I don't own PJO or HoO! I'm not a guy! (thankfully—most of the guys I know personally are idiotic)

Part 1—Piper

I ran towards the fighting, randomly grabbing hold of tree branches to get myself off the ground as much as possible. So there I was, swinging like a monkey towards the sounds of screaming, clanging, and general chaos. Fun, right?

When I burst into the commons area, I can genuinely say that I was stunned. Most of the cabins were smoking heaps, including my cabin and the Zeus cabin. While I didn't miss the pink, I was afraid that my half-siblings may or may not be alive.

I was practically tackled by a sobbing girl. I slowly began to recognize the face, though her once-perfect ringlets now looked like a hair-version of Medusa, and her makeup was gone. She may as well not have a shirt, it was so burned and sliced through, revealing burns and slices on her skin. Her jeans were muddy and torn, and her bare feet were caked with mud. Drew looked like she had been through a wash machine with mud and swords and fire instead of soap.

I knew if Drew had tackled me of all people, and she was coming to me for some comfort, then something was seriously wrong. Well, besides the battle raging around us.

I gently picked up the older, shorter girl, and set her on a sturdy tree limb, then climbed up myself. I know, stupid of me, since there was a battle, but if Drew was in this state...

Between heaves, Drew blurted, "She killed them."

My mind froze as if Khoine had breathed on my brain. "Who? Lacy? Mitchell?"

Drew gulped as she swallowed a sob. "All of them. Except for me and you." Then she collapsed into tears again.

Khoine might as well have made another statue in her throne room, only this wasn't her throne room, and I wasn't really frozen.

"Drew," I started. She looked up. "We're going to avenge them in any way possible."

She sneered at me, even though it was pretty much futile since she was still hiccuping and clean streaks ran down her face. "How? We're just stupid daughters of Aphrodite. There's nothing we can do."

I felt my mouth harden into a thin line. "We have our voices, we have rage and grief. I have experience. You probably do too."

She glared at me.

I stared at her, dead serious. "We can sing."

Chaos roiling around us, we stood in the remains of Hestia's hearth, a sure sign that hope was low. Drew and I held hands, and I summoned every feeling I ever felt - happy, sad, joyous, grief, terror, horror, contentment - everything. Then I turned those feelings into power, and I opened my mouth and sang anything that came to mind.

I vowed to avenge my siblings' deaths.

I sang nonsense words, songs from musicals or movies, theme songs (including my dad's), regular songs. I could hear Drew, singing in front of me, our power flowing through each other, through the center of my palms.

I promised to avenge Percy and Annabeth.

I sang country, rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop, even some weird things like Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead from The Wizard of Oz, a couple of nursery rhymes, including Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Ring Around the Rosy.

I pledged to protect the camp.

The center of my palms were heating up unbearably, but I kept my hands on Drew's, channeling our power through each other. I opened my eyes for a second, feeling that I could look without breaking my concentration.

The first thing I saw was Drew, singing with her eyes closed, but that wasn't what caught my attention. She looked like Aphrodite had blessed her, her hair glossy and shining, falling like a black waterfall down her back, with almost no makeup except for black eyeliner and mascara. She was glowing pink. I looked up carefully, making sure not to jostle Drew, and I too was glowing pink. We were both wearing the white dress with the v-neck that went down just past our ankles, with comfortable, silver flats. Thin, swirly armbands encircled one arm on both of us, and looked like the same metal of Jason's gladius.

The second thing I noticed was that the battlefield had deteriorated. Everyone, monsters, half-bloods, and Gaea alike had stopped to stare at us. I could feel Gaea resisting our hold, which was weird, since she was a primordial goddess and was probably resistant to just about everything, most of all a voice. But then I realized that Drew and I, channeling each other's power, and also with a goddess's blessing...well, the realization almost made me stop singing.

Then I realized what I was singing: "Ding, dong, Gaea's dead, Gaea's dead, Gaea's dead. Ding, dong, the wicked Gaea's dead!"

Drew giggled a bit as she focused a little on her surroundings. Once she finished the song that she was singing, she chanted, and I could feel her power direct to the campers: "Go, go, the Wicked Witch isn't dead, go, go, she's still alive, go, go, keep hope alive!"

