And now . . . the final part!

Annabeth opened the door to Percys room. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying three days in a row. She still couldn't believe, he was gone. Gone, gone, gone. Gone forever. And she just heard him say he loved her, she finally got him to tell her, to say the truth. And then, she had to let him go. Until she couldn't anymore. Until she decided to jump out of bed this day, ignoring her groaning siblings giving her irritated looks and ran out of the cabin.

Tears started to fall again, wetting her cheeks which became a little less shrunken since she met him that day. Since she told him how much she loved him. Since he told her that too. For the first time. In ever. It had made her love him even more and all she wanted to do was kiss him like she dreamed of it.

Annabeth fell down on the bed and grabbed his pillow, partly to stifle her screams, partly to smell his familiar, salty scent again, so many times until there was no scent anymore. That thought made Annabeths heart clench and she laid back on the bed, thinking of the time he said he loved her while tears still wet her skin, hair still flew around her face in an untamable mess like his was always, no - had always been.

Her heart crushed once more and she felt that so many times lately, she thought there was no heart anymore. Just destroyed pieces and so much dust.

-•-

"You do love me, don't you?"

"Annabeth - I don't - I can't -" Percys voice was something between fearful and frantic and hopeful and longing. Annabeth felt crushed under the weight of the sky again. Her heart beat was violent but at the same time so weak she almost couldn't stand on her own legs. He made her feel like that. He made her wanting to live.

He ran his right hand through his mess of dark hair, making it stand in every possible direction. Annabeth couldn't help but think how soft it has been when she threaded her fingers into his hair, while they kissed. She loved this habit. She loved how his hair hung in his face. She loved how adorable his goofy smile looked, and the characteristic sea green eyes became puppy eyes, and the muscles hiding beneath his shirt which made her think it was the safest place in the world when he held her.

And Hades, yes, she loved how he kissed her. All she wanted to do was kissing him again, feeling if he was still this damn good kisser that made her heart beat stutter and her eyes closing in pleasure. How was it possible that he could kiss like that? Did he kiss before? Did he kiss Rachel? Or some other mortal girl from his school? Or even this snobby Drew Tanaka, daughter of Aphrodite, who was after him since two years?

"You can't? What am I supposed to think now?" She asked softly.

He looked pained. Annabeth was always pained. Every second she spent with not kissing him, made her feel worse. Demigods had an awful life, but he made her feel like she was normal, this one time he kissed her. She just wanted to feel it again. For once, he'd been right, she thought wistfully. Kissing him made everything harder.

On his birthday, she'd thought, he meant it just for him, but now she understood him. Every time he didn't look at her made her heart break. Every time he didn't look at her, her eyes followed his strong jawline, the noticeable bags under his eyes, the shape of his gorgeous, surely still salty lips. Every time he didn't look at her, she wanted to scream and curse at him for being so awfully and impossibly good and loyal and absolutely amazing in every single way.

"Annabeth . . ." She smiled at the way he said her name. Warmly, softly, as if she was some mysterious riddle he had to solve. As if he didn't want to shoo her away. What she'd probably never do. His eyes were so understanding and puppy-ish and he always left the 'th' of her name hanging in the air, like a whisper.

But what made her smile the most was that his hand twitched and he brought it up to her face. His left hand lifted her chin gently, so she could see him and his wonderful lips better. His right hand pushed a golden curl behind her ear, accidently stroking her cheek and making her burning red, before leaving his hand at her neck. She wondered again how he did that. Bringing her into that pre-kissing position came so naturally to him. On the other hand, her fingers found his neck and back of head without her leading them too. Not that she cared.

His eyes were half closed. "I can't love you . . ." He murmured, contradicting himself with moving closer to her. The girl almost lost her breath as she felt his body against hers again, like she wished all these times before the war, and so many more times after. "It's not okay."

"Do you want to kiss me?" Annabeth asked quietly, standing on the top of her toes to look him straight into the eyes.

He groaned and closed his eyes fully. His lips came even nearer to her face and Annabeth felt a little traction in her hair. She closed her eyes and leaned forward until her nose touched his. "Hell, yes," he breathed.

