giggled at that last part. Or as close to a giggle that a dying person can get.

"I promise."

"And tell Dakota that I was going to say yes. He asked me, once we turned 21, if we could get married. I told him that I needed time to think. I never saw myself as the marrying type. Ya know? I didn't want anything to hold me back but then as I was getting stabbed all I could think of was Dakota and all I want is to say yes to him and tell him that I love him. Ya know how people say that if they knew it was going to be the last time they would never have stopped and ya know what they're right. If I had known that the last time I kissed Dakota was going to be the last I wouldn't have stopped. I would've told him that I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of the time we have left with him. And ya know what I got to do that, I got to spend the rest of my days with him." The next ten minutes were a blur but I would never forget any of it. We talked about Dakota and Jason, we laughed a bit, and cried-Okay I was doing most of the crying-. Towards the end her breathing became more shallow and spaced out. Her talking slowed, I kept one eye on the door the entire time still holding out hope that Dakota would make it. To say goodbye.

Her breathing became more ragged and she tried to say something, "This, is, it. I, love, you, Reyna." I started to sob.

"Shhh shh, save your strength. He'll make it."

She smiled. "No, he won't, I love, you, both. Goodbye, Ramierez." Her hand finally went limp in mine. I started to sob, I closed her eyes and stroked her cheek. I finally got up to go and find Dakota. Part of me was hoping that he was dead so he didn't have to live with this heartbreak and they could be reunited but I knew that I would never get that lucky. I had to tell him. I was walking past cots and cots filled with soldiers, some wounded, others dead, I knew some of them. I had trained with some of them, laughed with some of them. I saw their family members who had also fought crying over them or in other cases lying on the cot next to them. I saw nurses and doctors rushing from patient to patient not stopping to catch their breath. It pained me that I couldn't stop and help but I had to find Dakota. All I could do was lend them my strength, so that's exactly what I did. I focused, I concentrated, and I breathed, I could feel their fear and I took it as my own and in its place I left courage, strength, and determination. I saw a shadowy figure in full battle armour charging towards me. My hand went to my javelin when I recognized the figure. It was Dakota. He was running towards me with tears in his eyes and blood all over, which I don't think was his. He knew. He ran toward me and just stopped, 2 feet in front of me. His blue eyes full of despair, sadness, and disbelief. I knew that I had to tell him the hardest thing he was ever going to have to hear in his life, something that might break him, that will change him forever, and I had to be the one to tell him. I placed my hand on his shoulder and tears stung my eyes but I pushed them away.

"No no it can't be true. No no Rey, please, please tell me, it can't be true. Rey please, she she can't be. She can't." He started to cry. Tears marked their path through the grime on his face.

I could barely look him in the eye, "I'm so sorry Dakota." That was all I got to say before he rushed towards the tent where the love of his life laid dead. I didn't even question how he knew which one, the heart just knows. I couldn't feel anymore, I physically couldn't feel anymore, my entire body went numb. I started to walk again with my chin up and my head held high. I started to walk towards Jason, I had to have faith that he was still out there fighting and not in one of the hundred gurneys I passed. I stepped on the battlefield and I still felt nothing. I just charged, I cleared a path, destroying hundreds of monsters on the way to the holder of my heart. Once I saw him it took everything in my body not to just run and hug him for not being dead. We were still in the middle of a war and he was currently battling Krios. I just jumped right in, for a while me and Jason were in sync the clash of our blades fading into the same melody. That was until Krios knocked me into a pillar, I heard a sickening crack -Which I couldn't tell if it came from my head or the pillar, probably both- Jason scream, and then everything went black. I hoped that I was dead. If I died then I could be reunited with Natalie, I got to spend the rest of my life with Jason, I would be remembered a hero, I would die an honorable death, I would get to rest and I wouldn't have to go through the pain that would follow the next few weeks, I wouldn't have to watch as they set fire to my best friend, I wouldn't have to see the shell of a man dakota would be reduced to, I wouldn't have to deal with the pain of living, but most importantly I wouldn't have to live in a world without Natalie. But that would also mean, I wouldn't see Jason, he would have to live just as I would have to, with the guilt of thinking that there was something more he could have done, I knew there was a chance tat dakota could heal but I knew that if I died Jason would follow me, I knew that Dakota would disappear, I also knew that New Rome would crumble if I died right now, I knew that Jason wouldn't be able to lead by himself, he wouldn't be able to get through my funeral. Natalies words came back to me, I promised her that I would be happy and live the life that she never got to. So for her, for Jason, for Dakota, and for New Rome, I fought, and I lived.

