I'm BA-A-A-CK!

Anyone miss me? Please say yes, please say yes... anyway, yes, I am back with the next instalment! (Start clapping) Okay you can stop with the clapping =P

Warning: This story may be kind of... darker. Slightly. Okay, maybe a lot. I DUNNO. Also... may include some swearing... but will try and keep that to a low.

Note: If you're just starting to read this, you don't actually have to... I guess the first two parts was just of Acacia's personality before and her thoughts and blah blah blah... but you're welcome to read and review if you want to. ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson... =( but from now on, I own most of the plot and Acacia. And Silas. =)

She woke up, falling. Falling and falling through darkness, with no idea why and how she got there.

All she knew was how warm it was at that moment – and not the 'warm and fuzzy' warm but the 'Holy Zeus, it's getting warm in here' warm.

It kept getting warmer and warmer until she thought that she would shrivel up and die a lonely death. She was pretty sure she was falling through the Earth towards the magma in the centre. If there really was magma. Which she doubted, as there was supposed to be a sun but there wasn't. Which lead to the question she'd always wondered... that how in the name of Hades did mortals take pictures of 'the sun' when the sun is actually Apollo's - awesome - Maserati?

Unforunately (or is it fortunately...?), she got distracted from her wondering by a beautiful feeling. Cold air.

She sighed in relief. It was much better than before. Until it got too cold. Now she felt like she was falling through Space without an astronaut suit. Which was... impossible... wasn't it? Once again, the question about how mortals do the scientific stuff popped up in her mind.

Maybe they're demigods making it up! she mused, Haha! I have figured it out! Typically, while falling somewhere or the other.

Bored and surprised that she was still falling, she decided to go through what had happened, in her head, as if it had been a story. She also chose one person, in this case Percy, and his reactions to what she had thought and done. At the start, she made it as if she was introducing herself to the world, as if Percy had made her tell the story. She snorted. It was quite amusing, but at times she found it frustrating, confusing and sad. As well as annoying.

How had she been so stupid to join the Titans? Why in the name of Hades had she been that scared of spiders? How come she didn't realize that they were in the Lotus Hotel and Casino? It had been obvious! And why in the name of Olympus did she ever trust Luke?

Stupid, she thought, Stupid, stupid stupid.

Now she had just finished and was wondering what to do now, when she landed roughly on the floor. She winced in pain and mumbled, "Ouch."

Slowly, trying to ignore the pain, she got up and glanced around the room.

It was dark (Still extremely cold), but there was a glow, a bit like a lampshade's, coming from the side, which seemed to light up most of the room, while still leaving a mysterious edge to other objects. There also seemed to be a sort of heat radiating from the object, so she hurried over to it, hoping to warm up.

It was a model of the Earth; Unlike most – or every other – models it had clouds and an atmospheric layer over it and the clouds actually moved.

Studying it closely, she saw that in some parts, there was rain coming down from the clouds, and once or twice, she was sure she saw a bright red Maserati, flying over the Earth. Typical Apollo; always showing off.

The colour of the sea also seemed to vary in areas, and she could even see small dots that looked like boats. She guessed they were probably large cargo ships.

Amazed, she put her hand out and tried to touch the model, but her hand went right through it. She pulled it away, blinking, hoping she hadn't done anything wrong.

Deciding to stay away from the model, she looked at other items around the room.

There were some pretty neat things like some iPhones – she was pretty sure those models hadn't come out yet, and her hand was twitching to 'borrow' one of them - and a huge book that actually played different myths, exactly as they had happened, and also showing each god's personality and appearance perfectly.

On an iPad (Whoever lived here had pretty good sense in technology, she thought) there was an app for the lists and characteristics of different monsters and immortals (Which made her snort, "Seriously?") and many other things that she just simply stared at in wonder.

"Do the items interest you?" a voice chuckled, and she immediately spun around.

It was an old man – probably older than Dumbledore (And that's saying something... oh wait... the gods are older. Nevermind, she smiled slightly.) - and he looked a bit like him too.

Had her dream from since she was 9 finally come true? Did she make into Hogwarts? For some reason, she sincerely doubted this.

He had old, dark, wise eyes that still seemed to warn you that you don't want to get a taste of how powerful he really is. She doubted all the Olympians combined could win against him in a fight or he could outsmart even Athena. Both of those were scary thoughts, but personally, Acacia thought, The latter is even more scary; if someone's smarter than Athena... and they aren't on our side... it would be better if we just went and hung ourselves at the Hanging Tree.

