It's only been a few minutes since I posted the last chapter, because I want to get as much in as possible this week (I'm leaving for summer camp Sunday, and it'll last all week). The POV's are going to be all Percy's for the next few chapters…not gonna say why…:). Enjoy the new chap!

After the limo let us out, we began making our way across Kansas, passing through the middle of nowhere several times over. Our lives fell into a cycle that wasn't broken for a long time, unless a monster attacked, which only happened three or four times (for a half-blood, that's pretty good). The worst monster was a huge dragon that almost swallowed Nico whole; if Annabeth hadn't sliced its toe off at the exact same moment, I don't know what would've happened.

Each day, we would wake up and have a light breakfast, and then start walking. The talking was only two or three at a time, mostly someone and Jacob, who had taken the responsibility of getting to know everyone in the group. Rachel was constantly talking and laughing with me, although Hades if I knew why. Annabeth didn't like it, and she was constantly glaring at me, like it was my fault.

I wanted to talk to her about the other night, but she wouldn't listen to me. "It was an accident, Percy," she'd say. "Quit getting so worked up about it."

Her attitude didn't improve my mood, and that was part of the reason why I worked Jacob so hard in our practice sessions. He was brilliant, for someone who'd had as little practice as he did, and that only caused me to resent him even more. I showed him my most complicated moves, and criticized him without restraint. His anger flared at times, his blonde hair would crackle and his eyes would flash angrily and I would see a little of his sister, Thalia, in him.

We practiced twice a day, Nico occasionally tagging along and giving pointers. Nico. Ugh. He pestered me almost as much as Rachel. I didn't know what to tell him, though. I hadn't decided if I wanted to give up my soul to Hades or not. It was a hard decision to make. I tried to talk to Annabeth about it, but…well, we've been through that.

I could tell everyone except maybe Tyson knew about Nico's offer. They would whisper about it when they thought I wasn't listening, and I realized everyone was anticipating my decision more and more every day.

The fifth day of our quest was the summer solstice. I felt Nico's glare from the moment I woke up, and I groaned in agony. I had thought about it all night long, and I had finally come to a decision. As we had breakfast, I turned to Nico and said quietly, "Okay. I'll do it."

He nodded. "We'll wait 'till it gets dark," he said. "I'll tell you where to meet me then."

--

I told Jacob about the offer first.

When we were finished sparring for the first time that day, I confessed my decision to him. I could tell he didn't like it, but he just shrugged and said, "You're more experienced than I am, Percy. If…if this is what you think is best, then go for it."

I studied him skeptically. He had grown a lot in the past few days, both physically and in maturity. His biceps bulged out now, and all traces of baby fat had vanished from his body. The Kansas sun had turned his skin golden brown, and his blonde bangs were so long they almost touched his nose unless he constantly flipped them back.

He was also a much bigger leader in the group than before. He hadn't just earned their respect. He had earned their trust, and that was something big in the world of Greek heroes.

"Jacob," I said slowly. "If…when I do this, tonight…I want you to take over the quest, okay? Get the rest of them to Mount Tam. Try and save the Hunters. Do it for me, okay?"

His eyes widened, and for a moment, I thought he was going to refuse. Then he slowly nodded. "Okay, Percy. I'll do it."

"Good." I turned and started walking back towards the clearing.

"Percy?" Jacob called. I turned around. "Have you told Annabeth yet?"

I looked down and shook my head. "No."

"You should," he said. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but it's not going to be solved the way you're handling it." With that, he turned and walked past me into the trees.

I thought about what he had said, and finally decided what I had to do.

I found Annabeth on top of a hill, gazing out at Sharon Springs, Kansas, our last town before we hit Colorado. It amazed me we'd traveled such a distance on foot in just four days. But then again, we weren't ordinary kids.

I sat down beside her on the hill and looked at the small town. "Hey," I said.

"Hey," she said. "Amazing, isn't it? To be in places like New York and Nashville, and then see nothing places like this in the same country."

"Yeah," I said. We were quiet for a minute. Then I turned and looked at her. "Annabeth…I just want you to know…I've agreed to take up Nico's offer. I'm giving up my soul. Tonight."

For a minute she didn't say anything, which tortured me worse than if she'd hit me. I had to know what she thought.

Then she looked at me, her hair shining dazzlingly bright in the sunlight, her gray eyes brimming with tortured indecision. "Okay," she said finally.

