DISCLAIMER – I DO NOT OWN PJO OR CLAYMORE.

The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.

Third Person POV:

An uncomfortable silence fell upon the throne room when Athena spoke those words. For the following two minutes, there was absolutely no noise except for the sound of the breeze blowing in through the open doors.

Then Zeus sprang to action. He leapt off his throne and aimed his master bolt at Percy, but was unable to release it as his two brothers forced him back into his chair. With a sword and a trident aimed at him, he was forced to listen to Athena as she spoke in a chilly voice, "We all know that the boy deserved what he got for his actions." Poseidon then added on a subtle warning to Athena's statement, "Peace, brother. What's done is done, but what will happen now is entirely your choice."

Seeing the defeat and acceptance in Zeus' eyes, Hades returned to his seat, and Poseidon to his throne. The Olympians would usually have been shocked to the core that Poseidon, Hades and Athena had cooperated on something, but they understood that the grave circumstances had called for serious measures.

Percy was not surprised in the least by Zeus' behavior and he generally could not care less for it. He was prepared to die at that moment because he knew that the bastard had deserved what he got. Percy had absolutely no regrets about what he did to the son of Zeus and, if given the chance, he would do it all over again a hundred times.

A few uneasy minutes of silence descended on the council. Nobody could bring themselves to speak, not even Ares, since they all knew that saying anything out of line, even by mistake could invoke the wrath of Athena and the Big Three.

Meanwhile, Zeus was conflicted. When he had originally heard of his son's demise, he had felt angry, but had been placated because he had known what his son had done. However, learning about the brutal way that his son had died had taken a serious toll on him. It was starting to become too emotionally taxing for him because he was feeling too many feelings at the same time.

All his hopes of proving his son innocent of his crimes had come unfounded as he heard Chiron and Percy recount their tales. He had been becoming increasingly depressed as their story continued, because he could sense the truth in their words, but had managed to maintain a calm appearance and a level head. He felt guilty, both for siring another illegitimate child, and for the actions of said child. He felt extremely disappointed in his son and was disheartened that he would do something like that.

Even then, even with all these emotional problems, he was a king and his duty to maintain a good rule over his subjects came first, and so, he was extremely concerned with the possible emergence of a new powerful enemy so quickly after the two very recent wars. Not even a year had passed since the second Gigantomachy and already there was a new evil out there waiting for the chance to strike out, most probably in revenge or retaliation… it was always one of those. After all, Olympus hadn't been the kindest rulers to its subjects. And, for Zeus, it was all extremely distressing.

Putting his emotions away for now, Zeus returned his attention to the council in front of him, and requested them, in a soft tone, "Please, let us not discuss this matter again today." The Olympians seated around him nodded in agreement.

Then Athena asked a question that had been bothering most of councilmen, "Chiron, you mentioned a man in a black cloak. Do you have any idea on who he could be?" Chiron's reply was curt and short as always, "No, milady, I have no idea on who it could be. Besides, I neither saw this man with my own eyes, nor did I hear him speak with my own ears. I only know what I know about him because that is what Juniper informed me."

Athena then nodded, and gave a wise reply, "Then we should get at least get a brief description of this man from the girl." Zeus then nodded and ordered, "Hermes, go fetch the dryad," but his voice came out as a small rasp, making it sound more like a defeated request. Hermes nodded and stood up, and Percy averted his eyes, in preparation for the bright flash that was bound to come as Hermes revealed his true form. Once the light died down, Hermes was gone.

Once again, a tense silence fell on the council. A few minutes later, Hermes reappeared alone, and spoke, "The girl was a dryad, so she could not travel too far from her tree, but she was indeed able to give me a brief description of the cloaked man." Zeus merely nodded, and Hermes took this as a gesture to continue, and pulled a notepad from thin air.

Then, he spoke, "The girl said that she was unable to see most of the man because he was standing in the shadows and wearing a long black cloak that covered most of his body." He paused for a moment before moving on, "She said that she was able to get a good look at his face and described him as an extremely good-looking Caucasian male with silky, black hair and pure black eyes." He finished, moving to sit down, when Zeus stopped him with a question, "What do you mean - pure black eyes?"

"She said that his eyes were pure black in color – as in she couldn't see any distinctive pupil – the entire eye was the color of midnight black." Hermes said, while sitting down. The entire council was silent once again for a while, before Zeus asked, "Does anyone know a man who could fit such a description?" The council broke out murmuring, except Zeus, Hermes and Athena, before everyone unanimously said that they did not know any such person.

Meanwhile, Percy was still wrestling with his emotions, and he was losing. Coming to Olympus had been very unhealthy for him. On arrival, he had been forced to recall the entire story of losing his loved one, and then he was unable to leave the room while the Olympians discussed matters, which were in his opinion, useless.

He wanted to confront Hades and ask he Lord of the Underworld if there was any way in which he could bring back Annabeth. Having had all this excessive time to himself as he stood there in the room, he had been able to prepare himself for a negative answer. Knowing that he could not live without Annabeth, he was prepared to die, just to be reunited with her in the Underworld.

He looked up to search for his uncle, and found Hades staring at him for a distance. When he saw Percy looking, he shook his head in the negative and turned away. Percy growled, thinking that he wasn't going to give up so easily. If Hazel, Gwen, Leo and Jason could be revived, then why couldn't Annabeth?

