Hi everyone, I don't know how long this chapter is going to take me, but I hope I won't keep you waiting too long. Without further a due, here it is.

Luke POV

I'm scared. Kronos is making everything change. Annabeth is hurting because Percy is hurting, even if it's just a mirage. He said he wouldn't hurt her and now he's disappeared. I feel him in me; the same anger is in my mind and his thoughts run through my head every so often. I feel like I'm losing my self. Maybe this was the way he always wanted to take over everything. He is taking them apart one by one. I thought he was going to help me, but it turns out he is only in this plan for himself. The savior is alone, the acrophobic on an airplane, high in the sky, the environmentalist in a garbage site and his girlfriend stuck as her true form. Then there's the impossible trio. I barely understand anything about them and don't try to. The dead girl, the boy who likes fire and the animal boy. The girl in a room of fire, unable to move. The pyromaniac in a room with nothing to do. The animal boy as an ant.

Everyone is where they were planned to be, but I never meant for anyone to be hurt. I only wanted Annabeth to be safe and free from her home of the Gods. I don't understand why Kronos has to torture each of them like this. It's wrong. It may have been my idea, but idea's and thoughts always change. Life is complicated and I love Annabeth. I helped Kronos. Why would he hurt me by hurting her?

Kronos and I were meant to be some kind of team. I help him if he helps me. I guess that's just not how he works.

I said I would help Kronos for his help in return. He told me he wouldn't harm Annabeth in any way. I helped him and he used me to get his own revenge and I couldn't see it because I was so wrapped up in myself. I have to save Annabeth again before it's too late. Kronos is with me all the time. His mind is my mind and it hurts so much. I have to stop him before it's -

Percy's POV

The mist is everywhere. It's strange somehow that everything just disappeared. I don't know why I'm here. It was all going so well and now we're just here, dying. I can feel the pain, and see the monster coming out of the shadows. I think I will end up actually dying here, with this crazy world where Annabeth doesn't exist and where I'm a demi-god with insane powers and have brilliant memories. I'm going to die here tonight, as a useless Hero. And Annabeth will be alone, wherever she is. If she's in the mist, I will try to find her. Maybe we are both going to die. I can't let Annabeth be alone.

Nico and Thalia were both running backwards to the back of the cave, cowering against the wall. Then I remember something. A pen. I reach inside my pocket and find the pen. The thing had never worked, ever since my mum gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday. I'd taken it apart many times and never fond anything wrong with it. Now I remember and know why it never worked. Because it's not a pen at all. Shock of all, my seemingly ballpoint pen is actually a sword. I know, it's absolutely crazy.

I take the pen out and click it, the giant sword bursting out from the tip. Nico and Thalia jump back in surprise at the sword and I try to protect them. The monster lunges at us, greedy jaws gnashing and teeth smashing against each other, reaching for us. I leap back and press Nico and Thalia against the wall.

"Percy! What are you doing?" Thalia asks, scared for once. "What are you doing with that pen. And honestly, I think you scared the old man." I turn to her and back again to the monster. It was still the gigantic beast, rattling it's head at us and growling threateningly. And the thing in my hand was still a sword. Why would Thalia think otherwise? It's a sword and a monster. Not a pen and an old man. Why would she... The mist. She can't see through the mist. She still believes she is totally human, not demi-god. I remember everything. The fights of camp, the sweet smelling strawberries emanating from the field over the hill. The great feeling of another quest being completed with my best friends at my side. Then there was Luke. Luke was dead. Wasn't he? That memory was still kind of blurry. But there they were; Nico and Thalia. Nico fighting with a dark blade and Thalia in a group of girls, firing arrows til Olympus come.

"Thalia, look through the mist. You will see it!" I shout.

"Percy, get off me," she says, her voice harsh. I move away from her, just as she pushes me. She walks over to the seething monster and it slashes a clawed hand toward her, missing her by mere inches. How she didn't see that, I have no idea. "I'm so sorry sir," she says. "would you like a hand with anything?" It was a first for Thalia to be talking politely to someone, much less a monster. The monster seemed to think so too as he clawed her face and stuck her with such force, she flew across the room, crashing into a wall and laying, slumped, against the floor. She looked to be unconscious, and I hoped that were only the way.

"Thalia!" I shout, to her, hoping for some kind of response. She lay still. Still as if she were - No, I can't say that. She isn't. She can't be. She's Thalia. Invincible, harmless, strong Thalia. She just can't be.

The monster bellows and begins to move toward her, it's heavy body making it slow, but largeness making the small space between him and her even smaller. I am too stunned to even move. Luckily, Nico snaps back into reality before I can, running to her.

"Percy!" he shouts. "The sword!" My mind clicks back into place and I throw the sword to Nico who catches it deftly, fending off the monster and just chipping off a part of his long matted hair. It roars and reers upwards. Nico slashes the sword through the air, slicing off a hand from the monster. Black blood oozes onto the floor of the cave. Sword. Nico can see it. He knows. And suddenly there is hope yet.

