I SWEAR I picked the order at random and then committed to it through the entirety of this series for Nico, of ALL of them, to get this chapter! I think I have a magic power, and I wish to return it.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

It didn't take a genius to figure out why Will looked suddenly sunken, a weight appearing in his usually open face. Nico had no delusions, he was about to read about a lot of Will's siblings dying.

Nico didn't know how he was supposed to just start reading like he didn't know something awful like that was about to happen to Will. How had Will done this? What curse of Hades had been placed on them that he now sat in exactly Will's shoes when he'd been the one to read of Bianca's death?

Will gave him a brave smile. There was always such a kindness in his eyes. He was encouraging Nico like he had from the beginning. To start, to get this over with.

He didn't know how to read, he didn't know how to do this to actually be of help though. Will had been a kind of support he'd never had before through all of this and he wanted to try and be that now. Will just nestled down into his seat, shifting his weight to get comfortable, his arm over his shoulders as warm as ever. Like a cat settling in, Nico had never been around them much but he couldn't help think of the comparison. All he was missing was the purring.

So Nico read, "We Break a Bridge."

Alex snorted in delight at once. "Only Percy! Taking a metaphor for trusting others and turning it into a group activity of violence!"

"You break it you buy it Percy," Jason chuckled.

"Gods I hope that bill never finds my mom," Percy frowned.

The others made a few wisecracks too, but all Nico noticed was Will. Pressing into him, obviously trying to hold him as close as possible. Nico honestly wanted to set aside the book and let him.

He didn't know it, but he'd come a long way from that guy who'd landed in here who wouldn't consider tolerating such a thing.

Fortunately, Blackjack was on duty.

"It's a thing of beauty when Blackjack's on duty," Percy said in a sing-song voice.*

"Was that a quote?" Annabeth looked at him in confusion.

"Yeah, sorry, I should stop that," Percy chuckled, again realizing nobody got it but him.

... within a minute two dark shapes circled out of the sky.

'Avoiding those pesky distractions of saving everyone along the way,' Will understood as he tried not to fidget around to much.

... those wind gods were gonna knock us to Pennsylvania until we said we were with you!

"Land of the Eagles, I guess they don't want competition," Magnus chuckled, though the football reference went over most of their heads, and Jason was looking at him particularly strangely.

"Is that all it took to get past those winds guarding the place?" Alex rolled her eyes. "What's to stop Kronos showing up lying saying he just had a nice cupcake to deliver?"

"Even he's not evil enough to think of misusing cupcakes like that," Percy shook his head.

..."Hey, why do pegasi gallop as they fly, anyway?"

"So that they never lose the practice of aiming?" Thalia shrugged.

Jason sighed and slumped in his seat. He really wanted to get his hands on a pegasi skeleton, but knew saying that out loud would make him sound like a lunatic right now.

...Why do humans swing their arms as they walk? I dunno, boss. It just feels right.

"Love, love, love that that pegasus just told you to stop overthinking things," Annabeth grinned. She owed Blackjack some sugar cubes.

"Did it do any good?" Percy rolled his eyes at both of them, even if one was only in spirit. "No." He answered his own question.

... We flew over it on the way here, and it don't look good. Hop on!

"If your camp hands out medals, Blackjack deserves one," Jason smiled. "No hesitation, just flying you right into battle, every time."

"I'll find a way to give him a horse-sized donut one day," Percy nodded.

... he'd nearly killed my mother on Half-Blood Hill. I still had nightmares about that.

Magnus was a big complainer about Percy's nightmares. He kept insisting it was an extra layer of cruelty he couldn't even get a decent sleep without being bombarded with the world's problems.

He was suddenly just a tad grateful they hadn't been getting a night-by-night example of everything Percy dreamed of, the good, the bad, and the normal trauma.

... been hoping he'd stay dead a few centuries, but should've known better.

"The best summary of your life by far," Nico nodded.

"Yeah," Percy groaned. "Who do I pay to rewrite that?"

Will offered an awkward smile, the errant comment on the tip of his tongue his dad perhaps being able to pull that off, but it fumbled off fast. He just wasn't in the mood.

... arrows glanced off the shield wall. About a hundred monsters marched behind them.

It seemed like a stalemate that was going to collapse any second, Percy's throat tightened at the fresh memory. The smell of the smoke had clogged him up before he even got close, he didn't know how those guys had been aiming with such precision to hit anything. Dust had been sweeping across his feet like he'd brought the shore with him as he landed.

He wished the bodies would have vanished as well, but then, that's what separated them from the enemy.

Hellhounds leaped ahead ... I didn't see what happened to him next. I didn't want to know.

The same thing that would have happened to Percy all those years ago if Chiron hadn't saved his hind. He wasn't there to save every kid with half-a-dozen arrows this time though, Will felt seized by the thought like someone had grabbed his soul.

...in the middle of the invading legion was Old Beefhead himself.

"I'm sure that's exactly what the ancient Greeks called him while running for their lives in that first labyrinth," Thalia looked at him in her usual pride for never passing a moment to insult someone.

"I hope Theseus made the first hamburger out of him," Percy smirked.

... been wearing nothing but his tighty whities. I don't know why.

