Abaris licked his lips hungrily as he waited for his audience.
He could barely remember what it felt like to have substance, to have a body. Now, if this went well, he might finally find out.
He had died long ago, devoured by a horde of Cyclopes, too many for even him to fend off. He'd anguished for centuries in the Fields of Punishment, but now his chance for life had come.
He heard some faint screaming from far below in the heart of the cave. A grubby little karpoi emerged and grumbled, "The Earth Mother will see you now." It retreated back into the ground. Abaris was happy enough to escape the cold of the Alaskan air, but seeing his new savior made him ecstatic.
The cavern was almost hotter than the underworld, which was saying something. The dirt walls were beautiful, encrusted with shimmering jewels and metals. The floor covered in about a foot of oil, where more precious stones piled up. Off to one side, Abaris could even see two skeletons, a child and an adult, who must have died here long ago, no doubt at the hands of Gaea. Of course, what really caught his attention was Gaea herself.
You could still her normal form if you focused: a beautiful woman made of dirt, though now she was surrounded by a whirlwind. Rocks and fragments of plants swirled around her in a tornado, piercing through her occasionally and ripping apart her body. Curls of fire whipped around her too, a constant remember of how Leo Valdez had destroyed her last summer. The demigods thought that she was truly gone when she exploded, but they had only sped up her demise. Now, nearly a year later, she was almost truly gone.
Two other ghosts stood at her side. One was ridiculously scrawny, to the point where he look like nothing but bones. In fact, if you didn't focus on him, he seemed to transform into a skeleton. Golden mist poured from his hands, flowing into Gaea. He looked bored and tired, but he perked up when he saw Abaris enter.
"At last, the son of Hecate arrives!" he shouted. His voice was like nails on a chalkboard.
"Hush, Aristeas!" the other ghost said. He was the polar opposite of Aristeas, as portly as can be. He was holding a bright pink notebook in one hand and a pencil in the other. He looked as though he was writing in it, but he shut it as Abaris approached. He bowed, and said, "Abaris, what a pleasure to meet you."
"You as well, sir. Who are you two?" Abaris asked.
"Shamans, just like you," the skinny one said. "I'm Aristeas-"
"- and I'm Pythagoras," the large one finished. "We have gathered to avenge the Earth Mother, as you no doubt know."
"Bring him forward!" Gaea cried from within the storm. Abaris stepped forward hesitantly. He wasn't sure if the shrapnel could harm him, being a ghost, but he didn't want to find out. "Abaris. How great is your magic?"
"Better than any other mortals," he replied. "My mother Hecate blessed me upon my birth. None can ever surpass my abilities."
"We shall see," Gaea purred. "Pythagoras, teach him what must be done!"
Pythagoras walked up to him. "You see this notebook? I retrieved it from the mortal world. Quite amazing what they've got up there these days. But that's not important! Look within and you shall see our intentions." He opened the notebook and passed it to Abaris.
"Why not just tell me out loud?" Abaris asked.
"The Olympians have spies everywhere. There's no telling what they'll hear," Aristeas whispered to him.
Abaris skimmed the crisp white pages of the notebook, drinking up the words. "How did you come up with this?" he guffawed.
"It was prophesied long ago, before even I was born, that the children of Athena, Hecate, and Hypnos together would save the Earth Mother. Now the time for that prophecy has come to pass," Aristeas explained. "My father is Hypnos, your mother is Hecate, and Pythagoras's mother is Athena. Once Pythagoras learned of this, it didn't take him long to come up with a plan."
"Planning is my specialty," Pythagoras said, snatching the notebook back from Abaris. "The question is, are you powerful enough to do what is required of you? Do you have the magic within you?"
"Of course I do! This is child's play compared to what I did while I was alive," he scoffed. "And if I do this for you, Gaea, I will receive my own body?"
"We all will," Gaea told him. "But me first. I require many mortal souls to revive myself. Aristeas has been keeping me awake, but even his power is not enough to save me."
