A/N: I'm sorry I'm so late. I got caught up playing video games. This will be a relatively brief chapter, so prepare for a quick read.

I don't own Percy Jackson.

The group trudged towards the town Percy had mentioned at a slow pace. Thalia slung an arm over Naomi, who struggled underneath the taller girl. Phoebe took pity on her fellow hunter and took the daughter of Zeus' other arm.

Percy and Zoe walked ahead of the other three, keeping a lookout for any other enemies that might come their way. Percy fiddled with his phone in his pocket while Zoe glanced around them.

"Are all the spartoi gone?" Phoebe spoke up as they walked.

"I don't think so," Percy replied. Zoe turned to her friend as they walked and nodded at the demigod's words. "They don't die easily. I doubt they're gone for good."

"I do not know who sent Cerberus, but he bought us time. It will not keep the spartoi away for long, though," Zoe said to the group. Her face held a grimace.

Phoebe and Naomi nodded in response. Thalia was too groggy to say anything back.

Soon, the group found themselves in a town that had a bus stop with a bench. The hunters let Thalia take up the entire bench while they went to look for food. Percy pointed Phoebe and Naomi towards a convenience store and Zoe kept her eyes peeled for any buses or Spartoi.

Sighing, Percy turned to Zoe and glanced at Thalia. The day's events exhausted the daughter of Zeus. He felt bad that the girl faced her fear of heights so much in such a brief span of time.

Percy shuffled over to the tired lieutenant of the hunt and whispered, "this place is a ghost town. Do you think you could watch for any mortals while I check my sword?"

Zoe raised an eyebrow at him but nodded. She received a thankful smile from the son of Poseidon and watched him take out his phone.

Percy flicked his wrist once, and his sword slowly came into view. He held it out in front of him and squinted at it, looking it up and down. He felt along the edge of the blade with his fingers and leaned his face closer to it. Zoe found the process to be amusing due to the demigod's expression; his tongue peeked out of his mouth as he frowned in concentration.

"Is your sword all right?" Zoe asked after a few moments of watching.

"Yeah. No cracks or anything, so I'm happy," Percy replied without looking away from his blade.

Zoe hummed quietly and looked as if she was considering something in her head.

"Perseus?" The hunter called out.

"Yo?" Percy responded. Once again, he continued to focus on his sword.

"Are you sure you burned the Nemean Lion's pelt over a vision?" Zoe asked. Her words made the demigod pause and look her way. He winced.

"When I told you about the vision, I was telling the truth. It was just a feeling I had," Percy began and stared off into the distance. Zoe nodded slowly but frowned, sensing that he had more to say.

"But that night, after you left the car, I had a dream about a girl who put her life on the line for a man. From what I can tell, things didn't work out the way she wanted them to," Percy finished. He looked directly at Zoe and gave her a meaningful look. His sword slowly transformed back into a phone, and he placed it in his pocket.

The hunter's eyes widened. Percy gave her a sympathetic smile and continued. "But I heard she's doing a lot better now. And I know better than to bring it up explicitly because she's one of the strongest people I know."

Zoe stared at him, and he swore he could see moisture gather in her eyes.

"She made a mistake, but she's doing great now. She's more badass than ever, and I heard she's got one handsome son of Poseidon watching her back," Percy said finally. He gave her his patent grin, and the hunter couldn't help but smile back.

"What's got you two so happy?" A voice sounded out suddenly. The two turned to see Phoebe with an opened bag of chips in her hand. She was eating at a speed so quick that Percy worried she wasn't chewing the food well enough.

Beside the large hunter was Naomi, but Percy couldn't see the nymph's face because of the pile of chip bags in her arms. Zoe took pity on the girl and walked over to take some bags from her.

"Nothing," Percy answered Phoebe's question as he caught a chip bag that Zoe tossed his way. "Zoe just laughed at one of my jokes."

He caught the water bottle the lieutenant threw at his face before it hit him.

