Well, I guess this is Goodbye. I thank everyone who has supported me, who has helped me, and who has helped me keep writing. I'm leaving messages for everyone. I love all of you and thank you so much for being with me. I'm not done writing; you'll see me around. I also want to say that I know this wasn't all good. I'm sorry if I offended anyone or if you just knew that this isn't good writing.
Anyway, the song of the chapter is Slow Fade by Casting Crow, and those are the Lyrics you see featured here.
I am also here to address the subject of my long-standing absence. I sincerely apologize, and I tried to make up for it with my 5,000+ word chapter. I really have no excuse and I don't want to keep you from the final chapter. I think I might be as mean as RR with the cliffy.
The reviewer awards will come tomorrow, because I have admission papers due for writing summer camp and I need to finish those before I do anything else. Really though, thank you for supporting me throughout all of my craziness. I love you all.
Annabeth's POV
I don't remember much of the rest of that night. Most of it was me crying, and the 'waterproof' mascara dripping down my face along with the trails of tears, carved into my face, paved for more sorrows to come.
I do remember Percy holding me, and smelling the cotton of his only black shirt, mixed with the scent of lavender, probably from the memorial garden Hermes had created.
His gentle fingers wrapping around my waist, practically carrying me to his room. That night I slept in his arms, my face buried into his shoulder. But the next night, I had to do something. We had to get out, because there was more than this, there was a world full of people who needed us.
So we held a campfire.
It's a slow fade, when you give yourself away.
Every glass of Ambrosia is gone, every morsel of blue sour strings seemed to have vaporized, leaving only Percy's guilty fingerprints, and a coating of blue dust, the fire burns low, and nearly all of the Apollo kids have dozed off, leaving only Will, humming softly as he wraps Percy's arm in the white bandages, that are finally, finally, unmarred by a red stain. Percy dropped off around the same time as Clovis.
He deserved it.
Deserved to finally, finally sleep.
But, even in sleep, his fingers were wrapped around mine, intertwined. His black-curled head lolled in my lap, and my fingers stroked the midnight locks. A small trail of drool snaked from the corner of his mouth to his collarbone, and, smiling, I wiped it off the back of my hand.
I wiped the saliva on my jeans, and nodded my thanks to Will, who smiled softly in return, and sat next to Clovis, snatching the pillow away, and falling asleep.
The soft smile remaining on my face disappeared along with Will's consciousness. I got up, gently lifting Percy's head, stealing Nico's pillow, knowing he would want Percy to have it anyway, and gently depositing the bandaged head of my boyfriend onto the pillow. Percy moaned softly, and I froze, but he just shifted in his sleep.
I sighed softly as I carefully disentangled his fingers from mine. He was reluctant to let go, even in sleep, but with careful movements, I managed to unwrap his grip on my wrist, without waking him up. I looked around once more; making sure no one was awake. A quick check confirmed that even Chiron had fallen asleep. Mr. D, as usual was nowhere in sight, and so, quietly, ever so quietly, I snuck over to the Artemis cabin, where Thalia had locked herself in. I knew that, same as me, there was no way we were going to fall asleep.
I knocked, and quietly waited for Thalia to open the door. The oak-carved door slid open with a silver glow, as Thalia unlocked the charms that would refuse my entry. I pulled her into a hug and I felt tears slide into my hair. But I couldn't really complain, as her shirt soaked up my own sobs. Her arms shook with the weight of her sorrow, and for a second I was seven again, comforting her as we mourned for Hal, the man who had saved them. But neither of us had cried as hard as we did now.
"He's gone. I always thought, that, he, might come back." She said as she pulled away, hands remaining on my shoulders. I nodded. "I never believed it. Not really. There's no way that, that Luke could go completely dark." My head journeyed up and down in agreement. Luke would never do that. Luke wasn't like that, he wasn't evil. Not Luke. Never Luke.
"Who could have thought," I start tearfully, "That our savior was our undoing." I can tell I've cheered her up at least a little bit.