She timed her chant so that it intertwined with my ding, donging.

Ding, dong, Gaea's dead
the Wicked Witch isn't dead
Gaea's dead
go, go
Gaea's dead
she's still alive
Gaea's dead
go, go
Ding, dong
keep hope alive!
The wicked Gaea's dead!

The battle erupted again, because we were encouraging the campers to go, go. I could feel the ember's of Hestia's fire warm as hope returned to Camp Half-Blood, as Romans and Greeks alike sprang forward to battle.

We continued to chant, and the embers turned red-hot, but I couldn't feel the heat. Instead, I saw my father, all the good times we shared, and I saw my last day with him, when Jane sent me to the Wilderness School. I don't regret stealing that BMW.

A firestorm erupted around us, but instead of burning me to death, it shielded Drew and I from the earth, rendering Gaea powerless against us. It was actually comforting, in a strange way. I closed my eyes.

I swore to sing until it was no longer needed.

My emotions came back to me, more forceful and stronger, as roiling as the fire around us, yet as steady as the tide. I could feel that Drew was having the same thing going on to her. I felt like Leo, but not as flame-retardant. Especially in my hands, where Drew and I touched, I felt like my hands were on fire, so much power was going through a very concentrated point.

Part 2—Drew

I began to feel faint from using so much power, and it was all I could do to not withdraw my hands from Piper's. They felt like they were on fire. I clenched my teeth and kept going.

I would keep singing until I was no longer needed.

I could care less about my clothes if I got to stomp on Dirt Lady's face personally. I already looked horrible. I might as well get used to it for a little bit.

Piper was such a relieving sight when she emerged into the commons area, and was a sign that I wasn't totally alone, that it was scary for me to just throw myself at her the way I used to do to my dad. And I could tell that I'd surprised Piper as well. Honestly, I don't remember much of it.

I keep expecting to open my eyes and look around to see Lacy using the hook on a coat hanger to rip the eyes out of monsters and then slice upward with the same coat hanger (what? We Aphrodite kids always think it's fun to see people's faces of shock that we can make a weapon out of a coat hanger and makeup! Especially since we never participate in the lessons.), or maybe see Celia throwing powder makeup bombs at monsters and her full-blooded brother shooting arrows into the fray. Perhaps see Mitchell, though small in stature, wicked with a staff, whacking monsters to dust to-and-fro. Maybe even timid Jacob, using a sharpened coat hanger to stick into Dirty Lady's face.

But now all that was gone. And I couldn't accept it for some reason. Which is why I never opened my eyes, to see that it was true that I would never be driven nuts by Lacy's braces, or Mitchell's way of holding the coat hanger backwards, upside down, and in his left hand. I would never see Jacob's little face struggling to read. I would never see Celia, the fiercest of us until Piper, tell off Clarisse and draw on her face in the night, and then evade Clarisse like a deer the next day.

I would never see them again.

And that fueled my power. Gaea was so dead.

Even with the emotion-turned-to-adrenaline-turned-to-power high, I was waning fast. My voice was becoming more high-pitched, and if I continued, all I'd do was give everyone a headache. I'd done that before, so I know what I'm talking about.

I gave Piper a subtle warning: she can't go, go, keep hope on!

She squeezed our burning hands, and for a second it felt like I was going to faint right there. Then I realized that she interpreted it differently than I intended: she thought I'd said that I couldn't go on singing, and in return I was giving her extra strength. And I realized Piper was a genius, for all her Dumpster Queen looks.

Or maybe not so much. When I opened my eyes, I was clean, in my claiming dress, and so was Piper, her dark hair long and softly curled towards the end, with eye shadow that would probably bring out every color in her eyes, assuming they weren't closed. And by the way Jason talks about her, there ought to be a heck of a lot of colors.

I squeezed Piper's hands, pulling all the energy and power I had out of myself, and put it in my hands. Piper squeezed them, and I think I can safely say that pain was felt on both ends, judging by the way we suddenly weren't holding hands but holding onto each other so that we wouldn't fall over, me from weakness and Piper from pain.