"Lies," Zoe said, but her voice lacked any malice. She was smiling.

Phoebe looked like she wanted to ask more, but Thalia interrupted her with a groan.

"Where the hell is the bus?" Thalia whined as she shuffled on the bench.

The other four members shared exasperated looks before Percy sighed.

"While I'm sure Thalia's just being impatient," Percy glanced at her with a frown on his face, "she's kind of right. We need to head west quick and the bus doesn't look like it'll be here soon."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow as she tossed another chip into her mouth, "so what's the plan?"

"I'm gonna go fetch us a ride," Percy said with a grin.

"What do you mean by that?" Naomi asked. She felt slightly nervous at the mischievous look that the demigod had on his face.

He didn't directly respond to the questioning looks he received from his friends. "Just make sure Thalia doesn't wander off, okay?"

He gave them a wave before jogging off. Naomi and Zoe watched him for a few moments, then turned to see Thalia trying to wrestle Phoebe's chip bag away from her.

After ten minutes, Percy slowed their new ride to a halt at the bus stop. He was driving a pickup truck he stole from a mortal in a parking lot. He manipulated the mist easily enough and convinced the man to hand over the keys. He returned to see Naomi and Zoe trying to pry Thalia off of Phoebe.

"Thalia, let go!" Zoe growled as she pulled on the girl's leather jacket.

"Please!" Naomi added quickly. She pulled on Zoe's parka, but Percy wasn't sure it was helping their cause.

"Get her off me! This is mine!" Phoebe yelled. She tightly wrapped her fist around a half-eaten bag of chips and used her other hand to push the daughter of Zeus away.

"But those are my favorite!" Thalia half-whined, half-roared. To her credit, she looked like she was matching the hunters in raw strength; the bag of chips was barely out of her reach.

"Hey!" Percy snapped once he got over his surprise. The girls all froze and looked his way. His sudden yell caught them off guard.

Almost immediately, Thalia let go of Phoebe and Zoe and Naomi did the same. Phoebe immediately shoved her chip bag into her parka, sending the daughter of Zeus a glare.

"I got us a ride. If you're all done hogging chip bags, we should probably go," Percy said with a stern look. He exited the car to jump into the trunk, and Thalia followed him in.

Phoebe ended up in the driver seat after a minute of arguing with Zoe. Naomi had already expected the argument and sat herself in the passenger seat. Zoe laid down along the backseat and rested her back.

Phoebe asked which road would take them west, and after a shouted response from Percy, the quest members found themselves enveloped in comfortable silence as they drove.

After a few minutes, Percy told them they weren't too far off from the next town.

"You think they have more chips there?" Phoebe asked the others.

"Maybe we'd still have some if you didn't eat them all so quickly," Percy shouted from the trunk. Thalia, whose legs were on his lap, chuckled at his response.

"Shut up, Jackson!" Phoebe growled.

"He's right, you know." Naomi responded with a chiding tone. The petite nymph aimed an exasperated look at Phoebe. The large hunter ignored her in favor of keeping her eyes on the road and avoiding admitting she was wrong.

"We could rest there for a bit before going further west," Zoe said with her eyes closed. She enjoyed her decision to relax in the backseat.

"It's getting real warm," Thalia said, frowning. "Is this the land without rain that the prophecy mentioned?"

Percy hummed with a frown, "yeah. This was the quickest way west, though, so I don't think we had a choice. I'm confident that things are about to get rough, so everyone watch your backs out here."

"What could go wrong?" Phoebe said with a joking tone, though no one spoke in fear of jinxing their chances.

"Well, even if some of you guys are downright psycho," Thalia said after a few moments, a half-hearted smile adorning her features, "I'm glad I got to meet you all. It's been an honor to fight alongside you."

"Likewise," Phoebe said back at the girl, and her face held a slight smile. Naomi and Zoe mirrored their fellow hunter's expression.

Percy raised an eyebrow at the girl, "why are you getting all sappy on us?"

