After the final fight of the Second Giant War
Prologue: The Death of a Hero
December 21st, 2012
JASON’S EYES BURNED. Soot, ash, and unshed tears rendered him practically sightless.
A cut on his side was dripping warm, clear liquid – plasma. Jason was no medic, but he figured the fact that a mother sized gash was seeping clear liquid instead of blood was not a good thing.
A couple of his ribs had been kicked in. He was missing teeth, and seemed to have hurt the left the left side of his hip somehow; he couldn’t move it right, it was too stiff.
An Olympian gold flare shot up from the air, marking where the gods were. The message was clear: The war is over. The Giant’s are done. Reassemble here.
He blinked away tears, blaming it on the residue of ash that coated his eyeballs, rather than admitting to himself that he was grieving lost soldiers, friends, and comrades. Too many deaths. His indifference was stretched to the limit, almost broken. No, definitely broken.
He was going to start bawling like a baby any minute, he knew it.
As he arrived at the place the gods had signalled, he was relieved to note his many surviving friends. Reyna, Hazel, Frank, Leo...
His heart missed a beat as he realized he couldn’t see choppy brown hair with braids and beads.
Where is Piper?
Thankfully, as soon as that thought crossed his mind, her voice crossed his ears.
“I said, for the love of Aphrodite, Annabeth, get your hand out of your mouth. Stop poking it.”
Jason recognized the note of charmspeak in her tone. “What’s up?” he asked her as he wandered into view of her and Annabeth, meaning, why are you charmspeaking Annabeth?
Piper pointed to the daughter of Athena’s mouth. “A huge chunk is missing out of her tongue. Stop poking it!”
Annabeth whipped her hand out of her mouth, hid it behind her back and tried to look innocent.
“Annabeth, think logically,” Jason said, trying to appeal to her wisdom. “Your hand is covered in battle ground leftovers – blood, dirt, soot and ash, monster dust...all of that could be infecting your tongue right now.”
Annabeth screwed up her face, turned her back to them, and retched.
“I doubt that would help your cut, either,” he said.
“Where’s Percy?” Annabeth asked as she wiped her mouth, smearing dirt and gore around her face.
Jason shrugged. “You guys are the first I’ve talked to. There is a big group of demigods and semigods waiting over there.” He jerked his head towards the blazing bonfire behind them.
Annabeth began to head over there.
*
ANNABETH KNEW THE GODS PROBABLY WEREN’T ANSWERING ANY CALLS, BUT SHE COULDN’T HELP IT.
Please let Percy be safe, she prayed. Please let him be alive.
“Hey! You three!” In unison, Annabeth, Jason, and Piper turned towards the sound of Reyna’s voice. They had been heading towards the big blaze some children of Vulcan had started, with the help of Leo.
“Come here!” the praetor bellowed out.
As they made their way over to her, Annabeth noted the group members surrounding Reyna.
Frank, Hazel, Leo, Thalia, and Nico...no Percy.
Damn. Where was her Seaweed Brain?
Knowing Percy, he was told to go west so instead went east, she thought, not letting herself entertain the fact that he... might not have made it.
When they finally reached her, Reyna shoved what seemed to be a large, smelly boot into their faces.
“Ummmm,” Piper raised an eyebrow at Reyna around the boot. There was still some animosity between the two. “You’re freaking kidding me, right?”
Reyna rolled her eyes. “It’s a portkey, you idiot.”
“Like...Harry Potter?”
“That lady that wrote Harry Potter was a child of Trivia. Portkeys are real pieces are magic.”
Annabeth interrupted before they could start arguing over whether or not Dumbledore had been based on a real person, or over the pronunciation of Wingardium Leviosa or something like that.
(She supposed it could be worse, however. At least they weren’t arguing over Twilight, like, Team Edward, Team Jacob; Team Shut the Hades up.)
“Where will it take us?”
“Olympus.”
Thalia asked the question that Annabeth wanted to ask but couldn’t force out of her throat.
“What about Percy?”
Bless her.
Reyna frowned as if the mention of Percy made her uneasy. “The gods said...” she trailed off.
Hazel piped in helpfully. “Their exact words were ‘The matter of Perseus shall be dealt with at Olympus’.”
A shiver of foreboding went down the Wisdom daughter’s spine.
The matter? Dealt with?
That didn’t sound good.
*
ALL PIPER COULD THINK WAS THAT THERE WAS NO WAY J.K. ROWLING HAD EVER TAKEN A PORTKEY. Either that, or she, as a roman, had an extremely high pain threshold.
Her hair was flapping around so hard and fast that every time it swung back around to her face/a welt was left in it’s wake; it had split open the skin, and warm blood oozed slowly down her chin and into her mouth.
The taste of her blood mixed with the nausea caused by her motion sickness made her want to hurl.
Portkeys: not her favourite way to travel.
With a thud that jarred through her whole body painfully; her kneecaps jolted against her thigh bones, her spine scraped against cranium, her teeth slipped and sliced through her tongue, nearly taking off the end of it.
Oh, nuh-uh, she thought. No way am I becoming Annabeth’s tongue twin.
Around her were groans of pain and discomfort, and more than a few colourful curses against the evils of magical travelling.
Hear, hear.
“I think we should go to the throne room,” Annabeth gasped out as she massaged her abdominal muscles and muttered about how it ‘hurt worse than the time she did that thing with that ferret and that bomb in Colorado.’
Ummmmm, okay.........
“Why the throne room?” Leo questioned, helping Jason and Frank to their feet. All three guys were moving like they had been struck down with a sudden case of arthritis.
“Because the gods have sent us a sign saying so,” she said.
“Aww, Anna,” Leo said. “Everytime I see a lady going by with her hair on fire I-”
“Blame the Stolls?” Piper asked dryly.
“-Well, yeah, but also, I could take it as a sign from my dad, but, you see-”
“Leo, I meant-”
“FOR THE LOVE OF HADES, WOULD EVERYONE STOP INTERUPTING MY SAGE ADVICE GIVING?!?!?!?!?!?”
Annabeth cleared her throat and pointed to a point on the ceiling. “I mean, they literally sent us a sign.”
On the ceiling in flashing neon letters: Demigods, report to the throne room.
Leo deflated. “Oh.”
Thalia and Reyna struggled to their feet, and then, in a rare show of camaraderie, they all linked hands, and made their way to the throne room. Together.
*
LEO FELT LIKE A DEAD MAN WALKING AS HE WAS DRAGGED INTO THE THRONE ROOM BY REYNA AND THALIA.
He figured that was the closest he was ever going to get to having one of these fine ladies as a girlfriend.
Le sigh.
The gods stared solemnly at them as they made their way to the front centre of the room. The Stoll brother had tried to make Leo wet himself more then once at camp by tickle torturing him, but they had nothing, nothing, on the stares of twelve powerful, supersized deities.
In union, as if they had practiced it, all the demigods bowed.
“Rise, children.”
They rose.
Before the gods could get a word out, Annabeth jumped in. “Where’s Percy?”
Poseidon leaned forward. “Annabeth, my dear-” Leo figured that was the one and only time Poseidon ever had or ever would call Annabeth dear “-I’m afraid-”
“NO!” The sound burst out of Annabeth’s throat, part grief-stricken wailing banshee, part foghorn. “No! No, no, no! Nononononononononono!”
Jason tried to speak over the increasingly loud sound of Annabeth’s sobs. Leo found it hard to believe a sob could shake anyone so hard. The tough, strong daughter of wisdom shook like she was about to fall apart. “Okay, so...Percy’s dead?”
The gods lowered their gazes. “Yes,” Hades/Pluto spoke.
Everyone, every demigod and every god, looked, in their own way, stricken.
Annabeth again: “wh-w-where i-is t-th-the b-b-b-bo-” she broke down again. In union, Thalia, Reyna, Hazel and Piper moved to comfort her, any dissentions between the girls gone in that one minute of female solidarity. Leo didn’t try to get in on the hug. For one thing, that seemed kinda disrespectful to Percy. And Annabeth. For another, he, uncannily, could tell it was a girl thing, thus, no boys allowed.
Frank translated: “Do you...do you have the body?”
“No. We don’t.”
“Okay. So...where is it.”
The Olympians seemed uneasy. They glanced at one another. “We simply don’t know,” Athena spoke.
Annabeth’s sobs hitched and faltered as she stared at her mother. “How can you not know!”
“Gods, child, is not synonymous with all knowing beings. We know a lot. But we do not know all.”
Nico cleared his throat. “Um, no offense, or anything, but seriously, how hard is it to lose a dead body? He’d be somewhere on the battle field.”
Hades spoke to his son. “It isn’t. And don’t interrupt me with protests, it isn’t. Perseus was the Hero of Olympus. Do you really think us so dishonourable as to leave him to be trodden on with the rest of the dead? The moment I sensed him fall in battle I rushed to transport his body to Olympus. It wasn’t there. It wasn’t anywhere. It was simply...gone.”
“Well,” said Piper, “you’re the god of dead people. Can’t you talk to Percy?”
Nico snorted. “Nice, Pipes.” He let his voice go deeper in imitation of his father. “Excuse me, Perseus, but do you happen to know where your corpse is?”
Piper scowled at Nico, maybe for ragging on her, maybe for his insensitive words, Leo didn’t know – and continued to rub circles into Annabeth’s back and make soothing noises.
“Piper’s idea has some merit,” Athena said. “Except there is one major flaw in it. Perseus is missing from the Underworld.”
Reyna spoke for Annabeth, heck, for all of them, a ghost of hope forming on her face. “If his spirit is missing from the Underworld, and you can’t find his body...who’s to say he’s not alive?”
“I wish, daughter of Bellona,” Hades said gravely. “But, as was mentioned earlier, I am the god of death, child. I can sense Perseus is dead. If my son concentrated he could, too.”
Nico closed his eyes and focused. Every demigod in the room held their breath.
“Yeah. He’s dead,” the son of Hades said, quashing any hope.
“What can we do for her?” Thalia was obviously grieving, Leo thought, but not as much as Annabeth was. The daughter of Athena looked near catatonic.
“We were going to offer this to the group of you, anyway,” Zeus spoke for the first time that meeting, “but I think it’s a necessary action to take for Annabeth now.” He took a breath. “We want to offer you...”
“...Eternity,” Athena finished, her eyes as cold and hard as ice and grey as flint as she gazed at her grief-struck daughter.
A chorus of voices went up.
Jason: “Oh. Wow. Really? Um, yeah...sure, I guess.”
Reyna: “I thank you for the honour. Yes.”
Nico: “Hades yes.”
Piper: “No, thank you.”
Hazel: “I agree with Piper. Thanks for the offer, I’m honoured and everything...but no thanks.”
Frank: “No, thank you very much.”
Thalia, seeing as she was already an immortal huntress, didn’t answer as it was pretty much moot point for her.
“Be it known, we are offering you immortality, not godhood. You will be as immortals, not gods.” Zeus clapped his hands and a pretty nymph walked in, carrying a silver tray.
On it was an apple that looked as if it was made of solid gold.
She handed it to Jason, who took a bite. Energy fizzled through him. He passed it along to Reyna. After she had taken a bite, she passed it along to Nico, who passed it along to Piper after he had swallowed his share.
Piper, Hazel, and Frank just continued passing it down along the line without taking a bite; they were the ones who had rejected immortality.
The apple came to rest in Annabeth’s hands. She simply stared at it.
“Daughter,” Athena said. “I truly believe this would be the best thing for you. If you stay mortal, you will spend the rest of your lifetime grieving that boy. If you make the leap to become immortal, you can spend as long as you wish grieving him and still have all the time in the world to experience life when you have moved on.”
Annabeth spoke in a small voice. Her gaze never wavered from the fruit. “An eternity without Percy?”
“Yes.”
The daughter of Wisdom raised the golden apple to her mouth and bit in, closing her eyes. Juice ran down her chin as she pulled the apple away and handed it to the waiting nymph.
A fizzle of power, similar to but stronger than the one Jason had felt, ran through her.
She wiped the juice off.
“So,” Athena said happily. “You choose an eternity.”
“Yes,” Annabeth whispered. “A shattered eternity.”

Okay, me again! You know, Josephine?
So...what did you guys think of my first chapter? It was a bit depressing, yeah, but necessary!
Anyways, I wanted to do something different, there are so many Annabeth-betrays-Percy-is-offered-godhood-­aft­er-­gia­nt-­war­-pl­us-­a-l­ot-­of-­rev­eng­efu­lne­ss, and not that they aren’t great, but as I said earlier, there are a lot of them.
So, on the originality scale? How am I going so far?
BTW, for those of you going, I’m-not-reading-this, the-chick-killed-Percy, fear not! Percy...well, he doesn’t live, but he’s still in the story. Wouldn’t be a story without him.
Please, continue to read. But only if you want to.
Oh, and also?
Does anyone actually like my story so far?
Josephine, out.