I waited for more, and got nothing. " 'Okay'?" I said. "That's all you got to say? 'Okay'?"

"Yeah," she snapped. "I can't think of anything else you could comprehend. There's a lot I want to say, but you wouldn't get it. You'd just sit there like an idiot and stare at me like you've got no clue. So, yes. Okay. Go ahead, throw your life into the Underworld not knowing if you'll get it back or not. Leave us all up here to go to Mount Tam ourselves. It's not like we care." She was crying now. "Leave us here, so you can take a little vacation and then save the world. I'll be happy for you. Goodbye, Percy."

"Annabeth…" I tried to put my arms around her, but she pushed me away.

"Just go," she said, sobbing. I sat there, more hurt than I had ever been in my life, then I got up and made my way back down to the hill to tell Grover and the others.

--

I didn't have the heart to tell Tyson.

I mean, I didn't even know if the big guy would get it. I could hear him right now. Percy is…leaving? But why? Where are you going? Are you coming back? If I tried to tell him, I might start crying, and that would definitely not be the brave thing to do. I asked Jacob to tell him, after I was gone. He just nodded. Poor guy. I was dumping so much responsibility on him at once. He must feel like his head is exploding.

Oh, well. At least his heart isn't, like mine.

We kept moving, stopping in Sharon Springs to pick up supplies, and then, when we picked up the pace a little, we finally hit the Colorado borderline. We might have cheered, if we didn't know what was happening that night.

When the sun began setting, and we stopped for the night, Nico found me and whispered, "There's a little graveyard in a gulch about fifteen yards from that tree." He pointed, and I could see a tiny gated field far off. "We'll do it there. Meet me when everyone else has settled down." He went back to roasting his hot dog, and I sighed miserably.

Jacob and I sparred after dinner, but my heart just wasn't into it. I kept thinking about what I was about to do. Jacob seemed to tell, and we called off early and went back to the campsite quietly.

Tyson was already asleep. Grover and Rachel were sitting on a log, talking quietly. Nico was pacing nervously, tapping his silver ring. Annabeth lay on her mat, staring at the stars.

After a few minutes, Nico jerked his head and started walking. I waited a few seconds, then got up and followed him. Annabeth wasn't looking at me, but a tear trickled down her cheek as I walked to the graveyard.

Cemeteries at night have always spooked me. I've seen enough scary movies for that. Nico seemed fearless, walking right past the graves without even passing a glance. I wondered what it was like to be him, to be able to hear these people, calling you, pleading with you, even catching glimpses of them out of the corners of your eye. Creepy, I thought.

Nico led me to the center of the graveyard. "Stand here," he said, pointing to the center grave, a huge, marble monument. It said, in big bold letters:

R.I.P

JAMES T. GARRISON

1917- 1981

I gulped, and stood facing the grave. Nico moved back and looked at me, his dark eyes glinting in the moonlight. "Are you ready?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. "Let's do this," I said.

Nico took a necklace strung with some kind of teeth that were carved into the shape of skulls. He put it around my neck. "Good luck," he whispered.

Then he stepped back and began chanting in a language older than Greek. At first, nothing happened. Then a fog slowly descended around the graveyard. Dark clouds covered up all the light in the sky except the crescent moon that smiled wickedly down at me.

Suddenly, a single hand broke up from one of the graves. It was followed by more body parts, and soon, the living dead began to break up from the graves. They were dressed in fine clothes: expensive dresses and tuxedos. But most of them had waxy, half-decayed skin, and some had no skin at all.

I was terrified, but I forced myself not to move.

The dead circled around me and began chanting with Nico. Then from the grave in front of me rose a large, glowing blue spirit: an old man in a tuxedo. It must be James Garrison. He glared down at me, his eyes dark and cold and endless. Then he grabbed my shoulders and began to sink back into the earth. I felt a cold sensation in my toes, and for a second, I thought he was freezing me solid. Then I realized: my shoes were sinking into the dirt. The ghost was pulling me down with it.

I was starting to get really freaked out when a voice called, "Percy!"

I turned my head, disbelievingly. "Annabeth?"

There she was, running towards me, unaware of the ghosts around her, tears streaming down her face. "Wait, Percy!" she cried. "Stop!"

"Nico!" I yelled. "Stop the ritual!"

"What?" he said, momentarily breaking his chanting. "I can't stop now!"

"You have to!" said Annabeth, shaking him. "Please, Nico!"

