A/N- OMG, Chapter 11! It seems like such a long time ago that I started this fic. And I'm only half-way done. About. Jeez…

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah. Rick Riordan owns everything PJO-related.

Okay, you may be thinking: A flash of light? That's so cliché. Well…it was. I'm glad we went that way, and not by traveling through the passageways again. Thank the gods for that; I'm kind of terrified of this place now.

Yeah, so, anyways, we traveled to some place that was probably right above where we were underground. It wasn't the library where we were earlier. Remember all the walking we did? It brought us a long way over. I wouldn't be surprised if we were in Indiana of something. Yippee, the Hoosier State.

"So…" said Sadie, trying to lighten the mood, "who wants to go to that rally I was talking about?"

None of us smiled. We weren't all that excited. Or in the mood to be laughing. I appreciated the thought, though, so I tried to make it less awkward for her.

"Well, considering we're going back to camp now that we have that, I think that going to Chicago would be a bad idea."

"Um, Kylie," Nico said, "we're practically already in Chicago. In fact, it's on the way. Let's go."

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"I hate hiking," Caleb complained about ten minutes later.

"Oh, shut up, Caleb," Avery snapped. Let's just say that she wasn't back to her normal self. And, again, that's completely understandable. If my boyfriend died I would slice off Caleb's head too. I practically want to do it now, and I'm in a decent mood. I guess that's how annoying Caleb was. I wonder if he'll ever grow up.

"Can we all just be quiet?!" Seth asked, frustrated. Sadie opened and closed her fingers, and mouthed 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'. I grinned and tried to not laugh. I'm a pro.

"Right after you are," I told Seth. I think Nico was more irritated than Seth, actually. Once I saw his expression (he looked like he was going to send one of us to the Underworld), I was kind of creeped out, so I just shut up.

"Well, we're here anyways," Sadie, being positive. That was a bit of a relief, 'cause we had been walking sort of near the highway, and some people were looking at us like we were homeless. Which, at the moment, we were, but they didn't need to know that.

Seth had changed back into his normal clothes, thank the gods. He's such a creep. We still had dirt stains and were pretty bruised. We all had a few cuts that had stopped bleeding a while ago, but still hurt and were still visible. None of us were in great shape, to say the least. Whatever.

I found that I actually liked Chicago a bit. Sure, it was windy and there wasn't much sun, but it was also really beautiful. Like, with the architecture and stuff. I mean, I'm not really into that sort of thing, but this was cool. It was actually a lot like New York. It felt a bit like home. You can't go wrong with gangs, criminals, creeps, and crooks. Good morning, Chicago!

Actually, it was kind of late. I would be worried except for the fact that there were six of us, and we had sharp, point objects. Actually, they didn't do squat to mortals, but there were still tons of people on the sidewalk, and we blended in easily.

We found a hot dog stand and got some hot dogs. Oh my gods, they were amazing. We were strolling down the streets later when I realized it had gotten a ton darker and there were way less people out. I started getting worried, but I was still with the others. That was reassuring, until we ran into some scary teenagers.

"Hello," one said terrifyingly, "and welcome to our fortress. Here we practice the art of Black Magic, and we honor the Greek Goddess Hecate…"

We all looked at each other. And then at Seth. I would have laughed, but I wasn't so stupid as to not realize that we were in a dangerous situation. Seth was looking a bit freaked out, and I don't blame him. I mean, some freaky teens were honoring his mother and practicing 'Black Magic'. Yeah, real magical.

"Well, uh, we'll just be going," Seth said. "Wouldn't want to waste your time…"

"Yeah, go on practicing your magic tricks," Caleb said. "Don't worry, we won't bother you."

We sprinted out of there real quick. No need to stick around. Once we were far away, we stopped to catch our breath. Looking around, I noticed all of us grinning. Then we all burst out laughing at the hilarity of the situation.

"That was funny," Sadie said, giggling.

"Yeah, I can't believe people who practice 'Black Magic' honor your mother, Seth." Caleb's laugh was weird. It was like he was guffawing. Well, actually, I don't really know what that is, but it sounds weird, alright? Yeah, I thought so.

"Kole would have loved it!" said Avery enthusiastically. Our smiles slowly faded, Avery's the quickest. The mention of Kole not being here had instantly erased any short spell of happiness we had found.

"I bet he would have," I mumbled sadly. This may be selfish, but I really wished she hadn't mentioned Kole and brought down the spirit. I loved smiles. They were bright, and I love bright and shiny things. It depressed me that nobody had sunny smiles on their faces. Huh. Maybe I should smile more often.

There was about a minute of silence in respect for Kole. I wondered what they had done with his body, 'cause I didn't see it when we came to the surface. Were we going to have a funeral for him? It only seemed right.

"We need to burn his shroud," Nico said.

"Yeah, definitely," I said.

"I wish he was still alive," Avery said. I looked at her.

"Avery, we all do…"

"No! You're all just glad that you've survived! You are sad about Kole, but you're also glad that it wasn't you! I didn't want him to make that stupid oath, but he did! And Kylie, your father is the one who told us to find the stupid griffons!"

