The Boy On the Ground

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Disclaimer: Don't own PJO or TLA

Chapter 11

Percy walked back to camp, the others following suspiciously.

"What exactly are you going to show us?" Aang asked.

"You'll see." was the only reply.

Aang and Katara shared worried glances. What was he going to do?

They walked to the center of the camp where the pot of water was.

Percy turned to face them. "I need a way to make a rainbow." He said. "Do you guys have a diamond or something?"

"A rainbow?" Sokka asked. "What are we going to do? Have a dance party under the rainbow?" He waved his hands dramatically as he pretended to dance.

"Shut up." Toph punched him, she stomped her foot and slid it around in a small circle, a large diamond burst from the ground, she caught it as it fell. "Here ya go."

"Uhh, thanks." Percy took it and hesitated. Than he copied Toph's movements and made a small pedestal, he balanced the diamond on it and made a wall of mist come up from the pot. He adjusted the diamond so that it reflected of the moonlight and made a rainbow.

With a deep breath his pulled out the bag hidden in the folds of his clothes.

It was like deja-vu for Aang.

Percy spoke clearly and loudly for everyone to hear, "Oh Iris. Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering."

He threw one of the coins into the mist and it disappeared. Aang sucked in his breath.

"Whoa…" They all said in unison… minus Toph.

"What happened guys?" She asked. "You all seem a little freaked out."

"Show me Annabeth at Camp Half-Blood." Percy ignored Toph and spoke to the mist.

The veil of water shifted and swirled.

"Come on, come on." Percy coaxed under his breath.

Finally it showed a young girl, about 16 or 17 standing in a dark room, she had yellow hair and Aang let his breath go when he saw her, she was the same girl that he had seen in his vision.

Katara heard him sigh and suddenly she felt a little miffed, she didn't know why though. The girl really was beautiful.

The girl was standing over a large table which was covered with maps and papers of all kind with a dim lamp hanging overhead. Her hair was pulled into a messy high pony-tail, her clothes were wrinkled, like she had slept in them. Her eyes, a little red and little blood shot, were outlined with dark circles. But even with all that she still looked beautiful. She stood, shifting through her papers, her lips moving slightly, not seeing the people before her, until Percy ruined the moment and the peaceful picture before them.

"Hey Annabeth." He said gently.

The girl, Annabeth started and grabbed the wicked looking knife that they hadn't noticed before from the table.

"Percy?" She relaxed, her startling grey eyes filling up with hope.

Sokka whispered to Toph what was happening. She only rolled her eyes, she thought Annabeth was going to be a wimp.

"Annabeth! Are you going to cry?" Percy teased her. It took all of Toph efforts not to groan.

"No! I'm not!" She defended herself, she rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I'm… I'm just glad you're still alive Seaweed Brain…"

"Really?" Percy looked honestly touched.

"Yes… so that I can have the pleasure of killing you myself!" Her whole mood changed. She stabbed at the table, the blade sunk in half way through, her eyes blazed. "Do you know what you've put me through Percy? I swear, if you were in this world I would have my hands wrapped around your neck!"

Her eyes flashed at Percy who shrank back. "Hey, I didn't choose to come here!" He defended weakly.

"Of course you didn't!" Annabeth replied sarcastically, "You just go sucked in, didn't you?"

Toph chuckled, she could feel how scared Percy was, maybe this girl was alright, but unfortunately the chuckle brought Annabeths attention to the people standing behind the boy who had caused her pain.

"Who are they?" She asked coldly.

"These," Percy motioned to the gaang, "are the people who've decided they don't mind risking their lives to help me out. AND guess what? They have Chicken squirrels here! Isn't that gross?"

"That's disgusting." She said absent mindedly as she folded her arms and studied each of the gaang members in turn.

"Anyways, Annabeth. I'm sorry I left and I'm sorry I didn't IM before but it wouldn't go through! And the fact that it's working right now means that the walls are getting weaker!"

"I know." She said. "But seriously, who are you guys?"

Katara took a step forwards. "I'm Katara, and this is Aang, he's the Avatar."

"Avatar?" Her eyes brightened. "You mean like Jinora, Melka and Su-hue?"

Aang felt a spark go off in the very darkest and deepest parts of his mind.

"Who?" Percy looked confused.

"They're my past lives." Aang said. Percy turned to look at him with an incredulous look on his face. "I've never heard of them before but when she said those names, I felt a connection, sorta…" Aang shrugged.

"Great," Percy turned back Annabeth. "How did you know about avatars anyways?"

"I went to Olympus after you… left." this brought a sour look to her face. "The gods were aware of the problem and apparently they didn't care."

Percy snorted. "Figures."

"You have to fix the walls that are separating our worlds Percy." Annabeth continued desperately.

"Please, that's old news." Percy waved it aside. "Do you know how to fix the walls? Or maybe where they are?"

"I'm working on that!" She gestured to the papers on the table. "So far I…"

She was cut off by the sound of a door opening. She froze and looked at the door to the room she was in, swearing under her breath. "Chiron and Mr. D don't know I'm using the Big House as m head-courters." She explained in a whisper.

"They do now." Percy grinned, "Finally! it's you that's going to get into trouble and not me!"

"Shut up!" She hissed.

