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Oh my gods. I can't even say how much I hate this chapter. It's so... ugh.

This is my last update before school starts, so expect slower updates (this is like my billionth time saying that, but whatever).

So because of that, I'm going to do something that you guys might hate. I'm going to start writing the next chapter once I get a certain number of reviews. I hate doing this, but at least I have somewhat of an excuse and know that you guys like or hate my story.

And I'm going to make a new OC story, except it's a different OC (or at least, the name) that's my character for Demigods of Olympus. And I have a bunch of other story ideas... Okay, well maybe not a bunch, but some. I would collab with Hydra on some of them, but I don't think we'd be that productive. It's been a long time since I did a collab too. I guess it'd be fun to do one with someone, if anyone is interested. XD

As for the reviews, let's start small. I'll start writing the next chapter once I get 60 reviews. Not that bad-at least, I think so.

Anyway, that's it for my AN.

"Percy, is that you?" Annabeth murmured.

She looked awful. Her gray eyes looked like a shattered window. She looked worse than I did. She had gotten new clothes that weren't pajamas, but they were ripped in many places, same with her jeans. She had scratches and bruises all over her body, and her arms were shaking as she held up that wall.

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "What happened?"

She gave me a sharp look. Even in this state, she was still capable of giving me those glares. "You really expect me to explain?"

Her knees buckled, and she fell on her knees. The building shook, and she stabled her hold on the wall again.

"How long?" I asked.

"A few hours or so," she said. "I can't let go, or this whole building crumbles."

"What made the wall crumble?" I said. "Was it the explosion?"

"Thorn and that traitor broke it," she said through gritted teeth. "Though the explosion helped."

"Annabeth, I'm—"

"It's okay Percy," she said. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sure it was necessary."

"Grover, Zoë!" I called. "She's here!"

They came rushing into the room right away.

"Perce!" Grover said, and looked at Annabeth. "What's going on?"

"Too much to explain," I said. "What do we do? The building's going to crumble down if she lets go."

Annabeth groaned, and I helped her steady the wall.

"Annabeth," I said gently. "I'll hold it."

"No, you can't," she said.

"Yes I can," I said. "And you can't stop me."

I uncapped my pen and cut through the chains at her ankles. I climbed onto the edge of the wall next to Annabeth.

For that moment, we were holding it together. It was heavier than anything that I've ever lifted. I gently pushed her off and Grover caught her. She collapsed.

Now I was holding it on my own. The cold air blasted my back, though the coat still kept me somewhat warm, and the weight was worse than a thousand trucks. It was a wonder how Annabeth managed to hold this for that long.

I can do this, I thought, and stood up a bit straighter.

"We can't leave without anyone holding this up," Grover said.

"Then we'll go look for some things that can steady the wall for a while," Zoë said. "Leave Annabeth here."

Zoë pulled Grover away, and Annabeth slumped on the floor.

"Annabeth, are you okay?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be the one asking that since you're the one holding that up right now," she said. "But yeah, I'm mostly fine."

"Could've fooled me," I said.

The weight was heavier on my shoulders. My ankle started throbbing again.

"Who did you come here with?" she asked.

"Bianca, Zoë, Grover," I muttered.

"Where's Bianca?" she asked.

The guilt of her death washed over me again. "She died in the explosion."

Annabeth's eyes widened.

"It's not your fault," I said. "She volunteered."

"Still," she said.

"It's my fault," I said.

"No it's not," she said. She stood up. "If only I hadn't put those notes in the books. If only I had told you everything. If only I wasn't taken away, she'd still be alive."

"I'm worried about Nico too," I said. "When he finds out…"

"Let's not talk about that right now," she said. "Let's talk about happy things."

She gave me a smile, and despite my situation right now, a smile grew on my face. For that second, all the weight on my shoulders disappeared.

"Ah, yes. Happy times, huh?" a voice said.

Annabeth yelped, and Luke put his sword at her throat.

"Luke," I muttered.

"I see you've took Annabeth's job," he frowned. "That wasn't part of the plan, but I guess we'll have to improvise."

