Whoopie you guys, The Light in the Sky has its two month anniversary today!
And tomorrow's my birthday! (not that that's important x] )
I'm really sorry for making you all go through this,
I hope you all don't hate me too much.
So, as I said before this is NOT yet the end of this story.
Somehow I always mostly thank the reviewers, but of course the people who follow
and favourite this are just as awesome and amazing as well.
IDOA (I don't own anything)
Enjoy and tell me what you think!
This chapter contains HOUSE OF HADES SPOILERS

"We love our dear ones deeply and miss them when they leave us. But we know that the bond of love is greater than death."
-Harold Klemp

Chapter sixty: We've lost too much
~Piper's POV~

It was amazing how short lived happy moments were in Piper's life at the moment.
For example back in Rome, when Jason, Percy and herself had survived the Nymphaeneum, and the boys had vanquished the giants, Piper had felt so relieved, but then everything had turned around:
Penelope had died and Percy and Annabeth were dragged into Tartarus.
Now, the same thing seemed to be happening again. They had just managed to survive the House of
Hades, rescue Annabeth and Percy from the depths of Tartarus, and fly off into the night, when the next morning bode more bad news in the form of Nico, stiffening during breakfast and turning really pale. Like, even more pale than he already was.
"What is it?" Jason, who seemed to be Nico's new best bud, asked with concern on his face.
Nico didn't say anything, but closed his eyes muttering "Oh no".
They sat there, Hazel putting her hand on Nico's arm, all of them watching and waiting for Nico
to explain. Piper got a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.
After endless minutes, the son of Hades finally looked up at them, his eyes troubled.
"What is it, Nico?" Percy asked, his voice still cracked from his time in hell.
"It's Leo, and Penelope." Nico answered, now avoiding everyone's eyes.
"Did he bring her back?" Annabeth asked sharply, fingering her new deathly looking sword, which she never let go of nowadays.
"Yes." Nico said, still addressing the table "But..."
"But what?" Frank asked, sounding agitated. They really couldn't use any more bad news at the moment. Yet Piper had a terrible feeling she knew what Nico was about to say.
"They're dead. They passed into the underworld." the dark haired boy said, and a silence so intense and absolute settled on everyone that Piper feared the air would shatter into a million pieces if she moved.
A lump formed in her throat, and silent tears started to roll down her cheeks. Two of her best friends had died. It was too much, after almost losing so many of the others, too much to cope with.
"No!" Annabeth cried, anguish in her face, at the same moment as Jason put his head in his hands and Hazel made a choked sound.
"Was it...was it Gaia?" Percy asked in a hushed voice, gripping Annabeth's arm.
Piper expected Nico to say yes, but he shook his head in stead.
"No. At least, not completely. It isn't clear, but I think.." He closed his eyes again "I think she almost killed them. But their passing, it's voluntarily." He looked around helplessly "I don't know what it means."
Everybody seemed at a loss, and for what felt like hours nobody spoke. Losing Pen had been bad enough, but somehow Piper knew they'd all convinced themselves Leo would get her back. Then, when Leo and Penelope hadn't turned up in Epirus and sending them an IM hadn't worked, they'd told themselves that the two were probably just delayed, as Pen couldn't travel via fire like Leo could, but that they would arrive soon. And now, all their hopes were crushed. Not only Penelope was gone, but Leo too would never be coming back.
Suddenly Annabeth spoke, her voice hollow "They sacrificed themselves."
"What do you mean?!" Percy said, shocked "You mean Gaia's risen?"
Annabeth shook her head. "No. I mean they sacrificed themselves before Gaia could take them. That's the only reason that would make sense. She must have captured them, but they died rather than let her use them to awake herself."
This explanation only made things worse in Piper's opinion. Their friends had given their own lives to prolong theirs, to give them more time to defeat Gaia.
A fierce resolution suddenly flamed up in Piper, she would make the earth goddess pay for this. This was too much.
After another few minutes sat in silence broken only by Hazel's sobs, they left the mess hall, one by one.
As Piper walked back to her room, everything reminded her painfully her two friends.
The whole ship was like one giant metallic representation of her favourite repair boy, just as ingenious and unpredictable as him, always wiring and in motion. She passed by Pen's room, and the sight of the twin torches emblazed on the door made her think of the time they'd found Pen here, fast asleep, meaning she was the lost one the prophecy had spoken about.
Just as she reached her room, Piper found she couldn't bare being inside right now, so she walked up on deck instead.
Festus was an autopilot at the moment, and she walked up to him, reaching out to stroke his metallic neck.
"Hey there Happy." She murmured, and the dragon head wired and squeaked, sounding like a happy puppy, wagging its tail. Piper couldn't bring herself to tell him about Leo. She was sure he would have understood, and she was also sure the news would devastate him.
Something glinted in the corner of her eye, and she brought out Katoptris, which had slid a little out of its sheath. Thinking to distract herself, Piper held the blade up so she could look into its reflecting surface, and waited for the image to shift.
It did so quickly, yet what she saw was something entirely unexpected.
The face of a woman, with dark purple hair and silvery eyes. The eyes had a familiar piercing quality to them, yet Piper's was so surprised she couldn't think where she had seen eyes like that before.
The goddess, Piper decided she must be, opened her mouth and started to recite something, and the words seemed to burn themselves into Piper's mind.
That which is taken, will be returned.
The image went blank, leaving Piper more confused than she'd been before.
She decided she'd better tell the others of this, thinking that maybe Annabeth could make sense of it.
Please don't let it mean something horrible she thought as she made her way down the stairs and towards Percy's room, where she knew Annabeth would be. We've already lost too much.