Prologue

The Lord of the Dead was worried.

Hades wasn't a jittery god by any means, so when he worried, there was definitely something wrong.

Some denizen of his kingdom or other seemed to have completely disappeared. This was obviously against the rules, and however it happened, the thing had upset the balance in the Underworld.

His servants were uneasy as well-- Cerberus himself whined and strained at his tether-- but Hades was the only one who knew exactly what was wrong. Unfortunately it was summer, and Queen Persephone was spending time with her mother, or he would have gone to her to puzzle it out together.

Hades hunched in his throne, drumming his fingers while his majestic brow furrowed in stormy repose. With the fingers that weren't tapping, he absentmindedly twisted the material of his robes.

Then it came to him.

He leaped to his feet, raiment swirling, and checked himself over carefully. The evanescent faces woven into the cloth stirred voicelessly back at him, many weeping or screaming in silent terror.

But nowhere did he see the one he sought.

Chapter 1: The New Kid Cometh; or, I Take A Fall

The weather was perfectly summery, as it always was in Camp Half-Blood.

Of course, there was that totally random thunderstorm that flooded everyone back into their cabins for about fifteen minutes or so, but that was just assumed to be one of the gods having a bit of a tantrum. Some of them (I'm not mentioning any names, but one in particular has the initials A-R-E-S) are pretty hot-tempered, after all. Now that I think about it, I guess we really should've been more worried, but everyone was in a great mood. The first week of camp had flown by without a hitch; nobody had been killed/maimed/seriously in trouble of any kind/lost by treachery to the enemy, things had been running smoothly up in Olympus (which means all the counselors were in a good mood, even Mr. D, who is not known for his congeniality these days), and Kronos hadn't shown up with his band of traitors to plunge us all into oblivion.

So it had been a pretty good start to the summer season, all told. So far.

I was literally running a few errands for Chiron-- just carrying messages back and forth, since he was busy working with some of the Hermes kids-- when my foot unexpectedly hit something big and softish. I half-slipped, half-tripped and pitched head over heels onto the ground. Praying nobody had noticed my undignified way of stopping, I scrambled up to get a look at what I had run over. Nothing special, just some kid lying face-down on the ground.

Hold on a second! What did I mean, nothing special?

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked sheepishly. "I'm really sorry, I didn't see you there.. do you need help?"

The smallish figure (it was wearing a green sweater and jeans at least two sizes too big for it and an orange bucket hat, so I couldn't tell whether it was a girl or boy) didn't even twitch. I wondered if it was conscious.

"Um.. well, just stay here, okay?" I only realized how stupid that sounded after it was spoken. "Uh, I guess you don't have a choice. Yeah. I'm going to go get a counselor now and---"

The prone stranger's right hand flashed up and latched onto my wrist. I yelped in surprise. Not unconscious after all, then.

"Wait," the mystery kid whispered, just loud enough to be heard. She or he had a strange voice, kind of breathy and rough at the same time. "Tell me where I am first."

I deliberated. If this kid wasn't a demigod, I probably shouldn't give them the real name of the camp. But what else could I say? I tried to frantically think of some story, but the hand tightened painfully on my arm, digging sharp ragged fingernails into my flesh and making me wince.

"Dammit, Luke, tell me now or I'll rip your hand off!" rasped the voice in sudden rage.

I froze. Luke? The only Luke I knew was the one who had joined forces with Kronos. Was this person involved with him? The fingernails drove deeper into the tenderest part of my wrist and I gritted my teeth.

"Let go of me!" I snapped, yanking the hand off. It took all the effort I had, something I wasn't expecting. That hand was slender and delicate, but it was a lot stronger than it looked. "For one thing, I'm not Luke. And if you're one of his buddies, I'm going to make you answer to Dionysius himself!"

"Dionysius?" The ears of the kid I was beginning to like less and less practically pricked up. "This must be Camp Half-Blood, then?"

Keeping mum just in case, I watched warily as the figure dragged itself into a sitting position.

I still couldn't tell exactly what gender it was, owing to the general anime-type cuteness of its face, but I could now see that this stranger was very pale, with mediumlength hair (also very pale-- platinum blond, I think it's called) that stuck out at messy angles in back and hung down on either side of its face in longer strands in front. Very big, coal-black eyes that looked like they were all pupil studied me with such intensity that I found myself sweating. They reminded me of somebody. But who?