"When should we begin?" Abaris asked her. Even through the swirling mess, he could see her smile cruelly.
"Now," she said.
"Who do we begin with?" Aristeas wondered.
"The one who did this to me. The one who tried to destroy me!" she cried. "Leo Valdez!"
"He's currently on Ogygia," Pythagoras said. "Time is flowing strangely for him. He doesn't even realize that nearly a year has already passed."
"So I should just pull him down?" Abaris asked.
"Yes, and I'll make sure that no one finds out," Aristeas assured him.
"Then let's begin," Abaris growled. He raised his hands to the sky and let out an unearthly scream as he ripped the soul across existence.
It was so subtle that Annabeth barely even realized it was happening. It was just like a cool gust of wind flowing through her mind, but even that was enough to wake her. Her eyes flashed open just in time to see a golden mist rising from each of her fellow Athena campers. The clouds seeped out of their foreheads and dissipated into nothing. What in Hades was going on?
She felt a strange tugging in her own mind, like something was trying to escape...or maybe someone was trying to take something.
Annabeth didn't have any powers, but if there was one thing she was proud of, it was her mind. She wasn't about to let something happen to it. She concentrated as hard as she could, and suddenly she was back to normal. No one else in the cabin had woken up. Maybe it was just a dream, though it felt strangely real. She was about to get up and go talk to Percy when a horrible voice like sandpaper echoed through her head: "Sleep." She was unconscious before she could even register what had happened.
She had a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night, until she felt someone shaking her shoulder. "Annabeth, wake up!" It was Malcolm, her half-brother.
"What happened?" she muttered, sitting up in bed.
"You overslept. It's time for breakfast," he said.
"No, I mean last night. Do you feel any different?" she asked.
"Uh, no. Did you have a weird dream or something?" he asked her.
"No, no, I'm fine. I'll get dressed and meet you guys there," she muttered. Malcolm shrugged and left the cabin.
A few minutes later she was trudging up to the dining pavilion. Percy ran up beside her, and the sight of him lifted her spirits. "Hey, wise girl," he said, and he planted a kiss on her lips.
"Hi, Percy. Did you feel anything weird last night?" she asked him.
"No, nothing happened. Did something happen to you? Are you alright?" he asked, suddenly concerned.
"Nothing happened to me. But I swear that something happened to everyone else in my cabin. Like a golden cloud coming out of their heads," she told him.
"Do you have any idea what it was?" he asked.
"Not a clue. And none of them seem to have any memory of what happened."
"Well, if anyone can figure it out, you can, Annabeth," he assured her. "Maybe someone else knows what it was. I mean, even Frank and Hazel are coming later today. One of them might understand. Even if they don't it'll be nice to have all of the questers back together again," he said.
"Well, we'll never have all of us, really," Annabeth answered. Her thoughts always seemed to drift back to Leo, and his sacrifice to save the world.
"What do you mean?" Percy asked, clearly confused.
"You know, Leo."
"Who?" Percy said. Annabeth stared at him.
"Leo Valdez! Son of Hephaestus, saved the world by blowing up Gaea? Quested with us all across the Mediterranean? One of the Seven of the prophecy?" she said, trying to jog his memory.
"Seven? There were only six of the prophecy. You, me, Jason, Piper, Frank, and Hazel," Percy said. His tone made it seem like Annabeth was the crazy one. "I mean, that's what the prophecy said. Six half-bloods shall answer the call-"
"Six? Percy, what in the world are you talking about? How could you forget Leo?" Annabeth asked, baffled.
"Annabeth, there's never been a Leo at Camp Half-Blood," he assured her. "Trust me."
"No, this you're wrong!" she shouted. "Come on, let's ask the others."
She pulled Percy up the hill behind her and barged into the dining pavilion. "Piper! Jason!" she called out, and the demigods looked up at her. "Something's wrong with Percy. He can't remember Leo."
Piper and Jason glanced at each other, confused. "Uh..." Piper murmured.