Chapter One: A Cave Filled With Shadows
January 1st, 2013, 9:36am
Percy
When I opened my eyes all I saw was nothing.
That made no sense. Let me rephrase: all I saw was darkness.
“Oh, good, you’re awake. It’s been ten days; I was starting to get worried.”
My first thought? Annabeth. But Annabeth’s voice was both soft and scorching, like...like that time I was trying to make caramel for my mum but overheated it so much that she had to be taken to the emergency room for treatment of severe burns. This girl’s voice was snarky and careless. She sure as Hades didn’t sound worried.
But I rolled over to face her anyway.
Her hair was as black as mine. Her eyes were green too, but a pale green, like the underside of mint leaves. Her lips were pink, and she had a perfect cupids bow. Her complexion looked...Egyptian? She was short, like, twelve years old short, but she had to be at least fifteen, if not sixteen. She looked lithe and energetic.
I then realised I was staring at her like a moron, and snapped out of it. I held my hand out to her. “Percy,” I introduced myself.
She put her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Cleo.”
I tried to pull my hand away, but she gripped it tighter. “I’m going to ask you to do something, okay? Don’t scream.”
“I don’t scream.”
“Then don’t freak.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay,” she said.
I waited, and she tugged on my hand. I got the message, swung my legs to the ground, and stood up.”
Cleo took a deep breath. In that moment she reminded of the way Annabeth acted, all exasperated and stuff, when a new kid showed up and she had to explain the whole child-of-a-god thing to them.
“I want you to look at where you were just lying.”
I did as she asked, and discovered it was really hard not to scream. Or freak.
I was standing in a dark cave full of shadows next to a girl named Cleo, but my body...
...wasn’t.
My brain fizzled. Does not compute.
“Okay, Percy? Let’s walk.” Cleo took my arm and guided me away from...me. I glanced over my shoulder as we walked away, and a glowing sort of coffin, made of spider web like filaments of ice, was forming over the top of it.
Cleo’s gaze followed mine. “Oh, that happens to all of us. Nothing to be concerned about, it’s just an added layer of protection.”
“Protection?”
“I am so not trying to explain the Six Levels of Revenants to you, or telling you the Twelve Laws of Shades right now.”
“Revenants? Shades?”
“Did you not hear my earlier statement? Need I repeat myself?”
She dragged me down another craggy, rocky, dark hall, but this opened into a chamber, one that was – sort of – lit.
Lit by the same glowing filaments of ice that had begun to spiral over my body.
Except these ones were completely covered, and the ice was white in some spots, not just clear. These seemed to have the thickest covers.
“The older the Shade, the more protection placed around the body. That’s me,” she said, and gestured towards a case – chrysalis, like, how a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly? – as we walked by it. I paused, and looked into it. It was identical to Cleo, except, she wore a white tank and blue jeans, and the body wore a dress, the kind of dress I’d expect to see in a Pride & Prejudice movie, not in front of me, on an actual person, granted a pretty dead looking person in some sort of ice-glass coffin.
“Pretty,” I said referring to the chrysalis surrounding her body, and realised as she blushed and looked at me strangely, that it sounded like I was talking about her body.
“No! I meant the chrysalis, not that...not that you aren’t pretty, I was, I was just...Styx.”
“Yep,” she told me. “Styx pretty much sums up that word barf you just threw up all over me.”
“I think I need an explanation now,” I told her.
“I suck at explanations. How ‘bout you just ask questions, and I answer them to the best of my ability.”
“Okay. First question: how come my body isn’t with the rest of them?”
“In case you weren’t a Shade, or in case you didn’t Ascend.”
“Er...”
Cleo huffed in frustration. “I’m going to need to explain this to you anyway. Damn. Okay, do you know what a Revenant is?”
“Uh...zombie?” I asked, remembering some zombie movie I’d watched once.
“Sort of. Revenant: Undead.”
“Wait...are you saying...you don’t mean...”
“Yeah, I do. Shut up; don’t interrupt me. Anyway, there are Six Levels of Revenants. Level One: The most common, but least powerful; the Hungry Dead. Best known as zombies.”
“You’re kidding me. Zombies are the most common kind of undead?”
Cleo ignored me and kept speaking. “Level Two: Ghouls. Next most common, next least powerful. Think vampires. They are the masters of the Hungry Dead.”
“Vampires in charge of zombies...”
“That’s the split, the divide. The first two levels of the Six are...well, evil. Also, they can connect on the physical realm without effort. Unlike us.”
“Us?”
“Level Three,” Cleo spoke louder. “Souls. They haunt the places where they die, but are just poor, lost souls. Tormented by their deaths, they can never move forward. Level Four: Wings. Similar to Souls, but they haunt the people they left behind, and their descendants. Neither is very powerful. They cannot connect with either of the realms, physical or ethereal, with any sort of effort. It happens without their consent. They’re basically just memories; impressions, coloured air, so to speak.”
“Would you just let me get a word i-”
“And the last two levels, the most powerful, the least common,” she said. “Level Five: Wraiths. They can connect with both realms with conscious effort, at will, though it drains them. There anchors to the earth are their family; the ones they left behind, and the ones that come after.” She paused, let go of my arm, whirled to face me, and took a breath. “And then,” she said. “There’s us.”
“Us?” I asked.
“Yes. Us.”
“Well, what are we?”
“We’re Level Six.”
“Which is...”
“Shades. Pretty much the same thing as Wraiths, but our anchor is our body. The only true way to ever permanently kill us is to permanently destroy our anchor; burn it to ash. That’s why we’re hidden in a cave with no way in, and what the cases of ice are for.”
“Wait, what? No way in? Then how did I get in? And how do we get out?”
“Like this,” Cleo said, and walked into one of the cave walls.
And disappeared.
My mouth dropped open as her arm – just her arm – made it’s way back through the wall.
Come on, Percy, her voice echoed through the cavern, teasingly. Just step through. It’s easy.
So I stepped through.
It was easy, as easy as breathing (Hahaha, puns. DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE? Because I am apparently actually undead, therefore breathing...oh, you don’t get it.)
I turned to Cleo, wide-eyed, open-mouthed, completely shocked, as the most amazing view in the world amassed itself before my eyes. Craggy, snow topped peaks, cornflower blue sky, golden sun, flying birds in a V formation...it was incredible.
“Welcome to the afterdeath,” she told me.
“Thanks,” I said dazedly.
“But don’t think that just because you’re dead now means you get to take it easy,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“You better hero up, big boy, because the world needs saving again.” Her pale eyes were unfathomable. “And this time, demigods aren’t going to be of any use. Us Revenants are the only one’s who can do it.”
“Okay, what does the world need saving from this time?” I asked, ignoring her demigods aren’t going to be of any use comment.
Cleo’s voice was hushed and dark; foreboding. “Itself.”
“Gaia?”
“No. Itself.”
I’m pretty sure I just stared at her blankly.
She sighed. “Do you know what day the final fight of the second giant war took place on?”
“Um...Friday?”
Cleo facepalmed, and it reminded me so much of Annabeth in that moment that my heart tore. Where was Annabeth? Did she think I was dead? Was she dead? Was she okay? Had she survived? I had been here ten days, apparently...a chill went down my spine. They had to think I was dead. Technically, I was
“It was December 21st, 2012, you dolt,” Cleo said, her voice jerking me back to the present.
I stared at her. “Me no comprende.”
“The Mayan calender? The world will end in 2012? Really?”
“Oh, right. That was a good movie.”
Once again, Cleo facepalmed. “Just try to understand, mmkay? The Mayans had it wrong. The Apocalypse wasn’t going to happen on the 21st, it was going to start. A chain of events is going to come soon, a string of natural disasters, each happening in the wake of another.”
“So, like severe global warming? I don’t see how we can help that. Sounds like a job for the gods.”
“No, you dolt. All of these events will crack open the Core. And then the Nexu will come.”
“What are Nexu?”
“A very old, very powerful kind of Revenant. They abused their power and were locked away, so long ago that the gods have forgotten about them and the threat they present. A Mayan shaman was contacted in a dream by the leader of the Nexu, Christophe, who whispered to him what they’d do when they were loosed on this earth. The shaman prophesied that they would come on that day. But he was wrong. What would happen on that day was a great shifting of power, that can only be caused by one thing.”
“What?”
“The turning of mortal into immortals. That’s what set off the apocalypse.”
“What can stop it?”
“We can stop it before it begins if we cut of their energon source. You can’t draw power from a dead battery.”
“Meaning?”
“To stop Christophe from gaining enough energy to start the Armageddon, we need to destroy the seeds of immortality that he has placed his hooks in.”
“You don’t mean...” I began.
“Yeah. I do.” She said. “I’m sorry Percy, but to save the world we need to kill the new immortals.”
I was curious. “Why are you sorry?”
Her voice was harsh. “Because your girlfriend is one of them.”

Oooh. Now, I’m sorry if this chapter was a bit of a dry info-dump, but I needed to get this info into the story somewhere, and loading it all off at once made it both easier to understand and allows me to get to the action quicker! =D
(Though I guess I’ll have to explain the Twelve Rules of Shades sooner or later.)
Now, some bits of this story may get a bit confusing, in way of the mythology. I sort of read about everything on the internet and meshed it all together in a big ball of confusing (though hopefully interesting) fan-fic.
And I'm typing this through tears, you guys. My computer, which I love, crashed on me, and deleted every document I have. All my music, e-books, movies, picture, and most important of all, stories and homework are all gone. Lost forever.
(My teacher’s gonna love that. ‘Oh, Jose, why haven’t you handed in your homework?’ ‘Well, you see, my computer ate it.’.)
So I am now typing on a computer whose documents are so HEART RENDINGLY EMPTY and commiserating because, all together, I have lost over two million words worth of work. Like, sixty something gigs. This is killing me, you guys. So many of those things I’m never going to have again, because my computer is the only place I saved them. Moral of the story? Don’t be a dolt like me, BACK UP YOUR DOCUMENTS, OR IT WILL COME BACK TO BITE YOU IN THE BUT LATER. Oh, and also my computer crashed because my security thingy ran out and I didn’t renew it so I contracted a computer virus. THAT TOO IS THE MORAL OF THE STORY. RENEW YOUR SECURITY, AND DON’T...UH, OPEN SKETCHY EMAILS.
Yeah, that’s all. My pity fest is now over. (Though, if anyone wanted to send cake my way I wouldn’t protest! [hint hint nudge nudge wink wink =D])
Soooooo...if you had to give the first two chapters a score from 1 – 5, one being the worst, five being the best, what would you give? (Keep in mind that my entire world was recently crushed; don’t be too harsh on me!)
Josephine, out.

Chapter Two: House of Immortals
January 1st, 2013, 10:12am
Annabeth
I tried to ignore Jason’s voice as it clanged incessantly around the room.
Ugh. Hangovers. I now understand why people hate them.
Last night, to help me ‘move on’ and to celebrate the fact that he was never going to die, Jason dragged us out to some club to ‘party’.
I had barred Nico from going. Now he was ticked at me.
Well, excuse me for trying to protect the innocence of the thirteen year old.
And I was now discovering that every drink has a consequence the next day. Apparently immortality doesn’t equate to immunity from drunkenness. Never. I would never drink again.
It’s just...I missed Percy, so, so much. I know I sound like a whining, pathetic, grade five clinger, saying that I grieved my boyfriend so much I went on a binge, but Percy wasn’t just my boyfriend, he was my One.
My One reason to relax and be carefree for a while, no guilt involved, no strings attached.
My One person to love, forever. No-one else would ever hold my heart.
Jason sighed. “Annabeth, have you listened to a single word I’ve said?”
“Yes,” I said automatically, “I’ve listened to ten.”
“What ten?”
“ ‘Annabeth, have you listened to a single word I’ve said?’ ” I quoted.
Jason shot me a look. “Ha ha, very funny,” he said.
“I thought so,” Reyna said as she walked in through the loungeroom doorway. The gods had given us ‘New Age Immortals’ our own house. Jason and Reyna called it the boarding house. Nico called it the boring house.
I called it pure, living hell.
Everything, even making coffee, was hell. Without Percy, I felt like hell.
“Stop being so gloomy,” Reyna said, reminding me that now, as immortals, we could hear eachother’s thoughts, and so far we hadn’t figured out how to block one another from each other’s heads, so when we thought something, we may as well be shouting it from the six hundredth floor. “This isn’t that bad. I’m sure hell is –”
But I never got to hear what hell was, because at that moment, the earth shook.
Gaia immediately jumped to the forefront of my mind, but, no, she was dead. Percy had used his mysteriously acquired God-Destroyer weapons to kill her. They – the weapons – had turned to dust along with Gaia.
My Athena brain, ADHD to boot, suddenly thought, what consequences will we get now that the earth’s patroness is dead?
Another tremor, way larger than the last one, probably pretty high up on the seismograph scale, shook the house.
The sideboard fell to the ground. The ornate rafters that spanned metres along the roof, began to grow unstable; to fall.
“Out, run!” I yelled. We were immortal, but getting crushed underneath a house would put us as out of action as any mortal.
Allow me to explain: we heal almost instantly from any injury, but one of that magnitude would send our bodies into a sort of lockdown for a couple days while they healed, and we would appear dead to the world, except we’d still be completely aware during that time.
That time, in which they could bury us. Alive. (Even though they perceived us as dead.)
Thankfully they listened to me.
Thankfully they listened to me and got the Hades out of the house, because it collapsed.
“Roll call,” Jason called, choking on the plaster dust and dirt that was hovering in the air due to the collapse.
“We’re all here except Nico,” Reyna said. She sounded distracted.
“What!” I exclaimed. “We have to go get him out before mortals come and realise there’s someone in there!”
Jason agreed.
Reyna’s voice interrupted us as we made our way toward the rubble to dig the son of Hades out.
“I don’t think the mortal’s are noticing anything.”
I glanced over my shoulder and realised she was right. There were joggers, dog walkers, and wannabe landscape gardeners milling about the cul de sac, but no-one was glancing our way in shock or horror. And all of their houses seemed perfectly intact.
“The ground isn’t moving,” I whispered, realising that the earth stood still.
Jason shot me a confused look. “Yes, it is,” he said.
I glanced at the ground. I was standing on the sidewalk beside our house. He was standing on the debris littered front lawn.
I placed my left foot gingerly over the border and down on the grass. Faint tremors immediately started shaking it.
I drew my foot back as if I’d been hit by lightning.
“An earthquake centred on us?” I questioned half-hysterically. “None of the mortals noticing?”
I would’ve gone on and on, but they seemed to get my thought train.
“This isn’t natural...” Reyna said. “You...you don’t think?” she stopped; swallowed, and I knew she was thinking Gaia.
“It’s not her,” Jason reassured his girlfriend. “It can’t be, she’s dead.”
We all glanced at eachother. “If the mortals aren’t noticing the house – or, rather, lack of one – right now, do you think they’ll notice it if we zap to Olympus for ten minutes?” asked Reyna.
I considered every probability and possibility. “No, most likely not,” I decided.
We then, as Reyna put it, zapped.
And landed on Olympus. The ability to teleport? Coolest. Thing. Ever.
Percy would have enjoyed it so much. He would’ve loved it.
No. Bad Annabeth, no Percy. No thinking of him, no nothing.
“Daughter,” a voice called out. I immediately looked over, but it wasn’t Athena talking.
This woman looked scary as Styx and ripped like Hades, her muscles quite literally bulging out of her clothes. She wore golden armour, so she was a roman goddess, then.
I remembered that she had said ‘daughter’.
Bellona.
“I know why you are here,” she addressed Reyna. “And I am here to tell you: you are on your own.”
“WHAT?” we all yelled.
“We, as gods, are forbidden from interfering. I know you are all about to protest that we did in the do-overs of both the Titan and Giant wars. Then, there were extenuating circumstances. We cannot help this time.”
“Well, then how can we help?” Jason challenged.
Bellona smiled. It wasn’t a friendly smile. “Technically, most say you can’t. But, if they want to get technical, the law says gods are not permitted to interfere, not immortals. Which you are,” the goddess winked, and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Reyna called. Bellona froze.
“Yes?” she asked warily as she turned to face her daughter.
“It isn’t...it isn’t Gaia, is it?”
Bellona's face softened ever so slightly. “No. That threat is done.”
“Then what is it?” Jason asked.
Bellona’s face darkened once again. “Something much worse.” She clapped her hands, and suddenly we were back at the house, on top of the rubble, wondering what on earth could be worse than the earth goddess.
“Hey, guys, I think I found Nico!” Reyna called, interrupting my musing. Jason and I raced down to help dig-slash-pull Nico’s ‘corpse’ out.
“Styx, he’s still bleeding,” I said as we laid him out and blood immediately pooled around him.
“Heavily,” Jason noticed.
Suddenly, Reyna gasped. I jerked my head towards her. “What?”
She simply pointed towards the red lake that had surrounded Nico. Both me and Jason watched along with her as a indent appeared in the blood.
As if someone had dipped their finger in it.
On a piece of broken plaster beside me, letters began to appear, written in Nico’s blood.
We all leaned forward collectively as the...whatever it was stopped writing. A word had appeared. No, not a word.
A name.
Christophe.