He stopped paying attention entirely to the proceedings around him, just thinking of ways to persuade Hades to revive Annabeth whenever he got the chance. He knew it would be practically impossible to convince him, since he knew that it was against the Ancient Laws, and that the revival of the others was done under special circumstances, but he was still willing to try. After all, living together would be more peaceful than being dead together in the Underworld.

Meanwhile, Athena was angry, and her patience was wearing thin. She remembered talking with her father about rewarding the heroes of Olympus for their deeds, but Zeus had just rejected her idea, saying that no further action was to be taken regarding the mortal world until Apollo had finished his trials. Now, here they were, Apollo's trials were over, and Jason had been brought back to life, but Zeus still hadn't rewarded their children, and as a result of this, her daughter had died.

So, she decided to bring the matter forth and asked Zeus, in front of the whole council, "Father, why weren't the heroes rewarded?" in an icy cold tone. That statement made everyone freeze in what they were doing, and it even broke Percy out of his thoughts.

Zeus was now on the verge of panicking. He had no idea on how to respond to his daughter, because he knew that she had raised a very important, and extremely crucial point – and her tone implied clearly that the fate of everything he cared about depended on his reply. He had agreed on rewarding the seven heroes with the same gift they had once offered Perseus as soon as Apollo finished his trials and returned to Olympus as a god, but he had chosen to leave Olympus closed and had whiled away the last few months after his son's return.

As he sat there on his throne and felt everyone's gazes, or glares, he couldn't help but think how much of the tragedy was entirely his fault. 'Almost all of it…' he thought bitterly, 'After all, it was my son combined with my ego and ignorance that killed the girl.' Looking up, he saw 14 pairs of eyes burning holes into his head and finally all that pressure and all that stress came crashing down on him.

"I'm sorry…" he said in a small voice as tears started to leak from his eyes. The Olympians, along with Hades, Hestia and Percy, were watching in shock as Zeus, their prideful and headstrong king, broke down in front of them, repeating that he was sorry over and over again.

The moment Percy had heard Athena's statement, he had understood the implications, and his anger had returned in full, directed at Zeus, with the force of a bullet train approaching a wall. Just moments before that train could crash, Zeus broke down into tears, making Percy's emotions take a one-eighty-degree turnaround.

He had been thinking of how Zeus could have been involved in Annabeth's death, but now, reality had come crashing down on him. He realized that Zeus was not directly involved in the scenario at all. All he felt now as he looked at Zeus was pity, for Zeus had lost both a son and the love and respect of most of his family within the same 24 hours.

At that moment, all of Percy's hatred and anger was shifted towards the mysterious 'man with a black cloak' that Max had met. Somehow, he knew that he was the person responsible for her death, and somehow, he knew that this would not be the last time they saw this cloaked man.

-Linebreak-

In that meeting, the council decided to hold a feast on Olympus in a month's time, where they would reward their remaining heroes. Athena felt that it was quite unfair, but she knew that it was right and that it would be important in the future. She couldn't even protest against it, because as the goddess of wisdom, she could see that it was indeed the wisest choice they had.

However, two peaceful weeks had passed since then, in which there had been no problems at all, which was considered odd in the world of demigods. No new campers had arrived, no monsters had attacked, and the cloaked man had not even been sighted since then.

Percy POV:

I knew that something was very wrong. The last entire week had been… peaceful. A funeral had been conducted for Annabeth, and everyone from the immortal world who knew her – which was most of Camp half blood, all of Olympus (Thalia had arrived with Artemis), the rest of the seven, Reyna and Nico – had been present.

The news of Annabeth's death had been especially hard on my mom and on Mr. Chase because she had been a daughter to both of them – well, practically a daughter in my mom's case. Nevertheless, we had all shed tears for hours upon hours and the fact that they couldn't attend Annabeth's funeral had taken a great toll on them both.

Hades had disappeared as soon as the meeting was over, and I had never got a chance to confront him since then. He had appeared at the funeral, along with Nico and the others, but had vanished as soon as he could. Nico had disappeared with him, and my IMs weren't going through to him, so I was unable to contact Hades in any way possible.

Reyna, Hazel and Frank had returned to Camp Jupiter shortly after the funeral, since they all had important duties there. The Olympians, along with Thalia, had left to return to their duties, but the others had decided to stay. However, last week, Jason, was asked to return to Camp Jupiter for some business matters regarding the temple constructions and he had been forced to leave.

Thinking of these things, I stepped out of my cabin in Camp Half-Blood and was greeted by a new sight. All the other campers were awake and were running around, and they were mostly heading towards Thalia's tree, while some others were headed to the infirmary.

Thinking that a new camper had arrived, I rushed to the sight, and pushed through the gathered mass of people to see what the commotion was about. Something was clearly wrong, because nobody was smiling, and I could hear someone crying. As I got through the people and was finally able to see what was happening, I saw Piper kneeling on the floor, crying and repeating, "Not again!"

I moved to get a better view and saw a horrifying sight. There, on the grass, lay a body covered in blood – the body of a man with a scar on his lip and blond hair – dotted red with blood – on his head. There, on the grass, I saw the death of Jason Grace, one of my closest friends.

AN – Regarding the Jason part… the story is set post ToA, so I'm going to imagine that Uncle Rick will bring Jason back sometime in between the two, in one way or another… so it's kind of an emotional moment for Piper hehe…

But thanks for the follows, guys! I'm going to be uploading 1 or 2 chapters each week…

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