"Sorry Nico, but those four words are the best summary of Percy's life," Annabeth cut in, "and from his own head!"

"I really could just wear that on the back of any shirt for the rest of my life," Percy sighed.

Maybe he'd been shaken out of bed to chase me.

"I am now imagining Zeus and or Hades just showing up in a monster's house and kicking the frame of their bed until they do their bidding," Alex nodded.

"I'm still half convinced he has Echidna on speed dial for next time," Percy nodded.

"Next time you, piss of Zeus?" Annabeth asked in concern.

"Yeah," he looked at her blankly like he could mean anything else.

... standard Greek battle gear, a kiltlike apron of leather and metal flaps,

"For shame on you Percy for never wearing standard Greek battle gear yourself," Alex cackled.

From anyone else, he would have assumed Alex was mocking him for the idea of guys wearing kilts, but from Alex he was pretty sure she just wanted him in that get-up for potential nerd conventions.

... seemed larger than the last time I'd seen him, ten feet tall at least.

Considering the last time Percy had 'seen him,' it had been pouring down rain and Percy's mind might have honestly still been obstructed by Mist, Nico would have assumed in fact the Minotaur would have seemed smaller to the now teenager about to face him down.

...he bellowed and picked up a white limousine.

"I imagine him like a rhino," Thalia nodded. "He just violently attacks without question at the slightest movement. Your scent is like his red flag."

"Great, just what I always wanted, another chance at being a conquistador," Percy's smile was nearly vindictive. This monster was going to wish he'd been reincarnated as a chicken hybrid instead by the time Percy was through with him.

"Blackjack, dive!" I yelled. What? The pegasus asked. No way could he- Holy horse feed!

"Blackjack underestimating his opponents is going to get him hurt," Jason leaned forward in his seat in concern. It's possible that's how he'd even been captured as Luke's personal steed in the first place.

...missing by two inches, and fell toward the East River.

"Feel like that god's going to feel the splash and instantly blame you," Jason said, eyes closed and rubbing them.

"No different than any other part of my life," Percy shrugged. As long as he kept the monsters out of the river while cussing him out.

Monsters jeered and shouted, and the Minotaur picked up another car.

"Was he a brand snob?" Magnus asked. "I just want to know if he picked another limosene, or another white car, or if some certain symbol attracted his attention."

"I'd like to hit him with a John Deer tractor but he'd probably throw that back at me too," Percy scowled.

..."Stay in earshot but get out of danger!"

"Easily the best advice you've ever given someone," Annabeth grinned as she patted his shoulder.

"Far better than that time he tried to convince Clarisse to polish her spear in the blood of that wyvern," Thalia nodded.

"I was trying to be supportive," Percy frowned.

... the shortest commando I'd ever seen. He had a bandaged cut on his arm.

It had taken all of Will's pleading to even get that far, he kept his sigh very internal. The act of making him sit still for that had been a feat only a little brother could manage. He'd tried distracting him by asking what was going to happen to the animals at the zoo since he heard Conner talking about releasing them.

The memory felt a little bitter, a little sad, and a little nostalgic all at once as Miachel had just told him to stay back at the base as he headed out, and not long after a pig had flown overhead like a bizarre angel all its own.

...his quiver was almost empty, but he was smiling like he was having a great time.

Nico glanced at Will for probably the thousandth time in as many words to see him trying for that smile now, but his eyes were to sad. It was obvious he was happy his brother died at the peak of his life, even if that cord had been cut to soon for his liking. He still didn't quite understand how Will didn't associate him with that feeling like he did practically every time he looked at Percy.

... "Where are the other reinforcements?"

"For now, we're it," I said.

"Then we're dead," he said.

"I see you got all the cheer Will," Percy told him.

He gave a sad smile back for his lost half-brother, he'd learned that dry sarcasm from him.

"He has such faith in you," Thalia couldn't help a derisive snort.

"Hey, it was a lot of monsters," Annabeth hadn't even really argued the point at the time it was a fair assumption.

...said it was too late. We'd insulted her honor for the last time or some stupid thing."

'Or some stupid thing,' Jason frowned and tipped his head to the side as he felt for Clarisse in that. They still didn't seem to understand the root of her problem, which was why she was clearly refusing to make any bridges herself so the camp could just break those later too. She wasn't just a tool, a means to be used and never respected for more than just her capabilities. Nobody should just be seen as a weapon you could point and then toss aside when you were done.

He found himself rubbing his tattoo, as usual when thoughts like that sprung to easily to mind and he thought about the Daughter of Ares for to long. He craved to know what connection he felt should be there, but now with her not even in the picture he doubted he'd get any more chances for the foreseeable future.

...I called her some names. I doubt that helped. Here come the uglies!"

"I so wish that was the Ares cabin though, riding in at the perfect moment," Alex admitted. Even if she made a point to knock Micheal on his ass while she stormed into the battle for calling her ugly.

"Yeah, me too," Percy had no problems admitting, even if it caused a severe twinge in his temple to imagine.

..."That was my last sonic arrow," Michael said.

"A pity, I'd have let him borrow some of mine," Thalia frowned. She wished she could have dispatched some of her hunters to help their cousins out. The Apollo cabin was probably as close to likable as some of the Hunters could get, even if it was the kind of tolerance at a forced family gathering.

