Previously:
The twins had refused almost violently until Percy stopped them by taking Jack by his hands and whispering reassuring words in his ear. Then he left, leaving a crumpled piece of paper in one of Jack's hands.

Grover had finally caught up with Jason, Reyna, Nico, and Will in tow but they were too late. Percy was already in the hands of a bear-like monster and was following them into the rising tide.

"Percy! No!" Grover shouted hopelessly.

"Chase, you bring him back or so help me!" Reyna shouted, her voice wavering.

But they were long gone.

Upon the personal sacrifice of Percy Jackson, Camp Half-Blood was so silent and empty, that if this were a western, you'd hear a bird screech in the distance and see tumble weed roll across the screen. As it is, this is Long Island, New York, the most you would see is a harpy cleaning up trash in the distance and rain making it through the barrier.

Where was everyone?

Either in their cabins or crowded in the Big House. All the counselors and the twin sons of a Neried were silently sitting in the biggest room the Big House (because of the rain), and waiting for Mr D to return from Olympus. He was informing the Council of the loss of Percy Jackson.

"Lord Poseidon is going to kill me." Zack muttered in despair.

"Me too." Grover bemoaned, munching anxiously on some ping pong balls.

"No he won't." Jason hurried to reassure the two. "Because if he did, Percy would kill him."

There were a few hesitant smiles at that but the atmosphere quickly returned to the heavy sorrow it was before.

Now, if the readers remember, Percy left a crumbled piece of paper in the hands of young Jack. Has he bothered to look at it yet? No, of course not. He didn't want to read what would probably be his last words to the camp just yet. He also hasn't told anyone about it. Right now, in the ping pong room, he was working up the courage to bring it up while they waited for Mr D to get back. Now was the best time to bring it up.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned god got back before he could do it.

He walked through the door and sat down in his seat with a two liter bottle of Diet Coke. He handed an already empty one to Grover and cleared his throat. "The Olympian Council is now aware of the situation," he started. "The loss of Percy Jackson is a hard blow, to be sure, but we must not loose hope. Lady Hestia bid me remind all of you that he was not the only hero of Olympus that lived and fought for this camp. That being said, Lord Zeus has decreed that everyone stay away from the beach and lake unless during the raids. Lord Poseidon is doing what he can beneath the surface but he can only do so much with so little numbers and if Pontus is hiding his troops somehow."

Murmurs rose with that. No one said anything, thinking on this information. Until Zack noticed his brother had stopped breathing.

While Mr D had been talking, Jack decided to take a look at the paper Percy had given him. As he finished it, his breathing got labored until he could no longer take in a breath. His eyes got wide and his hands started shaking.

"Jack?" Zack poked his brother's cheek. "Jack!"

The second shout caught everyone else's attention.

"Jack?" Nico said gently. "What is that?"

"Percy gave me...before he..."Jack couldn't continue so he held out the paper to Nico, who took it and read it through.

Nico's own eyes grew large and the other counselors pestered him to read it out loud. Will just leaned over his shoulder to read it himself.

"'Stay away from the water' is in all caps," Will started. "Then he says, 'Tell Mr D it's not time.'" Will and everyone glanced at the wine god, who had a pained expression on his face. "'I knew this would be"—Will choked—"would be necessary. Expect...correspondence?'"

...

...

...

"What?" Clarisse asked, sparking everyone to speak up at once.

"'Necessary?'" Piper asked incredulously. "How is this necessary?"

"How does he expect to 'correspond' with us?" Malcolm asked. "The logistics do not make sense."

"Lord Dionysus, why did he tell you it isn't time?" Reyna's question was the one to silence all the others. "What are you not telling us?"

Mr D looked uncomfortable. He refused to meet anyone's (including Chiron's) eyes. "I'm not sure...exactly."

"Mr D?" Chiron said hesitantly. "What is going on?"

He sighed in response. "Lord Zeus has commanded I not speak of it until it is time."

"He's lying!" Will sat up straight and pointed at the god across the table.

"Fine!" Mr D threw his hands up. "Percy said not to talk about it until it was time. Zeus actually disagreed but there was...someone else that overruled him."

"Who?" Reyna leaned forward.

"I definitely cannot say that." He said, folding his arms.

"Fine, what can you tell us?" Malcolm asked.

Mr D winced. "Nothing."

The room exploded.

Metaphorically of course.

- - -

The next morning, before the sun had risen, the conch horn blew, waking the whole camp. Just like every raid before that. And, just like every raid before that, the campers woke, grabbed their weapons and headed to the beach.

Unlike every other time, however, not long after everyone had made their way to the beach, another horn blew. This time from the direction of Half-Blood Hill.

Chaos ensued. No one had prepared for the time the enemy decided to attack from both sides. Though, if they'd been thinking straight after Percy was captured, Reyna or at least Malcolm would have thought about it. But they didn't and now they had to make do with what they had.

If they didn't have the teleportation devices Leo had made, things would have been much different. They had barely managed to keep Polybotes and Annabeth from charging their way through past the barriers.

- - -

The counselor meeting after that was uncomfortable to say the least.

"I can't believe we forgot to keep an eye on our rear." Jason growled. "If Percy had been here—" he stopped himself.

No one said anything in response. They were all thinking the same thing.

"C'mon, guys!" Hazel said gently. "There's no use beating ourselves up about it. Now we know and we can prepare better next time."

"We don't have the numbers for that." Frank said sadly. "If they keep going at this rate, we'll be overrun."

"I might be able to call in help from my sister." Reyna suggested. "Though I do not think even her numbers will be able to help significantly."

Nico nodded. "I'll IM Thalia and see if she can come back with her huntresses too."

"We could also set traps around the barrier." The Stolls threw out.

"We should be fine with all of that." Piper said softly. She laced charmspeak in her words, hoping to give the group a little hope.

"We can do this." Will said, determined.