Disclaimer: I own neither Claymore nor PJO.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

Third Person POV:

A week had passed since Jason's body had been found, with a letter clutched in his remaining hand. The letter had been able to inform the demigod denizens of Camp Half-Blood that a massive horde of monsters had suddenly appeared out of the blue and wiped out Camp Jupiter entirely.

The entire week had been a week of mourning for the demigods, and Percy, Leo and Nico had taken it especially hard. When the Olympians had arrived the next day to collect their remaining three heroes, they had found Piper's dead body in the woods, with her knife in her hands, a deep gash on her left wrist, and a pool of blood under her. Hades had confirmed that she had been reunited with Jason in Elysium.

There had been a mass funeral in which shrouds for each of the romans, and one for Piper were burned. The Olympians had tried to get Percy, Nico and Leo onto Olympus, in a last-ditch effort to save their only 3 remaining 'Heroes of Olympus' but they had all refused, saying that if they were to die, they would do it honorably and be united with their loved ones once again, in Elysium.

It was obvious that this war would be their last, because the Greeks knew that the Romans had been better than them at fighting in every way possible – they had been better organized, had had better defenses, and they had even had a huge numerical advantage – and they knew that they stood no chance at all against anything that could wipe Camp Jupiter off the map.

The demigods were terrified, morale was on an entirely new level of low, and the message conveyed by Olympus that they would be unable to help the demigods fight the monsters due to the Ancient Laws had only succeeded in applying further stress on the minds of the people in charge. The cabin counselors had absolutely no delusions about the inevitable upcoming battle.

Any army of monsters stealthy enough to pass undetected until the start of the attack by a top-notch Roman facility, and yet big enough to raze one – that was an extremely dangerous for. And after comparing Camp Jupiter's strengths and weaknesses to those of Camp Half-Blood, the counselors had all understood that this army would easily destroy their beloved camp, which had next to no defenses or traps, and dwindling numbers of troops.

Knowing that the camp stood no chance, many campers had tried to escape, but between Percy, Nico and Leo constantly guarding the exits and Chiron surveying everything, they found no chance to. Percy and Leo had been hit the worst because most of the people that they had called friends had been murdered in an instant, or at least that was how their minds comprehended the situation.

One minute, Leo had been happy, knowing that he had finally been accepted in a group of friends, and the next, those very friends had started to fall left, right and center. The deaths of his two best friends, Jason and Piper, had been the hardest on him, and he had even considered joining them like Piper had done, but then he realized that he still had Calypso to live on for, and he knew that he couldn't bring himself to hurt her like that by just… leaving her.

Percy, on the other hand, now had next to nothing. The only valuable people left in his life now were his mother, Thalia, Leo and Nico, and he simply could not bring himself to think of that as any sort of a bright side. Nevertheless, he had an overwhelming sense of duty that stopped him from dying, that stayed his hand from copying Piper's, when his last remaining friends needed him.

He had already sworn that he would exact revenge for his wise girl on the cloaked man, and though he didn't know who exactly the man was, or how powerful, but somewhere in his heart, there was a black desire burning to kill him. His fatal flaw of personal loyalty had almost come apart when he lost almost all the people he was personally loyal to, and after killing Max, he didn't care anymore about who he had to cross blades with – demigod or monster, mortal or god – as long as he could finish his last objective.

-Linebreak-

Thalia had just heard about what had happened in the mortal world, and, after many hours of crying, she had emerged from her tent looking just… depressed. It was understandable… Just as soon as she had found her brother, he had died on her, reopening a deep wound in her heart that was once caused by feelings of loss.

Then, he had been revived, and once again, just when the wound was about to heal, he had been taken away from her again, and she couldn't help but feel that it really was a final end this time. And once again, just like the last time, she had been unable to do anything to prevent it, because she hadn't even been there when he had died. She now knew exactly what the saying, "The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained," meant.

She had already lost her best friend, Annabeth, and now her brother, Jason. All she had left was the Hunt, and her two cousins. 'Death breath and Seaweed brain' she thought sadly, wondering what they were currently doing in an attempt to avoid any more depressing thoughts from plaguing her mind.

As she was thinking about those two, a shocking realization hit her. She had lost a brother and a best friend, but Nico had lost his sister – again – and practically all of his true friends to death, which was supposed to be his element, and Percy – he had lost practically everything. Even in such a depressed state, Thalia knew that she couldn't even start to imagine what Percy was currently feeling.

