A/N: And finally the update. I'm sorry it took so long. But after years and years of teachers promising that this school year would be hard, it finally happened. It's barely even October and I have a ton of homework. Anyway, there's one last chapter after this. Forget what I said in chapter 6. And as always, I'll try to update again quickly, but you know that isn't going to happen. But I'll try.

If you're ever feeling down, take a ride in a flying Lamborghini. It was the coolest thing ever. Not only was I driving the sweetest racecar ever invented by mankind, but I was also driving it across the sky and going far above the national speed limit, thanks to the two turbo solar-powered rockets in the back. I felt like I could do anything while driving this chariot, and it was one of the best sensations in the world. The best was having Silena smile at you. And I strongly recommend you try both, if possible.

"So, Beckster, how do she run?" asked Apollo. I grinned at him.

"Awesome."

"This is your favorite car, right?" Seeing the surprised expression on my face, he smirked and explained, "I know all… see all… woah there, watch out for the plane!" I veered sharply off course, avoiding a huge American Airlines 747. I wondered what the passengers saw, because I seriously doubted that they saw the sun turning to avoid hitting them.

"That was close."

"You're doing fine. Just fly a little higher up, we wouldn't want you burning up an entire city, now, would we?" I glanced out the window. We were already flying over Albany, probably making all the residents want to die from the heat (but, fortunately, not actually killing them). I turned the steering wheel slightly to the right, as per the GPS' directions, slowly but surely approaching my destination.

It was going to be so weird seeing everybody again, especially since, to the best of their knowledge, I was dead. But once everybody got over the awkwardness of that, it'd be fine. After all, we'd given up Percy for dead when he'd been in Ogygia. But I have to say, Annabeth was less than cool about it. She practically wrote him a love letter when we were burning his pyre, but nearly killed him when he showed up, alive and well, a few minutes later.

How would Silena react? I'm sure she'd be happy to see me. That is, if she doesn't already have another boyfriend. I've only been dead for a few weeks, it's true, but this is Silena Beauregard. I'm sure a guy has already asked her out at least twice by now, appropriate mourning period for her deceased boyfriend be damned.

"OK, start going down," said Apollo, jarring me from my thoughts. Seconds ago we'd been above Albany, and now I saw Camp Half-Blood just below us. I'd either been lost in thought for quite some time or this car had serious speed. I maneuvered the sun chariot and slowly started to descend towards camp, which kept getting bigger and bigger. I saw the mess hall, the cabins, the rec center, and even little people running around the arena, sword fighting. Home sweet home, I thought.

"And we're dropping," said Apollo. Before I could ask what he meant, he pulled a lever and I felt a tugging sensation in my gut, as if my bottom half was falling faster than my top half, like in cartoons. I looked out the window, but all I could see was a blur of sky, trees and grass. Grass? I slammed on the brakes, and we immediately came to a halt, about a foot clear of the ground.

"Excellent reflexes, my man! Skillfully done. Don't worry, I probably would've stopped us if you hadn't done that within the next few seconds."

"Probably?" I asked, becoming less and less convinced of this god's sanity.

"You're a son of Hephaestus. You know how to work these machines." He had a point, but I still wasn't about to ride with him again anytime soon. Apollo turned the key in the ignition, and we stepped down and out of the sun chariot, slamming the doors behind us. We had crash-landed just outside the camp borders. Thalia's pine tree with the Golden Fleece was only about a couple meters away.

"So," said the sun god, "I'm going to take off. Say hi to my kids for me." I nodded gratefully. He got back into his Lamborghini and drove on solid ground for a couple of feet before taking off and rocketing into the sky. I smiled to myself and started walking towards the Big House.

I noticed two people running down Half-Blood Hill. I couldn't make them out at first, but as they got closer I was able to make them out.

"Hey, Percy!" I called, "Annabeth!" They didn't seem to hear me, so I tore after them, limping slightly but still going pretty fast for a recently hospitalized son of Hephaestus. "Perce!" He looked in my direction, confused. Then I saw his turquoise eyes widen. And his jaw drop. And his feet stop moving.

"Beckendorf?" he asked, not believing his eyes. Annabeth had noticed that Percy had stopped moving and had turned around. When she saw me, she blinked twenty times in rapid succession to make sure I wasn't a hallucination, then pinched herself before she said anything.

"You're… you're…"

"I'm alive."