A/N: So, I have decided to do an early update, because of all of the awesome reviews I got, a burst of inspiration, and because it's PERCY'S BIRTHDAY!

Oh, and don't worry about Aiden! Not all things are as they seem. (Haha, worth of Dumbledore, that one). Call me a weakling, but I just can't kill off any of the twins. And I was mad with Fred died. And incredibly depressed. It was almost worse than when Sirius died. Almost.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CARTER

I knew something was wrong as soon as we got separated from the others.

Until then, the battle had been easy. No offense, but the Death Eaters really didn't know what hit them. Sadie summoned a lion, which was probably still chasing the Death Eater she ordered it to attack around. I wasn't as good at spell casting as Sadie, but it was amazingly refreshing to full my khopesh out of thin air and attack unsuspecting Death Eaters. One quick hit to the head, and an easy spell, and they were unconscious, bound to the floor. We left a trail of destruction - broken orbs and snoozing Death Eaters in our wake.

It was a major relief to be out of the Hogwarts school robes. They could get very restrictive, and Sadie looked like a walking, living joke with her combat boots, fingerless leather gloves, purple streaked hair and ancient school robes. Now I was back in my jeans, T-shirt, and hoodie. A year back I would have been horrified of wearing such causal clothes, but I was used to it now. Just like I was used to Sadie's weird quirks.

Sadie and I dashed down the obsidian corridors, the draining, sickly chill of the air familiar and terrifying. Apophis was at work in here, somewhere. The only question was, how. The horcruxes wouldn't be stupid enough to attack us yet, and Apophis didn't have a physical body. So how was he here? I pulled Sadie out of the path of a jet of green light, and we diverted our mad run down another corridor. Sadly, it ended without anywhere else to go. We turned to go back the way we came from, but met a rather nasty surprise.

Shadows pulled and tugged, swirling around and whispering. For a brief second, I harbored the thought that it just might be Nico or the twins, but I knew that couldn't be true. The shadows coiled around us like snakes, prickling my skin and bring to the surface every nightmare I'd pushed away since the battle in Gaza against Apophis. The first time we had fought him, we had the help of all the 21st and 1st Nomes, plus several vengeful, angry gods. Now we were alone. Even Horus seemed to dim a little in my subconscious.

A voice called from one of the shelves of prophecy orbs, about two or three stories above my head. "Carter, Carter, Carter." The voice tutted with amiable disappointment. "I expected more from you! It was so easy to get you trapped here while your friends fight to the death in the Death Chamber." The voice chucked. "How fitting. Fighting to the death in the Death Chamber. Maybe when Apophis takes over the world, we will use the Death Chamber as an arena for the last demigods, magicians and wizards. I'm sure that will promise hours of entertainment!"

"Who are you?" I asked, craning my neck up to catch a glimpse of whoever was trying to taunt me - and doing it terribly.

"It's it obvious?" The voice said, lower than before. "We've met. We've spoken." There was a light thud, and the silhouette of a small, lithe man came into view. "We've helped each other out."

The man stepped into the light, and I gave a start of shock. Beside me, Sadie stiffened. "Setne?"

But, no. This wasn't Setne. Setne was a ghost, he wasn't alive. He could not work out the complex spells that buzzed in the air around him, because he'd have to be alive to do it. The man standing before me was very much alive. For one, he wasn't see through. He was actively flipping through a thick tome that I recognized to be the Book of Thoth. He had a beak-like nose, sharp, cruel features, and a manic light in his eyes that betrayed his utter insanity. Not unlike that Bellatrix Lestrange weirdo. No pun intended.

It was Setne. Somehow, someway, he had brought himself to live. My Dad was going to kill me.

"How is this possible?" Sadie gasped.

Setne laughed, a sound that grated on my nerves. "Tell me, doll. Did the Greeks tell you their story? Did they say what Gaea was doing to the evil dead souls?"

I answered almost against my will. Setne's way with Ma'at and the ancient language twisted my ambitions around. "She brought them back. Gaea was restoring the most evil spirits back to life."

