A/N: This chapter kinda calls Amelia "The Unknown god." And I like to point out that this is real. It's mentioned in the Bible... Acts 6 or something like that. And while you may not believe in the Bible or God, I just felt it would be appropriate to fit that into this story as I'm using several mythologies and accounts of early histories throughout the story; I developed Amelia's existence based on the Unknown god. So, if I offend anyone, so be it. =P Oh, and Mississippi's father? Well, that also comes from Scripture.

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians does not belong to me. If I was Riordan, I would pronounce my name as Ree-OR-dan. Not RYE-or-dan.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Αλλαγή άνεμοι (Changing Winds)

"Thalia! Thalia! THALIA!" Kayla raced through the clump of Hunters, pushing forward until she stood in front of their leader. Bobby stayed on her heels, always wary of all the scary looking girls.

"What is it, Kay?" Thalia asked, looking up from the map.

Kayla took a deep breath, "Rachel's body just vanished. Pike's frantic. The wolves don't know anything."

The gathered Hunters all glanced at the pack of wolf-dogs. Pike whined.

"What?" Thalia murmured, echoing the disbelief of the Hunters.

"Gone!" Kayla shrieked.

"How is this possible?" Harmonae asked.

"Just gone?" Mich and Phoebe said together, before turning to glare at each other. Penny stepped between them before a fight developed.

Kayla and Bobby nodded.

"Okay," Thalia said, shaking her head back and forth in an attempt to calm herself. "We'll figure it out, just stay calm, all of you."

"But-"

"Kayla," Penny said, warningly, "listen to Thalia."

Bobby stepped out from behind Kayla, facing Thalia directly, "New York."

The Hunters sighed.

The little boy planted his feet. "You're running away from the fight. That fire thing, the darkness has started. It's going to overtake the world soon. And you're running away."

"We aren't!" Mich yelled, the loudest of the many protests.

"It's gathering at New York. It always gathers at New York," Bobby insisted. "That's were Rachel is."

Thalia dropped her head into her hands. Her voice was strained, "How do you know this?"

"I..." Bobby trailed off, once again retreating behind Kayla. He hated the disbelieving looks.

"What's it matter?" Kayla asked, turning to face the Hunters, "What's it matter what direction we go? Lady Artemis is captured."

"Kayla, this has gone far enough," Penny said, stepping forward and laying a hand on Kayla's shoulders.

"NO!" Kayla wrenched away. "It's like three years ago! Just wandering across the continent is NOT going to help our Lady. Bobby's right. It's always New York. Why are we just wallowing about when we could be helping? That prophecy thing-"

"Kay..."

"Stop cutting me off, Thalia," Kayla shrieked, "I'm going to New York and I'm going now. Even if somehow this violates my vow to Artemis, I haven't been here for too long. I probably won't die. Coming Bobby?" She looked at her friend, who nodded. Pike, the wolf dog, trotted over to her side and nuzzled her leg. "Anyone else?" Kayla challenged.

The Hunters were dead silent. This was a challenge. Kayla was challenging Thalia's right to leadership. Kayla was challenging on the grounds that Thalia wasn't making wise decisions. There hadn't been a challenge since Zelda challenged Zoe hundreds of years ago. Zelda had died.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

Thalia squared her shoulders, her blue eyes narrowing.

Mich jerked forward and Phoebe reached out and yanked her back.

Kayla stuck her nose in the air.

"Do you challenge me?" Thalia growled, low and dangerous.

"I challenge you," Kayla responded.

"Ka..." Bobby muttered, trailing off at his friend's dark glare. The wind in the area picked up, blowing ash and burnt leaves over the baron land. A dry whistle sang from the branches of dead and dying trees. Everything about their surroundings was brown and dry and very, very eerie.

Harmonae stepped forward, "We can't. We can't afford to fight amongst ourselves. Nyx is the enemy."

"Yeah!" Mich called, "We should be fighting her."

"Quiet, please," Thalia raised her hand. "Kayla, you could have just asked."

The ten year old looked incredibly strong as she dropped her head forward to her chest, staring at Thalia's worn sandals, "I... you never listen to me. I didn't think you'd take me seriously." Pike whined, his tone a sad note of doggish emotion that no one could fully decipher.

