Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN MCDONALDS!

AN: Review, Comment, and all that jazz. I love everybody who reviewed, commented, and follwed me. Thank you everyone who's reading this.

-CookiesCream333

Chapter 16

Jaz's POV

I woke up with a raging headache. I laid my hand on my throbbing head.

All my memories rushed back to me faster than Nico buying Myth-O-Magic cards. Holding the sky, Bessie, Zoë dying, Professor Chase, and Bianca dying.

I felt a whole my chest. I was confused. One part of me wanted to bawl, and scream for Bianca. The other part, wanted to gut Jackson like a fish. Bianca was gone. Tears built up in my eyes. Right then and there I cried. I cried and cried and cried and cried and cried until there were no tears left but the empty feeling in my chest still lingered. Percy Jackson. Rage ran through me like a wild bull. It's his fault Bianca's gone. He promised us and then he crushed us. Jackson isn't worth my tears. He can't make me cry. I'm stronger than this. I don't need to cry. I'm older now. I'll make sure Nico and I survive to see Jackson pay. I'll make sure of it.

I wiped my tears off my face furiously. My vision cleared up. We were in a park that was waaay to quiet to be New York. I remember running so fast I transported away.

"Where am I?" I said.

"Los Angeles, my dear."

I sprang to feet while grabbing my dagger, alert.

"Calm down, child. There's nothing to be afraid of."

I turned around. Standing there or I should say hovering there was a ghost. You could barely see him unless you focus really hard. He was sort of invisible.

"What do you want with us? What are you doing here?" I said gesturing to me and Nico while hoping he didn't notice me crying like child.

"Nothing. A certain son of Hades summoned me here."

"There's no son of Hades here. It's just me and N-" I faltered.

His looks. His Underworld dreams. The skeletons. It all made sense.

"You didn't know your friend was a son of Hades? I guess you know him as well as you thought. He must not trust you that much." The ghost said plainly.

"For your information, Nico himself didn't know he was a son of Hades." I snapped, incredibly insulted that he didn't acknowledge my friendship with Nico. "By the way, I'm his best friend. I've known him since we were babies!"

He put his hands up.

"My apologies, my dear lady. I wanted to make sure the prince wasn't endangered by lowly commoners."

This guy is seriously annoying.

Nico stirred.

"Oh gosh, Jaz. I had a horrible dream that we were demigods and Bianca died and-" he yawned before opening his eyes. "- Woah, where are we?"

"L.A." I said.

"My Lord." The ghost flew over to Nico and bowed so deeply his forehead touched the ground.

"Hey?" Nico stared.

He looked at me and mouthed: Who's the creepy ghost?

I shrugged. He backed away slightly.

"My dearest sincere apologies, my precious Prince." I could practically see Nico's ego inflating. "I am King Minos."

"I'm Nic-" he began.

"It isn't exactly wise to tell your name to a stranger." I hissed.

I was getting really bad vibes from this guy.

"Oh," King Minos said. "I already know both of you, Nico di Angelo and Jazmine di Piante."

Stalker much?

"Well, it's really nice meeting you, King Minos but we really have to get going." I really wanted to get as far away as possible from that guy. He was practically oozing BAD.

"Go where? You already ran away from Camp Half-Blood and you're sister is gone. Might I remind you she's you're only relatives besides your godly parent?" King Minos said innocently.

He's officially a hard-core stalker.

"Who's my godly parent?" Nico asked eagerly.

Does he know my parent? I mean, parents. I don't remember a mom or a dad.

"How about my parents?" I questioned.

Minos looked at Nico. "Your mother is unknown and your father is Hades, Lord of the Underworld.

Minos turned his attention to me. "Parents unknown."

I sighed.

"So all that demigod stuff is real? Bianca's gone?" Nico stared at me sadly.

"It's real." I confirm.

"Because of that Jackson boy." Minos added.

"Percy Jackson." Nico said the name like a curse.

Bianca's gone. She was a daughter of Hades and never knew it. Something inside of me lit up. Wasn't there ways to bring back dead people? I remember the legend of Orpheus.

"Can -can we bring people back from the dead?" I asked Nico.

Nico's eyes widened.

"If monsters, gods, ghost, and titans are real then bringing people back to life must be possible." Nico said with a smile creeping up his face.

"Ahem." We turned around. I forgot Minos was still there.

"Just because Lord Hades is your father doesn't mean he'll let you bring back souls when ever you please." Minos said.

"Hey Nico can you play an instrument really, really well?" I asked thinking about Orpheus.

"I know how to play the guitar and ukulele but not reaaally good. How about you?"

"I can play piano and violin decently so no." I answered.

We thought for a second. We weren't strong as Hercules, musically-gifted as Orpheus, or magical as Houdini.

"Children." We looked at Minos. "I have an idea. A soul for a soul."

"I could exchange my soul fo-" Nico started.

"NO!" I shouted. "I need you and B. Someone else's soul."

"I know the perfect person. But before I tell you, you need to be trained. A demigod that doesn't know how to fight is dead. I coud train you." Minos said.

I was about reject his offer when Nico shot me a look.