So? What do you guys think? Also, are the enigmatic chapter conclusions annoying anyone?
And, WHO WROTE THE NAME?????
And, WILL ANNABETH FIGURE OUT WHO CHRISTOPHE IS??????
And, WILL PERCABETH BE REUNITED????
Tune in next week to find out!
And, I’m soooooo mucho sorry that Annabeth was a depressive wreck/hot-mess this chapter. Kinda boring and tiring to read, but necessary!

Josephine, out.

Listening to music.
Hey, I just met you,
and this is crazy,
but here's my number,
so call me maybe!
LOL.

Does no-one like me?

I love this story.

Should I keep posting?

Chapter Three: Creatures of Death and Darkness
January 1st, 2013, 11:00 am
Percy
Please, please please please understand, I prayed, sending the thought out both to any god that happened to be listening, and Annabeth.
Cleo and I (correct grammar and everything, how smart am I?) had rocked up at the ‘House of Immortals’ – that’s what Cleo called it, her ready to destroy the seeds of their immortality, me trying to convince her that there had to be another way to defeat Christophe – when she stiffened.
“What is it?” I’d asked her.
“Christophe,” she whisper/hissed.
We’d run as fast as we could, reaching the House in time to see it crumbling to rubble and fall to the ground.
Annabeth’s in there was the only thought in my head, and I ran forward without hesitation.
“Percy, no!” Cleo grabbed my arm and yanked me back just before my foot touched down onto the perfectly manicured front lawn.
And then I felt it. The thing that had nearly absorbed me.
The ground, the grass...the land the house resided on, it was...
...Sentient.
Or, at least, something about it was. I could feel, trapped underneath that earth, a power even older than Gaia’s, an evil more evil than her’s, a power that could not be beaten by swords or daggers, or by any weapon of this world, or even of the next.
I sensed, waiting to erupt from that earth, a cold, sharp mind. A hunger; for power, for freedom, for control.
That earth was a black maw, gaping wide, and I could tell instinctively that any Shade that stepped on it would be absorbed by that sentience, their power made into his, their afterlives drained dry, helping that evil to escape.
I looked back at Cleo, who looked as pale as a...well, as a ghost (This is a funny pun because she is actually sort of a ghost, LOL).
“You saved my life,” I told her shakily.
“Hate to break this to you,” she said back, sounding equally as shaky, “but you have no life.”
Suddenly, the overwhelming power radiating from the ground underneath the house at which the immortals were living disappeared.
Both Cleo and I relaxed.
“He’s gone,” I said.
“For now,” she told me.
“Jeez, you’re a downer-”
I broke off, because I could hear a voice. A familiar voice.
Sweet as honey, scorching as flame, as absolutely freakin’ spectacular as an Olympian firework show; I’d recognise the sound of that symphony anywhere.
Annabeth.
Cleo’s eyes widened as she, too, heard the voice, and, upon seeing the lovestruck expression on my face, made an educated guess as to who it was speaking. “Percy, no,” she cautioned in a low voice.
I took that as a yes.
And ran towards Annabeth.
Cleo face-palmed, but made no move to follow or stop me.
When I got to where a portion of my friends were, I heard Annabeth say, “Styx, he’s still bleeding.”
“Heavily,” Jason added.
That’s when my brilliant plan formulated in my head.
I had to warn them about what was coming. No matter what Cleo said, I refused to admit that demigods would be of no use in the coming fight. I refused to admit that my now immortal friends had to die in order to stop the coming apocalypse.
Annabeth was clever – if I gave her Christophe’s name, she would research it. Maybe find out about the nexu – maybe find a way to thwart them that didn’t involve her death.
But there was a chink in my plan – I couldn’t just talk to them and tell them – I was, technically, dead.
So, I had to write it.
And therein lay my dilemma.
Then it hit me – along with a strong desire to either a) projectile vomit, b) slap myself upside the head, or c) cuss.
Nico’s blood
I’ve never been exactly squeamish about blood, per se, but there’s a difference between blood spilt on the battlefield, and writing out a life-or-death message to your immortal girlfriend with the lifeblood of one of your best friends.
But I steeled myself; it had to be done. |
Bracing myself for the disgusting feeling of lukewarm blood that was already congealing mixed with the slick stickiness of the fresh blood that was still pumping out if Nico, I reached out my hand, determined to dip my finger into the blood.
But it passed right through, as if I was a ghost – oh, look, another lame pun. Totally a coincidence.
I focused myself, determined that it was going to work, my ghostly body be damned. I felt something in my core stir, a feeling similar to what I felt like when I summoned water. Power trembled through my limbs, both chilling and heating me at the same time.
I felt more substantial, more present on the earthly realm. I mean, hadn’t Cleo said we could connect to both realms with effort? If this wasn’t effort, I don’t know what is.
No-one noticed me, or looked my way, but I could feel the gravity settle around me, stronger and heavier than it had ever been when I was alive...it was almost painful. It had worked, I was sure.
I reached for the pool of gore once again.
Reyna gasped.
“What?” Annabeth asked her. The sound of her voice would have sent my heart racing – if it was still beating, that is (and yet another lame death pun. Will they ever stop?)
The feeling of Nico’s blood on my fingertips was disgusting. Slick and tepid, it made me want to barf.
But I gritted my teeth and dragged my fingers along a piece of siding lying next to me. It grated and the texture was rough, friction creating lag on my fingers. The scarlet of the blood remained after my fingers had moved, creating a pattern, a pattern that spelled a name.
Christophe.
I saw Annabeth look at it, and sighed with relief. She had his name now. There was nothimg else I could do.
Just as I was considering whether or not it was worth sticking my hand back in Nico’s blood to sign my name and maybe an ‘I love you’ or a couple ‘xoxoxoxoxo’s’, something snapped inside me. The power that had been helping me stay solid suddenly vanished with an elastic recoil.
No longer of a substantial form, I slumped to the ground, surprisingly exhausted.
I felt a light, cool touch on my shoulder.
“I warned you, I warned you,” Cleo muttered, sounding both annoyed and guilty as she dragged me somewhere.
Suddenly, the painfully bright sunlight that shone directly on my face vanished, leaving only cool, blissful shade behind.
I sighed in relief. Energy slowly made its way back into my limbs. Cleo was staring at me with an expression of concern etched on her face.
“Calm down, I’m fine,” I told her. Her face twisted into something that was caught halfway between a glare and a scowl.
The sound of her hand smacking against the flesh of my cheek probably would’ve been heard in China if it wasn’t for the fact that, as Shade’s, no-one living could hear us, apparently.
Then she did something that surprised me just as much, if not more, than the slap did.
She hugged me.
I was so surprised that I stiffened. Getting the message, she pulled back. I was shocked to see tears running down her cheeks, making glistening tracks. But perhaps what shocked me more was the fact that her tears were obviously not warm – they were partially frozen, like she was crying slushies, and they were black.
As they hit the ground, the grass sizzled and turned to ash.
I gaped.
Cleo slapped me again. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she ranted, punctuating each word with another slap.
“I told you not to!” she cried. “I told you.”
“Told me not to what?” I asked, bewildered.
“Go to that girl! I knew you’d manifest if you did, and Percy, you’re a Shade. Your innate power lies with the darkness, not the light.”
I felt the first stirrings of anger begin to kindle within me. “Are you saying I’m evil? After everything I’ve done for this world?” the words were snarled.
“Darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good,” she told me. “Now, shut up, and let me finish.”
{A/N: I completely stole that line from the House of Night. All credit to P.C and Krisitn Cast.}
I nodded.
“What I mean by your power residing with darkness is this: we’re creatures of death. In death there is no light. We can stand the sun, but it weakens us, even in our ethereal forms. To manifest into your solid form in the sun, an element at the complete opposite end of the scale of your now natural one, is...suicide. You could’ve died just then, Percy.”
I nodded. “However, maybe I wouldn’t have manifested if you’d told me earlier,” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I think it’s about time that you told me what exactly being a Shade entails.”
Cleo nodded. “Okay, Percy,” she said softly, “brace yourself.”
Mu-ha-ha-ha! So, whattaya guys think? Also, as Cleo said you should brace yo’selves, cos the next chapter I post will be in CLEO’S POINT OF VIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yay!
Also there will be a small paragraph at the end in Annabeth’s P.O.V, but mainly it will be Cleo.
I apologize for it have being quite a while since my last post, actually, I have been absent from all of my forums lately...my only excuse is that I’ve been busy on both my Quizilla and Polyvore accounts, and I just haven’t found time for Fanpop. I’ll hopefully be posting more recently.
(Like, once a week) But, as I said at the beginning of this forum, my posting schedule will be sporadic.
Oh! I’ve got a poll for you guys.
Either:
Percy + Annabeth (Percabeth)
or
Percy + Cleo (Clercy)
BTW, no matter what you guys vote on, I’ll pick which relationship I want, so don’t get disappointed if it isn’t the one you want.
I love you all.
RATE ME
MESSAGE ME
BANNER ME
Ciao!
Josephine, Out
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Chapter Four: The Power to Destroy the Gods
January 1st, 2013, 11:32 am
Cleo
Percy was staring at me, his eyes hard. His expression was tense, expectant.
I took a deep breath through my nose. As I was dead, and had been for nearly half a millennia, there was no reason for me to actually breathe, but, there’s no need for people to talk, but they still do it, don’t they?
“Okay,” I said, trying to get my head into the game. “Okay. Try not to interrupt?”
Percy considered, his head tilted to one side. His amazingly coloured eyes glittered. In death, everything sort of fades...except the eyes. They become more vibrant, brighter, more – ironically – alive.
“I’ll try, but I make no promises,” he promised.
“Okay, there are basically Twelve base Laws of Shades. There are other, smaller Laws, but these Twelve are the ones that are never – and I mean never – broken.”
I paused for a minute, trying to decide which one to tell first.
“Okay, I already told you this one, but I think I better go over it again: you can’t manifest in daylight. Do so, and it’ll weaken you. Do it for long enough, and you’ll burn up as if you were a vampire.”
I looked at him, trying to gauge whether or not he was actually paying attention to me.
“You’ve said ‘okay’ like ten times in the last ten times,” he informed me.
“Moving on!” I said. “Running water is a barrier. We can’t cross it. Try all you like, it won’t work.”
Percy’s eyes widened. “Does that mean we’re stuck in New York? Manhattan is an island, you know.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been stuck here a couple centuries, doesn’t bother me. And if you really get desperate for a change of scenery, there’re ways to travel, but to say that they’re less-than-pleasant would be a huge understatement.”
He nodded.
“Next: food is toxic to us. Not toxic like henbane, or aconite, or belladonna, but more like we can’t digest it, and I can promise you you’ll regret it if you try.”
Percy’s eyes widened like, ‘oh Styx, does that mean I can’t have pizza or chocolate or ice-cream or any other delicious and bad for me junk food!?!’
“Next Law,” I hesitated, not knowing how badly he’d take this one. “Solid or ethereal, no matter what form we take...” I decided to take this down a different path. “So, in our ethereal form, the one we’re in now, no-one can see us, mmkay? In our manifested form, people can see us, touch us, and hear us...but not people we knew personally or cared about...they can’t see us, no matter what,” I finished quietly.
He paled, which was funny, considering the fact that he was dead and already as pale as a, well, ghost.
“You can’t be serious,” he whispered.
“I can be, and I am,” I told him also whispering. “You can’t see your own dead. It’s just...the way it’s always been.”
He looked like I’d just told him that he had to be the one to destroy Annabeth’s seed of immortality, personally.
“Next Law: ivy is a deadly toxin, and also a deterrent.”
He looked surprised. “Really?” he asked.
“Yeah, why do you think so many buildings used to – and still do – grow ivy on their walls? It kept the undead out. These days, the superstition has died out...but people still do it, because it always has been done. And trust me when I say it burns like Styx, and I mean like the literal Styx; you should know what it feels like. The pain takes the words Poison Ivy to a whole new level.”
He nodded like he was finally paying attention to me and what I was saying.
“There are only a few ways you can wound us – knives made of bone or ivory, but only if they’re wielded by the living; which includes the gods and immortals, or the hands and teeth of other Revenants.”
Percy sat up and leaned closer to me as if what I was saying was actually worth listening to, actually worth ignoring his ADHD for – and thank gods for that.
“Those things can wound us, but the only thing that can kill us permanently, however, is fire, and even that will only kill us permanently if the person who sets us alight also destroys our anchor to the world – our body. Which, coincidentally, can only be destroyed by fire, too.”
“Practically invincible? Good to know,” he said.
“And it isn’t just fire that’s a danger to us,” I warned him, “it’s all aspects of that element. Like, ash, for example. It’s like ivy – a deterrent, a ring of it around a building or person will stop us from entering or touching, and it burns like acid if someone chucks it at us. You’ll need to watch out for demigods carrying ‘pepper spray’; what they’re actually carrying is wood ash in a pressurised can.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Ash? Really?”
“Really. Wood is deadly, not to us maybe, but mix it with fire, and you have a lethal mix.”
“Is that everything I need to know?” he asked.
“Not everything,” I informed him. “But enough for now.”
I rose out of my sitting position on the ground. “C’mon,” I said. “It’s time.”
“Time for what, exactly?” he wondered warily.
I grinned. “Time for you to meet some more of your own kind. You didn’t think we were the only shades on Manhattan, did you?”
He smiled kind of ruefully. “I honestly didn’t consider it,” he said.
I snorted and rolled my eyes.
Then gasped. Percy stiffened. “What…” he whispered.
“Christophe,” I said.
I could feel him underneath us, his disgusting presence.
A sentient and invisible tendril of power rose up from the ground, reaching towards us. I pushed Percy away; I was older than he was, therefore more powerful, more resilient.
It slashed down my arm, opening a wide gash. Blood, black and viscous, oozed down my arm. It hit the ground and sizzled, the grass that it hit turning to ash. Both Percy and I backed up, fast.
Little Shades, a voice from under the earth came, give up. You have great deeds to your name…but you cannot defeat me.
The power disappeared.
Percy relaxed, but I was frozen. Two visitations by Christophe in the same day? That’s more than he’s ‘visited’ in the past millennia.
Perc7y was staring at the spot where my blood had hit the ground. The ash had blown away and now all that was left was my rapidly crystallizing blood. I looked at it. It was pretty, I supposed, or at least it would’ve been, if you hadn’t known what it was made out of.
Percy looked at me. “This…” his voice was hesitant. “This is the same material my God-Destroyer weapon, the one I used to kill Gaia, was made out of.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “Percy, don’t you see? The reason we were forgotten when so many other mythical creatures made it through. The reason Christophe fears us…Percy, we are the ultimate weapons. In our veins, we hold an incredible power…the power to destroy the Gods.”


