I'm really sorry for the time it's taken to get an update up. I'm busy with two other stories, both of which I love dearly, and I haven't really had inspiration or the motivation to write this one.
Anyway... I don't own PJO or anything PJO related. Let's get on with the chapter!

Chapter 5: Breaking Bonds

Piper peeked around the corner, even though she knew she was only going to see a greying brick wall. She heard Leo's voice bounce through the passageways as he gave a smart remark before he grabbed the flag. Clearly the flag wasn't heavily guarded.

Piper turned to her companions smiling, but found that they really weren't paying all that much attention to the game. Frank and Hazel were lost in each other's eyes, gently gripping each other's hands, and smiling peaceably. Trust them to be the people put in Piper's squad. She thought a good violent war game might get her mind off Jason for once, but she was wrong. Standing by Frank and Hazel who were silently exchanging words of love, Piper was brought back to Jason. She felt her heart sink as the name came to her mind. Sadness burned inside her along with other strained emotions. Piper wouldn't admit to her jealousy though.

Piper pressed against the wall more, averting her eyes from Frank and Hazel and trying to focus on the task on hand. All she had to do was wait for Leo's signal before she had an excuse to run in and help. Percy, Annabeth, and, dare she think it, Jason were probably already in on the opposite side. She could just picture Jason storming through the passageway and gracefully disarming hundreds of opponents, his hair bouncing in the air with each strike - in slow motion. She could see Jason charging back out holding the enemy's flag above his head and evading his pursuers that spark of satisfaction glistening in his eyes. All he needed was some aluminium foil and he would be the perfect knight in shining armour.

Piper was only pulled from her daydream when she heard someone scream.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" the voice cried. Piper had no idea who the voice belonged to, but it sounded utterly terrified. As the voice's echoing ceased, empty, eerie silence consumed the area. Piper could feel her heartbeat speeding up, pounding ferociously inside her.

Hazel turned to Piper, her dark eyes full of the same fear Piper was feeling. Frank just stood still. They knew what they were all thinking, they needed to go in. Whatever had produced the scream was in peril. Something had gone wrong. Someone was doing something crazy.

Piper approached the corner first. Her legs trembled with every step she took. The small passageway was completely silent. The moonlight outside failed to illuminate the room well, but Piper could see the end, a corner veering left.

As Piper moved through the enclosed passage, she heard noise. It was weak, but it was there. As she placed another foot gently on the ground, the noise became distinguishable. Someone was sobbing. Their muffled cries echoed through Piper's mind. Cold spread through her core. Something was tragically wrong. She could sense love. Not the warm love of one person to another. Not even friendship. This love was a cold cruel love, a love of death. It felt as if Piper's heart had stopped. That was too wrong to be real. Nothing could love death. Nothing.

Piper came to the corner. The sobbing was much louder there. Now she could tell the sobbing wasn't as sincere as it sounded.

Something was wrong, Piper's mind repeated. The hollow sobbing was the only thing she could hear. It didn't comfort her.

Piper took a cautious step around the corner, and took a moment to realise what was happening. The flag lay unattended to on the ground, blowing slightly in the breeze. A girl laid in the far corner, a boy Piper knew as Octavian, knelt over her, sobbing intensely, sounding more grief stricken than anything Piper had ever heard.

But what shook Piper to the core was the last figure in the area. Sprawled face first on the ground, only meters from the flag, laid the lifeless form of Leo Valdez. The tiled ground around him was tinged with red, and it looked moist. His face was pale and his dark eyes looked empty.

Piper would've screamed, but she couldn't. She would've run to him, but she couldn't. She would've cried, but her heart wouldn't let her believe the truth. Leo couldn't be gone. He couldn't. Piper was frozen in disbelief. Her body was numb. Nothing seemed real; it had to be a crazy nightmare. Leo couldn't simply just go.

After her moment of shock, Piper sprinted over to Leo. Tears stung at her eyes, her breaths were short and shallow. Piper crouched beside Leo's corpse, and gently turned him to face her. She gripped his hand firmly.

"Leo," she whispered, "Leo. Come back. Come back!" She started shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't hold in her emotion.

"COME BACK!" she screamed, but her cries were destined to go unanswered.

Piper sobbed. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. Fear swelled inside her. The worst had come. Her one real friend was gone. Leo had been real. Jason hadn't. Leo had been with her through every moment of Wilderness School. Leo had been there for her. Leo had been like a brother. He'd cared when no one else had. He'd been there. He was Piper's closest friend, and he was gone. Simply gone.

