Y/N's face was the last thing Ethan saw before he got shot. His last memory would be that face. It would be Y/N pointing his gun at him, pulling the trigger.
There was no remorse or grief on Y/N's face—only a hard, icy stare of resolution.
Pain flashed like a tornado, and Ethan collapsed on the ground, gazing at Y/N. He clasped his hands over his chest, feeling at the wound.
"How could you?" he croaked, his voice hoarse, his vision already blurry. Y/N just stared back, silent behind his mask. "I—I thought we were friends. . . ."
Y/N shook his head, sighed, and said flatly, "Friendship has nothing to do with it."
Ethan could feel his mouth twisting with pain and despair. "Y/N—" he rasped with what little air was left inside his lungs, and his eyes closed.
Darkness became his world, and dullness, absolute dullness, surrounded him till everything disappeared. Death . . . it came for him . . . he could sense its hooded shape gliding over him. . . .
Suddenly a foot tapped against his arm, and a voice jolted him out of his daze. "Quit being so overdramatic, Ethan."
He opened his eyes. Annabeth was looking down on him.
"D-did he send you to the Underworld, too?" he asked, horrified.
She rolled her eyes, then pointed to the bright red splotches on their coveralls. "Ethan, it's just paintball."
* * *
Camp went late that summer. It lasted two more weeks, right up to the start of a new school year.
A lot of stuff was going on. Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods. So far, the gods had kept their promise. Now demigods were popping up all over the place—not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.
"I'm starting to think Grover's a demon," Ethan admitted one afternoon as he and Y/N were taking a break at the canoe lake. "He's always writing and receiving letters, sending orders all over the world. He's almost blown our travel budget—and believe me, if he could, he would do it."
"What about you?" Y/N asked.
Ethan grinned. "I'm making the most out of my life. Being a lord of the Wild has its perks. The second I sat as a member of the Council of Cloven Elders, my popularity skyrocketed. But hey, I'll let Grover run for the Council's presidency. I don't want to overdo it."
He chewed on a tin can as they stared across the pod at the line of new cabins under construction. The U-shape would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto.
Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool: solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate, and several others. They kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. It was going so well, Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room.
The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents. It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through.
"It's going to be a lot different next summer," Ethan said. "Chiron's expecting we'll have twice as many campers."
Dark thoughts flooded Y/N's mind. He managed to push them away—most of the time, it wasn't that easy. "Yeah," he said, "but it'll be the same old place."
He watched as Tyson led a group of Cyclops builders. They were hoisting huge stones in place for the Hecate cabin, and it was a delicate job. Each stone was engraved with magical writing, and if they dropped one, it would either explode or turn everyone within half a mile into a tree. Nobody but Grover would like that.
In the late afternoon, Y/N was taking a walk along the woods when a familiar voice said, "Good day for a walk."
Chiron was coming out of the forest, brushing a twig away from his horse half. He had healed remarkably well, but he still trotted with a slight limp.
"Hey," Y/N said. "What brings you here?"
Chiron smiled. "We never really got to talk in private on Olympus. I wanted to know how you are doing."
"How am I doing? I'm not dead yet and I'm still on my feet."
Chiron shifted on his hooves. "That's not what I meant. I heard about what happened on Mount Olympus. I know about. . . . Well, it is a heavy burden you have on your shoulders. We're all stupefied, of course, but I dare not imagine what you must be feeling."
What I'm feeling? Y/N thought. He himself didn't know. Yesterday he'd spent one of the best days in his entire life until dinner, when the smoke rising with the offerings smell reminded him of what Zeus had said. In a split second, his whole day turned gray and dull, flat and emotionless. Sometimes he was angry and couldn't show how he felt. Then he wanted to take a long, hot shower to feel some warmth. Most of the time, though, he just felt tired.
A roar came out from the forest, and cries echoed. Some half-bloods were chasing after a monster.
Eventually Y/N said, "I'm fine. I would rather not know. But I do, and I can't change it."
