*pops out from a hole in the ground* Hi, me again.

"Again!" Sherman Yang yelled. Piper wiped sweat from her eyes and picked up her sword. She took her stance across from the son of Ares. He charged, swinging his sword wildly. Piper dodged and swiped. Sherman countered and attacked. Quickly, Piper swung low and knocked the blade away. She rolled and popped up only to find the other sword pointing at her.

"Too slow, McLean." As quickly as she could, Piper drew Katoptris and knocked Sherman's sword away. As her foe tried to recover, Piper jumped up and tackled him. They fell to the ground. Piper put her foot on Sherman's chest. He looked up. Icicle was pointed at him and Katoptris' blade was against his throat. Piper smirked.

"I believe this one goes to me." She helped her instructor up, handing him his sword.

"Not bad, McLean. Not bad at all. You're definitely better than some of your siblings." Sherman shot a glance at the rest of the Aphrodite cabin. Drew was busy fiddling with her nails and a few other girls were fixing their hair every two seconds, much to the annoyance of the Ares instructors. The only people actually making an effort to improve was Mitchell and Lacy. Even though the Ares campers were far better, the two were doing decently well. Piper looked over at the sundial. It was almost noon. The lunch conch sounded. The Aphrodite campers dropped their swords, excited to finally get out of this godsforsaken arena. Mitchell looked slightly disappointed, but followed the cabin back. Piper didn't follow, instead opting to set up a dummy. She began slashing away at it.

"Hey, Piper?" A voice asked. Piper turned around. It was Lacy. The younger girl was holding her sword.

"What's up, Lacy?"

"Can you help me fight better?"

"Why don't you go eat? I'll help you later. I just want to be alone for now." Piper said. Lacy nodded a bit sadly, but left. Piper turned back to her dummy and continued hacking at it, releasing all her frustrations.

Damn Percy for not coming back. Percy was many things, but selfish was not one. Damn him for leaving her. Piper missed him so badly. She wanted him back.

Piper quickly lost interest in sword practice. She buckled Icicle onto her belt and left the arena. As she walked through the common, the monument to Annabeth caught her eye.

Of course she had seen it, the whole camp had. It was thirty feet tall and made of marble. It wasn't so much a monument to Annabeth as it was to all demigods who have ever lost their lives. Two statues of demigods, a boy and a girl, were being led by a stone satyr, who pointed at Thalia's Tree, stood atop a Corinthian pillar, designed like the ones at the Parthenon. The names of dead demigods wrapped around the pillar, oldest at the top.

Piper looked up at it. She rested her hand on Annabeth's name at the very bottom.

"I'll bring him back, Wise Girl. Promise." Maybe it was Piper's imagination, but the name seemed to glow. Piper steeled her nerves and went back to her cabin. She grabbed her bag and started throwing clothes into it. After a dozen minutes and two written notes later, she left the cabin. One note promoted Mitchell to head councilor and the other was left for Leo and Grover. It told them not to tell anyone where she was going. Or else.

Once Piper taped the note for her friends onto the door of Bunker Nine, Piper McLean took one last look at Camp Half-Blood and left.

She hitchhiked to JFK Airport and bought a one way ticket to Anchorage. As she boarded the plane, she looked back towards the city. Though she grew up in Malibu, New York was more her home than California ever had been. She was going to miss it.

Several hours later, the plane landed in Alaska. Piper got off, the scenery of a larger city vastly different than that of Nome. Piper made her way to the taxi line. She hailed a cab and got in.

"Where to, miss?" The driver asked.

"How close can you get to Nome?" Piper asked. The driver frowned.

"Not very, why?" Piper leaned forward. She held out a wad of cash, nearly three hundred mortal dollars. The driver looked at the money, to Piper, and back to the money.

"I-I can't accept bribes, miss." Piper set down the money. She hated having to do this, but there was no other option.

"Take me to Nome and forget everything from now until you get back," she said, using charmspeak. The cabbie's eyes glazed over and he hit the gas.

If you juuust read this, refresh. Should be a new chapter up.