January 1st, 2013, 12:00 pm
Annabeth
That name. That word, writ in blood.
Christophe
Who was Christophe? Who had written that name? Why…Why did the handwriting look so familiar?
A movement to my left drew my attention. Nico was waking up.
Christophe
Christophe
Christophe
I made a vow to myself, a vow as a daughter of Athena.
I will find out.

Okay, so how awesome am I? Two chappies in one day!
How awesome is Cleo? Even if you are Team Percabeth, you have to admit, she (Cleo) is made of awesome.
Next Chapter?
Christophe’s POV.
Dn dn dn dnnnnnnn!
Josephine, Out

Hey, Sparkles3, you changed your picture! I like the new look.

Like the story, not that song...

cool! story!! that was a great idea plz post again soon! :)

Okay first thing - "my computer ate it" ssoooooo!!! funny!!!!

Second thing - Opeaning skechy emails wont give you virases, replaying to them or listining to them will.

Third - percyabeth forever and always

Forth - Cloe is really cool but she is kida like rachel in the relationship with percy thing.

Five - You are amazing and this story is really good!!!

Sixth - Plz post again soon! :)

Seventh - I am soooo glad I found this forum! :)

Okay I think that covered all of it! :)

Oh yeah, more people are checking out this forum! Now, the past few weeks have been hectic what with exams and end of year reports and assignments and the end of year drama production and my FB exhibition, so I apologize profusely for my absence.
And now I apologize profusley over my extended absence that will take place in the next 4 - 5 weeks.
Yes, you heard right. I will probably not be posting until after New Years. At least, not on fanpop, which is where I write all of my fanfic. If it's not just the storyline you like, but the style of writing, head on over to my Quizilla account. My name on that site is HousexofxNight, and I have written stories such as:
The Fury of The Flames,
Moonlight Huntings,
And,
Blood Witch
on that site, they are there for you to enjoy. I may or may not be posting a Christmas themed one-shot tommorow on the HoO club. I probably will, and maybe the next chapter of this story. Other than that, there won't be much action out of me on Fanpop for the next month or so...sorry.
And I love you guys. Stay sweet!
Josephine, Out.

I totally understand, although I wish it wern't true.

could you plz post atleast one more chappy! :)

pritty plz!

plz!

Okay, I will post in 8 days! Two chapters here, one chappie on Camp Jupiter reads the Lost Hero, and maybe one on my MoA forum. 8 days! I'm so excited. I hope you guys all had amazing christmas's! xoxoxoxox!

Chapter Five: A Dream Is Just A Dream...Isn’t It?
January 1st, 2013, 4:03 pm
Christophe
Images flickered across the walls of his underground prison erratically. Images of the people who would stop him. Images of people he had to defeat.
He focused on one of the flickering images. A girl with blonde hair and grey eyes, who lay sleeping on a couch; late afternoon sunlight streaming down on her face.
An evil smile spread across his face as Christophe began to chant.
”Earth, Water, Wind and Fire,
Hear my call, fulfil my desire,
Find the immortal they call Annabeth,
Taint her dreams with blood and death.
Fire, Wind, Earth and Water,
Help me to torment Wisdom’s daughter.”
Unease spread across the blonde girl’s face. Her entire body started twitching; she was caught in the throes of a very special nightmare.
“Sweet dreams, daughter of Athena,” he laughed.
His laugh echoed around the cavern eerily.
In the world above, a golden haired immortal shuddered throughout her whole body as a purely evil sound stole into her already horrific dreams.
A laugh.

January 1st 2013, 4:26 pm
Annabeth
I jerked awake, sweat pouring down my face and a suppressed scream-slash-gasp escaped my throat, muffled as I turned my head and pressed my face against the couch arm.
Last thing I remember was reading my way through dusty old tomes I’d found in the library on Olympus, which I’d transported to the moment Nico had become completely coherent.
I’d been trying to find out who Christophe was...but no such luck. And then I must’ve fallen asleep.
And the nightmare. Oh, god, the nightmare.
I only remember a few things about it: Blood, screams, darkness, underground caverns with eerie pictures flickering along the walls like flame disturbed by wind, the sounds of flesh tearing and bones snapping, and most disturbing of all, perhaps, was the images I’d seen of Percy.
Laughing with a girl who had black hair, pale green eyes and an Egyptian complexion, and looked kind of like a modern day Cleopatra. Him trapped in a rapidly frosting over mirror, him fighting with a man who seemed to be made of shadows while black blood oozed and dripped all over his body.
Wherever the blood dripped onto the floor, there was a sizzle and dust rose up, like it had killed part of the floor.
And then the man made of shadows knocked Percy back, tore his wrist open with a rough gash of his fingernails, and began to drink.
I woke up then, an evil laugh echoing around the walls of my mind.
As my heart beat faster, I placed a hand on my chest and tried to calm myself.
After all, even though I’m an immortal demigod, Percy is dead, which means this dream is just a dream...isn’t it?

January 1st, 2013, 5:48 pm
Percy
Cleo smiled at me encouragingly.
Stop smiling at me like I’m about to be mugged by you, I told her mentally.
That wiped her smile off like windscreen wipers wipe away rain.
Wow, I said ‘wipe’ a lot in that sentence.
Cleo rolled her eyes. I hadn’t shut down the link between us, and she’d just heard all that mental babble. “Percy, get your head out of the proverbial clouds,” she said.
That made me think...”Hey, were ghosts, right?” I asked.
She frowned at me, but nodded. “For lack of a better definition, yes,” she said.
“You know you could rival Annabeth in the unnecessary extra words department? Anyway, since we’re ghosts – ” I emphasized the word, just to tick her off “ – does that mean we can fly? Or, at least, like, float?”
She stared at me in disbelief. Then she started laughing. “Oh, Em, Gee!” she snickered. “Someone’s been watching way too much ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’”
“ ‘Can I keep you?’ ” I quoted, and she laughed even harder. “Hey, Casper’s good,” I defended.
“But you’re quoting parts of it at me!” she giggled. “That’s so...dorky.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Are you taking me to see these Manhattanite Shades, or what?” I questioned.
“Already have,” she quipped breezily.
I shot her a confused look, and she gestured towards the door of the house we were standing in front of.
Then it clicked, and I gaped at her.
“Go ahead,” she grinned impishly. “Your new family awaits.”

Heya! Okay...yeah. This chapter sucked royally. Now, I have some things I need to say, but the next chapter is coming up in a few minutes so I’ll say my usual piece then, mmkay? See you in a couple of minutes with the next chapter!
xxoxxoxxoxxoxxo
Oh, and I thought this poem went perfectly with this chapter!
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
Suits the chapter perfectly, no? And this is the second verse...It’s about Percy and Annabeth! (Not really, but they’re what I thought of when I read it in English class!)
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand –
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep – while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
This poem is by Edgar Allan Poe...see you next chapter with my proper message! Both the chapter and the message will hopefully be very long, okay?
~Josephine!

Chapter Six: The Most Powerful Magicks of All
January 1st, 2013, 6:03 pm
Cleo
Anticipation coiled in my stomach like a snake as Percy rose his fist to knock on the door. Just as his flesh was about to make contact with wood, he hesitated, and glanced in my direction.
I suppressed an eye roll and sighed. “Percy, I already told you. You’re welcome here. You’re a Shade. That makes you family; calm down, no-one here will give a flying fart in space about the fact that you used to be a demigod.”
His lips twitched, his shoulders untensed, and I knew I had gotten through to him.
He raised his fist and knocked on the door.

January 1st, 2013, 6:08 pm
Anya
I raised my head when I heard a knock on the door.
“Anya, could you get that?” asked Sylph from the kitchen.
“Yep,” I called back, bounding to my feet. It could only be Cleo at the door, and if she was knocking, she had the new guy with her. Otherwise she would’ve just teleported here from the Cave.
“Hiya!” I exclaimed as I flung the front door open, my eyes skipping straight over Cleo and landing on a nervous – yet still attractive – looking teenage guy with black hair and almost glowing green eyes.
“Anya,” I said, sticking my hand out.
“Percy,” he responded as he shook my hand, looking me up and down like he was scrutinising my red French braid, torn at the hem jeans, violet eyes and pink peasant top for any overwhelming evidence of ghostly-ness.
I winked at him, and I have a feeling that he would’ve blushed if he was able.
“C’mon, Percy, we’d better introduce you to the others,” Cleo said, pushing him past me and shooting a look in my direction.
A look that was, dare I say, territorial?
Shut up, Anya, she hissed in my head. I’m just trying to be nice. He’s new, confused, lonely and grieving. If I remember right, you were glad enough when Charles came for you. That doesn’t mean you guys are in a relationship.
I ignored her subtle jab at me – and Charles – and instead said, What does he have to grieve about? He’s the dead – or undead – one.
You’re so insensitive. And loserly, Cleo said before continuing down the hall to the kitchen.
“Percy, I think you really need to meet Sylph. She’s sort of our Mother Goose.” She spoke out loud, addressing only Percy, and sending strong take a long walk off a short pier vibes at me.
I made a face at her.
She glared at me, and a spike of intense pain shot through me, radiating over my body from my forehead.
She smirked, and led Percy away.
I stood in the hall, shocked.
Okay, what the hell was that?

January 1st, 2013, 8:20 pm
Camp Half-Blood
Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest. “Well?” She asked, tapping her foot.
Lou- Ellen gritted her teeth and resisted the strong urge to fling a hex at the immortal. Just a small one... her evil side whispered.
Focus, her other side dictated.
“Well, this is complicated magic,” Lou told the bossy blonde.
Annabeth frowned. “So?”
“So, shut up.”
Annabeth looked insulted, but Lou turned back to her grimoire.
When she stiffened, the daughter of wisdom caught it. “What, have you found something?”
“Not sure. Might help,” Hecate’s daughter said, gesturing two of her sisters forward and unsheathing an athame carved from Aurelian Pearl.
The three sisters all gripped the athame by the blade, and closed their eyes.
“We call upon the Fates to grant us knowledge,” they all intoned.
“Upon Hebe, Goddess of Eternal Youth, to grant us knowledge of the immortal and unchanging.
Upon Hestia, Goddess of Family, to keep this knowledge bonded to us.
Upon Hecate, Goddess of Magick, to grant us the power to protect ourselves with this knowledge.
We call upon Selene, Goddess of the Moon, to symbolize the end of our ignorance.
And upon Eos, Goddess of the dawn, to symbolize the dawning of a new knowledge within us!”
Breathing hard, they raised the athame. Their blood dripped down it and moonlight, firelight and magick glinted of the red stained blade. “Grant us knowledge now!” the sisters finished.
Annabeth crept forward cautiously but curiously. “Is it done?”
“It is done,” Lou said, sweat pouring all over her. “See?” she said, holding the blood covered athame out.
Annabeth glanced down.
And gasped.
The blood that had come from the sisters hands had moved to the flat of one side of the blade, and words were writ there in blood.
Christophe, King of the Nexu. All who challenge him challenge death itself. In him find the root of all evil. Beware.
“Well,” Annabeth said shakily. “At least now I have more than just a name to type into Google.”
***
“Wow, you sure are hungry, aren’t you?” Connor Stoll asked the brown haired little girl who seemed to be about eight years old sitting next to him. She and a satyr had rocked up to Camp not long ago, and she had been claimed as his sister almost immediately.
Now, she blinked up at him with blue eyes that seemed like eyes that belonged in the face of an eighty year old rather than an eight year old.
More proof that she was definitely a demigod.
“I’m always hungry, but at the same time I’m never hungry.” The girl shrugged. “I eat when I can.”
Connor scrutinised the girl hard. Dirt caked her face, the kind of dirt that comes not from being chased by a monster, but from sleeping in places that were not made for sleeping in. He had a feeling that once she washed off all the dirt, she would be more freckles than skin.
Instead of asking the incredibly tactful – note sarcasm – question of whether or not she was homeless, he opted for, “what’s your name?”
“Sara,” she mumbled around a mouthful of food.
“Mine’s Connor.”
“And you’re my big brother?”
“Well, I’ m one of them.”
Sara smiled at him. She had a dimple, and was actually quite cute when she smiled, even under all that dirt. “I’ve always wanted a brother,” she informed him, and gave him a hug. “I’m glad I’m here now.”
“Me too.”
“If I’d come next month, I doubt I would’ve like it much,” she said before releasing his waist and turning back to her food.
“What do you mean?” Connor asked, his throat going dry.
“I had a dream,” she said.
And no matter how much Connor coaxed her after that, she wouldn’t say a word.
Finally admitting defeat, Connor groaned. Dammit, Perce, he thought. I need your skill with kids. Percy had always been good with the kids around Camp. With all the stories told around about him, he was basically a god to them.
Or, he thought, his thoughts travelling down a more cheerful path, I need Rachel.
Problem, the oracle was on holiday in Margaret River, Australia, with her family on the other side of the world.
A grin spread across his face.
Guess I’m going on a quest.

