A.N. Sorry for not updating. I had assignments and stuff. I do not own any of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians franchise, blah, blah. Anyway, enjoy!

CHAP. 4: RISING EVIL

It is not over.

Percy stared, dumbfounded, at nothing in particular as the emerald colored mist evanesced away. He was shocked; the Oracle had only come out of its home in the attic two years ago, but the thick, green mist was never seen without its host anywhere outside the attic. And didn't the Oracle speak of prophecies and riddle them in rhyme? Percy's body was not reacting from the shock. It said, It is not over. Everything that has happened since Luke stabbing himself, his mark of Achilles, proved this statement to be true. On top of that, it was the Oracle. The mummy was supposed to tell the truth. This new information worried Percy out of his mind.

But before he could think about it any longer, the bushes by the creek rustled. Percy raised Riptide and his eyes sharpened on instinct.

Three campers emerged from the bushes and spotted Percy. They were demigods from the Apollo cabin. Thankfully they don't curse him and make him speak in rhymes for the next month, which would be a nightmare. He'd rather face Typhon by himself.

The Apollo campers laughed when they noticed Percy was alone and readied their bows.

Now, Percy wasn't always smart, but he knew their dad was the god of Archery and he did not want to know how good their accuracy is, although he had a pretty good guess.

Then he had an idea. He was only feet away from them and if he transformed Riptide into scythe form and on fire, he can reach them easily and swipe away their bows. Then he can laugh at their skill with a real man's fight. Percy took one glance at Riptide and thought about Kronos' scythe in his hands, blazing. The sword he knew for years was instantly replaced with the fiery scythe.

His opponents were shocked and dazed. Percy grinned and took this chance. He swung the scythe in a deadly horizontal arc, literally cutting their bows in half through the middle, and in a split second, he willed his scythe to change back to Riptide, the weapon he favored most for handheld combat. He stood there and watched in amusement as the archers looked at the top part of their bows slowly slid of the bottom half. They were bewildered but recovered soon and unsheathed their knives, like Annabeth's. They circled around Percy, meanwhile Percy just chuckled. He was the best swordsman to live in a long, long time. Percy watched as that sunk into their brains, too. Now they looked worried and even scared. They were never that good with a knife.

Percy swung his right arm holding Riptide in a deadly horizontal arc and slammed the butt of the blade into the camper on the furthest left. The demigod crumpled instantly and lay unconscious on the muddy riverbank. Percy turned to the other two. They were hesitating to advance towards Percy.

Percy wasn't surprised. One of the archers gained courage and swung his celestial bronze knife. Although it was a good attempt, they were no match for Percy.

Percy merely locked his blade with Riptide on the hilt of his opponent's knife and twisted downward, using one of the first disarm skills he had learned from...Luke.

The knife clattered away and the camper looked terrified and raised his hands in surrender.

Percy smiled and his face showed pity. "Now, now. Do you really think raising your hands will prevent your ass getting whupped?"

Percy punched him in the nose so hard he spun around, and then he booted him in the ass. "I did say your ass was gonna get whupped, did I not?"

He then turned to glare at the last Apollo demigod. One look from Percy, and he dropped his knife and ran back towards his flag. "That's what I thought."

Percy then heard the shouts of his teammates as he looked through the trees and saw Annabeth running with the flag with the whole opponent team chasing her. Percy's eyes narrowed.

He readied Riptide and ran towards his teammate. The team saw him and some of them stopped and stumbled back. They knew how good Percy was at hurting things. Sometimes even tends to do it by accident.

Percy joined Annabeth's sprint for their safe territory. He looked over at her, and said, "I'll hold them off, you focus on getting the flag back to our side. Win this thing for me." With that he turned around and faced the mob of campers trampling towards him. The moment they collided into him, he waded through them with his deadly blade helping him. Time seemed to slow down around him but he was too busy dodging spears and swords to give it too much thought.