I didn't respond. She was right, but I think she might be going a little crazy because of Kole's death.

"Avery," Nico said, "it wasn't Kylie's fault. You know that. You're just upset."

"DON'T TELL ME WHOSE FAULT IT WAS, NICO DI ANGELO!!!" Why is it that Nico is always the one to get yelled at by girls. There was plenty to yell at Caleb and Seth about. Maybe I'll do that…

"Whoa," Caleb said, "Avery, just calm down. Seriously."

Sadie and Seth looked like they didn't want to get involved in our argument. I wish I wasn't. Of course, Caleb didn't care. He thrived on fights and stuff like that. Weird kid.

"Let's just get going," Avery grumbled after glaring at Caleb. I guess that's a good thing. Now she's mad at Caleb.

"Yeah, we'll have to," said Seth. "There's some goblins following us!"

I spun to look in the direction. Oh my gods, gross. Goblins are the single, most hideous-looking creatures I have ever seen. There skin was slimy and green. They were short, but there a ton of them. They had long noses, and small eyes. And no eyebrows. Weird. They were evil-looking. Unfortunately, we were going have to fight them. Great. I'm so excited.

We ran into the nearest building, which just happened to be a hospital. I have a feeling we were going to be disrupting the peace. If there was any peace in a hospital with dying people. Ah, whatever.

The first section that the goblins found us at was the daycare section. Or, I guess, it's more like night-care. Some of these doctors ended up staying late. Their kiddies were in a room with a middle-aged lady. I heard one of them shout, "MONSTERS!" I wondered if he was talking about the book they were reading or the goblins. Who cares…

I shot of a couple of arrows. I didn't want to use the explosives, considering we were indoors. And in a hospital. With children. I noticed the teacher jump out of the window. Yikes. That has to hurt. Maybe she thought there were terrorists in the building.

"Hey Caleb!" I shouted. "Watch the kids until we drive them away!" Caleb looked at me like 'What the heck?!' I shrugged. I didn't tell him it was part of my plan to ruin his life. Caleb hates kids. Thy are the bane of his existence.

After he ducked and rolled, he got to the children. I heard him say, "So…do any of you know patty-cake?" I grinned, in spite of the situation. I bet Caleb didn't know patty-cake. And if he did, I was going to tease him relentlessly.

Nico was doing some pretty cool things with his sword. I briefly wondered if it had a name. Well, anyways, he sliced through, like, five goblins at the same time. It was pretty sweet. Seth was firing short burst of sunlight or something like that at them. It was pretty effective, and the goblins kept bursting into dust after yelling about the terrible light. Hey! I happen to really like the sun. I noticed Seth had gotten back into his robes. He really needed a wardrobe check.

Sadie was wrapping the goblins up in vines and stabbing them with her dagger. She kept shouting "Sorry!" every time she attacked them, despite the fact they were monsters. Avery was slicing and cutting like crazy. I think she was trying to take out her anger about Kole's death on the goblins. Go Avery!

As for me, I shot of the ones that were sneaking up on the others. I was feeling pretty good about myself, until one snuck up on me. Nico stabbed it just before it got me. He smiled at me, and was off. For a second I was stunned, before I realized there was a battle going on around me. I focused real quick.

Soon enough, we had gotten most of them, and only had a few scrapes. Goblins weren't all that smart. Numbers made them dangerous, though. I guess we did pretty well.

I took a few deep breaths, and the first thing I did was look to see what Caleb was doing. The kids were surrounding him and painting his face. I burst out laughing. The others looked at me weird, and I pointed to Caleb. I couldn't speak, I was so overwhelmed by giggles.

The others slowly grinned. Everyone but Avery. She had a look of hatred on her face. It almost scared me, 'cause I've never seen Avery truly mad before. I've seen her stricken by grief, crazed by anger, but never like that. I pretty much stopped smiling.

When Avery saw me looking, she changed her expression. It was a totally fake smile. It didn't fool me. Avery and I were close. Before. I wasn't so sure now. Things with our group were getting strange.

That night, we set up camp in a subway station. Call us idiots (Caleb is), but we did. After talking for a bit, we all went to sleep. Oh my gods, it's been a long day. Nico still had the Sword of Death, and we were going to bring it to the gods. Things were looking up. Feeling kind of happy, I went to sleep. Hey, we each had watch, so we weren't being completely irresponsible.

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The next morning, I woke up because someone was shaking me. Would they stop already?

"Go away!" I moaned.

"Kylie, I'm sorry, but we've got more important things to worry about than you getting enough sleep." Nico seemed really angry, which woke me up a bit. I wanted to scoot away, but Nico still had a grip on my arm.

"Ugh, and what would that be?" I asked.

"The sword is gone. And we think Avery took it."

A/N- Dun, dun, dun!!! Cliffhanger. Oh, whatever, it isn't that great.

Okay, I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I had stuff to do. How unspecific can I get, right? (Actually, a lot more.) Sorry, I had a book to read. More accurately, The Soldiers of Halla. Good book, weird ending.

I'm trying to get the romance in there, sorry. But there probably will be some serious stuff in the next chapter.

Anyways, please review!