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The Loss of a Hero: Chapter Twenty-Two

Percy POV

We walked through the door to my cabin, and Annabeth staggered. "Woah, geez, I just got really tired…"

I nodded. "Steven warned me that you'd probably get that briefly after you woke up. It's a side effect of the brain being forced into an irregular sleep."

"Oh, I get it. The brain is inducing a normal sleep to sort of flush out the drugged sleep. Gotcha." She blinked a few times sleepily, then yawned. She walked over to my old bunk and nearly threw herself on it. She fell asleep quickly. I chuckled, and pulled the blanket up around her. I kissed her forehead lightly. "Goodnight, Wise Girl," I said.

I sighed, and created the water couch like I'd done earlier, flopping back onto it. I watched Annabeth sleep awhile, thinking about what I'd lost. I missed her every second of every waking hour, but I had to carry on, because I was no longer right for her. I was an ageless ghost, she was alive and mortal. She still had her soul. I didn't. I couldn't be with her anymore because of that. She needed someone alive.

I put my face in my hands. How I wished that I could go back in time.

A soft touch rested on my shoulder, and I felt my hurt draining out. I put my hand on Kairi's wrist, and stopped her from taking my hurt away. "Don't, okay?" I turned and looked at her. "Please. This is mine to bear, and I choose to do so."

She sighed, then came and sat beside me. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to see you hurting. I don't want to see anyone hurting."

I laughed sadly. "If only it were possible to take away all the hurt in the world."

"It would be nice, but it wouldn't be for the one who was holding the hurt for the whole world."

I thought about that a moment. "Yeah, I guess not."

Kairi rested her hand on my arm again, but just as a comforting gesture, she didn't try to take my hurt upon herself again. "Thanks," I said. She nodded. We sat there in silence, just resting and feeling the turn of the world beneath us.

A knock on the door startled us. I looked out the window, confused, and saw that it was nighttime outside – who would be knocking at a time like this?

I got up and opened the door. Chloe stood outside in her lavender pajamas, yawning. "You know, I could hear almost your whole conversation, and it's been bugging the heck out of me for hours."

I mentally facepalmed. "Ah, crud, sorry. I totally forgot about your power."

"Yeah, you're fine. Still, I need to help you somehow, or I'm never gonna get it outta my head."

I sighed, and gestured inside. "C'mon in. I dunno how much you'll be able to help, but you're welcome to hang out a while."

"Thanks!" Chloe said, walking in and flopping down on my water-couch. I shut the door and sat down beside her.

"This is Kairi, Chloe, have you two met?"

Chloe shook her head. "I'm Chloe, nice to meet ya," she said, extending a hand to Kairi.

Kairi shook it. "My name is Kairi. It's very nice to meet you, as well."

Chloe chuckled. "I think you need a suit and tie, you weren't formal enough there."

Kairi looked slightly perplexed. "Um, I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean."

Chloe giggled. "Nevermind." She let out a breath. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

"I thought you said that you heard all our thoughts," I said.

"Yeah, words too, I'm just trying to not look like the psycho mind-reader I am." Chloe raised an eyebrow at me.

"Oh." I chuckled. "Fair enough." I sat back and stared at the ceiling. "I dunno, it's pretty much an impossible problem."

"Nah, this problem's not impossible." Chloe shrugged. "If it was impossible, I wouldn't've heard it. I can only hear stuff like that if there's something I can do."

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost here," Kairi said.

"Oh, right, you don't know about Chloe's power and all that." I sighed. "Right, um…"

"Here, I got this," Chloe stopped me. She raised a hand, and a few white tendrils of Mist swirled around her, hiding her from view briefly, then went around Kairi's head.

Kairi nodded. "Alright, thank you, I understand now."

Chloe nodded. "No problem," she said, then looked down and yelped. "Again? Mom!"

I looked over at her and saw that she was wearing the ink-like, rippling black dress I'd seen her in a few times. "What…?"

