Percy Jackson's Death Bed

The Roman-Greek War

They were all just in the room, crying, for a few minutes. Ms. O Leary was making sad dog noises outside the room. They barely noticed that the Argo II had already landed until Hazel heard the screaming outside.

The Greeks and Romans were already fighting. The clamor of sword against sword was loud. The smell of blood was in the air. The remaining six wanted to grieve for their loss, but they knew that Percy wouldn't want that. So they rushed out the room and onto the deck.

Every demi-god who was fighting stopped and looked at the floating ship in disbelief.

"They're back." Chiron muttered in his battle suit. He was shooting arrows at the Romans' wolves when the Argo II showed up. Arrows specially designed by the Hephaestus cabin to not kill the target it hits, but somewhat tranquilize it for hours. "We won." Chiron muttered again.

Riding on a war elephant, Octavian snapped out of his surprised daze. He shouted at the Romans who stopped fighting "No! Don't stop fighting! They're tricking you!"

The ship landed and a portion of it opened up, revealing the six. Jason said in his loudest voice. "Romans, stop! This is exactly what Gaea wants! Bloodshed! If you continue this war, no single demi-god from each side will survive. Listen to me!"

"And why should we listen to you!" Octavian answered back. Jason clenched his fist. He reminded himself to put that skinny, stuffed-toy slaying boy on a catapult and throw him away after this is all over. "You are a traitor to the legion! You aren't our praetor!" Octavian continued.

Jason nodded as he looked at the ground. Then he shot a sturdy look at Octavian. "You're right. I'm no longer your praetor. Frank Zhang is." Jason nodded towards Frank's direction, signaling that he should take the lead now. Frank nodded in response. Octavian looked at the son if Zeus' eyes, trying to find any untruthfulness in it. But he couldn't.

"I gave my rank as praetor to Frank as a field promotion. And he ordered a whole legion of Roman ghosts." Jason announced. "If you can't listen to me anymore, listen to him."

"No." Octavian answered back. He wasn't budging. He was still set on war and power over both camps. "Any friend of that stupid Percy is my enemy. I won't give up the fight without him dying."

Annabeth could see the Athena Parthenos near the Big House. So far, it hadn't really helped the Greeks in the fight. She thought of how happy her mother must be, now that her boyfriend was gone. Athena hated Percy. When that Octavian kid said that, she was so full of anger and hatred that she couldn't help but try to charge at him. Hazel stopped her and Frank took a deep breath.

"Consider it done." he said coldly.

Nico and everybody else in the camps, hurriedly scanned the team. Nico checked. Then he double checked. Then he looked again. He thought that maybe his brain was tricking him. But Nico couldn't see Percy. From behind the team, Coach Hedge appeared with a transportable bed. Percy's body laid on it.

Nico stared in disbelief.

"No... NO!" He ran towards Percy. Everybody else was frozen. Even Octavian. Nico looked at Percy's peaceful looking face. He felt tears welling up in his eyes. Jason couldn't help but feel guilty. He should've protected Percy for Nico. The son of Hades looked at the big six's eyes. They were all red from crying. This wasn't a joke. Nico felt that Percy's life force wasn't there anymore.

Nico knelt beside Percy. "Jackson, don't you dare give up like that. Chi-Chiron... And Thalia, and everybody else from camp. They are waiting for you, so you can't go away. Not yet. You can't just die like that, Jackson!" he yelled out loud. "Don't you dare leave us like this! Don't... don't leave me like this." He looked up. "Zeus, Poseidon a-and... dad. I know you can get him back. I'll do anything. Please."

Nico rested his head against Percy's body and he cried. Then... something amazing happened. A miracle it seemed. But the war ended. The first person to give up, was the one who was most unlikely to have done so:

Clarisse la Rue. Daughter of Ares, the god of war.

Clarisse was the very first person to drop her weapons. Which surprised probably even the gods. Being the senior counselor, the whole Ares cabin dropped their weapons. Then, one by one, the Greeks dropped their weapons. Nymphs dropped their clubs. Satyrs dropped their flutes. Hunters lowered their arrows.

Given the circumstances, the Romans should've been the ones to drop their weapons. Camp Half-Blood doing that meant that they'd given up. Annabeth must admit, it was a stupid move. In no time, all the greeks dropped their weapons. They thought that the Romans would charge and destroy them. But then, one by one, the Romans dropped their weapons.

The fifth cohort were the first ones to drop their weapons. Then the others. Until Octavian was the only one that was on guard. The cohorts stared at him in expectation. Octavian stood his ground and wore a stern face. That was until the elephant he was riding on practically turned into a bull and shook Octavian off its back. Apparently, even the animals didn't want war.

But Nico didn't even look behind him to see the miracle that had just happened. He just knelt there and cried. He kept thinking about why he hadn't told Percy that he didn't hate him. He kept thinking that he should've been nice to him and accepted his thank you at the hill before he left for camp.

"Aaaahhh!" Nico screamed out of frustration.

The ground rumbled in response to Nico's yell. A mini earthquake occurred on Long Island Sound. Cracks appeared on the ground. A sickly looking red light came from below. On one of the cracks, a skeleton hand even emerged. Sending one demi-god to stumble backwards and startle a dryad. But then Nico felt a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up to see Jason. "There's nothing we can do now." Jason said, quietly.

Nico shook his head as another tear fell down his cheeks. "We can't just sit here!"

"We tried everything." A familiar voice said. It was Annabeth. "Trust me when I say that I wish he was alive. That I wanted him to see this. But we tried everything." She suddenly broke down in tears again. "W-we tried everything. But it didn't work."

The earthquake stopped. The cracks closed up. Nico looked at Annabeth in disbelief. Nico thought "How could she have given up so easily?"

Suddenly, the Romans knelt and bowed their heads. Some of them even had tears in their eyes. Percy hadn't just affected Camp Half-Blood. He'd also made a big change in Camp Jupiter. The two different races of demi-gods had finally healed the historic rift. But their hero was gone.

It was in this moment that the great seven even wished that they hadn't closed up the Doors of Death. Then maybe Percy could find his way back. But they did. The Fates must be laughing at their faces right now. And the Fates couldn't have done anything crueler.