And here's my effort at bringing this story to an end. I think this chapter might be a little rushed, but I think it's alright. Thanks to everybody who reviewed/favorited/followed this story, and special thanks to wow this is an original name who accounts for half my total reviews. If anyone's still reading this, don't forget to tell me what you think.

Once again, I stood at the crest of Half-Blood Hill. I was ready to go off and finally finish my quest. Chiron had told me that since the island (I don't remember it's name) was far away and the world couldn't afford to have me killed before I saved it, I would be teleported there. Which was good for two reasons.

One, I didn't feel like going off on some month long trek just to get to where I needed to go.

And two, teleporting is cool.

Anyways, I was just standing on the hill waiting for something to happen. After a minute, the world around me went dark, and I appeared in an unfamiliar field of grass. 'Definitely not as cool as I thought it would be' I thought. I spotted the cave I was looking for about 500 feet away. There was nothing guarding it. This seemed almost too easy, but there wasn't really anything to do but to walk towards it.

As I approached the cave, I tried to get a better look at what was inside it. It was too dark to see much, even though I was right at the cave's entrance. I was only ten feet from the opening when I heard a screech come from above me. I looked up to see a flash of wings and fangs hurtling towards me. It landed right in front of me, twisted to the side so it could fit in the ten foot space between me and the cave. It was a dragon, just like the bronze automaton I had seen during a capture the flag game a few years back, but this dragon was definitely real, not a robot. It opened it's mouth to eat me, and I knew I wouldn't be able to dodge in time to escape it.

I knew I had only one chance to survive. I jumped into it's mouth before it could snap me up, which I guess surprised it because it didn't even try to bite me or anything. I didn't exactly want to get swallowed, so I stood up and stabbed Riptide into the roof of the dragon's mouth. Which must have hurt, even if my sword was like the size of a toothpick to the beast.

I tried to think, but it was kind of hard because I was literally a foot away from being eaten. I knew that there was no way I could defeat the dragon from the outside, so I would have to take it out from the inside. Then I had another one of my brilliant ideas.

I waited for the dragon to open it's mouth, which didn't take long because it was roaring in anger at me still being alive. Then when I thought that there was enough time to make it past the foot long razor-sharp teeth that were in my way, I climbed out of the mouth of the dragon, and using my sword like those picks that mountain climbers use, started making my way up the dragon's face. Which looked like it hurt. A lot.

So of course, the dragon was all shaking around trying to throw me off it's face, but eventually I got up until I reached it's nose. I entered it's nose before I could chicken out and started making my way up to it's brain. By now, I was kind of having second thoughts about my plan. 'What if it breathes fire on me' I thought when I was halfway up. But it seemed like luck was on my side for once because I didn't get roasted. Either that or the dragon didn't breathe fire.

Anyways, I got up until I could see the dragon's brain, pulsating in it's skull. Which was pretty nasty. Then hack, slash went my sword. I'll spare you the details. After my job was done, there was just the simple matter of crawling back down to the outside world and I was standing before the cave I had been looking for all along.

Tired and covered in dragon mucus, I walked into the cave, Riptide out before me illuminating the way. The cave was empty, just a vast expanse of stone. I kept walking until I hit the other side, and there, lying on the ground, was - a piece of paper.

It wasn't fancy paper either. It was just a piece of 8.5 by 11 inch paper, like the kind you put in your printer. I didn't see how a paper was supposed to help me become a supremely powerful being, but I picked it up anyways. And when I looked at it, I nearly had a heart attack.

There was nothing there. It was just a blank sheet of paper.

I just stood there, not comprehending that the culmination of my quest was worthless. 'Is this some kind of sick joke' I thought. 'Like the dragon scroll in Kung-Fu Panda?' Angrily, I crumpled the paper up and stuck it in my pocket. I knew I wouldn't have any help in my fight. I was on my own.

I stood in the middle of the underground cavern where I knew the demon was. I pulled out Riptide and stood as tall as I could.

"Come out, demon!" I shouted. "Fight me!"

After a second, there came a deep laughter out of the darkness. It made me tremble with fear inwardly, but I tried not to look scared.

"I am the oldest and most powerful of the Ancient Ones," said the voice, still chuckling. Then it became more serious. "None can face me. And none shall stand in my path!"

Something started forming out of the darkness around me. The air temperature dropped about 20 degrees, which sucked because it was already pretty cold. Then there was a burst of light so strong that it penetrated through my closed eyelids and still blinded me. The light died down and I opened my eyes. In front of me was a a demon. He was pitch black, which made it hard for me to see him through the darkness. He was big, but what struck me more than his stature or appearance was his aura of power. It was rolling off of him in waves. And that's when I knew that I made a mistake coming to fight.

"You are stronger now, with the power of our kind in you. But not strong enough," said the demon.