"My savior? I saved him from that dragon, and from that hammer you had pointed at him." She smiles through the tear tracks forming on her face.
I take her hand, and together we go out to where Luke's body lays, in a secluded, peaceful spot.
He looks like he could be sleeping. So peaceful, finally at rest. The turmoil inside him finally, finally quieted.
More tears find their way down my face, leaving trails down tan skin.
I had stolen fabric from the Pavilion, and together, Thalia, and me because we knew him best, made a shroud for the son of Hermes. Even though he was loathe admitting it, he still thought of himself as Hermes's child.
Embroidered with his name, with the Cacadeus of his father, with one shimmering image, of him.
His shaggy blond hair, in the back, tips nearly brushed his collarbone, bangs hovering centimeters above his eyelids.
His bright, icy eyes, which were so, so incredibly blue, that it was damn near impossible not to lose yourself in the tones of the winter sky.
The scar, pink from age, running from the corner of his right eye to his neck. It only enhanced his already flawless 'bad boy' image.
Together, Thalia and me carried Luke's body to the campfire, where barely visible grey flames still burned. The camp was already there, dressed in the traditional black of mourning. Every camper had known Luke. And nearly everyone still did.
We placed his body the bunk that marked him as Hermes camp councilor. Connor and Travis would live.
Thalia went first. She took his face, gently, in her hands, looked it over one last time, whispering. I heard the words she meant for Luke, and the silent tears came back. Thalia's own suffering had made an appearance, and saltwater dripped onto Luke's dress shirt. His favorite one. She kissed his forehead softly, and whispered, "Goodbye."
The Hermes cabin went next, each member whispering a goodbye, and a thank you. Then, Travis and Conner simultaneously took his hands, each speaking a simple charm. Luke's body briefly glowed, and then the glow faded.
Next was Percy. He gave a speech, to everyone, but talking to Luke.
"Luke, I remember the first day I met you. You taught me how to do a disarming move that saved my life. A year passed, and you almost killed the girl who would become my favorite immortal cousin."
He got a few weak smiles for that. Thalia shot him a combination glare-grin, but tears continued to rain down her face, while Apollo feigned a hurt look.
"Another year, and you almost destroyed my home. One more year, before the prophecy, that decreed I would die, was fulfilled. It killed you instead. Three days later, you led an attack that Thalia's tree barely fended off. I knew I had to do something. We both contributed to the plan that killed you.
"Thank you for helping me save her, for teaching me the fighting move that would save my life. Most of all, thank you for leaving me this camp to protect. I will do my best to do I as well as you did. Luke, you did some bad things. But that's okay. Because you made up for it, in the beginning, and in your final moments. You deserve Elysium, Luke. One day I'll see you and shake your hand."
I smiled through tears, and Percy's lips quirked upwards as he put Luke's sword, Backbiter, on his chest, the unique bond between sword and wielder reforged. It would burn with him.
It was my turn now. I was whispering, this was my moment; this was for me and Luke. Only us.
"Hey, Luke." I started. I hadn't had a conversation like this with him, since I was twelve and he had left to join Kronos. "I missed you. You practically raised me. My dad kicked me out, and after a few weeks, you were taking care of me. I loved you in all the ways a girl can love someone. As a father, brother, friend, I even thought I was in love with you for a while." I let out a bitter laugh. "But you probably knew that.
"Once I realized I was in love with Percy, I wanted you to come back. I wanted you to help my father give me away.
"Because really, you had raised me, from the moment you found me, in those stupid frog pajamas. But then this came up.
"Luke, I'm so sorry this happened to you. You never deserved this, not any of it. The gods wronged you and you were hurt but none of this was your fault. None of it. He was using you, playing with your emotions until you broke.
"I know that if you were here you'd give me so much crap to stop crying and being so sentimental, but I'd never had a real friend, someone I could count on to always protect me until you came along.
