Don't ask why this took so long, I've actually had it written out for a year... It's been one helluva year -.- But I hope y'all enjoy! Just a couple more chapters to go!

Will had never had a fear of heights before. Having rode in the sun car several times, heights had quit being a big deal years ago. That being said, he vowed to never be in the air again as they hurtled through the sky thousands of miles in the air in a rickety chariot from ancient Greece. The apparent antichrist was driving like a twelve-year old who couldn't see over the side of the chariot, probably because he was a twelve-year old who couldn't see over the side of the chariot.

Percy had a white knuckle grip on the chariot and Will knew that he had at least ten splinters already. Will was gripping Jesse and the reins in some hopeless attempt to take control of the situation.

All he could think was that the humans below were going to be very confused as to why the sun was doing loop-de-loops and zigzags through the sky.

They careened through the sky, screaming all the way back to camp.

(***)

Dean sat down as he blinked away the spots in his vision as he tried to understand what had just happened. He'd been standing in a magic temple above the ocean and now he was back in Camp Half-Blood staring at a wide-eyed Cas in the camp's infirmary.

"What?" he breathed.

Cas blinked before replying. "I am not sure."

"Welcome back, Squirrel," greeted Crowley's voice from the door behind Dean.

Dean stood on shaky legs as he got his bearings. Beside him, Nico was lying in a hospital bed with IVs hooked up to him. The kid flickered briefly out of focus. As if, for a moment, the son of Hades had ceased to exist.

"What happened to Ghost Boy, here?" Dean asked gruffly.

"Our little prince is fading due to using his powers too much," Crowley answered casually. "Now, where's the hair?"

Dean stared at the King of Hell for a long second before the question finally registered in his mind. "Oh, the hair. I think the antichrist has it. Or maybe Percy does, I don't remember."

The angel and devil's eyes flew open at the mention of the antichrist.

"The antichrist? Jesse Turner?" Castiel demanded. "What was he doing with you? Where is he?"

Dean calmly relayed all the events of his crappy, heroic quest. Crowley was pacing nervously in the room as Castiel sat in tense silence, hanging on every word. Dean honestly could not understand why they were so surprised. It was the apocalypse, who else would show up but the antichrist?

One of the campers - Dean was fairly certain her name was Kayla - came into shoo them out of the room. She didn't even bother asking where the Winchester had come from, merely gave him a tired once-over. Clearly, she had seen enough weird things in her life to not question anything seemingly unusual, Dean could appreciate that.

"So, King of the Asshats," Dean started, "what now? I'm guessing you found the harp, we have the stupid horsehair and Sammy most likely has the 'special' arrow. What do we do next?"

Crowley stared at him like he was an idiot, and to be honest, he was too tired to deal with the demon king and all his bullshit. "We, Deana, don't do anything. As soon as Moose and his Moosettes return it will be up to Lou Ellen to save the day. Unless, of course, the demons from the abyss decide to attack this camp, then you may have to do a little - uh, what's the word? Ganking?"

"Call me a damn Moosette again and see what happens, you son of a bitch," came the biting remark of the punk rock Hunter who came stumbling into the infirmary with a ghostly white Annabeth in tow. "I just rode a gods forsaken magical deer named Gerald across the country because of you."

Sam was carried in on a stretcher moments later and placed in a bed next to Nico-the-Strobe-Light-of-Death. His leg looked as if a confetti cannon had thrown up on it, only instead of confetti it was multi-colored shrapnel.

Dean rushed to his brother's side. "What happened?"

Annabeth mumbled something unintelligible before sinking onto her own bed. One of the campers ran up with a bowl of something that smelled heavenly.

"Annabeth kind of blew up your brother and an army of vampires," Thalia answered casually. "Also, the arrow's been here the whole time. Somewhere safe, yet obvious. Annabeth thinks it might be on the Athena Parthenos. I think it's in the Artemis cabin. But there's only one way to find out."

Dean - refusing to leave his brother's side - turned to Castiel. "Well, you heard the lady, go check the statue."

"Very well, Dean," Cas nodded.

(***)

The words were right there in front of her. The items were being gathered with plenty of time to spare. But Lou Ellen couldn't practice the enormous spell thrust upon her and without practice there was no telling what might happen. Gods, she could stutter over one word and it would have all been for nothing. She might not pronounce a word properly and then she'd be banishing apples from the earth! Or what if she accidentally said pollo instead? Would that get rid of all latino chickens or would it even work since she'd be mixing languages? How would one determine if a chicken were latino or not?

"Breathe," Lou Ellen told herself. "You can do this."

She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there staring at the spell in front of her but she was fairly certain the sun had not been up last time she looked up. With a groan she stood up to stretch out her legs.

Outside she caught a glimpse of movement at the border of camp but before she could think too much of it, a shudder tore at the earth. She had a brief flashback to the battle with Gaea before she realized that what she'd felt had been something crashing to shore. Or at least she hoped the only thing the camp had to worry about was the giant, green creature she saw smashing its way from the ocean towards the center of camp.

"Oh, Hades," she muttered to herself just as Rachel Elizabeth Dare grabbed her arm as she ran by.

"Actually, that's Famine," Rachel Elizabeth Dare said matter-of-factly as they ran. "Or at least I assume it is. It's already destroyed all the strawberry fields and it hasn't even gotten more than ten feet into camp, yet. Though, it may also be Disease, no one ever said it was just diseases that killed humans, could kill plants, too, I assume."

Lou Ellen vaguely realized that they were running towards the camp's infirmary. "Wait, what's going to happen to the nymphs of the forest and the ocean, then, if that's already killed the strawberries?"

Judging from the tension in the Oracle's jaw, Lou Ellen knew she didn't want to know the answer.

"We have to work fast, hopefully the last of the quest takers will show up soon and someone finds that arrow, otherwise none of us will be alive long enough to cast a spell, let alone defend the camp," Rachel Elizabeth Dare said as they finally made it to the infirmary.

There was a shrill shriek - that Lou Ellen refused to accept came from her - when they saw Nico di Angelo lying in bed literally fading away. She rushed to his side, hands fumbling around in the air looking for something to grab onto. Will cared so much about the moody Italian meaning that she cared so much about the snarky demigod.

The icy despair that hung in the air around Nico only made her want to reach out and hug the boy more. With a sharp intake of breath, Lou Ellen turned to face the gathered demigods and humans with a determined glint in her eyes. "Alright, how do we kill Famine?"

Chapter 27 is already being worked on and should be posted by next week unless I get impatient and post it sooner... Dunno yet.