Thalia dropped down to her knees and held open her arms.

Kayla ran to her, sobbing. The two embraced. The youngest Hunter mumbled incoherent jibberish into Thalia's shoulder. Almost instinctively, the Hunter's drew together. Harmonae, Penny and Brinn Enders formed a three way knot. Phoebe and Mich hugged each other. Gracie and the other new Hunters joined with the old. Bobby pressed up against Pike, feeling very out of place among all the girls.

"Let's go to New York," Thalia said, not quite able to get the thought out of her head that this was likely a suicide mission. "Let's go to New York and kick some Protogenoi back to where they came from."

Kayla sniffled before nodding against Thalia's shoulder. "Okay."

The Hunters stood, whistled to the dogs and started walking north-north-east.

Penny grabbed Thalia's elbow and pulled her to the back of the ground, "Thals-"

"I know." Suicide mission.

Penny closed her eyes, taking a calming breath. When she opened her eyes, she had accepted the fact. "Okay."

Thalia smiled, "Thanks."

The two girls caught up with the rest of the group.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Rachel crawled to her feet. For once, the middle of Times Square was deserted. The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air. The girl stood and looked around at the always busy streets. The Ancient Queen stood a few feet away, staring at smoke rising in the distance.

The ex-Oracle opened her mouth to speak...

And closed her mouth.

The Ancient Queen turned to look at her. For the barest second, Rachel thought of Percy's mom, Sally, and how soft and kind Sally always looked, but then she pushed it away. The Queen was no Sally.

"I brought you out of the Hanging Gardens," the Queen said, "at a price."

Rachel swallowed, forcing herself to wet her dust-dry throat. She opened her mouth again...

"It's pointless."

No sound came out.

Rachel stared at the Queen. Her voice was gone. Completely and total gone.

"I'm sorry," said the Ancient Queen, putting a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "It happened back when the Oracle was ripped from you. Here. Hold." She trust a stick with two snakes intertwined around it at Rachel.

Rachel dropped the stick and screamed; besides for the fact that it was a silent scream, no sound passing through her throat.

"Nice way to wake up," one of the snakes commented, drying.

"George," the other snake sighed, "really. Be nice to the girl, she hasn't met us yet."

Slowly, Rachel bent down and picked up what she now knew was Lord Hermes's Cadeceus. Percy had mentioned the caduceus once, a long time ago.

"Morning," George purred, "have any ratsss?"

Rachel dropped the stick again.

OoOoOoOoOoO

When the four teenagers awoke, Hypnos was snoozing, rocking back and forth as if he was standing on some kind of magical rocking chair. It was a little disturbing.

Percy and Nico helped a sobbing Jessie to her feet as she tried to brush away her tears. Only Nico registered Percy's very numb look.

Amelia poked Hypnos.

The god jerked awake, shaking his head a bit. His gaze swooped over the shaking Jessie, stiff Percy and worried looking Nico before settling back on Amelia. The little girl was literally glowing. Literally glowing. Her pale skin was a golden yellow now, practical radiating light. Her eyes glistened with fire and yellow and orange and blue and purple; like a flame. The same colors danced over her hair.

Everything about the girl screamed out powerful.

Jessie, Percy and Nico stared at Amelia, not fully comprehending what was happening.

Hypnos dropped into a bow, "My lady."

Amelia's mouth dropped open. She raised her hand to her face and stared at it, waving it through the air and watching it glow. Fire flickered from her palm. "I've," the girl looked at her friends, "come into my inheritance."

"You're the daughter of Hestia. The Unknown god," Nico stated, softly.

She nodded.

"Oh," Nico muttered. Percy and Jessie just stared.

Amelia bit her lip and looked heavenward. She stood stone still for a second. The glowing golden light dissipated, folding itself into her skin. The little girl stopped glowing. "Mother has passed on. We've got to find the Ancient Queen – New York, I think." Amelia looked down at the prone form of Hypnos. "Huh. He fell back asleep." She poked him again.

Hypnos snored.