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Did you still not figure it out yet?"

"You're the traitor," I said. My vision was red, but I wasn't sure if it was from the anger or the pain.

"Bravo," he said. "Well, to be exact, I'm not exactly a traitor since I never really was on your side, if there are sides."

My shoulders ached. If they could scream, I bet they would produce a scream that could be heard by everyone in the world.

"What's your point?" I asked. I hoped that the others would hear what was going on.

"That's obvious, isn't it?" Luke shrugged and pointed his sword at me. He shoved Annabeth to the side, and she hit her head against the cage. "I'm going to kill you."

"So you're going to be like that then?" I said. "A coward."

Luke scowled. "I'm not a coward."

"Really, killing a defenseless person like that," I said.

Luke hit my stomach with the flat of his sword, and I groaned. I fell on my knees and the building shook.

"Luke, stop," Annabeth said, gaining consciousness.

"Be quiet, Annabeth," he snapped, and she gave him a dirty look.

"What is going on now?" Zoë sighed, rushing in. She saw Luke and raised her bow.

"Lower your weapon," Luke said. He slashed with his sword and cut her bow in half. "And look, if it isn't Grover."

Annabeth turned her eyes on me while Luke was occupied with the visitors. She mouthed, Do you have a weapon?

I nodded, and carefully took one arm off of the wall. I winced at the pain. I grabbed the knife and tossed it toward Annabeth. It made a clattering sound on the floor, and Luke whirled around.

Annabeth pressed her dagger against his throat. "Surrender, Luke."

He smiled. "Never."

He swung with his sword, and Annabeth backed up. She parried all of his strikes somehow, but she was growing tired quickly.

"Percy, thou ready?" Zoë asked.

"For what?" I said.

"Thou are going to let go," she said.

"Are you crazy?" I hissed. "It's going to kill us all!"

Grover shook his head. "We made some adjustments while you were talking with Luke, so if you let go, it's going to fall toward there. It's probably going to break the wall and fall on the streets. Hopefully the bottom floors will be safe."

I nodded, and took a look at how Annabeth was doing. She had many chances to stab him, but she didn't. I guess her crush on him was still going strong, besides him being a traitor. I noticed tears streaming out of her eyes.

"On three," Grover said.

"One."

"Two."

"Three," I breathed, and let go.

The building immediately toppled to one side. Annabeth screamed as she lost her footing, and grabbed the nearest thing to balance herself—which happened to be me.

Like Grover said, the building fell onto its side and broke through the wall. I heard cars honking, and pedestrians screaming.

My head bounced on the pavement.

"Percy, get up right now," Zoë said. "We have no time for your romantics."

I realized that Annabeth was still grabbing onto me and blushed. I helped her up.

After being in the school for so long, the look of the city surprised me. All the buildings and cars and the noise.

"You don't know how much trouble you're going to get into," Luke said.

"Why are you worried about that?" I said, crossing my arms. "You're the one who always sneaks outside."

"I wasn't talking about that kind of trouble, but I guess that too," he nodded.

"Luke, you wouldn't dare," Annabeth said. Her grip on the knife tightened.

"You don't know me, Annabeth," he said.

Annabeth flinched and Luke retrieved his sword from the rubble.

"Percy, you said that I was a coward?" he said. "Well, you're able to defend yourself now. Let's see who's better. You or me."

I took off my coat. "You're on."

I uncapped my pen and Luke charged. He slashed with his sword, cutting my arm. I tried to take a strike at him, but he deflected my sword easily. I wondered if he had training elsewhere, but that was crazy. We weren't allowed outside.

He took another strike at me again, but this time I parried. I started getting used to his style now, but he was still better than me, and I was losing my energy quickly. Luke on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine.

"You know you're going to lose," he chuckled. "Just give up."

"No. Never," I said, but he disarmed me. My sword flew out into the streets where the cars ran over it.

He whapped my knees with the flat of his sword, and I stumbled. He raised his sword, ready for the kill.

"No!"

Zoë rushed in and took the strike instead. She gasped and fell on the ground. Luke kicked her away.