Will knew she meant that in a helpful way, but it made her sound cocky like she'd had extras; it still grated on him, as everything was bound to do when his heart hurt so bad. They were still just laughing, just talking like nothing was wrong. His entire cabin had been on that bridge while only he and his youngest half sister had been at the infirmary at the far back and they were treating this like another quest Percy had gone on and obviously came back from.

"A gift from your dad?" I asked. "God of music?"

"I swear it's like you're still reminding yourself of this all these years later," Thalia sighed as she rubbed her temples.

Percy stayed eerily silent. It was hard keeping track of all this!

..."Percy," Annabeth said, "let me come with you." "Too dangerous," I said.

Gods did she hate being told that. He was right. And it was annoying he was right! But he'd still told her no, and for a good stupid reason. And she hated it! Frekaing, Curse, of, Achilles!

... If anybody can do all that, you can." Michael snorted. "Thanks a lot."

She was the brightest person in Camp, Will couldn't stop an eye roll even by threat of death. Everybody knew it, and she and Percy relied on each other to fix everything like the rest of them weren't even there. Micheal getting a chance to say that, even while being ignored, felt justified in a petty way.

...She nodded reluctantly. "All right. Get moving." Before I could lose my courage,

Annabeth sighed, it was as simple as that to him huh? He'd really been trying to prove he wasn't a coward, now of all times! If he hadn't kissed her down in that lake she might have been afraid to ever press her lips to his again, considering when she did he nearly died!

I said, "Don't I get a kiss for luck? It's kind of a tradition, right?"

"For luck?" Annabeth scowled at him in a way that suggested she really wished she had her knife on her again. "For luck! Last time I kissed you, you died for two weeks seaweed brain! How was that lucky?"

"You kissing me made me feel luckier," Percy shrugged. "I think that counts."

If looks could strangle, the son of the sea should have been choking on air as he smiled at her.

..."Come back alive, Seaweed Brain. Then we'll see."

"A tradition has been broken," Jason tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Nine out of ten times before this, if Percy thought you were going to hit him, you hugged him, or indeed kissed him."

"Sorry to disrupt your data," Annabeth gave him a strange look.

"On the contrary, it's just a new variable," he shook his head, still studying the book like it was his thesis assignment.

Annabeth glanced at Percy wondering how he didn't feel like a lab rat. He was still grinning at her without a care in the world. He hoped he proved to her he wasn't a coward. That she'd only said no because she hadn't wanted to jinx it again. Not for other possible reasons like she'd rather go kiss Luke right now.

...a sound that was somewhere between a yell, a moo, and a really loud belch.

Alex waved her hand in front of her nose like she could smell such a thing all the way down here, and Percy envied those who couldn't.

"Hey, Beef Boy," I shouted back. "Didn't I kill you already?"**

"Percy over here losing track of how many monsters he's killed," Magnus sighed.

"I just wish I had the gun and actual kill count to match," Percy frowned. Everything he'd done up to this point did not make him feel prepared to stare down this monster that had made him feel more lost in his life than any after. He wished he had that horn on him to stab the Minotaur in a few more places.

He pounded his fist into the hood of a Lexus, and it crumpled like aluminum foil.

"Is cow insurance a thing in New York?" Magnus couldn't help but ask how that paperwork would go for the poor owner.

"Is cow insurance a thing period?" Percy looked around.

"Yes Percy," Will sounded tired though, not at all his usual chipper way of talking and it got all attention. He kept replaying the moment over and over when Percy had killed him the first time in his head, but it wasn't making this feeling any better.

Nico cleared his throat and quickly kept reading, but it didn't stop the lingering looks as Percy's stomach continued to churn up painfully within.

... A hellhound lunged, and I sidestepped. I could have stabbed, but I hesitated.

He'd just witnessed one of those murdering a camper, and still he couldn't overcome his greatest weakness, his compassion. Magnus found it admirable, honestly, but he also kind of wanted to stick a pin in Percy's weak spot and remind him to stop being an idiot right now.

...This time I brought Riptide up. The hellhound disintegrated into dust and fur.

Thalia bit back a sigh of regret anyways. Just because it was untamed didn't mean it deserved to die. These weren't wild animals though, she had to remind herself too. It wouldn't just stay in its natural habitat if humans didn't bother it, these things actively sought out and killed half-bloods. Their place in nature was to be vaporized by them only to be reborn.

More monsters surged forward, but the Minotaur roared at them, and they backed off.

Jason really wished Tyson was around right now just to translate. He got the gist of course, but it still would have been fascinating to know the words the Minotaur used.

...It was beautiful in a harsh I'm~going~to-gut~you~like~a~fish kind of way.

"Is that what all fish think before they bite the hook that ends them?" Nico asked in mild fascination. "This worm is beautiful and oddly shiny."

"I don't ask, I don't fish," Percy frowned at him oddly like it wasn't his own mind's choice of words to prompt that.

Each of its twin blades was shaped like an omega: Ω—the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Jason leaned over so eagerly to see the symbol for himself he nearly headbutted Nico.

"Looks like an upside-down U," Nico told with a grin.

"A fancy upside down U," Percy agreed, "with curlies on the side."

