You guys are so gonna hate me in this chapter. Even more so in the next one...but who cares? I'm having fun.

You guys are doing really great with the reviews. I'm sure you'll reach 10,000 reviews before you know it. Which, of course, is kinda freaking me out a little, since that means I need to get things all written up before you do...Man, I'm gonna be writing nonstop for basically forever.

Because you wanted a shout-out so badly...Thanks for the review, Annabeth Chase, aka Emma-pants. I'm glad you're helping me reach my goal! Although at this point I guess it's more your guys' goal than mine...

I started using linebreaks in this chapter...and there are a lot of them in the next chapter. They was kinda necessary. Tell me if you laugh at them; I tried to make them amusing and random to add some happiness to otherwise really depressing/angsty/not happy chapters.

Oh, and guys? Really? You do realize that reviewing where you right one word in each review to spell out your message is pretty much cheating, right?

Here, I'll make it easier for you: your reviews can be as random and weird as you want them to be. Just try to make them more than one or two words, 'kay? *Peers sternly over imaginary scary librarian glasses* You don't even have to write about this fanfiction if you don't want to. You can tell me stuff going on in the fandom, or weird stories that happened to you. Because I like hearing stories about you guys as much as you seem to like when I do a Tidbit From the Author's Daily Life. It's fun. And interesting.

Ooooh, here's an idea: do your best to make me laugh out loud. And I have a weird sense of humor, so this is actually hard. I find things amusing, and smile at them, but it is very rare that people can actually get me to laugh out loud. First person to succeed in making me lol gets a shout-out!

Now, on to the chapter...

Chapter XCIX

Reyna

Reyna doesn't go to the Big House. As soon as she's out of Nico's sight, she veers off and heads towards the beach-a place where she's always been able to clear her head. She used to leave New Rome just to go there for a bit, and Terminus never seemed to mind, even when she left in the middle of the night and stayed out until morning. He understands more than people give him credit for.

Because there's no way she's going to be able to sleep now. Not after what just happened.

And she's not entirely sure what that was, but she's pretty sure that Nico just rejected her. Permanently.

Tears well in her eyes, and she blinks them away, angry at herself for getting so upset over a boy.

This isn't me. She thinks, trying to convince herself. I don't get so worked up over a boy. Even with Jason, I-

Her thoughts falter at Jason, and the tears well again, before she angrily wipes them away. What is wrong with me? I gave up on the idea of being with Jason a long time ago. He's not mine, and he never was.

She finds a nice spot between two sand dunes, with a hill rising behind her, hiding her from sight but giving her an unobstructed view of the ocean glittering in the moonlight.

She sits down and spreads her cape out behind her, smoothing out the creases in the deep purple fabric, stalling the time when her thoughts are going to run their course and she's going to have to let them.

Reyna sighs and curls her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin on her knees. She twists her ring around her finger-the one Hylla gave her before they parted ways.

"You'd know what to do, Hylla." She murmurs to the waves. "You always did."

She misses her sister more than she'd ever admit-they chose to go their different ways, but before that, she and Hylla had always been inseparable. They'd gone through a lot together.

The only sounds are the waves lapping the shore, and the sea breeze scattering sand across the beach. The same breeze ruffles the strands of hair that have escaped from her braid, and she suddenly reaches up and yanks the pony tail out, raking her fingers through her hair to free them from the braid and letting the soft waves fall forward around her face.

She lays back on the sand after that, looking up at the stars, tracing the achingly familiar pattern of the Huntress with her eyes.

He doesn't want me. She thinks to herself. Of course he doesn't. Why would he?

Her heart squeezes painfully, and she shuts her eyes, balling the fabric of her cloak inside a fist. But she still continues, laying out the painful truths that she'd shied away from before.

I'm two years older than him, maybe closer to three, and it's not like I'm particularly desirable. She tells herself. I'm cold and unsociable and there isn't one person I could say is an actual friend, because I push everyone away.

"I push everyone away." She repeats out loud to herself, and opens her eyes again. The thought that this is her fault hurts-but it also allows a small spark of hope to bloom in her chest, easing the pain a little.

She tries to crush it back into nonexistance, knowing it'll just make the inevitable moment when they have to part ways all the more painful, but it stubbornly refuses to go out.

