Just like to say a massive thank you to my reviewers, comments are much appreciated! Enjoy this..back to Annabeth's point of view…

Annabeth Chase

Deja vous

I could not believe my eyes when I woke up. First of all I was alive or the Underworld had been redecorated. Second, Grover and Nico were on either side of me, as far as I could see also alive. Thirdly, and the most bizarre thing: we were speeding through the water, spraying fresh waves of water on three hippocampi that were glowing with a turquoise light and gliding in the sea at an impossible speed.

I looked over at my companions, trying to figure out what had happened. Their eyes were shut tight. We had been in the plane, we had been crashing, and the sea had been rising around us. The images flashed through my mind, but there was nothing else other than a flicker of turquoise light shining into the corner of my eyes and then I had woken up to this.

Someone must have saved us. Grover and Nico were both asleep but it could have been them. But then again it's unlikely, not many people had the power to save people from a disaster like that. Except for one.

Receive help from a long lost friend.

The line from the prophecy popped into my head. Maybe this had been our help, but a long lost friend, didn't rule out the gods.

I'd once been very close to joining the hunters and I had been again very recently, I knew Artemis, well, but I wouldn't say she was a close friend. Athena, my mom, made more sense, but for some reason I didn't think that that was right. Hermes was another possibility, I wasn't sure.

I stopped thinking for a minute, listening to the soft movement of the water, and glancing up at the hidden sun. The clouds were threatening rain, the gods were still angry. We were running out of time. The salty air rushed into my lungs filling me with delight, and again I saw the flash of light, from my memory…

Falling through the air. Uncontrollable. Helpless. Waiting for the inevitable. Knowing that there was no way out, no plan to form. Staring a glance at Nico, who was bent down low, stealing his last glances at his book? I remember looking at the water rising below me, an anticipated and unwanted greeting waiting to spring. I close my eyes, not wanting to see the destruction, but I can't close my ears. I can hear the screams of pain, the children crying. My eyes close, I lose consciousness. I can see my body in the plane; I'm hovering above it, detached, escaping the pain. Then suddenly I see a flash of colour in the mass of red and black: Turquoise. Then the blackness engulfed me.

I remember that colour, and I saw it again then. It hung below me, like a halo, around the creature I was riding. I remember that exact colour again, lying, tucked away in a memory I never dare to think about, to relive, except in my dreams, in my nightmares.

The scene where Percy left me, rushes past my barriers and I absorb it. His skin lights up, for a final time, I see him and my heart explodes again, surprising me that there's anything left of it.

The prophecy was right, as always, and I knew who had helped us. It was Percy.

The knowledge didn't comfort me though. It words terrified me. 'Lost'. He was gone. And, the prophecy had been right, what more could it have gotten correct. What would happen in England? 'One lost in the land of the dead'. The worries that had been taunting me began to eat at me again.

Thankfully, that was when Grover's eyelids began to flutter open. His eyes opened, and he began to fidget abruptly, disorientated. I smiled at him, and he gave me a questioning look.

I pointed to Nico, and Grover took out his reed pipes and started to play at an immense volume. Nico was awake in an instant, and I laughed. He nearly fell off his hippocampus but in no time Nico and Grover were both waiting for my explanation. Wise girl, remember?

"Percy." It was all that I could say, I couldn't admit to them my weird sense of intuitiveness again nor could I tell them about the memories. They had been locked away again, I couldn't dare to think about them, and so speaking about them was way off limits.

Nico looked completely caught off guard, but Grover's face was more thoughtful.

"That makes sense, I think you're right. I mean it fits the prophecy and I think I could sense him." His voice trailed off at the end, his face was having second thoughts about saying what he had just said. But I nodded, to him. I had sensed it to; I'd just needed proof.

"Okay, that's good but what are we going to do now, anyone know where we are?"

"No," I turned to Grover again, trying to find an answer to Nico's question.

"I'll get my reed pipes and try to find out."

"Ok that's good, I think were slowing down."

I could feel our speed decreasing and just in the distance I saw the shallow shore emerging in the misty horizon. I looked down at my watch but then realised it had broken in the water, so all I could tell from the sky that it was some time in the afternoon. At that moment I felt a weird surge of deja vous. I could remember escaping from the depths of the Underworld with my two best friends and being dumped off the coast of LA. I smiled thinking about the tradition that was occurring, hopefully it wouldn't happen again.

The hippocampi halted several metres from the shore; the water was too shallow for them. We thanked them, and I sent a silent prayer to Percy, and then they dove into the underwater realm and disappeared from view.

Eventually, after our struggle to the shore we collapsed on the beach. Our situation had become more desperate after the creatures left and we realised how much had been lost or ruined during our unplanned dive. Nico and I had lost our bags, and Grover's was soaked with water; our only money had been wrecked and the few golden drachmas were managed to scrape together wouldn't help us at all.

Helpless. The word hung in the air above us, waiting threateningly.

Grover set up his rocks in the sand, to try and find out where we were and I sat with him. Nico disappeared back into the sea for a while.

After Grover had finished an ear splitting song, the pebbles had formed a new shape that I still couldn't understand.

Apparently, our kind friends had taken us to the Dover coast only a couple of hours from our destination: London. We were nearly there, so close. But we had a couple of problems: no money, and no more friendly creatures to bring us to London.

"So what are we going to do?"

"I have no idea; maybe we should talk to Chiron…"

"There's nothing he can do."

"Any fancy ideas then Annabeth?"

"Nope," I exaggerated popping the 'P', "any poodles hidden up your sleeve this time?"

Nico came running up to us, his clothes dripping wet, but his face lit up in exhilaration.

"I don't know about any poodles, but I found this when I was swimming just now." In his hand he held a small coin; its edges were frayed and the sliver hadn't started to fade, with rust taking its place, but I understood in an instant.

"It's a mule," he said, triumphantly, "I used to collect coins, Bianca used to like them, it was really fun. This one's not very rare it quite common but I think it'll buy us enough to get to London, but I'm not sure how we'll get back, we lost our tickets." His voice was rambling again because he was so excited.

I leaped up in pure pleasure smiling at him in glee. We had our way to London sorted; we'd have to wait to find our way back.