Hey guys~ I'm baaaaack! *dramatic hand gesture*

There's something you might need to know about this story:

1. Luke is way bad in here. He died just 'cuz Percy finished him off.

2. Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico and Annabeth's family lived in the same neighborhood.

3. Thalia gave up her lieutenant job, and Percy's 16, Annabeth 15, Thalia 16, Nico 15.

On with the show!

APOV

I was half-awake, lying on my bed in the middle of the day. Dad went out with my stepmom, bringing the twins with them, so I was completely alone.

Suddenly, there came this weird gust of cold wind. Then something— or someone— formed in front of me.

As the wind died down, I refocused. It was Luke. Luke Castellan.

"You!" I gasped and jumped out of bed. "Why are you here?"

"To give you a warning." He pulled out Backbiter from nowhere. I took a step back.

"Luke, what are you doing here? What's this about?"

He sneered. "Funny you should ask, traitor."

"Listen, I'm not a traitor." I retorted. "You were the one who went to join-"

"Shut up!" His face contorted with fury. "If you haven't got your big smart brain in all of this, my plan would have succeeded! Without you, Percy Jackson would be useless and brainless, not to mention to kill- to end my plan!"

"How could I not stop you, Luke? You were about to destroy us! Destroy the Gods!" He was so losing it.

I made an attempt to grab my knife which was on the table, but he swept it to the floor and kicked it under my bed.

Only word in my mind: damn.

While avoiding his sword, I tried to find a suitable weapon of some sort, but all I found was a tennis racket, which I figured would be the best I'd get.

His sword clang against the racket, and I jumped and whacked his head. But it went through. The racket, I mean. It went through him and hit the sword he was holding.

He, seeing I was a bit frightened of what happened, faked for my left shoulder and attacked my calf. I cried out and fell to the floor.

"I hated to do this, daughter of Athena." He stood over me, sword in hand. I was doomed. Unbelievable, I thought. After all these challenges and wars, I get murdered in my own home.

Backbiter was at my throat, and there was nothing I could do about it. "Listen. Kill Percy Jackson, leave camp, and your life will be spared. I'll give you a little pain to remember it, though."

He moved Backbiter to my side and thrust it down. I screamed and he disappeared-

I edged to my bag painfully and fished my cellphone out, blood still dripping. Somehow, I managed to call Percy's number.

"Hey Annabeth, I'm in Thalia's, Nico's here too, you wanna join us?"

Help me…

"Annabeth? Why d'ya call?"

Help…

"Annabeth?"

"Help." I squeezed out. The phone slipped from my hand and I blacked out.

PPOV

"Help." That was all Annabeth said. I grabbed my keys and headed for her home, which was just two blocks away.

"Percy! Wait, Percy what's up?" Thalia yelled from behind.

I soon arrived and rang the doorbell. No one answered, but I swore on the river Styx that I hear someone moaning. I twisted the knob. It was locked.

Nico and Thalia soon caught up. Thalia leaned against the wall, catching her breathe. Nico, after learning my problem, climbed through an unlocked window nimbly. Immediately, we ran to where the whimpering was coming from.

What I saw nearly made me threw up my blueberry sandwich.

Annabeth was lying there like a rag doll, with blood all over the floor. There was a big deep gash on her right side, still bleeding. Thalia screamed and Nico, who was the most calm among us, turned pale and dialed the demigod hospital, telling them about Annabeth. A couple of people, probably children of Apollo, came and stopped the blood. We followed them to the hospital.

When we arrived, the nurse told us to wait out side on the seats. After 10 minutes or so, the nurse cam on and asked if we were here for Annabeth. Then, seeing that the other two have drifted off to sleep (on each other, lucky them) she said I can visit Annabeth if I want to.

On the way, she told me that for Annabeth wasn't nearly dead, but dead already. But amazingly, her heart started to beat again.

I let that sunk in. Annabeth was alive. And I'm going to meet her.

"By the way," the nurse asked. "Is your name, by any chance, Percy?"

I was a bit taken aback. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"Annabeth talked in her sleep. Oh, and there's her room."

Unsure of what I'd seen, I set my hand on the knob.

APOV

I walked as if I were dreaming , and came upon an oddly familiar archway, stating YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. A dog barked in the distance. Judging from the noise it made, it was some large doggie.

Suddenly a pair pf claw-like thing landed on my shoulder, bringing me up into the air. "Gods!" I kicked and pummeled and shut my eyes.

When I open my eyes again, I saw a God that which, I knew by now, was Hades.

The claws loosen, dropping me in front of the God of the Underworld. I sunk to me knees without any further ado.

"Lord Hades," I said. "it is an honor to see you."

He waved carelessly, asking me to stand, and then studied me like Cerberus (which was the one who barked) would study a bag of balls.

"Daughter of Athena," His voice came. "I command you to tell me something."

"Y-yes, my lord." I shrank in his glare.