"Well, then, why don't you do it?"

"I can't -" She looked up, disappointed, but he already bent his head and was inches away from her lips. His warm breath tickled her skin. "I can't be in love with you," he whispered. "I want to, but I can't."

"Be, just for a few minutes," she whispered back, longing for the feeling of his lips on hers. If he talked too much now, he would pull back some time and she would crave for it even more.

"It'll put you into too much danger," he said. Annabeth hated the ghost of his skin on hers.

"I don't care," she mumbled and finally closed the gap between them.

-•-

Annabeth couldn't help but stare at the big gray tombstone, made of marble. Silver letters were written over the even surface, pointing out his name, birthday and deathday, making her heart clench like . . . she couldn't even think of a possible comparison. She didn't dare tracing the outline of the small waves formed around the words, because it would make everything more real than it already was.

'True heroes fight because they have someone to protect. They suffer because they protect their loved ones. They're holding up their facades, staying behind masks, not doing that for fame or because they're told so, they're doing that, because they're able to. True heroes have a reason why they fight, a reason basing on love, family, friends.'

She hated and loved those words, which were written underneath the main dates. They were contributed by his best mortal friend, Zayne Collister, a guy with neat black hair and steel gray eyes, who was there when he died. Even though he thought that he died because of a car, Annabeth was kind of glad, he told Sally those words. Percy said them and they mirrored his character exactly. Even though he probably thought, they didn't.

This funeral wasn't even the real funeral. They burned his shroud in Camp Half-Blood, they even let Sally and Paul in, the whole arena was full and nobody really wanted to talk or do something throughout the whole week. The shroud had been so big, because everybody wanted to write something on it, send one last wish with him or tell him something for the last time, on his last adventure. Annabeths hand had shaken so much, she almost couldn't read her own words: It'll make everything harder, but I'm coming. Most people had looked to the entrance of the arena every five minutes, hoping he would stand there like he did just a year ago. They even built a little plate of marble with his name and honors at him and put it onto the outside of cabin Three.

But this funeral in the mortal world seemed more real. Annabeth did attend funerals before, but mostly she wasn't as tight with the dead people as now. There were even more people here than in Camp Half-Blood. Every demigod came here, even Thalia and some other hunters, many satyrs and nature spirits, centaurs and other ones of his companions, Zayne, Sally, Paul, even Poseidon and some other gods, even Annabeths family, and finally Annabeth herself.

Zayne looked pretty overwhelmed with the crowd of people surrounding the grave. They were so many in this little graveyard, they almost poured out onto the street and into the forest on the other side. He looked with big, sad eyes at the people, realizing the honor of meeting and knowing someone so kind, good and heroic as he had been. The custodian of the graveyard had a look of awe on his face, his jaw hitting the ground when he left his little bureau and met so many mourning people. The demigods weren't silent like in the arena of Camp Half-Blood, they told each other stories from their best friend, great leader, honorable role model.

Annabeth was silent. She stood in the coveted place in front of the tombstone, next to Sally, Paul, Grover and Zayne. Nobody questioned their right to stand there. She looked dully at the grave full of flowers, not able to show tears and emotions like her companions, because every tear left her eyes days before. She saw her flowers buried under other ones, other plants growing slowly because of Demeter kids and nature spirits, and realized somewhat sad and proud that there hadn't even been half of the people able to put their flowers here at this point.

Her own bouquet was made of blue, turquoise and sea green hydrangeas, because they'd been his favorite flowers, the sea like surface occasionally halted with silver, shining moonlace from the flower on his windowsill. On some places she saw moonlace pushing through the hard, icy ground and showing their true beauty.

She remembered his laugh and how he'd joke about everything - real jokes, their adventures, his problems -, be selfless and still care about her and the others on the brink of death . . . and suddenly, finally, soothingly, tears started to fall again.

