Yeah, I know most of you don't believe it, but it's true, I really am going to finish this! For those of you who have waited patiently, I thank you with all my heart. You people who have come along in my absence, I invite you to read my story and consider yourselves lucky you didn't have the wait everyone else did.

I think this is the next-to-last chapter, the true climax, if you catch my drift. Enjoy!

Jacob's POV

I stared at Thalia's lifeless body, blood still pouring from the wound in her chest. I sighed heavily, then wiped the tears from my eyes and scooped her up in my arms. I was about to start carrying her outside when I felt a light hand on my shoulder.

Instantly I whipped out Skysoarer and turned to face my opponent. Were there more guards in the mountain?

No. It was Artemis. Seeing her put a fresh stab of grief through my heart. How was I going to tell her?

The young girl smiled sadly at me, her eyes blurred with tears. "You made her last moments happy," she said. "Thank you."

I had been expecting something like, "You killed my lieutenant," or, "How could you let her die?"

Thalia was dead. She had died for me. I didn't know if I'd be able to live with myself, but here was her huntress, her goddess, thanking me for her death.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "She wasn't supposed to die, I didn't mean to…" the words died in my throat, but Artemis understood. Suddenly her body began to flicker with silver light. "Kronos will pay for this," she said in a voice that sent chills down my spine.

"Can you fight against him?" I asked. "I thought you served him now."

She slowly began to rise up in the air. "Our oath is broken," she said. "He promised me Thalia would not die." Then she glowed brighter, and I was forced to turn my head as she entered her divine form. "Take her to the tents," I heard her say. "Tell the Hunters…it's all going to be all right."

I nodded, and the next thing I knew, Artemis was gone.

I went upstairs and out the main entrance to the cave with Thalia in my arms. I picked up a wind current and flew over the battle. The armies weren't fighting anymore: they were watching a giant with a hundred hands and another with a hundred heads brawl it out in the middle of the battlefield. It was an amazing sight, and I would have been watching if my mind weren't washed with grief.

I gently descended when I got to our tents. What in the world was I going to tell Chiron? And Annabeth? And Percy? The truth, I guess, although they wouldn't forgive me.

I heard voices as I neared the medical tent. I walked inside and saw Percy, talking to Chiron while a bunch of little girls in silver jackets walked around or lay on beds. The Hunters. My heart sank.

Chiron looked up when I walked in, and his eyes went wide with shock. "Jacob?" he asked, his voice sounding very far away. "What…what has happened?"

By now I had the eyes of everyone in the tent. Percy's mother stepped out of a corner, tears welling up in her eyes. One of the Hunters screamed as they realized who the mangled body in my arms was. I brought her over to a bed and gently set her down. The Hunters gathered around her, all sobbing and holding each other.

I had to turn away. I couldn't take it. Percy was slowly backing away, his face shocked beyond belief. He lingered a moment, then he ran out of the tent. I could hear him retching somewhere outside.

I told Chiron what had happened, the whole truth, everything. When I was finished, he walked over to her bed and touched her leg. "Poor Thalia," he said. "She died disobeying. Fitting, I suppose, though it was far too soon." I could tell it was all he could do not to burst into tears.

Percy re-entered the tent, and his mother walked over and held him, crying. I waited for a moment, then I went over to him. "It's time," I said.

He looked up. "What do you…" Then his eyes cleared. "Oh." He clenched his fists. "I'm going to kill that traitor," he growled. "I'll run him through, chop him up, burn his skin, and throw his bones into the depths of Tartarus!" His eyes burned with a fury I'd never seen before. He really meant what he had said.

I nodded. "We have to find Nico," I said. "Come on."

Percy hugged his mother a final time. She sobbed more than ever, and she hugged me too, which I guess I understood, but it was still a little weird. Chiron saluted us as we exited the tent and went back to the battlefield.