Leo wasn't there to make just the right joke and make Piper smile. He wasn't there. Piper cradled his head, still sobbing.

"Leo," she whispered again, "Come back." If her heart had shattered when Jason had left her for Reyna, her heart had now disintegrated; nothing of it could possibly be left. Her core seemed to burn with pain. It couldn't be real.

Piper gazed into Leo's dark eyes. He was always so lively, so irritably happy. Now he was dead. Dead. The word resounded in her mind. Dead. One of her tears dropped onto Leo's face. She watched the tear slide over Leo's face, a face she would always remember.

"Don't go," Piper whispered to him. Her grieved soul yearned for him to reply, to at least smile, one last time, but he was already gone.

He was dead.

Consumed by sorrow, haunted by despair, tormented by melancholy, Piper was more lost than ever. All she wanted was Leo to sit up and say something like, "The look on your face!" Piper would've given anything for that. Anything.

She sobbed in gloom and despair for what felt like eons. Nothing eased her burden. Nothing. She felt dozens of campers emerge in the scene. All were shocked and confused, but none shared the grief Piper felt - not even Jason.

Something warm grasped Piper's shoulders, but the cold hopelessness inside Piper soon extinguished the warmth. Piper blinked another tear from her eye.

"It hurts doesn't it," a voice whispered. The voice was warm, comforting and strong, but it wasn't Jason's. Piper merely nodded and sobbed harder.

"We have to keep fighting," the voice continued, "For Leo." Piper sensed sadness in the voice, but it was nothing compared to the depths of anguish she was submerged in, strangling every last molecule of hope out of her. She put a hand on the hand resting on her shoulder; just the warmth of human skin was comforting.

Minutes passed, minutes of wallowing in pain. Piper's sobs finally levelled out into constant sniffles. She still felt broken and pained, but it wasn't as intense, it more seemed a dreary and empty feeling. The hand beneath Piper's slipped out from under hers and reached towards Leo. It gently closed Leo's eyelids before it pulled back to Piper's left.

Piper turned to the person beside her, and found herself again eye-to-eye with Percy Jackson, only this time he appeared weaker, much sadder, even lost. Yet no shock came to her. She was just grateful for his company. Piper dropped her gaze back to Leo.

"Goodbye," she whispered to him, the words had struggled to come off her tongue. She didn't want to leave Leo. She looked over him a final time, but pulled away from the gruesome, bleeding hole in his chest. Someone had intentionally killed him. And she knew who had.

Despair boiled into anger, grief welled into fury. Leo would be avenged. Piper got back to her feet and blinked back more tears. She turned to the scrawny blonde-haired, Octavian crying over the dead girl. He'd stopped sobbing now. Piper scowled at his back.

Darkness blinded her mind. She unsheathed Katoptris. Now would be her only chance. She strode over to the boy. He'd killed Leo, he deserved death himself. She drew a deep breath in.

"What are you doing Piper?" a voice Piper knew all too well as Jason's yelled. Before she knew it, Katoptris had been torn from her grasp and Jason looked at her with sheer disappointment. His electric blue eyes looked puffy, as if he'd been crying, but clearly it had been brief, but they didn't fail to tear Piper's core apart more as they stared into her own eyes.

"You can't kill him," Jason told her softly. He found her hand and gripped it, but Piper wasn't in the mood to tolerate Jason.

"He killed Leo!" Piper screamed, ignoring all the campers in the vicinity, the wide square room seemed cramped because so many campers had come in.

"Piper-" Jason tried.

"HE KILLED LEO!" she screamed louder, "Leo is gone thanks to him! He deserves to die!" She tore her hand from Jason's grasp. Grief melted back into her eyes and tears started leaking from them again.

"Octavian doesn't deserve death," Jason whispered, trying to place a hand on Piper's shoulder. Piper pulled away, glaring at Jason.

"Get lost," Piper ordered in an undertone, "You don't know how I feel." Jason looked hurt.

"Piper I'm sorry," he tried.

"It's a bit late for that." Piper pushed past him and kept walking towards Octavian.

"Piper!" Jason called, but Piper ignored him.

Piper sheathed her blade. She was still angry. Every step she took was shaky. Finally she stood behind Octavian, fury raging like an angry fire inside her. Octavian slowly rose to his feet, still sobbing and quivering. He started walking towards a group of people who were obviously his friends. Piper scowled at them.

