Hello, hello, hello! I have returned with L'histoire.

Yes, I know that was French, but do I care? Not particularly.

YAY! Okay, I apologise in advance: this is a short chapter. I'M SORRY! But I had to end it there, because (a) I'm a troll like Rick and love ending on cliffhangers and (b) because the next chapter's going to be like 10,000 words.

Is that fair? *puppy eyes*

Review Replies:

WaterandWisdom: Yay! Someone is prepared to wait for me! Whoohoo! Awww, thanks! DW is one of the greats! *fangirl/insane grin*

toe walker: Yes, I know that was bad. I am evil! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES I HAVE A NEW FRIEND! So that makes . . . three. YEAH!

guest: Well, here it is! The "Grace" issue isn't over, though. Hehe.

: Well, I was thinking of Jason's and Thalia's last name when I wrote that. I have my reasons. I haven't read Delirium, so . . . yeah. The only character I know called Lena is the Lena from Beautiful Creatures. No, I don't think that Nico's mum was named Grace, she had an Italian name, I think. Hang on - I'll check. Brb. Nope! Her name was Maria di Angelo. Well, me and my brain have a strange way of doing things. I'm forever stuck in 'fangirl' mode. *shrugs*

angelwingz: well, I sort of designed Alec not to be liked, just he has a big-ish role. Chewing out has only just begun, mes amis!

Tobystalker: Well, here it is! Oh, and I read your profile (I TAKE MY REVIEWERS SERIOUSLY!) and being shy can be really fun, that is, if you're a cunning evil little PJO fangirl like me . . . *evil laugh*

Disclaimer: WELL I DON'T OWN EITHER OF THESE STORIES OR CAT'S KICK-ASS IDEA SO DON'T BLAME ME! I'M JUST AN INSANE FANGIRL!

Chapter 14: Dark

"WHAT?" Percy yells so suddenly that I stumble. Tobias stumbles like me, caught as off-guard as all of us. Nico whirls around to face him. "Do enlighten us, Kelp Face."

"Dude, Amanda Ritter's—"

"Last name was Grace," Nico finishes sadly. Annabeth crosses her arms. This makes no sense to me at all. "Alec—go and get Thalia. She needs to hear this."

"So you're serious?" Percy asks. "I mean, serious."

"You mean life-and-death serious? Yes. Amanda Ritter was an alias. Amanda was her first name, and her last name was Grace."

"So that means that . . ." Percy began, and Nico nodded. "One of your best friends was her father, and another was her mother."

"I thought you were in a war."

"We were."

"Okay . . ." Annabeth covers her eyes. "This is getting really gross."

Nico shot her a look. "Coming from you. Besides, what did you expect? They were grown adults. And we have the records of Chicago here on the system. So guess what? Amanda Ritter—or Edith Prior, as she became—was the mother of Andrew Prior."

Thalia shoves open the door so hard I have to jump out of its way. "What are you talking about? Why does it concern Jason?"

Jason. That was my great-grandfather's name. What was my great-grandmother's?

"Thalia," Nico says tightly. "We . . . have some important news."

"Then freaking spit it out, di Angelo!"

Nico glanced across to Percy and Annabeth, and they shrug in unison.

"Thalia, you remember Amanda—"

"My niece, yeah."

"She . . . when she was in Chicago, she . . . had children."

Thalia's eyes go as wide as saucers. "She what?"

"Pinecone Face, you might want to put the bow down," Percy advises her. Thalia looks at her drawn bow and slings it back over her shoulder.

Nico continues gently, "her son's name was Andrew Prior. And then he had two children too . . . Caleb Prior and—"

"Tris," Thalia finishes. Annabeth mutters something that sounded like 'gods, this is so gross thinking about it.' Thalia's eyes remain fixed on me. "You're . . . well," Thalia regains her calm, coming over the shock. "It doesn't surprise me that you're one of the strongest Divergent ever. Jupiter. Geez."