Thalia pursed her lips and stared at Percy, "just in case one of us really ends up getting lost."

Percy blinked at the sadness in her voice and found that his chest tightened uncomfortably at the thought of losing any of his friends. He wanted to say something to reassure them all, promise them that if anyone was getting lost it would be him, but his lips refused to move. All he could do was swallow audibly.

"Wake me up if you need me," Zoe said after Thalia's words prompted nervous silence from the quest members. The lieutenant of the hunt received affirmative responses from her fellow quest members and they were once more hushed. The atmosphere in the truck was significantly heavier than before.

Percy didn't remember at what point during the trip Thalia moved to sit closer to him. He also wasn't sure when she grabbed his hand with both of her own, but he found a strange comfort in the feeling and stayed quiet about it. He didn't have the heart to pull his hand away from the sleeping girl, anyway.

Percy found himself unable to sleep. Every time he tried to get his mind focused on something else, he glanced at his friends and thought about all the different ways he could lose them. He hated how the prophecy spoke in absolutes, and even if they often held double meanings, he worried for the four. Thalia was the child of the great prophecy, but even she wasn't exempt from fate. He knew that all five of them were at risk of possibly dying, and the very idea of losing one of his friends made him queasy.

He looked down at the slumbering Thalia and swore to himself that if anyone would get lost in the land without rain, it would just have to be him.

An hour of semi-comfortable silence later, Phoebe reached to her right and nudged Naomi gently, waking the nymph. "Wake Zoe up, I think I see that town Percy was talking about."

The small hunter mumbled groggily and turned in her seat to wake up the lieutenant of the hunt. Zoe soon woke up with a tired look on her face.

"Phoebe said we're near the town," Naomi informed her before turning to sit properly in her seat and stretching. Zoe nodded mutely.

Phoebe slowed the car to a stop in the town and pushed open her door slowly. All three hunters kept an eye out for any monsters.

Percy gently shook Thalia awake when he heard the others get out of the car."We're here, Thalia," he whispered, looking at his surroundings. There was a taco shop that he noticed Phoebe already eyeing, and a few boarded-up houses. There was a post office that had a sign hung on the front that told him they were in Arizona. He found himself uneasy when he looked at the junkyard in the town. There was something strange about it, but he filed it away in his head for later.

The daughter of Zeus slowly opened her eyes and blinked owlishly. She frowned in confusion and looked down to see her hands wrapped around Percy's. She hurriedly pulled them away and cleared her throat, "I'm up. Let's go."

Percy nodded and jumped out of the trunk, and Thalia followed him out. The five instinctively felt for their weapons and set out into the town slowly.

"Where are we going?" Thalia asked as she spun around slowly, looking around for any spartoi. Her fingers drummed on her can of mace rhythmically.

"I want to check out the taco place at least," Phoebe said, but her eyes were on the junkyard. "Is anyone else getting a strange vibe from the junkyard though?"

"Yeah," Percy spoke up from the back of the group. He rolled his phone in his hand. "It feels old."

"Old?" Thalia asked. "Looking at it makes my skin crawl, but I don't know why."

"Older than Zoe," Percy replied with a frown. Zoe raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"Perhaps it is our next challenge," Zoe suggested as she crossed her arms. "There is something about it that is familiar."

"I agree," Naomi spoke up from the middle of the group. "The junkyard does not feel mortal to me."

Percy grunted and shook his head, "then we better hurry and get a move on. We have a goddess to save."

Phoebe nodded and quickened her pace towards the taco shop. A minute later and a grumbling Phoebe was leading the group back towards the junkyard.

"Stupid taco shop," Phoebe growled. She received sighs of exasperation.

"We'll get food somewhere else, Phoebe, it's no big deal," Percy said from the rear.

"It is late," Thalia reasoned.

"It's closed. Of course it's closed," Phoebe continued to grumble.

Phoebe's pace slowed once they reached the entrance of the junkyard. From where the group stood, if one didn't focus, the mounds of junk looked like hills. They could see old cars, scrap metal, and Percy pointed out a hollowed-out plane broken into two.