Octavian turned back to the dead girl with a tear stricken face, he looked nothing less than traumatised; even so, Piper didn't buy it. Before he could reach his friends, Piper sprinted to him and slammed a fist into his face. She heard his nose crack, as he staggered back in pain, but Piper wasn't the least bit satisfied. She punched his face again, this time she got blood from his nose. She wasn't near done though.

Something grabbed Piper. She turned and saw Jason. Even if she only had half his strength she wasn't the least bit intimidated. She struggled against his grip and kicked his shins a couple of times, but Jason wouldn't give in. She dropped to her knees in attempt to take him by surprise, but only managed to bend her wrists in a painful manner. She retired from her efforts of escape, and tried to verbally confront Octavian instead.

"YOU KILLED HIM!" Piper stormed, "You killed Leo!" Every camper stared both at Piper and Octavian. Piper glared at Octavian, Jason was still restraining her and that was only a good thing for Octavian. Octavian looked in remorse, he looked guilty, he looked hurt, and he looked pained.

"He killed Lila," was all Octavian managed, before tears streaked down his face, mixing with the red blood still leaking from his nose. "I don't know what came over me," he continued, "He killed her. I knew I couldn't trust them..." Octavian broke down; he fell back to his knees and cried into the ground. "I killed him," he muttered, "I'm a monster." Being a daughter of Aphrodite, Piper could usually sense true emotion; there was something about Octavian that was a deceived and vile creature, a part no one else saw, except Piper and Octavian.

"You don't care about him!" Piper screamed, once again trying to pull away from Jason, "Leo will be avenged!" Another Roman camper stood forward.

"Then so will Octavian!" he declared, "I knew we were wrong to trust you Greeks. You still only want to try to conquer Rome. We should've known." Piper felt no regret; she just glared at the camper.

"Piper, just apologise and everything will be back the way it was," Jason whispered to her, "If you go any further-"

"If we were going to destroy this stupid camp, we would've when we were in the warship," Piper growled.

"Or so you'd want us to think," the camper said. Some other Roman campers began to mumble in approval amongst each other. Piper felt no regret.

"You aren't going to defeat Greece again!" Clarisse argued. Muttering erupted.

"We never wanted to fight!" another Roman camper stormed, "It's you who brought the warship! It's you who killed one of our own first! It's you who threatened to kill another!" Tensions were rising. Jason's grip on Piper's wrists slackened. She turned to him, but saw only disappointment on his face.

"We don't want to fight either!" Percy called, everyone turned to him, "You raised me to praetor because you trusted me. I trust you also. We can't argue with each other, that's exactly what Gaea wants." No one responded for a while, but everyone was still tense.

"It'd also be easier for you to go around assassinating us if there was peace," another camper said.

"The way you're going you'd be likely the first to go!" Clarisse yelled. One of the other Greek campers pulled her back. Piper noticed all the glares she was earning. From not just Romans, but from the Greeks as well. Her brother Mitchell was also looking at Piper as if he was ashamed. But nothing got through to her shattered core.

Piper turned back to Octavian, who was sitting up and crying into his hands, muttering about what a terrible person he was. Another camper knelt next to him.

"You were right," the camper told Octavian, "We shouldn't have trusted them." The camper glared at Piper. He unsheathed his sword, other Romans, not all, followed his suit.

"Get out of our camp," one ordered through narrowed eyes, "All of you. You can leave now or we'll use force." Some Greeks drew their own weapons.

"We're not leaving until Gaea's gone!" Clarisse declared, having broken away from the Greek who'd tried to restrain her.

"You'll be dead before Gaea's gone!" screamed another camper. Clarisse started walking towards the camper.

"ENOUGH!" Reyna's voice stormed, louder than any other. She rode through the crowd on her pegasus, looking strict as ever. Piper felt a hatred burn inside her. That was the girl who'd stolen Jason from her. Piper was seriously ready to kill if her life got any worse.

"All campers," Reyna continued, "No one meant any harm this night. This matter will be resolved. If there are any further injuries inflicted, or, dare I say it? Deaths, there will be campers banished." She looked over the crowd with an expression of distaste. "Everyone will be going back to their cabins now." All the campers started moving, pushing through the centre of the open square.