I doubt he wants anything to do with me. She tells herself. Drew is ten times as pretty as I am, and even if he hates her, there are plenty of others. He has friends here, even if he tries his best not to have any. For all I know, there's someone else.

Someone else...Unwillingly, her thoughts wander to Jason. All the time they spent together. How she always used to admire his passion, the fierce determination in his eyes whenever he talked about the changes he wanted to make. All the times she'd find herself staring at him whenever he wasn't looking.

When he disappeared, she was distraught, wondering what on earth could have made him leave. Was he forced? Kidnapped? Did he choose it?

And then when he came back, and she discovered the truth of what happened, and she was so relieved-then she finds out that he found someone else. A daughter of Aphrodite, one who, when it comes down to it, is far more attractive and appealing than she will ever be.

She was in love with him. She's over it, now, as much as she can be, but it was more painful than anyone would ever know, seeing him with Piper.

Reyna sighs and rolls over onto her side, ignoring the way her praetor's cape tangles beneath her and resting her head on her arm, curling the other arm to her chest.

The sand is still warm from the heat of the sun during the day, hours ago. She presses herself into it, her eyes still open, staring at the grains of sand inches from her face.

It was Jason, and now...now there's Nico.

She puffs out a little breath, scattering bits of sand, and curls her legs up again.

She definitely has strong feelings for Nico. She just won't let herself put a word to it yet-because naming it makes it more painful.

She comforts herself with memories of the moments of warmth they've shared-making him laugh, getting him to open up about his past, saving him from Drew's flirting. His smile, so rarely seen, but shared more often when he's with her. That has to mean something, right?

Despite her earlier thoughts, Reyna feels herself start to fall into sleep. Her eyes droop, and she lets them close, drowsing for a bit, letting the sound of the constant waves lull her into rest. She can't sleep here, but maybe if she just closes her eyes and rests for a bit...

But the next thing she knows, she's drifting off into a pleasant, dreamless sleep, curled up in her little hiding spot on the beach.

*line break of sparkly Italian yumminess*

"Reyna." A voice calls her name. It sounds far away... "Reyna..." The voice call again. It sounds like Nico...

"Reyna!"

Reyna jolts awake, hurriedly sitting up and almost hitting Nico in the face with her head as she does so.

"Whoa." He exclaims, stumbling back and falling on his butt in the sand.

Reyna laughs, even though seeing him hurts. "Not used to walking on beaches, Nico?"

"Not used to girls trying to break my nose with their head." He grumbles. She shakes her head at him, and he smiles back, making her heart throb so painfully in her chest that she has to look away. He doesn't seem to notice anything wrong, and she quickly busies herself with brushing the sand off her clothes. "The others are wondering where you are." He tells her.

"I would be too if I was them." She replies, then glances up at him, squinting a little in the brightness of the sun. "How'd they do their first night here?"

"Well." He says, then shrugs. "No one was murdered, no one got into a fistfight or burnt half the cabins down-so I think it went pretty good." His shoulders are slumping tiredly, not much, just so that it's noticeable-to her, anyway.

She looks closer and notices faint shadows under his eyes, and feels a brief stab of worry. "And you? Did you sleep okay?"

He opens his mouth, his expression guarded, obviously prepared to lie, and then sighs and shakes his head. "Not really. Not used to a real bed, I guess." It's a lame excuse, and they both know it, but she goes along with it.

"Yeah. I get what you mean." She responds.

"Uh huh. I see that." He teases jokingly, gesturing to her make-shift nest in the sand. She smiles, but she knows it must not look very genuine (which it isn't) because his arm drops back to his side and he falls into silence.

Reyna goes back to brushing the sand off of herself, shaking her hair out, pulling her fingers through the tangles and trying to make sure it's sand free.

"Your hair looks good like that." Nico suddenly blurts out, and Reyna turns to him in surprise, just in time to see the blush color his cheeks. "I mean, it looks good, down. Not that it doesn't look good up, too. It looks good in the braid you normally do...too..." He realizes he's started babbling and falls silent.

Reyna manages a half-smile at him, but she doesn't let herself get excited over the comment. He's probably just being nice. Trying to apologize for being rude or something. She looks down at herself-the rumpled clothing, still with sand scattered over her-and sighs. Then she stands, scattering sand everywhere, and makes a last effort and brushing herself off and smoothing the wrinkles out of everything.