"This place is huge, even for a junkyard," Thalia piped up. The feeling of uneasiness in her chest grew the closer they were to the place.

"It's so full, too," Percy added. "Don't these places usually look more organized?"

"It is definitely not as it seems," Zoe said. She nodded to the other four, "let us proceed."

Phoebe exhaled deeply before slowly walking into the junkyard. Oddly, there was no gate barring the entrance. Percy reasoned that no one would want to steal junk, found himself second-guessing his assumption almost immediately as soon as he saw what made up the large piles of junk in the yard. Some items looked like they didn't belong in a mortal junkyard for sure.

"That's a bronze bull's head," Thalia pointed out in surprise. She looked just as confused as the other quest members, but realization was dawning on Percy's face.

"There are chariots here. They're smashed to bits, though. And there're some swords and shields too!" Phoebe called out. She held up a large mace to see it better.

"Hey! Drop everything right now!" Percy yelled suddenly, his eyes wide. "This isn't a mortal junkyard!"

"We know that," Zoe said back as she inspected a glowing hunter's bow that she found.

"No, damn it! This is the junkyard of the gods!" Percy growled.

His words prompted Zoe to throw down the bow in panic. Phoebe did the same with the mace in her hand. The hunters turned to see Naomi throwing down a broken blender.

Thalia, who had touched nothing just yet, immediately jogged to get closer to the group. "Junkyard of the gods? How could we not know?"

"There's some washing machines over there, so I guess we were just thrown off by the modern appliances," Percy frowned. "Still, we can't afford to take anything from here. If we do, who knows what'll happen to us? We all know gods don't like thieves."

The five winced as they recalled the story of Zeus' missing master bolt.

"Why do the gods have a junkyard again?" Thalia asked. She gripped her spear tightly in her hand, showing that she transformed it once they had entered the junkyard.

"The gods dump defective stuff down here," Percy explained. "If it's broken and way too far gone to repair, they snap their fingers and it usually gets teleported here."

"Some items here are cursed," Zoe added. She seemed to be guilty about not noticing where they were. "We would do well to avoid touching any items from now on."

"Great," Phoebe grumbled. "No food and no spoils. This quest is turning out great."

"C'mon. Let's just get out of here. Touch nothing. We're lucky that we haven't picked anything up intending to take it," Percy commanded the four. He received nods, and he led them through the mounds of junk. Whenever he'd get lost, Zoe would look up and point them in the right direction.

"Ursa Major. This way," Zoe would say, keeping them on track. Percy was thankful for the constellation. Every mound of junk looked just like the last.

They passed by many sets of armor and weapons made of bronze, and crowns adorned with priceless gems. Percy saw a guitar that looked like Apollo's lyre, and he resisted the urge to pick it up. Thalia pointed out a bronze head of a cyclops and prompted discussion on whether it would be easier to beat a bronze cyclops or a genuine one.

Soon, the group could see some highway lights just past the few mounds of junk left. There was a larger pile of junk in their way that Percy thought looked like toes.

"That's a bronze foot," Thalia snorted. "What's a bronze foot doing here?"

"Well, the rest of the body isn't here, so it's defective," Percy said. "C'mon, we need to go. I don't like this place one bit."

Percy nudged the girl forward, and they shuffled past the enormous foot. Naomi and Phoebe led the way, as the nymph hated the powerful stench of metal in the area and the large hunter hated such tight spaces.

Just as they were passing through between two piles, Thalia froze, causing Zoe to bump into her. Still, Thalia didn't budge.

"What is it? Is it Spartoi?" Zoe asked in alarm. She would've drawn her bow if it wasn't so cramped.

"N-no. It can't be…" Thalia mumbled as she stared.

Percy craned his head forward with a frown from behind Zoe. He followed Thalia's line of sight up the pile of junk and to the very top of it. He blinked.