Piper turned her gaze to Jason. He looked into her eyes and shook his head; he appeared heartbroken, disappointed, and betrayed. He pulled away from her gaze and walked into the crowd, vanishing from Piper's sight in seconds. That saddened look in Jason's eyes brought reality back to Piper. Everything that'd happened hit her in the face. What had she done? Everything was ruined. She'd ruined every hope of getting the Greek and the Roman demigods to cooperate. It was her fault. How would Leo have felt about that? Piper couldn't take it anymore - she ran. She ran from her worries and fears, from her woes and despair, from the consequences of her actions, from friends she'd disappointed and a loved one she'd let down.

Piper pushed through the crowd of people, hiding the tears pouring down her face with her unkempt hair. Finally she emerged from the fortress for the War Games, but she didn't stop running. She ran as far as she could, before she collapsed, not from exhaustion, from despair. What had she done? She scrunched up her hands so that she had a fistful of grass. She started sobbing again. Why was she always so hopeless? She never managed to help anyone or anything, everyone had to help her.

As Piper lay, shaking with each of her violent sobs, something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. Stars. There were stars glittering across the sky. Piper thought of her father. Sparkling hedgehogs, why couldn't they be real instead of Greek mythology? Why couldn't Piper's dad have been right, and all this chaos been avoided? Would Piper's father ever know who her mother was? Questions fluttered around in her chaotic mind. Nothing could settle. She was confused and hurt, and she had been the one to hurt herself. Peace was something that would most likely never come to her.

Piper stared at the stars. The lights danced in her tear-filled eyes. The night breeze left her cold. She froze and just stared into the distance. Her soul was empty. It was like a vacuum. Sucking up all her happiness and hope until she felt as if she could've just stayed there forever, in the freezing night air, curled up, feeling purposeless and blank.

She unsheathed Katoptris, such an elegant blade. Yet it was one that displayed vanity and arrogance. Piper saw her own grief stricken face in the blade. She fitted it only too well.

A final tear dripped from Piper's bloodshot eyes into the soil. Piper remained motionless.

"Piper?" a voice asked, "Is that you?" Piper was too ashamed to speak to anyone. Everyone probably looked down on her now.

"Are you okay?" it asked. Piper supplied it with no response. She heard the grass shift beneath someone's feet, but still she made no movement. The footsteps suddenly stopped.

As much as Piper didn't want to speak to anyone, the sound of his voice was comforting. She just wanted whoever it was to keep talking, even if they started speaking gibberish. They didn't continue speaking, but Piper knew they were still there. She tilted her blade and stared at the new reflection that appeared in it. Under the dim glow of the moon, it was hard to distinguish the person's face. Then the light caught onto their eyes. Piper felt more dread seep into her broken soul.

"Percy," was all Piper managed to say when she saw him.

"Yes?" Percy asked. Piper didn't respond. How could she? She'd probably just defeated any last hopes of defeating Gaea! Any hopes of the Greeks and Romans uniting seemed millennia away now.

"I'm sorry," Piper whispered. What else could she say to someone the Greeks looked up to as a hero? Piper even looked up to him as a hero, and still she'd failed him.

"It's fine Piper," Percy told her, "It wasn't your fault." He didn't sound convinced by his own words, but Piper cherished them. She heard his feet shift against the grass again, slowly edging backwards.

"Don't go," she whispered, but no one could hear her. She felt so empty, so alone; she would've given anything for Percy to stay. But Percy wasn't going to stay, he was already walking away.

Piper blinked as tears came back into her eyes. She felt just as helpless as Leo. For all she cared, she should've been the one sprawled on the ground, bleeding, alone, and dead.

That was depressing. So yes, Piper is very upset that Leo is dead, and that she may have accidentally broken the friendship bond between Greece and Rome. Thanks to those who reviewed last time, and to those who favourited this story. Now, here comes the hard part.

I have two other stories to write, both of which I've promised to update weekly. This story will sink to the bottom of my priorities list. UNLESS I get a ton of reviews. I will compare the reviews to the hits and the visitors, so it won't be unfairly high or unfairly low. If a third of the people who read this chapter review, I will update regularly. A WHOLE THIRD! There will be plenty who will overlook this message, so if you want to read, you must review.

Next we hear Annabeth's view on things to come. And we select a new member of the seven! You can select who you think it will be on my Poll. (See my profile.)

Sorry for an upcoming late update, I'm just starting school again this week and I have to get back into routine and stuff. Hopefully I'll find enough time to write.

Well, I guess I'll see you guys later!