"How many letters are in the Greek alphabet?" Magnus frowned. "And why do I feel like they're all going to bite Percy in the ass at some point." At least two of them already hadn't been that great.

"Twenty-four," Annabeth answered.

"And no, there's not a cool song," Thalia grinned before Alex could ask, making her slump in her seat in disappointment, only to wind back up a second later and mutter about making her own.

... they were Camp Half-Blood beads—necklaces taken from defeated demigods.

"Oh," Annabeth murmured in understanding long after she didn't need to as bile rose in her. She remembered every step Percy had taken, about a dozen, to banish this monster back to the abyss.

She was now surprised it had even taken that many as angry as he'd be seeing that as a trophy.

I was so mad, I imagined my eyes glowing just like the Minotaur's.

Where was Rachel around to sketch this, Alex thought with relish. She immensely enjoyed Percy's most destructive side, and most of all, where it stemmed from. She craved to get that image into solid marble somehow, of a protective, fierce warrior in all the right ways. Even if Percy would protest every chip away.

... sliced his axe in half, right between the handholds. "Moo?" he grunted.

"Percy, the cow whisperer," Nico said with a soft chuckle at the actual question mark there. It always was fascinating when one could tell an animal was whole-heartedly confused by something.

Will smiled, the first time he had all chapter. Just a little quirk of the lips, but enough it was clear his thoughts flickered to something other than the ending of this where that bridge was doomed to take his brothers and sisters down. Like he wanted to laugh, and maybe even call back to saying he'd never actually been around cows and might have understood the Minotaur.

It was fleeting and didn't last that long, but Nico still felt a sense like he was doing something right he rarely got to feel.

... lowered his head to charge. He never got the chance...slicing off both horns.

"Percy has officially graduated from taking more than one slice to defeat a monster," Thalia snorted, before back peddling, "no, wait, that's worse."

"Now he's just showing off and will still kill it," Jason nodded.

There was an odd moment of silence, where they all finally realized what they were waiting on, but Will didn't butt in with a pun on his name at all.

Nico had easy access to his hand always on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. He simply nodded and Nico kept going while Percy's hands started to shake. His confidence slipping by the word.

Just because he could finally vanquish a nightmare away didn't mean more weren't always lurking.

... never very smart to begin with, but now his anger made him reckless.

"Why are idiots always so predictable?" Jason rolled his eyes.

"Does that make Percy a genius?" Annabeth grinned at her boyfriend, who beamed with pride at the slightly backhanded compliment.

Jason snorted lightly, but he was suddenly rather grateful that Percy's temper which usually did lead him to do impulsive and insane things wasn't what had been 'enhanced' instead of his heart.

...The Minotaur must've smelled victory. He thought I was trying to get away.

"Never, ever assume Percy is running from a fight," Will muttered a life lesson he'd clearly taken out of this, as if he'd actually try and pass it along to the next foolish monster and then watch as they didn't listen.

In this one case, he wished he was wrong. That Percy had jumped off the bridge in hopes the army would follow him. His plan had worked, as usual, but the consequences had been deadlier than ever.

... The Minotaur didn't even slow down. CRUNCH.

"I feel like someone should have gotten that on video," Magnus said in admiration. "Crazy Percy Plan 101."

"We really should add that to the orientation video," Nico agreed with a sideways look at Will. He'd been hoping he'd ramp up to his usual and agree he'd get the costumes ready, but no, Nico had definitely pushed his limit and he recognized that and moved on.

...Even as he fell, he was disintegrating, his essence returning to Tartarus.

"What a fabulous prize, you'll beat that sphinx out of game show host easy Perce," Alex chuckled.

"I've told you a dozen times Alex, I'm done with the TV show life," Percy sighed.

"Eh, they'd never get your good angle anyways," she shrugged.

... now roughly one hundred and ninety-nine to one. I did the natural thing. I charged.

Nico read that with ease. It had always been the natural thing to do in his mind, of the Percy he'd built in his head. Reading it now, as a fact and knowing the real Percy only made it all the more true somehow.

"At least you were nearly invulnerable this time," Annabeth was still grumbling, considering she knew he'd do this with or without the curse.

You're going to ask how the "invincible" thing worked:

"We actually don't question your methods that much," Magnus admitted as he rubbed his chest, clearly saying it saved him from a heart failure or two being happier in ignorance over there imagining it just magically worked out.

"You should though," Annabeth sounded like she was trying to gently prepare a bunch of pre-schoolers about the real world. "It's always better to understand the methods behind his madness," she finished fondly.

"So that we can all repeat them at length," Alex nodded. Magnus looked between the two in betrayal for every part of this.

"No, I mean, yeah, but," Annabeth frowned at her before Nico read on like all the valid points had already been made.

...the monsters turned and fled, about twenty left alive out of two hundred.

I followed with the Apollo campers at my heels.

Will just knew that if his brother had survived this, he would have told the most epic story around the campfire for the next year. Didn't matter what the others had gotten up to during all this, how many of them could actively say they'd fought side by side with Percy? Only Annabeth and Clriasse came close to sharing that honor. There were so many things Micheal should have been able to do...

The possibilities of what could have been for him felt like an arrow through the heart.