Piper and I now both had our eyes open, and I guess I looked pretty bad because she knelt and forced me down with her. It was then that I noticed that we were sitting in a sphere of fire. Even then, I felt cold, like a fleece jacket with the word 'power' embroidered on it had slipped off of me and wrapped around Piper. I felt so weak I may as well have lost half my blood-the godly half. And Piper over there was burning up. I probably felt like an ice cube while she was a freaking forest fire; at least, that's what she felt like to me.

Piper continued singing, only not the Wizard of Oz thing, but something I recognized faintly: Hush Little Baby, only the godlier version.

Hush, little Gaea don't say a word,
Arty's gonna charge you with her whole little herd

And if that herd don't come to the ding,
Hera's gonna get you a marriage ring

And if that marriage ring turns brass,
'Dite's gonna get you a looking glass

And if that looking glass gets broke,
'Pollo's gonna get you a bright red goat

And if that bright red goat won't pull,
Ares' gonna have a sword and a bull

And if that sword and bull go down,
Hestia's gonna be in town

I had to laugh at the way that Piper was summoning the gods. Maybe it was out of exhaustion or fear, but I found the godly Hush little baby thing slapstick. Then I had to shut up because the way our little flame-bubble in Hestia's Hearth surged forty feet into the air, scaring both me and Piper into screaming instead of laughing hysterically or singing.

Below us, a twelve-year-old girl, followed by a bunch of others with silvery hunting clothes, stepped from the fire. Another woman stepped from the fire, and another after that I recognized as Mom. A man with bright blond hair that looked like a lot cleaner Apollo's sons stepped through as well, followed by a ripped guy with a sword as long as me.

When the bubble turned to the normal elevation, Apollo turned around and said to Piper, "By the way, the 'bright red goat' thing was uncalled for."

Piper put up her hands in defense. "Hey, I thought I did pretty good considering I made it up on the spot!"

Apollo flashed an impish grin that reminded me painfully of Jacob. "The others are coming, those that aren't too stubborn or cowardly, but Ares thought it'd be funny to see you two's faces if the gods that you invoked came through the fire,"

"Not trying to spoil the funny moment, but, um, excuse me, there's a war going on around us?" I kind of yelled.

"Right."

I resisted the urge to facepalm. Frankly, I wasn't sure if I had the strength to do that anyway.

Part 3—Percy

I was aware of every little detail: the two girls in the sphere of fire resumed what they were doing before, one loaning energy, the other singing with power to her words.

A son of Jupiter backed to a son of fire whirled through Gaea's ranks in a mixture of wind and fire, gladius and hammer.

Then me and Annabeth were thrust into the fray, weary and battered, but strong (I think). I casually swiped Riptide through Gaea's mostly-human form, causing her top half to fall over, like that fable of the witch and the woodcutter. The witch curses the woodcutter's axe to slice him through, but just divide him in half, instead of killing him. However much that sucked for the guy, this sucked even more so, since the top half glued itself to the ground and grew a bottom half, while the bottom grew and bubbled a top half, creating two Gaea-forms. I let out a stream of mental curses.

"I have supreme power, even without your blood spilled on my altar, Perseus," the two Gaeas hissed in perfect harmony.

Jason and Leo covered for Annabeth and I, me relying on gut instinct, my water powers, and Riptide; Annabeth relying on her now-not-so-cursed blade, and her logic; as we took on the two Gaeas.

"And while you may have power of the earth, Gaea, you always seem to forget that water covers seventy-point-eight percent of the earth, and remember, fire can ravage the earth just as well as my earthquakes and erosion via water. Gods are intelligent my butt!" I growled at her.

She summoned a sword of dirt, and Riptide clanged against it. I could practically see the ripple of force disturbing the air around us. My feet sank into the ground, whether that be Gaea's doing or by the force; either way, I started moving.

Until you see sword fighting in its rawest form, or experienced it, you normally see sword fighting as a bunch of macho-macho guys battling to the death for some girl. Normally, it's disgusting and bloody. But if you experience or see it like very few get to, sword fighting is so much more. It's a dance, a high on adrenaline, a contest of will and skill. The things you see on TV are nothing compared to real fencing.