Finally, there were campers all sprawled across the floor, either groaning in pain or unconscious. Percy heard whooping behind him. He turned to see Annabeth holding a now silver banner in her hands followed by their team cheering behind her. Her eyes were twinkling as she ran up to Percy.

"I guess we won…" she said. She smiled and took his hand and led their team back to the pavilion, tramping over the unconscious campers on the ground.

When they got back Chiron was waiting with the laurels. He smiled and announced, "So! The blue team has prevailed! They have earned their rights on the battlefield and the captains shall receive the golden laurels. Percy! Annabeth! Please come up and receive you laurels!"

Percy walked up to Chiron alongside Annabeth and got their laurels. Their team cheered and that made Percy feel good.

It was a long day and Percy was ready to crash into his bed, which wasn't nearly as good as the ones in his palace. But that did not matter to Percy; he just wanted to regain his energy after tonight. He felt his eyelids droop as if he had a weight on them, and he finally gave himself up to the temptation of rest.

Tap. Tap, tap, tap.

Percy's eyes flew open. He reached into his pocket immediately and felt his hand grab Riptide, his thumb and index finger ready to rip off the pen cap. He slowly got out of bed and stared at the door.

Tap, tap.

He laggardly crept up to the cabin door and yanked it open, Riptide in full form in his hands, ready to demolish any danger around.

Hey, boss!

"Blackjack!?" exclaimed Percy. The black-as-night steed nearly gave him a heart attack. Anyway, what the heck was he doing at Percy's door at, like, 4 in the morning? Why wasn't he in his stables?

"Blackjack! What are you doing here?" Percy frowned.

Ehh…well…we got some 'Dracula' problems.

"Uh—you mean dracaenas?" he asked, confused.

Yeah, them. So they told me to come get you, boss.

"Ok, be right there." Muttered Percy as he trotted back into his cabin.

He changed his clothes and headed outside. He ran up to Blackjack, who was grazing on the fields. Percy leapt onto his back and held on as Blackjack leaped into the air and headed towards the magical border, where everyone was crowded in battle armor.

As Blackjack glided down and lost altitude, Percy jumped off, and ran forwards to the place where border patrol was fighting...a dracaena. He pushed through the ranks of guards and found himself in front of...Queen Sess.

Percy was shocked; he vividly remembered slicing her in half in the Battle of Manhattan and hearing her dissipate into nothingness. But...here she is now.

Percy frowned. "What are you doing here? I thought you were rotting in the pits of Tartarus!"

Sess smiled. "My, my Percy Jackson. You are as persistent as ever! And I was rotting in that—that—" Sess shivered. "That place. But now…my sisters and I have a new patron. One that will destroy all that opposes. He is not as ignorant as Kronos. He knows that if you want to weaken the leaves, you must take out the roots. He will annihilate the Ancient Lands and then, when the gods have been weakened, he will crush the Olympians and all gods who defy him. Your puny little demigod camps will be trampled underfoot by the sons of Gaia herself. You won't stand a chance!" she sneered.

Travis scowled. "Oh ye—?"

He was interrupted as a celestial bronze arrow just whipped over his shoulder and pierced her right in the dead center of Queen Sess' forehead. Percy was shocked. He slowly turned to see who had fired the shot and found his gaze settled upon Chiron, who came trotting over with a worried look in his eyes. He looked at Percy and said, "I'm so sorry I could not have come sooner, I was not awaken, until I heard the sounds. What happened?"

Percy looked over at where Chiron had killed the dracaena. All that was left was a little bit of dust flying into the wind and even that was disappearing. "Chiron…you just destroyed our only means of information about a new threat. She said something about a new patron and how he will destroy the Ancient lands using…the sons of Gaia? Did she mean the Titans?"

Chiron had a look upon his face that showed that he did not want to share what he knew. "No. Let us hope they are not the sons I hope she meant. We will talk more in the Big House in the afternoon. Now, get some sleep everyone!"