The black cloak of night that had covered us for the last several hours was now slowly starting to lighten. There wasn't really much fighting going on between the sides; everyone was staring at Briares and Typhon. That fight would decide the battle.

They were an amazing sight: Typhon was spouting chunks of molten rock from his mouths at Briares, but he just as quickly batted them away with one of his hands. He held rocks in about forty of them, and he threw them at the Titan, roaring, his face one of fury. They grabbed each other and wrestled on the ground, their armies cheering behind them. It looked like a pretty fair fight, although both of them were wearing down.

We quickly found Nico, on the edge of a cliff, watching the fight, his Stygian sword covered with blood. When we told him what had happened, he just nodded sadly. His eyes were red. "I felt it," he said, "I felt her life travel down to the Underworld. I think my father's letting her into Elysium right now."

Elysium. The place for heroes. That made me feel a little better. But not much.

"We have to go now, before the fighting starts again," said Nico quickly, sheathing his sword. "Luke's waiting at the top of that mountain. Can you feel him?"

I could; a dark, evil force waiting for us at that peak. "Yes."

"Then we have to go," said Percy, but then he stopped, staring at something behind me. I turned around. Standing there was a man in a hooded sweatshirt. I suddenly realized he was the one who had given us the limo in Nashville, and the one…the one…

Suddenly my memory was flooded with forgotten images. This was the man who had gotten me out of that hotel. This was the man who had led me toward camp. This was the one who had helped me. Here he was, right here!

I heard Nico's shocked voice, somewhere far away. "You…you're the one who got me and my sister out of that hotel, all those years ago."

"Yeah," I said. "Me too."

We all stared at him, but then he reached up and gently pulled back his hood. I stood there in disbelief. I could hardly believe that the man that was standing here before me was the one who had helped us so much. I did more to bring this quest together than you know…

The man standing in front of us was Mr. D.

--

Percy's POV

I blinked in shock. The man under the hood was Mr. D.

"You helped us all this time?" I said in disbelief. "It was you?"

"Why do you sound so disbelieving?" Mr. D scoffed, his regular old self. "Yes, of course it was me, boy. You all never would have gotten through the quest had it not been for me."

"But you would never help us do anything unless it benefited you!" Nico exclaimed.

Dionysus looked offended. "Well, I beg to differ. Who was it that got you out of that hotel, boys? Who was it that sent you to boarding school, Nico, and you to Camp Half-Blood, Jacob? Who gave you the spectacular limo that got you all the way to Kansas? Who gave you a hint about the sand dollar?" Mr. D puffed out his chest. "Yes, little ones, it was me, and don't you go forgetting it either."

"But…but gods aren't allowed to help heroes!" Jacob said. "You'll be punished if Zeus finds out!"

"I'm afraid he already has," said Mr. D gloomily, glancing up at the sky. "But that's not important right now. I have come to this enormous fiesta of bloodshed to give you one last piece of advice. I understand you're going to fight Kronos."

I was still shocked, but hey, if any god was willing to help us, I was up for it. "We're planning on it," I said.

"Then this is what I have to offer: as long as our grandfather is in that boy's body, he cannot be killed. Don't look so aghast, it's not as bad as you think. You just have to figure out how to separate the wine from the goblet. Kronos cannot rise out of Luke's body in full power until you, Percy, are dead, or you decide to join the Titans, which I strongly advise against. If you split them apart before, granddaddy will be too weak to do anything."

I shivered. The words of the Oracle rang in my head: One must become two, or all will be lost. "But how do we split them apart?" I asked desperately.

Mr. D winked. "That is for you to find out," he said.

I was about to protest, when suddenly I heard a great thundering crash from the mountain. I turned to see thousands and thousands of wild animals bursting out of the trees around Mount Tam and attacking Kronos's army. Deer, birds, squirrels, foxes, bears…they were everywhere.

"It seems young Artemis may get her vengeance after all," Mr. D chuckled. Then he clicked his fingers and vanished.