Chiron gave him an anxious look. "I thought you would like to talk to someone," he said carefully. "Confide in someone about it. Perhaps Annabeth, but she tells me you avoid the subject."
"I don't see what is there to say about it," Y/N said, looking away in the distance, vaguely toward the cabins. "Just another random aspect of a demigod's life."
"You shouldn't keep it to yourself," Chiron told him. "Don't harden yourself to face it. If you do, you'll break. It's okay for you to mourn."
"Whatever comes, I'll face it on my feet," Y/N said firmly. "There is nothing more to say about it." And before Chiron could add anything, he walked away.
That evening was the last night of camp—the bead ceremony. The Hephestus cabin had designed the bead this year. It showed the Empire State Building, and etched in tiny Greek letters, spiraling around the image, were the names of all the heroes who had died defending Olympus. There were too many names. Y/N put it on his camp necklace—four beads now. He felt like an old-timer.
"Never forget this summer!" Chiron told them. "We have discovered bravery and friendship and courage this summer. We have upheld the honor of the camp."
He smiled, and everybody cheered. As he looked at the fire, Y/N saw a little girl in a brown dress tending the flames. She had red glowing eyes. No one else seemed to notice her, but maybe she preferred it that way.
"And now," Chiron said, "early to bed! Remember, you must vacate your cabins by noon tomorrow unless you've made arrangements to stay the year with us. The cleaning harpies will eat any stragglers, and I'd hate to end the summer on a sour note!"
The next morning, Y/N and Annabeth climbed up Half-Blood Hill. They watched the buses and vans pull away, taking most of the campers back to the real world. A few old-timers would be staying behind, and a few of the newcomers. Y/N would stay, of course.
"Good-bye," Percy said to them as he shouldered his bag. He was heading back to Goode High School for his sophomore year—the first time in his life he'd ever done two years at the same school.
"I've got a feeling we'll see each other soon enough," Y/N said. "With monsters lurking around, I'm sure I'll be in New York in a day or two to save someone—again."
Percy laughed. "Life would be boring if we could rest for a week." He wished them well and ran down the hill to catch his ride.
Annabeth would be staying in New York. She'd gotten permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuilding efforts.
"I'm sure you asked them to stay so you could be close to me," Y/N said.
"Well, someone's got a big sense of his own importance." But she laced her fingers through his.
The guard dragon Peleus curled contentedly around the pine tree underneath the Golden Fleece and began to snore, blowing steam with every breath.
"You've been thinking about Rachel's prophecy?" he asked her.
She frowned. "How did you know?"
"Because I know you."
She bumped him with her shoulder. "Okay, so I have. Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. I wonder who they'll be. We're going to have so many new faces next summer."
"Yup," he agreed. "And all that stuff about the world falling in storm or fire."
She pursed her lips. "And foes to the Doors of Death. I don't know, Y/N, but I don't like it. I thought . . . well, maybe we'd get some peace for a change."
"Wouldn't be Camp Half-Blood if it was peaceful," he said. "Maybe the prophecy won't happen for years, though. Could be a problem for another generation of demigods. Then we can kick back and enjoy."
Annabeth nodded, though she still seemed uneasy. He didn't blame her, but he had more urgent problems than this one. And it was hard to feel too upset with her next to him. He wanted to enjoy this day and think about how much time they'd have together—even if it was a lie.
A/N: Book 5 is finished. With it ends the first part of this fanfiction, the PJO books. It's hard to believe that it was May 2021 when I released the first chapter, but now it's January 2023. It's been almost two years. It's a strange feeling to think that I've been writing a story for so long, and it's only half over.
Right now, you can already go to my profile and see the following part of the fanfiction, which will follow the events of the HOO books. It's named The Winds Of Heaven. I'll upload the first chapter as soon as I can. I hope I'll see you there!
See you next time and happy reading!
PS: Just as I'm about to publish this chapter, some of you have pointed out to me that @SomethingClever117's profile has been deleted (at least I guess it's been deleted). Probably nobody knows anything about the why and the how of it, but if one of you happens to know, you can comment about it here.