Percy held Chiron back after the Hill was deserted, except for Annabeth. "Chiron…I—I've also had these dreams…" he whispered.

Chiron looked as though he had expected this. "We will speak of this in the afternoon, child. Now off you go! It is four in the morning! No one gets up this late, even if it were for a new release from Dean Martin's singles!"

Percy had a quick breakfast in the mess hall but dragged his feet around due to the fact that he did not sleep after the event early this morning. He stayed up and thought about what Queen Sess had said. He wondered what the new threat was and how he will decimate the Western Civilization. And what did he mean by the Ancient Lands? Did he mean Greece? Or possibly Rome? Percy's brain couldn't take the feedback and he groaned.

And he still had questions about how Luke had survived. He'd have to ask Nic—

"Hey Percy!" said a familiar and surprising voice.

Percy turned around on his bench and found himself staring at Nico, who was grinning at him. Percy smiled and slapped him on the back. "Well, speak of the devil!"

Nico frowned. Percy hurriedly made an apology. "It's only an expression. Anyway, I had some questions, buddy. Did you find out about Luke, Nico? Well, he survived when he stabbed himself in his Achilles spot. You and I both know that is not supposed to happen. It's impossible to survive! And I wondered," Percy was on a roll, and Nico got more suspicious looking as he went on. "The god of the Styx is, well, Styx right? Where would she be, Nico? I want to talk to her about her defects in the Achilles invincibility thing."

Nico shuffled. "Percy, I don't think it's a good id—"

Percy put his hand on Nico's shoulder. "Nico, please. It is the only way to find out how to defeat Luke…again. And it might help find out more information about this new threat."

Nico frowned. "New threat?"

Percy sighed. He explained how his meeting with Queen Sess involved new info on a evil force rising, even more powerful than Kronos, the Lord of the Titans himself.

Nico didn't seem to understand. "What could be more powerful than Kronos, besides Gaia?"

Percy was annoyed. "Nico, can you just take me to Lady Styx?"

Thunder boomed.

Nico thought about it and then sighed. "Fine."

He whistled and instantly, a wall of black fur collided into them both and a huge wet mop was sweeping their faces. Percy laughed. "Good to see you too, Mrs. O' Leary. Now girl, get off…"

Once the black as night hellhound was of them, they watched as she started to chase her tail. Percy rolled his eyes. "Come on girl, we got to get to the Underworld!"

The world 'Underworld' got Mrs. O' Leary excited.

In less than a minute, they emerged from the shadows of Central Park, the entrance to the Underworld they had taken not long ago. Percy forgot about the part where they needed music. But then he remembered that Nico's father was his patron. He sent out his thoughts to the deep, rich earth as well as the riches below the surface. "Um…Lord Hades? I'm at the Door of Orpheus and uh…we could really use your help in opening these Doors because neither of our singing is good enough. Please?" he added.

Nico frowned. "Why would my dad answer your requests and prayers?"

Percy explained how Hestia and Hades offered to be his patrons and how he accepted. Nico was gaping at him. "Wha—"

Hades' voice suddenly filled the air. "Of course nephew! Anything for my young hero."

The Doors crumbled open and Percy thanked the Lord of the Dead. They headed inside with Mrs. O' Leary in hot pursuit, wagging her tail. They climbed onto her back and Percy whispered into her ear. "Hey girl! Can you take us to the River Styx?"

Once again, Percy felt that she thought he said 'sticks' because she got excited. As they raced forward into the Underworld, he thought he heard Nico grumble about how his father never treated him this way.

Percy smiled as the River Styx cam into view over the horizon. Or whatever they call it here.

A.N. I know it's been a long time since I posted, but the homework has been piling up already! Can you believe it!? Anyway, this is, again, a short chapter, but I will try to make up for it by posting many chapters. Thank you for all your reviews and keep sending me ideas about the pairing and names for the scythe and the dagger! Thanks for the support!