The hunt was camping in upstate New York now, still low from the losses last month. It had been a month and a half since the war ended and a month since Percy's funeral.

The hunt had lost many of their sisters and nobody was happy right now, all of them had lost sisters or friends, some of the new members lost brothers from one of the camps. But they weren't the only ones still mourning, everyone was; the camp, the Olympians and all the minor gods.

The night was cold and the moon's dim light didn't have much light so a fire was made for all of them to sit around. "We should start hunting soon," Artemis started, "Our sisters would not want us to sit around all day because of them."

"What would we hunt, most monsters were killed in the war and all the other ones are hiding and not causing any disturbances?" One of the younger hunters asked that.

Thalia replied to that, "Well I think we should star—" But she stopped he eyes widening and her jaw fell as she gazed past the hunters on the other side of the hunters. Artemis looked where she was gawking and saw her best friend and old lieutenant, Zoë Nightshade.

"Zoë..." Artemis breathed, and then she leaped over the fire and grabbed her former lieutenant in a bear hug. "What? How?"

"It is alright milady," Zoë said, "I was brought back because he said you needed me." Artemis had tears in her eyes before she got a look behind Zoë, there stood many of her fallen hunters from the last 2 wars, all perfectly fine and healthy. The hunters got over their shock and all started to rush the returning hunters.

After what must have been an hour of reintroduction and 'meet-the-new-hunters' the entire group was gathered around the fire and at Artemis' feet was the wolf, resting against her and savoring her touch. The first girls to talk were the ones that died in the Titan war and the Giant war. Elise was the oldest from that group so she talked first.

"We all had given our lives in battle but instead of arriving at the ferryman's port or even the underworld we arrived at a beautiful forest clearing. In it there was this man sitting there, but we weren't the only ones there as the man said we were the fighters that fell in the Battle of Manhattan, and the protection of the roots of Olympus from the Giants but there were also campers and Romans that died in the siege of the palace of Orthys."

Then Stacy continued, "Then he offered everyone a chance at a new life. But asked us to think about it before anyone denied. Some campers did, most of the Romans, and about half of our sisters thought they had an honorable death and wanted to join their friends and family on the other side."

Alex took over from there, "He also told us about Camp Olympus and what it was like now. He let us know that the tension between Greek and Roman has died down and that we have gained several new Roman maidens." With that she sent a smile to all the new faces. "But he never did tell us his name but his voice was fairly familiar."

And so all the girls gave their own opinions on the man and called him arrogant, powerful, mysterious, dangerous, all those words were thrown around a few times. Then Bianca got her turn to tell everyone what happened to her.

"Well I was about to enter the river Lethe, I was going to go for rebirth. This was right after the Titan war too. So when I was about to step in this man put his hand on my shoulder to stop me. The way he handled it was so kind too, he acted like he cared if I came or not. He said that he didn't need to ask me if I deserved to get another chance he said that I was more than worthy and that I had my brother to look out for and a new sister that he said I should meet." Bianca paused for a second, "He also told me that my brother was made immortal for his heroics in something, and I am guessing the giant war, because only Percy was offered it at the end of the Titan war right?" When she said Percy everyone that knew him dropped their heads slightly, noticing this the wolf sat his head on Artemis' lap giving her some needed affection, "But when he said that then he said that I would have to stay with him for his life and granted me immortality. Full immortality." All the hunters were shocked at this, especially Artemis, Who is this man and how is he so powerful?

This became a debate on who he was, it was decided that he must be some form of god, but no one could pick who. Artemis didn't add to it she was thinking hard on what to do while absent-mindedly petting the head of the new wolf. But that is when she realized that she had no idea who this wolf was and where he came from.

"Zoë where did this wolf come from?" Artemis asked her sister.

"I can tell you my story if you wish milady." Artemis nodded and so Zoë recited her tale.

