It's about to get really good I love this part. Hope you guys do!

"He has risen." Nereus shouted as soon as I was in the room. "You must get here soon."

"Take it now," I demanded getting to my feet.

"Kronos must take it from you. He cannot come beyond our walls where this room lies. You must come." Nereus ordered spinning on his heel to turn to the side and stalk around me.

"Take it to him then," I pulled the ring from my finger letting it form into the scythe. I pointed it straight for his neck watching as he realized this was no bluff.

"Silly girl this is just a dream. You can't really kill me hear. I'm compacted dust." He smiled as he moved the blade away from his throat.

"Then I can practice." I swung around the blade easily slicing through him. His body fell apart like sand where I hit and then completely sealed its self together.

"Get out of here Aikaterine. You're holding up the progress across the states." He dismissed me with his hand and I melted away.

"Aikaterine, Aikaterine, breathe please, don't leave me." I heard Nico shouting at me. Had I died? I sucked in a breath felt my heart start with a couple of uncertain beats before starting up regularly.

My eyes fluttered open and Nico was looming over me with Annabeth and Percy watching helplessly. Percy and Annabeth were looking at their feet and Nico was crying into his hands. I sat there rather confused. I guess I had died. I wasn't sure. I remembered blacking out and that was it. Every time I met with Nereus did I die? This was a little weird.

"You guys?" I wondered not really sure exactly how to tell them I was right here. We were all crammed in the back of the van and I was a little bit nervous with everyone so close.

Annabeth and Percy's heads both shot up looking straight at me. Nico slowly lifted his head and stared at me in disbelief. Annabeth slowly had a smiled grow across her face. Percy hugged her and swayed back and forth. Nico was just dumbfounded.

"I felt you die. You were gone. Right in my arms, you died. You couldn't have come back." Nico whispered staring at my stomach.

"Nico, I'm right here. I'm back." I pulled his attention of to my face and kissed the tip of his nose.

He gave sort of a half smile. I sat up more and crossed my legs in a crisscross position. "I have to show you guys something." It slipped out of my mouth and I knew it was too late.

"Ok, show us," Percy answered.

"I can't show you guys in the van. We have to go outside." I slid off the end of the seat and stumbled as I propped myself against the van wall. I tumbled my way down the aisle of the van and out the door. Annabeth, Percy, and Nico climbed out after me as I slowly made it through the ditch and into the woods.

Nico caught up to me easily on the way up the other side of the ditch. He pulled one arm up over his head and let me use him as my personal crutch as we got through the first line of trees. Just inside that line of trees I stopped. I pushed Nico a safe distance away and kneeled knowing that once I took off the ring and it turned into a scythe I would have serious trouble.

"What's going on Kate?" Nico demanded.

I sighed knowing that I would somehow lose once I told them this. "Nico, the dreams you've been asking about. I am meeting someone in my dreams that I don't want to be there."

"What are you talking about?" Nico was quickly shushed after he finished his question by Annabeth.

"The first time I met him was when Clarisse was coming after me. He pulled my soul from my body and I had to get something from him."

"What is it?" Percy shouted annoyed with the word games.

I pulled the ring slowly off my finger. Annabeth was getting really fidgety, crossing her arms, then her ankles. Uncrossing her arms, uncrossing her ankles, she just couldn't stay still. The ring came all the way off and the scythe grew heavy in my hand.

The double sided curved blade was beautiful. I had to admit it. There was no changing the thought that this was a beautifully crated blade. The feeling of power felt like it wanted to split apart. The two metals wanted to unlatch from each other like, like sides of a magnet. I could feel the power of it radiating on to me, but my own power was being taken by it.

"Aikaterine, I can't believe that you…" Nico wasn't able to finish he kneeled down next to me staring at the blade.

"I didn't come on this quest to find Rachel." Tears began to stream down my face as I tried to explain. "I am traveling all this way because Kronos is coming back, and I am delivering his weapon to him."

"Aikaterine, why did you even except it? You have to except the weapon to take it." Annabeth sounded appalled as she got closer.

"Because, it's my fatal flaw; I want the power. I want to have the control, but since I've taken on the weapon I have no control. I don't know what to do." I changed the weapon back into a ring and slipped it back onto my finger. Then it clicked. I didn't have to bring them with me. I could go alone and escape anything happening to anybody. I stood up feeling rejuvenated and took off toward the van.

Nico took all of two seconds to realize what I was doing. He stood and threw out his hand bringing up a walk of rock. I skidded to a stop and quickly scaled it. A gasp of shock came as the rock wall disappeared behind me. A hole opened up in front of me and I leaped over it easily.

"Nico, stop!" I shouted still running.

"You can't go by yourself." His voice was echoing between the trees as if he was sporadically changing positions.

"Watch me," I got to the passenger side and threw open the door. "Nereus, can't you just transport me?" I wondered starting up the engine.

Yes, Nereus's voice filled my head as I hit the gas pedal. The car sped on and I vanished from the driver seat.

I felt it coming and tucked and rolled in on the floor. I was lying on the floor of Nereus's office. A Cyclops pulled me to my feet by the shoulder and Nereus was sitting at his desk.

"I'm here. How do I get down there?" I mumbled taking a seat in the chair.

"Luke, our guest is here." A boy around the age seventeen stepped out from behind a corner. He had a scar that ran down his face and he looked disappointed.

"I can't believe I'm doing this again." He looked up at me half smiling as if that was all he could manage. "Come on, he is waiting down stairs." He held out his arm and I linked my arm through his.

We walked over to the elevator door calmly where the Cyclopes let us in. We stood quietly as the doors closed in front of us. The boy named Luke hit the button with the scythe on it and we headed down. I reach over and hit the JF button.