"I'm going to miss you to the ends of the earth, and I hope that one day, I'll see you in Elysium. I love you, Luke, and you deserve more than I can give you. But I'll keep trying to make you proud until I can see you again. Bye' Luke." Percy handed me the torch, and as tears slid down my cheeks, Luke's body burned.
It's a slow fade. When black and White have turned to grey.
Smoke had long since stopped billowing it's sorrowful column into the churning sky, but mascara still stained the worn faces of Aphrodite's daughters, and the chiseled faces of Hecate's sons remained worn by the constant stream of Saltwater.
Hermes had come to see his sons shroud burn. He had sworn on the river Styx that none of his children would ever be forgotten again, and then he proceeded to rebuild his cabin, allowing bunks for every child currently taking residence in his cabin. The resulting establishment's size rivaled that of the big house.
All in all, the Camp had pretty much returned to the normal preparing for battle. Clarisse had been at the wrestling ring all day, training with the younger ones, while the older ones prepared for the front lines.
I had personally sparred with twenty people every hour, teaching them how to look for the flaws, for the chinks, showing them all my best tricks. We had to be prepared.
No one else could get hurt because of this.
I was wearing nothing but black, the orange of my t-shirt hidden underneath the dress Thalia had lent me. I was in mourning, I needed to respect Luke, and if I couldn't stay at his grave, I was going to offer all the respect I could.
I hadn't let Percy near me since the funeral, and sometimes, as I ate, I caught him starring at me with a wistful look on his face.
I knew he deserved better than this, but I couldn't bring myself to talk to him. Not after Luke, it was too soon.
I knew we didn't have time, and that it was very likely that one or both of us would be dead in a matter of days, but it hurt to be with him right now.
Thoughts will invade.
It hurt to stay away from her. I missed her so much, and I needed and wanted her by my side, but I knew that it would be a douche move to take advantage over her while she was grieving over Luke.
I wasn't stupid; I knew that she had had a crush on Luke. I knew that it would be like if Annabeth had died for me.
But at the same time, I knew that they were coming closer. I knew that all our days were numbered. I knew that if we were going to die, then I wanted to spend my last days with her.
I watched her, dressed in that black dress, as she spun, manipulating her dagger, her dress flared out around her, and she looked as stunningly deadly as her mother does.
The training was intense, and every kid at camp half blood went to bed tired. Travis and Connor had stopped playing pranks on people, all of their efforts going out to their cabin mates, and training them. Every Hermes kid now knew how to make a bomb, turn a bobby pin into a dagger, and survive for a year off three-day rations.
The Hecate cabin built kits for every camper, each containing three spare weapons enough food for the three day-two years plan discussed above, and a help button that would send coordinates to Camp, activating a tracking device, that would allow the stray half-blood to be rescued.
It had been a week, and Annabeth had finally stopped wearing the dress, finally started to let me in, and together we sat, trained, and watched over the camp every night.
We were literally running on caffeine now, that and whatever blue food rations managed to make it from Olympus.
The camp had settled into this aura of impending doom. No one smiled anymore. Everyone had this hurry about them, and from the smallest kid to the oldest counselor had purplish tints under their eyes.
The only plus side, was that slowly, everyone began to trust each other. I don't mean the uneasy alliances formed between cabins for capture the flag.
I'm talking about the morning when Leo just came to the Ares cabin and handed out new Celestial bronze spears to every camper who had once sworn to kill him.
I'm talking about how Aphrodite's youngest camper, a little girl named Lisa put her hands over Thalia's, showing her how to properly mask one's scent, by spreading perfume everywhere, confusing the enemy.
I'm talking about how Dionysus finally started calling me Percy Jackson, how Connor and Travis started weaving traps for Athena's cabin, instead of setting spiders.
It was for a terrible reason, but I couldn't deny that it was helping my camp.
The two weeks were filled with tension, and smiles that looked more like grimacing, but after hours, Annabeth and I ran patrol nearly every night, and only after three nights without sleep did I finally take a two-hour nap.