"Hang on," Annabeth says. "Tris, your mother was Divergent, right? That's how you're Divergent?"

"Yes," I say, glancing over at her. Annabeth raises an eyebrow. "Then how is Andrew the one with the godly blood?"

"Divergence doesn't only appear in legions," Alec says. It's the first he's spoken since the news was revealed. "Sometimes it's as if the gods pick which generations are given it."

"But could it have something to do with who her mother was?" Annabeth asks. "If she was Divergent too, then who was her godly parent?"

"That's an interesting question," Nico muses. His dark eyes look towards me. "Tris, do you know you're mother's maiden name?"

Shame grows in the pit of my stomach. Slowly I shake my head, my eyes downcast. "She never said anything of her past life as Dauntless. I knew her only as a Prior."

I jump as Thalia wraps an arm over my shoulders. "Well, great-great niece, how ya doing?"

"Um . . ."

"Hey, Thalia, I think—just think, right?—that Tris may be having a hard time and now is not the time to do that, you know?" Annabeth says, wrapping her arm over Thalia's shoulders. I duck under Thalia's arm. Tobias is watching me silently. He wants to see what I'll do.

I open my mouth to say something, but a huge, echoing WOOF! interrupts me. Nico, Alec and Thalia look at each other. "Lock the door, get in the corner or something! She's awake!"

"Who is?" I ask. Tobias grabs my hand. The only people who aren't moving are Percy and Annabeth.

"Was that . . . ?" Percy asks, scratching his head in thought.

"Well, it might be . . ."

"She couldn't still be . . . ?"

"Annabeth! Percy! Get over here!" Nico hisses. "She's coming!"

"Who is?" Percy asks.

"Mrs O'Leary!" Thalia snaps. "Now, get down!"

"You're running from my hellhound?" Percy asks, looking blank. Annabeth raises an eyebrow. "One word: why?"

"She's a huge mother of a dog, with huge teeth that's been deprived of nice company for half a century," Nico blurts, reaching out to grab them. Percy takes a quick step back. "So? I'm going to see my dog." He turns towards the door and swings it open. Nico shouts, "Percy, what in the name of—"

"Stop talking to a dead kid, Death Boy. Why is it that you forget that?" Nico's face flushes angrily. Annabeth pushes him back towards the back wall. "It's Percy's funeral—which I will not be paying for!" she looks back to yell that at him. He grins and races down the hall.

I realise with a start that Tobias is right behind me. He seems as dark and mysterious as when I first met him. Why? I know Tobias well. His dark blue eyes look at me, reading my face as I turn around. I remember how he had always seemed distant, and now he looks as if he wants to be distant but is too stuck in the present. I want to be there for him, but something holds me back. The look in his eyes. Not now, they say.

I reach to take his hand, but then Percy walks in with a huge black, furry mass trying to squeeze through the door after him. His face is wet and his hair has been pulled up at the front. He grins at Nico. "Unless you were afraid of death-by-licks, I don't see what the problem is.

Nico, Thalia, Alec and Annabeth all face-palm themselves in unison.

. . .

The room we're staying at in Odysseus is small. We were explained to that there aren't enough rooms for this many of us, so we have to double up. Percy and Annabeth smirked when we were put in the same room. I suppose Nico had something to do with it.

The good thing about Odysseus is that there is a private bathroom. Tobias has fallen unnaturally silent, but I still hold back. I go to have a shower, the hot water feeling like heaven. When I come out, I find the spare clothes I had packed in the bottom of the pack I had brought with me. To be clean is such a relief that I am smiling the whole time.

As I open the door, I remember Tobias. The smile I've been wearing falls off my face. He sits where I left him, silent, hunched, looking at the wall. I walk over to him and sit down. He doesn't look at me.

"Tobias," I say cautiously. "What's . . . do you need anything?" Tobias has never struck me as someone who appreciated pity. He looks at me from the corner of his eye. "I don't need anything, no," he says slowly. "But . . ."