Unlike Chrysaor, whose aim had been to simply disarm me (and unfortunately succeed), Gaea simply wanted to get a feel for my style, of which I wouldn't let her have. It was the Titan War all over again: me going on gut instinct, changing styles faster than I could blink, swirling, dancing, and the maniac laugh that scared me as much as it did my enemies. Well, the styles part wasn't in the Titan War; I hadn't learned Roman techniques then.

It actually scared me a little: if Gaea hadn't wanted me and all my friends dead, I would've liked her to train me further. As it was, I was already learning from her: she had done this weird stab-slash-swirl thing with her dirt sword, like she was batoning instead of sword fighting. However weird it was, it was effective. She had nearly shorn off my nose with it.

I was surprised that Gaea hadn't done anything dishonorable, like stick up a stone large enough to trip me, and I was always ready for it. She was my enemy, and I wasn't giving her anything, least of all my sword fighting techniques. Well, actually, least of all, my friends, but right now she seemed focused on me.

She managed to get by my guard, and aimed straight at my chest. I was now glad I had sparred so often with Thalia: her agility was incredible, and I was extremely flexible from her using her agility on me.

Riptide shrank back into a pen as I executed a perfect back-bend (Thalia would be proud of me), then kicked off the ground faster than Gaea could move, and knocked her dirt sword out of her hand. I used my momentum to twist myself around to land feet-first on the ground with Riptide back in full form in less than a second, my legs spread apart and my body in a battle stance.

Gaea's sword gone, she started to take full advantage of her powers on me. Why she didn't conjure up another sword was beyond me, but maybe she didn't think of that. Whatever the reason, a spike of rock erupted from below me, and I rolled out of the way.

I focused on Piper's voice; every once in a while her voice would crack from exhaustion, but power still radiated from it, filling me with warmth and the urge not to give up. I thought of my mother, who could quite possibly be being held hostage as leverage over me, and anger filled me with energy again.

Then I got one of those crazy moments in the middle of battle where a plan sprung up, fully formed from my head, like Athena from Zeus's head. Ow. How did Athena even fit in there?

If Gaea kept up shooting her spikes, and if I kept going around her, she would inadvertently make herself a fortress, embodied with her own powers. To storm or fire the world must fall. To storm, as in, to storm a fortress, or to fire, as in to fire a weapon. Not as in me or Jason or Leo or Frank. A collective effort.

An oath to keep with a final breath. I just hoped it was Gaea who swore an oath to kill Annabeth and failed miserably.

Part 4—Annabeth

Oh. My. Gods.

I guess unknown to Percy, the battle around him had stopped. The giants were defeated, but at a cost. The demigods' numbers, once ranging about 200, were now a heartbreaking 156. Many of the demigods and gods were nursing injuries. But that wasn't the point. Percy, a demigod, was standing up to a primordial goddess.

And he was winning.

Demigod. Primordial goddess.

Ok. Let me back up.

There's a goddess, and then there are primordial goddesses. Primordial goddesses, such as Thalassa and Gaea, are the embodiment of their powers. Unlike Poseidon, who manipulates the water, Thalassa is the water. Because primordials can show themselves to mortals in their true form and not have the mortals disintegrate, they are oftenly, but mistakenly, looked at as less powerful than the Olympians. That's why Gaea is impossible to kill. You would have to obliterate the Earth into trillions of pieces before you could truly kill her. Unfortunately, that would also mean killing all life on the planet.

So, a demigod, even one as powerful as Percy, would never, ever go up against something like a primordial.

I had to sigh. There goes Percy, breaking all the rules of nature and just rules in general. Political laws, Newton's Laws, Murphy's Laws, the gods' laws, the what-is-supposed-to-be-impossible-even-by-demigod-standards laws-you name it, Percy's probably broken that law.

I think it would be safe to say that even the gods, no, excuse me; especially the gods, were stunned by Percy's skill and grace. And then he freaking disarmed her. How in Hades...?

