Katie and Travis were really in trouble. They were backed up against a statue, surrounded by hundreds of enemy demigods and dracanae.

It was two versus two hundred,

Travis didn't know anything about math, but he didn't think those were great odds.

Katie, who was rather good at math, agreed.

"We're going to have to fight our way out," she told Travis, pointing to where the rest of Camp Half Blood's demigods were fighting, with the Party Ponies by their side.

Travis nodded. He drew his sword, which was painted with flowers. (He and Conner had painted the Demeter cabin night black, so they had retaliated and decorated all the Hermes cabin's weapons with flowers.)

Katie had lost her sword. She now held only two daggers, both taken from fallen demigods. One was clearly an Apollo camper's, as it was decorated with music notes, and the other she guessed was one of her siblings, a child of Demeter.

Their eyes met before Travis let out a yell and charged the dracanae. Katie followed suit, slashing away with her daggers.

After ten minutes, they had gotten through a large portion of the dracanae and were only five yards from the nearest Party Pony, who was loudly singing Don't Stop Believing as he aimed his arrows at the enemy.

Katie took a swipe with her knife at the nearest dracanae. She lunged at Katie, hissing angrily, but then she touched Katie's dagger and was gone.

Suddenly, Katie's midriff exploded with pain. It was as if her clothes had been set on fire. A demigod, grinning evilly, pulled back his sword.

Everything began to become fuzzy.

"Kitty!" She heard Travis yell, or it may have been "Katie" or "Kill it."

She saw the blurry demigod fall as Travis, his face contorted in rage, attacked with a sword.

"Travis." She said as the light began to fill her eyes.

And she felt no more pain.

***

Travis was in trouble. The enemy had regrouped and he was surrounded. But he would go down fighting.

He attacked.

He must have killed thirty of them before a dracanae thrust at him with a spear.

He knew he couldn't block it.

He closed his eyes.

***

Katie was dead. She was standing in a waiting room of some sort. The man at the desk looked furious at something. As Katie walked closer, she saw that he was playing Flappy Bird.

"Excuse me?" She said.

"Nope." The man- who she realized was Charon, ferryman of Hades- replied.

"But-" Suddenly, another figure appeared in the waiting room. "Travis!"

At the sound of her voice, Charon finally looked up.

"Well, well, well. I wondered when I'd see you again."

"Me?" Travis and Katie both said in unison.

"Both of you. Always die at the same time, don't'cha?"

"Um..."

"Oh, that's right, got your memories wiped in the Lethe. Well, you two should know it's your third life and if you've been good then you're going to the isles of the blest."

Travis and Katie both stared at him, bewildered. "But who were we before?" Travis asked.

"Eh, the first one was Romeo and Juliet, I think. The next one was a king and queen, I think. Louis the sixteenth and Marie Antoinette?"

Travis laughed. "There's no way we were Romeo and Juliet. You're getting the wrong people."

Charon just shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. You two have money?"

"No," Katie said. "We died in battle."

"Oh yeah, that's right. Hades said to let in all the souls from the battle against Kronus. Come along."

Katie and Travis were herded to the ferry of death along with the other souls.

"He's wrong," Katie whispered.

"Yeah," Travis said. But he had a nagging feeling that Charon was telling the truth. After all, he had no motivation to lie.

"All aboard!" Charon yelled. He gave he area one last scan before pushing off from the bank.

The Styx was probably one of the scariest things Katie had ever seen. There were people in there. No, not people. Souls.

"Don't look too closely at them," Travis advised. But she couldn't help noticing the one closest to her. It was a girl, not much older than she was.

"It wasn't my fault," the girl said, or at least it was like she said it. It felt more like the girl was whispering in Katie's ear. "I was starving, we all were!"

Katie took a step closer to the girl.

"You're a demigod." The girl whispered.

"Yes," Katie whispered back.

"Please." The girl said, holding out her hand. "Only a god or demigod can lift us from these waters. Please, have mercy!"

Katie took another step closer. Suddenly, she was yanked back.

"Don't," Travis said, keeping a firm grip on her wrist. "If you touch that soul, you'll be stuck in the Styx forever. She'll be free, but you won't."

Katie shivered. "How do you know that?"

Travis shrugged. "It's one of the few things I paid attention to. I'm never going to get a Trojan horse, but everyone dies so it seemed important."

Katie nodded. "Do you think they won the battle?"