January 1st, 2013, 11:52pm
Annabeth
“You’re not seriously using Google to find answers, are you?” Jason crinkled his nose at me.
“Oh, leave Annabeth alone,” Reyna chastised him. “She is our residential genius; therefore, knows what she is doing.”
“Yeah, but like a mortal search engine is going to help.”
“I think I’ve found something!” I cried out excitedly.
Jason leaned over my shoulder. Snorted. “You’re going on knowledge you found on a website called ‘Forgotten Myths of Ancient Times’ ?”
“Not so forgotten after all, if it’s on the internet,” Nico said dryly from his seat on the couch, where we had placed him and forbade him from moving.
“No, really, listen!” I insisted. “ ‘The earth shook, and there was the overwhelmed sound of angry growling. Sylph stood victorious above the cavernous maw in the earth, which she had pushed her nemesis down. ‘This is not the end, witch!’ the cry came from Christophe, he and his followers trapped deeper in the earth than Tartarus. ‘I will return, and feast on the blood of you and yours!’. Sylph stared down the crevasse contemptuously.
‘I dare you to attempt such a feat,’ the golden haired beauty said coldly. ‘I will simply defeat you and your forces once again.’
Then she left, as Christophe, King of the Nexu, howled profanities and hurled curses at her.
Eventually, after many weeks had passed, Christophe fell silent. The earth became calm once again.
And he has remained there over many centuries, biding his time; plotting, always plotting his revenge on Sylph and those who inhabit the world above.’ ” I finished.
“So...” Jason said. “Who’s up for more Googling?”

January 1st, 2013, 12:00pm
Percy
“Percy?” Cleo whispered as she knocked at ‘my’ door.
Emphasis mine because I do not feel comfortable calling this room mine because I only met these people like six hours ago.
Sure, they had all been nice – especially the Shades who were around my age (or at least looked like it – Cleo hadn’t told me how old she was and I hadn’t asked, but that Anya girl from before was apparently nearly three hundred years old even though she looked about twelve), Andrew, Charles, Jakeb, Kiana, Lachlan and Aprilynne – but they weren’t my family the way the denizens of Camp Half-Blood had been. The only one I felt truly comfortable around was Cleo.
“Come in,” I whispered back.
She came in, and sat down Indian style on the floor at the foot of my bed. “How’re you dealing?”
“How do you think?” I asked bitterly. “I’m dead and my girlfriend is an immortal power source for an immoral immortal.”
{A/N: Dare you to say ‘immoral immortal’ ten times in a row really fast! XD}
“Things could be worse,” she said after a while “You could be dead dead.”
“And then I never would’ve met you,” I said, smiling slightly.
I heard a hitch in Cleo’s breathing. Just as I was about to ask her what was wrong, she blurted out, “I’ll help you!”
To say I was confused was as big an understatement as saying the Titanic had been a minor boating incident.
“There may be a spell or ritual or something that will allow Annabeth to see you,” she said the words in a rush, like she wanted them to get the Hades out of her mouth as soon as possible. “I’ve heard rumours of it, and I’ll...I’ll help you to find it, and make it, or do it, or whatever.”
I jerked upright. “A way for Annabeth to see me?” I questioned hopefully. Then I considered. “Why would you help me? I mean, I’m glad and all...but why?”
Cleo flinched a little, like I had hurt her, and I wasn’t sure whether or not it was my question or my eagerness over the possibility of being with Annabeth again that had hurt her.
“Because you’re my friend,” she said after a while. “And don’t protest that fact; forever is a long time, you need some people who’ll stand by you. Also because I can see how much you care for her, and I picture myself as somewhat of a cupid.” She mimed shooting me with an arrow.
I laughed. “Come on, I know there’s more to it than that, O Angel of Love.”
She cracked a faint smile at that, before sighing. “Let’s just say you remind me of another son of the sea I knew and cared for long ago,” she told me. “I would’ve done anything for him. I’m just going to see this as my second chance.”
I had nothing to say to that.
“You know what I think Percy? I think Aphrodite is the most powerful Olympian ever. I like to think of myself as her champion. I saw how much you wanted to go to her earlier today; and I want you to be able to go to her. Just think of me as your fairy godmother.”
“Why Aphrodite?”
“Because I am a strong advocate of the belief that love is one of the most powerful magicks on this, or indeed any, earth.”
I smiled at her shadowed form. “Thanks, Cleo. I think I needed that.”
She rose from the ground and headed towards the door. “You’re welcome,” she said, hand on the doorknob.
“Hey, wait,” I called out softly. “The son of the sea that you knew? What was his name?”
“Tony,” she said quietly, after a heavy pause. “I called him Tony.”


Me again! Hi!
So, first off, Cleo, Tony, the fact that Cleo has an Egyptian complexion, that Annabeth thinks she looked sort of like a ‘modern day Cleopatra’ when she dreamed of her...am I the only one seeing connections here?
Second off, I apologize for my extended absence. You see, I write all my original work on Quizilla (check me out; my username is HousexofxNight), and all my fanfiction here. And lately I’ve been obsessed with writing this story on Quizilla (it’s sort of Greek mytho like, it involves the fates, how I imagined them with my friend Grave, who I co-wrote the story with), and I’ve just been lacking in the inspiration department for my fanfics. But then I decided I should make my way through my summer reading list (all Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe and Jane Austen and the like. That’s where I got the poem last chapter from!) Anyway, it gave me a great idea for a new plotline, which you have seen the beginnings of this chappie!
Third off, did anybody catch that ocean like metaphor about the Titanic? How Percy is that?
I’ve also got another Edgar Allan Poe poem for you, I’ll type it up in a minute.
I think this is the longest chapter I’ve written so far, except for the prologue, and I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed that all my chapters are set on the same day, January 1st? Don’t worry, next chapter will be set on the second.
Also, this chapter was originally called ‘Never Let Me Go’. Don’t read into it guys, my chapter titles are either a song lyric/title or something that happened in the chapter. Now, the next chapter will be called either ‘Never Let Me Go’.
And if you want to see some of my original song lyrics (like, songs that I wrote), again, head on over to Quizilla, where I post all of my original work (shameless self advertising XD.) If you want me to post a link to my profile over on Quizilla leave me a comment saying so.
If you head on over to my ‘Camp Jupiter Reads The Lost Hero’ forum a new chapter should be up. If not y’all have full rights to punch me through your computer screen.
For those (like , three peeps total, I think) who are reading my MoA fanfic, I am so ETERNALLY sorry that I have basically let that place turn into a ghost town. I will finish it (eventually) and my goal is to have it done by the last day of March. That is my New Years Resolution.
It’s just that that story is so freakin’ boring to write and the only reason I’m writing it is because the sequel is le epic (at least in my head XD) and I really want to get to it but I can’t without finishing the story otherwise, while it would make perfect sense to me, it would make none to you.
And yeah that’s all, here’s that Edgar Allan Poe poem I was talking abouts.
Thank Heaven! The crisis -
The danger is past,
And the lingering illness
Is over at last -
And the illness called ‘Living’
Is conquered at last.
And I rest so composedly
Now, in my bed,
That any beholder might fancy me dead -
Might start at beholding me,
Thinking me dead.
Of a water that flows,
With a lullaby sound,
From a spring but a very few
Feet underground -
From a cavern not very far
Down underground.
When my light was extinguished,
She covered me warm,
And she prayed to the angels
To keep me from harm -
To the queen of the angels
To shield me from harm.
And I lie so composedly,
Now, in my bed,
(Knowing her Love)
That she fancies me dead -
And I rest so contentedly,
Now, in my bed,
(With her Love at my chest)
That you fancy me dead –
That you shudder to look at me,
Thinking me dead: -
But my heart it is brighter
Than all of the many
Stars of the sky,
For it sparkles with Annie,
It glows with the light
Of the love of my Annie –
With the thought of the light
Of the eyes of my Annie.
That poem is, as I said, by Edgar Allan Poe and is called ‘Annie’. I edited some parts out, but can you just imagine Percy thinking this of Annabeth? This poem is like my fanfics theme poem!
Okay, bye!
xxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
~Josephine

Chapter Seven: Never Let Me Go
January 2nd, 2013, 7:23am
Camp Half-Blood
“Do you really think that a wise idea?” Chiron the centaur asked Connor worriedly.
Connor suppressed an eye roll. “I think it’s brilliant,” he said truthfully.
His brother Travis snorted. “Yes, what a brilliant idea!” he sang sarcastically. “I’m going to follow a girl to the other side of the world and demand that she returns with me!” Travis fluttered his eyebrows girlishly and clasped his hands to his chest before dropping them and adopting a serious demeanour. “Bro, seriously, there is a word for what you are asking to do, and it isn’t brilliant, it’s stalking.”
“Harsh,” Connor smacked his brother upside the head. “Number one, Rachel can’t date, Number two, she’s not my type.”
He shot a nervous look in Lou Ellen’s direction, hoping she understood what his type was.
She rolled her eyes at him, but then she winked.
Travis crinkled his nose. “Well, what is your type?” he asked.
“Someone slightly taller than Rachel. She’s practically miniscule.”
“Are you being racist against short people?”
“I’m pretty sure short people aren’t a race of people, Travis,” Lou Ellen called out.
“And no, I’m not being racist against them,” Connor said, smiling at Lou Ellen.
“Jesus Christ, you two are becoming the next Percy and Annabeth!” Clarisse exclaimed from her seat at the cabin leaders table, glancing back and forth between the son of Hermes and the daughter of Hecate. “Just go out already!”
Piper Mclean nodded her agreement. “Guys, I admit quite freely to being the lousiest daughter of Aphrodite ever when it comes to these sorts of things, but even I can tell you’re so totally crushing on one another.”
“Enough!” Chiron called out. “Connor, why do you say this quest is urgent?”
“Because it just is. I can feel it in my gut.”
“Then you should listen to him, Chiron.” Lou interjected. “Sometimes all a demigods got to go on is their intuition. I’m extremely intuitive, and something deep inside me is telling me to believe him; that he’s right.”
“Love birds,” Clarisse coughed under her breath.
Chiron considered for a moment, before sighing. “Fine. I, Chiron, trainer of heroes, grant you, Connor Stoll, son of Hermes, permission to lead a quest to retrieve the Oracle of Delphi. Choose your companions wisely.”
“Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate,” he said without hesitation or prompting. Said daughter of Hecate smiled winningly at him, and he found himself remembering how when she had first come to Camp he’d had to give up his bunk for her...he snapped himself out of it. “And Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite,” he finished.
Far from smiling, Piper screeched out a loud, “The Hades are you thinking? Styx, Connor, shouldn’t you ask me whether or not I want to go?”
“Okay,” Connor said reasonably. “Do you want to go?”
No answer.
“Come on, Pipes,” he coaxed. “I bet there’s a bunch of cute Australian guys where we’re going. Might help you get your mind off Jason.”
She glared, but he could see her initial reluctance had wavered.
“Fine,” she gave in. “I’ll be your second companion.”
Chiron clapped his hands together. “I’ll book you three a flight for this evening,” he said.
A glint appeared in Lou’s eye. “Don’t bother, Chiron,” she said. “Connor’s father owes me a favour.”

January 2nd, 2013, 12:00pm
Camp Jupiter
“Maya!”
Maya Shermain whirled, ready to attack whoever was coming at her.
When she saw it was just Hazel Lévesque, she relaxed her guard slightly.
“Praetor wants you,” she said.
Cold fear rushed into Maya's stomach. “What does the praetor want me for?” she asked.
Please don’t say the unicorns, please don’t say the unicorns, she begged.
“Something to do with...the unicorns?”
Dammit
“Best go now, Matt sounded mad,”
Matt, the name of the new praetor – the other one was a girl from the same cohort as Maya; Giselle Rhodes.
Making her way to the Principia, Maya considered the consequences of her actions for the first time.
She was a daughter of Trivia, and to her mind, magick wasn’t just her birthright – it was everyone’s birthright. So when a little girl from New Rome had asked her to show her a small spell on how to make things fly, she did so willingly.
Did that make it her fault when the girl cast the spell in the stables and the entire herd of unicorns floated away?
As she entered the Principia doors, Matthew Goble turned and fixed her with a cold smile.
“Maya,” he said. “Lovely weather on New York this time of year, don’t you think?”
The doors swung shut behind her, and Maya felt her stomach drop.