"You're not Luke."

I nodded. Not much else to say there.

"This is Camp Half-Blood."

I nodded again. Considering I was wearing a bright orange shirt that said Camp Half-Blood on it, there wasn't much to say there either.

"I made it."

I kept myself from nodding this time. Things were getting a bit monotonous here.

"Thank the gods, I'm safe!" Black Eyes stood quickly, wobbled, then collapsed just as quickly. "Ouch."

"Uh.." I started again, hopeful to bring some sense back into the conversation. "Why don't you just stay there and I'll.. I'll get Chiron to help you. Don't move."

I ran off without waiting for a response. Today was becoming a lot more exciting than I'd planned.

By the time I'd returned with Chiron, there was another kid sitting in the middle of the field. I recognized this one, though. Leith MacTavish, one of the Aphrodite kids and a bit of an oddity among her kind because she didn't look like a blonde, size-zero Barbie princess. To be honest, with her shortish red-brown hair and impressive height she looked more like a sturdy Hephaestus girl. I didn't know her very well because she was very shy and usually tried to blend into the background, hiding behind her thick glasses.

"This is Leith," announced the other one casually, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"We've met," I replied, nodding to her. She blushed and waved halfheartedly.

" This is Chiron," I told the pale kid. "He's here to help."

Chiron bent down as far as he could to peer at the new arrival. "Hm. What's your name, young one?"

"Alexis Irvine. I'm not sure what I'm doing here, though. This wasn't exactly where I was trying to go."

Chiron raised an eyebrow. "And what destination were you intending?" Alexis looked confused.

"Where were you trying to go?" I offered helpfully. Alexis glared at me. "I know what he said. I'm just not sure where I was going."

This was getting more confusing by the minute. I was a little relieved when Chiron announced that he was taking Alexis (even that didn't tell me anything-- Alexis is one of those non-genderspecific-sounding names) to Mr. D to work things out. Of course, then I was stuck sitting there with Leith, who looked like she wanted to get up and run.

"So, what were you doing with Alexis anyway?" I asked at last, desperate to break the silence. Leith jumped.

"Just talking. Sort of. I didn't really learn anything more than he told you. He seems pretty nice, though."

"So he's a guy! I mean, uh.. I couldn't tell. How'd you find out? I mean.."

Right. Just keep digging yourself deeper, Percy. I sounded pretty stupid, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, I couldn't tell either, but I asked him."

How matter of fact.

"Well, I'd better be going," she said suddenly, and hastened off, probably to tell other people about what happened even though I knew Chiron probably wouldn't want it getting out too soon. Like it would really stay a secret in a camp full of middle- and high-schoolers.

I lay back in the grass and stared up at the blue. Had Alexis dropped from that sky?

I sighed. Obviously this was the beginning of another tumultous session at camp.

But then again, when had life at Camp Half-Blood ever been uneventful?

Author's Note

Whew, the first chapter is finally done! What did you all think? Hopefully you're not asleep from the boring longness of it all. I'll work as hard as I can to get Chapter Two up ASAP (although readers who know me personally can be sure it won't happen that ASAP), so hang in there. No burnt offerings necessary-- just plenty of reviews, please!

Thanks to: Becky Creighton for saying "Oooo lovely" before this even made it to the light of the PC screen, for being my Iris-message buddy (of sorts) over everything from Hermes sneakers to the all-important film (insert ominous music here) and making my day in general, o goddess of the PJO division. I love talking to you!

As well as all the other people who hang out on the Percy Jackson boards. Huggles, and I'll send you the pictures when I finish my Hermes sneakers! Maybe.

Also: corawhite, for being willing to read just about anything I write, because I'm cool that way. And so are you. Your work just keeps improving and impressing-- keep on tricking! Er, trucking.

And Snotty Chim-Chim, for being nice to me. I promise I'll start paying more attention to you!! Uwaaah

P.S.: If any of you readers are My Chemical Romance listeners, please forgive me for the title of this fic (which, for non-MCR fans, is a very bad pun on the title of one of their songs). I have this little problem with punning, as you'll soon find out..