...Pull back! We're overextended!"

... doing so well, I wanted to destroy every last monster.

A hubris Annabeth rarely saw in him that made her shiver now. The curse nearly having its way in him, nearly overruling him.

... forty demigods in battle armor, mounted on skeletal horses.

"What is with the skeleton horses?" Magnus scowled. Of the few animals he liked, he found it pervasive that so many easily seemed to summon this. First Clrassie, then Hades, now this!

"Better than skeleton elephants?" Jason offered, a strange idea that lingered all the same of one in his mind he'd ridden atop of. Possibly into a similar enemy threat? Gods he wished his brain made more sense.

"Vaguely," Magnus didn't look all that much better as he grudgingly agreed.

... I recognized Kronos himself, his eyes like molten gold.

Percy's heart dropped like someone had given his insides a good crunch in return. Someone had told.

The spy had told Kronos this was the bridge to hit, was the most vulnerable area. The weak spot on his back pulsed like it had grown its own miniature heartbeat as he shivered deep within for the loss he felt was coming.

Everything he'd done up to this moment had been for this chance, the mere possibility he'd have this fight.

Now he took one look into a face that had caused him more sleep paralysis than any monster.

Annabeth didn't even notice the way the water was tightening around them like lashings, as she'd winced for Percy once again just calling him Kronos. As if that were the only person he was facing.

Annabeth and the Apollo campers faltered.

Nico read that with a fair amount of disbelief. Like Percy hadn't come to a screeching halt with them?

...He was a quarter mile away, but I swear I could see him smile.

Percy would swear his face had stretched grotesquely doing it too, like his scar was about to split his face in half. The resemblance to Luke's mother had been uncanny.

"Now," I said, "we pull back."

Annabeth gave him a blatant, 'oh, now you listen to me look,' he must have missed at the time but got to admire now in all its correct glory. What would he do without her? Go charging right into the enemy, obviously.

... fighting with her knife and mirrored shield as we slowly backed up the bridge.

Will was leaning forward in his seat now, his heart pounding so loud in his ears he almost couldn't hear Nico. Gods, he almost didn't want to hear this, the coming downfall, even as he visualized every detail vividly instead of hiding in a tent this time.

... like he had all the time in the world. Being the lord of time, I guess he did.

"Whoever gave him that title should be boiled in glue," Alex scowled.

"Erm," Annabeth made a face she didn't know how to explain in short enough words to keep her attention you couldn't do that to Gaea.

It wouldn't have phased Alex if she'd bothered to try anyways.

I tried to wound his men, not kill.

Nico's voice strangely eased up some, to Percy's buzzing ears as he felt like he was straddling a tightrope, but Nico's wasn't the only one. He didn't get it, but the others were more relieved than they'd admit at Percy continuing to do this, show his hesitation to those kids did ease up some of his earlier, casual dismissal of those on the river. Like on the Princess Andromeda. He just couldn't do it in cold blood, and that was of some relief the war and this curse hadn't possessed him wholly.

... kicking our enemies and flying away like very large kamikaze pigeons.

Alex snorted in her usual delight of all things chaotic, and nobody would really be surprised if she started a flock of pigeons trained to do this in the fortnight she got out of here.

...that old saying about someone walking on your grave. Annabeth cried out in pain.

Percy moved, every drop of the ocean urging him forward as he found himself on his feet. A pain, deeper than anything he'd ever felt before spurring him to draw his sword-

"Percy!" Annabeth was right in his face, cupping his cheeks, nearly nose to nose with him.

"He, he hurt," he was stammering, his eyes a memory away as Riptide stayed poised in his hand, the flat of it against her hip. She smiled and pressed their foreheads together without concern.

"I know. I know he hurt us. Just breathe."

His sword fell. He pressed his hands against her shoulders and leaned in to kiss her.

She melted into him, throwing her arms around his neck. This, she thought with ecstasy as her lips eagerly drank him in as if never getting enough. This kiss, this should have been their first kiss.

"Dude!"

Percy leaned back with a frown at whoever had interrupted him, then sheepishly took a small step back from Magnus's cousin as Annabeth's shaky breath lingered on the corner of his trembling mouth.

Alex was still smacking the side of her head to get all the water out of her ears and Will was trying to flop his dripping wet hair out of his eyes, but Magnus was ignoring these minor problems as he looked on in exasperation at the pair.

Percy swallowed a new apology as he looked worriedly around the room. There were now gaps in the walls, large enough to put feet through. He'd obviously been about to lose his temper big time.

Annabeth was running her fingers through his hair, distracting him from whatever doom was probably a snap away, her other hand was still holding tight to his wrist on her shoulder like she wanted to ignore the interruption and keep him there forever.

Will wouldn't have let them even if Magnus hadn't interrupted. A sharp clearing of his throat reminded the two quickly they were in the middle of a battle, and they weren't the only two on that bridge.

He was the one to steer her back to their spot, to force his body to cooperate and keep them on the same level as the others while she didn't take her eyes off him.

...I turned to see her fall, clutching her arm. A demigod with a bloody knife stood over her.