January 2nd, 2013, 10:00pm
Annabeth
I was dreaming, and it was beautiful.
“Percy,” I sighed as I leaned against his chest. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere that dreams come true,” he whispered in my ear.
I raised my head and kissed him.
As our lips met, warmth radiated through my body. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him closer. For the first time since he had died, I felt alive.
When he pulled away, I felt a wrenching loss deep inside me.
“No,” I whispered and frantically tried to pull him back to me.
He reached towards me and grasped my chin gently, turning it towards him. His green eyes met mine, and I was soothed.
“We have all night, Wise Girl,” he murmured gently. His voice was like a lullaby. “As much as I love kissing you, I want to talk. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too,” I breathed.
He took my hand and led me to a table with two chairs. I glanced around my surroundings, realizing for the first time where we were.
“The Goode High gym. The way it was set up and the Fall Formal,” I said.
“Yeah. Remember that night?”
“You refused to dance,” I recalled. “And I put up with it, because I was happy just being with you. But when the last song of the night came on, I made you get up and dance with me, because it was my favourite.”
“Yeah...do you remember what song we danced to?”
“ ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Florence and The Machine,” I smiled.
“ ‘The arms of the ocean are carrying me...’ ” he sang. My smile grew.
“Percy,” I whispered as I turned to face him. “I love you.”
Our eyes met, then mine fluttered closed. Our lips met again, and it was pure bliss.
He pulled back, and his beautiful green eyes were sad.
“Percy?” I clutched at him, panicked.
“I have to go now,” he choked out. “But I love you.”
He was crying , I realized in shock. But his tears were a black colour, and seemed partially frozen. A few dripped onto my skin, and I gasped in pain as a searing pain flashed through me when it hit my flesh.
“Annabeth?” Percy grabbed at me. “Are you okay? Styx, I forgot...I’m sorry. Please tell me you’re okay. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I love you, I’m sorry. Annabeth? Answer me, please!”
“I’m okay,” I managed to gasp out around the pain burning through my chest. “What do you mean, you have to go?”
“It’s morning time,” he said. “The sun is coming up, and it’s time for me to go. I don’t want to...but this is something I can’t control.”
“Please,” I begged, kissing him again. “Please don’t leave me so soon.” Or at all, I added in my mind.
He gripped my arms so tightly it almost hurt – but not as much as the burn on my chest.
“Just remember the dance, okay, Wise Girl? And the song.”
“Never let me go,” I told him.
“Never,” he said. “I have to leave now, but I swear on the river Styx I’ll be back. And I’ll hold you in my heart until then.” He pressed his forehead to mine and squeezed his eyes shut. “Love you, Wise Girl,” he breathed.
I swallowed around the lump that was forming in my throat. “Love you more,” I told him.
“Not possible,” he shot back. Then he kissed me sweetly and softly on the lips, just a quick peck.
And then he was gone.
***
January 3rd, 2013, 8:07am

“No!” I woke up and yelled it out.
Reyna ran into my room faster than her boyfriend’s lightning. “Annabeth? What is it?” she asked, scanning my room for evidence of danger.
“Dream,” I gasped out.
She looked at me sceptically. “You’re crying because you had a nightmare?”
“No. It was a good dream,” I said.
Then I pushed past her into the hall and ran into the bathroom.
When I got there, I locked the door and collapsed against it. I closed my eyes, and brought my hand up to brush along my lips, where I swear I could still taste Percy’s kiss.
“Never let me go,” I whispered.
Right at that moment, a burning hot pain spread across my chest.
“Ow,” I whimpered.
I ran to the mirror and yanked the collar of my nightdress down.
“Oh my god...” I breathed in horror.
Black, crispy burns spread all along my chest. They stung like Hades and burnt like Styx.
They were shaped kind of like tear tracks.

I feel so inspired! I’m writing for this story like crazy!
Also, I’m so mad. And so sad. I’m so smad.
I watched the last episode of Merlin EVER on the weekend, and it was awesome until the ending! I mean, Arthur died! WTF?
And who else loves Connor? He’s such an amazing character...I have this little side plot in my head planned for him...and Lou Ellen...and Piper and Rachel...and Maya... XD figured I’d better give you some romance because I’m going to pull a very evil move either next chapter or the one after that.
The next chapter of ‘Camp Jupiter Reads The Lost Hero’ will be up in either two or three days, depending on where in the world you are living.
Please send me any poems, lyrics or pictures that you think would suit this story. And could someone please make me a banner?
I would really, really like a banner. It would make me a happy author, and a happy author types faster, which equals more chapters for the readers, which equals happy readers, which brings us right back around to the happy author!
And what did you guys think of the little piece of Percabeth at the end of this chapter? I thought I’d try my best to make you guys happy now...because you’re all gonna hate me very, very soon.
Hee hee. I so evil. XP
If you want more Percabeth scenes like this, leave me a comment on my wall or message me.
And...I think that’s all I have to say right now, except I started watching this vamp show from the nineties called Kindred: The Embraced and it’s actually pretty cool...but it’s for older Fanpoppers, mmkay?
Luvs ya!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
~ Jospehine

Chapter Eight: Witches Brew
January 3rd,2013, 8:11am
Percy
I jerked upwards, thrashing my way out of sleep.
I raised my hands to my cheeks, and when I pulled them away, I saw that ink black, frozen tears clung to them.
Oh my god...did that actually happen?
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and felt them hit the floor with a solid thump.
Sunlight danced along the exposed skin of my ankle, and I flinched backwards into the shade, clutching my foot to me.
“What the hell?” I muttered, removing my hand and glancing down at my ankle.
Angry red splotches covered it – sort of like sunburn.
Worry stirred to life in me. “Cleo!” I yelled out, just as she pushed my door open and gave me a weird look.
“Hey, I was just coming to wake you up,” she said, raising her eyebrows at me.
“I burnt my foot,” I said by way of greeting.
She frowned and made her way over to me. “Have you been crying?” she asked, staring at my face.
“Cleo. Focus. My foot?”
She frowned at me once again and stuck out her tongue, but crouched down and surveyed my ankle, pushing her black hair behind her ear.
“This is a sunburn...but the sun wouldn’t have burnt you unless you’d weakened yourself by using your powers...” she looked at me accusingly. “What did you do?”
I raised my hands in an I’m innocent gesture. “I plead the fifth,” I told her as she continued to bore a hole in my head with her eyesight alone. “Also, I didn’t do anything.”
She snorted. “Well obviously, you did,” she sniped at me in a duh tone of voice. She tilted her head to one side. “Anything unusual happen last night?”
I considered. “Well, I had this amazing dream. It involved me, Annabeth – ”
Cleo raised a hand in a hold it RIGHT there, mister. Don’t say another word gesture. “Don’t want to hear it,” she said, looking squeamish.
I scowled at her. “Not that kind of dream. It just felt so real.”
Cleo immediately stopped looking like she was about to projectile vomit on me and instead looked like she was about to pound on me.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” she said looking royally ticked. I leant back a little, trying to get away from her. “You went dreamwalking into your immortal girlfriends dreams – and this girlfriend thinks you are dead, just BTW.” Worry flashed across her face. “You didn’t tell her about us, did you?”
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it right there. “Us?”
She glared. “Shades, you numbskull.”
“Oh. That. No.”
“Well, what did you say?”
I thought about this for a minute. “That I love her and miss her, and we kissed a few times.”
Cleo relaxed slightly. “Well, there’s that, at least,” she became serious. “Percy, promise me you won’t see her like that again.”
“No way! You don’t get it, I have to see her like I have to breathe!”
“Percy, you’re dead. You don’t need to breathe.”
I scowled at her. “You know what I mean. Don’t be a smart alec with me.”
She sighed. “Percy, it’s your safety I’m worried about here. You’re too young to be thinking of dreamwalking – you’re just not strong enough yet. It depletes you too much. I mean, you got burned from doing this before you were ready. I’ll help you find a way to see her, but dreamwalking isn’t it.” She finished.
I sighed, but admitted defeat. “Fine.”
“Good,” she grinned impishly. I swear to god this girl is bipolar...all these mood swings can’t be healthy.
“You’d best rest up,” she called to me over her shoulder as she made her way out into the hallway.
“Why?” I called back, although I was already quite willingly sinking back into my pillows. Gods, I’m exhausted.
“Because tonight, I’m going to give you a proper lesson on how to use your powers.”
My eyes snapped open.
“I know what you’re thinking, and no – we’re not going to practice dreamwalking just yet. We’re going to work on your manifesting.”
I collapsed back onto my bed. “I thought it didn’t matter if I was solid; nobody could see me anyway.”
“In your ethereal form, nobody but another Shade or revenant can see you,” she explained. “In your solid form, only people you didn’t know in life can see you.”
“Ah,” I said, pretending like I understood so she’d go away and let me sleep.
“I’ll come get you once the sun’s gone down and true dark hits us,” Cleo’s voice was getting fainter. “And remember, no dreamwalking.”

January 3rd, 2013, 11:00am
CHB Quest Team
Connor craned his neck back and stared as far as he could up the Empire State Building.
“Stop worrying,” Piper sighed. “You’re giving me a migraine.”
Connor looked down and frowned at her. “Could be worse. I could be pacing back and forth.”
Piper groaned. “You already are. Mentally, at least.”
Connor raised a brow. “Are you related to Edward Cullen?” he asked seriously.
“Huh?”
“Can you read minds now?” he cracked.
“That was the lamest joke I’ve ever heard, and I am ashamed to know you,” Lou's voice called out from behind them.
Connor whirled and Piper breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank god, he was driving me crazy,” she addressed Lou Ellen.
Lou shrugged. “It’s his gift,” she said seriously.
“So!” Connor interjected. “Did you get what you needed from my dad?”
“Yeppers,” she said, and held out a bottle of what looked like nuclear powerade.
“Do we have to drink that? Because drinking that doesn’t seem exactly safe...more like suicidal. I mean, I’m a demigod and all, I dance with danger on a daily basis – ”
Piper snickered. “Did you just say dance with danger?”
“ – but I’m not down with drinking whatever the heck that is.” Connor finished.
Lou rolled her eyes – one blue, one black – and flicked her brown hair over her shoulder impatiently. “Boys,” she commiserated. “So silly.”
Then she put the bottle to her lips and swallowed down a huge gulp. She handed it to Piper. “Okay, your turn.”
Piper took a sip.
Lou crossed her arms and whirled to face Cry Baby – er, Connor. “Drink,” she insisted, and shoved the bottle against his chest.
Connor wrinkled his nose and gagged.
“You’re a wuss. Drink”
“Drink, or we’ll make you drink,” Piper shook her fist at him threateningly.
Connor drank.
Lou smiled graciously at him. It kinda made him nervous for what was coming next. “Thank you,” she told him.
“So what was the point of that foul witches brew, Lou?” Piper asked.
“First of all, that rhymed, second of all, foul gods brew Pipes, and third of all, think of it as a liquefied portkey.”
Piper looked as if all that liquefied portkey she’d swallowed down was going to come back up. “You’re not serious.”
“I am. Once we link hands we will be teleported to the Eureka Skydeck, in Australia.”
Piper shuddered. “I hate portkeys. On a very deep and almost supernatural level.”
Connor wasn’t listening. “I am seeing a very big problem with this plan of yours, Lou.” He said.
Lou raised an eyebrow and looked one flick of her wrist away from turning him into a toad. “Oh?”
“The Eureka Skydeck’s in Melbourne; Margaret River is a few hours south of Perth. There’s at least three and a half thousand miles in between each of them – they’re on opposite sides of the country. That’s a seven-to-eight day drive, and that’s if the weather is good.”
Lou rolled her eyes. “I pointed that out to your dad, but he said, and I quote, ‘where would the fun be in that? It’s not a quest unless there’s some sort of epic rush across a country. Besides, this way gives you a chance to experience some Australian monsters. Like kangaroos.’ Can you believe him?”
“Yes, yes I can,” Connor groaned.
Piper stretched her arms out, palms up. “Australia, here we come,” she said.
They linked hands.

And it’s me again. Have you guys seen how many chapters I’ve posted today? I feel so accomplished. And I would really, really love a banner. I think I deserve one, no?
Have you guys seen the news about how Tasmania is practically completely on fire? I LIVE in Tasmania! I am so freaking out! I literally have a bag full of clothes, toiletries and books packed up. And my phone, tablet, mp4 player, laptop, Vampire Diaries and Glee DVD’s...
I’m getting an iPhone in February!
Something to be excited about: In the next two or three days I will post another chapter...
PERCY AND CLEO ARE GONNA GO CLUBBING AND Y’ALL ARE GONNA HATE ME! ALSO ONE OF THE QUEST TEAM WILL KISS SOMEONE...Y’ALL ARE STILL GONNA HATE ME SO DON’T GET YOUR HOPES UP!
Here’s a clue:
Someone’s heart is going to shatter in to a million tiny little pieces – maybe for all of eternity.
(AND THE TITLE OF THE STORY IS BEGINNING TO MAKE SENSE!)
And on that note, I’m gonna love you and leave you. I have other chapters to go write and there is this delicious crispy chicken ‘n’ cheese wrap calling my name...mmm...
Mmkay bye!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
~ Josephine!

I posted four chapters for you guys...and you're not reading them? This world is a cruel, ironic place.
I Author.
Author not happy.
Author sad.
) :

I am so sorry for not checking sooner! they were amazing!!!!! :) don't be sad!

I shall post soon, hopefully,
Stay classy, dinosaurs.
Oh, and I am aiming to type a 100,000 word novel by my birthday, the first of September.
38,457 words in.
I'll keep you guys informed on it, okay? And I'm most definitely going to get it published...well, I'm going to try hard, anyway!
Message me if you want to get in on the dedications/acknowledgements page.
But you'll only get in if you actually deserve to...like, if you've actually helped me out in someway.

could you post a preview of you're novel? as an artical or somthing? I would like to see what it's about? plz post again soon! :) good luck! :)

ack! I feel so sad! I did some amazing and long reviews recently and it looks like none of them have shown up!?!?!?! why!!!! I guess i have to retypre the one to you *sighs* here goes nothing

yea! plz post soon!!!! :) and could you possible post a sneak peak for you're novel as a artical on the fanfic club plz?!?!?!? anyways . . . good luck they can be hard to write, but don't give up! :) I am supporting you all the way even if I can't read it.