He wore black robes – think Hades style... without the tortured souls – and had a wooden staff.

"Um..."

She was now extremely tounge-tied and a bit scared too, though she didn't exactly know why.

"Who exactly am I?" the man offered.

She nodded, slowly.

"I am Chaos, creator of, well, everything."

"...Chaos?" she repeated, stunned. Sure, she'd talked to him, but if you're going to meet the person who created everything, you're vocabulary immediately drops to only a few words every minute.

"Chaos," he confirmed.

Struggling to keep up, she questioned, "And you were in my head?"

Chaos frowned.

"Excuse me? In your head? I do not exactly jump around in people's head," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"But... you... you've been talking in my head for around a year now!" she exclaimed, even more confused. Nothing was really processing at that moment.

"No, I don't believe I have," Chaos shook his head, then added, "What exactly have you been hearing from what you believe is me?"

"Advice. Solutions... and sarcastic comments, mostly," she said, slowly.

He smiled slightly.

"Well then, from what I know - "

"Which is probably a lot," she mumbled to herself.

" - it was most probably you, talking to you, but you didn't seem to think it was yourself, so your brain tried to come up with a logical response for the voice in your head, so it retrieved information it knew, weighed up some false and incorrect options before making you 'realize' who was talking in your mind. The voice, most likely your conscious, most likely just went along with it, perhaps so you would listen, or perhaps because it believed that it was me talking, as well. Does that make sense?"

"A bit," she said, thoughtfully

A sudden wave of realization – no not false realization this time – swept over her.

"So... I went temporarily insane?" she asked, her eyes getting wide.

"For that.. I have no answer... but I'm perfectly sure you're in brilliant health now," Chaos finished, kindly.

She nodded, still not reassured. Great. She had most probably gone insane. Just the news she'd always wanted to hear.

"Now, you're probably wondering why you are hear, Acacia," Chaos said, after a few minutes.

Acacia nodded again.

"You see - "

A body appeared, and slammed onto the floor. Acacia, though relieved she hadn't fallen into this place like that, instinctively, Acacia took out her dagger, ready for a fight.

"Ah, Silas Lorin," Chaos nodded, and she relaxed slightly.

If Chaos knew this person, then they wouldn't kill her... right? Wrong.

As soon as the person got up, he took out his sword and glared at Acacia, then Chaos.

He had full body armour on, and was obviously a demigod, but she'd never seen him at Camp or on the ship.

"Who are you?" the boy said, glaring at Acacia, his voice full of malice, "And how do you know who I am? And where am I?"

She scowled back.

"Don't worry, you're not important enough to be kidnapped," she replied.

"Children," Chaos frowned.

"I am not a child," the boy – Silas- and Acacia said at the same time.

Then he looked disgusted that we'd said the same thing.

Imbecile, she thought.

"Where am I?" Silas repeated, "This isn't Camp Jupiter."

"You mean Camp Half-Blood," Acacia corrected him.

"Camp Jupiter."

"Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp. JUPITER."

"Camp. HALF-BLOOD."

"Quiet."

That single word uttered by Chaos made them fall silent. He didn't yell, but his tone made it obvious that they were close to being blasted to bits.

How do I manage to always get to that stage? she grumbled in her head.

"Now, I understand you will have plenty of questions, so you may ask away. I will decide which I answer and which I don't though," Chaos said, leaning on his staff.

Before Silas could open his mouth, Acacia immediately spoke up.

"What's Camp Jupiter?"

Chaos studied me, and she shifted uncomfortably.

"That you will find out on your own, when the time comes," he said, finally, "But it is... another place for certain demigods."

He looked at Silas.

"Camp Half-Blood is also another place for demigods, but both Camps have different types of demigods."

"Different types?" Silas enquired.

"That is enough information for now," Chaos replied.

"But - "

"And that is final," he added, firmly.

Taking advantage of Acacia's momentarily silence, which consisted of her wondering where Camp Jupiter was, Silas immediately put in, "And why are we... here?"

"The Second Titan War of course," Chaos stated.

That immediately caught Acacia's attention, and she looked warily at him. She did not need another offer on joining whoever's side. Her head hurt enough already.

Silas frowned.

"Second Titan War? As far as I know, there's only been one," he said, slowly.

Acacia rolled her eyes.

"Well obviously, Camp Jupiter is for more idiotic demigods, as they obviously haven't realised that there's going to be a war," she replied.

Silas glared at her.

