A/N: All of you guys want a nice, happy ending, but in my opinion, that happens way to much. Either Percy dies and get resurrected by Chaos (not happening, ever) or he and Artemis just ride off into the sunset. Oh, and is the "Love of Artemis" thing too overused?

Disclaimer: For the last time (in this fic), I'm not Rick Riordan! Period. (Or is it exclamation point?)

Time: A few minutes before Percy's death.

Saracen's POV

When I was teleported to Mount Olympus, I was so shocked I just stood there for a few minutes before rounding on Artemis, "Take me back!"

Artemis shook her head, tears filling her eyes, "Can't."

I turned to Nico, grabbing his arm roughly, "You'd better-"

Nico shook his head as well, "Sorry. I couldn't even summon a skeleton right now, much less shadow-travel."

Growling, I yanked a drachma out of my pocket, only to discover there weren't any rainbows around. Seconds after that, flash of fire deposited Light right in front of my, clattering on the cold stone floor of Artemis' Palace. Percy was dead.

I didn't cry, wasn't even sad. All I felt was shock that the man who I had lived with for the past few years was gone from this world. I couldn't except it, and the room was filled with stony silence until Thalia broke it.

"I'm so sorry, Artemis."

With that, the dam broke and tears welled up in my eyes as well. I slumped to the floor, my head in my hands. A few feet away, the Goddess of the Hunt mirrored my actions, then pulled herself together and stood, "I must inform the council. Remain here."

Artemis ran out the door, still not able to flash anywhere. Arin picked up Light, then spun it expertly in her hand, presenting the hilt to me, "It's yours now, Sara. Make him proud."

I could see Arin was just as shocked as I was, but she did a good job of hiding it. Taking the hilt, I looked at the golden blade. To my surprise, there was something on the hilt I had never seen before: A six-roller combination lock.

Then,we were all flashed to the council room, with the twelve Olympians all having expressions ranging from horror to shock to sadness. Artemis' eyes were red-rimmed from crying, and Poseidon's eyes were filled with rage. Even Dionysus was awake, and Zeus looked stony with displeasure. Hades was present as well, his face emotionless. The hearth in the center of the room was little more than embers, barely alive.

With a wave of his hand, Poseidon summoned a huge screen of mist and threw a drachma in, "Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Perseus Jackson, in Nevada."

A female voice issued from the screen, "I'm sorry, the person you requested is no longer alive. Would you like me to show you his last position?"

Poseidon's voice was so soft it was barely a whisper, "Yes."

The screen cleared to show a crater, and a huge one at that. Around the crater were scars in the ground, either burnt to a cinder or torn up by something else. No monsters were still in one piece, but five blackened corpses lay a few hundred feet away from the crater. The Titans.

"Hephaestus and Athena. You are to make a tomb for the General of Olympus. Spare no expense." Zeus ordered, his voice normally booming voice subdued, "Hermes. You will inform Chiron and the Senate of these happenings. Hades, you will arrange a ceremonial burial for this hero."

Poseidon stood, "If any of you disturb me in my mourning, you will meet the prongs of my trident."

With that, the Olympians and Hades flashed out while Artemis walked over to us, "We will return to my palace. Jason, Nico, the rest of you, leave us."

The campers nodded, heading for the elevator while Artemis lead us back to the palace. Once we were there, Artemis locked herself in the master bedroom. Arin and I went to another bedroom, in which I drew Light and looked at the combination on the bottom. Six numbers.

"What's that?" Arin asked, peering over my shoulder.

My voice was flat, "Combination lock. Six digits."

"Your birthday?"

I laughed hollowly, "If that was his idea of an early birthday present. . ."

I entered my birthday, 11/24/94. "Nothing."

"Mine? His gmail password?" Arin suggested.

I shrugged, "What's the point? He's still dead."

Arin's face crumbled, "Yeah, but I don't have to think about it. Thanks a lot, Sara."