"A towel?" Percy asked in confusion. "Thalia, let's go. We can get you a towel somewhere else–"

"H-how?" Thalia gasped, and suddenly, the daughter of Zeus climbed up the pile of junk, making a beeline for the towel.

"Thalia! Hey, what the hell?!" Percy yelled. Zoe growled and called after her, climbing up the pile. Phoebe and Naomi looked at each other.

"No," Naomi growled almost immediately.

"We need to," Phoebe replied.

"No."

"You'll forgive me."

"Phoebe, no–"

Phoebe picked up the smaller nymph and spun in place, winding up to throw Naomi at Thalia. She ignored the yelling of the hunter.

Zoe wasn't making much progress up the pile of junk because of how panicked Thalia was climbing. The daughter of Zeus would disrupt the precarious placement of some items and send some flying down at the lieutenant.

"Thalia! Don't do it!" Percy yelled. He couldn't follow them up the pile with all the junk flying down.

Just as Thalia looked to be close enough to grab the towel, Naomi slammed into the daughter of Zeus, sending both of them tumbling down the pile and onto the ground. Both groaned in pain, with Naomi holding her head and Thalia cradling her arm.

Percy sighed in relief. Zoe slowly slid down the pile of junk with an irate expression on her face. Phoebe looked ecstatic.

"I aimed that so well!" The large hunter yelled.

As Thalia and Naomi stood, Percy's eyes widened.

"Thalia got the towel!" Percy shouted.

As if on cue, the sound of metal on metal filled the air. The quest members turned to see the mounds of junk rise. The bronze foot shook and turned over. Standing in front of them was a fifty-foot tall bronze warrior that shone in the moonlight. It was rusty, and every tiny move it made caused a screeching noise. Its face was burnt.

"Talos!" Zoe said breathlessly.

"It's too small to be Talos!" Percy yelled, and he could feel his legs shaking. "Must be a prototype!"

"It's here for a reason! It's probably defective!" Phoebe yelled.

As if it heard the word 'defective', the warrior drew its bronze sword. It caused more metal on metal sounds that hurt Percy's ears. The gigantic sword looked like it was a hundred feet long.

The prototype took a step towards them, and alarmingly, it halved the distance between it and the quest members just like that.

"Run!" Percy roared.

The quest members went in different directions, knowing that running wouldn't do much against such a huge foe. Percy grabbed Thalia and ran further into the junkyard and hid behind broken cars. Naomi left the junkyard and ran towards the highway, and Phoebe and Zoe both took positions on piles of junk to fire at Talos.

Their arrows did nothing to the metal warrior, and Naomi had to duck many swings from the bronze sword that came at her. It sliced through wires and sent sparks flying. The nymph manipulated a few plants that grew near the junkyard to divert the sword's strikes, but she returned to the junkyard to help.

"Run close to it! It's slow!" Phoebe yelled as she slid down her pile. A second later, a sword came crashing down into the spot the hunter was in.

Percy ducked down behind the car after watching the hunters. He grabbed Thalia's wrist and growled, "what the hell were you thinking? Are you trying to get us killed?"

"I-I couldn't help it-" Thalia stuttered. There were tears in her eyes, but Percy wasn't sure whether it was because of the towel or Talos.

"I told you not to pick anything up! What's so damn special about that towel?" Percy yelled.

Before she could respond, he heard Zoe yell for them to move. He acted on instinct, grabbing Thalia and channeling the blessing of Hermes into his legs. They blurred out of focus and further away from the car they hid behind just in time, as the prototype stomped on the now scrap metal.

"Throw down the towel!" Percy yelled, but Thalia wasn't listening. She continued to run alongside him with tears streaming down her face.

With a growl, Percy reached over and grabbed the towel from Thalia's hands. The girl was too distraught to respond as he threw it behind them, but it didn't dissuade the bronze warrior. It continued to follow them.

"Naomi!" Percy yelled.

