AN: Well, this is my first fanfic story… hope whoever is reading enjoys it!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PJO OR CLAYMORE

Death is not the opposite of life; it is a part of it.

Percy POV:

I felt hollow. As she lay there in my arms, with the life fading slowly from her eyes, I could stop neither the flood of tears that rolled down my face, nor the flood of emotions in my mind.

As I sat there, my mind subconsciously tuned out all other noises... all except the sound of her shallow, agonal breaths, the breaths that signified that she was about to speak her last…

"Pe-Pe-r-cy…", she croaked out, gasping from the pain of breathing, which caused me to clutch on to her tighter than before, "I lo-ve you." And then, everything went silent as she fell limp in my arms. My mind simply was unable to grasp the concept that Annabeth, the love of my life, my soulmate had just died in front of my eyes and I had been unable to stop it. Once the shock ended, the waterworks started again.

I do not know for how long I cried there, or for how long the campers and Chiron consoled me, because all my thoughts became jumbled and messy, but it must have been for hours since the next memories I have are from when the tears had all dried up, from when no more tears could flow and my throat felt hoarse and parched. My mind had new emotions and thoughts running through it and my feelings had changed from denial to determination and anger.

The only thoughts running through my mind now were of how I would get her back – back from Hades, back from the Underworld, back to me. I was angry at everything, and though I had already exacted revenge on her murderer, I still felt that something was very, very wrong.

Suddenly, I felt two hands on my shoulders: a warm, gentle hand on my right and a strong, comforting hand on my left. I looked up to find a small 8-year-old girl and a middle-aged man –Hestia and Poseidon – kneeling next to me, with sad expressions on their faces but I could not remember when or why they had arrived. Reasoning with what sane part was left of my mind, I concluded that I must simply have not noticed their arrival in my current state.

A deep, powerful voice spoke from behind me, "You must come to Olympus and explain what happened here, my son." I tried to form a response, but found that my throat was too hoarse to do anything. At that moment, it seemed that my voice had entirely left me and all I could do was nod and close my eyes as I felt myself being flashed off to Olympus.

Once I felt the bright light fade away, I decided it was safe to open my eyes and looked around. However, with my current predicament, I simply could not bring myself to marvel at the architecture of Olympus, no matter how hard I tried.

Suddenly, I remembered who the architect behind all these beautiful buildings and structures was. Annabeth. As I remembered that fact, my chest started to get constricted just looking at the city around me, and my eyes started to shed silent tears, even though I had thought that I could possibly not shed more.

My father must have noticed and understood, because he then guided me forward past the buildings at a quick, yet gentle pace, pushing me steadily onwards. I kept my face down as I left rivulets of water trailing behind me, wherever I walked.

We arrived at a set of doors, and Hestia pushed them open. I looked up and saw the Olympians already seated on their thrones, with sad, distraught expressions, except for Athena who was crying and screaming curses at Zeus, dictating how it was all his fault and that he had killed her favorite daughter.

Hades was also present in the room and was standing at the right foot of the U formed by the thrones. He looked at me with a sad gaze and then turned away to hide his face, knowing what I would ask of him.

As I looked around the throne room, I saw that even Zeus was looking down in shame and remorse, and that he wasn't making eye contact with anyone present in the room. This surprised me greatly for two reasons: a) His son, albeit a traitor, had also died that day and yet he wasn't showing the traits of anger and b) Shame was an expression never seen before on his face.

Poseidon left my side and walked to his throne, slowly growing in size, till he was 20 feet tall. He turned and sat on his throne and glowed briefly with the boost in power that he got from sitting on his throne.

Then Zeus spoke, in a rather hollow voice, which wasn't surprising since his own son had died that day, "Now that my brother and his son are here, we can finally proceed with this council meeting."

"Perseus Jackson, I believe you saw all the events with your own eyes," Zeus said, "Is this true?" "Yes, it is true" I said, looking straight into his eyes. Zeus then turned towards Apollo, who had regained his position as an Olympian a few weeks ago. He nodded and said, "He speaks the truth, Father" he said. At this point, I recalled something that Annabeth said about Apollo being the god of truth when I had just arrived at camp. And recalling the incident made me remember Annabeth… and once again I had to struggle to reign in my emotions.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Zeus' booming, yet hollow, voice, "Then, could you recall the story in front of this council, Perseus?" I merely nodded and started talking as quick as I could summarize all that had happened. The shorter I made the synopsis, lesser would be the chance of another wave of pain hitting me.