Thalia twitches and I go to her, immediately trying to see where she is hurt. I place my hands over her abdomen and see it. A large patch of blood is bubbling over in deep red puddles. Thalia is bleeding out, and still unconscious. At least we know she isn't dead. Yet. I press my hand to her wound, trying to stem the bleeding, but nothing is working.

"Nico," she mumbles, her eyes fluttering. "Where?"

"It's okay Thalia, I'll get him." Her face tightens in pain and I try to see Nico in the darkness. It's more difficult given he has taken to wearing black clothes. For his next birthday, I am buying him a white shirt. Eventually I spot him, sparring with the animal. "Nico! Get over here!"

"Kinda busy at the moment, Perce!" he shouts back.

"I'll swap for you. Your girlfriends asking for you!" I say, trying to catch his attention slightly.

"I'll be right there, gimme a minute!"

"She doesn't have a minute!" I yell, anger coursing through me. I pull off my jacket and press it to Thalia's wound and panic. A lot. I turn back to watch Nico, struggling to hold off the monster. He slashes the sword through the air and slices off a claw, almost reaching his skin. The monster glances down at his stump of an arm and Nico takes the opportunity and stabs the sword right through the middle of him, causing the giant to stagger backwards and fall flat, dying. Nico drags the sword from the chest and runs back to us; Thalia and I, that is.

"Thals," he says, laying the sword, clattering, on the floor beside her. I take it and click it back into a pen, sit down and watch Thalia try to open her eyes. She squints in the darkness, a slit of the piercing blue showing through her eyelashes. Nico sweeps a stray part of her fringe away from her face, his face calm, breathing unsteady. "Don't do this," he says, putting pressure on the wound.

"Why not?" Thalia utters.

"Because," Nico answers, as if it were the easiest question in the world. "I'm going to miss you. So just don't even think about it."

"So stubborn," she replies right back. "I'll try to..." she coughs suddenly and blood dribbles from her mouth and down her chin. Her eyelids flutter again and her breathing shallows a little bit more. "Taken... own... stupid me. Mist. Dad. Nico... I love..." It seems as if the world stops, just in that second. One moment she is muttering her last goodbye, the second, she is gone before the final word is said. Before Nico can say 'goodbye' back to her. All he can do is cry and all she can do is move to another part of life and death, laying here in this hellhole of a remembrance. All I can do is think that this is my fault. If I hadn't have brought Annabeth to my house, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have been kidnapped, Annabeth wouldn't have been taken from me, we wouldn't be in this strange cave and Thalia would be alive.

There is a low rumbling in the background. Nico hasn't noticed it. Maybe it doesn't exist. Maybe nothing exists. Maybe we are all dead and this is just hell, Hades torturing us for what we've done over the years. But he wouldn't hurt Nico, would he? Maybe he would. Maybe nothing I know is real. Maybe life is just one big massive lie. All this crap about demi-gods, monsters and myths aren't real. Maybe I'm not real. What if we are all pawns in His games. Whoever He is. So what if we are demi-gods or humans, everyone dies in the end. Even the strongest of us.

And that's my thought as Nico's scream echoes through the cave, the monster crushing his body between two stumps that were once hands. That's the though I have when I face the monster myself, only expecting his or my own demise and nothing more, nothing less.

Lauren's POV

I run through the empty halls, searching for some kind of sign. A water source would be great, but just recognition from my mother would be possibly better. I need to know she is with us in this world, as well as in the half-place with Annabeth.

To love is to destroy.

I need to destroy the love. What does that even mean? I need to kill the love? That's not even possible because love isn't an object, it's a feeling. Feelings can't be destroyed, only the owner of the feeling, which cuts off all the connection. I need to destroy the connection between the worlds, therefore destroying everything. Kronos can't put me in that half-world because I entered the world on my own. I can stop this. But how?

Leo's explosives!

I am going to take down this building and there will be no connector between the places. Only the place between and home. Percy and Annabeth can still be saved.

I run back into the room and grab the explosives, lighting them.

Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven...

"That's Karma, baby," I say, grinning at the moment. Maybe Leo will remember me after all this.

Six, Five, Four, Three, Two...

"Goodbye for now."

One.

Percy's POV

I killed it and it disappeared. I kill the monster that killed my friends. And now everything has disappeared. The monster turned to dust and so did my friends, leaving only me. The cave vanished too and the red mist is back. There is nothing but the images in mt head. It feels as though someone has planted them there. All of them are images of my friends dying, covered in blood and straining for their final breaths. It is horrible to watch them suffer over. And over. And over again. Each time, a different method.

"Percy!" calls a distraught voice from far away. Is that? No. It can't be. She's gone. She's dead. "Percy? Are you there? Please!" That isn't anyone else's voice. It has to be her. Annabeth.

"Annabeth?" I call back, cautious.

"Percy?" she says back, now sounding completely confused. "Percy, is that you?" I hear the voice before seeing the flash of blonde hair through the mist, flicking through the almost-shadows of the place. I rush toward the flicker, but there is nothing there. She has gone. Where? She was there!

Patience Percy. A voice drifts into my head. You will find her, alive and well. She is looking for you too. How is she alive? Where? When? What happened?