PS: plz tell me the tital of it, and let me know when it gets published! :) write hard! and post as soon as you can here! :)

no what it is here! :) *crys tears of joy, then gets mad at fates for making me do that over again, just because i didn't realize I started a new page* curse you fates!!!! oh well. plz post soon anyways!

So, I haven't posted lately because I HAVE BEEN BUSY WRITING MY NOVEL.
Almost halfway done, squee!
Now, If you want to get in on the dedications page, message me with your name, age, and why exactly you deserve to be acknowledged.
Here is a link for you, annabeth523, the link to an article I wrote that is THE PROLOGUE OF MY NOVEL.

link

So yeah, thats it. FEEDBACK PLEASE.

link

^ Link to an original story I'm writing; ten chapters posted and I'm typing roughly 12 pages a night.

I will post in two days! That is my Friday, I will be posting every Friday AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) and only then.

Crud, I lied. I'll post soon, hopefully.

Post Soon. Is AWESOME!!!!! And I mean!!

Hello everybody! Your favourite liar is back!
Yeah...I didn't post. And I'm not going to now. Check back in FIVE DAYS, and something should be up by then. My internets been acting up, and I've been busy with the baby.
Oh yeah! I AM NOW AN AUNT! And it is so amazingly fun!
And hey, ElizabethJane. It's always nice to see a new face on my forum. Do you have anything written on the site? Post the link, and I'll be sure to check it out. Have a cake.
Also, I have a deviantART profile now. Same name as here. Nothing on it yet, but hopefully that'll change soon. I'll keep you guys posted.
Love y'all, demisaurs.
Stay classy.

Chapter Nine: Dancing With A Broken Heart
January 3rd, 2013, 7:34pm
Annabeth
A knock sounded at my door.
I groaned. “What do you want, Jason?” I snapped out, sensing him behind the thick mahogany.
I’d spent most of the rest of the day holed up in my room, believe it or not, feeling sorry for myself, confused, and crying.
My reasons:
a) my boyfriend was dead, and I’d dreamt about him and it had felt so real.
b) I was an immortal, so I healed almost lightning fast, but the tear track like burns hadn’t faded, not one single bit.
c) all of the above.
“Reyna wanted to know if you were coming with us to The Pyramid.”
I blinked. “You’re going to an Egyptian themed nightclub?”
“Yeah. So?” he sounded defensive.
“Nothing. Just sounds like you’re tempting fate a bit.”
I could hear him snort, even through the thick wood of the door. “Egyptian gods don’t exist, Anna,” he said.
“Technically, neither do Roman or Greek ones,” I snarked at him.
“Just come, please? We’re all worried about you.”
I sighed. “Fine. What time are we leaving?”

January 3rd, 2013, 7:36pm
Cleo
A shudder ran through me, vibrating up from my toes and to my head, as the last of the sun’s rays sunk beneath the horizon and true dark washed the world in inky, beautiful darkness, and ridding me of the headache that was always there in the daylight hours, a perpetual nuisance.
I sat bolt upright, and once I’d felt my full strength return, I flashed straight into Percy’s room, where he was sitting up in his bed, yawning, with both of his feet planted on the floor.
He was also shirtless.
If I could’ve blushed, I would’ve. As it was, all I could do was whirl around and make a small “eeek!” sound.
Percy swore behind me. I heard bumping noises as Percy dove at something by his bed – hopefully a shirt.
“Cleo, you can turn around,” he said.
I turned, and raised my eyebrows at his shirt choice. It was bright, blood red, and had DREAM MACHINE written on it.
“Shut up,” he said before I could say anything, predicting what was running through my head. “None of these clothes are mine.”
I scrutinized him, and he shifted uncomfortably under my gaze. “What?” he asked.
“We’re going to have to go shopping,” I said.
He blinked at me. “Is that even possible? I mean, not only are we ghosts, it’s nearly eight pm.”
I shrugged. “We’re ghosts, we don’t conform to mundane rules.”
He raised an eyebrow at me.
“See how you put that t-shirt on? You’re unconsciously manifesting. But if you let go of your solid form, if you go into an ethereal state, the clothes will go with you, as well as anything else you were holding. But while in that state, you can only affect, touch, hear and speak to other Shades, or Revenants. The laws that govern our lives now don’t always make sense, Percy. But we follow them, and not the ones that humans follow.”
“Where, pray tell, are you going with this?”
I stared at him unflinchingly. “How strongly do you oppose to breaking, entering, and theft?”

January 3rd, 2013, 8:00pm
Maya Shermain
The purple cloth of Maya’s shirt clung to her skin, so soaked it was with sweat.
The foreboding that was growing in her stomach, the feeling of wrongness, the way every nerve ending on her body was spazzing out, the way her mind was screaming at her to run, freaking run, they all told her what the GPS she held in her hand didn’t.
She was close to the territory of the Greeks, close to Camp Half-Blood.

January 3rd, 2013, 8:15pm
Annabeth
The Pyramids did not live up to their name.
On the outside, it look like any other club in Manhattan, and I’m guessing so did the inside.
The line was huge, and we were behind two squabbling teenagers, whom I gathered were siblings, even though they didn’t look a thing alike, and the girl was British.
“I’m telling you, this is a waste of time, Carter,” the girl insisted.
“Shut up, Sadie.” He muttered back under his breath.
Just as I was beginning to think something was seriously strange about these kids, the usher let them in, and we were suddenly at the front of the line.
A chill, like an icy breeze, brushed over my skin.
I shivered, but not out of cold, out of...
...fear.
It wasn’t only cold I had felt in that breeze, it was sentience.
Khione? I wondered. Neither hide nor hair of the ice goddess had been seen since Gaia’s defeat. Had she come to seek revenge?
But, as much as that thought made sense, the minute it crossed my mind, I quickly shut that Styx down. The breeze, the power I’d felt from it...there had been no hatred, no anger.
But there had been love, and it had felt intentional, like a caress.
“You okay, Anna?” Reyna asked.
I forced a tight smile and pushed the breeze out of my mind. “I’m fine.”
The usher made a gesture towards us indicating that it was our turn to go in. “Now, who’s ready to party?”

January 3rd, 2013, 8:37pm
Percy
If my heart could beat, I have a feeling it would be beating faster than a hummingbird’s.
Styx. Holy Styx and Olympus to Hades. Annabeth. She’s here. In this club. She’s here in this club. This club where I am.
I felt someone give me a huge mental shove and whirled to face the other side of the room, where Cleo was. Dammit, Percy, focus, she hissed in my mind. We’re here to practice manifesting.
And I’m manifested! I bellowed back towards her direction. But she still can’t see me.
Others could, though. They could see me and touch me. But not Reyna, Annabeth, Jason or Nico. I was still just an invisible ghost to them.
How come Nico at least can’t see me, I complained.
Because, Cleo said, her voice sharp with annoyance, as I’ve said before, we are NOT ghosts. She turned back towards the guy who sat across from her and laughed as if he had said something funny. Now, go mingle. Have some fun. Live a little.
I laughed a little at that last one.

January 3rd, 2013, 9:00pm
Maya Shermain
When she crossed through the final leg of trees and found herself standing next to a massive pine tree with a gorgeous golden fleece wrapped around it, Maya was torn between felling relieved and running for the hills.
Instead of making her way down the hill like she wanted, she waited for someone to come greet her.
She didn’t have to wait long.
A girl came riding up on a pegasi made of shadows and smoke, with the wings of a bat. She had brown hair and mismatching eyes. “His name is Adena,” she said, seeing where Maya was looking.
“Adena,” Maya whispered. “Born of Fire.”
She looked up at the girl who rode astrode him. “What is he?”
“One of Hephaestus's lesser known...children,” the girl said distractedly as she looked Maya up and down, taking in her mismatching eyes – one blue, one green – and her hair, bright, vibrant and red as witchfire.
Scrunching up her nose, the Greek girl seemed to be thinking hard. “Trivia?” she hazarded a guess.
“Yep,” Maya confirmed.
“I’m Makenna Somers,” the girl said. “Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, sister.”

January 3rd, 2013, 9:20pm
Annabeth
I was sitting alone at the bar – like a loner – when someone – someone male – tapped me on the shoulder.
They were lucky I didn’t judo flip them over the bar, I was in that bad a mood.
Instead, I settled for whirling around and growling, “For the love of Greece, what the Styx do you want?”
Behind me stood a guy who looked about my age, with skin the colour of roasted coffee, and hair only slightly darker, cut in a way that made me think he was growing out a buzz cut.
“Hey,” he grinned awkwardly. “I’m Walt. I saw you sitting alone and thought maybe you could do with some company.”
“Not interested,” I said bluntly, turning back towards the bar and my drink, which, by the way, I’m not entirely sure what it is.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “But my girlfriend’s over there with her brother, and they were busy, so I thought it best not to intrude. Then I saw you, and wondered, why not be loners together?”
I glanced briefly at where he had pointed and noted his girlfriend was one of the siblings that had been standing in front of us in line – Sadie?
“I’m Anu – Walt,” he introduced himself.
“Anna,” I said, going on the assumption that giving a stranger only half a name was a good idea.
He smiled at me. “Why don’t you tell me why you have such a powerful life aura, Anna?”

January 3rd, 2013, 9:46pm
Percy
I was dancing with some random girl – I think her name was Alyssa – when it happened.
Annabeth was talking – laughing – with a guy by the bar. As I watched, she reached out and gripped his arm above the elbow, and gave it a squeeze before letting go.
My world stopped. It shattered into a million pieces of eternity; smithereens of infinite pain. Betrayal tore through me.
Hey. Cleo’s voice was worried in my head. You okay?
I couldn’t answer. I was trying to hard not to scream.
The pressure within me built up and up, until I felt like I was going to explode.
Percy. Please. You’re scaring me.
A darkness, like nothing else I’d ever experienced before, built up within me.
Yes, a reptilian voice hissed from somewhere deep inside me. Finally.
Words came floating into my mind.
I was alone in the darkness, alone, abandoned and betrayed, for century upon century, and so darkness I became.
In the corners of my mind, I heard Cleo gasp in horror. Percy! Snap out of it now! she implored me.
There is a monster, a beast, a true animal inside each of us, little Shade, the second voice whispered. [/i]And sometimes, they win.[/i]
Power surged out of me, and everything shattered.

January 3rd, 2013, 10:00pm
Annabeth
When everything shattered, Walt reacted quickly.
I’d brushed off his earlier question with a laugh, asking if he was ‘one of those sensitive new age guys’, and he’d relaxed.
But there was no denying the fact that he had now made me curious about him. Maybe he was a demigod?
Anyway, the lights started flickering, and Walt glanced in the direction of a small, lithe girl who was...dancing by herself, but the way she held her arms, the way she turned her hips, it was like she was dancing with an imaginary partner.
Weird.
Walt shook the frown off when I squeezed his arm to gain his attention.
And that’s when everything really went downhill.
Screams echoed around as everything glass in the building – windows, glasses, bottles, refrigerator doors and mirrors – exploded.
“What the hell?” I murmured.
I turned to Walt to ask him what he thought, but he was already making his way towards the crazy girl with the make-believe dance partner.
I watched him, curious.
When he reached her, he reached out for something that wasn’t there, dragged it towards his body, and slugged it.
I gasped, and ran down.
Once I reached them, the group had grown. The two siblings – Carter and Sadie – had rushed down and were watching Walt beat the Hades out of nothingness.
“What the Styx are you doing?” I bellowed out.
Walt barely glanced at me. “I’m stopping this guys before he can do any more damage.”
“I’ve never seen a magician so out of control before,” I heard Sadie mutter.
“Untrained, you think?” That was Carter.
“With that kind of power? Please,” Sadie snorted.
“Would someone please tell me what is going on?” I asked. “And what guy, there’s no-one there.”
They all glanced at eachother.
“The guy that’s standing right in front of us,” Carter said slowly, like he was afraid I would rip his face off in an attack of the insane. “The one with the green eyes and black hair, who’s been dancing with Alyssa all night.”
Green eyes? Black hair?
My world stopped.

January 3rd, 2013, 12:00pm
The caverns underground, deep within the earth
Christophe
It was done. Contact with his Vessel had been made.
Percy Jackson, he thought. You are marked.
Marked, and mine.


So, I’m back! And wow, what a dramatic chappie, huh?
Seriously though, I was crying/shaking/on the edge of my seat while typing this. Even I was shocked when Carter, Sadie, Walt and Alyssa showed up! Really, I didn’t expect that.
Will they be important in the story and/or be coming back in later chapters, you ask? Mayhaps, dear reader, mayhaps. After all, this is just the first story of five, and we are rapidly approaching the point where Christophe’s nefarious plan is revealed!
Stay sweet and keep cool, demisaurs (do you see what I did there? It’s like demigods + dinosaurs put together). And magicians. You guys are pretty cool to.
So, be you Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse, Persian or something else (I’m betraying my cultural idiocy, aren’t I?), I hope you have a great day.
Josephine, Queen of the Demisaurs, out.
xoxoxoxo
RAWR!
And I’m sorry it took so long to post. You all know I heart y’all like mint chip flavoured ice-cream, right?

OMG

GREATEST CHAPTER YET!!!!!

That was awsome PLZ POST SOON


AND. I cant wait Till sometime in fall or somethin because Rodiean is bring the romans and greeks and egphtion together!!