"Exactly," Setne purred as he stepped out of his coiled shadow serpent. "And tell me, did the Greeks ever say they sent all of these spirits back to the Underworld?"

I didn't answer that question. I didn't need to. Instead, I felt anger. I lifted my khopesh, giving Setne my best I-am-going-to-kill-you-now stare. "That's it, Setne." I said. "You have avoided death and your punishment for too long."

Sadie mirrored me, flourishing her staff and wand a little too dramatically. Leave it to Sadie. She grinned impishly. "Let's see what dad has to say when he judges you."

Setne paled a little, but straightened. He pulled a wand and staff from the Duat and began a complex incantation. The shadows seemed to react to the spell, because they darkened and started to uncoil, celestial scales rubbing together dryly. The tail flicked my way, and I backed up quickly. "I take it we don't want to him to finish that spell?"

Sadie had got deadly pale. "It - he's doing an execration spell!"

A cold stone dropped in my stomach. "Impossible. He doesn't know my secret name. Our yours."

Sadie and I began to hack at the shadowy snake, which blocked our way from Setne. We needed to get to him before . . . I felt a painful pressure and burning feeling over my body. Sadie cringed in pain, and I noticed that Setne had retrieved two small statues that looked like us. Panic welled up in my throat, and I redoubled my efforts to get to him. Fear mixed with confusion fueled me to chop away nearly half the snake before I realized Setne kept on backing up, making the snake bigger with every step.

"How?" I asked in desperation. I took a deep breath, reigning in my fear. No time to panic, I thought. But another voice immediately came back with you're about to be execrated! Setne has a living body, free to wreak whatever havoc he wants to on the world! Apophis is rising again! This is a perfect time to panic! I ignored the voice, and the part of me that agreed with it. "He needs our secret names. How would he get them?"

"Horus and Isis," Sadie breathed, looked shocked. "The Book of Thoth is said to have all of the secret names of the gods. If he has Horus and Isis's secret names, then he can influence them to do anything. Even tell him our secret names, and force them not to tell us. He would have complete control over them."

"Great," I mumbled. "That explains why I'm getting no help from Horus."

Sadie suddenly stopped in her hacking. "We're going about this the wrong way," she said. "He expects us to try and directly get to him. We need to do some sneaking."

I scowled, itching to return to attack the snake. "Well hurry! We haven't got much time. Did the snakes teach you any secrets to sneaking up on a power-drunk zombie?"

"Birds." She said simply. Then she shrunk, her clothes and duffel bag melting into light brown feathers. She let out a light caw, having finished her transformation into a kite.

I quickly followed suit, shrinking into a hawk. We took off into the air, circling above Setne a few moments while he concentrated on his spell. We alighted on an empty shelf, where the orbs had all been knocked off from previous fighting. I changed back into a human, and Sadie - after a few moments of panicking - soon followed. I looked down at the top of Setne's balding head with disgust. Sadie rummaged through her duffel bag, and pulled out rock. She grinned in triumph.

I raised an eyebrow. "A rock?"

She didn't answer, and instead threw the rock, which smacked Setne of the head, breaking his concentration. Sadie yanked me back into the shadows as Setne's head shot up, glaring around at the empty space as he searched for the offending rock-thrower. Then his eyes widened in panic and he said a few words in ancient Egyptian, but the book he held was over-heating. A loud explosion cannoned from the book, blasting Setne back so he landed in a heap of bones.

Sadie and I clambered down from the shelf. She aimed her wand - the Egyptian kind - and said, "Tas." The Seven Ribbons of Hathor flew from her wand and bound him to the shelf. She walked forward, a hop in her step, and snatched the Book of Thoth up from the ground and stuffed it into her duffel bag. "I think I'll keep this," she said. She inspected Setne, whose face was charred and blackened from the explosion, and the little hair he had left falling off in tufts.

To put it bluntly, he looked like stringy hamburger dropped into a roaring fire.