Now he was rolling and jumping around and off the spikes Gaea put up. Strangely, instead of veering away from Gaea, he was going in a steady circle around her, in a blur of motion and grace. Every so often, I could feel the faintest tremor in the earth, causing Gaea's spikes to collapse. I couldn't see what Percy was trying to do; it was like he was attempting to trap Gaea in her own place of power.

It would be a brilliant plan, if Gaea couldn't just roll the stones away. Or melt into the earth and come back up someplace else.

And then I tuned into Percy's brain wave: he was keeping her concentrated on him, so that she wouldn't move from place to place. He was distracting her, even building her a fortress, while we assembled.

Then Gaea managed to actually get a spike in Percy's gut while he was in mid-air, and I had to go.

You may be wondering how Percy and I can keep this up, as we're only three hours out of Tartarus. Well, Tartarus is basically the death pit. We thought the Underworld was bad, slowly seeping your life away from you, where Tartarus it would drive you mad first, then suck the life out of you. Doesn't matter if you're a demigod, mortal, or god. It just depends on how powerful you are and how long you hold out against the visions of showing you and your loved ones crushed, dying, mortally wounded, having your worst fears come after you... So basically, Gaea was a piece of cake, and any time not spent in that literal hell-hole would give us more energy back.

Turns out, Percy didn't need all that much help. He stood on the still-rising spike, balancing precariously, and leaped into thin air, where Gaea tried to get him again, but he kept doing it, standing up and leaping off on a moving earth-spike. Not something you see everyday.

Then, spontaneously, all the spikes collapsed, including the one Percy stood on. He fell, and I could calculate how long it would take him to hit the ground: two-point-four-three seconds. You can fall twenty-two feet in one second, forty-four in two seconds, and he was roughly fifty-four feet up in the air, thus, two-point-four-three. I could tell he wasn't expecting it, as his limbs were splayed in the air.

My body thought for me, and I can honestly say that I had one of my ADHD moments, where a puzzle piece fell out of the universe, leaving me staring at the blank space it left.

The next thing I know is pain as rocks grind into my back as Percy lands on my stomach while I'm doing a baseball-style slide under him. He rolled off of me instantly, and helped me up. I winced as I rotated my shoulders; my back was certainly not in the worst shape it's been in, but it still felt pretty bad.

"That's two major things I owe you for," Percy muttered.

"A), consider the knife thing thanks for rescuing me from the mountain top, B) this is miniscule compared to falling into the bottomless recycling pit of doom with me," I corrected him. "And C), you've distracted Gaea. Unfortunately, you've also got everyone else hypnotized."

Percy laughed outright, and then I pointed at the once-battlefield, where he abruptly stopped laughing. "Hello?!" He waved his arms over his head in a completely graceless fashion. I snorted. Everyone jerked out of their reverie.

"Very good, Perseus Jackson. But not quite enough," a raspy voice sounded from behind us. I whipped around. Gaea stood in the middle of the fortress.

I could feel Percy clench his fist and rotate it ever-so-subtly.

Suddenly, more spikes sprang up. Thalia and her Hunters dodged them with as much grace as Percy had, even running up some, shooting arrows at Gaea. The grass and strawberry plants suddenly go crazy with the Demeter/Ceres, Dionysus/Bacchus, and the satyrs' powers/magic. They wove a blanket out of plants, covering the ground and impeding the goddess. A thin layer of water crawled over the ground and seeped in, that also impeded the goddess, as Poseidon was concentrating on keeping the water from going up, and helping his son collapse the spikes. Hephaestus and Apollo teamed up to burn as much earth as possible. Hestia's Hearth continued emanating hope and love and strength. Aphrodite helped her two daughters. Zeus and his Roman son blasted Gaea's human form and her fortress. Hades and his children cracked open the ground until they would start hurting their side. The rest settled for the old-fashioned, sword-swinging, arrow-notching way.

Gaea had her fortress built in record time.

Meanwhile, Percy and I whirled around Gaea, sword and knife against Gaea's broadswords. Like Percy, I had to hold Gaea in admiration of her skills. I was just battling her to distract her, and I was already picking up moves. Percy did this sort of stab/slash/figure-eight thing that I'd never seen before. Almost quicker than my eyes could follow, Gaea locked her sword with Percy's, and he backed up instantly before she could twist it out of his hands. Good. I wasn't the only one who was picking up stuff.