We all knew it was coming, but no one wanted to be the one to say it.
There was no way to say this.
No way to tell everyone that I loved that they were all going to die.
Choices are made
"Do you think we've given them enough time to grieve?" The golden-eyed titan turned to his brother.
"We should have given them none." Hyperion growled back, scowling, "they turned me into a gods dammed tree. They need to be punished.
Kronos stifled a laugh, oh, how his brothers were so easily infuriated. How easy it was to persuade them to die for him. Gaea's favorite, the real leader of Olympus. "Yes of course, but Percy Jackson must be mine. Is that clear, children?
The door behind them flew open, revealing the three girls, all dressed in the shredded remains of Orange T-shirts.
"But sir, you promised that we would get revenge on Percy, for what he did, for who he killed-"
"So I did, Evelyn." Kronos replied smoothly, walking to her, and absently stroking her amber curls. The girl's throat tightened, her hands curling into angered fists at her side. Though she stayed silent. "And you shall pay a crucial part in his fall."
She exhaled, relaxing, and smiling up at the supposed king, as she turned to her siblings. "You remember what he did to Silena, tricking her into fighting on his side." She looked back at the melted honey-cube eyes of Kronos. "Anything we can do. We loved Silena and she didn't deserve to die, especially like that. But I want Clarrise in a cell once this is over."
He smiled down at her as though she was a small child, getting her first taste of real company. As though she was the cutest thing he had seen in a long while, which considering the fact that he enjoyed watching rats reproduce, was probably true. "Don't worry child. You shall get your revenge."
She grinned up at him, like a small child who had just been given candy. But then, his already tight grip on her hair increased, and she whimpered.
"You doubted me, Eve? Doubted that with me you would get everything you had asked for. I PROMISED REVENGE DID I NOT?" He snapped her neck with a twist of his fingers. Her limp body lay at the feet of the Aphrodite twins, her green eyes looking on lifelessly.
"Revenge for me. Run along now childen, and tell the others that I will not tolerate insubordination from anyone." The blond children at his feet trembled, grasping hands and running off.
Kronos turned back to his brother, eyes flashing a darker shade of gold in the curtain-darkened light. "We've given them much too much time. Let them know we are coming!"
Price will be paid
We could hear them coming from over three miles away. We had everyone in his or her best battle positions. The hunters, along with Apollo's kids were up in the towers, prepared to fire spears, arrows, and other sharp, pointy stick thingys at the enemy.
Athena and every Camper who didn't want to fight was back at the newly dubbed 'mothership', yelling into every cabin's leader what to tell their team. It made me feel a lot better that Annabeth was going to stay out of this.
Every war building we had surrounded the 'mothership' and the infirmary. We had a rescue team, and every camper, on the backpack, had a tracking device.
The mothership featured a big, Hunger Games-like table (I see movies, it's not a crime) and every camper we had was on a 3-D image. It really hadn't taken that long to set up, but I still thought it was super cool.
Maybe it was stupid of me to think like that, right before I die, but my ADHD is awesome like that.
Annabeth had drilled the plan into me at least seventeen times. I let the rest of the camp attack, and I sneak behind and kill as many as I can with the arrows, and then, I get Kronos with my pen.
That's never going to stop sounding weird. Killing something with my pen. Oh well. Annabeth always said that the pen is mightier than the sword, but what if the pen is the sword?
This exactly the kind of crap I should be avoiding right before my imminent doom.
But, the urge to think is too firmly implanted into my brain.
And as these thoughts, stupid as they were, circled around in my head, I saw them coming.
It wasn't like those last, waves of monsters.
No, these legions, were perfectly in line, every monster with a group of it's kind. Emposai formed a wall around the thirty-foot-tall Cyclopes, and every kind of Hell Hound Nico had ever described was there, gruesome as ever and in the front line. Mrs. O' Leary whimpered at the sight of the dogs that used to be her brothers.