Nico frowned in mild sorrow for this poor dead guy who had probably just hit public enemy number one territory over Kronos. Nico was surprised he hadn't seen a dartboard with this helmet somewhere around camp for Percy to vent on. He knew Percy wasn't a saint, above killing, and this person had just stabbed that into reality.

...Annabeth had intercepted. But why? She didn't know about my weak spot. No one did.

Annabeth could feel the questions surrounding her from the others more than she did the salt water, more than Percy finally being entirely wrapped around her. Even Thalia was looking around Percy to study her curiously for an explanation she'd never gotten of details.

She just stared straight ahead at the book and didn't offer anything. She could have said it was a gut feeling, like Percy so often said he got, and they might have bought that. She could have just said it was a reflex, she'd seen what was coming for him and hadn't taken the split second of movement inside herself that was no real choice but a simple shift of her weight to protect him without that curse even crossing her mind.

The truth was, it was none of that, and all of it. She hated not being able to explain something, but she couldn't do any research on this moment until someone found a way to interrogate her knife on what happened for an objective third-party point of view.

... He wore an eye patch under his war helm: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis.

"Boy sure is living up to his damned mother right now," Thalia said in blackened disgust. If he wasn't dead already by Percy's hand, she'd be happy to take up the hunt and be a nemesis to the one who had caused as much destruction on their world as Luke for all his awful, repeated, back-to-back choices.

... I slammed him in the face with my sword hilt so hard I dented his helm.

The fact that that was his response and his brain wasn't leaking out of that helmet was a kind of restraint Jason didn't think he'd have in him. If somebody had hurt Thalia, any of his friends, they'd be fried like a fish without hesitation.

The idea bothered him for some reason, as he traced his tattoo and studied Percy and Annabeth, now holding each other close in those beanbags with nothing at all in the way, past or future. He had his arm around her waist, his thumb rubbing soothing circles into her hip absent mindedly as he watched the book with a harsh scowl. She was resting on his shoulder, once injured arm hidden from sight as she pressed in close. There was a sad smile in place, but a peaceful one for getting this back, the person she'd wanted since he'd vanished, even amid the battle being far from over.

Jason felt empty as he watched. Nothing in his past could connect to what he was seeing. He had no feeling to relate that to anyone, and it wasn't because he couldn't remember them. They just didn't exist in his world.

..."Get back!" I drove everyone away from Annabeth. "No one touches her!"

The protective instinct was a malnourished one in Alex. With Adrian, they'd always had each other on equal ground. She'd felt it flare up a few times around these guys, mostly picturing Percy much smaller and younger facing certain aspects of this alone.

The few group homes she'd wound up in had been a nice delusion of this kind of person existing in her mind, but that was about it.

... He studied as if he could sense I'd just brushed death, like a wolf can smell fear.

Magnus often felt like a part of his life would never be able to look away from those glowing blue eyes in the face of such a monster that had killed his mom, but for once he barely flinched at the idea of a wolf as he kept eyes on his cousin. She seemed at peace, for the first time in here, truly comfortable. He was happy for her, that she'd gotten that explicitly with one person in her life, even being trapped down here so at least he wouldn't have to worry if she was actually alive somewhere.

"Bravely fought, Percy Jackson. But it's time to surrender... or the girl dies."

Thalia knew that hesitation in those last four words was from Nico reading for Kronos, not his own pause of saying something like that.

What killed her in that moment was that Luke hadn't woken up in there. That those eyes hadn't flashed blue upon seeing Annabeth like this. She knew he was capable of it, otherwise this couldn't have ended any other way, but she still felt hurt it hadn't been this. Thalia would have done anything to get Annabeth out of that situation just like Percy, why hadn't he?

"Percy, don't," ... Her shirt was soaked with blood. I had to get her out of here.

"Still want that lucky kiss?" Annabeth shook her head as her hand came up to clench the old wound.

"From you? Always," Percy said, staring at her with the same smile he'd always had upon that first day in Camp. His mom had been presumed dead, he'd felt out of place and lost in his new home, but still he'd smiled at her just as he was now when she hadn't intervened upon his fight with Clarisse.

"Blackjack!" I yelled... They soared away over the river before the enemy could even react.

"Best, pegasus, ever," Percy murmured for her ears alone. He wished he could wrap her in a blanket and possibly post Tyson over her bed to make sure she was never in this kind of danger again.

That just wasn't their life, even the fleeting idea felt ridiculous and she'd get herself out and then smack him on her way to the next thing he couldn't deal with without her.

"Yeah," she grinned up at him, like they were in their own little bubble of a world for just that moment again before Nico popped it as he kept reading without surprise. He'd known she survived, this wasn't his concern in the slightest. She still felt like slamming the book shut and taking a second to breathe as she still felt Percy's lips on hers, but that was his call, she was just along for the ride now.

Kronos snarled. "Some day soon, I am going to make pegasus soup.

"Talk about friends for dinner," Will frowned, dredging up a new kind of scowl as he saw the last page left lingering in Nico's hand. Was Percy even going to notice the fallout as he ran off after her the second he got?

"We will not be talking about that," Percy gave him an intense look, Micheal's thin, ferret-like face and dark hair looked nothing like Will really, but something of their noses and sharp eyes tried to overlap in Percy's brain all the same as he kept trying to pull Annabeth closer.