Another problem: Gaea seemed to operate her 'hands' seperately, like Kampe. She could be swiping at me and blocking Percy at the same time. And then there was her building her fortress at the same time while Percy and I were fighting her.

Speaking of Percy. I've never seen him like this, almost like he was having fun battling the worst monster in history. I'm dead serious: Gaea seemed to be concentrating on Percy more than me, and she looked like she was having as good of a time as Percy was. I had to practically backflip out of the way of Percy, he was so concentrated. If I could only get him to concentrate like this on his homework...never mind. It would probably spontaneously combust the day he does that. Or get hacked to pieces.

"See, my little pawn, the power you could have?" Gaea crooned. Startled, Percy paused just long enough for Gaea to rip his shirt. Not a deep scratch, but enough to cause a tiny little bit of blood.

"You know, it wasn't the smartest thing for you to let us topple down into Tartarus. Down there, Annabeth and I had to work to think clearly, let alone use any powers. So it should concern you to know that I was doing hurricanes by the time I got out of Tartarus, a skill I learned, for me, just six months ago. Of course, in reality, it would be fourteen months ago, but a certain annoying goddess decided to put me to sleep for eight months and wipe my memory," Percy said conversationally, as he swiped at Gaea's head. She leaned backwards, but still got a cut across the nose.

Percy continued. "So while Tartarus is the bottomless pit of doom, yes, and me and Annabeth encountered quite a few monsters very inclined to kill us, thanks ever so much for the present, by the way," here I snorted. That so-called present almost killed us both in two seconds, "and yes, we did recieve your message for your kind surrender-and-your-friends-will-live note. The problem is, the last person who sent that to me turned out to be a friend. Luke wasn't right, in the matter of not being able to trust friends. He proved himself wrong in the end. If you want the person who really defeated your son, go look for a soul previously named Luke Castellan. It wasn't me. It never was me. I was just the start sequence."

"You are not a hero, Perseus. I could change that." Gaea's sword rang against the Celestial bronze.

I recognized the glint in Percy's eye, the way his hand slid across his sword's handle, readjusting his position. I recognized the way his legs tensed and his arms bunched with barely suppressed power.

Faster than I could follow, suddenly with two swords, one Riptide, one made out of water, Percy lunged like a feral bobcat. I could see Gaea open her eyes; process what she was looking at: an angry, powerful son of Poseidon looking for blood; and squeeze her eyes shut again as she crossed her broadswords over her face.

Riptide rang against her swords, but the watery one swished right through her swords. Percy stood back, dropped his watery sword, and cleaved.

Her swords shattered like they were made of glass.

Percy slammed the goddess up against the fortress's rocky wall. "I never wanted to lead an army at sixteen. Other sixteen-year-olds have to deal with their girlfriend breaking up with them, acne problems, and five-page essays. Me, oh, not much. I just have to save the world a heck of a lot of times. And there are people of whom I led into battle and guess what? They never came out. They are true heroes. You're definition of hero is someone who betrays his friends, his family. If you intend to make me a hero, I'd rather be the coward who beat your ass to Tartarus, and see how long you last."

In a quick movement, Gaea opened her eyes again. They were beautiful and frightening. Her eyes were modeled after a cat's, an olive green with a vertical pupil, but frightening because they were full of anger and pain.

She sighed. "Awake at last."

Those three words froze everyone. Suddenly all the dirt fell around a girl with braided brown hair the color of rich soil, the same unnerving green cat-eyes, and clothes from the modern age. She was petite, but wiry, with a sword case strapped to her back. She was barefoot.

I felt silly being frightened by a twelve-year-old girl, but I had seen her skill. If anyone had a chance, it was Percy.

Then she did some kind of dance, and I was reminded of the earthbenders of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was rewarded with a horrifying display as all the collasped spikes molded into a slick dome, encasing all three of us completely, leaving no light except the glow of Celestial bronze and Gaea's luminescent eyes.

