Olympus was quiet. Deadly quiet. Everyone was in mourning. This was two years after Percy made the ultimate sacrifice. "To storm or fire, the world must fall." Everyone thought that meant the might Jason Grace, or the aloof Leo Valdez, and they would be wrong to think as such. Storms was never Poseidon's main domain, it was a minor at best. Yet, the Hero of Olympus, the slayer of various giants, the commander of the Seven, the survivor of Tartarus had been the one to kill Gaia. The only awakened primordial and possibly the only one who hadn't faded, was slain by a demigod.

Inside the throne room, the atmosphere was even more dejected than outside. Everyone was somber, except for Dionysus, Ares, and Hera. Dionysus had no quarrel with Percy, but he also did not like him. Ares has always held a grudge against Percy, the duel when he was twelve always in his mind. Hera was just glad that the nussiance that has constantly antagonized her was finally gone for good. Or that's what she thought. Today was different though, because even thought no body had been found and Hades said his soul hadn't entered the underworld, Poseidon was calling off the search for his long lost son.

Over the past two years there had been quests to try to find the lost son of the sea, but all had failed. Either they came back empty handed or didn't come back at all. Such was the reason why the gods had pressured Poseidon to call of the hunt, they all owed Percy but they thought their efforts were hopeless. Indeed they were, but Poseidon has fallen into such a deep depression that the oceans were more fierce and relentless than ever, and it was affecting the mortal world. The only thing that could cure him was his lost son back, and that didn't look like a possibility anytime soon. Little did all of them know, that very thing was about to happen. But it would not be as heartwarming as they would think...

Perseus, or the Good Hunter as they doll called him, was standing over his mentor, Gehrmen, with nothing but contempt in his eyes. This man had done nothing for him. He had only watched when Persues died over and over and over. He gave no advice and simply told him the basics of the Dream. He even deceived him about the very nature of said Dream. In a way it was almost like the gods. He concealed his motives until he needed him, wanted him to die, or fight their fights for them. It was infuriating, but not again. Never again. Once he was free of this dream, he would cut all ties with the gods and live his own life. But first things first, the First Hunter lying on the ground, attempting to speak to him.

"Perseus listen to me! If you kill me you will take my spot. You will be the one teaching the new hunters. You will be the one stuck here forever never being able to escape and suffering. The Moon Presence will take you and you will be here in torment forever. It will be Hell!" Gehrmen pleaded, trying to make the young man see that it was all a ruse. Perseus was not having any of it though.

"It will be Hell? Have you ever been to Hell? You have no idea what Hell is like. You have no ide WHAT IVE BEEN THROUGH! And yet you sit in that chair and act all high and mighty! You have no right, NO RIGHT, to tell me what to do! You are selfish! You condemned so many people all because you couldn't deal with one of your student leaving!" Perseus shouted, causing a gasp from Gehrmen. "You think I didn't know about Maria and the Doll? You think I don't know about the horrible things you did just to get her back? You summoned a great one with a Third of an Umbilical Cord. You thought that maybe it would help you. Well I've dealt with gods before, and all they care about is themselves! They use you until you aren't needed anymore! Why else would I be stuck in this damn place!"

Gehrmen just looked on in shock. "He's gone mad." He thought,

"He talks as if he's had a great one summoned to him before. That's impossible though, he could never find an Umbilical Cord." Gehrmen just laughed weakly, and blood came out as well as air. This reminded him and Perseus what was going to happen.

"It's over Gehrmen. You can finally get the Hell you deserve in this Gods forsaken place. Goodbye." Persues said, fury still alight in his eyes. He took his saw cleaver, and sliced through Gehrmen's throat, silencing the First Hunter forever. But it was far from over. As Perseus watched the Hunters body fade as he awoke somewhere, he felt a presence approaching. It looked as if it came right from the moon. It had tendrils that looked almost like hair, that was a mixture of red and black. It's body was bony and you could see the ribs. Perseus was unsure if this was a sort of armor, or if it was just the way it looked. Either way, the Dream was finally coming to an end. One way or another, he was going to escape from here. But the Moon Presence, as he dubbed it, tried to grab him in what seemed like a hug, if it weren't for the massive rib/teeth coming out from its chest. Perseus wondered if this was what happened to Gehrmen, and he started to thrash around. He was not going to end up staying here forever. He wanted to escape. He wanted to be free. As if sensing this, the Moon Presence held on tighter, refusing to let go. Then Perseus remembered how Gehrmen summoned the Moon Presence. He used an umbilical to summon it, so what if Perseus used one to kill it as well? While the Moon Presence has him in it's embrace, he grabbed the Cords from his pouch, and crushed them as quickly as possible. Suddenly his mind exploded with information. Insight one could call it. The Moon Presence still didn't let go, so Perseus forced it to. He used his mind, and imagined it releasing him. Once he had it pictured, he focused on it until it hurt. He could feel the glass ball in his stomach start to crack and he immediately stopped himself, but it was enough.

