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The Loss of a Hero: Chapter Twenty

Percy POV

The barbeque, of course, was awesome. We quickly polished off every bit of meat, except Nico. He was eating his share slowly, tentatively. I sighed. The poor guy would need a lot of time to recover. His wounds would heal quickly, but his mind? That was another story.

Soon, Clarisse, Will, and Zoe woke up, and they finished off the barbeque. Annabeth, Steven had told me, wouldn't wake up for another few hours.

"Right, guys, pack up your stuff, and I'll shadow-travel us back to camp." I picked Annabeth up from where we'd laid her. She wasn't quite tall enough for my leather jacket to fit her, but it wasn't too far off. A few minutes later, everyone joined hands, except Chloe and Zoe, who each held on to one of my sleeves. I reached into the darkness, and we disappeared.

We came out of the darkness on Camp Half-Blood's beach, where we'd left to start the quest. Now we returned successful, with no casualties. A feat worth praising, considering what we'd gone against.

We walked down the path into camp. When we passed by the dining pavilion, cheers erupted. I turned. Campers were leaving their dinner behind and running to come greet us. I leaned over to Chloe. "I'm gonna go and sneak off, alright?"

She nodded. "That's fine. Get Annabeth where she needs to go."

I nodded my thanks. "Hey, Steven, tke care of Nico a bit, alright?"

"No problem, you can count on me."

"Thanks," I said, and used the power of the shadows to disappear. I walked, invisible, towards my old cabin. I pushed open the door and was greeted by the familiar scent of the sea, and the quiet gurgling of the fountain. I remembered when I'd killed the first one, a long time ago. Allowing myself to become visible again, I set Annabeth down on the bunk covered in notes – it was obviously where she'd been sleeping. I chuckled. "Still the same old Annabeth." I picked the papers up and set them aside.

I stepped back, and realized that she'd chosen my bed to sleep in. I smiled sadly, then sat down beside her. I was in no hurry, so I relaxed, letting my thoughts wash over me, losing myself in them. Minutes passed like seconds. I felt peaceful, for once.

A startled, "Oh!" brought me back from my thoughts. A girl with long, dark hair and pale skin stood in the doorway. "Who are you? What's wrong with Annabeth?"

"Annabeth? Steven from the Apollo cabin and I got a tranquilizer patch on her, she refused to sleep while Nico was dying."

The girl's eyes went wide. "While Nico was what?"

"He's better now. Well, he's alive. Steven saved him, patched him up, but he's going to need a lot of time to recover. Not so much his body as his mind."

"Oh… Poor Nico." She sighed, and then I noticed that streams of black and silver shimmered within her form.

"Oh, you're a Shadow Person!" I said.

The girl looked up, alarmed. She focused on me, and I felt like she was looking straight through me, past my disguise, into my soul. She relaxed, and the piercing feeling subsided. "And so are you."

I nodded. "Yep, that's me. Call me…" I glanced at the sleeping Annabeth, "Jake."

"Nice to meet you, Jake. I'm Kairi. Singer class. You?"

"Shadow Warrior Elite."

Kairi's eyes went as wide as saucers. Her mouth dropped open a bit. "Seriously?!"

I grinned. "Yup, dead serious." The 'dead' thing was a bit of a joke between Shadow People. At least, the ones who were okay with being dead. I'd learned that many Shadow People were actually in therapy, because they, well, had problems accepting being dead. "However, after that whole thing with Nico and the thing that possessed him, I think I'm just Warrior class. Most of my power was sucked out." I sighed. "I hope everyone is okay."

"Same."

I thought for a moment, then I remembered something. "Oh, crud. I forgot all about Sierra. You're Annabeth's friend, right?"

Kairi nodded. "Yup, I met her while she and Nico were going into the Underworld to look for a friend of theirs that died recently. His name was Perseus Jackson. I assisted them. Even though we never found him, well, Annabeth let me stay with her, since I don't really have a home."

I froze for a moment when she said my name, but relaxed quickly. She hadn't figured out that it was me. "I'm sorry to hear about that, but at least you guys made friends. Anyway, can you watch over her? I gotta go back for Sierra, we left her there, wounded, by accident."

"Go ahead, Percy, I'll keep an eye on her." Kairi smiled mischievously. My blood went cold. "We can talk later about that."

"…Right, okay," I said, then shadow-traveled to where we'd left Sierra. The energy bubble had gone, but she was still lying there. I scooped her up, and jumped into the shadows, emerging in the infirmary. I laid her on one of the beds, then ran to get Steven. I found him in the Apollo cabin. "I need your help, quick. Gotta save another dying person."

"Again? Let me grab my stuff." Steven ran around the cabin, grabbing supplies, and shoved it all in his bag. He threw it on his shoulder. "Lead the way."

