Her second life

Chapter 17

Percy pov.

The days leading up to Emma's burning went by quickly. We had planned it all out and were ready. The only reason we hadn't been ready before now was because there had been multiple monster attacks but it was just monsters. The day had come. In sixty minutes Emma would be truly gone. Nico isn't around much. My guess is that he's searching the underworld for her. I was sitting on the beach when Hades flashed in.

"Oh hello Percy." He said. "Um hi." I answered. He sat down in silence. "Um, aren't you a little early." I asked. "No." He stated, simply. He got up and followed the growing crowd to the arena.

I sat there for about ten more minutes then made my way to the arena. It took about 20 minutes for everyone to get to the arena and be quiet.

A minute later the rest of the gods that were allowed to come flashed in. I looked at each of the gods in turn. Hecate looked miserable. She had blue bags under her eyes and looked about 20 years older than normal. Next I looked at Iris who also looked sad.

Then I looked at my dad. He looked moderately sad but he also looked relieved, which I'm guessing is because it wasn't me that died. Then I looked at Hades. He looked like a little kid sitting in front of a pile of wrapped presents but was told he couldn't open them yet. That's weird. Emma died and Nicos miserable. I looked at Annabeth. "Why is Hades so happy?" I whispered. "Not sure." She whispered back.

The gods started talking but I wasn't really listening. While Hades was talking I felt a weird breeze go past me. I tuned in. "She was an amazing girl." Hades was saying. "And she has now died twice. But somehow she just can't stay dead." My head shot up to look at him. He had a wide smile on his face.

I turned my head towards Emma's body. She was sitting up. "EMMA!!" I yelled. Getting up and running over to her. I practically tackled her with my hug. She laughed. "Trident get off of me." She smiled as I backed up.

I realized she wasn't looking at me and I turned around to see Nico standing there. "Hey neeks." She said, A smile slowly spread across his face as he ran towards her and hugged her. Next, Emily ran over and hugged her. Then Hazel. Then Annabeth. And so on. Then she looked at Hecate. "Hi mom." Hecate ran over and hugged her so tight I don't think she could breath. When Hecate had let go of her she asked, "How are you alive?"

"Well when I died I went to the hall of judgment. I was put in Elysium and met some friends of yours." She said, turning to me and Nico. "I met Bianca, Luke, Zoe, Beckendorf, and Silena. We were hanging out on the beach when Hades flashes in and tells me I'm coming back to the real world. I asked them if I could bring any messages and all of them said yes." She turned back to Nico.

"Bianca said to tell you that she loves you and doesn't want to see you down there any time soon." She turned to Thalia and the hunters.

"Zoe said to tell Thalia that she is doing an amazing job and to tell the rest of the hunters she said hello." She turned to the camp.

"Luke said to tell the whole camp he is sorry." Finally she turned to me.

"And all of them said to tell You that their deaths were not your fault and that you need to stop beating yourself up about it." I felt a tear fall down my face. I didn't trust my voice so I just nodded. I felt Annabeth come up to stand next to me. She rubbed small circles into my back.

"Now to quote Bolt What does a girl have to do to get some food around here?" She said, Emily, Nico, and I laughed while the rest of the campers looked confused.

"Whose bolt?" Annabeth asked. Emma shook her head. "Right I forgot we don't have to be the FKQ anymore." That made the campers even more confused.

"FKQ?" Hazel asked. "It's nothing. We just killed a lot of monsters while in Tartarus and I forgot we didn't have to use our code names anymore." Emma answered. "Anyways, can a girl get some food please?" "Yeah sure. Come on." Nico said.

It was lunch time anyways so everyone went to the pavilion. Nico, Emma, Emily, and I all sat at my table. I looked around and saw that a lot of people were sitting at different tables. The rest of the seven were all sitting at a table together. The stoll brothers, Katie Gardner and Will Solace were all sitting together and many other people were scattered around the room.