It was an odd moment where one easily ignored the other's random comment, lost in their own worlds.

... scythe glistening in the dawn light. "I'll settle for another dead demigod."

"He should settle for a lot lower," Alex scowled. "More so-so problems like the rest of us, bad hair day and morning breath. Hell, one night standards aren't even something to be looked down on as a standard."

She got a lot of blank stares for that and grinned they just didn't have the imagination to conjure up Kronos trying to pick out his wardrobe and checking his cowlick in the mirror.

...The impact shook the entire bridge, but I held my ground. Kronos's smile wavered.

'Not so easy when you can't just win with a flick of your wrist,' Jason sneered. He kept the thought to himself only because he wanted to hear more of Percy kicking his ass to badly to bother with the obvious interruption.

With a yell, I kicked his legs out from under him. His scythe skittered across the pavement.

"Look who could kick a fridge across a room now," Nico told him without looking up.

"Oh yeah, you just know I'll do that in my mom's apartment and feel guilty as hell for it," Percy nodded.

I stabbed, but he rolled aside and regained his footing. His scythe flew back to his hands.

Percy replayed that in his head a couple of times with annoyance. Why couldn't the gods just do that so easily when they lost their crap? Why couldn't Riptide do that instead of having to wait precious moments to return to his pocket? Then Nico kept reading and he had to remind himself that really wasn't the point right now.

... "You had the courage to visit the Styx. I had to pressure Luke in many ways.

Annabeth's mouth opened in a gaping display of all her teeth Percy tried not to be to phased at. This obviously hurt her, he tried to pull her somehow closer and she willingly went like she couldn't get enough, but he didn't need to be a mind reader to know that her every thought was now plagued with Luke, again. What pressures Kronos had used, how many times had he refused before he gave in, what had been the catalyst?

Percy moved his hand to her other arm, rubbing his palm gently up and down there like he was trying to warm her as she started shivering. He remembered Hermes's harsh words, that must have been the god's idea of some bizarre scenario about her missing a chance to save him. From what he could tell, she'd done everything and more than what was ever asked of her in that regards.

If only you had supplied my host body instead . . .

Percy would rather have live bugs crawling inside him than that sense of disgust that just passed through him. Thankfully the closest Kronos would ever get to his mind was annoying his dreams.

... a wave of pure force blasted me backward. Cars, Demigods—even Luke's own men—were blown off the edge of the bridge.

Not that this surprised a single one of them, but they all flinched anyways. It's like Kronos was broadcasting why Percy would never give him more than a finger of his time.

... perched on a suspension cable, his last arrow notched. "Michael, go!" I screamed.

At least he'd tried, Will swallowed down a painful sob. He sort of wanted to hug Percy for that, and also shove a soiled bandage up his nose for not dragging him back kicking and screaming like he would have if it were Grover.

"Percy, the bridge!" he called. "It's already weak!"

He should have been fine, Will kept thinking over and over in his head. Micheal had once hung from his feet like a trapeze artist to aim his shot, he'd move across beams in pouring down rain and his balance was better than some kid who knew ballet. Will had already been a few inches taller than him at thirteen but had nothing on Micheal's ability to jump to any new perch he needed for a better vantage point on the thinnest of tree limbs. He should have been able to make it...

..."Break it!" Michael yelled. "Use your powers!"

Kayla had told him in a broken voice those were Micheal's last words, that he'd encouraged Percy to do this and he'd of course succeeded in completing that blast to his full ability. Will didn't blame him, truly, but...

Percy never would have done that if Annabeth had been the one on that suspension line.

...The bridge shook and began to crumble. Chunks the size of houses fell into the East River.

Even if they'd kept that stupid chariot for themselves he still wouldn't have survived, Will kept swallowing and it hurt more every time. None of them had enough practice steering it through debris raining down, could have gotten out in time to catch him. There was nothing anybody could have done to prevent this. He was gone. He shouldn't be, but he was.

Kronos's demigods scrambled backward. Some were knocked off their feet.

Austin had watched, his scream unheard in the noise as Micheal had lost his previously flawless balance on his perch. He'd tried to regain it, throw his bow and grab that cable with both hands, but he'd seen the panic, then acceptance as his feet lost against the force.

He and Kayla had been whispering about it when Will had come upon them hours later, their voices petrified like they'd slip off the edge of the world next while Eliza had been crying at the shore feet away watching the rest of their siblings continue the fruitless search.

Within seconds, a fifty-foot chasm opened in the Williamsburg Bridge between us.

"Titan schmiten," Alex muttered, "I want whatever coked up shit Percy's on." Percy only hadn't won that fight because there were innocents around, she was sure of it after a display of power like that.

"Gods I hope you're kidding," Magnus sighed, knowing there wasn't a force on earth to stop Alex bathing in the styx if she really wanted to. He wondered vaguely who her godly parent was without much care and if they'd carelessly agree or try to warn her away. Even Posideon hadn't done much of either though so he wasn't sure what the basis of a god's opinion on this even was.

... maybe Kronos had a magic way to span the gap.

Nico's brain easily filled in the gaps, of Kronos snapping his fingers and time reversing to put those chunks back together like nothing, to play the planet like a toy and reverse it to do his bidding like nothing had happened.