-•-

"He was a good guy," the pastor summarized, his cheeks red because he'd been rocked by the obvious love and respect that was focused on this Percy Jackson. He couldn't even hope that were would be that many people at his own funeral. Maybe there wouldn't be that many people at any funeral in the whole world. "A loving son, a caring friend, a selfless hero who saved people that day from the car. We're all proud of him and we will never stop mourning over his death, but we will try to be like him someday. Doing something good to the world, for any price."

His speech ended exactly at eleven in the morning. They needed three hours to complete the funeral and give everyone the possibility to say goodbye to him. The pastor stayed throughout the whole time. Nobody left until everybody was gone.

-•-

Three months after his death, a new novel was published from his mother, Sally Jackson. It narrated the story of a young boy who found out that he was a demigod son of the sea god Poseidon. He met a demigod daughter of Athena and a satyr who'd become his best friends and defeated enemies in the mythological world. The story told how he loved the girl, but didn't ask her out because he had to protect her.

The novel was based on a true story, but even though the book became the bestseller for almost three months, nobody got how much it told of the truth. Excluding the demigods. Because for them, the book told the story of their greatest hero since long ago.

-•-

"I need your help, Nico," Annabeth said three days after the funeral. Her voice was pressed and agonized and unbelievable sad. She'd been spending her time in Percys room throughout the whole week, not really sleeping, just trying to tell herself that he'd walk into the room soon, like nothing happened. But he never did.

"With what, Annabeth?" The voice of the son of Hades didn't sound any better. He was sustained by his black stygian iron sword that was almost longer than his legs. His skin was so pale, the blue bags of sadness under his eyes stood out like Hades. "He's in Elysium now. I saw him there. Dad showed it to me. I saw his judging. They knew him, obviously, and they even said, he'd have to be reborn just once to enter the Isles of Bless. I can't bring him back to life, Annabeth. Almost everybody asked me, but it's impossible at this point."

The last bit of hope in her body vanished, but she'd expected that. How should Nico bring Percy back to life? His body was burned from . . . she couldn't even think of it. It was more painful than remembering his smiling, happy face, his pleading, baby seal puppy eyes, his soft, salty lips on hers, his adorable, endearing loyalty, selflessness and kindness, his not so heroic appearance but best personality in the whole history. She closed her eyes, but couldn't help the tear slipping out of her eye.

"Of course," she said finally, her voice cracking but determined. "I need something else. Just come, please. Tomorrow, at ten in the morning? At his grave?"

"Annabeth . . ." His eyes were wide and his expression alarmed, but she didn't want to hear that. Her decision was resolute, and if he didn't want to help her, she would do it herself. "If you're sure, I'm coming," he said, his legs no longer holding him up, and he sat down. "But please say goodbye," he added, before he waved his sword through the Iris Message.

-•-

Hazel hid beneath a tree. The dark, almost black wood scraped over her fingers and she was once more mesmerized that she could feel down here in asphodel. Being the daughter of this strange man who once appeared in their house seemed to have certain advantages.

The girl stared at the milky white ghosts, almost transparent, their faces faint and blurred. She couldn't make out forms or anything, they weren't even exactly ghosts, they were just existences. Existences without importance, living without remembering, completely different from her.

She wished they weren't, so she could try to find her mother. Once she thought she'd found her, but then the figure dissolved into mist and her ghost was gone, once again. Hazel didn't even now why she wanted to find her mother. This woman almost destroyed the world!

Sometimes she heard the furies talking. Sometimes they talked to her. Alecto could be very brutal and evil, but she was useful for her. She was the reason, Hazel knew anything about the world outside. Once Hazel asked, if the world was destroyed. From this giant she created. From the dirt woman. From anything.

Alecto told her the following: "It's not. But it'll be. We know it. Something is about to happen. Our master is going to send us out, to find the fault. To find the demigod, the one who could destroy our world. He already stole masters helmet during the winter solstice."

Since then, Hazel had been very careful with asking her questions. Sometimes Cerberus visited her. She liked him, even with him being a three headed dog monster. Her first wish as a living child had been a horse, of course, but she also admired the dog Sammys family had.