My dream changed and I was standing outside of Dakota's house with 3 pints of icecream in my arms. Technically it wasn't even his house, it was Natalies. Her mother was a legacy of Mars and lived in New Rome until she was 18 when she decided that she wanted to go out and see the world. Her parents were furious and said that if she left than she couldn't return and she was fine with that. She packed her bags and left, they didn't hear from her for more than 15 years until their 12 year old granddaughter appeared on their porch. Her mother had been killed by a harpie while trying to get Natalie to Lupa. Her grandparents had died 3 years later and she rented it out to a couple senators and one of them was Dakota. Now it's just Dakota. I entered and found him in her old bedroom clutching a picture of her. "'Kota?" I knocked on the already opened door. He looked up at me and he was a wreck. His black hair was greasy and messy, his clothes were wrinkled and I could smell him from here, his blue eyes were bloodshot, bags were sinking under his eyes, at this point they looked heavier than he was. The only word to describe him was hopeless. I gently placed the ice cream on the floor and slowly made my way over to him. I gently put my hand on his cheek and wiped his tears away with my thumb as he leaned into my hand. As slowly and as tentatively as I could I sat down so I was essentially straddling him. Our eyes met, cold dead blue met warm hopeful loving black. I don't know who started first but we were both crying silently. I wrapped him in my arms and cried into his shoulder and him mine. We stayed that way, human. I very slowly drew back so that our foreheads were touching. I looked into his wet puffy eyes and I knew that both Jason and Natalie were right. Sometimes you have to be human. Just as gently as I got on I crawled off his lap and went and picked up the icecream that I had discarded on the floor. I plopped on the bed landing with a bounce and handed a pint of Superman to Dakota -Natalies favorite- and a spoon. "Alright so here's the plan. According to Jason I have been holding in my grief just like Natalie knew I was going to do and apparently that's not healthy. So we are going to stay up all night and share our favorite stories about Natalie, eat ice cream, cry a little, laugh a little, and we'll do this every night until we both feel better or we're too fat to get more ice cream." He nodded his head. And that was the first time since I woke up from the battle that I truly believed that everything was going to be alright. And I was true to my word, everynight for three nights me and Dakota got 3 pints of ice cream -Superman, Rocky road, and Cookies and Cream- and eventually we got through it. It wasn't easy, but piece by piece, Dakota started to heal. It still hurts now and again and he'll never be the same again, and he'll definitely never love someone the way he loved Natalie but he was able to be happy again, and so was I.

Not to sound repetitive but my dream shifted yet again. This time it was the night Jason and everyone from Camp Halfblood arrived. Percy and Annabeth came and went offering their condolences and trying to cheer me up, but Dakota never left. He stayed by my side the entire time.

I was in my bed in one of Jasons old hoodies. My hair was tangled and knotted, I hadn't eaten or gotten out of bed, I hadn't slept, my eyes hurt from the lack of sleep and all the crying. I hadn't taken a shower, I had just been in bed clutching a photo of us at the fair he took me to after the war and crying my eyes out. My throat was sore and raw. Just when I thought I couldn't cry anymore I looked at the picture of the two of us and I started to cry again. I knew I had to get up and run the camp but I couldn't, the grief that I was feeling was all consuming. I couldn't feel anything, my entire body was numb yet at the same time I felt everything. It was like I was trapped somewhere in between my body and my heart and mind. I was just frozen in time. Feeling everything and nothing at the same time. I was so consumed I didn't hear Dakota come in. "Rey." He said. As he crouched at the side of my bed so we were eye to eye. I didn't say anything, I just stared ahead blankly.

"Look, I know how much you're hurting but, and I'm so sorry for this, you gotta get up," I groaned and started to cry into my pillow. "I know, I know, I am so sorry. I know this is unfair, I know. But right now the camp needs you. Okay?" He got up and threw the blanket that I had been snuggled in for the past day on the floor. The sudden lack of warmth made me jerk up and start to sob. Dakota quickly got onto the bed and hugged me tight, letting me sob into his chest. This time I swore he shed a couple tears of his own. "I, am, so, sorry Rey. Look, just get through this day one step at a time. I'll be by your side the entire time, and after we'll come back here, crawl into our PJs, eat ice cream and tell stories of the old days. Alright? All you have to do is get through today." He took my hands and pulled me onto my feet hugging me into his chest. I nodded my head and walked towards the bathroom. I stopped at the doorway and looked back into his eyes.

"Promise?" I croaked.

He nodded his head, "Promise."

For the last time my dream changed. It was my first quest with Jason, I was fighting off 2 gorgons and the chimera. I have never been more terrified, at the time I was still strong but I wasn't as nearly as strong as I am now. It took everything in me to just kill one of the gorgons. I was pushed to the ground and my javelin was flung out of my hands. I reached to grab it when I saw Jason was also on the ground. He was unconscious and blood was trickling down his head like a sick waterfall. I was tossing and turning when I heard someone run into the room. They said something that I couldn't hear. They started to shake me but I just thought that it was a gorgon trying to kill me and I tried to resist. But then they pulled me into their lap and started to stroke my hair. It felt so good that I began to wake up and my breathing started to return to normal when I looked up and saw something that almost made me think I was dreaming again. Jason. And what did that idiot say that made me know that he wasn't a dream, something so stupid that only my Jason would have the brain cells to say it. "Hey"