Amelia laughed, "C'mon, let's go get the others." She skipped a little as she exited the half destroyed nightclub.

Percy whistled, "What on earth?"

"She changed," Jessie mumbled.

"She's a god now," Nico said. "Wow. I mean. Wow. We might actually have a chance at beating the Protogenoi."

"Oh thanks," Percy grumbled, punching his friend's arm. "That's so encouraging."

"I mean, no really. This is the new Hestia," Nico said, as they started walking out of the club. "And she's on our side. And she's TEAMING with power."

"We noticed," Jessie pointed out.

They stepped out into the sunlight and blinked. Kristen and the younger kids were standing in the middle of the street, their mouths open.

Sam was the first to recover himself, and only then to mumble, "What?"

Amelia was nowhere in sight.

"Where'd she go?" Nico asked, biting his lip.

"Said she needed to find Mississippi," Kristen said, shaking her head. "And that we needed to go to New York. And then-"

"She actually talked!" Ian interrupted Kristen, slightly in shock.

The group looked at each other.

And then Kristen started to laugh. The whole group joined her, enjoying a moment where they could laugh and not think about the destruction that rapidly approached on the horizon.

Amelia bounced back, Mississippi looped over her shoulders. "Alright. New York here we come. Which direction? And how will we get to Dubai? We need to make sure the Tower is alright, and-"

Jessie held up a hand.

Amelia stopped talking.

"Look, slow down," Nico said, "we've only got so much time. Why New York?"

"Rachel," Percy said, in unison with Amelia, who also added, "and the Ancient Queen."

Ivy raised her hand, "Um, who's the Ancient Queen."

Amelia jumped, bouncing on her heels, "No idea. But I'm pretty sure she's on our side. And she has the caduceus, which I think is a good thing. At least, it's a very good thing if she's THAT Ancient Queen and she's on our side-"

The others exchanged amused looks.

"-which I think is what my mother was trying to communicate. Anyway, Hermes's caduceus is one of the items, and the Ancient Queen has it in New York. I have the golden Fleece," she tugged at her necklace. "But the other three items were destroyed. One was the Oracle of Delphi, the others..."

"The Oracle?" Percy echoed, quietly.

Sam glanced at his brother, biting his lip, "But wouldn't that kill Rachel? Or make her go like the woman you mentioned once, May-"

"Not talking about her," Nico interrupted.

"If it's THE Ancient Queen, then we don't really have to worry about anything," Amelia said, "because that would be wonderful. But she's probably still imprisoned. Chaos imprisoned her, years ago-"

"AMELIA!" Kristen shrieked, "None of us have any idea what you're talking about."

"Oh," Amelia paused, shrugging. "Okay. How are we getting to New York?"

Everyone exchanged a glance. Percy and Nico wordlessly decided on it, then Nico and Kristen, Percy and Jessie, Percy and Sam, and then Sam and the Wood twins.

"Anyone know how to hotwire a car?" Amelia asked, pointing a few abandoned cars that were lying about.

"Yes," Jessie, Kristen and Percy all said together.

Sam, Ivy, Ian and Nico stared at them, mouths open.

Kristen shrugged, "What? To most of the world, we're juvenile delinquents. I might as well BE one. Besides, I'm a daughter of Eris. We're BORN for chaos." Percy nodded in agreement.

"We'll probably need extra fuel, I'll siphon some from the other cars," Jessie said, as Kristen darted towards the nearest minivan. "And I'm a daughter of Hephaestus. Machines and us go together perfectly."

Ivy, Ian and Sam looked at Percy.

He glanced at the sky, before mumbling, "Annabeth taught me."

Nico's jaw dropped open. "Annabeth knew how to hotwire a car?"

"Overly prepared daughter of Athena that you're talking about here," Percy said, before walking off to help Kristen with the minivan.

Ian blinked for a few seconds, "Cool! I want to learn!" He raced after Percy.

Nico started laughing, again.

Amelia stood next to him, watching their group. Oh it felt good to be in control again. To be confident.

Amelia, goddess of the Hearth, was going to beat Nyx.

And.

Nothing.

Was.

Going.

To.

Stand.

In.

Her.

Way.