Chapter 8- World's Collide

"Immortal?" Piper questioned. "I don't understand. Why would any of the gods help Kronos? He almost destroyed them in the Battle of Manhattan. Besides, are any of the giants and titans still alive?"

Chiron sighed. "It may not be that simple child. There are other factors at play. I have my suspicions, none of them good"

"Well tell me" Piper urged Chiron. "If you have information, we need to know"

"I cannot tell you Piper" Chiron bent his head in shame. "I made an oath, never to speak of this"

"I get it" Piper said scathingly. "You don't want to help us. Fine! I'll find it out on my own"

Before Chiron could say another word, Piper disappeared in a flurry of brown hair. She bumped into Will on the way out.

"Hey!" Will said. "What's the rush?"

Piper stormed off towards Thalia's tree. Peleus the dragon snarled as she approached. She sat beside him and patted his scaly head. He purred with satisfaction and started snoring. Piper glanced outside Camp Half Blood, wishing she could find out what Chiron was hiding from her. Then she heard something. A *SCREECH*? She looked upwards and saw a dark blip descending towards camp.

Peleus also noticed the shape and growled fiercely. Piper unsheathed Katoptris and drew shaky breaths. As the blip got closer, she could see more details. A hummingbird the size of a hippo was carrying a ship. The bird's wings were huge and metal, slicing through the air. She noticed two people poking their heads out from inside the wooden ship. The giant hummingbird descended and clawed at the ground. The two people, a boy and a girl hopped out of the ship. The boy had chocolate brown skin and curly black hair. He wore a simple T-shirt and jeans and carried a satchel. The girl was dressed similarly. Her hair was streaked with green highlights and she was chewing bubblegum.

Piper looked nervously at Peleus. There was no one around, and she didn't have time to get help. If these kids turned out to be dangerous, she would have to deal with them. She knew they weren't mortals. I mean, who used a hummingbird as a mode of transport? The strange thing was, she couldn't tell if they were demigods either. She had never seen them before. They must've been new around here.

Piper cleared her throat. "Who are you?"

The two kids looked up at Piper. She noticed their gaze wandered over to Peleus too.

"Is that a dragon?" the girl with the green highlights perked up.

"This must be the right place" the boy said.

"You think?" the girl smirked. "I can see why Amos sent us here"

Piper frowned. Who were these kids? How could they see Peleus? Why had someone sent them here?

"I'm sorry" Piper repeated her question. "Who are you?"

The boy approached Piper and held out his hand. "I'm Carter. This is Sadie. We have to talk"

xxx

"So, let me get this straight" Percy said. "You had a dream about Kronos and Nyx in a cave, plotting to kill us?"

Reyna shook her head. "They were talking about Annabeth. Nyx wanted to kill her, but Kronos wouldn't let her"

Percy gulped. "They have Annabeth? Where is she?"

"Honestly Percy, I don't know" Reyna replied sadly. "The dream cut out there"

Percy sat down and looked at the assorted foods on the shrine. His gaze wandered over to a half-eaten apple. He picked it up and turned it in his hands.

"We have to get there" Percy said. "Do you know where it is?"

Reyna shook her head. "I've heard of the cave of Nyx, but no one has ever found it"

"Wait a sec" Leo interjected. "What exactly is the Cave of Nyx?"

"It's not exactly a cave" Hazel said. "In ancient times, every temple had an Adyton, or an innermost shrine which was forbidden to be entered by anyone but the priests"

"How do you know this?" Frank marveled.

Hazel smirked. "Caves and hidden areas are my specialty"

Reyna nodded. "Hazel is right. The Cave of Nyx housed Kronos, who was drunk on honey and prophecies"

"Prophecies?" Percy questioned.

"Yes" Reyna agreed. "Nyx issues oracles in the cave"

"Nyx can issue prophecies?" Nico said, stunned. "I thought only Rachel could do that"

Reyna laughed out loud.

"Did I say something wrong?" Nico frowned.

"The Delphic oracle is one of the many oracles Nico" Reyna replied. "There are many more oracles, but whether they still issue prophecies, I don't know"

Percy cleared his throat. "About Nyx?"

Reyna shrugged. "That's all I know. After I had the dream, I did some research in the town library. I know Nyx can issue prophecies, but I don't know how or why"

Frank grunted. "Well, that's helpful. She could be spouting a prophecy about our deaths right about now"

Percy looked at Bob. "Do you know where the cave is Bob?"

"Bob has been around Tartarus, but Bob has never seen a cave" the titan pronounced.

"What're we going to do now?" Nico said. "We made this trip for nothing. Without the location of the cave, we can't find Annabeth"

"Nico's right" Hazel said. "We can't just go strutting around Tartarus. We might get killed"

"Although I must say, finding you guys was relatively easy" Reyna said.

Jason held up Reyna's knife. "Genius" he smirked.

"Wait" Bob ordered. "What scary lady said is right. Finding friends was too easy"

Bob raised his nose and sniffed the air, probably trying to smell monsters.