I noticed the seven looking at me and waved them over. "Hey guys." I said when they came over. "Hey Perce." Jason said. "It was so bad down there that you guys needed code names?" Hazel asked. "Uh yeah. Emily was the only one who hadn't been down there before and she wasn't well known by the monsters but the rest of us are." Percy answered. "Oh" Hazel mumbled.

Emma began explaining and was at the part where we were told
Bob and Damasen were alive.

"Years later we were informed that Bob and Damasen knew how to get us out of Tartarus." she paused. "They're alive?" Annabeth asked. "Yes and they said hi." I answered.

"Anyways, they got us to the doors of death and Percy and I were fighting next to each other. I killed the monster I was fighting and turned to see Percy about to be stabbed from behind. I ran over and pushed him out of the way. I got stabbed and I guess I bled out. I woke up and saw Charon. he brought me to the hall of judgment and I was put in Elysium." She paused again to look at all my friends.

I realized that the whole pavilion was silent and was listening. "See Carly, she went to Elysium." I heard Nico whisper. I turned and saw he was talking to a little girl who looked around age 5 or 6. "I met the others and then Hades got me" She finished. Everything was silent. "Wow." Leo said.

Emma pov

Just then the horn sounded three times. "Another attack?" Percy groaned. "What do you mean another attack?" I asked as we ran to grab our stuff. "It's the fourth one since we got back," He answered. I grabbed my dragon scale armor and my Tartarus rock blade and ran back outside to help with the monsters. We made it to the top of the hill and looked out at the monsters. There were only about 100. "Campers." I yelled, turning around to look at them.

"Obviously I have been dead so I need some practice. Me, Percy, Nico, and Emily will take these. STAY inside the border." Nico and Emily walked up to stand beside us. "But there's like 100 monsters!" Someone yelled.

"We are aware but we have fought worse." Nico answered. We turned back around to face the monsters. Then we looked at each other. "Let's get some practice shall we." I said with a small smile. "Let's do this." Emily answered. We sprang into action.

Racing at the army of monsters, All four of us took a different section of the army. We were each a blur of color as we ran through the army slashing, and hacking. 15 minutes later we were standing in the middle of an empty battlefield, each of us covered in golden dust. "That was fun." Emily stated. "Yeah it was fun but I need a challenge." Percy said. "Agreed." I answered. "Same here." Nico commented.

We looked up the hill at the campers and saw they were all staring at us, jaws dropped and eyes wide. We walked back up to them "What, you never seen four demigods defeat 100 monsters in 15 minutes?" Percy asked with his signature smirk on his face. Annabeth ran up to him and hugged him. Then checked him for injuries. "Wisegirl, I'm fine." He said shrugging her off

Percy pov

"We've fought way worse." "like what?" She asked. I realized,too late, that I had said too much. "Nothing, it's fine." I replied. "Percy what aren't you telling me?" she asked. "Nothing." I said. "Percy.." She threatened. I looked at my so-called best friends for help. All three were laughing and shrugged when they saw me looking at them. "Fine." They stopped laughing.

"It was really bad down there okay. We saw things, hunted things and heard things. You have no idea how many times I heard a monster say they wanted to kill you because you killed them. You have no idea how hard we had to train to catch up to Shadow and even she had to train super hard. You have no idea how many sleepless nights I had. Or how much extra training I did so that I could make sure I stayed alive and could get back to you. You have no idea what we've been through." I said.

Emma, Nico, Emily, and I had all found that the ground looked very interesting. When everything stayed quiet I looked up at Annabeth. She looked like she was about to cry. "Wise girl don't cry, we're fine now we made it out." I whispered, pulling her into a hug. I looked over her shoulder to see everyone watching us. I motioned to Jason that everyone should go and he understood.

"Alright everyone. Shows over. Back to your regular activities." He yelled to the remaining campers. Everyone, reluctantly, turned around and left.