"Is this true? That Luke Castellan has escaped from the dead?"

"I am not sure, my lord." I chose my words carefully. "I only know that my knife could not harm him anymore that it could harm a ghost, yet he could hold his sword and fight."

"Could his sword, by any chance, be a ghost too?" The thing that grabbed me, a.k.a Mrs. Dodds, a.k.a one of the furies, asked.

"Impossible." The lord of the dead shook his mighty head. (Hey, it rhymes!) "Objects couldn't become ghosts, and even his did, it wouldn't hurt a living person."

Then, turning to me, he said: "Come. Flip up your shirt. I need to see that wound."

I hesitated.

"You dare disobey-" Mrs. Dodds showed her fangs.

"Forgive her, Alecto." Hades said. "It is just a girl."

On that nice note, I flipped up my tee just enough to let him see the wound only, which to my surprise, was sewed.

"Hmm. Yes, this is definitely caused by a real sword, and a quite remarkable one, by the way. Celestial bronze?"

"Half Celestial bronxe and half iron, sir." I replied. "So it could hurt mortals as well."

"Evil," Persephone, whom I didn't notice until now, tsked. "what an evil person."

They all then turned their attention back to me.

"Very well." Hades told me with a satisfied expression. "That is all I want to know. By the way, I suppose you would rather go back to your friends?"

"Yes, my lord. Thank you." I got up and stumbled through the hall.

Still APOV

There was this weird feeling that I was squeezed through a tube. As I could feel again, I heard some voices.

"She's breathing again!" An excited voice rang out.

I sat up with difficulty. This seems to be some sort of infirmary.

The people in the room went out; I could hear them talking outside.

A few minutes later, a light tapping came. Percy head poked around the door.

"Annabeth!" He cried. Then he looked at my…torso, and started to blush, turning sideways swiftly. I glanced down and was mortified to see my upper body wasn't clothed, except for my bra. (This, was so hilarious, in my opinion) I grabbed a blanket and covered myself well.

"Come on, seaweed brain, it's not like I'm naked or anything."

"You dare say! You blush like a ripe strawberry!" He laughed, easing the embarrassment. Then the what-the-Hades-happened-to-you look came on.

"Oh, my wise girl, thank the Gods. I was so freaking out when I saw you lying there! What in the name of Zeus' pink polka dot underwear happened?" Thunder rolled in the distance, probably because of the pink polka dot thingy.

I told him the whole story, even the part that Luke asked me to kill him. Then I started sobbing and saying over and over again that I would never do anything of the sort no matter what.

Percy held me tight to his chest and comforted me. His heartbeat calmed me down. Just then, Thalia and Nico came in. We broke apart unwillingly, hands still locked.

"Annabeth!" Thalia exclaimed, though a little bit sorry for interrupting our moment. "What the crap happened to you?"

Percy explained for me, knowing how I hate to repeat things again. "Luke," He said shortly. "Appeared in Annabeth's room, start ranting and raving about her being a traitor, and drove Backbiter through her."

Thalia put her hand to her mouth.

Nico, eyeing my wound, said: "Somehow, I knew it already."

"How?" We all asked simultaneously.

"Dad. He informed me through my head." He shrugged. "Although his main point was someone managed to escape and even tried to murder others, which made him real mad, yelling in my head to no one in particular about how hard he had stopped this from happening."

"Dad never did that to me." Thalia looked surprised. "Well, once he did send a complain into my head along with an electric bolt."

"Really?"

"Yup. My hair just started to burn and a lightning blot mark appeared on my forehead."

"Why'd he do that?" I asked.

"Nico." Thalia replied briskly. "He probably was jealous, anyway, since it took him like, five thousand years to get him a girl." She grinned.

We all forgot about the event and started to chat about experiences with our godly parent.

"I got one." Percy said. "Once I was all alone, under the camp lake. Then Poseidon just suddenly popped out beside me, he freaked me out. Turns out he just noticed me all by myself and decided to chat with me."

"Gods could be so confusing. They could freak you out when they're trying to chat with you, but make themselves look like kind old people when they wanna kill you." Nico commented. I agreed.

I then told them about my encounter with Athena. "She just walked through my cabin when no one else was in there," I recalled. "And she told me how it was my entire fault that Poseidon started to look down at her just because I was with Percy. I don't get why are they all making grudges anyway. Turns out they're no better than us when it comes to EQ."

All of us shared a knowing smile, but then a nurse came in and shooed my visitors off.

"I'll let you all catch up after she's out, but now she needs rest. You can come and meet her later, once she's up."

I sank into my pillow and got sleep at once, without a single dream about anything, even red rubber balls.

Like it, guys? I know it was waaaaay weird, what with Luke, Annabeth and Percy and all, but I tried my best! Pretty please review and tell me what do you think, and while you're at it, some suggestions for the story please!

~Annabeth1999