"What are we gonna do now?" Jacob asked.

I looked up at the mountain looming over us, imagining Luke's sneering face, daring us to come up and challenge him. I looked out over the battlefield and saw Briares fighting for his life against the hundred-headed Titan. I thought I could see Annabeth in the distance, fighting a Laistrygonian like there was no tomorrow.

"Let's go," I said.

--

Jacob picked us up off the wind and carried us towards the mountain. The entrance to it was there, waiting for us, and we charged inside without looking for any guards.

Running through the mountain was a blur. I don't remember much, except climbing up, up, up the mountain while dark thoughts brewed in my mind.

Did I truly want to challenge Kronos? Did I really think I could beat him? Wouldn't it be easier to just beg for mercy and offer to join the Titans' side? I tried to shove those thoughts out of my head. No, that wasn't what I wanted. I thought about Dionysus and Artemis, and my father with the sand dollar, and thought, the gods may be obnoxious sometimes, but they are my family, and I like at least some of them. Urged on with those thoughts, I surged on.

Next thing I knew, we were at the entrance to the throne room.

I stood before the two huge gold doors, and I started wondering for the first time if Kronos was just a coward and he'd made sure no one could get in there. What if it was booby trapped or something?"

Then Nico chanted in Ancient Greek, and skeletons ripped themselves up from the ground and tore the door open. I gulped. So much for that theory.

I drew my sword. Anaklusmos, who had been there right from the beginning, when I'd killed Mrs. Dodds the Fury after Mr. Brunner, a.k.a Chiron, had thrown me the sword. I grasped it in my hands, feeling the power that radiated through it. Standing there, with my only two cousins by my side, my weapon in my hands, I thought, for the first time, I can do this.

Then, as one, the three most powerful mortals on earth charged into their grandfather's throne room.

--

Luke was waiting for us.

He was sitting on his throne, staring at us mildly, like he was annoyed we had walked in uninvited or something. He looked like a spoiled prince, in his golden armor and flowing black cape, and I felt rage burn through me.

Luke rose from the throne, casually picking up his scythe from its place next to him, and said, "The three sons of the Big Three. This is truly how it will end. You were foolish coming here. It's a shame, you were the only hope for the rest of the world. Now, after I have killed you, Typhon and all the Titans will be at my command, as will your precious army." He sneered. "I will order them to rage through the earth, destroying cities, countries, anything in their path. Then I shall forge a great new order, and build cities the likes of which your kind has never seen, and the Golden Ages shall truly begin again!" His half-Luke half-Kronos voice rang through the chamber.

I raised my sword. "Don't count on it," I said.

Luke smile slowly faded into a sneer. "So, still you continue to defy me, after everything is lost. It shall be a fitting end for you. And I'll begin with the one whose father started it all!" He suddenly swung his scythe at Jacob, cackling madly. Dark energy burst from the blade toward him.

Jacob countered at the last second, throwing up his hand and sending a blast of lightning at the attack. The two assaults collided in midair, causing a small explosion that rocked the entire room. Falling debris cascaded from the ceiling, and a whirlwind of smoke swirled around Jacob's legs, but he himself was unhurt. Kronos jumped off of his throne and charged at us, sending huge bursts of black power from his hands and the blade of his scythe.

If Nico hadn't been there, we would have been killed instantly. He made a complicated movement with his hands, and slabs of earth from the floor rose up and made a makeshift tent around us. As the attack hit it, the rocks crumbled around us, but it saved us from being fried. We spread around Luke then, forming a rough circle around him and sending all the attacks we had.

It was as if Luke had become Argus; he seemed to have eyes all around his head. Whenever one of us attacked, he was there to counter, spinning his scythe to avoid our swords and conjuring up shields of his evil power to counter the blasts of water, lightning, and earth that we rained down on him. In return, he swung his scythe madly, first in confidence and then in frustration as all his attacks seemed to miss our skin by a hair's breadth. You could call it dumb luck, but something told me that someone was rooting for us up on a mountain peak back in New York.