Every single monster I've ever seen, and a few I probably haven't stand before me, in a perfectly uniform line, the most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen Dionysus half-naked in a hot tub.
I almost had to have Leo burn off my eyes. But then I had the whole kidnapping thing with Kronos, and… yeah.
So from the mothership, I could see a tiny copy of every single monster, it's exact movements, and I had their plan mapped out for me.
They had three waves, the first made entirely out of Hellhounds and their owners, most of which I had met, and who had yelled things that would be censored on an X rated movie. It's a good thing most of them went to Tartarus… Oh wait, they're back.
Our plan for the first wave was to attack them with our stongest forces, Ares, and Leo's machines. Before he died, Beck had shown Leo how to work Festus, as Leo called him, and that included how to melt an island of Celestial Bronze in under three minutes.
Hell Hounds hated heat. That's why Hell is cold.
For the second wave, they had a combination of minor demons (Emposai, Hydras, Giant Killer Crabs, that sort of thing), and Big, Big monsters, like the Minotaur, a baby Drakon, and a couple of the Minor Titans. Jason, Thalia, the hunters, and everyone who wasn't going with Percy was going here, because they were the biggest threat they could do something about. The nymphs were going to kill anything that made its way past us, doing their duty to protect the camp.
Percy and his group of five or so were going to sneak around, and attack from the sides and back, where Kronos was most likely to be hiding. Without a leader, the monsters would fall, Percy would be avenged, and we would be safe.
This was going to be easy.
"Clarisse, I need you and your kids to get the front line. You're gonna want to bait them away, and then leave them for the Hephaestus kids. They need fire and a special kind of weapon.
"Leo, help Clarisse, half of your kids with Ares, and half with the Hunters."
"Jason, sneak around with Percy. I don't care how you do it, but you keep him alive, understand me?"
"Nico, you, Bianca and Hazel need to concentrate on the Hell Hounds, and if you can't get them to listen then get the word out on how to kill them. Keep Mrs. O' Leary close, for extra defense since Bianca's still recovering." Without the mothership, I can tell that Bianca's cheeks are red.
I watch out of the corner of my eye, as the field half of Apollo firebomb arrows in perfect synchrony.
It's a beautiful show, watching ten Cyclopes go down at once, incapacitating at least a tenth of the last wave.
Back on the first wave, the front line has almost completely dissolved, and on either side, the monsters are starting to converge, panicking. It's a beautiful sight, all the monsters cramming in on themselves, running away. Now that I'm sure that my campers will be all right, I rotate the board so that the miniature Percy is facing me.
He's so determined to win this. It's not about revenge for him, it never has been. It's not the thrill of killing something. It's not about avenging the months of his life he lost.
It's about protecting the people who he loves.
I can see it now, as he walks slightly ahead of everybody else. It's not arrogance, not pride. He won't let them go ahead because he's not sure it safe. He'd rather be hurt than any of them.
I stand, knocking over the chair in my rush. I can't let him go with anyone else. His flaw, his fatal flaw, they have to leave.
He can do this alone. He can. Decisions race through my mind, leave him alone, or leave him protected but vulnerable in the worst way.
"Jason, Thalia, Piper, I need you to attack from the sides. Use whatever advantage you can get. Will, find a tree and start shooting. Confuse them, distract them. This is a war people, Go!"
I can see them moving from the screen out of the corner of my eye, but I don't stop the see them.
"Team, I'm heading out, you know how to take control of the mothership, Malcolm, she'll recognize you as leader now. Good luck."
As I run, I can hear their faint protests behind me, but I don't care. I rip off the earpiece, throwing it at Drew. I point to my ear, and she gets the message, entering the building as she pops the headpiece in.
I run towards the battle, and jump in wherever I see people who need help. It's not hard to find something to do, because they outnumber us nearly 20 to 1 even after what we've done so far.
I let the work drown me out. Anything but think of what Percy is doing right now. Anything but the seven bodies in orange T-shirts on the ground, too late for Apollo to save.
