I know, I know. It took FOREVER to write this chapter, but I have a life. I was busy and school started too. Expect a new chapter every month, or maybe every few weeks. I hope you like it! Read and review!

Chapter 4: I Learn About The Sword Of Death

Surprisingly, I didn't have any dream. Usually when I was at camp, I had a dream, or nightmare every night. This was a first.

When I woke up, I realized something. I wasn't in the Big House anymore. I looked around faintly, and I knew that I was in my cabin. I sighed. The door opened and I stiffened. I relaxed when I saw it was just Annabeth. She came over to me and gave me some nectar and ambrosia. Her cold expression didn't change. When she was about to leave, I decided it was time to talk.

"Annabeth, listen…" I told her in a voice that was even softer than a whisper. I didn't think she heard me, but when I said that she stopped dead in her tracks and came over to me Her expression was still the same. I sighed. "I'm sorry" I said simply. She knew what I was talking about. Annabeth turned blood red from anger and glared at me.

"SORRY?! For what? 'Sorry' is hardly appropriate right now! What's appropriate is that you get down and beg for my forgiveness! You owe me that much, Percy Jackson" she yelled furiously. That was a bit too much. I didn't owe her anything. She owed me. I had saved her; there was no possible way that she could take that army. She would've just died. I flinched at the thought. Suddenly, I was just as mad at her as she was at me.

"I don't owe you anything, Annabeth! In fact, I think you owe me. What do I owe you for, anyways? That I saved you?" I asked her.

Annabeth laughed without humor. "Saving me" she muttered. Then she got louder. "As if I care about that! What you owe me for is worrying the Hades out of me! What you owe me for is making me cry every night, thinking you were never going to wake up! What you owe me for is forcing me to leave you guys fighting alone and almost dying! I could have helped Percy, you know I could" she cried. I rolled my eyes.

"You couldn't have helped Annabeth" I told her quietly. "The army was… enormous. Rachel" –Annabeth made a face at her name—"wasn't kidding when she said that it was huge. Besides, I lived okay? Isn't that the main thing?" I was surprised at how calm I was. Annabeth's expression softened and I realized I was still lying down. I got up and sat on the bed. Annabeth sat down next to me.

"I guess" she murmured. "But Percy…" – her expression turned to pain—"You have no idea how worried I was. I thought that I… that I had lost you. I couldn't stand that, Percy, I couldn't, I just…" She didn't finish her sentence. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. Unthinkingly, I threw my arms around her neck. It was the only thing I could think of doing to comfort her. I hated it when she cried; it sent little stabs of pain through me, too. Annabeth stiffened at the contact, and then grew more relaxed. She hesitantly put her arms around me, too. It felt strangely good.

Suddenly, her arms still around me, she let out a laugh. It was nice to hear, but it made me curious, too. "What?" I demanded. Annabeth laughed again.

"Nothing, it's just… what brought this on?" she asked, indicating the hug. I blushed bright red. I shrugged as much as I could with my arms around her.

"Your tears" I muttered. Annabeth heard me and smiled. Then she pulled away, her face red. I was sure mine was, too. "Annabeth, I'm fine. You didn't have to worry then, and you don't have to worry now, okay?" I murmured, still blushing. She raised an eyebrow but nodded.

"Okay, Seaweed Brain" she agreed. I sighed. Then I remembered something and narrowed my eyes.

"Annabeth? What happened? At the, uh, meeting you went to before the dance?" I asked her. Annabeth froze, and then turned red again, out of anger this time though.

"Oh, um, nothing much. Just, uh, discussing strategies, but none of them worked. They invited me because Athena thought I was the smartest and…" Annabeth shrugged and looked down. I sensed she was telling the truth, but she was hiding something too. She took a glance at me and I knew that she knew that I knew that there was something she wasn't telling me. I raised my eyebrows and waited. She sighed.

"Athena… she said that I have to stay away from you. Well, she didn't exactly say your name, but it was implied when she said 'dirty rotten piece of kelp'" Annabeth explained, her voice soft. I stared at her stunned. I knew Athena didn't like me because I was a son of Poseidon, but I didn't expect her to do anything like that. I glared at no one in particular.

"Well, then" I said stiffly. "I guess you have to follow your mother's orders. It's okay. I don't care." Annabeth looked at me, horrified.

"Percy, no! How can you even think that? I'm not following my mom's orders, okay?" she confirmed. I rolled my eyes.

"She might turn you into an owl" I pointed out. Annabeth looked serious, and hesitated before saying anything.

"I'd rather be turned into an owl than stay away from you because my mom told me to" she said quietly. I looked at her quizzically. Heat rose to Annabeth's cheeks as she realized what she had said. "No! I mean, you know, I'd rather do that than just stay away from my friends and follow my mom's orders" she said, blushing furiously. I nodded, smirking.

"Why does she want you to stay away anyway? Just because I'm a son of Poseidon? How in the world is that my fault? And it's my dad she's rivals with, not me" I told her, getting angrier by the moment. Annabeth nodded.

"I guess that's the reason, but I don't know. I know she hates you, but it doesn't seem like something she would do" she said. I didn't say anything. Annabeth looked at her watch and her eyes widened. "Oh shoot! I'm late for archery practice. I'll see you later okay?" Without waiting for my answer, she ran out the door.

At that moment, Grover came in. He was just the person I wanted to see. A question had come in my mind.