"Annabeth, who's Leo?" Jason asked.
"You don't - I mean, how can you not - you have to remember him! He was your best friend!" she shouted at them.
"Annabeth, calm down," Piper said, and she felt the charmspeak roll over her. Everything would be okay. She plopped down next to Piper.
"It's just...how did this happen? Why did you all forget?" she wondered.
"Annabeth, I don't think we forgot someone," Jason told her. "I think you imagined someone."
"I didn't imagine him!" she shouted, the effects of the charmspeak dissipating in an instant. "He was real! The bravest demigod I've ever met! He gave up his life for us, and now all of you don't even remember him."
"Annabeth, listen to us..." Percy started, but his words grew fuzzy in Annabeth's head. She thought of the golden mist that floated from everyone's heads, and the voice in her ear whispering "Sleep." It all fit together somehow, with the whole Leo situation. Suddenly she remembered where she had seen magic like that before. The Hypnos campers created golden smoke like that when they used the powers of their father. And the word sleep...this was the power of Hypnos, or at least one of his children.
But Hypnos wasn't just the god of sleep.
He was the god of memory.
"It's the power of Hypnos," she said. "It made you all lose your memory."
"Annabeth, why would he do that?" Jason asked.
"I don't think he did. But one of his children might have. He doesn't have many famous children, though." She stood up and started walking away. "I'm going back to my cabin to do some research."
Just as she stepped outside of the pavilion, a horrible scream caught her attention. She turned back and watched in horror. Travis Stoll was sitting at the Hermes table next to his brother like he always did, but this time something was different. He was screaming in agony as his clothes and skin were torn off of him and into the ground, like he was being held up to a super-powerful demonic vacuum. "TRAVIS!" Connor screamed, instinctively jumping away. His muscles were vanishing too now, being pulled down through the earth. His bones shattered as they were sucked away, the white fragments disappearing, maybe forever. All of his body was gone, but it wasn't over yet. A shimmering white ghost sat where he had; his lingering spirit. The features of the ghost blurred and stretched as he too was devoured by the ground, leaving no signs that Travis had ever been there.
"Travis! No! Please, gods, no..." Connor whimpered, clawing at the ground where his twin had disappeared. "I need him...please..."
Annabeth was stunned. She'd never seen anything like that, and she had no idea what had caused it. She felt hot tears on her cheeks from the loss of a friend, but she barely registered it. Her brain was working overtime, trying to figure out what she'd just witnessed.
Suddenly, everyone stood up ramrod straight. They were pulled upwards, as if by an invisible string. Annabeth felt it too, but she managed to resist. Suddenly, a golden mist just like the one that had appeared before seeped out of everyone else's foreheads. It vanished into the sky and everyone stopped crying. They all turned away and sat back down at their tables, talking and laughing like nothing had happened. Even Connor stopped mourning and got back into his seat, telling a joke to his siblings.
"What are you doing?!" Annabeth screamed at them, and every eye turned her way.
"Annabeth, what's wrong?" Percy asked, walking up to her.
"What do you mean?! Travis just got pulled down into the underworld or something!" she shouted.
Everyone looked at her like she had lost her mind. "Annabeth, there's no Travis at Camp Half-Blood," Piper said.
"Well, not anymore!"
"Not ever."
"Come on! First you forget Leo, and now Travis? Even though he was just here?" she shrieked. Was she the crazy one, imagining people that didn't exist, or were they under a memory spell? She had seen the Hypnos magic, but that could just be another vision. "Connor, you have to remember Travis. He was your twin, your best friend!" she said, running up to the Hermes table.
"My twin? Annabeth, you know I'm an only child," Connor told her.
She felt like the world was imploding. It was one thing to kill her friends. It was another thing entirely to make it seem like they had never existed, so they would never be honored or remembered.
She ran out of the pavilion, ignoring the yells of the people behind her. She had to put a stop to this. Or else everyone that she knew and loved might disappear forever.
And nothing could hurt her more.