"Well," Sadie said. "I guess since you'll be caught in the wizarding world, you'll go to Azkaban. The dementors will suck at your soul everyday and make you relieve every one of your worse memories and nightmares, before you die and go my dad's court. Then you'll have you soul fed to Ammit the Devourer. Happy dreams! Somnus."

Surprisingly, the wizard spell worked with her Egyptian wand. "Cool." She muttered.

We walked out of the dead-end corridor, sweating and already tired. "That took a lot out of me," I mumbled wearily.

"It was the execration spell," Sadie said knowingly. "It was sapping away at our life force. Any much longer and we would have burned up."

The corridors of orbs were deserted, save for a few sleeping Death Eaters. I almost killed a Death Eater that walked around the corner muttering absent mindedly to himself, "must find an auror. I have to turn myself in. Then they need to send backup to the Death Chamber. Lots of people getting hurt by Death Eaters. Turn myself in and send back up . . ."

Sadie and I looked at each other and said, "Piper."

We reached the doors of the Death Chamber in time to hear a voice shriek in anger, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Sadie and I pounded through the doors as Aiden and Beth fell to the ground. Sadie gave a sharp intake of breath. "Aiden . . ." she murmured. It was well known she looked down at Aiden like the little brother she wished I was.

As we rushed to the motionless forms, I realized one of them weren't motionless, and Piper was talking to it. Beth stared at Piper with confused eyes. "My name is Bianca. Bianca di Angelo."

Bianca? Why did that name strike a ghost of a memory? Nico's sister! I remembered.

"Who is Bianca?" Sadie whispered, still looking at Aiden in shock. Ivan, Harry and Sirius had chased Bellatrix Lestrange out of the Death Chamber to gods-know-where. I was pretty sure I heard a 'Ministry' when she threw herself into the fireplace.

"Nico's older sister," I replied in the same tone. "She died a few years ago, according to Annabeth."

Nico looked like he was going to throw himself at Bianca, but then stopped over Aiden. He brushed some of the dark, wavy hair our of his eyes. Confusion and grief swirled around chaotically in his eyes. "He shouldn't be dead. The Avada curse doesn't affect children of Hades."

"The Veil," Bianca said. "He's not dead, not yet."

Nico seemed to jump a foot off the ground. "He isn't? I don't feel his -"

"He's on the brink of death," Bianca soothed calmly. "The Veil has been weakening his life force since he walked in here. I'm a reincarnation, still a daughter of Hades, so the avada curse didn't kill me, but not as effected by the Veil as you and him."

Theon, who was on the brink of tears, said, "so if we get him out of the Death Chamber, he'll come back to life?"

"His life force will be restored," Nico said with more confidence than he probably felt. "So, you're really alive," he said, looking at Bianca as if daring her to say no. Then he threw his arms around Bianca, flood gates opening as tears poured from his eyes. The scene was so unexpected I almost reeled back. Bianca smiled and hugged him back, calming him gently. For a second I thought that having an older sister wouldn't be so bad, but then I looked at Sadie and thought, never mind.

[Ow, there goes a few IQ points.]

Nico extracted himself from Bianca's embrace, and hooked his arms under Aiden's. Bianca scrambled to her feet and helped him. "We need to get him far away from the Death Chamber. He might not be dead, but he's still dying as long as he's near the Veil."

Nico supported Aiden in the fireplace and said, "Ministry of Magic!"

Worse mistake ever.

I stepped through after Bianca, and found myself in the middle of a war zone. Glass was shattered, the lights were out, and Dumbledore stood, his robes billowing wildly as he pointed his wand at a ball of water. Percy was off to the side, next to Harry, Sirius and Ivan, looking extremely ticked off. He tried to stand up, but with a flick of his wand no break in his concentration, Dumbledore sent him careening back into the corner. I got a random image of Percy sulking as a five year old in time out. I blocked it out immediately.

Then Ivan shadow-traveled. He suddenly stood next to us, kneeling by his twin. That's when Aiden let out an agonized moan. "Stupid, crazy -" broke off into ancient Greek, saying some things that probably wouldn't put on him on the Annual Best Kid of the Year list.