"Wow" Leo muttered. "I think someone broke the titan"

Frank chuckled softly. He gave Leo a high five.

"Shh" Hazel snapped at the boys.

Bob lowered is nose. "Nothing. I smell no monsters. Too quiet"

"Strange" Reyna said. "I thought Monsters would be hounding us, even through the protection of this shrine"

Jason snapped his fingers. "That's it"

"That's what?" Leo said.

"What if Kronos wants us to find him?" Jason theorized. "Maybe that's why he kept Annabeth alive for so long, so he could use her as bait"

"Solid theory" Hazel agreed. "But why would Kronos want us to find him?"

"Right" Nico said. "Wouldn't seven demigods be a little too much for him?"

"Alone?" Percy said. "Yeah, we would overpower him, but this is the monster's home court. If he had wanted to kill us, he could have"

"We have to let the others know" Reyna said.

"How're we gonna do that?" Leo asked. "It's not like we can send them a note"

Percy smiled and looked at the Altar. "Maybe we can"

xxx

Piper glanced nervously at Carter and Sadie. They hadn't explained much yet, but Piper knew they came with bad news. She could sense their tense posture and beating hearts. She gave them each a cup of hot cocoa. Chiron had gone for archery lessons, so they would be undisturbed.

"Please, sit" Piper gestured towards the chairs.

"Woah!" Sadie exclaimed as she pointed towards the ceiling. "Is that a Leopard head?"

"Uh yeah" Piper answered. "That's Seymour"

"Seymour?" Carter questioned. "You act as if-"

He was cut short when Seymour yawned and roared.

"It's alive" Carter jumped in his seat.

"That's so cool" Sadie said, she looked at Piper. "Don't mind my brother, he's a wimp"

"Hey!"

"So" Piper cleared her throat. "You still haven't answered my question. Who are you?"

Sadie looked at Carter pointedly.

"Fine" Carter sighed.

Piper listened as he told her about the Egyptian gods and goddesses. She listened as he explained about the adventures he and Sadie had gone on. When he was done, Piper was speechless.

"H-how?" Piper stammered.

"I know it might be hard to believe" Carter sympathized. "We felt the same way when Amos told us about the Greek gods"

"Yep" Sadie agreed. "Jeez I visited the Empire State a dozen times. Not once did I get to go to Mount Olympus"

"Wait" Piper looked stunned. "There are magicians in New York? How come we never saw you guys?"

"Sure are" Sadie said. "We're in Brooklyn"

"As for how come you never saw us, we definitely saw signs of you" Carter said.

"Signs?" Piper questioned.

Carter nodded. "The first time I went on the roof of the Brooklyn house, I saw a Pegasus fly by. I didn't think much of it then, but now I understand"

"Wow" Piper said. "I had no idea... wait a sec, do the Egyptian gods live in New York too?"

Sadie laughed out loud. "That's great" she nudged Carter. "You should tell Horus to relocate when you visit him"

"The Egyptian gods live in the Duat" Carter said, ignoring Sadie's comment.

"The Duat?" Piper said.

"It's an interdimensional space" Carter explained. "We use it to travel long distances in quick succession, and sometimes-"

He paused and raised his hand. Before Piper could blink, he had pulled a curved sword out of thin air.

"Wow!" Piper said. "So cool"

"If your done showing off brother" Sadie said. "We have business to discuss"

"Right" Carter said "The god Set is loose"

Piper blinked. "Sorry, my Egyptian history is hazy"

"Carter!" Sadie said. "Ugh! I have to do everything myself" she turned to Piper. "Set is the god of Evil. We defeated him two years ago, but he's back now. He probably won't hurt us, because we made a pact with him, but he might want to rule the world and make mankind his slave"

She said all this in one breath. Piper glanced at Carter. "Do I even want to know?"

Carter shook his head sarcastically.

"By the way" Piper said. "Why does a god want to rule the Earth? Aren't there demons in your world?"

"Oh, plenty of demons" Sadie smirked. "Fought them, got the tattoo"

Carter sighed. "What my sister means to say is, Egyptian gods are not your typical gods. We don't worship them, we fear them, and occasionally fight them"

"Fight gods?" Piper said, stunned.

"Yep" Sadie agreed.

"Anyway" Carter said. "We don't know how Set's appearance is related to the Greek gods. Amos sent us here so we could figure that out"

"Too much information can be a bad thing" Sadie and Piper said together.

"I see" Sadie smiled. "You have an Amos at this camp"

Piper laughed. "Yep, that's Chiron"

"Oh my god" Carter yelped. "The Chiron? He's here? I've read stories, but I never thought he was alive"

Just then Piper heard hoofs on the wooden floor. She turned and saw Chiron standing at the doors.

"Piper" he said. "Who are these young kids?"

Carter squealed and leaped on Chiron.

"We have lots to talk about" Piper sighed.