All I can do is watch as my knife dances across throats, into hearts, avoiding anything human, because I won't hurt any of my old comrades, no matter what they've done.
Everything becomes a blur of red around me, running aimlessly, because I won't let those seven people die in vain.
I have to save them, because that's all I can do, and I can't do it by standing in front of a screen. I may not be able to save Percy, but I can save them.
Percy POV
My whole team just ditched me. I whip my head rapidly, twisting so that I face upwards, at Will, who is shooting arrows at the sea of monsters. (A/N: See what I did there?) Gritting my teeth, I run even faster in the direction of Kronos.
"Annabeth?" I ask into my earpiece, desperately hoping that she'll answer.
"Percy? Percy is that you?" Drew's voice blares through my ears, and I almost cringe at the way she's yelling, sounding so panicked.
"Yeah. Stop shouting. It's okay. I'm here and you're fine. Where's Annabeth?" Trees blur around me, and I duck to find cover, whispering, because I can hear them, and that's why my team had to leave. Because they're looking for me.
Drew sound like she's crying, and I can hear by the pattern of the static that she's in the mothership, and that the Athena kids are trying to take it from her but she won't let them.
"She just-" Sniff"-ran off. And I don't know where she is, she just left."
"It's okay Drew. Just give it to Malcolm." He's the only one of Annabeth's brothers that I can think of right now.
"I don't want you to die, Percy." She sniffs one last time, and then Malcolm has it.
"Get her safe, you hear me?" I was whisper-yelling, driven by memories, old and new of pleas and cries for help. Dreams and shadows of memories whipped around my head, taunts and torments that only made me stronger disappearing into the same void where every piece of math I'd ever learned had gone long ago. "Get them all safe."
"Yeah. They're fine Percy, we're doing just fine." With that reassurance, I clicked off the earpiece, crunching it under my foot.
I needed to think, really think for once. They're looking for me, the monsters are, and they'll find me soon enough.
"Head down, look for cover. Hide Percy!" Annabeth's voice rang in my head, echoing, clear where everything else was blurred.
I was army crawling now, easier to get down, to hide, than to let them get to me that easily. If I had to crawl the whole way to Kronos just to avoid them, I would.
I couldn't let him get me again. Luke.
How truly easy it was to manipulate all of hell from the hands of this tiny vessel. Really, he was surprised at how little legwork it had taken to get him to the top. They had begun falling over him as soon as he got back, and he didn't even need to kill any virgins. Destiny's puppet he had been for too long, stuck in that infernal cage, trapped for so many years, unable to so anything but scream, though no one could hear him. Whatever looked funnest he tried and yet, none of the hell-creatures could see past it.
He had a guide, he knew what the ultimate goal was, knew exactly what he had to do. He had to break the son of the sea god, shatter him so hard that no one would ever be able to put him back together. And once that was done, he could be used as a vessel. The plan had never been to kill him, no matter what he told the lackeys.
No, for Percy, Percy was the ultimate prize, as the Winchesters to the Angels, there was a guide for this sort of thing. Each of them had his intended vessel, his perfect match, and for so long Kronos had awaited this boy, this green-eyed child, of sixteen years old.
Oh, he sounded pedophilic. One of the perks of being an evil criminal, is that no one minds it a bit if you sound that way. See, most people, most analytical people, simply assumed it was another part of being an evil lord of time. See, some people assumed that he was a Time Lord, but no. His planet was here in the earth solar system, the Americans had taken to calling it Uranus, after his Roman form, but no, the Time Lords existed in an entirely different universe.
He could also acknowledge different universes without sounding insane. He had many different abilities that no one could ever really acknowledge. No one understood everything that he could do and no one ever would. He liked it better that way.
Percy Jackson would be his. He didn't care how it happened, didn't care how he got permission, didn't understand how the River Styx could possibly work twice, but he knew that it would.
That much he understood.
People Never Crumble in a Day…