SORRY. That's all I have to say.

(Little note: My best friend pointed out that Clarisse has her own chapter, yet she still manages to stand up and yell WHAT?! like nobody's business in the CHB chapter. Also, I have come to realize that I've done some Olympians, yet they mostly all react in disbelief in the chapters with all of them (Hades, Zeus, etc.) Let's pretend it's just a bunch of little mini AUs. These are all one-shots, technically, anyway.)

HEDGE

Gleeson Hedge, the awesomest satyr protector in the world, was worried.

He knew how stupid the thought was—Hedge, the greatest satyr ever, worried? Psh—but he was worried. About his cupcakes. Two specific cupcakes.

Underwood, the satyr, had sent him a letter. It had read, Percy and Annabeth. Chiron wants to see you.

Hedge knew that there was only one reason Chiron would want to see him. There was news, probably of Percy and Annabeth, and although he hoped against hope that it was good news, the satyr was experienced in war and death. He knew better.

So it was with a heavy heart that Hedge was now walking toward the Big House.

He paused on the porch, squared his shoulders and rapped on the door. His right hand was clutching his baseball bat in a death grip even though there were no monsters here—except the monsters on the inside.

Hedge shook himself with a little chuckle. He was getting all deep and sentimental in his old days. Not, of course, that he was old at all. No, he was a sprightly young satyr, full of energy and ready to defend his cupcakes...

Chiron opened the door, and Hedge nodded stiffly to him. He respected the old centaur—he was pretty sure he must have taught Chuck Norris some of those sweet karate moves of his—but they weren't exactly friends. Sure, Chiron had trained Jackson and Chase, but Hedge was the one who had had their backs on the Argo 2.

"Gleeson." Chiron inclined his head. "Why don't you come in? I'm afraid I have news for you."

Hedge noticed both that Chiron used his first name and that he was apparently afraid to deliver his news, so he just nodded instead of saying anything and walked in after the centaur trainer.

As they headed down a long hallway, Hedge realized that he had never actually been inside the Big House before. He checked out all the doors and windows, looking for a possible escape route in case he got ambushed and where the best places to stand while whapping someone's butt were. Sure it was a safe camp for demigods, but you couldn't erase decades of habit in a day. Or seventy.

Chiron opened a door that looked just like all the other ones and clip-clopped inside, leaving Hedge to follow. Once they were inside what he realized was an office, Chiron stopped behind what was obviously his desk and regarded him gravely. "You were the protector of Percy and Annabeth, as well as the other members of the Seven, on the Argo 2."

Hedge nodded. "Are my cupcakes okay?" he demanded. Although he would never admit it to anyone, dread was beginning to twist inside his stomach.

"During the final battle, Gaea unleashed many monsters on the Seven, and after fighting bravely, Gaea sent a monster no one has ever seen before to kill Percy and Annabeth."

Hedge sucked in a breath. He didn't know what he'd thought the final battle would be like, but he'd always thought that Dirt Face would at least have the courage to show her ugly mud face and fight the demigods like a man. Or a woman. "What happened?" His voice was no more than a croak as he waited for the answer.

Chiron sighed, a shadow of guilt and grief passing over his face. "Gleeson, I'm afraid that the worst has happened. Percy and Annabeth fought valiantly until the end, but it was too much. They are now in Elysium. With all the other fallen heroes of old."

Hedge was silent. He didn't know how to respond to the fact that his two cupcakes were dead.

Jackson, the brave, annoying, sassy one, who'd had the nerve to try and sneak a night out with his girlfriend under the stars under his watch. The kid had had guts. And not just guts, either; he'd been a dang good fighter. Jackson knew his way around a sword.

No, had known his way around a sword. The thought brought an unexpected jab of pain to Hedge's heart, which he had always prided himself on as being hard. Well, there was Mellie, but she was special. Hedge wasn't the sentimental type.

He shouldn't be. Sentimentality was for the weak people who didn't know how to charge people with baseball bats and execute a perfect roundhouse kick, Chuck Norris style.

But somehow, his cupcakes had wormed their way into his heart.

Somehow, one of the ones who had done it the most were Jackson and Chase.

Chase…

Hedge remembered her for a moment. She was—no, had been—so smart. She was always on about strategy and tactics and planning and things that were way beyond him. The extent of his battle knowledge was running up to enemies, smacking them on the head and yelling, "DIE!" over and over again. But Chase had understood the complicated stuff that went with wars and battles and fighting and all that good stuff, and Hedge had liked her for it.

She was a special girl, that one.

And then Hedge remembered that she wasn't alive to be special anymore. The thought made his heart feel like it was splitting in two. He decided, to Tartarus with sentimentality being for weaklings. His cupcakes deserved to be mourned, to be remembered, to be loved for who they'd been.

Hedge didn't really know how to deal with grief, and as he stood silently in Chiron's office, head spinning with thoughts and hopes and wishes, he had an idea. It was probably what Jackson and Chase would have wanted him to do, he thought a little sadly. But they deserved what he could still do for them.

Hedge cleared his throat, and Chiron looked up at him.

Taking a deep breath, the satyr asked, "Do you have a mission for me? Something I can do? A…a demigod to rescue?"

Hedge knew that the best way for him to honor and remember his two gone cupcakes was to train and protect the demigods that were still there to be trained and protected. Jackson and Chase would have wanted him to move on, he thought. But the reality was that Hedge couldn't move on from the death of two cupcakes. In a way, they'd always be his cupcakes. But for now, Hedge would try to keep the other Jacksons and Chases of the world alive and safe and strong.

It was what Jackson and Chase would have wanted.

Okay, so you guys gotta review and request. Please. I'm stumped as for ideas. And go check out my other fics! :D