I ran back to the infirmary, then pointed to Sierra. "Over here."

He ran over, quickly pulling out a tablet-like device, which emitted a red light that swept across her body. The screen lit up, and Steven propped it up on a small table beside the bed. He opened his bag, pulling out bandages, thread, needle, and a syringe, probably full of tranquilizer to make sure she stayed asleep.

He got a pair of scissors and started cutting away her shirt and pants, which were sticky with blood. "Just like Nico, I have no idea what's keeping her alive," he said. I turned away as he pulled her bloodsoaked clothes off. If it was anyone else, I wouldn't have let them do that, but I figured this guy had done it for lots of badly injured patients before. A minute later, he said, "Alright, you can look now."

I turned, and saw that Steven had put a pair of shorts on Sierra, and a cloth that covered her front without getting in the way of where he had to stitch her. He bandaged a few of the wounds that needed it most, then took out the syringe, stuck the needle into her, and depressed the plunger, feeding the liquid into her bloodstream. Once he'd finished, he set that aside, grabbed his needle and thread, and began sewing the deepest cuts closed.

"What's the tablet?" I asked.

"Just about the most useful tool we've ever had. It scans our patients and pulls up a perfect diagnosis, along with the best way to treat whatever problems they have. It's working on the girl now, should have the results in a second."

Just as he said it, a tone sounded, and he picked up the tablet. He stared at it, a moment, perplexed, then set it aside and shook his head, resuming his stitching.

"What's wrong?" I has a suspicion that the tablet probably didn't work on us, considering we were already dead.

"No results. The thing registers that she's there, but nothing else aside from that. Know anything about that?"

"Nothing I can say, sorry." I figured the Council wouldn't be happy with me giving away the secret of the existence of the Shadow People.

"That's alright, it looks like most of her wounds are physical. That, I don't really need help with."

He worked quickly and skillfully with a precision that I'd not seen in doctors often. "You could get a huge-paying job as a surgeon, you know?"

"I'm a bit squeamish about opening people up. Closing them? Fine. But don't make me cut someone open."

I shrugged. "An EMT, then. One of those guys in the ambulance."

"What, for mortals? No, I'm used to working with magic medicines and tools. I'll probably live here at camp for most of my life, as medic. Saving the campers is good enough for me."

"Sounds pretty good," I said.

"So, what do you want to do with your life?" he asked as he cut his thread, moving on from one cut to the next.

"Me? Huh. I dunno, let me think about it." I stood there, contemplating all that I could do as a Shadow Person. It wasn't much different from being alive, except that you didn't age, and you were a lot more powerful. "I guess… I'd travel around. Strike it out on my own. Protect those that need it."

"So, a superhero, then."

I laughed. "Kind of."

Steven put his needle and thread away. I was amazed how quickly he'd patched her up. He walked around the corner into a storeroom of some sort, returning with one of those IV's and a plastic sack of red liquid. "We're gonna have to give her a bit, seeing as she lost so much. No blood type, according to the scanner, so I just picked A positive. Hopefully it'll work. I've found that most times, my assumptions on blood types and things of medical nature are usually pretty close to correct."

"You're the ultimate doctor, man."

"Why, thank you," he said, then began wrapping more bandages around Sierra. Finally, he packed up his supplies. "All she needs now is lots of rest. I'll make sure she's checked on periodically."

"Awesome. Thank you, you're seriously the greatest help ever."

"Not a problem, Jake. Let me know if there's anyone else in dire need of healing." He slung his bag over his shoulder.

"I'll make sure to."

I shook his hand, and he left. I sat next to Sierra. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to leave you out there… I hope you weren't in pain."

I sighed, and leaned back in the chair. I sat there a while, then I got up and walked back to my cabin.

End of Chapter 20

Hey, guys,

Lol I just realized I accidentally named Zoe after Zoë Nightshade.

And I totally forgot all about Sierra. Percy didn't forget, I did! I tried to work it in without making it seem like a hasty fit-in. I was gonna keep writing, but then I checked the word count. Bit of a longer-than-normal chapter, apparently! Almost 1,700 words, anyway. I usually try to make sure that they're all at least 1,000, preferably 1,200.

But hey! BIG announcement! I have a new story! It's called The School Yard. It's a The World Ends With You fanfiction, but it just uses the characters' names. It's totally all my story, lol. Please, check it out! I would be extremely grateful!

An another announcement, not so happy, this is the last day I'll be writing for a while, until I get every bit of my schoolwork caught up. Sorry!

While I'm away, though, go ahead and review or PM me any ideas you have, and I might include them in the story at some point! ^-^ And, as usual, the pairings votes. Keep voting!

Thank you all!

~Ben