"Look, Reyna..." Nico starts, and she can hear a nervous strain in his voice that draws her attention. But she doesn't let herself turn to him. Not yet.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have been rude to you..." He trails off again, and clears his throat. "And-asking you to stay in the Hades cabin...that was-stupid." His voice is a mutter by the last word, but she's still listening, straining to catch every single syllable. "But, the thing is..." He clears his throat again, shifts nervously a few times, kicks at the sand, and Reyna starts to feel like he's not going to finish, but then he does, his voice a whisper so quiet that she leans towards him a little to catch it. "I like you." He says, staring at the ground, and Reyna freezes.

He likes her? He likes her? He. Likes. Her?

Then, before she knows it, she's striding over to him, her feet slipping a little in the soft sand in her haste, and stops only inches away, her hand lightly gripping his arm.

"Say that again." She tells him, her voice breathless, and finally, finally, raises her eyes to his.

He's looking back at her, nerves and worry and surprise all clear in his melt me chocolate eyes, and then his lips form to whisper the words again, just a breath on the salty ocean breeze. "I like you."

Reyna feels her lips stretch into a soft smile, and her fingers slide down his arm to his hand, where she twines them with his. "I like you too." She breathes back, and he returns her soft, infinitely happy smile, his eyes dancing, and then they're leaning, close, closer, their lips mere millimeters apart, so she can feel his warm breath on her lips...

"Hey, Reyna, I'm glad I found you, I've been looking all morning!" A bubbly voice exclaims behind them, and they jump apart, both of their faces immediately turning beet red.

Somehow, without even thinking about it, they aren't holding hands anymore, and Reyna feels a pang of loss and a surge of mixed anger, frustration, and bitterness.

Rachel, the red-headed oracle, is just coming over a sand dune, and she stops talking as she realizes she interrupted something, and looks back and forth between them as if urging them to say something.

"Yes? What do you need?" Reyna asks, keeping her voice neutral but polite, and Rachel shakes her head, obviously trying to clear away the memory of what she just saw.

Her brow furrows. "I don't really know. I just know I needed to find you. And tell you something? Maybe? Just give me a sec, it'll come to me."

As Reyna waits, she somehow finds herself shuffling closer to Nico, and maybe he's doing the same or something, because their shoulders bump against each other and then her hand finds his, and she can't help the smile that breaks across her face, but she looks down at the sand, embarassed, instead of up at him, ducking her head.

Then Rachel gives a little gasp, and when Reyna looks up, the oracle is reeling slightly, swaying a little from side to side, her eyes wide as she takes them in, flicking from Nico's face to Reyna's, and then down to their clasped hands.

"Oh..." She says, her voice small. Her eyes widen more, and her face pales noticeably, even beneath all the freckles. "It's you..." She gasps, a sharp intake of breath. "You're the third factor..." Then her whole body suddenly jolts, and her eyes start to glow, and green mist pours from her mist and swirls around her like a giant snake...

"The angel of death must face the ghosts of his past

While daughter of war keeps him from breathing his last

The third factor of success for the world's fall

The queen and the angel must answer the call

They shall cross the Ionian with friends in mind

Leaving all other allies safely behind."

Then she gives a little gasp, her eyes fluttering, slumping like all the energy has been sucked out of her, and Reyna lunges forward to catch her. She grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her upright, steadying her with an arm around the waist, and looks urgently into her glassy, exhausted eyes.

"What does that mean? Rachel, what does the prophecy mean?" She asks, her voice frantic, panicky.

The girl looks up at her, utterly drained of energy, her eyes struggling to focus, but all Reyna sees is the worry behind the exhaustion. "It means...you and Nico are going back." She whispers, her voice a rasp.

Reyna sways unsteadily herself, and they would have both fallen if Nico didn't jump forward to steady them.

Going back...

Over the top of Rachel's tangled red curls, Reyna meets Nico's eyes and sees her own distress mirrored there.

They're going back to Greece.

I love plot twists. They make life so much more fun. *grins maliciously*

I love you, sit around with friends and eat nachos (especially the blue ones), don't try to kill people when they sneeze (even if it does sound like an evil warrior skeleton), and don't dye your poodle pink (although blue is perfectly fine).