"So I had just arrived in the sky after Artemis allowed me to join the stars where I was greeted by a man with white hair and blue eyes. He felt very powerful but then he started saying how his mother was already interested in me. This didn't last long though because then came this man who called the man in white his grandson, and Ouranus," There were collective gasps at this. "Ouranus argued this but the man was not lying. He then hugged the man and somehow took his memories." Artemis was back to thinking the same thing as before. "That is when he came up to me and told me that milady needed me to be with her. Saying that I would be just what she needed after losing someone." Artemis looked down, growing even gloomier. "But for me to return he made me immortal like Bianca and gave me one requirement." She paused and looked at the wolf that returned the glance. "He gave me the wolf to be the protector of you lady Artemis."

"What!? I don't need protection from anyone!" Artemis yelled.

"Milady I never said you did, but he said that this wolf was a gift from your protector if he couldn't be around. He said that this was a gift that could not be given back. He made it the only condition of my return, that I make sure that he is able to protect you from all pain, physical and emotional and to 'protect the hunt you hold dear', as he put it."

"Fine..." Artemis replied acting bitterly but if you knew her close like Zoë does you would see the underlying joy, but she hid it well. "We must make it to camp, I have to tell Olympus." And so the hunters packed, but the wolf never left Artemis' side.

This always happened to Annabeth, first she lost the love of her life to the Titan war and now she lost her best friend to the Giant war. She was on her way to her cabin when she saw people moving in the forest, a lot of people. And the first to step out was a tall and muscular man with blond hair and mischievous blue eyes and a wide grin on his face. It was Luke.

"Luke?" Annabeth called, Luke smiled at her and nodded. That was when Annabeth full on sprinted to him. Jumping at the last minute and landing in his arms, and followed by pulling him into a passionate kiss.

"Get a room you two." A voice said from the woods, Annabeth pulled away and saw Michael Yew flashing his infamously bright smile. Annabeth started to take in the scene in front of her; fallen heroes were walking out of the woods, campers that all in both wars and Romans that looked around confused by where they were.

"One minute," she directed at Luke, and then she turned and yelled, "Stolls!" it was only a minute before both of them were in front of her smirking.

"You found the spiders?" Conner started, "Yes! We knew that would get you." Travis finished.

"No, you will clean up those spiders but first we have a situation, I need you to get Chiron and all the campers to the pavilion." Annabeth huffed.

"What situation?" They spoke at the same time, Annabeth always found that creepy. Then they snuck a peek behind her only to see their long dead brother. "LUKE!"

After a Stoll sandwich hug the two ran off in opposite directions. "All right, every one we are having a meeting in the pavilion. Follow me." Annabeth led the fallen campers to the dinner pavilion. Her hand in Luke's the entire time.

It took about 15 minutes for everyone to get there; all the campers who saw one of their friends or siblings among the fallen ran up and hugged them, nearly back to death. The entire Apollo cabin tackled Michael and Lee. Michael got a special shy to tight hug from Nyssa. Pollux and Castor ran and tackled each other in their own twin hug. Even the Romans were hugging and all had grins spreading across their faces. Nico, who was visiting for a few days was staying deathly quiet, not understanding what was going on.

The question of 'how?' came up quite a bit before everyone was able to settle down and sit. That is when Chiron and Travis walked in.

Upon seeing his fallen students a tear slipped from his eye. He banged his hoof on the stones calling order to all the conversations. "Campers, can anyone explain how this is possible?"

Everyone was looking around before Michael awkwardly stood up from the stood up from the Apollo table. Letting go of Nyssa's hand, "All of us that died in the battle of the Labyrinth just showed up in a clearing, we didn't even see the underworld or DOA records. There was a man sitting at a picnic table waiting for us, he had us join him at this picnic table and offered us all a one-time pass to come back to you all. He was kind and allowed us to choose, Eric from Ares cabin led those that wanted to go to Elysium stating that he had a heroic death, but the rest of us had things and people we wanted to live for." At this he snuck a glance at Nyssa who blushed and looked down trying to hide it.

"Then he started to explain what had happened recently, how we won the war because of Luke, got into a fight with some Romans but that was a misunderstanding and then how we won a war with the Giants but he didn't go into detail about the last bits of it. And then told us about Camp Olympus and how we expanded and are living better lives because of it." Everyone started muttering about this, talking about the mysterious man.