She knew that his visit to New Rome had indeed been short, but she also knew that he had returned from there with hopes and dreams – which were probably crushed by now – of one day living there with his girlfriend, Annabeth – who was now dead – along with his new friends – Hazel, Frank and Reyna, all of whom had died in that battle.

Then he had sailed on the Argo II with six other passengers – five of which were now dead – to Greece, where they had all fought together for their lives, and for the lives of the rest of the world, growing closer and becoming a very tight group of friends. She knew that of this tight group of friends, only Leo and himself had survived, and she also knew that the kelp head was probably blaming himself for their deaths because she knew both – his personality and his fatal flaw, which was personal loyalty.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the arrival of her patron goddess, Artemis. Artemis had flashed in just behind her, looking sad as she walked up to her lieutenant. "How are you doing?" She asked Thalia. Thalia just mumbled back that she was fine. "You should know that your two cousins and that Valdez boy just refused our requests…. When the camp is invaded, they will be amongst the campers… And most likely amongst the corpses." She said quite bluntly, and then followed it up with an explanation, "I'm only saying this to prepare you for what's most likely coming… the Olympians won't be able to help the campers because there is some greater power at work here… we couldn't even hear the prayers of the romans when the camp was being destroyed."

Thalia whirled around in shock and disbelief at hearing these words… After all, it wasn't every day that an Olympian, much less one of the daughters of Zeus, admitted that there was a power out there that was much greater than them.

"I know you want to fight this time, and that you are probably prepared to die protecting your remaining family, and I also know that there's nothing I can do to change your mind. Also, I know that even the hunters wouldn't be able to fight off an army that was able to overrun Camp Jupiter – definitely not one that could do it with ease – and that as long as we have gods and demigods among our ranks, this encampment of hunters will be endangered by any army of monsters." Artemis said, pausing to let this information sink in, into the minds of all the hunters that had gathered.

However, before she could speak, Thalia cut in, "Then let us fight. We will fight with the campers, or at the very least, I ask you to let me fight to win this new war and fight to avenge my dead friends. I've had enough of just sitting around and doing nothing. Please… will you let us – or me – fight?" She said in rapid succession, with a serious tone in her voice and a hopeful look on her face.

Artemis smiled sadly, "Any of you hunters who don't want to fight are welcome to stay in my palace on Olympus. Just know that even Olympus may not be safe from this new enemy – somebody has managed to restrict us and diminish our control over our powers. Whoever this person is… he or she is quite strong, and they have managed to interfere with our domains – right under our noses – without us even knowing about it." She explained carefully – She didn't want to cause panic, she just wanted to give her girls a reason to fight alongside the campers to increase both their chances of survival.

These words hit the hunters – except Thalia, who was jumping around and repeating 'thankyou' over and over again – like a bullet train. They were proud of their status as man-hating, near invincible huntresses, and proud of their goddess, Artemis. They were proud that they were feared throughout the immortal world, by most gods, goddesses, and their children. And to hear that they couldn't stand a chance against an enemy shattered the built-up collective ego.

Their pride had been wounded deeply, and now they were hearing their goddess, Artemis offer them a way to escape the battle. They simply couldn't have that. They would show everyone why they were feared in their world, why they were called huntresses. They were no cowards! They would fight against the new enemy under their lieutenant and they would win!

-Linebreak-

The hunters had finished packing up. Nobody had argued against the idea of helping the campers… well nobody except Phoebe, who had at first, believed the idea of helping males to be a joke. Later, when she realized that everyone was being serious, she had argued – mostly on the lines of 'BUT THEY ARE MALES!' or 'WHY SHOULD WE HELP THOSE PIGS' – until Thalia had slapped some sense into the girl… literally. Phoebe had been shocked – both: literally and mentally – when Thalia did this, and had entirely failed to understand the meaning behind the lecture that followed.

Looking around, Artemis saw steely resolve glowing on all the faces around her, and she was not surprised in the least, because if there was anything that united this band of hunters, whether they were mortals, demigods or even demi-titans, it was their hatred for men and their pride for being the renowned 'Hunters of Artemis'.

"I will be flashing us to one of the parks in New York, because I don't want to scare the campers, or accidently kill them by showing them my true form. Also, it would be nice to know more about the terrain around the camp in case things go south." Artemis explained, and the hunters all nodded their agreement and closed their eyes in preparation for the nauseating experience.