"There hasn't been a single sign of a war, and if you could, so kindly, tell me exactly what you mean, it would be extremely appreciated."

"Oh no? So how about the fact that it's blantly obvious because Zeus' Master Bolt got stolen and that Thalia's tree got poisoned?" Acacia growled, her voice – and temper – rising.

Then she blinked, repeating what she'd just said, in her head.

Thalia's tree.

Thalia.

She'd forgotten.

How had she forgotten...?

She didn't even know if the others had made it back... if Thalia's tree was alright or not.

"Zeus? And what's Thalia's tree?"

"She means Jupiter," Chaos filled in, yet ignoring Silas' last question. He had been watching the argument like a tennis match, with an air of both annoyance and amusement.

"Jupiter's a planet." Acacia raised an eyebrow, "How is it, Zeus?"

Silas opened his mouth, glowering at her, to say something but Chaos started speaking.

"Enough. Stop this ridiculous arguing, and learn to listen," he said.

Silas and Acacia continued glaring at each other.

Chaos sighed, and continued, "I am sure both of you have obviously noticed that you both have more than one certain type of ability. You can not only control one aspect of something, like water, or the sky, but are more like... all-rounders."

They nodded, finally looking away from each other.

"Also, some of your choices," he looked at Acacia, pointedly and she turned red; that had been utterly stupid of her and she knew it, "May not seem like the best at the time-being, but in the long-shot, are usually for the best."

"So joining Kronos' side was the right thing to do?" Acacia asked, puzzled.

"No," Chaos admitted, "But it brought balance."

"Kronos?"

"Saturn."

"Another planet..."

Silas looked like he wanted to throttle her and she was ready to kill him. He just seemed to have this aura that made Acacia want to murder him.

"So, anyway," Acacia hurriedly decided to start talking before there was a fight which included both of them trying to kill each other (and her succeeding – of course), "Why would you want balance? Chaos – the word – is the opposite of balance, so... really, shouldn't you not want balance?"

Chaos made an impatient noise.

"Does someone's name make them who they are? Acacia, your name means thorn -"

"Oh I don't know," Silas smirked, "She is like a thorn. Annoying. Hard to get rid off. Useless."

Acacia glowered at him, but said nothing.

Acting – unfairly - as if he hadn't heard Silas, Chaos continued, "And Silas means 'of a forest'. So the name does not matter, but the attitude of the person."

"Back to our subject of balance," Silas frowned , "Why are we the ones that bring the balance? Isn't that up to you?"

"Do you really think that all the deities do their job on their own? Of course not," Chaos said, as if it was a stupid idea, "They all have people to help them, and I am no exception."

"So you always have two demigods helping you?" Acacia tilted her head as she said this, thinking.

Chaos suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable but nodded. Acacia raised her eyebrow at the sudden difference to his personality. He now looked more business-like rather than... like a teacher, explaining something to two students.

"How long do the two people that usually help you survive?" Silas continued.

Acacia thought it was a pretty stupid question, but Chaos obviously thought otherwise.

"Well...the oldest age was 25."

"Woah... that's old," Acacia said, trying to imagine being able to live until that long.

Silas however, frowned.

"Only 25? At Camp, most people live to at least 50."

Acacia stared at him.

"You're kidding."

"Nope."

"Well they're obviously kids of the gods that aren't as powerful as others, right?" Acacia said, after a few seconds of silence.

"No, not necessarily. I'm pretty sure there was this guy, he was a son of Mars. He had grandchildren before he died."

"...holy gods... I doubt any of the demigods that were at Camp Half-Blood even had kids."

Chaos coughed and Acacia stopped talking.

"Thank you," he said, "Now if that's all for now, you'll need to take a small test -"

"What for?" Silas frowned.

Acacia wrinkled her nose, "Test? Fun. Not."

"Think of it as a... well, it shows what you are best at."

"That's what a test does."

Chaos gave her a glare that made her want to go and crawl in a hole; preferably a deep, deep, deep hole that would hide from her the world, especially Chaos; maybe one near Tartarus; surrounded by bodyguards; and monsters; lots and lots of monsters.

"Wouldn't our godly parent influence our abilities?" Silas asked.

Were Acacia's eyes playing tricks on her or did Chaos shift uncomfortably.

"Who have you been told is your godly parent?" he asked.

"Mars," Silas answered.

Acacia raised an eyebrow.

"Ares," Chaos explained, obviously still not happy with her.

"Ah. That makes sense," she mused, "An idiot, like most kids of Ares, Mars, whatever."