In the dim lighting, I saw Percy's hardened resolve spark in his eyes, and I saw his fists curl. He braced his knuckles against the other hand's knuckles, and I understood what he was going to do. I threw myself against the wall and covered my head.

As little as I could see, I could still see Gaea's eyes narrow in confusion on what Percy was doing. His knuckles turned white against the others, and his right hand's knuckles moved over one knuckle on the left hand's, so that his right hand's pinky was not touching the left hand.

Cracks appeared in the ground, and Gaea's eyes widened. Percy's knuckles pushed back and forth, grating against each other, and a long line made itself across the ground. Gaea was frantically trying to stop the crack from spreading, but she wasn't the goddess of earthquakes. She poured earth over the crack, but it just kept shifting, more and more frantically, until the earth was shaking. I ducked my head and covered it with my knife.

The ground continued trembling, and faintly I could hear cries of shock outside the dome. The shaking increased until I was certain that the earthquake was being sustained by both Percy and Poseidon, and I also knew the mortals would be scratching their heads over how an off-the-charts earthquake happened in New York, of all places. San Fran, yes, but New York, New York? Um...

Overhead, I could see daylight pouring in, and the girl that was Gaea giving up and standing there as rocks tumbled from the roof.

Even with my protection of my knife and hands, a large stone clunked me on the head, and I sank into darkness.

Part 5—Jason

Even though I wasn't touching the ground, I could still feel the power emitting from the dome. So when it collapsed and a girl I've never seen before rose as if this was an everyday thing, domes made out of rock and magic collapsing on her, I was edgy.

"Hello, grandmother. So nice to see you looking so young," Hades spat. Uh, grandmother? Ok, there was Kronos and Rhea, and their mother was Gaea, technically Gaea would be their grandmother, but this girl couldn't be Gaea. She was just another demigod. Gaea was made out of robes of dirt.

"I do prefer this form. It is decieving," she agreed. Okay, maybe it is Gaea. "And how is dear young Zeus?"

Hades smiled, a creepy thing. "Ask him yourself."

Jupiter-no, Zeus-strode forward. "To answer your question, my dearest Grandmother, I seem to be a bit troubled."

The girl sat down on a rock, and another one popped up next to her. "Do sit. I've always loved our little chats."

"Well, actually, the chair won't be necessary. There are many things that trouble me, of course, being the king of the gods, but the thing that troubles me most is war. Two wars in two mortal years. Quite the record for us gods. And you, Gaea, have declared war on me, so I must attend to that first, yes?" Zeus said simply. A lot of nodding by both gods and campers, the campers' nods a bit more irritated than that of the gods'.

Gaea gave him a feral grin. "How do you intend to stop me? Your numbers dwindle, and your great Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase are buried."

Behind me, I heard loud footsteps, like a giant was bounding towards us. But I knew better. I knew that sound like my own heartbeat.

Spearheads made themselves known to the world of Camp Half-Blood, as the Romans streamed down Half-Blood Hill. Behind them, some mounted on battle forklifts, the Amazons charged, their full population, females and males. Flanked on either side were naiads, nebulae, and auras, all armed with something and protected by armor. A cohort's worth of fauns marched behind the Amazons.

With a giant green poof, roughly a hundred miserable dryads surrounded Gaea.

I instantly knew that Gaea threatened their life sources, their trees.

"I have a small army of my own," Gaea purred.

"Not a willing one, though!" I yelled, outraged. "You blackmailed them into joining your side, or you would kill their trees!"

"I prefer to think of it as forceful persuasion."

"Spoken like a true bad guy. Even though you are wicked with the broadswords, you're still a bad guy," someone coughed from the ruins of the dome.

Percy and Annabeth crawled out from a giant slab of rock, Percy's knuckles red and raw. They were both cut up, and Annabeth was sporting a large lump on her noggin, but she'd be okay.

True to Percy's word, Gaea whipped out the broadsword she had strapped to her back, and split it into two. She attacked, faster than anything I've ever seen, and suddenly Percy's sword was there, blocking her strike with both hands—two swords on one blade. Annabeth threw her knife at the girl, and it flew straight and true, right into where a human's heart would be. But instead of blood spurting out, dirt trickled out either side of the knife. Gaea ripped the knife out of her chest like it was a splinter she got on her finger, and tossed it behind her.