She'd heard from the furies that demigods had been in the underworld. That they'd visited her dad. She always tried that but Alecto wouldn't let her. Hazel had wanted to ask questions about the world outside. The demigods went through asphodel.

She ran after them but as she reached them, they'd already entered the area of her father's palace. Everything she'd seen were a black haired back of a head, a girl with golden locks and a third figure with a loud green hat on his head. They didn't seem older than her, maybe even younger from their height. She'd waited there until the furies told her to go away, but the demigods never came back.

Not long after that, chaos broke loose. Naturally, no ghost understood what was happening and ignored the furies hissing constantly and Cerberus barking and the frightened faces of the new ghosts who entered elysium. Hazel did not. She tried to talk to Alecto, but everything she got from the furie was: "It's happening! It's happening, girl! He's coming!", before she flew away to sizzle at some ghosts, so they'd go away from some cave Hazel had never seen before.

Nobody came. The monsters stopped being so panicked. But Hazel still felt the cold breath hanging over the head of every ghost down here, breathing in and out, loud but silent, dangerous but unknown. Hazel did not enter the cave. It seemed to be central location of the monster that was breathing. Nobody told her what it was. Alecto just told her to stay away.

At some point Alecto was gone again. She'd went outside for at least a week, before flying straight through the underworld to the dark palace looming over the whole place. After that she was at the fields of punishment and hissed at the evil ghosts for an eternity. Hazel stayed as near as she could be and she reckoned to see the furie abnormal often with some ghost of a fat, ugly man playing cards with Medusas and being forced to drink fire to stay not set like stone. She wondered what that was about.

When Hazel finally got to ask the furie about her absence, she told her she had to find Hazels half siblings, Hazel asked a lot of things, being excited and all, but Alecto told her just a few things. She had a brother and a sister from another mother, an Italien woman. They were maybe as old as her, and they were born some time before her. They'd been stuffed in a casino where time stagnated. They had both dark brown, almost black hair, the olive skin of their mother - who was dead - and dark brown eyes. Alecto said, Hazel had to stay away from them if she ever met them.

A little after that, Alecto became more impersonal and aloof. Sometimes Hazel caught her hissing at a boy, a boy who looked very much alive. She never interrupted them and stayed away from him, who surely was her brother. Even as she watched him camping at the river Styx with another ghost, she left him alone.

Soon after that she got a new person to talk to. An old man with energetic eyes entered asphodel, looking as powerful as a teen. Hazel befriended him as she helped him building transitions between the areas of the underworld. His name was Daedalus and he was really old. From the time before Rome. He was Greek.

From him, Hazel heard from the kids that visited the underworld a while ago for the first time since then. She didn't get the names, but they seemed to be powerful, important, alive and involved in every important thing happening outside. Daedalus knew there was a Prophecy about the next child of Zeus, Poseidon or Hades - apparently the man believed the Greek gods were alive, not the Roman - who would become sixteen years old.

The dark haired boy Hazel saw that day was the son of Neptune. The girl was Daedalus half sister, but Hazel didn't know who the goddess Athena was. Hazel got that this prophecy was the reason why her dad wanted to hide her siblings. They shouldn't be the ones involved in the prophecy. And apparently the son of Neptune was now older than them, so they could live normal, without strange prophecies.

Daedalus also told her he met her brother. The kid seemed depressed and broken, the man told her, but he was still strong and skilled. He was very powerful and did not have the curse Hazel had. He controlled the death. He defeated Daedalus enemy, Minos, and now they searched another judge over the dead. And he told her the name of her brother: Nico di Angelo. Hazel thought it sounded really Italian.

After another while she saw the wife of her father, Persephone, coming back to the underworld not alone. A bitching woman in a green dress followed her through the ghosts, almost fainting as Hazel spoke up with a deep bow. Persephone shot Hazel a dirty look before shooing her away. Hazel then hated for the second time in her after-life.