I had sunk down to my ankles now. Nico glared at Annabeth for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision. He began chanting something else, much more rapidly. The dead groaned in protest, but they were being pulled back into their graves. The ghost of James Garrison roared in anger as he sunk back down into the dark. The clouds moved away and the stars shone bright once more as the last of the dead vanished and we were alone in the middle of a foggy graveyard.

I uprooted my feet from the dirt and turned to Annabeth, who was running towards me. "What is it?" I asked, but she tackled me with a hug before I could say anything else.

I put my arms around her as she held tightly to me. "Percy," she said, sobbing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just couldn't let you go. I…"

I turned so I was looking straight into her eyes. I saw there something I had never seen before; as if all of her mental defenses had been shattered, and now she was completely open. I saw something I suddenly realized I had wanted to see since I had danced with her on Mount Olympus, since we had tried to go on a date last summer when I had blown up my school's band room, since we had first kissed on Mount St. Helens. I saw the one emotion that I had wanted to see in her eyes all along: love.

I leaned my head forward, and she came up to meet me. I took a final breath, and kissed her with all my might.

When I broke away, I stared at her, waiting for a response. She stared into my eyes, and then she smiled, joy brimming in her face. "What was that for, Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

She hadn't called me that in so long, it made my heart melt to hear it again. I gently kissed her again, but stopped short when I heard applause coming from around the graveyard. I turned and saw the others emerging from the fog, applauding and grinning at each other. Even Tyson clapped, though he looked confused and disgusted. "Why are they kissing?" he asked Grover. The satyr just laughed and shook his head.

"Nicely done," called Jacob.

"Yeah! Encore, encore!" Rachel said, smiling, though she had a touch of hurt in her face. I made a note to talk to her later.

Suddenly I heard hysteric sobbing coming from someone who wasn't in our group. I turned to see a beautiful woman making her way towards us, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Oh, that was wonderful!" Aphrodite said. "Absolutely beautiful! Exactly how I wanted it to end!" She continued sobbing.

Annabeth looked at me. I laughed and shook my head. I was about to kiss her again when Aphrodite added, "Oh, and there are monsters attacking your campsite."

Laughter died. Smiles faded. Everyone said, "What?"

The goddess of love looked up. "Your campsite? It's under attack. Just thought I might let you kno-"

By then we were already sprinting back to the camp. "Good luck to you two!" Aphrodite called as we ran out of the graveyard. "Oh, and Jacob, don't think I'm finished with you! You'll get yours soon!"

It was pretty dark, but I thought I saw Jacob turn a deep shade of red.

Aphrodite was right. There were monsters attacking our camp. But they weren't the kind I was expecting. It was a herd of stags, glowing silver, which were trampling our things and…urinating on our mats.

"What?" Annabeth cried. "Shoo! Shoo!"

The stags didn't move, they just stared at each other in confusion.

Nico and I looked at Jacob. "Should you do the honors?"

He shrugged. "I guess, so we don't all get soaked." He drew Skysoarer and raised it in the air. "To me!" he called. Thunder rumbled, and a bolt of lightning struck Jacob's sword. This time, he let it charge on his blade, growing more powerful by the second. Then he finally released it on the campfire. The fire exploded and flared up ten feet in the air, and the stags scattered, terrified.

"Very nice," Grover said when the fire had returned to normal.

Annabeth was thinking hard. "Those were Artemis's stags, but why didn't they attack us? Why would they just sabotage our camp like that?"

"You say that like it's a good thing," Nico said in disgust, staring at the stag pee all over his bed mat.

We cleaned up the stag's mess and then sat around the fire and talked for a long time. I was worried about the stags, but I was too concentrated on the girl next to me to do anything about it. Annabeth's hand slipped into mine, and even though it was the first time I probably should've been embarrassed, I wasn't.

Late into the night, when I lay with my arm around Annabeth, who was sleeping peacefully, I realized Athena was not going to be happy with me. She hadn't even approved of me being friends with her daughter. This…this might be equal to smacking her in the face. I made a silent prayer: Athena, do not be angry with me for loving your daughter, and I will make sure it does not get in the way of our duties.

With that, I put my arm around my new girlfriend and was asleep within minutes.

Well, there you go. I hope you people are happy. I'm just resigning to the fact that I'm really bad at writing romance, which sucks, because I have to write even more pretty soon. I'll try and post a new chapter before camp, but until then, review!