He shakes his head and looks at me straight. "Tris, you fit in everywhere you'll go. Me? I won't. People like you, trust you. I'm just . . . I don't fit in the way you do."

I remember him back when I had first come to Dauntless—how he was never really anyone's friend nor enemy. Just . . . there.

"Fitting in isn't everything."

He gives a bitter laugh with no humour. "Fitting in can save your life, Tris. The way you slide into everything, that you're made for everything . . . it's something I'll never be. You end up in a place like this—and you work. But I don't. In this place, it's all strange and it doesn't work with me. Maybe I'm not Divergent—maybe that's how I survived without anyone knowing. I don't know, just I don't . . . work."

I look into his eyes, seeing everything he feels through them. I lean my head on his chest. "You are Divergent. How else would you go through simulations like that? And, Tobias—you do fit. Just you can't see it."

Tobias shakes his head. "This isn't the world I grew up in—the world I leant to find a place in. This world isn't ours. Percy and Annabeth—it's theirs. Ours is back with the factions. And yet, at the same time, it's this one—and I can't deal with that, Tris! I just can't."

I close my eyes, feeling the tension in his muscles. "Then you have to give one up, Tobias."

He's silent for a long time. When I straighten up, I see it's because something's wrong. For the first time ever, I pull him into my arms, because this time it's him that's crying.

Annabeth had barely made it to the room before she had the blackout.

Percy had made some ridiculous excuse to go annoy Nico, and she'd sat down on the bed, and then . . . nothing.

"A bang?" Percy asked. He didn't understand. Neither did she, really, but she had some dim idea of what she had to do.

"Nothing can't exist without something—and to get to that something, we need a bang—something big. Not small. Like . . . huge."

"Earthquake huge?"

Annabeth's heart was hammering against her ribs. The Nothing around her was just . . . there. It was as if it were saying, go on, try. She swallowed. "I don't know . . . think of things like, darkness cannot be without light, and light . . ."

She whipped around to Percy. "We need a light—a really bright light. Like, a million times brighter than Riptide."

Percy looked around. Annabeth found it hard to tell if he was scared. He didn't look it. "And where did your geniusness get this really bright light?"

"I don't know!" Annabeth snapped. She shifted her weight to her other foot. "Come on—let's move."

"We are in Nothing, you know," Percy pointed out, still being able to use his sarcastic voice. "So going somewhere—in Nothing—leaves us where we started."

"I hate you sometimes, Percy," Annabeth moaned. He grinned. "Come on."

Nothing was like walking through nothing, really. They moved, but their surroundings never changed. Never. It was still the blank grey-black it had always been. Grey-black, Annabeth thought. Then she stopped.

Grey. Black.

Her heart hammered in her chest. She grinned. "Percy," she said. "Light can't exist without darkness—in light there is darkness, and in darkness there is light. So what about curses and blessings? Without a curse a blessing is nothing—"

"And without a blessing a curse is nothing."

Annabeth grinned. "Nothing."

Unless it was her imagination, Nothing seemed to shudder. She pulled out her dagger. "Come on—get Riptide out. My blade cursed—or it was—and then Riptide was used by Heracles—"

"Which some say means it's blessed," Percy finished. He lifted Riptide. "What do we do?"

Annabeth raised her dagger. "We get to stab Nothing."

"Oh," Percy said in the voice that always made her face-palm. "On three," she said. "One . . ."

"Two . . ." Percy said.

"Three!"

She shoved her blade down into the grey beneath them. Her dagger hit and sunk in, white cracks spreading from it like glass. She looked up and saw Percy shoving Riptide down. He flashed her a grin.

The cracks grew bigger and bigger, growing wider and wider until they took up the whole of the greyness around her. A huge white one appeared between her and Percy, like a crack on a wall. It grew wider, as if something was pushing against it. She clenched her jaw and gave her dagger a final push, edging its hilt in.

The cracks exploded.

Beyond the cracks was white, and possibly other things, but it was too much of a shock for Annabeth to notice. What she did notice was a huge, black thing that looked like a ink dropped into water, with floating tendrils and two black eyes was coming towards them.