Ivan gasped and gripped his brother's shoulders. "You're alive!" He yelped, shaking him. "You're not dead!"

Aiden gave a weak grin. "I will be if you don't stop shaking me. Didn't they teach you that shaking people kills them?"

"That's babies," Ivan said, but relief showed clearly in his face as he pulled Aiden into a brotherly hug.

Aiden snickered when he pulled from the hug. "Babies, twins. Same difference." Then he saw something behind me that made his face turn into a sheet of terror. "HIM!"

Ivan spun around, alarmed, and then relaxed. "Oh yeah. It's snake face."

I turned around to see the most hideous face I had ever seen. And that's saying a lot. Let it be known to the world, that humans and snakes are not meant to have kids. They don't turn out that good looking. Voldemort was pale as parchment, with no hair, a grin even a mother couldn't love, and soulless eyes. Oh, and he had no nose. All that was stuck on his face were two long slits, as though he was slowly evolving into a snake. Funny thing was, I was sure the whole idea was we evolved from monkeys. Not snakes.

I pursed my lips thoughtfully. "Hey, Ivan, Aiden." The twins looked up from whatever plan they were whipping up. "I really don't see the family resemblance the Minister was talking about."

Aiden shuddered. "Gods, I hope not." He stood up shakily. "Here's the plan. I'll distract him -"

"- and I'll get him from behind." Ivan finished. "It's foolproof."

Sirius frowned. "I hate to break this to you but -"

"- you're the king of reckless plans," Aiden finished. "We know. That's why your going to help me."

"Actually I was going to say -" Sirius started, but Ivan cut him off.

"You were a Marauder in your younger years, so you have tons of practice." The elder twins smiled impishly. "We know. That's why we've agreed to let you help."

"Okay, fine." Sirius relented. His eyes glinted with anticipation. "What the -"

"OI!" Aiden yelled. "You there, snake-face! Yeah, you! The one without the nose!"

Voldemort turned toward us, and hissed. He sounded every bit like an angry bipolar snake. "You!"

Aiden skirted around the humongous building, smiling brightly. "Me!"

Bellatrix, who was stuck under a statue, shrieked, "I killed you! You're dead!"

"Fool!" Voldemort hissed again. "There two of them! Twins, so this is the last twin."

Dumbledore looked almost shocked, as though he couldn't believe he had been forgotten for a couple of teenagers. Voldemort fired a non-verbal curse at Aiden, who simply shadow-traveled out of the way. "Getting old, grandpa!" He taunted. Then he frowned. "That was figurative."

"A pity," Voldemort said in a soft, dangerous voice. "You have so much potential for the dark arts. You excelled when you were taking lessons!"

Aiden spun his wand restlessly between his fingers in a way, I realized with a jolt, that was reminiscent of Voldemort himself. "Yeah, about that. You kind of forced us to learn the dark arts. Ivan might have found something interesting in them, but I think it's a waste of time. You can pull a prank and get a good laugh with the dark arts. Unless your idea of a 'good prank' is killing someone in a slow, laws of physics defying way."

"You're a disgrace!" Voldemort snarled. "I don't know why I've allowed you to live this long."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Easy. It's because you're doing a sucky job at killing people. I mean, you've tried to kill Harry on five separate occasions and failed every. Single. Time. Give up already, old man. There's a nice cozy place for you in the Fields of Punishment."

Judging by the confusion in snake-face's eyes, he had no idea what Aiden was talking about, buy didn't seem to care. He spun his wand around, and every shard of glass that lay on the floor flew into the air, moving in sync with his wand. Dumbledore cast a shielding spell over us at the same time as Sadie, so the glass turned to dust and piled to the ground in a semi-circle. Voldemort looked miffed.