The door slid open to reveal a boy, about 14 years old. He had dark hair, eyes, clothes, everything. Even the shadows seemed to cling to him, giving him a forbidding and brodding look.

"Annabeth I-" He stopped suddenly, "Percy?"

"S'up Nico."

"Now what's happening?" Toph yelled, frustrated.

"Are you blind?" Annabeth asked quietly.

"Yes." Toph folded her arms and silently dared anyone to challenge her.

"Nico." Percy yelled in a whisper. "They have Chicken squirrels here!"

"Would you get over that already?" Katara asked, frustrated.

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Does anyone want to tell me what's going on too?"

"Percy had the audacity to IM me." Annabeth said. "He's found the avatar already so that's good."

Nico looked straight at Aang. "You're the Avatar?" He asked. "How old are you?"

"Technically I'm 113 but really I'm only 13*."

"Hey! I have that problem too! Really I'm like, eighty something, but I'm only 14!"

"How did that happen?" Aang asked, excited to meet someone who had the same problem.

"I was stuck in a building that makes time stop for you when you're inside." He said.

"Well… that's cool… I guess." He wasn't sure how to respond to that.

The IM flickered.

"The connection isn't very strong so we'll keep the chit-chat to a minimum!" Annabeth clapped her hands. "A long time ago our worlds mixed, Avatar Jinora dealt with it but now it's happening again. In the very bowels of Olympus I found some old stuff that I think might be maps for your world." She held one up. "Is it?"

"It's extremely old and outdated but it yeah, that's us." Zuko said.

"Good." She looked relieved. "I've been studying it forever."

"Forever? You just got it three days ago!" Nico countered.

Annabeth ignored him. "Do you know where you are right now?" Her eyes swept over them, asking them all.

Sokka pulled out his map. "This is an updated map. We're right about here." He pointed to their point.

"Hold that up." She commanded. She quickly sketched the new map to study later. On the old map she marked something down.

"I sent Nico to see if he could find the wall on our side." She explained to them before turning to Nico. "What did you find?"

"I'm not positive but I think the worlds are on top of each other." He said. "Here," He grabbed a pencil and put two circles one above the other. "Our world is this one." He pointed to the bottom one, "Their world is on top"

"Has everyone been hitting the cactus juice?" Toph demanded, "This is just crazy! How can there be two worlds? How can there be gods? How can there be monsters? I just don't understand!" She waved her hands in the air for more effect. "Am I the only sane one here?"

"I really don't understand either." Katara soothed. "But you have to believe it. It's hard not to."

"I have doubts too." Zuko said, "It is crazy but… not believing would be worse."

"That's the spirit." Nico said gloomily. "As long as you accept your doom and come to terms that you're going to die pretty soon, you're all good."

There was silence as they all looked at Nico.

"What?"

Annabeth slapped his head. "You're scaring them!" She scolded. The IM shimmered again. "Guys we have to go! Try to find as much as you can and we'll try to talk later. Kay?" She looked straight into Percy's eyes and they had an understanding that only the two people who know each other inside and out can have.

"Love you Annabeth." Percy said quietly.

Nico snorted, "Love you too Perce."

Toph grinned, this kid was alright.

Percy waved his hand through the mist and it disappeared. He sighed and faced the gaang again.

"So…? Can I go back to bed now?" He asked awkwardly after a moment.

Katara also sighed as Sokka yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Just try to stay there this time." She said.

She walked off to her tent as Zuko shook his head at her receding back. "Yeah… I'm going too." He nodded at Aang, "We're waking up with the sun tomorrow, you need to practice some more before we leave."

Aang made a face but didn't protest, he knew he needed more training.

"Well you won't have an audience." Sokka told him. "Night guys."

Everyone mumbled back except Toph. Who promptly sat down and put a roof over her head, her back was still visible though.

"I said, goodnight Toph."

She scoffed haughtily and didn't reply but she didn't finish her tent either.

"Toph…" Sokka prompted teasingly.

"If I say goodnight will you shut up?" She snapped, blushing.

"Yes."

"Fine… Goodnight Sokka."

Aang was running on the cosmic energy, his breath was coming short and his chest and legs hurt. Sweat dripped off his forehead as he ran. The path he was on was disappearing behind him as he ran. The silhouette of the bigger and more powerful Aang stood in front of him, not getting any closer the more he ran. Finally Aang looked past himself and saw a wonderful sight.

The light from the stars was pouring into the back of the silhouette of Aang. The light was then being directed to a great wall. A bright red color kept appearing and trying to pass through the wall, but the pure white light was pushing it back.

A sharp stinging in his back brought Aang's thoughts back. This was the part of the dream that scared him the most. He watched as the cosmic energy around him failed and the giant him slowly fell. Next, the little Aang, with only so much power began to fall to, every single time he tried to grab onto something and every time nothing was there.

Slowly but with force the red energy oozed out. The light from the stars couldn't do anything. As Aang fell he saw the red light eating at the wall, but before he was plunged into darkness he saw a pure blue light erupt from nowhere and with it came the roaring sound of angry waves, and a strong smell of salt water.

*I think Aang must have had a birthday sometime during the show! Right? So I just said he was 13. Hope that doesn't offend anyone!

I got Annabeth and Nico in! Savannah Silverstone, I hope you weren't disappointed.

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