Annabeth's POV:

It gets harder every day, living without the luxury of his presence. When we were informed about the battle, I assumed that he would be brought back to life to train at Camp Half Blood.

But I have no such luck. Instead he was brought to the Underworld where he could train against other ghosts, and with Nico.

My feet trudge to any destination I desire, smiling and laughing are distant features that no longer reside on my face. Depression has once again won over any emotion that I possess, the only thing that can cure it is a certain sea green-eyed boy.

Each night I lay beside his grave while I gaze up at the stars, hoping that I will find him here like before. Time and time again my hope is crushed as the end result is always the same, a no show.

And the following mornings I sigh as I get up off the ground, brushing dirt and grass off of my body. I make sure to take a shower before everyone wakes up, after that is over with I proceed to sneak into my bed as if I had been there all night.

My attempts at acting normal are futile, by the worrying glances I often receive I can tell they see right through me. Thalia almost had a heart attack when she thought that I had turned to cutting myself to relieve my pain.

Flashback

Ever since Hades had taken Percy from me I had been training much more than necessary. It was the only distraction I could find that wouldn't let my mind wander to other things.

I was facing someone from the Ares Cabin, so he had to of course beat me or he would consider himself a "disgrace". He was new obviously.

I was trying to fake a jab at his side and then hit the other one, but he was faster and he slice my wrist. The excessive bleeding made me have to forfeit so that I could go treat it.

As I was making my way to the Big House Thalia caught sight of me and quickly ran over to hug me. Being Thalia 'hugging' actually means 'tackling'.

For the first time in a while I actually laughed as she started apologizing and got off of me. She reached her hand out to help me up and that's when she noticed my wrist.

Her face turned paler than it already was and she pointed at it like it was some terrifying beast.

"Annabeth? You know you can talk to people, right? There's me, Chiron, Grover, etc. you don't have to cut yoursel-" she started, her voice slow as if she were talking to a child. I quickly interrupted her.

"Thalia! I'm not cutting myself, silly! I was training and the new guy got me, I would never do that." I assured her. She breathed a sigh of relief and took me to the Big House.

But the agony was coming to an end, because today is the day that Percy faces Achilles.

Percy's POV:

I fell on the ground exhausted from training, I had been doing this constantly for a week now. The practice session was finally over, in a few minutes the big finale would start.

I can't say that I'm too confident about winning, between practices I would learn more about Achilles. Trying to find out what his weaknesses were, because invulnerability wouldn't help me anymore.

Suddenly I was transported to Mt. Olympus, I looked around and found myself in a huge arena. It looked like one that would be used for boxing.

It had ropes that looped around the arena in a square, and there were benches that reached taller than I would have thought possible. It made a cyclops look like an ant in comparison.

Every major and minor God was present, including everyone from Camp Half Blood and some people that I didn't know. I looked over at Achilles and he was glaring at me, there was no compassion in his cold, hard eyes and I knew he would show no mercy.

Hermes flashed in the middle of the ring and relayed the rules for us.

"Your Achilles Spots no longer exist because they were taken away from you when you died. So invulnerability will not help you, and make sure you remember that while battling. You cannot throw your opponent out of the ring." The God of Messages took a meaningful glance over at Achilles, and I was afraid to ask what he was planning on doing.

"The object of the battle is to hit your opponent in their old Achilles Spot. The winner will get a second shot at life and they will once again get their invulnerability back. The loser will return to the Underworld. Any questions?"

This was going to be a lot harder than I thought, I had assumed we'd fight to the death. But I figured this would give us both an even chance since the places we picked are very hard to reach.

When no one answered Hermes took that as a confirmation that there was no questions, he counted to three and bronze met bronze.

His slashes were very powerful, each time I blocked them his sword came closer to my body. I jabbed at his stomach and his legs between slashes, making a decent cut.

I knew that if I didn't take action his sword would overpower me. I quickly bent my body towards his foot and slashed at his foot. Hitting his Achilles Spot.

Little did I know that he had taken the opportunity to hit the small of my back with his sword while I was bent over.

We hit our targets at the same time. The audience gasped in pure shock as we both hit the ground convulsing in pain, my vision began to blur and I could hear faint screams.

Uh oh, a tie. So do they both get a second shot at life, or do they both return to the Underworld? Sorry, I know it's pretty short but I tried. More reviews, the faster the update. Thanks! :)