Ethan Nakumura stood next, surprising everyone that had seen him with an eye-patch before. "That man talked to me to, I don't even think I died. I was falling off Olympus and opened my eyes and I was in a forest. He healed my eyes and asked me what I would do if I lived again. Asking if I would help keep balance and what I would do for camp. He said I was worthy of another life, he said I caused great change and that I redeemed all of my actions. Then he told me to walk into the forest and I ended up here." Then he sat back down with his siblings at the Nemesis table.

Silena and Beckendorf stood, Silena because she was wrapped around his waist. "I was waiting in Elysium for Silena but when she arrived a man appeared asking what we had to live for. He told us that a friend of ours told him that we deserved to live, he didn't tell us who or his name. When we asked who he was he said that he didn't have a name and that most didn't know he existed. It was confusing but then he told us about the wars and that we won, and all about the combined camp. He never told us how the Giant war ended though. He then made a forest appear and had us walk into it after he just vanished." This raised even more questions, mainly from the Athena/Minerva cabin that was trying to figure out who this man was.

Luke was the last person to stand up, some campers from the titan war were still wary of him. Even though Percy and Annabeth convinced everyone about how he saved them all in the end, but they still blamed him somewhat. "When I died, I closed my eyes and was expecting to appear at DOA records but then I was in a clearing under the moon, he woke me up acting like I was sleeping, then started questioning me on what I would be like if I came back, if I would defend you all, if I would respect the gods and if I would ever give into temptation. He continued to push for an answer until he asked what I would do when Kronos returns." A collective gasp came from the campers, and Chiron's face darkened, "I answered that I would protect those that I loved and fight for them. He told me that I was worthy of my new life; that being a hero made me deserve a reward. He said that 'my girlfriend' was immortal now so I should be the same or something like that and I glowed gold then I was told that someone was waiting for me and to walk into the forest. That was when I ended up here." He then sat down next to Annabeth and kissed her cheek, "He asked me if I would always love you." She blushed and looked at him, "And I answered yes." They shared a kiss.

Chiron was listening to all of their stories staying silent and taking it all in. "Who is it Chiron, who could it be?" Malcolm called out from his table. But then Clarisse stood and asked the question the Chiron had.

"What about Percy?" That got everyone talking, the returners didn't know what that meant, they didn't know that Percy died. Chiron had to bang his hoof for nearly 5 minutes before he silenced them.

"I don't know, but the gods will want to know about this." He said, "Everyone back to your cabins, all returning heroes will be shown around tomorrow and can become reacquainted then. Sleep tight."

Chiron then slammed his hoof on the stones dismissing them before he stood but when he did there was a hunting horn that sounded. "The hunters are here, all campers please return to your cabins we will properly greet them in the morning." But before he could set off towards the hunters Nico went wide-eyed and booked off to where they were.

Nico didn't know if it was possible but if all these that died are coming back there was a chance that Bianca was back too. And there she was looking around for her brother. Nico ran up to her, tears in his eyes before he hugged her and had tears of joy rolling down his face. "Shh, shh." Bianca tried to soothe him, but she had the same tears coming down her face.

Artemis smiled at the siblings; she had come to tolerate the boy because he was like Percy's brother. But now she knew something must have happened here if the boy knew she was coming. Artemis felt her heart skip a beat, it was possible.

But when she saw the look on Chiron's face, the mix of excitement and disappointment, told her someone was missing and if she had to guess it was the one that she wanted. And the fact that her protector said that she lost someone she knew deep down that he wasn't coming back.

"Chiron we must report that to the council, I will teleport us there if you are ready," Chiron simply nodded, "Hunters go to my cabin, it is time for you to sleep." They nodded and went off; Bianca though went with her brother to Hades cabin.

She then teleported herself and Chiron to the council room and started to walk to her throne before Chiron's voice stopped her. "Lady Artemis who is your new wolf?" She raised an eyebrow before looking down and seeing her new raven black furred wolf standing next to her, and when she looked down he looked right back at her. But the main question she had was how he came to the throne room. She hadn't teleported him with her.

"He is my protector."