Finally, I abandoned my power all together and went for the direct attack. Using my sea powers were too tiring, and my muscles were aching. I ducked under the Titan's scythe-swipe and thrust at him with my sword. Luke juked to the left and blocked a lightning bolt from Jacob with his scythe. I rapidly attacked again, and this time, thought he dodged, I landed a good slice in his right shoulder.

The howl of pain that came from the mouth of Luke was almost unbearable. He stepped back, blood that was half-red and half-gold flowing from the gash in his shoulder. He glared at me menacingly, and I watched in shock as the gash suddenly began to heal. It looked like someone was pulling the skin together with an invisible zipper. Within seconds, where the scar had been was nothing but a tear in Luke's armor.

He smiled fiendishly. "That's the thing about your human bodies. They're so easy to mend." Then he was coming at me again, harder than ever.

After that I can't tell you much about the battle, because it was like my memory was malfunctioning; everything was being seen in shreds. I had a driving instinct the entire time to keep moving, keep dodging, and keep swinging Riptide with all my might. Without my Amazonian speed and reflexes, I probably would have been diced much earlier. As it was, I was barely holding on, my strength waning and my sword growing heavier in my hands.

I caught glimpses of Jacob and Nico, always there to block a strike if I hadn't raised my sword in time, and swiping their weapons at Luke like it was all they'd ever wanted to do in their lives. If I'd had time, I would have told them that they were the best friends I could ever ask for, because they didn't have to do this for me, they weren't the ones with a prophecy hanging over their heads. I would have told them what to tell Annabeth and Tyson and Grover and my mom and Paul and all everyone else when I didn't come back.

Because that was the realization I was slowly coming to as I fought Kronos: I was going to die. I could already feel it, the blackness tickling the edges of my senses, pleading with me to just give up, to come into the blackness and never have to feel pain again. It was so tempting, just to give up and tell Luke that he wins. You have no idea how many times I almost did just that.

But every time, something deep within me told me to keep driving, to keep fighting, not to stop and think about what might be, only looking forward. It was like my conscience had become a football coach.

The beginning of the end began when Jacob died for the second time.

It was right after Luke had delivered a blow to his sword, a real bone-rattler. The clash of steel against bronze rang through the chamber, and Jacob went stumbling back, almost losing the grip on his sword.

I don't know how Luke recovered that fast. Maybe his Titan powers also gave him superhuman reflexes. All I know is that Nico and I weren't close enough to cover for him, and there was nothing to stop the blade of Kronos as it sliced through Jacob's exposed chest.

Time seemed to stop in its tracks. Maybe it did. I heard a voice screaming and realized it was my own. I watched helplessly as Jacob's eyes widened in shock. He fell to his knees, his sword clattering to the ground. There was no mark where the scythe had hit him. He looked at me and his mouth seemed to be trying to form words. Then he gasped and a sort of peace entered his features.

I heard a terrible ripping noise, and I saw a silvery light begin to pour from between Jacob's shoulder blades. I didn't need an explanation from Nico to know that this was Jacob's soul being ripped from his body. I would have done something if I could, but I was forced to watch as the light began to be pulled down towards the ground, back into the Underworld.

I am sorry, Zeus, I thought. Both of your children have died tonight because of me.

Then Nico was there, raising his ringed fist and crying out something in a strange language. I saw the soul struggle for a moment, then it changed direction and began to come towards him. Kronos and I watched, me in shock and him in annoyance, as the soul was sucked into Nico's skull-shaped ring, which glowed for a moment and then returned to normal.

Luke shook his head. "You're a fool, Nico di Angelo," he said. "Have you denied your friend Elysium once again? Very well, that is no problem of mine."

I stared at Luke with such unbridled fury that for a moment I saw fear pass across his features. I raised my sword but he held up his hand. "Percy," he said, "I think it's time you and I finished this once and for all!"