"What power in me? I'm not a demon!" I replied. But I knew that there was something different in me. The person in front of me just chuckled.

"Still in denial? Then maybe this will make you think otherwise." He waved his hand and a sort of screen just appeared in mid-air. My eyes transfixed, I watched as I saw myself fighting alongside Nico and Grover at the prison. I watched as Grover fell and saw myself turn towards him. Then came the part where I had incinerated the giants. I saw my body burst into flame, like I had just internally combusted. I watched in horror as the video slowed down to half speed and I saw myself streak towards Grover. But that's not what scared me. The flames had taken the form of a demon.

"Stop it," I shouted. I didn't need proof that I was host to the enemy. I didn't want to be reminded that I was infected. I rushed towards the demon, swinging Riptide. But I knew from the start that I was completely outmatched. The being in front of me drew a huge sword. He lazily twirled it at speeds too great for my eyes to follow.

I swung my sword at his neck but he parried lazily, with a flick of his wrist, and I went stumbling back. I tried to charge him again, but to no avail.

"Is that all you've got, hero?" he asked, sneering the last word mockingly. "Don't worry. I'll make it quick."

Then he stepped forwards and brought his sword down in an arc towards the top of my head. It almost cut me in two, but I managed to raise my own sword just in time. The force of the blow was so tremendous it felt worse than holding up the sky. And believe me, I know what I'm talking about when I say that. My arms trembled as I tried to push his blade away, but instead, it just pushed me down farther and farther. But apparently, the demon wasn't going to stand around playing push the sword, because he just kicked me in the chest, causing me to fly about fifty feet and narrowly miss bashing my brains out on a boulder.

As it was, I plowed into the ground and lay there winded for a second. 'Why would I think that I could defeat him when the Olympians together couldn't?' I thought. Now I had failed the world. The Ancient One was ambling towards me lazily, obviously not in a hurry.

I pulled out the wadded up paper from my pocked, smoothing it out to rip it up. 'It had caused all this' I thought irrationally. When I was about to rip it up, I saw that I had turned the paper over. And guess what, there was something written on the other side. Go figure.

I pulled the paper closer to read the words, but before I could, they sort of floated up into the air. Time froze around me and I heard a voice, probably saying what was on the paper.

Perseus Jackson, it is time for you to learn about your destiny, and to choose whether or not to accept it. For thousands of years, the evil in the world has accumulated- images flashed through my mind: death, destruction, darkness. - and there has been little good to counter it. I could see a group of people like my friends at camp, fighting off a much larger crowd of monsters, until they were completely overwhelmed.

Finally, it seems that there is so much evil that it is threatening to destroy the balance between good and bad in this world, if it's allowed free reign. There is only one chance to save your world now. Someone must take up the burden. Someone must shoulder all the evil in the world so others will not have to. And that someone could be you.

"What do you mean take up the burden?" I asked.

All the excess evil will be stored up in you, making you a vessel of destruction. You already have a demon in you - the Demon of Energy. There are two sides to energy. The first side, which you have seen, is the good side. But there is a darker, more malicious side as well. It must be activated, but we are sure that you will not give in to it. That is why we have chosen you, Perseus. You are a person of good nature, you will be able to resist the evil. If it were anyone else it would consume them.

"So that means nothing will happen to me, even if I have all the world's evil in me?" I asked. That didn't really make sense.

Alas, this is where your choice comes in. Being a host for so much darkness does not come without a price. Eventually, your soul shall be consumed by chaos. Nobody can force you to choose. But the evil will either be in you, or contained by the whole world. You must choose.

My head swam. I always had thought of growing up, having a normal life, even though I knew it was almost impossible for a half-blood. But I knew that we didn't have happy lives, and I was no exception. Now I was told that I would be consumed by darkness, I almost couldn't do it. Almost. But then I thought of my friends and family, everyone I cared about. And I knew that I could let the same thing happen to them.

"I accept."

Then so be it. From now on, you shall be the container for all that is evil.

Third Person POVAnd time unfroze. The demon took another step and then stopped. A force was pulling at him, ripping away his entire being.

"What- what have you done? You cannot stop me!" he bellowed. But soon he was no more.

Percy was in a trance, his body rigid, his eyes closed. Floating in the air with tendrils of vapor entered his mouth and nose, black and twisting, he was taking in the essence of evil. He shuddered once, then fell limp to the ground.

The next day, there was much cheer and merriment at Camp Half-Blood, as would be expected when you had just narrowly missed being destroyed. But one figure stood apart, away from the others. Like an outcast. The hero, who had always been at the center of everything, was now set apart.

Because although the day was bright and beautiful for everyone else, for Perseus Jackson, the world would always be dark.

And that's the end of my first every fanfiction story.