Then Harry gave a gasp of pain, and fell to the ground writhing. I watched in horror as his skin turned chalk-white, and his eyes darkened. His features seemed to twist and change, becoming more serpentine. Too late, I realized what Voldemort was doing. Dumbledore knelt next to Harry as the rest of us backed up. Percy's looked conflicted as his friend squirmed on the ground in pain as he fought off the dark lord in his mind.

Annabeth intertwined her hand with Percy's comfortingly. "You can't defend everyone, Percy." She said soothingly. "Some battles have to be faced by others.

I remembered that Percy's fatal flaw was loyalty. At first I didn't understand how that was possible, but now I did. It was killing Percy to have to stand by and watch someone else fight a battle alone. "Doesn't make it any easier," he mumbled.

"Harry?" Dumbledore inquired gently. "Harry? Can you hear me?"

"You loose, old man," a tortured, raspy voice came from Harry's mouth that wasn't his own.

"Harry," Dumbledore pressed. "You can fight it."

A change suddenly came over Harry, but instead of the snaky kind, it was good. "You'll never win," Harry gasped in a tired voice, but it was his own voice. "Because you don't have friends. You don't have love."

If Voldemort didn't look miffed before, he certainly did then. He drew back a few feet and raised his wand to Dumbledore's turned back. Percy, Sirius, the twins and I all moved to defend him, when there was a roar, green fire lighting in the Floo fireplaces. Several aurors, Ministry officials (including Percy Weasley, I noticed with a smirk), journalists, and the Minster himself. There was a short, but tense silence when the Minister and Voldemort stared at each other, Voldemort daring and angry, the Minister terrified and shocked.

Just as Voldemort apparated away with a sharp crack!, the Minister gasped, "he's back!"

And so the acceptance of the dark lord's return began.

Hogwarts was sullen and dark. As Harry, Percy, Sadie and I walked down the corridor outside a grassy field, people stared and pointed at us. Harry looked depressed because Sirius had had to leave as soon as the Ministry people showed up. Sadie had a surprise in store for him she told me, but she wouldn't say anything more on it until she had worked out the kinks.

We were a little famous from our stunt the previous day at the Department of Mysteries. Harry and Dumbledore had fought Voldemort, the twins - his grandchildren - had outright defied him, proving their innocence and devotion to the Light side. (Use the force, Luke, I thought when I read that.) Neville had taken the liberty of snapping the Death Eater's wands, which he said was part of his way of avenging his parents. The rest of us demigods and magicians has been deemed heroes (again). The Daily Prophet had somehow linked us to the kids that fought off the monsters in Diagon Alley at the beginning of the school year, declaring it as an early Death Eater attack and that if wasn't for us, everyone in Diagon Alley would have been brutally killed.

If we weren't there, I thought wryly. Then the monsters wouldn't have attacked in the first place.

Percy tried to make Harry feel better. "At least we have a part of the prophecy figured out. Love is the power the dark lord doesn't know. No surprise there, who could love that face?"

Harry smiled at Percy's jab. "I was hoping that Sirius could somehow get cleared. Then I wouldn't have to live with the Durleys anymore."

The Weasley twins suddenly joined us, grinning manically. "We have come to a decision." They said.

"I don't think the academic -"

"- world is really cut out for us."

I felt a smile spread across my face. "What're you planning?"

"You'll see." They said with mock mysterious faces. "You'll see."

"Mr. Potter!" A girlish simpering voice said behind us. "Mr. Jackson, Mr. and Miss Kane."

"Yes, toad?" I muttered under my breath.

Umbridge stopped in front of me, her face red with anger. "Filch reported to me and said he saw you leaving late last night. Is this true?"

Percy blinked at her stupidly. "Lady, our heroic act of last night are all over the papers. Does that answer your question?"

She was visibly trembling with rage. "You will visit my office tonight, after O. . Understood?"

"Yeah." We muttered.

"So much for my heroic ending," Sadie grumbled under her breath.

A/N: This is the fastest I have ever - and will ever - update. Wow. Call this a Percy's Birthday gift. :D I hope you guys like the chapter! (200 reviews! YAY!)