A lot of new people for elysium entered the underworld, and everybody had the silver glowing aura that said demigod. Hazel stared worried and timid at them. Almost everybody wore armory and weapons, but everything vanished when they entered elysium and that left an orange shirt and blue trousers for the one side, the other ones had violett shirts. Hazel was a little jealous they could enter elysium, but she knew it had been her own choice. But she was also relieved she didn't see her brother or sister with them.

She decided to stay a while at this place and watched all the honorable people and demigods entering elysium. The line of people waiting was amazingly long at this point but that period stopped short after. Then, she saw her brother again. He went through the ghosts and they quickly eluded him. He had dark hair that hung into his face, sad, dark eyes and wore too big, black clothes with skulls all over the fabric.

She tried to hide but he found her behind the same dead tree she hid behind now. He told her, he searched her since his father told him of her. At this point Hazel smiled. He told her, his sister Bianca was dead. Hazel hugged him. He told her the reason why so many people entered elysium. They won a war. Saturn, a titan, had risen and there was a war against his brother, Krios.

Hazel asked where Saturn was. Nico said he disappeared - he probably hid in Tartarus again. Hazel asked what Tartarus was and he showed her the cave Hazel found a while ago. He also said something was about to happen with the death. And he promised to see her again, right here, at this tree.

Hazel continued to watch the people entering elysium. She found somebody who looked familiar. A dark haired boy entered the path to elysium. His clothes changed to an orange shirt and blue trousers, like all the other demigods a while ago. He had green eyes, really green and stormy like the ocean she once visited with Sammy and his family in New Orleans.

"Hey," Hazel spoke up, uncertain. He looked up, surprised, then came nearer to the border between their after-lifes. "Have you been here before?"

The boy looked around in deep thought. "Yeah, a while ago," he answered. "But I was alive then. Why? Who are you?"

"My name is Hazel," she said smiling. "So, you're this son of Neptune? I heard a lot from you. And I saw you then, entering my fathers palace."

"Wait a second, who?" The other one asked. "My father is Poseidon. No Neptune. Who is Neptune?"

Hazel frowned. "He's the sea god, I believe. But, aren't the Roman gods alive?"

"Roman?" The boy frowned too. "No, the Greek gods. I guess. Aren't they? I know a lot of Greek gods kids. No Roman kid."

Hazel opened her mouth, confused. "M-My dad is Pluto. The Roman god of the underworld and riches."

"Really?" The boy asked. "Well, that's interesting."

"What's your name?" Hazel asked, curious. "I never got it."

"Percy," he said. "Percy Jackson. Well, in real it's Perseus, but I never liked that."

Before Hazel could answer, she heard a familar screech. The boy looked up, alarmed, too. A dark figure dropped out of nowhere between them and Alecto showed her teeth to Percy, apparently grinning. "No, no, sweetheart. You aren't a demigod anymore. Ghosts can't do what they want. Now go away or I put you into asphodel."

Fury appeared in his eyes, but apparently something held him back, instinctively. Hazel understood that. If she got the chance to choose between asphodel and elysium - without worrying about her mother - she'd definitely choose elysium. Even though there was something else in Percys eyes, something soft . . .

"But why can she remember, if she's inasphodel?" The boy asked, as he backed away slowly, towards the path. "Because she's a daughter of Hades? Or Pluto. Whatever."

"None of your business," Alecto hissed and shot around to Hazel. "Go."

"But . . ." Hazel tried to argue. She was certain, they both discovered a very important and delicate topic. She wanted to know more.

"No buts! Go!"

Hazel went away. And so did Percy. But they went different paths.

And now, Hazel hid. She hid from Alecto and her sisters. Because Nico had to tell her something as important and delicate as her meeting Percy. Or so she thought. But he seemed so excited and Nico never was excited.

"Hazel!" She knew this hissing. She turned and hugged Nico who seemed uncertain for a moment, before hugging her back.

"Hey," she whispered and smiled. "How are you? What's wrong?"

He looked around nervously. "I could distract Alecto for a few minutes. But a couple of days ago I had to take a soul." Nico looked down, his eyes darker than the wood of the dead tree they were hiding behind.