Then I suddenly had the feeling of moving up rapidly, and the features around me changed. Suddenly Luke and I were outside, in the night air. The first thing I realized was that we were very high up. The sky was pale pink as dawn approached, and I could see the battlefield below. I saw Typhon and Briares brawling it out and all the other soldiers watching. Then I looked under my feet and almost passed out.

The peak of Mount Tam had been ripped off. Kronos and I were on what now looked like the opening of a volcano, standing on some kind of invisible floor. Except that I recognized what it opened into, that massive black hole like a wide gaping mouth, the place that had haunted me in my dreams for the last four years.

Tartarus.

Oh, Hades.

Luke spun his scythe between his fingers, looking as relaxed as if he hadn't been fighting at all. "Well, Percy?" he asked. "What do you think? Isn't it fitting, for the half-blood of the prophecy and the Titan Lord encased in the traitor's body to have their final stand on top of the one place that the loser will be doomed to? The loser being you, of course." He smiled. "Out here, for all of Olympus to see, and your friends, too, look."

I did look, and I saw everyone's attention turn from Typhon-Briares and look up to the shattered mountain peak. I saw Annabeth, her ponytail having broken and her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. Tears rolled down her cheeks. I wanted to tell her not to cry, that she shouldn't be sad that I was going. There were so many things I wanted to tell her, so many things I wanted to talk about…but I couldn't, my football coach of a conscience told me. Keep looking forward. Don't look back.

I saw Tyson, and Grover, and Rachel, and Paul, and Beckendorf, and dozens of other people who had come to mean so much to me over the years. And suddenly I thought, I'm doing this for you. All of you. All of the world.

Then I looked up at the sky and thought, I'm doing it for you, too.

I stood weakly, raised Riptide. Luke chuckled. "You will still fight? I thought it would be so. Very well, then. Feel, Perseus Jackson, the might of the Lord of Time!" He raised his hand.

I wasn't conscious of the blast that fired. Somehow my senses seemed to have shut off completely. I couldn't even see it coming. I felt something cold and dark slam into my chest. I flew back almost to the edge of the invisible platform. Riptide clattered from my hands. I knew the sword would return to me in a moment, but it was no use. It was over. My head swam. I felt blood pouring from the wound in my chest. The blackness closed in, hungrily absorbing me.

I heard Luke's voice like it was from across a football field. "Ah, happy birthday, Percy. Surely you hadn't forgotten? Today's the big day! Both of the prophecies – the one from your quest and the one that was made before you were born – will come true on this day. And now I shall fulfill them, when I defeat the great son of the sea god and take my victory on Mount Olympus. Victory is sweet, Percy. Sweet indeed."

He raised his hand once more. I closed my eyes, allowing darkness to overtake me. I am sorry, was my last thought as my

But then something was wrong. The darkness was retreating, and in its place, a deep, powerful light was flooding my vision. Suddenly the pain in my chest seemed to fade a little, and I felt calmer and less afraid. I opened my eyes.

Standing around me were the glimmering shapes of people. People whom I all knew. They were all standing around me, shielding me from Kronos as they spoke to me. It was the gods.

"Percy Jackson, do not lose heart! We are still with you!" said the mighty Zeus, his eyes glowing with fiery passion.

I was amazed. All around me the gods stood, shouting their encouragement. Some were missing of course: Hera was one. Hades, another. But most everyone else was there.

"Come on, boy, you can't give up that easily!" Haphaestus shouted, grinning.

"Honestly, punk, didn't I teach you anything?" Ares said with a smirk.

"Do it for love, Percy!" Aphrodite cried, eyes glittering with tears.

"Take it easy, kid, you can do this!" Apollo said with a dazzling smile.

"He is right, Percy," Athena told me, looking into my eyes with her gray ones. "You can."

A particular god stepped forward. Tan wrinkly skin, bright green eyes, and a black beard.