-Linebreak-

The streets of New York were once again eerily silent. All the mortals had got a sudden desire to go home and fall asleep, leaving the streets completely free of, what a certain cloaked man considered, pollution. He watched from atop a building as the silence was broken by the arrival of a rather noisy group of girls. Seeing their carefree and proud attitude, he snorted.

These hunters and their petty Olympian goddess, or even the entire Olympian council posed absolutely no threat to him. In fact, the only reason he hadn't just wiped USA – and all the pantheons of Gods that lived there – off the map with a snap of his fingers was that he didn't want to damage all that was left of his daughter by being careless.

Nevertheless, deciding that allowing these… reinforcements to join the campers would increase their morale and make it harder for his horde of monsters to eradicate all life in that camp, he summoned his force from all around the silver-clad girls, so as to take them out quickly where they had lesser numbers and when they were least expecting it.

-Linebreak-

Thalia was now scared for the first time in a very long time. The hunt and her had been ambushed by a huge army of monsters – almost every kind of them had been present, from dracaenae to laistrygonians, even the Minotaur had been among the assembled – approximately two hours ago, and she was yet to see an end to the horde of monsters pouring in from all around her. From the corner of her eyes, she was able to count roughly twelve other silver blurs, and that sent a pang of sadness through her heart, as she thought of her fallen comrades.

They still had 12 hunters, and Artemis, which she thought was quite good, considering that they had been fighting an army of monstrous proportions for two entire hours and that they had started off with just 15 hunters, including herself. She hadn't noticed it up until now, but the fight had migrated towards the heart of New York, and now the surroundings had turned to grey cement from the lush greenery where they had started.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daphne, one of her best friends in the hunt, locked in combat with the Minotaur, evading the huge monster's powerful blows, although with some difficulty. Seeing this, Thalia started making her way towards her comrade, while turning monsters to dust using her hunting knives.

When she was almost there, she saw a chilling sight – a dracaenae had just managed to get a lucky shot at Phoebe, who was fighting right next to Daphne, and was now moving to strike Daphne in the back while her attention was being devoted to the minotaur. In an effort to save her friend, Thalia released a bolt of electricity at the monster, instantly vaporizing it.

However, the lightning bolt also had negative consequences. It drained Thalia of her energy, and since she had already been fighting for so long against so many monsters, she was just ready to drop, and it diverted Daphne's attention. As Daphne briefly turned around to see what was happening behind her, the Minotaur managed to land one of his kicks on her chest, cracking her ribs and making her fly backwards and hit the ground hard.

The Minotaur bellowed out his victory and started walking towards Daphne slowly, raising his axe to end her life. However, Thalia had other plans. She had already lost enough people – it started with her brother, her mother, then Luke, Annabeth, so many hunters and almost all her friends – and the pain from Jason's death was still fresh. She wouldn't lose anymore. She would at least die trying to save the last of her friends.

With all her strength, she leapt towards the minotaur, with her knives out, and intercepted the path of the axe.

Daphne stared in shock at what had happened. Thalia had jumped in the way and given her life to save hers. Her last actions had been to cut the minotaur's head off as his axe was coming down on her… her last actions had become the reason as to why Daphne was still alive… Thalia had saved Daphne with her dying breath.

Meanwhile, the cloaked man had been getting increasingly bored. At first, watching the girls fight was extremely amusing. But, now, he had suffered too many casualties in his army, and with Tartarus not helping him in his fight to avenge his daughter, he knew that those monsters could take months, or even years to come back. And still, quite a few of those hunters were alive. It would appear that he had severely underestimated them.

That, however, was not a problem for him. He waved his hand and his entire army disappeared. Then, as the hunters were looking around them in shock, all the buildings around them came crashing down on top of them. He jumped down to the ground from where he sat – falling practically 10 floors to the ground – and started walking towards his next target, which was that other petty demigod Camp.

Usually, all of this would have been prevented by the Ancient Laws, since it counted as direct interference, but he had no need to follow those petty rules. After all, he was Chaos, creator of the universe. He had given those Fates their powers and now he would take them away. They could do nothing to him.

AN – so….. any of you guys see the differences I was talking about yet?

Also…. Thalia/ OUCH! that's gotta hurt.