"Oh gods," Hazel said and held a hand in front of her opened mouth. She knew Nico was very upset, since his full sister died a while ago, but she didn't know he could and would do something like that.

"She wanted it, not me," he said exasperated, pleading, his eyes big and round like from a kid. "She wanted to be with the boy she loved."

"So you took her soul?"

"It's a better death than letting her kill herself," he mumbled sadly. "So I could make sure she entered elysium like him."

"It's okay, Nico," she told him and hugged him. "It was her own choice. Right?"

"Right," he said and straightened up. "And I have a solution for that. Listen, dad gave me a lot of work lately. Thanatos is gone. I was where he was last. He'd caught a ghost who tried to escape, but then . . ." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "I don't know, but there was a lot of evil there. I felt it. And cold. And Roman. It felt like I feel around you - Roman. And Thanatos is gone."

"Who is Thanatos?" Hazel asked curiously.

"The god of death," he answered. "Dad's the god of the underworld, and he's the god of death. You know, every once in a while exits open and - especially the bad ghosts - try to escape there and live again. He catches them. But now, he's gone. And ghosts escape."

"Can't the furies do something?" Hazel asked concerned, oblivious to the reason why he was so excited.

"Hazel, think about it!" He whisper-shouted. "There's a reason why dad told me right now of you. Your life's not over! Ghosts escape. I can get you out of here! See! You even could enter elysium now, but when the furies got control again, they would put you back in asphodel. Hazel, you could have the chance to get a new life and enter elysium after."

Hazels mouth opened shocked. She never thought of the chance to escape. She always wished, she could live again. She always wished but it never occurred to her, that it could become real now. She could enter elysium, like the judges offered her once. But was that right? She died and she knew from her first years down here, that the laws of death didn't contain a second chance to live. And from what Nico told her, this Thanatos god asserted these laws.

"But when Thanatos appears again," she said tentatively. "Won't he take me back down here?"

Nico looked down at the ground. His eyes became even darker and suddenly her big brother looked exasperated. "Look Hazel," he said quietly. "I didn't want to tell you here, so that you'll don't have the feeling you have to do this. But this cold I felt where Thanatos was last . . . Hazel, there's something out there. Dad told me of a prophecy that will happen soon. And I'm pretty sure, it contains giants. Like . . . the one you created."

Her blood ran cold. That was not possible. She created that giant, but she also destroyed him. He laid deep down in the earth of that island in Alaska, dead, motionless, unconscious. Right? But if Nico was right . . .

"Okay," she said quietly. "That's my responsibility. I have to destroy him fully. I have to find Thanatos. Even if he takes my life again."

He nodded, not a hint of a smile forming on his face. Suddenly, Hazel understood why Nico wanted her alive, too. He missed Bianca, his sister, and he wanted her to be his new sister. Because his old sister decided to be reborn. Hazel never had siblings and she could only imagine how hard that had to be for Nico. But by now she saw him as her big brother and she wanted him safe, loved and happy. She promised herself to try and make sure he was going to get all good he deserved.

"We have to go to elysium before this," Nico told her as he looked over the roots of the dead tree. "Good. Alecto is still busy. We can go."

"Wait!" Hazel grabbed his arm before he could creep out of their hiding place. "Why do we have to go to elysium?"

Nico turned his head and smiled. "Remember the girl whose soul I took?" He asked. She nodded. "That was before I knew of the prophecy. The prophecy speaks of seven half-bloods. And I'm pretty sure, she and her friend - the reason she wanted to die, you know - are two of them."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because they didn't die just because of monsters, but because they inwardly wanted to be together. And I'll show them, they can be like this alive too. They're the most powerful demigods since centuries. We need them to defeat the new enemy. I don't know if they will escape with us, but I have to try. Otherwise I'll never be able to live with myself."

Hazel was silent for a few seconds, before nodding. "Okay." Maybe, she thought. Maybe I'll see Percy again and get him to escape with us too.

I do realize that the inscription on the gravestone is a little long, but hey, why not? It's Percy Jackson, everything's possible, literally. So, how was it? Please review!