JK yours is AWESOME I WM JUST SAY'N

I deserve to go to the Fields of Punishment, I know.
I actually have no excuses this time, except I am in my last year of High School. I'm getting all my stuff ready for college, and I have an Ancient Civs exam coming up real soon.
In other words, I've been busy with reality, and it sucks.
I'll try to post again soon. And by soon I mean within the next couple of days.
Don't hold your breath though.
(However, chuck some food in a brazier for me, and I might get some inspiration!)
I read the Son of Sobek, and it was AMAZING.
There WILL be more egyptians in my story, but they will NOT play a central role. They are fringe characters. They will become more important, however, in FALLING LIKE DUST, which if you read the intro thingy way, way above, you'll see is book three in this saga.
Another thing...each book has only twenty chapters. Eleven more to go, and we're onto book two!
Stay classy, demisuars.
Josephine, out

Well HELLO!
I wish you my good luck for Collage! And hope you have a great time for me time for well 7th grade! Yea!

Oh and Now i cant wait for book 2



Percy and Annabeth rule
(PS did you read MARK OF ATHENA or THE OLMIPIAMS)

I just finished Son of Sobesk and the SNEAK PEAK of THE HOUSE OF HADAS
but my quess is when Percy said Carter on the last page I think he was in Tarterous or At roman camp ethier way SEPTEMBER COME ON LETS GET GOING FOR HOUSE OF HADAS

Heya guys! My sixteenth b'day this weekend, and as a treat, I'm going to update all my stories! ALL OF THEM. Keep an eye out for that, mmkay? Also, this story has been around for almost a year now! Get excited, because it's about time I ended it and moved on to the sequel! See ya in a few days, my lovelies!

JOSE! YOU SAID YOU'D UPDATE YOUR STORIES!
Calm down, my lovelies. I will, I will.
But first, joyous news! I mentioned I joined deviantART, right? I'm pretty certain I did...
Anyway, I just posted my first piece of art! It's of Piper Mclean, because she's awesome!
Here's the link to my deviantART profile page:
link
And here's the link to my drawing of Piper:
link
Feedback would be appreciated!

Chapter Ten: They Called Her The Wild Rose
January 4th, 2013, 9:02am
Percy
A pain like almost nothing I've ever experienced – and as a demigod, I've experienced a lot of pain – was currently intruding my entire body.
I groaned, and tried to roll over.
I couldn't.
"What?" I questioned in a low tone, speaking to myself mostly, since I couldn't sense anyone else in the room with me.
"Don't move," a hard voice cautioned.
Like I freaking could – I was restrained, chained down to a bed with heavy duty leather straps, I could see.
Twisting my head at an uncomfortable angle to try and see who was in the room with me, I was met with the hard gaze of Sylph.
"Hello," I said amiably. "Mind telling me why the hell I'm tied to a bed? Also, how I got here?"
Ignoring me, she said, "Christophe, if you're there, speak. I have Cleo on standby –" she held up a cell "– and she'll torch his body on my word if you don't speak. It won't kill you, but I doubt having your host's body burn up would feel all that good."
"Hey, what the hell?" I protested.
Sylph continued to stare. Her thumb hovered over the 'call' button.
A dark laugh crept into my thoughts, snaking around like acrid smoke, infilling me.
Little Sylph, it hissed, my, how you have grown.
I tensed, but Sylph showed no sign she had heard. Her platinum hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and it showed her high cheekbones in sharp relief. She had an aquiline nose, and eyes like deep pools, set close on either side of it. The overall effect was oriental, but not.
So like Desdemona, the voice sighed in my head. Such a shame...
"What's a shame?" I said out loud, curious
Sylph started. "Perseus, is there a man talking? In your head?"
That all beauty must die...
"Don't listen to him Percy, don't respond –"
Like that little blonde of yours...her screams will be a song the minstrels will sing for eons...
I snarled.
"Percy!"
Her ichor...that beautiful, golden ichor...it shall sustain me. With her death, I shall rise, through you...the pain in your mind as you watch your own hands tear her limb from limb...
The voice receded.
"What the hell was that?" I snapped at Sylph.
"Christophe," she was pale, as pale as an already pale ghost could be. "He has claimed you as his own."
January 4th, 2013, 9:00am
Annabeth
"You okay?" Reyna's voice made me want to kill small children.
"Gee, thanks,"
Careful, Reyna, your sarcasm is showing, I thought.
"Haha. But seriously, something at that club last night freaked you the hell out. What happened?"
I glanced down at my wrist, where Walt had scrawled his number quickly, instructing me to call him if something weird happened – or if I decided to tell him the truth about why I had 'such a strong life aura'.
The ink had washed off, but the sequence of numbers was cemented into my long term memory – as was the events of last night.
Had the thing that caused the disturbance at the club been Percy? It was plausible – vengeful spirits were more often than not demigods who had died particularly violent deaths, and not only had Percy's death been about as violent as it got, his body had never been buried or cremated – had never gotten proper burial rights.
And his being at the club last night made sense, if he was attempting to hurt me – if that was his aim, he'd certainly achieved it by appearing to everybody but me.
"Gods, Anna, your thoughts are giving me a migraine." Reyna clutched at her temples.
What if it was Percy, and his quest for revenge took him even further than last night? Somebody could have died at the club – scaffolding had fallen down, nearly crushing a bunch of drunken teenagers.
And if it was Percy, had he changed so completely that it wasn't really him at all anymore? Was his moral compass now so skewed he was no more than another monster to be killed?
And if he was, how to kill him? Even if he did show up again, it was his body that needed to be destroyed, not his spirit. I suppose Nico would be able to catch and hold his spirit, but indefinitely?
Definitely not.
I buried my face in my hands.
I just couldn't see a way out of this.
-X-
Well, not a very big chapter, huh?
It's not meant to be. This chapter is pure foreshadowing.
Yep, y'all heard me right.
THE FORE IS SHADOWED.
Oh, and the chapter title...Kylie Minougue song.
[They called me the wild rose, though my name was Eliza Day.
Why they called me that I do not know,
For my name was Eliza Day
...
{Male}
I looked her in the eye, said all beauty must die.]
Long song reducted, he bashes her head in with a rock.
Yay, romance?
I'll see you soon with a longer chapter, hopefully.
– Jose
________________________________________

I am aware there is a time difference between the states and Oz. I do - hello, I l'm Australian. But for story's sake, they don't? AU, guys, severe AU. Just go with it.
-X-
Chapter Eleven: Black Blood
January 4th, 2013, 10:36 am
Connor

The first thing Connor learnt about Melbourne?
It hurt. A lot.
"Ow," he groaned as he pushed himself awkwardly into a sitting position. As he raised his hand to press it gingerly against his bruised skull, he saw the girls sitting on a park bench a few metres away from him, looking perfectly cool and collected - except for the mirth in their eyes as they took in his current predicament.
"Of course you two get a nice landing," he said. "You planned that, right, Lou?"
Lou Ellen shrugged. "Ask no questions, hear no lies; Connie boy."
Piper snickered as Connor heaved himself up.
"Translation; I thought we could do with a laugh," she said, high fiving Lou Ellen.
"Okay, okay," Connor said. "Let's focus now. We need to organize transport."
Lou widened her eyes in mock surprise. "Connor Stoll...actually wants to focus on something serious?"
"Strewth," Piper deadpanned.
Lou nodded approvingly. "See, you're sounding Australian already."
Connor frowned. "I thought strewth was a British exclamation."
The daughter of Hecate waved her hand around in a whatever fashion. "Britain founded Australia, idiot."
Piper, who had been ignoring the two squabbling morons, interrupted them then. In her hands she held a map. "Guys," she said. "I have an idea."
Lou raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"
She shrugged. "Act like tourists."
Connor nodded a few times. "And that works how?"
"Look," Piper said, putting one hand on her hip and cranking the sass meter up a few notches. "Chiron said that there are demigods in all of Australia's capitals - they have boarding houses and ways of finding others. If we wander around and enjoy the sights, I'm pretty sure they'll find us."
Lou Ellen's eyes lit up in a way that made Connor nervous. "I hear Melbourne has a great variety of occult stores," she said.
"That's great, Lou," Piper said. "And I want to go to the Queen Victoria Markets. And I'm guessing Connor wants to go to some stupid novelty store."
"Hey," Connor protested.
"My point," Piper continued, "is that we should split up."
Lou nodded. "Makes sense."
"We've all got each other’s phone numbers, right?" Connor ascertained. Once he got to affirmatives, he said, "first one approached texts the others coordinates."
Lou snapped her fingers and the world came apart.
-X-
January 4th, 2013, 11:18am
Cleo

The cell I held loosely in my left hand felt far heavier than the elaborately carved flamethrower I held tightly in the other.
I jumped as it buzzed.
Breathing hard and nearly dropping everything, I managed to somehow flip the phone open, press the 'take call' button, and press it hard against my ear.
"Well?" I asked. "Do I have to crispy-critter him, or what?"
Sylph's voice came back to me, perplexed. "I'm not quite sure."
I blinked. "Come again?"
"Christophe...he is, without a doubt, there and present within Percy's mind," she said. "Yet Percy seems to be the dominant sentience."
"Well, it's not totally possession, because Percy doesn't actually have a body to possess," I theorized. "It's a battle of wills, and Percy is a very strong willed person."
"Valid theory," Sylph said. "But Christophe is a master of mental torture. He'll work internally to wear Percy down and break his spirit."
"Percy'll be fine." I reassured her. "Can I teleport back now?"
"Check on his body first," Sylph instructed. "I want to know if there is a chance of Christophe trying to inhabit it."
"'Kay," I said.
The phone call cut off with a beep, and with a twist of my fingers I snapped it shut.
Wandering out of the alcove I had hidden in, I made my way to the cavern in which Percy's body lay. I actually passed my own body, and paused to assess it.
It hadn't aged at all over the years – duh - but the dress was showing a fair amount of wear and tear; the stitches evaporating and the material coming unravelled.
The last time I had changed my body's clothes...the early nineteenth century, maybe?
Note to self; pick out new outfit.
Meandering my way through endless cocoons made of filaments of pure light, I mentally noted the anchors of Shades I recognized.
When I finally reached the noticeably-less-glowy chrysalis that held the body of Perseus Jackson within.
Stopping by its side, I pulled a switchblade out of my pocket. I had no idea how to wield it in a fight - I'd never had to learn - but it would serve the purpose I needed to for right now.
Taking in a deep breath, I held my shaking hand out over Percy's cocoon.
Then I slit my wrist wide open.
It was an interesting sensation - a sort of burning spasm that radiated upwards.
It only lasted a few seconds - my insubstantial flesh knitted itself back together almost instantaneously - but enough of my dark maroon blood dripped out onto the silvery protective web woven over Percy's body.
If I had attacked the webbing with my blade, all I would have succeeded in doing was break the knife. However, bloodletting - a sacrifice - allowed me easy access. The ice like filaments redacted, pulling back enough for me to inspect the body. If Percy had been here, he would've only needed to touch the case.
After the chrysalis had completely shrunk back; I leant over to inspect the body.
Black blood trickled from its ears, eyes, nose and mouth.
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First thing I want to say - HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO SHATTERED ETERNITY!
C'mon, guys, celebrate! Here's another chappie as a present!
-X-
Chapter Twelve: Mirror, Mirror
January 4th, 2013, 11:58am
Cleo

I flinched away from the body, torn between disgust and worry.
That was really not normal.
I swallowed and flipped my phone open once again, typing out a quick text to Sylph.
Not waiting for a reply, I closed my eyes and focused on our town house.
I appeared in the kitchen, literally landing on top of Anya.
"Ow," the eternal pre-teen complained, glaring at me. "Watch where you're landing, Highness." This last word was delivered in a way meant to convey the maximum amount of sarcasm per syllable.
"Watch your mouth, peasant," I responded in kind.
Then, deliberately pushing my elbow down hard into her stomach, I stood up, clambered my way over Anya's prone, sprawled body (ignoring the curses she threw my way), and made my way upstairs, to Sylph - and by default, Percy.
"How is the patient?" I asked, leaning casually against the doorframe.
But I was up almost immediately; hackles rose, like a furious mother lion protecting her cub.
Because Percy was my protégé, dammit, I was the one who found him in that cave, and I felt responsible for him.
"Sylph," I said, voice low and deadly. "Put the mirror down."
Sylph was holding a large, full body mirror over the top of Percy. It was slowly freezing into the same ice like material that our protective chrysalis' were.
It was preparing to become a vessel; was adding an extra layer of protection.
That was another rule of the Shades - do not make direct contact; whether it be skin, eye, whatever - with a mirror.
For mirrors reflect the soul, and when you are technically nothing but soul...
It sucks you in, and you're trapped. Forever.
"I'm serious, Sylph," I snapped out. "Get away from him."
My proclamation was more bravado than anything else, and Sylph knew it. Oh, I would attack her, and probably hold my own for about five seconds - I was scrappy, but not a fighter. I had no clue how to work weapons or how to place my feet or which body parts are the best one to block blows with. And Sylph knew this. After all, she was the one who a tried - and failed - to teach me.
But, thankfully, Sylph acknowledged my request with a sigh.
"He shows any signs," she warned me on her way out, "you ice him."
I nodded obediently.
Then I turned to Percy's prone, unconscious form, and spared a minute to thank all the gods that he was not awake.
How was I going to explain this one to him?
-X-
January 4th, 2013, 12:06pm
Piper

The markets had great stalls, all with very interesting things on them, but once you got away from the food trucks and stalls, the smells left something to be desired.
Holding a hand over her mouth and nose, Piper whirled away from the goats and continued to meander her way around.
Near a handbag stall her foot hit a crack in the ground and she stumbled.
She closed her eyes tight and threw her hands out, bracing for impact with the hard asphalt.
It never came.
No, the impact came to her midsection, as an arm like a steel girder wrapped its way around her waist, halting her progress to the ground.
"Ow," she complained once the arm had set her straight, rubbing her stomach. That was going to bruise later.
"You know," said the blonde haired, green eyed surfer dude whose arm had stopped her from falling on her butt. "Where I come from, it's customary to say 'thanks, mate' when somebody saves you." He tilted his head to one side and watched her with great amusement. "That sounds fair, wouldn't you agree, daughter of Aphrodite?"
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Cool!!! Ok it is I Elizabeth Jame in another account because I CAN'T GET INTO MINE!!!! Booo Happy Late Birthday make a late wish