"It happens sometimes when I use the Mist. Like, a lot. It's Mom's favorite dress, and occasionally using her powers puts me a little too in sync with her, resulting in this ridiculous, embarrassing outfit. I mean, seriously! This dress is all that I'm wearing!"

"Needed to know that, thanks," I said, averting my eyes.

"And what if it slips off or something? This fabric has like, zero friction to hold it on my shoulders!" She adjusted the strap uncomfortably

"That's another mental image I needed, thanks again," I muttered.

"I mean, I guess as a goddess, Mom doesn't have to worry about it, but I do! And, actually, it has slipped off a few times!" She huffed.

"That's brilliant," I said, "But thanks, that's more than I needed to know." I could feel myself go a bit pink.

Chloe chuckled. "Oh, well. At least your cheeks have a healthy glow in them." She giggled a bit. "Anyway, I prefer my street clothes." She waved her hands and the Mist surrounded her, then cleared away to reveal her back in her purple pajamas. "Much better." She grinned. "You can look now."

"Shut up," I groaned.

"Never!" She smiled. "Anyway, I was thinking. You said that you couldn't be with Annabeth because you were a Shadow Person and she wasn't, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, what if she turned into a Shadow Person, too?"

I was so surprised that my water-couch dissolved, landing us in a puddle. "Sorry, what?!"

"Well, think about it! You love her, and miss her. She loves you, and misses you. And the only thing separating you two is the fact that you're a Shadow Person! Since you can't un-become a Shadow Person, the logical thing is that to reunite you two, she could become one!"

I stared at her for a few moments. "Are you insane? For one, there is barely the tiniest of chances that anyone will become a Shadow Person when they die. For another, to be a Shadow Person means losing your mortal soul. We don't go to the Underworld when we perish. There's no way I could curse her like that!"

"Are you sure it would be a curse to her? Are you so sure they her life is more important to her than you are?"

Kairi spoke up, "Chloe is right, Annabeth would give anything, including her life, to be with you again."

Chloe crossed her arms. "See?"

"Yeah, well, it would still be cursing her. Besides," I added before Chloe could speak, "There's still barely any chance that she'd become a Shadow Person when she died. And there is no way I nor either of you will kill her."

"There isn't a way to prepare someone intentionally, to make them a Shadow Person when they die?" Chloe looked confused. "Are you sure?"

Kairi looked down at her hands. "I- I think I may have once heard of such a thing… If you asked the Council, they may have some information on it."

Chloe nodded. "Then it's settled. We're gonna go to the Council tomorrow and ask about it." She yawned. "But, for now, I gotta sleep." She hugged Kari and me. "G'night." She got up, and walked out the door.

I helped Kairi up. She hugged me, and went over and crawled into her bunk. I sighed, and shadow-traveled outside the cabin. I walked in the moonlight on the path to the beach, taking in the silence and the solitary peacefulness of the night. I walked along the sand until I found the rock where Annabeth and I had made our special place. I sat down, leaning against it, and let my mind clear as I watched the night stars. Slowly, my eyes grew heavy, and eventually, they closed. I drifted off into sleep, dreaming of being together with Annabeth again.

End of Chapter 22

Hey, guys!

Good to be back in the writing loop again. This will probably be the last chapter for today, because I have a bunch of traveling to do. Then I'm gonna be at my buddy's house for a few days, playing video games~ ^-^ super psyched! I've known him for three years, but I've never actually met him in person, because we're in online school. I did a mad, brain-melting catch-up session when he called me two days ago, and managed to get pretty much everything all caught up, so I was allowed to go ^-^

Anyway, enough about me. I hope this chapter wasn't a bit odd, I'm still shaking off the out-of-the-loop aftereffects. Remember, go ahead and submit your ideas any way you wish, and I may use them in the story! And, also, there's only a few more chapters before the pairings poll is closed. The story as I've made it can go almost any way (my restrictions are on my homepage), so vote by poll or review! (Review is better, because the poll I made sucks .-.)

Thanks guys! Read and review!

~Ben