The Moon Presence let go of his body at once and screeched as if it had been stabbed. Perseus could breathe again, and in doing so readied his Saw Cleaver knowing a fight was about to break out. This wasn't a normal fight, this was a fight against a Great One. A being higher than the gods. A being who saw humans as nothing more than ants. A being who saw gods as little more than nuisances. This didn't mean this they were antagonistic, just more powerful. Much more powerful.

All this ran through Perseus's mind as he was studying the Great One in front of him. It no longer mattered what he was fighting. It was merely a beast, and he was a Hunter. Hunters killed beasts. This one was no different.

Annabeth, Jason, Piper. Hazel. Frank, and Leo all stood around a pyre in the middle of the camp. They were going to be the ones to burn the pyre for the missing son of Sea. The camp had expanded a lot, having almost double the amount of demigods, despite the heavy losses they faced during the Giant War. Even so, there was not a single happy soul to be found. Those who fought in the Giant War knew Perseus to be a great hero, those who hadn't had heard about all of his accomplishments.

The shroud was to be burnt at midnight, when the moon was at its highest point. This signifies that the search was truly off, and that the son of the Sea was gone for good.

"This should have been a celebration," Annabeth started, addressing the whole crowd of demigods, gods, and even demititans in Calypso's case, "but it's not. It's the funeral of the greatest demigod to ever live. As such, I would humbly request each of the Olympians to state one of his titles or achievements." She finished while bowing in their direction.

"Very well, I will go first." Zeus said, while moving to the shroud and grabbing the torch. "Farewell Perseus, Returner of the Master Bolt." He finished, and handed the torch off to Apollo.

"Wish we could've hung out some more Perce, Conquerer of the Labyrinth." Apollo handed it off to Dionysus.

"Farewell Peter, slayer of whatever," Dionysus said, getting him glares from most of the gods and all of the demigods. He handed it off to Hephaestus.

"Farewell Perseus, Freer of Typhon and Bane of Hyperion" Hephaestus said solemnly and passed it off to Ares.

"So punk, you finally managed to get yourself killed huh? Can't say I'm surprised, you were one helluva fighter though. Farewell, Savior of New Rome." Area said, and passed it to Hermes.

"So long Perseus, Bane of Medusa and too many other notable monsters to list," Hermes said, getting a sad chuckle out of most of the demigods and some of the gods, while a tear rolled down his face as he reminisced. He looked at Poseidon and deemed him unable to talk at the moment and passed it to Demeter.

"Farewell Perseus, leader of the Seven." She passed it on to Hera.

"Goodbye Perseus, conquerer of the Sea of Monsterzs," Hera then passed it to Aphrodite.

"Goodbye Percy, bearer of the Curse of Achilles," she said as she shed a tear, and passed it on to Artemis.

"Farewell Perseus, carrier of the Weight of the Sky," Artemis said stoically, aa she passed it to Athena.

"Farewell Perseus, conquerer of Tartarus." She said. Poseidon finally looks up, tears rolling down his face as he signals for the torch. She hands it to him, making sure to not touch his skin. Old rivalries and all.

Poseidon takes a deep breath and tries to speak. "F-f-farewell s-son. I wi-" Poseidon trues his hardest to push through the tears, but has to stop to clear his throat. "I will always love you, you were the best son I have ever sired. I hope you find peace wherever you are. Goodbye, slayer of Kronos and Gaia. I love you." He finishes quietly, and lights the pyre.

Little did he know that Perseus was not finding peace, nor would this be the last goodbye. Far from it.

Perseus was fighting for his life. And he was losing. He was not worried though, far from it. The Great One he was currently fighting had just backed up to lick its wounds that it traded with the Hunter. This was a grueling fight, Persues had fought great ones before, and this was far from the toughest one. The Orphan of Kos comes to mind, rage flowing through his mind as he remembered the old saying. "A hunter is never alone", what a load of bullshit.

If he could use help ever, it was against that beast. He had help from Simon for poor Ludwig, he had a foreign hunter's help with the failed attempts at greathood at the top of that vile institute, and to fight against a fellow hunter with backup would be a great violation of his honor he was not willing to respect. It was bad enough when Eileen and him hunted Henryk, no he would not do that to Gehrmen's student, Maria. But once he reached the coast, the old saying was once again proven to be incorrect. Simon, poor Simon, the man who helped him the most through this hellish Hunters Nightmare, was the one who needed help from him. And yet the man, proud or stupid only the gods know, refused to call. Simon no longer dreamt, and as such when Perseus had found him was already on his last leg of life.