"What are you doing?" he turned to face me.

"I'm visiting some friends." I answered calmly as the elevator was knocked sideways and then lurched to the right floor. The doors cracked open and no one reach in. I sucked in a sharp breath as the finally parted completely. "Hold the doors Luke. I need to see if there is anyone left."

"Ok, hope you find what you're looking for." He put his hand on the door and waited with his finger on the open doors button.

I stepped out and looked around clueless. The cave was gone. There was no abode in which Nico and I had stayed.

"Grant, I think I heard the elevator." I heard someone yell as someone headed my way from behind a large formation of rocks. Jezebel ran out from behind the rock wall covered in blood. "Katherine?" She wondered sweeping off her jeans.

"Jezebel, where is everyone else? Where are the other four?" I wondered giving her a quick hug. She was Kronos's daughter, yes, but she was still a person and she seemed to have changed.

"Grant is here with me right now, but he has a broken leg and is getting sick like Ocean. Ocean died because the disease was too much." I nodded letting her know I was listening. "Hazel and Colby were taken away and separated from each other. I've seen them in the fields but both at different times. Better yet, why are you here? You got out."

"I never was free. I'm here again and someone's waiting for me. I have to go. Tell Grant I said hi ok? Take care of yourselves for as long as possible." I turned away ready to walk away. I kept going; I was about half way back…

"Say hi to my dad for me." She laughed a bit and I heard her footsteps head toward the rocks.

I slid back into the elevator and Luke hit the close doors button. We slid farther down beneath the Earth's crust and stopped. The doors cracked open and a gust of frigid wind blew in on our faces.

"Come on," Luke whispered grabbing my hand and dragging me into the darkness. "Kronos!" Luke's voice echoed through the caverns making the roof rumble.

"Luke, you've returned for me." The voice floated through the air making me shiver.

"Yes Lord Kronos," Luke whispered.

Suddenly, he vanished from my side like he had been punched. I heard him groan in pain, but I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face. A scream of pain echoed from where he had disappeared from sight and I stepped back toward the elevator. I couldn't sense anything around me. Above the ground I could see every pebble and see through the dark, but down hear everything was a different element.

Someone grabbed my arm and I shrieked. He covered my mouth pulling me into the light of the elevator. It was Luke, but his eyes were gold and he looked evil. He moved his hand from my mouth and down to the side of my face. He moved his hand again and placed his forearm against my throat. Luke backed me all the way to the elevator and smashed me against the wall. I could breathe.

"You came to give me something. The only way I can get that is by killing you." He hissed seeming to enjoy the fact he would get to kill a demigod.

"Unless… you own – my… soul," I choked out as my head started to throb.

"Go on," he dropped me to the ground where I held firm.

"Take the ring and take my soul as a payment. Please, just don't kill me." I begged.

"Stop crying girl, you'll be a good night leader. I'll accept the payment." He reached out for my heart pressing his palm right over my heart. He pulled back holding a small glowing blue star. "It's almost as beautiful as Artemis's soul, though now it is scarred." He sighed in content and then held out his hand. "My scythe please servant," I took the ring off and set it in his hand. No one died yet, so I figured it was all ok.

The sword formed in his hand and I felt like a huge burden had just been lifted. My destiny was fulfilled, but I was worried that I had just given up something else. Something I would never be able to get back because of what I had just done.

"Let's go." He pulled me into the elevator by my arm sheathing his sword and putting it on his back. "I don't like this." Kronos/Luke grabbed the circlet off my head.

"Please, I got it from my mother. I don't have to wear it, just let my keep it." I begged as we shot up toward the crust of the Earth.

"Very well, it will be waiting for you above in your room. It must stay there. It doesn't go on raids with you." The crown vanished from his hands.

"Ok" I agreed not really having a choice.

"The color is wrong." He complained touching my cloak. The fabric shimmered out around me turning black. I kept my gasp quiet as I realized he would slowly change me until I was what he wanted. "Pull your hood up, no one has seen what my taking your soul has done." I didn't say anything, but what could he mean?

We came out of the elevator and everybody was already kneeling. I didn't make a move and loomed at his side. His hand rested on the small of my back as he led me down a hall. He opened one door and pushed me in telling me it was my bedroom. I thought it was kind of odd how he knew his way around without having been alive for like four years. It was strange.

The room was beautiful. It was dark most of the way around and had a section of wall made out of cedar wood in the center. On one side was my bed which was on suspension ropes from the wall. The other side had a wardrobe, a mirror, and a small lounge with white furniture. The room was round and had two doors in total, the exit and the bathroom door I presumed. Lights were small and dimly lit hanging form the ceiling all over the room at different heights. It was gorgeous.

I made a circle around the room and stopped in my lounge.

"This is so cool." I muttered taking a seat. The door open and Nereus walked in.

"Hey Roomy," He shouted going into the bathroom.

"No way," I muttered sinking down into the chair. There was only one bed in there.

He came back out in his boxers and crawled in the bed. Luckily, I couldn't see because the wall was in the way.

I stood and walked over to the mirror. I removed the hood to my cloak and revealed my face. "Oh my gods!" There was a black mark right next to my eye that covered the side of my face. There were some swirls and other ends were spikes. It was beautiful in a way that was rather dark and gothic.

After I stared at it for a bit I grabbed a couple of throw pillows and stacked them up. I pulled off the cloak and used as a blanket over myself. That's how I fell asleep my first night.

The next chapter will be in the future a bit. Like a couple months or so. I have it ready just R&R

Sincerely,

wisegirlindisguise