No one else is this willing to help us. We need him. He said.

That's what's so suspicious. He has some sort of evil plan for us. I feel it! I argued.

Jaz, do you want to die? Grrrr. He was using my tactics against me.

No. I said grudgingly.

So let him help us. A demigod that can't fight will die. Nico said repeating Minos's words.

Fine. I gave in.

"We accept your offer."

All we did for the next four and a half months was eat, sleep, and train. Nico took a liking into McDonald. Apparently if you're half-god you can't get fat unless you purposely try to. Our daily schedule was like this:

6:00 a.m Wake up

6:00 - 6:05 Freshen Up (Shower, Brush Teeth, Brush Hair)

6:05 Eat breakfast

6:15 Brush teeth (Sometimes)

6:17 - 6:30 Free time before Minos Starts Training Us

6:30 - 12:00 p.m Train in Fighting (Yup, he doesn't even give us a break.)

12:00 - 12:10 Lunch And Bathroom Break

12:10 - 1:00 Sit Down Class (Reading, Reading each other, Secret Messages, History)

1:00 - 7:00 Plant Powers For Me/ Dead Powers For Nico

7:00 - 7:10 Dinner And Bathroom Break

7:10 - 8:00 Active Class (Swimming, Climbing, Running)

8:00 - 12:00 Shadow Powers For All

12:00 - 12:10 Freshen Up (Sometimes Too Tired)

12:10 - 6:00 SLEEP

Our schedule was harsh. All tha stuff doesn't even include the ten million monster attacks we get. All our classes were on the dot. We couldn't even be 0.2 seconds late. I tried. He's incredibaly annoying sometime. Sometimes I jut want to smash his head with a stick. Actually I tried once. He's ghost so he couldn't actually feel anything. That didn't stop him from punishing me. He had me do a hundred one hand push ups on each arm. I'm not kidding. That twice as usually. Right afterwards that we had too swordfight for an hour straight. He pushes own limit waay to much. His excuse is always:

"I just want what's best for my truly perfect, handsome, extraordinary, precious, skilled, and talented Prince of the Underwold... Oh, and Jaz, too. "

OR

"Will you're opponents give you a break? NO!"

I know he's trying to help but, jeez, that guy needs to take one billion chill pills.

Minos broke us some news. It was like any other day. We both rolled out of bed from our cozy alley. We got some McDonalds and went "home." Our "home" can fit in a suitcase.

"I need to return to the Underworld for a bit."

A piece of Egg McMuffin dropped out of my mouth. I didn't even bother to pick it up. Nico choked on his Mango Pineapple Smoothie. We gaped at him.

"Close your mouth! I could already see flies crawling in!" Minos said.

Our mouths snapped shut.

"I'll be back in a week to two months. Goodbye." Just like that he disappeared.

"Nico, guess what?" I said.

"What?" he responded.

"FREEDOM!"

We no longer looked like street kids. We looked like we were middle-classed. I bought a couple of black and blue jeans, white, black, green, and blue shirts, a black leather jacket , a brown winter coat, a black rain coat, and other stuff. You're probably wondering how in the world we got this stuff. Well, let's just say thank you to Thalia and the mist is AWESOME.

I stood in front of a mirror in Target, looking at my reflection. I looked a lot older then eleven. I was wearing a plain green T-shirt, a black leather jacket, dark blue skinny jeans that weren't skinny to me at all, Travis's and Connor's black winged sneakers, and the eagles's feather tied to the left side of my face covering my grey streak of hair. My eyes were a murky green. My brown golden hair was black as midnight and overgrown. My bangs covered my right eye completely. I grew a couple of inches. I even got muscles! I felt different, too. Mature, wiseish, smarter and bitter. I was still very, very angry at Percy. I'll show him what Jazmine di Piante is capable of.

"Hey."

I turned around. Nico still looked the same but he was cleaner, had new black skinny jeans which weren't skinny to him either, a black shirt and an aviator jacket. His black hair was still overgrown. His eyes were brownish - black.

"I want to visit some old friends San Fransisco." I said.

"Who?" His eyebrow arched.

I touched the fist-sized robot in my pocket.

"Bobby and Mathew." I said.

"What? No. They'll tell Annabeth and Annabeth will tell Percy." he growled Percy name.

"Don't worry. What I mean by visit is make sure they're okay."

Nico formed a mischievous smile. "Oh so you, a girl, are spying on them, boys."

"EEWW!" I shoved him playfully. "Don't be gross. I'm just making sure they haven't died yet or their house hasn't blown up. They wouldn't even know I'm there."

"Stalker!" Nico sang.

"Meet back here in two hours." I said.

"Enjoy your time with Bobby-poo and Mathew-honey." he laughsed

"Hey! I'm going to see the Golden Gate Bridge and other stuff, too!"

I listened to Nico sing Jaz and Bobby/Mathew sitting under a tree as I melt in the shadows.

Next time...In Chapter 17

"A trained, ssssshadow-traveler alone. Interessssting. You would be a valuable piece in Kronosss'sss Army. You can come with ussss peacefully or the hard way. You choosssse."

"I choose the hard way."