From my position, I could see Hazel doing something with her hands, and suddenly Annabeth's knife levitated. Gaea probably felt it rise, and whipped around, to have Annabeth's knife plunge between Gaea's eyes. The girl keeled over backwards, and dissolved into dirt.

"Pila!" a Roman shouted, and a dozen spears entered the mound of dirt.

"Fire!" someone else yelled. Arrows of many colors practically split each other in half, there were so many fired into one small space.

Poseidon threw some water—some meaning a canoe lake's worth—onto the pile of dirt and created a small whirlpool out of it, scattering her essence thin. Then he droppped the lifeless pile of mud, spears, and arrows.

Camp Half-Blood was silent and still—an accomplishment, since most of its occupants were ADHD or ADD—for a full five minutes.

Then, eight-year-old Harley piped up, "Is she gone?"

"No," a raspy voice said from behind Harley. He yelped. "She's not gone."

Part 6—Leo

Gaea's chest ripped open as I fired for all I was worth. "Why—won't—you—DIE?!"I screamed at Dirt Lady. Then I took a sledgehammer and swung it with all my might. I swiped thin air as I was blasted upward. I settled for the next-best thing: throwing the hammer at her. But did you know that it's really hard to aim straight as you're plummeting to your death?

Fortunately, the Most Awesome Leo did aim straight and sent the hammer through Dirt Lady's head. However, the Most Awesome Leo thinks that Sparky had something to do with that. Oh, well.

"Oh, and one other thing," I yelled down at her. "You don't mess with the Human Torch!" Then I tucked myself in, set myself on fire, and tackled her at a really high velocity. "And you—don't—mess—with—my—brother!" I paused in my speech as I burned her as badly as I could, punching as hard as I could. "You—don't—mess—with—my—family—without—con-se-quen-ces!"

Then I set her on fire at the highest temperature I could manage.

I watched happily as she burned to ashes, even though she kept sending spikes after me. I had a moment of The Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch is shrieking, "I'm melting, I'm melting!" only this time, it would be, "I'm burning, I'm burning!" Welp, sucks for you, Dirt Face.

Piper clapped me on the back after I destroyed the host of most of her essence, essentially destroying most of her essence as well. "Great, Admiral! Now you can help me and Drew to the infirmary before we pass out."

Too late, Piper already toppled over. I snorted, smoke coming out of my nose.

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call — Check. The Seven is in place, Captain.

To storm or fire the world must fall — Check. We all thought that Gaea would fall to Percy, but instead to me.

An oath to keep with a final breath — Unforntunately, check. Drew had quit singing before the battle was over, and the River takes it's promises seriously. The only solace I find in that is that she'd be happier with her siblings in Elysium. The Seven stayed in the Poseidon cabin until we a) had our cabins rebuilt or b) had more siblings to keep us company, as it was for Piper. Percy and Annabeth? Well, after two years of night terrors and sneaking out to be found in the other's cabin (normally Percy's), Chiron gave up on keeping them in a separate bed.

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death — Check. The enemy had been using the Doors of Death as a weapon for themselves, until we closed them in Greece.

I could only hope that the peace would last. I would be content hanging out with my brothers and sisters for the rest of my probably short life.

Author's Note:

Finally! After four days and sixteen hours, this ginormously long one-shot is done!

I have to thank David Fesliyan for is most awesome music, called Best Epic, which helped me get through this extraordinarily long one-shot. If you want, I would also recomend you listen to it during Part 3—Percy. Makes it so much better, in my opinion.

I also have to thank HecateA, for inspiring the first two parts of the story. Towards the end of her Mark of Athena, Drew and Piper's sisters were all slain by monsters, and they sang out of grief, holding hands, their voices attracting a lot of stares.

I also have to thank my best friend in real life who put up with the constant PMs about this one-shot.

It would give me great pleasure to see reviews on this one-shot. Please?

Have a happy Easter!

()()
(o.o)
(uu)

~Lou