Disclaimer: Not mine, as everyone should know by now…

Yay, a fast chapter… I wrote this in about two hours because I felt like it. It's amazing how fast I write when I am not trying to escape a teacher noticing me typing or thinking every few lines.

For people who haven't read the new version of Chapter 19, I suggest you do; there is none of the old stuff that was in it. I'm sorry about the first version of Chapter19… I wasn't in the right mind frame when I wrote that.

Anyway, longest chapter yet! 2.7k words… Don't expect the future chapters to be this long. I just had a lot to cram into this one.

Ph, and don;t expect the next chapter to come this fast, I only did this chapter because I had time and none of my friends were online...

Chapter 20: Seers and Prophets

Third PoV

Ice knew there was something wrong with his sister. He knew that his sister was hiding something, he could sense the barriers in her head, not that he had the ability to break them…

Ice had been trying to create a new method of attacking and failing spectacularly, when he felt his sister's distress. He frowned and dropped the pen he was holding onto the book he had been recording his results in, heading towards his sister's rooms.

Easily, he stepped through the wards which were all around his sister's door and stepped through, immediately forced to duck the flying shards of ice.

Hey, sis, calm down. It's me. He tried to sooth her. Then he looked up and met a pair of glowing golden eyes.

She immediately dropped her gaze to the floor, hiding the glowing gold. Why are you here?

I felt your distress. What is going on and why are your eyes gold.

She looked up, showing that her eyes were now the normal icy blue she always had. I have no idea what you mean. My eyes are blue, like they always were.

Ice shook his head, so his sister was going to play the ignorance card. You and I both know that your eyes were gold. What is going on?

Instead of an answer, he felt one of the many barriers in his sister's mind flicker and die down. Easily, he slipped through and saw the visions of the battle at Camp, with Hades fighting with the Olympians. The double hit and the vision cutting off before Annabeth and Hades fell. The one of Annabeth making the gesture and the events leading up to it.

What is this? I know that you didn't have this ability before. When did you get it?

Another barrier fell. This one was showing him the time that Apollo had given her his full blessing. Ice flicked through his head, trying to remember all the domains Apollo ruled over. Then it hit him.

Prophecies. Apollo gave you the sight of a prophet.

Again, no answer. It was obvious that they had both reached the same conclusion. It was either intentional that Apollo had given her the sight of a prophet, or he had accidentally transferred everything he ruled over in his blessing.

I'm going to kill him…

Frost sighed, Now you see why I didn't tell you earlier?

Ice froze; he had been heading towards the door. As always his sister was always right.

What do you want me to do then?

Leave him alone. I'll ask him later. She said, standing up and waving her hand. Her clothes changed to their normal uniform.

"Where would you be going?" Ice asked, no longer using the link.

"Don't feel like sleeping. I run on my power levels instead of sleep. How else do you think I can pull off working all night and not even yawn? I can run off my own reserves for a week without sleep." She called over her shoulder.

Ice muttered something under his breath about sisters and their love of keeping secrets to make others look like fools and walked out of her room, resetting the wards as he shut the door.

Several days went by before an opportunity to speak to Apollo came. Ironically enough, it came right after one of the minor attacks that the Primordial gods seemed to be throwing in our direction.

Almost all demigods had been injured in the fight which had happened hours before dawn, so the day of training had been cancelled, most soldiers of Chaos were chatting while polishing their skills. Children of Apollo and almost the entire Xi platoon were in the infirmary, treating the injured. Plenty of uninjured demigods were wandering in the forest or the beach.

Frost had been trying out a few new things with her abilities with water when she saw a familiar red car driving towards camp. She sighed from her place in the middle of the canoeing lake, where she had been trying to allow herself to walk on water as though it was solid, and yet everything else that tried to touch the water around her went straight through the water. The only problem with this was that every time the water rippled, she was thrown off balance.

She muttered a curse as she was snapped from her thoughts as a camper who had thought to try out canoeing capsized near her, sending the water rippling. After regaining her balance, she saw the camper scrambling to turn the canoe the right way up.

She snorted as the camper, who she now realized was a son of Ares got it halfway up before it fell back, pushing him under the water again. Easily, she stepped back on to shore, with no real success of managing to stay on the rippling water.

She walked straight into the forest, following the power of the sun radiated from the sun chariot. Once she found it, she leant against the side of the car and waited for Apollo to return, which he did, only minutes after she had arrived.