Travis shrugged. "Well, we'll know if they burn our funeral shrouds. I heard it's kinda like an Iris-message. Only we can see them, but they can't see us."

"Good," Katie said. "I- I want to see my sisters... One last time..."

Travis nodded. "I know what you mean. I miss Conner like heck."

"I'm sorry." She said.

"You don't have to apologize. Not like you wanted to end up dead."

"Look," Katie said, suddenly, not responding to his statement. "The bank."

When Travis squinted, he could see it emerging from the mist. "Good." He said. "This boat of death is seriously creeping me out."

"Agreed." They filed off of the ferry with the other shades. Charon nodded at them.

"Good luck," he said.

"Thanks," Katie called back, but he had already pushed off of the bank and was heading back towards the other side.

They followed the shades to a long line. When she spotted Cerberus, Katie tried not to cry out. She knew that Percy had said Cerberus was nice, but he was seriously scary. His paw was the size of her head.

"Hey, Katie!" Someone called. She turned to see Travis stroking the beast's paw, while Cerberus wagged his tail.

"You idiot! You're going to get killed!"

"I'm already dead, Katie-Kat. So are you, matter of fact."

"Shut up, Travis."

"Cerberus!" Travis yelled. "Fetch!"

Katie groaned and left the line. Glaring at him, she dragged him all the way back into line.

"You're no fun."

"Shut up, Travis."

"Can't we take the E-Z death?"

"Shut up, Travis."

"I have to go to the bathroom."

"Shut up, Travis."

"I'm hungry."

"You are dead, Travis! Shades do not get hungry! Now shut up and wait in line!"

Travis was quiet for a split second. "What time is it? I'm bored."

Katie lost it. "You know what? Go ahead and get yourself re-killed. Leave. I don't care."

"Wow, Katie Kat. Harsh."

The line seemed to have remained completely stationary for the last fifteen minutes.

Suddenly, a grumpy looking man with a card in his hand came to the front of the line.

"Katie Gardener and Travis Loll?"

"Us!" Katie said, raising her hand. Travis snickered.

"Loll, LOL."

"Shut up Travis."

"Right." The man said. "This way."

The other shades complained loudly as they were led around the line.

"Here." The man said gruffly, offering them some sort of potion. Katie hesitated. "To get to our final destination we have to go over Tartarus. It's a sleeping potion. Mortals drop dead when they smell the steam. At the top of the pit, it's poisonous."

Katie gulped her potion and felt the world grow dark. (Well, darker than it usually was in the underworld.) It seemed like only a second before she opened her eyes and found herself in some sort of courtroom.

"Well, well, well." She looked up to see a man who she recognized as Minos, son of Zeus. "My colleagues are taking a day of Netflix-- I mean, a sick day-- so I will be judging you today."

"Okay," said Katie nervously.

Minos flipped open a file. "Okay, Juliet Capulet, reborn twice-- funny, I always thought you were fictional-- but you're here for--"

"Katie, actually." She said. "Katie Gardener."

"Right. Anyway, we're inclined to ask- do you want your memories back? You were, let's see... Juliet, daughter of Aphrodite and Maria Antonia, daughter of Zeus? Eh, Marie Antionette?"

"No memories," she said.

"Right-o. Anyway, you want to know if you can get into the Isles of the Blest?"

"Yes, sir."

"There doesn't seem to be many transgressions here," Minos said. "Cause of death?"

"Battle, sir."

"Alright, you can go to the Isles. Oh, by the way, your friend Romeo got in too."

"Travis."

"Right-o. Whatever. Anyway, our welcome ghoul will assist you in your journey."

"Thank you," she said. When she walked out, she saw Travis biting his nails.

"Did you get it?" He asked the second he saw her.

"Yep."

"Awesome." He fidgeted. "Funny who we were in our past lives, huh? After all, you hate me."

"I don't hate you."

"You think I'm annoying, though, right?"

"Very annoying. The most annoying person I've ever met."

"Look Katie, I'm sorry-"

"You're an idiot, you know that?" She said, leaning in to kiss him.

Travis grinned all the way to the Isles of the Blest and when he got there, he decided to annoy the other residents when he dyed the ocean orange and said it was lava.

He was really excited that Katie had kissed him, but he wasn't truly happy until he heard her scream "Stoll!" after he put hair dye in her shampoo.

Then he knew that, even though they were dead, everything was back to normal.