"Dad," I said, getting choked up.

He clapped me on the shoulder. "Yes, my son. Know now that you must not give up on yourself, for we, the gods, do not. Even in the face of adversity, you must fight Kronos, for you can defeat him, Percy. I know you can."

"How?" I asked desperately. "How do you know?"

Then my dad did something he had never done before and I had never in a million years expected him to do. He wrapped his arms around me in a tight, fatherly hug. "Because you are my son," he told me, sobbing. I smelled the ocean in his clothes, trying to hold back my own tears.

He stepped back, raised his hand. Dionysus, who I had not noticed before, winked at me and clicked his fingers. Wine goblets appeared in all the gods' hands. "To Percy!" Poseidon said, glowing with pride.

"To Percy!" the rest of the gods echoed, staring at me with encouraging faces.

The gods of Olympus. Making a toast to me. Now there's something you don't see every day.

Then suddenly, they were gone, and I was back above Mount Tam and Tartarus, lying on the ground where Luke's attack had taken me. Only the pain was only a dull throb, and the blackness no longer clouded my vision. I was alive.

I stood. Luke was staring at me in shock. "What – what just happened?" he said, in just Luke's voice now, a voice filled with fear.

I stared at him. "My beginning," I said, raising Riptide once more. "And your end."

Then I was on top of him, coming at him from every angle I could muster. I was strong now, and he was weak. Now I was the one with confidence, but I had more than just confidence. I had hope. I had something true to fight for.

Still, Luke held on. He blocked my strikes, throwing in some of his own, but I knocked those aside easily. But every time I struck him, the wounds healed back instantly. If I could just separate him from that scythe…

Suddenly, an idea came to me that was so insane I almost laughed out loud as I thought it. I paused from fighting and glanced up at the sky again as if to say, Really? You want it to end like that?

Would it work? I wasn't sure. But it was worth trying.

It happened when Luke and I had come to a temporary standstill, and he was trying to figure out his next move. I looked him straight in the eyes. I saw the old Luke there now, just as I had on my first day at Camp Half-Blood. Then I made my move.

Luke wrenched his sword away from my and struck. My blade hit the base of Luke's staff and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust, just as Luke had showed me the first time we had ever fought, at that first sword training at Camp Half-Blood. Except this time, I flicked my sword up at the last second, so that the scythe went up in the air. I reached up and caught it, then looked at Luke, who was staring at me, shocked.

"Yeah," I told him. "I learned from the best."

Then, as the sun rose over the horizon on my sixteenth birthday, I took the scythe of Kronos in my hands and swung it across Luke's chest. I watched as he stumbled back and his body split just as Jacob's had, only his features seemed to split, like someone was tearing him in half. The part that was still him toppled to the invisible ground, unconscious or dead, I didn't know. The other part, which was now a bald, tan man with bright yellow eyes, fell and slowly began to fall into the pit of blackness. He fell as if in slow motion, yet somehow he managed to grab the tip of my shoe. He looked up at me pleadingly. "Please…" he gasped.

"Get lost," I said, and kicked my shoe, sending him toppling into Tartarus with a scream of anguish. Then the black swallowed him up and he was gone.

I turned away. He was gone. That was all that mattered now.

I looked down at the battlefield. Typhon had stopped fighting and was looking and was looking at his skin, which was beginning to crack. He let out a final roar, then suddenly light flooded from him and he exploded. Showers of sparks rained down on the blood-soaked field. The Titan's army took about three seconds to take it all in, then they turned tail and fled, screaming like little children. I heard a massive wave of cheers erupt from the gods' side and then Chiron shout, "After them!"

Suddenly a weariness flooded over me like a wave. I swayed where I stood, wanting nothing more than to sleep. It was hard to tell, because my eyes were already closing, but I thought I saw Poseidon standing across from me, smiling warmly.

"You did it," he said.

"For you," I replied, smiling back.

Then I dropped to the ground and passed out.