"It - it started about… 2 months back… when this prideful son of Zeus, Max wandered into camp…" I trailed off, looking for Zeus' reaction, but his face remained the same as before – it just showed sadness, pity, and remorse, with only the slightest hint of anger. The only enraged face I saw was Hera's, as she glared at her unfaithful husband. Quelling my surprise, I continued, "I don't know why, but as soon as he arrived at camp, he just started trying to make my life a living hell."

I was then interrupted by my father, "What do you mean, son?" In response to this question, both my expression and my thoughts darkened considerably. Nevertheless, I continued, "The day he arrived… I was on guard duty and I saw a defenseless boy and a satyr being chased by three hellhounds."

"So, I ran to his aid and took care of the monsters. But, as soon as I was done, he started pushing me and started trying to wrench my sword from his hands. And this was when Chiron and some of the cabin leaders arrived on the hill." Zeus turned to Chiron, who was also present in the room, asking for confirmation.

Chiron nodded and spoke, "From what I saw, the boy was trying his hardest to wrench the sword from Percy's grasp while the satyr was trying to stop him. However, I do not know why the boy wanted Percy's sword. It could have been a petty attempt at glory, by trying to appear as if he killed the monsters, but it is more likely that the boy was trying to harm Percy even back then – and I say this only because of the way the boy was acting." He added the last part as a cautionary measure, since he didn't want to anger the lord of the skies – especially at such a time, when one of his favorite pupils was at risk.

Zeus looked down again in shame and guilt, but nodded for Percy to continue nevertheless, "As soon as he entered, he was claimed by Zeus, with the lightning bolt over his head." As soon as I said this, Hera's glare at Zeus intensified, while the latter was just too depressed to notice her and asked me to continue.

"Being the only son of Zeus who stayed at Camp Half-Blood, he was instantly made a head counselor. From then on, he constantly tried to turn the camp against me…for example, he once burned the strawberry fields and claimed it was me, but nobody except some of his 'followers' believed him because there was a fresh smell of ozone in the air, and because my fatal flaw is loyalty."

Once again, Zeus looked at Chiron for confirmation, and he, in turn, he just gave a nod and told me to proceed. "Over the last two months, he and I grew to hate each other. He now had a fan club of around 5 or 6 new campers, and he was always boasting about how he was better than me."

"Then, last week, Juniper – a dryad – saw Max talking to a shady-looking man dressed in a cloak, in the woods at the corner of the camp and reported this to Chiron." Chiron nodded again, and spoke before Zeus could question him a third time, "He was apparently not talking with this man in person, Juniper informed me that the two were contacting each other through some sort of a screen, though she specified that it was definitely not an Iris message."

When Chiron was finished, Zeus seemed to be contemplating something for a few seconds before he nodded at me to continue, "Finally, today morning, when me and –" and my voice broke off, as the grief came back.

After a few minutes of silence, when I was feeling better, I continued, "me and An- Annabeth were taking a walk on the beach, he came to me and told me that Chiron had called me. I asked him where Chiron was, and he told me to run to the big house. As soon as I turned around to leave, he pulled out a knife and tried to attack me but - An-na-beth got in the way and…" and once again my voice trailed off and I burst into tears.

Hestia, who was still beside me, put a hand on my shoulder and I instantly felt better. 'Of course,' I thought, trying to divert my attention to a new subject, 'she's the goddess of hope'. Due to this, I was already feeling much better a mere minute later.

Meanwhile, Chiron had continued, "He had struck her straight in the chest and severely injured her heart… it was coated in pit scorpion venom… there was nothing we could've done to save her." I gave Chiron and Hestia a grateful look and continued on with the story, "At this point, I was angry, sad and reckless. Most importantly, I couldn't care less about the damned son of Zeus," I spat, before continuing on regardless of Zeus' reaction.

"Back in Tartarus, when I encountered Akhlys…" I started, then trailed off… "I found out that I could control venom like water because it was also liquid and had water in it. So, I decided to try out my control with blood." I said darkly.

Poseidon's eyes, along with those of Hestia, Hermes and Apollo's had widened drastically, while Athena, who had stopped crying, had a satisfied smile on her face. "So that's where he went… he deserved it.", she said. 'She's the goddess of wisdom… no wonder she figured it out' I thought. "Athena," my father said, in a slightly apprehensive tone of voice, "what do you mean?" He had obviously figured it out, but was evidently hoping that the answer was something different than what he thought.

Athena laughed hysterically for a minute or two. Finally, when she had calmed down, she spoke, "Remember that patch of blood on the floor, Poseidon? You thought it belonged to the traitor, am I right?" Poseidon, who was confused as to why Athena would laugh at such a time, merely nodded in slight apprehension.

Athena then said, "Well, you were wrong." At this, everyone was shocked. Zeus tried to ask her something, but she spoke first and said, "That WAS the traitor."

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