He wished he could do that for Will now, as a few silent tears fell, smudging the words on the page. He was sitting so close he could feel every breath, every bony press of his lightweight that had never once felt intrusive through his thick jacket.

While Nico might have asked for more breaks in here than anyone, he didn't feel the least bit self-conscious to do so again, especially not on Will's part if he needed a second. His hand was steady on his arm though. Nico wasn't entirely convinced that was a good measure on Will, he was always that steady, but he also trusted Will to admit when he needed something like that considering he'd been the one impressing upon Nico to do the same.

... looked at the rising sun, then smiled across the chasm. "Until this evening, Jackson."

Jason instantly narrowed his eyes suspiciously at that. Why would sunrise stop Kronos? Even Alex's blasie' joke about vampires he vaguely heard didn't cut through his intense concentration of trying to understand what scheme was being plotted, that would take so long to set in instead of leaping across that space and accomplishing the maximum amount of distraction now when Percy was shaken and his forces weakened.

...I turned to thank Michael, but the words died in my throat. Twenty feet away, a bow lay in the street. Its owner was nowhere to be seen.

Why did it hurt worse knowing this would be the outcome all along, Nico frowned. He'd known Will was the head of his cabin, obviously his older brother would have died on this bridge, but still he'd spent every word up to this point hoping in vain he was wrong. That Will wasn't hurting because of that, but some other problem like they'd run out of ambrosia. Like knowing the second Percy had found himself on the edge of that desert his sister was on her last moments of life and still spending the entire time in here wishing he was wrong.

'Because you'd hoped for the best anyways,' a small little voice whispered in his mind that sounded suspiciously like Will. He'd never been an optimist before, he wanted to give that thought a good hand wave away, but he instead sat in a long moment of silence nobody broke as he watched Will's sad blue eyes lost in his own thoughts.

"Oh," Percy's quiet whisper was the first to break the long-held breath. He felt the instinct to dive into the water and find him, but finally the look on the son of Apollo's face connected with the pain in Percy's head he hadn't wanted. "Will, I'm, I'm so sorry." He wanted to get angry. He wanted to get in Clarisse's face and ask if she was happy now. His hands wanted to throw Riptide far away and hope it never came back this time at his own capability of destruction. How had he not accidentally killed Nico?! He clearly had no real control over the chaos he brought to everyone's life.

"Yeah, me too," Will didn't sound angry, just tired. Tired of losing people, tired of the days he spent at camp with the weight of his siblings on his back when all he wanted to do was curl up and sleep. Tired of the guilt that would never let him do more than grit his teeth but get up all the same to see what they needed instead of muttering where to find someone else.

Having to adjust to three heads of a cabin in less than a year could do that to you.

"No!" I searched the wreckage of the bridge... I had a call from Finklestein & Associates.

Magnus silently showed Alex the sign for lawyer he randomly remembered, his smile forced, but his mind amusedly offering up the image all the same of someone trying to deliver Percy court documents at a time like this.

Will had heard all of that, back in his tent. The destruction, Percy's scream, then the sound of more phones ringing as he'd been checking a boy's IV he didn't even know the name of, he must have gotten there mere weeks ago. The Williamsburg Bridge had been so close by, he'd known.

He'd kept working, putting it all away like the rest of the kids crying in pain around him until Percy had come bursting through the tent. He'd expected Percy to tell him what he'd already known. Instead he'd yanked him out babbling about Annabeth and Will had gone, handing over his clipboard to Eliza who was six and trying to give her messages to others to far spread out right now to convey everything he needed.

Hoping on the back of that bike and looking at the bridge as they sped off had been his split second to see it was true before he'd shut his eyes and felt it all for that flight over there only before it was right back to work.

..."Percy?" Silena Beauregard sounded like she'd been crying.

She had, actually, on and off so much her siblings had seemed more worried for her than Annabeth unable to stay on her feet. Annabeth felt a faint moment of amusement as she imagined Percy leaping off the ground, cartoon-style exclamation point over his head and everything in fear as he threw the phone away at the mere idea of being back around a crying girl.

That wasn't fair, and a wild exaggeration she knew. Not after he'd tried to comfort her at Becekendorf's funeral.

Apparently it was just her crying he couldn't seem to handle.

...You'd better come quick and bring a healer from Apollo's cabin. It's, it's Annabeth."

If Nico couldn't look up from that and see her sitting right in front of him, he'd be half convinced Annabeth really was dead somewhere out there just from the universe laughing at him having to read that. Somehow, even in the retelling of Percy's life, death seemed to follow him specifically.

Will didn't reach for the book next. He still stayed tightly pressed against Nico as he gazed vacantly at nothing like the words hadn't quite registered a passing of the book should be coming by tone alone.

But Percy was shivering anxiously, lost in memory to know in as explicit detail as possible how Annabeth was alive as she curled into his side now.

So what was he supposed to do?

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*That is a quote from Homeward Bound II, and I tried to look up if it was a misquote done on purpose by the original character but couldn't find anything.

**This is a quote from Hellboy, and while not exactly an exclusive line only to him and Percy, I couldn't stop laughing when I read it in Ron Pearlmen's voice while picturing Percy and that's why I've been on the movie kick with him lately.