"Zoë!" I said.

I pushed Luke away and knelt at her side. The police came just then.

"Weapons down!" one of them yelled.

Annabeth cleverly hid her dagger somewhere, and mine was out in the streets.

"Zoë, are you alright?" I asked, but I knew that she wasn't.

The fall from the building hurt her more than I thought. Her forehead was cut open, and her head was bleeding. If you add Luke's deadly strike to it… she looked pretty bad.

"Wait, maybe I can do some quick healing," Grover said while the police were talking with Luke.

Zoë grabbed his wrist. "No. I can't be saved. I know that much."

"Zoë you're not going to die," I said.

"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "You survived all that."

She shook her head. "I knew this would happen."

"What?" I said.

"It's true," Grover mumbled. "Before you came, Rachel told us that two of us would die as a price."

"What price?" I said angrily.

"For not following the future," Zoë answered calmly. I wondered how she could be that calm at the brink of death.

"But that's not our fault!" I said.

"The fates aren't fair," Zoë said. "We didn't know who would die, but turns out that it was me and Bianca."

"Zoë, just hang on," Annabeth said. "We'll get someone to call the ambulance."

"I'm perfectly fine with dying," she said, and grasped her hand. "My wish was to come back to the outside world again. And now I have. Perhaps not in the way I would've wished, but it's still outside." She coughed. "At least I'm dying here."

I wiped away some tears, and Annabeth let out a sob.

"I guess I was wrong on some things," she said. "I thought that all boys were all arrogant and cocky. Now I know that all of them are not all bad." She gave me a smile and turned to Annabeth. "Don't worry. Everything will turn out just fine."

She gasped for air.

"Zoë, stay still," Grover said.

"I'm dying anyway," she said. "Just promise me something."

"Sure," Annabeth and I said.

"Save everyone in this school and wreck their plans, whatever they are," she said.

We nodded, and she gave us one last smile before she took her final breath.

"There they are!" Mrs. Dodds said, and waddled over to us. Surprisingly Mr. D was with her along with a few other teachers.

"You should take better care of your students," one of the police said. "Look at what they caused."

"They're true criminals I tell you! Criminals!" a lady shouted.

"This boy is cleared," the officer said, motioning to Luke. "But you have to do something about the other criminals."

I stood up and walked over to them. Grover tried to stop him, but I shrugged him off. "We're not criminals," I said quietly. "None of the students here are true criminals. Some of them have been framed. We're misunderstood people. Not criminals."

"Oh, I know you! Perseus Jackson," he said.

"I don't care if you know me or not," I said, stepping closer. "You don't even know what's going on in the school. You might think it's a school for criminals, but it's not. You should see what they're doing behind their name."

"No wonder you're here," the officer sneered. "An arrogant little boy that disobeys everything, not caring about the trouble he causes. Your stepfather was right."

I only recognized him then. He was one of the people Smelly Gabe had invited once to his poker parties. I hated him the moment I saw him.

"Well, you don't deserve to be a police," I said. "That boy you just let go? He killed a student here. He killed her, and he doesn't even care!"

"You have no right to be saying that," he sneered. "And a criminal killing a criminal. What's so bad about it? You criminals are one and the same."

My vision turned red again, but this time from anger. I drew back a fist and punched him in the face.

"Perseus Jackson!" Mr. D barked. "Get back here right now."

I didn't listen to him, but Chiron came and separated me from the officer. I was still seething.

"Now, Perry Johansson," Mr. D said. "Are you aware of what you just did?"

"Yeah, I just punched an officer in the face and he's spouting curses at me. I totally don't know what I just did," I said sarcastically.

"Office, now," he snapped.

"Mr. D, it's way past curfew," Chiron said. "Tomorrow's Saturday. Why don't you have him come by then?"

He scowled. "Fine. Everybody, back to the school!"

He herded us back, not even bothering to look at Zoë.

"Percy, I'm sorry I got you into all this trouble," Annabeth said.

"It's fine," I said.

"But thank you for coming to save me," she said, not meeting my eyes.

"Anytime, wise girl. Anytime."