Naomi appeared on a pile of junk, and with a yell, her eyes flashed green. Roots came up from the earth and slammed into the bronze warrior's legs, staggering it slightly. Zoe and Phoebe continued to pelt the warrior with arrows while they screamed, trying to draw its attention away from the two campers.

The bronze warrior fell to its knees, but it rose again slowly. Its head slowly turned to look at Naomi, and the nymph froze in place. It pushed itself up just enough to heft its sword overhead and swing it down at her. Percy couldn't see if the warrior hit her or not.

Thalia broke out of her stupor and realized what had just happened. With a roar, she aimed her spear at the warrior and let out an arc of blue electricity. It slammed into the warrior's face, causing it to fall onto its back, exposing the bottom of its feet to Percy.

There was a hole in the bottom of one of its feet, with a sign labelled 'for maintenance only'.

Percy's eyes widened.

"Maintenance hatch! On its foot!" He yelled, taking out his phone and transforming it into a sword. "I think I can control it from the inside!"

Zoe and Phoebe stared at him, and he realized they couldn't hear him over the sounds of the prototype moving. He gritted his teeth in irritation and turned to Thalia, who he knew had heard him. She looked ready to charge in herself.

"Go tell Zoe and Phoebe to get it to lift its leg. I'll get inside and destroy it," Percy ordered the daughter of Zeus before she could speak.

"What? No! It's my fault this even happened!" Thalia responded with a scowl on her face.

"There's no time for this Thalia! Just go!" Percy growled.

The two stared each other down for a few moments before Thalia faltered. She slowly stepped back, and she pointed her spear at him, "come back to me, you hear me?"

Percy gave her the best grin he could muster, but he knew it didn't reach his eyes. "I'll come back for you."

Thalia looked like she was about to cry again, but she visibly steeled herself. She turned and sprinted towards the hunters, who were watching their exchange with confusion. Naomi was alive, to their knowledge, as they had a better view of what had happened to her. She was under some junk, but she was all right.

Percy turned to the prototype with a growl and watched as it slowly stood. He spun his sword in his hand as he always did, but his heart didn't have the confidence it usually did whenever he did so.

"One shall be lost in the land without rain," Percy mumbled. He stared down the bronze warrior with anger in his eyes. "And it won't be any of them."

Percy roared as he slammed his sword into the earth. He didn't have much practice, but he knew how powerful he could be when he was mad. Luckily, his powers as a son of Poseidon were working well for him, and the earth shook just enough for the prototype to stumble in place. He made a mental note to thank Poseidon for blessing him.

Zoe and Phoebe, who had heard of Percy's plan from Thalia, took that as their cue. They fired arrow after arrow into the knee that the prototype was favoring as it stumbled. The daughter of Zeus followed suit by sending electricity at the same knee. Soon enough, it lifted the foot with the maintenance hatch up to balance itself.

Percy took that as his chance. He ripped his sword from the ground and channeled the blessing of Hermes once more. He dashed forward quickly and jumped high. He latched onto the foot and slid himself inside the hole where he saw a ladder leading up the leg. He felt the leg shake as the foot slammed down into the ground. He gritted his teeth as he climbed up as the prototype was struggling to stand. He slammed into the side of the leg once or twice as he went as the bronze warrior moved. He'd pull his hand away from the ladder from time to time as the electricity Thalia had sent into it was still running through the metal.

Outside, Thalia restrained herself from firing any bolts of electricity at the prototype in fear of hurting Percy. Instead, she went to go dig out Naomi from where the hunters had seen her. Zoe and Phoebe continued to fire at it, but with its more weak joints hidden from them, they weren't doing much to hurt it.

Soon enough, the warrior was on its knees. It stood just as Thalia pulled Naomi up and wrapped one of the nymph's arms around her shoulder.

"C'mon Naomi, we need to get you to safety!" Thalia said as she tried to pull the groggy nymph along. Unluckily, she was more or less dead weight with how incoherent she was. There was blood leaking down her head, and the daughter of Zeus assumed that the junk that fell on her dazed her.