"Grover! How did you not know if I was dead or not? I mean, the empathy link…" I said, my voice fading. About 3 years ago, Grover had created an empathy link between us, so we could read each other's emotions, and see each other in dreams. He would know if I was dead or not. Why would he have to ask Nico? Grover shook his head.

"Percy… I think the empathy link is gone. I tried to see if you were dead, tried reading your emotions, but it didn't work. I don't know how it's gone, but…" he shrugged. "And Nico—he wouldn't tell us anything. He would just walk around, muttering to himself. I think he's gone crazy, that boy." Grover looked a hundred percent serious. Well, that was strange. What was wrong with Nico? I thought back a bit.

"Wait… what do you mean it's gone? If you made it, and you didn't remove it, how is it gone?" I asked, a little suspicious. Grover turned red.

"Okay, fine. I removed it. But Percy, I didn't want to die. When I did have the empathy link, you didn't even move. I could feel you dying! The best thing would be if I just removed the empathy link" he explained. I thought about it a bit, and nodded. I guess I couldn't blame him. If I could, I probably would have done the same.

"It's okay, G-man" I assured him. Grover smiled and then helped me up.

"Let's go, Percy. There's a meeting at the Big House" he said. I nodded and we walked together to the Big House.

In the meeting, all the cabin counselors were there, and of course, Chiron and Mr. D. However, there was one other unexpected guest. "Percy!" Tyson ran over to me and gave me a bone-crushing hug. Then he looked at me, confused. "Percy is alive?" he asked with tears in his eyes. I laughed.

"Yeah, man. I'm alive and breathing" I assured him.

"Settle down, child. We have much to talk about" Chiron said. At that moment, Nico came blasting through the door and looked at me with wide eyes. "Percy!" he screamed. He was breathing hard. I looked at him, confused. Chiron was as calm as ever.

"Ah, Nico. You are here. Good. Now we can talk about your, ah, plan" Chiron told him. Nico nodded.

"Percy, you know the plan. Have you thought about it?" Nico asked me, glaring. He obviously wanted a yes, but the truth was I didn't think about it at all. I shook my head. "Percy! What is wrong with you? We don't have much time!" He practically screamed. I took a deep breath.

"Hold up here, Nico. What happened after I… er, fainted?" I asked him.

"Fainted? More like almost died" Annabeth muttered under her breath. I glared at her.

"Fine" Nico snapped. "I'll tell you. After you blasted all that water, it basically crushed every single monster. I was weak but I didn't faint. I tried to wake you up, but you wouldn't. So I came to camp. Annabeth and Rachel were waiting for us there. Now can we please move on?" I nodded. "Okay. So… this is what we have to do. There is only one way to send Kronos back to Tartarus: to stab him with the Deathly Sword" he explained. Everyone except me, Chiron, and Nico looked confused. Mr. D. just looked bored. "Guys, thousands of years ago that's the way Kronos was killed. I… I'm pretty sure that's the only way" he said.

"Where is it though? How do we get it?" Beckendorf asked, looking confused. Nico hesitated.

"I'm not sure yet. It was lost centuries ago" he said, looking sheepish. That's when Annabeth exploded.

"We don't have time for this" Annabeth snapped. "So you think we're going to search the whole United States for this, Nico? Nope. Not enough time, in case you haven't noticed!"

That got Nico angry. "Would you just listen for a second? I have a pretty good idea where it is, which I will explain later, okay? Right now… well, for the sword to… um, activate, I guess you'd say, you need a soul of a child of the Big Three. So it either has to be… Percy, Thalia, or me." For once, everyone was speechless. So was I. Nico hadn't told me this. Annabeth looked stunned.

"Nico… is there… a way… to get the soul back?" she whispered, sounding scared. Nico frowned.

"I'm not sure, Annabeth. There should be, but I can't be sure" he said. "We need magic for it, and we would need to seek Hecate, and…" I wasn't even sure Nico was talking to us anymore.

"Magic? What do you mean?" I asked. Nico shook his head.

"You won't understand… if it's possible, only I can do it. It has to do with souls which has to do with death, and only the Children of Death, meaning children of Hades, can do this" he explained. I nodded without asking for any further explanations.

"So what now, Nico? A quest? Who will sacrifice their soul? What will we do" I asked, totally and completely clueless. Nico frowned again.

"Yes. We need a quest to find the sword. You can't be the one to sacrifice your soul Percy, even though before I told you that you should be the one. But, now that I think about it… you can't be the one because you're the one who has to stab him Percy. No one else can do that. And I'm not sure I can be the one, because I'm needed to for the fight here. Besides, if we have to get that soul back from the sword, I need to do it" he confirmed. I got what he was saying.

"Thalia." I said in a flat voice, but my eyes widened. So did Annabeth.

"But… but she's a Hunter! And she has to—" she stuttered, but Nico cut her off.

"We'll just have to ask Artemis to let us borrow her, but keep her immortal, of course. That's the only way we can do this" he said. "And Percy, you will have to lead this quest. This is your prophecy, your quest, and your decision. Your decision will decide the fate of the world."

Well, that made me feel a lot better.

"Go. Go, child. Go and ask the Oracle for guidance. We shall discuss the details later, but first you have to get a prophecy. When you come back, assuming you're still sane, of course, well talk more" Chiron said gravely, his eyes sad. Annabeth looked at me with sympathy and something else… was it… no, it wasn't. I shook my head to clear that thought. I nodded at Chiron and went to seek the prophecy that would decide my fate.

Did you like it? Suggestions? What do you want in the next chapter?! More Percabeth? Tell me! R&R!