Apollo blinked in surprise when he spotted the commander next to his car. Then he spotted the slight difference in her aura from when he had met her. He grimaced when he realized why she was here.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I had transferred a portion of all of my domains to you. It wasn't my intention to place you under a seer's curse."

Frost raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? I thought it was a prophet's sight, not a seer's."

"No, a prophet goes into a trance, a seer on the other hand will see it whenever they truly want to see it, or when their seer power has been stored up for too long." Apollo explained, almost as though he was absent minded, clearly he had made this explanation several of times before to others. "A seer is far more powerful than a prophet, and that gift can only be inherited through blood, which makes it weaker, or through my blessing. However, almost all seers are targeted in wars; a seer's side of war always wins. Which is why we all call it a 'seer's curse', since seers are hunted down and killed if they refuse to join their side of war.

"The thing with that however, is that almost all seers are either bound to me or another person. No seer's gift will activate if their loyalties can be swayed, or they are loyal to someone who will use the seer's abilities to fight in a war. All seer magic is for neutral uses and neutral uses only. Unless it is stated otherwise when their gift activates. Which currently, I can sense that there are only two seers which have that power." Apollo blinked in surprise. "Sorry about that. It's just that more people don't understand the difference, I get tired of explaining everything and just zone out, and the explanation is exactly the same, with maybe a little difference with the number of 'free-lance' seers at the end."

Frost covered a laugh at Apollo's face as he realized he had zoned out and just explained the whole concept of a seer and a prophet. "So, who are the two 'free-lance' seers?"

Apollo frowned and closed his eyes, concentrating. "There are two. One has her gift dormant right now. It will activate later in her life. The other…" He paused here. The he opened his eyes and met Frost's. "The other is you."

Frost frowned for a second. The she sighed, "Not like I didn't expect that." She muttered under her breath. "So, why am I having visions of the same thing?"

Apollo closed his eyes again, he muttered under his breath, "Camp half-blood? That's strange… Hades doesn't usually fight alongside us… A double attack... Ah," He opened his eyes again.

"The reason it is the same vision every time is because it is a choice you have to make. It is a drastic choice for the future, and the role of choosing which destiny it will be had fallen into your hands. It means that if you choose to save one of them; since both attacks are too close to save both, the course of the future will change drastically, if you save none, it will also change." Apollo smiled sadly at her.

"In case you haven't already realized with your current visions, you only see possible futures, since the future is shaped by a person's own actions. There are some things which are set in stone, if the Fates will a life thread to be cut, it will be cut, one way or another. Even if you save them from their immediate death, they will still die, just maybe differently. But be careful if you see another's death; the Fates don't like to be messed with." Apollo met Frost's eyes, which now had a light of caution in them.

"Just one last warming. As a 'free-lance' seer, you will be attacked more often than an ordinary seer or prophet. A prophet's gift is far less of a risk to a person than a seer's gift. You can 'see' whatever you want, so long as you concentrate enough. I will leave you with that." Apollo turned around and got in the driver's seat.

Frost took a few steps away from the sun chariot. Watching it as it flew away, as the red dot disappeared. There was plenty to think about, with not enough time to think it through.

She sighed. It looked like it was time for another week of running purely on power. She had just one thought as she headed back to her rooms, I swear, coming back to this camp is not worth the trouble it causes.

Ice watched his sister pacing back and forth on the lake. It was getting close to three in the morning; he had been spotting her on the lake for the past four days. And it seemed as though she wasn't getting the results of her 'experiments' she wanted.

He knew that she could run for a week, maybe more just on her power. But he also knew that the longer she ran on her power, the weaker she would be in the end. He had finally noticed that when she took all-night studying or experimenting trips, her attacks were just slightly underpowered the next day. Un-noticeable for someone who didn't train with her every day, but still there.

He frowned when he remembered that it started after that conversation with Apollo. Probably something to do with the blessing then. Maybe it's something far stronger, and she wants to see how far she can push the boundaries… He thought to himself as he watched her pace.

He hated how he was weaker than his sister in anything to do with the mind. He knew that she was concealing information, yes, but he could never break through the barriers long enough to find out what they were, considering that the second the barrier even had a crack his sister pushed him out of her mind, and when he managed to get back in, the barrier was at full strength again.

Ice almost growled in frustration. He knew that his sister knew how he could get into her mind, but was deliberately not telling him, so he couldn't find out her thoughts.

Well, he had figured out how to keep her out of his inner-most thoughts. Though it was damned draining when he did it. Basically dump a while heap of raw defensive power on it, and she didn't bother to break through, since she knew that he was trying to keep him out of those parts of his mind.