"I'm sorry." Fumbling with the wheels, I inputed Arin's birthday, 10/13/98. I shook my head, then tried his numeric password to most things, 806510.

Arin face-palmed, a grin that seemed more like a grimace forming over her face, "Gwen."

I sighed, putting in Gwen's birthday, 12/30/00. This time, a cylinder of gold fell out of the bottom. Arin snatched it from my hand eagerly, forgetting what we had lost for a few seconds in the novelty of solving a puzzle. Shaking it upside-down, a flash drive fell into her palm. The flash drive that held all of Percy's journals.

"Got a computer?" Arin asked excitedly.

I shook my head despondently, still almost numb with the shock of his death.

"I wonder. . . Palace, can we have a computer?" Arin asked at the walls of the room. After a small pop, my laptop, lacking all grace as usual, dropped into my lap.

Arin tossed me the drive, which I plugged in and opened, then clicked around to find the right message for Percy's death.

"So, I'm dead. Kinda funny, yeah?" Percy's grimaced, "You probably don't feel like laughing, though, so I'll get to it. First, don't get all grumpy and silent on poor old Arin. Second, I need to explain something. As you know, I will -was- going to die before I reach my forty-first birthday, just from the shear amount of power running through my body. My blood would become completely ichor, and my body wouldn't be able to take the strain. Drinking the gunk probably accelerated the process quite a bit, though." He sighed, "As you know, I have spent the last four years picking apart the Great Prophecy. All of my findings are in the "Ideas" folder. It may not come to pass for hundreds of years, but you're a Hunter, so you'll eventually get there. I won't waste any time with any flowery stuff here, 'cause you don't care about that stuff. So instead, I'll say this: Suck it up and continue my work on the Great Prophecy."

I nodded at Percy's face before the screen went dark again. Arin put a hand on my back, comforting me as I stared at the empty space of the screen. Sighing, I closed the video and opened the "Ideas" folder. My eyes widened, "Arin, we've got some work to do."

Line Break

Time Skip: Two Weeks.

Thalia's POV

"Damn you, Aqua Boy." I was standing in front of a low, blue, marble building with the words "Perseus Jackson, Guardian of the Hunt" embedded in gold over the entrance. It wasn't a palace, but it's simplistic beauty far out-shown even my father's palace.

Artemis was standing next to me, silent with her eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot. This the first time we've seen her since she locked herself inside her room. The other Hunters -except for Saracen and Arin, who disappeared two weeks ago- stood near, along with the campers Percy sent to camp and Nico. Most of the Olympians were here as well, with a pair of burly Cyclopses holding a closed casket. We had read our eulogies at the graveyard on Olympus, then headed here for Percy's "burial".

Artemis led the way inside, her movements subdued. The only sound was footsteps on the marble floor, passing rooms that showed Percy's achievements replaying on flat-screen TVs. Small pillars, laced with gold, held up the ceiling where an opening shone light down on what I presumed to be the casket's resting place. It was sea-green marble, obviously build to contain a casket. A life-like sculpture of Kelp Head himself stood behind the resting place, holding Light in his right hand and Riptide in his left in a heroic pose. He would've laughed at this, if he was still alive.

"Here we lay Perseus Jackson's soul to rest. May he find peace and comfort whether he is reborn or stays in Elysium." Hades intoned. The Cyclopses slowly came over and ever so carefully set the casket into the sea-green marble.

There was a flash of light, then a gold inscription appeared at the foot of the casket:

Here Lies Perseus Jackson,

Guardian of the Hunt,

General of Olympus.

The sides of the marble box were decorated with hundreds of other titles, like "Bane of the Minotaur" and "Slayer of Drakons", but the inscription at the foot was by far the most elegant. However, everyone turned to face Artemis for her opinion. They knew Percy and Artemis were friends, but, for most of them, that was it.

"I think-" Artemis' voice cracked, "I think it is missing a title."

Hephaestus and Athena immediately scanned over the entire thing again, before giving up, "What?"

Artemis' voice was barely a whisper.

"Love of Artemis."