The two looked up to see the warrior on its feet. It took one large step towards them and raised the sword to strike.

Before the sword could even move, the prototype froze in place. Its head slowly tilted, like a confused dog would do. Suddenly, it reached up another hand and grabbed the sword's hilt. In one swift move, it drove its sword into its left thigh.

Thalia grinned and yelled, "is that Percy?"

The prototype twisted the sword, keeping it in the thigh indefinitely. It stumbled forward, reminding Thalia that they weren't safe just yet.

Phoebe and Zoe slid down the pile of junk they stood on and ran to Thalia. The larger hunter took Naomi and held her bridal style easily, with Zoe leading them to the exit of the junkyard that led to the highway.

"Wait, what about Percy?" Thalia said loudly. The four turned briefly to see the prototype punch itself in the face.

"He'll be okay. We need to get out of the danger zone, Grace," Phoebe yelled as they continued to run.

They crossed the highway and made it to the other side, where Phoebe set Naomi down for Zoe to give her ambrosia and nectar. Thalia watched as the prototype stumbled towards them, only for it to recoil as one of its arms fell off. Before it could stop itself, one of its legs got caught in the power lines on the highway. Electricity ran up its leg and throughout its body.

"W-wait! Percy's still inside!" Thalia screamed, slowly starting to jog back to the junkyard. Phoebe followed, with Zoe telling them she'd follow once Naomi was conscious.

No matter how fast the two ran, they couldn't keep up with the prototype's strides. It moved further away from them, as if Percy was trying to keep its impending destruction away from his friends.

The prototype fell apart. Its other arm fell off and hit a mound of metal with a loud bang. Its knees buckled and everything below the knee detached itself from the body, causing it to lean forward in the slowest fall Thalia had ever seen.

"No! Percy!" Thalia screamed.

A loud boom filled the air as the prototype slammed into the junkyard.

Thalia froze. The tears on her face didn't register in her mind until she felt her knees hit the ground. She let out a scream, but even that didn't process in her head. Percy Jackson was gone because of her.

Phoebe was pale, her features showing her horror at what had just transpired. One of her closest friends had died to save them, and it hurt her so bad that she had no idea how to react.

Zoe watched the prototype fall from across the highway with a look of disbelief. Her chest tightened considerably. Possibly one of the few decent males in the world had died to save them.

Somewhere west, Artemis felt a sudden stab of pain in her chest. She frowned, and although she was in suffering, knew the pain was not from the weight she was holding.

Up on Olympus, Poseidon stood from his throne and had to be restrained by the other gods from charging at Hephaestus. His rage and anguish were obvious on his features.

Apollo was holding the sea god back, but looked just as livid. He sent strong glares at Hephaestus, though tears blurred his vision. He gritted his teeth to keep himself from collapsing.

Hermes had tears streaming down his face. He gripped his throne so tightly his knuckles were white. He was shaking his head, murmuring 'no' repeatedly. He prayed to every higher deity he knew for his champion to be safe.

The other gods looked solemn. Even Zeus and Hera looked sad.

One was lost in the land without rain.

In an unlit room, Percy gasped as he sat up quickly. He coughed almost immediately, his gasp forcing him to realize just how dry his throat was. He held his throat, and he felt how dirty his skin felt. He smelled like metal and his palms were dusty.

He looked down to see that he was wearing the clothes he had been wearing when he was in the junkyard.

"Hello, Percy Jackson," a smooth voice said from in front of him.

Percy looked up to see a tall man with skin so white he could put snow to shame. His hair was shoulder length and as dark as the night sky, and his eyes glinted with something the demigod couldn't place. He wore a black robe with what looked like moving souls etched into the fabric. He sat on a large throne leisurely. On the top of the throne was a helmet with a black plume.

Beside the throne was a three-headed Rottweiler with its tongues sticking out. Its tail wagged happily at the sight of Percy.

The demigod's eyes widened as he looked back to the man on the throne, "Hades?"