Suddenly he heard laughter in his mind. Did you really think I couldn't get into your head, even if I am experimenting?

He muttered a curse under his breath and tried to hide his thoughts from earlier. Well, no actually, He thought back to her. But I thought you were too busy to care.

Actually, I am too busy to care; I just needed a break, and wanted to see what you were thinking.

Shut up. So… is there a way for me to get past your mental barriers? He asked, a little too innocently.

Stop trying. Subtle manipulations aren't and never will be your strong point. She sounded amused. But I will tell you, might as well. But I will ask that you swear that you will not poke around the barriers I mark with certain marks, I will tell you what is behind them, but the details are my own to keep.

Ice was trying to suppress his enthusiasm as his sister told him that she would tell him, waiting for her to state the terms. I need to learn how to recognize the marks, and I need to know how you know how I can break through barriers.

The vow first. She said firmly.

Fine, I vow on my life that I will not use the information that will be revealed by my sister against her mental barriers.

Good enough. How did make sure that I couldn't break through some of your barriers. Which ones were the ones I left alone? She asked suddenly. Ice frowned, but answered anyway.

The only one you left alone were… His eyes widened as he realized what it was. The ones I heaped a whole lot of energy over.

Yes, the way you break through barriers is with a whole heap of energy. It isn't convenient for me, since I have less raw power than you do, but a very fine control. You possess so much raw power that you can heap plenty of power and the raw energy will break through anything, so long as there is enough of it.

Ice's eyes widened as he realized what his sister had said. So simple, and yet it had taken him ages to figure it out. But there was still more, Frost continued.

It is far more dangerous than what I do. Raw power is hard to control, and yet very potent. Power from the void is by far the rawest power can come, but it is painful for anyone without enough of their own power to keep it under control or fine enough control to keep it under.

Ice stood there, staring absently at the moon reflected on the slightly rippling lake from Frost's pacing. Thanks for the info, now what's got you so agitated?

This time, it was Frost who sighed. I don't have a prophet's sight… Ice looked confused; clearly he had sent some emotions to his sister because she elaborated. I have a seer's gift, sight… curse, whatever you want to call it.

What's the difference? Ice asked, clearly not knowing a single thing about prophecies and visions.

I'll give you a brief version of what Apollo gave me. Basically a seer is a hell of a lot more likely to be attacked, and out of those seers, there are a very small number of seers who are called 'free-lancers'. These seers can choose a side and use their gift to make the war swing in their direction. All other seers have their power bound to a neutral purpose. I am a free-lance seer.

Holy… Ice trailed off, knowing that now, yes, his sister was getting more powerful, yes, he still had plenty of questions and yes, he knew he wasn't going to like the full explanation.

So… I guess you're trying to see the boundaries of your new ability?

Yup, I need to see if I can 'see' the future of certain objects or people, Apollo said all seers can after some training, but it requires time, which is something I don't have right now.

What's why you're pulling off your stunts of staying up all night?

Hell yes.

Ice sighed, knowing that his sister wouldn't like what he was going to say. You shouldn't run yourself into the ground. I'll let you go for two weeks of this, no more than two weeks, because if you don't I'm just going to knock you out and force you to sleep.

Thanks… Frost trailed off, not knowing how to react to her brother's sudden out-of-character statement.

Don't get used to it. He thought simply before turning around and heading back in to his rooms. Just because his sister was staying up all night didn't mean that he had to.

Thanks for the reviewers who reviewed in the last few days that the chapter was up, whether it be for the old chapter or the new one.

Greekfreak101 and Forex: Thanks for reviewing so quickly.

L. Lawliet-Rue Ryuzaki and Avardsin: I'm not sure whether you have re-read my previous chapter yet, but I suggest you do, I have completely changed. I apologise for the sloppy chapter, I wasn;t in the right mind frame when I updated it.

No-one No-body: Skills… Nah, I just write whatever I am thinking right now. You can see what kind of thoughts were going through my head if you read through it carefully. Anyway, the comment or "What are you going to do? Stomp your feet and walk away from me?" was actually a slight variation of my friend saying just before maths class "What are you going to do? Stomp your feet and never talk to me again?" so I take no credit for that wonderful idea from my friend… probably should have said that earlier…

Now, thanks for everyone who is reading this. Please review, I am starting a few side stories which are sequels to this when I get bored or get a new idea, but they are all crossovers. I'm not sure whether I should continue writing them when I am bored and post them later, since they are all crossovers. I need a second opinion, anyone?

Please review.