"...Oh you. I'm afraid I've made a botch of things... I can hear the bell now... The beast hide assassin is after me... Again and again..." Persues remembers clearly, even as his opponent is readying itself Persues can't help but to remember but one of the lives he failed to save during this infernal hunt. He is too lost in his memory to see the beast slowly creeping forwards him. Not menacingly, more calmingly, life approaching a wounded animal. As it reached him, it reaches out and touches his face slowly, like a baby to a mother.

Perseus was now reliving that memory, reliving Simon's last words. Reliving running back down to the cell where Brador waited, tying him to the lone chair that stood and torturing him. Ripping off his fingernails and toenails, feeding the man more and more insight to make him go mad. Feeding him beast blood pellets so he no longer can be called man. But the worst part was Perseus enjoyed every second of it. He loved the way this man screamed as Perseus would cut off a finger here, and a toe there. He hated this man who killed one of his only friends in the damnable night, and took pleasure in making this man the beast he truly was.

As Perseus was going through this, the Great One was curious. It wondered what could make this man who just seconds before attempted to rip its heart out could make him cry and laugh at the same time. It was confused, this was something it had never seen something like this before. A human, a lowly being that only existed because Great Ones allowed them to, kill 3 great ones and in a fight with his fourth, start crying. It had understood Human emotions and enjoyed toying with them, so it started to go through Perseus's mind, not knowing what it was getting into.

The anger, sadness, rage, acceptance, contempt, and so much more overwhelmed the Great One. This was not the first time it had went through a humans mind or emotions, but it was the most emotion it had ever felt. It saw his entire life, his upbringing with a being called Smelly Gabe, it experience the travails and tribulations of every quest he went through, it felt the fear, agony, and despair of walking through Tartarus. It felt every little bit of happiness of getting out of that pit, getting to Athens, and finally it felt contempt towards Gaia. This was only half of the story though, as it lived through the anger towards the gods for sending him to a literal Hell, the distaste for killing Henryk dishonorably. His anguish after finding Gascoigne's daughter after he told her he would protect him. His disgust at finding Alfred turned into a madman, his sympathy for Ebriatas. His friendship with Simon, having turned into ugly boiling rage for Brador. His contempt for the host of the Dream, and finally his commitment to either end this Dream or die and get sent to the Underworld.

Perseus was coming back from his thoughts and saw and felt the Great One touching his head, writhing for some reason. He then noticed the presence in his mind, and put the pieces together. Either it was going through his mind, or it was attempting to understand what was going on. Great Ones are sympathetic is nature after all. Perseus could've easily taken this opportunity and got the upper hand in the fight, but he decided to wait and see what happened. If he felt he was in any danger he would not hesitate to attack, but a part of his mind was reminded of Artemis. Maybe it was the aura that this being gave off, or maybe it was just a connection to the moon, but he was unusually patient.

It took maybe thirty seconds but to the Moon Presence it felt all of Perseus's twenty years of living. It understood him perfectly, it understood why he did the things he did and it felt pity. Pure, unimaginable pity only capable of someone of a higher being to feel. It wanted to help this poor child. This child has endured enough to make a lesser man go insane five times over. It wanted to protect this child as if it were it's own, as all of it's other children had perished before taking their first breath. And so it backed out if his mind slowly, still afraid of retaliation and projected it's thoughts.

"Perseus?" The being asked, warily and, while not showing it, tensing it's body. Perseus, on the other hand, was boggled. It sounded like the doll was calling his name from right next to him, but he knew that to be impossible. The only answer left was...

"Did you just speak?" Perseus asked baffled.

"Indeed young Hunter. I wish to discontinue this fight as once, both of us can go home peacefully, if you listen." The Great One spoke gently and calmly, exactly the opposite of what Perseus expected from the being that was not minutes ago ready to tear into him.

"I'm listening, but if I do not like it and if you wish to continue this dream then my answer will undoubtably be no." Perseus replied, complying because he was out of blood vials, and had no idea how much strength this being of a higher power had.

"I have seen the struggles you have been through, the beasts you have conquered, and I have no doubt that if this were to continue I would join their ranks. Once that happens, I also know that you would become one of the beasts you hate so much, and as such I have a proposition. I will discontinue this dream, and send you back to your real world. If I were to do this, I would lose a vast amount of power and be left useless against the Great Ones that would not hesitate to crush one another for power. If I sent you back to your home world, then I would accompany you and you would protect me against the beasts and the Great Ones coming after me, and you." It laid out it's terms very carefully, letting him know both the risks and rewards, but also not telling him about the alternate decision that could be made. To continue the fighting.

Perseus thought about this very hard. On one hand he could go back, be rid of this horrible night, but on the other he had to protect a creature that made this entire thing happen. All these deaths, all Perseus's pain and fear and uncontrollable anger, and the creature that made it happen was right in front of him. He opened his mouth and said...