Towards her.

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled. The black thing was coming towards her, so fast she could barely see it move. It was almost on her, and—

Something shoved her out of the way. She smashed onto ground. Annabeth lay still on rocky ground. Her adrenaline was coursing through her, her breath coming out in ragged gasps. Annabeth, get on your feet! she yelled at herself. She knew they were back in Tartarus, she knew that they weren't in Nothing anymore. But she couldn't bring herself to move.

She realised she was curled in a ball. She tried to untie herself, but she couldn't. She felt her dagger clenched in her hand. Something touched her shoulder, and she jumped to her feet. "I was going to say 'are you okay', but I think that's a bit pointless now," Percy said, looking up at her. Annabeth breathed out a sigh of relief.

She sunk back to the ground. "Nice to see you too, then."

She looked up at him. "What happened to that black thing?"

Percy hesitated. "I don't know. I just got you out of the way . . . and then . . . gone."

Annabeth studied his face. Unless she was imagining it—which she probably was—there was something missing from it. She got to her feet. "We have to go. Come on."

"Annabeth—" Percy began.

Annabeth snapped awake. Someone was shaking her shoulder gently. "Annabeth?"

She rolled onto her back and looked up at Percy's quizzical face. "Since when do you fall asleep like that?"

She sat up. "Since when do you wake me up?"

Percy thought on that for a moment. "Since now."

"That is the lamest comeback you have ever said."

He shrugged. "You were drooling."

She snapped into awareness. "WHAT?" Percy started laughing. He doubled over, gripping his stomach. Annabeth wondered what was so funny. She rapped the back of his thick head with her knuckles. "Hello? Any sense in there?"

Careful what you say . . . something hissed. She was sure it came from Percy, but . . . it just wasn't him. Percy stopped laughing in a split second. Her eyes were frozen wide. What was that? Was that fear she was feeling? Annabeth Chase was afraid of that? She swallowed. It was nothing, she told herself. Nothing. At all.

Percy wasn't looking at her. "I'll . . . um . . ."

"Perseus Jackson what in the name of Hades was that?" she snapped.

Percy cringed. "Jeez, why the name? Why?"

"What was that?" she demanded, jabbing his chest with her finger. He rubbed his neck. "Um . . ."

Annabeth glared at him. "Uh . . . Look, Annabeth, you have to—"

"No, you have to tell me what that was," she said so angrily her mother would be jealous. "Now tell me why that . . . that thing was in your head!"

Percy sighed. "I should have known . . . I should've!" Annabeth looked at him oddly. He seemed drawn into himself, like he was talking to himself, debating on something. But . . . it seemed worse.

Ah, what a clever one, the same voice said. Then it all became clear to Annabeth. She knew that voice. From Nothing.

Percy's eyes were on her. They were wide—there was fear in his eyes.

"Oh my gods . . ." Annabeth started, but a loud, piercing siren went through Odysseus. The loudspeaker came on with a recorded announcement, but Annabeth already knew what was going on.

The lights flickered and died, and she could hear screaming from down the hallway and all the way on the other levels.

They were under attack.

*GASP!* NEVER! Well, I said chewing out was only just starting, so now we get to exciting stuff! EEEEEE!

Okay, guys! and now I'm going to pull a Cat:

****EXTRA SNAZZY BONUS QUESTION****

I'm a massive Doctor Who fan, so I decided to ask you people this question:

WHAT DO YOU THINK MY NAME IS?

CAT, YOU ARE FORBIDDEN TO JOIN IN ON THIS!

No seriously - I want to see what you people think of as my name from my writing. This'll be . . . new. Sorry guys, but what my name is isn't coming out. Owl's my name. (No, it actually IS my nickname). So . . . look, I just want to see what you people think. If you think of one that I like . . . (::)(::) Cookies for you!

YAY!

Okay, see ya, guys!

Until the next chapter,

Please R&R,

-Owl