Silas scowled.

"We are not idiots! No Ro -"

"Acacia," Chaos interrrupted, frowning, "Who have you been told?"

"Kronos," Acacia muttered, uncomfortable.

"Who?"

"Saturn."

"Isn't that physically impossible?" Silas frowned.

Acacia tilted her head again, thinking.

"Hm... that is... isn't it...?" she said slowly, "But then..."

Chaos looked mildly amused.

"I think you've been decieved," he pointed out, gently, "But really, both of you have been decieved, as I know for a fact, you are not a child of Mars, Silas."

Silas looked outraged at this, and Acacia felt a mixture of emotions whelm up inside her.

The two that really stood out though was anger and hatred.

She couldn't help but feel a rush of hatred towards Luke, who she had thought of as a brother for so long. He had lied to her, easily, making her confused by her own thoughts. He had lied about her parenthood. He had never told her about him poisoning Thalia's Tree, which she considered a lie. He had probably even lied to her about ever being her friend.

There was a hint of sadness in the list of emotions, but it was easily overwhelmed by her anger.

She had ruined all her friendships just because of one stupid mistake; and it hurt. It hurt a lot. She would never admit it, but she needed a friend.

Acacia had always imagined herself like a wolf, alone, but she remembered that they Now,may be alone, but they also live in packs. Like friends. Like family.

She shook herself out of the thoughts, and made it seem like she'd been listening to Silas and Chaos' conversation the whole time, even thoughs she had had no idea what they'd been saying, or even if they'd been saying anything.

"What?" she asked, startled, when all she heard was silence.

"...you've been talking to yourself," Silas was grinning slightly, and it seemed like he'd come to terms with what he'd been told while Acacia had been thinking. Acacia narrowed her eyes. That grin didn't seem right. There was something fishy about it...

"And I was saying?"

"Well, there was a lot of colourful language," Silas continued, and now Acacia rolled her eyes, "Nice to know. So what are we doing now?"

"The test," Chaos said, "I suppose I should explain this too -"

Silas and Acacia groaned. Acacia didn't know what Silas' reason was, but hers was that she was sick of hearing explanations. They made her hurt head like hell.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but bear with me. Believe me, it's hard to explain as well. Bow, there are 8 different abilities, and you will have one, maybe two, of them," he started, and when Silas showed signs of interrupting, continued, "Now, you may have all the powers of the gods currently, but once you start training, those powers will leave, but the abilities will be stronger."

"But wouldn't it be better to keep the powers?" Acacia asked, a hungry gleam in her eyes, "You'd be more powerful, or isn't there a way to keep the powers while having the abilities too?"

Silas was grinning slightly, at that prospect.

"What would you do with the power?" Chaos questioned.

Acacia answered immediately, "It would help keep balance."

"How so?"

"Because... um..."

"Exactly. It would, instead, uneven it."

Acacia nodded, a bit reluctantly.

"What are the eight abilities?" Silas wondered out loud.

"...it is best if you do not know. It brings them out more easily. Now... would you like to sleep or start immediately?"

"Sleep," Acacia said, and at the same time Silas replied, "Start."

They glared at each other.

"Sleep will be the better option," Chaos decided, "Your first test though... is to manage to find your rooms which are down that corridor."

He motioned to a door which opened on it's on.

Acacia grumbled under her breath about finding her room, even though she would normally think the door opening on it's own was cool.

"Last question for today," Silas promised, "Where are we?"

"Hm... well, it doesn't exactly have a name... I suppose you could give it a name such as..." Chaos looked thoughtful.

"Void?" Acacia suggested.

"Pardon?"

"Void. It's... well I think it states that you're a void... which doesn't make sense..."

Chaos chuckled.

"Mortals and their silly ideas. No, I am, as you can see, very much a real deity and I am not a void."

"Oh... that can be thrown out the window or whatever people say," Silas muttered.

Acacia opened her mouth then shut it.

"I'm not even going to comment on that. I'm just... not going to comment."

"Off to your rooms and then bed you two," Chaos said, sternly, "And no more arguing."

"Meh," Acacia mumbled, before walking to the door and into the corridor.

"Meh?" Silas asked, following.

"Meh."

Meh.

I love that word.

Is that alright? I think I got it up pretty quickly... I'll probably update... once a month now. Sorry... but school... and other stories... =/

And I want to do a really, really, really good job for this story... =)

Keep reading and reviewing!

- The Chaos Creator