I see the flash of blonde, mere metres from me and cannot stop from calling out to her.

"Annabeth!" I shout. The blonde head flickers and turns around, face tear-streaked and panicking. Her eyes are dark, but not angry, like the look I feel I know too well by now.

"Percy!" she cries, flinging her light arms around my shoulders and holding me close. Well, trying to anyway. Instead of locking a hard grip around me, her hands fall through my shoulders and a cold feeling passes through my chest. I gasp at the sudden iciness over my heart where her hands fell. I reach out to touch her, unbelieving, but my fingers only sink through her body and she shivers involuntarily.

"Where are we?" I ask her, all disappearing skins aside. She looks blank for a second, before registering that I said anything at all.

"I was hoping you knew the answer to that," she admits, looking guilty. Annabeth glances around at the mist between and holding us, thinking deeply. I see the concentration in her eyes. "How did we even get here? What happened to you?"

"What happened to me? Nothing. What happened to you? You died!" I shout, almost incredulous.

"I never died. I was shot and then I got here. Then you died." I died? I don't remember dying. Then again, I wouldn't ever remember dying. "I watched them all die." I hated that too. Watching all my friends slowly die, come back to life, then die all over again. I want to hold Annabeth, knowing exactly how she feels. It just hurts like Hades and so much more.

"He's trying to punish you," comes a familiar voice, crackling like an intercom.

"Luke!" Annabeth exclaims, her eyes wild and searching around for him, immediately moving away from me. I swore I knew that voice from somewhere. It was Luke, the crazy demi-god. "Where are you? I need to see you! Luke! Who's punishing us?"

"Annie," he breathes. "It's Kronos. I never meant to hurt you. He's trying to take you apart. Bit. By. Bit." This was the Luke who shot her. Why would she even talk to him after that? I think my memories are still so jumbled up. "I'm part of the interface. This is only a bit of what connection I have le - AHHHHHH!"

"Luke!" she yells, running about, searching for him. "What's wrong? Where are you?"

"Annabeth," he says, breathless. "Kronos is here, with me. He's coming for me. It hurts to talk. He's in me, killing me. I don't know what to do Annie. I'm scared. But I have to help you after all the things I've done."

"Luke," Annabeth says. "It's okay, I forgive you. It wasn't you. What do we need to do?" I feel like I'm intruding on a private conversation, but they continue anyway.

"Kronos is playing one giant game. You need to shut the game down to take him apart. The mainframe was already taken down by your sister, Lauren. There's only - AHHHHHHH! CASTELLAN!" What I guess must be Kronos voice, since Luke has gone and it was implied that Kronos was taking over his mind and body. Kronos - presumably - cackles and cuts off the vital information we need to end it all.

"You have a weapon?" Annabeth asks, holding her hand out. I pull out my gun and hand it to her skeptical that she might actually be able to take it. Despite my negative thoughts, she took the gun and rattled it. Satisfied, she handed it back and said, "shoot me."

Shoot her? Why would I shoot her? I can't do that. "I can't shoot you, Annabeth," I say, my voice cracking slightly. "That's insane."

"You have to. It's the only way," Luke's voice says, returning to the connection. The voice of wisdom, in this case. Great. The same boy of evil is now giving us advice. "There's nothing else you can do. Nothing that doesn't involve destruction, unfortunately."

"To give a gameover," Annabeth says, "all characters must die or cease to exist in the present game. This establishes a loss of game, or winner."

"But we'll die!" I cry, desperate for some other way to end the game. By winning in the best case scenario.

"And we will return to our neutral position. Camp. We can go back to Chiron and to our world, not this weird place. This is only a game, Percy."

"She's right, Percy. She always is." Just then, I see a ghost of a smile playing on Annabeth's lips. The smile she would have for a past love. Hades, there are many things I don't know or remember, but this is one those which I don't wish to know. "I can keep the connection for you two open long enough to fire the shots. I would kill you both myself, but I'm a bit preoccupied trying to keep you talking to each other as it is. Don't waste time. I'd rather die than be with him."

"I think you're good guy, Luke. It's just a shame Kronos took you under his wing," I say. "I hope you can get away from him and come back to camp, without killing anyone.

"Just shut your eyes, Percy. I'll be here when you wake up," Annabeth whispers, so close I feel her breath on my skin. Wake up. What if I don't? Then all this will be for nothing. "Be calm." I take in her final words and load the shot, shutting my eyes. The gun is almost on auto-pilot as it fires a single bullet straight at her. I load the second shot, horrified, but relieved. In the back of my mind, Luke speaks to me one last time.

"Look after her, Percy. Look after her like I didn't."

That was when I turned the gun on myself, through the head, and pulled the trigger, hearing the crack like an explosion before the world went dark and I just went down to hell with it all, screaming from the inside.

Well, I hope you really enjoyed that :D I get that it took me ages to write, but effectively, it only took three days. I just started it later than I planned.

I guess there will only be one more chapter - an epilogue - and I am kind of relieved to have this one finished. Thank you for all the support in this story and I really hope it wasn't too depressing or boring for you.