I had baratric surgery and today was the first day I have had solid food... and it was wonderful!

Prepare yourself for a powerful, interesting chapter...

This is a long time coming...

"I cannot cure this." Chrion said, his tone dead and heavy. He hands shook as he pulled away from the wounded tree and the hole within oozing what looked like pus and pain. "Whatever it is, this poison, it is old and from Tartarus. I am unfamiliar with it and can do nothing to save it." His words, like a death knell, fell across the various demigods and single witch, making many gasp.

Hours had passed since the tree had been struck and the man, centuar, had spent the entire time collecting samples, using every trick and method he knew to save the damned tree... but to no avail it seemed. Aaron's heart ached for the man, the defeat in his eyes, the raw pain... it was a lot for one being to bear. They all could feel the power of the barrier fading, the poison sinking into the magic of the camp. The more sensetive of them could feel it affecting their own bodies, and that meant they could feel the failure of Chiron to save the Tree on a much more personal level.

Aaron approached, hands out kindly, his heart heavy and his mind sure. "I will try to see what I can do. The Spirits had access to knowledge that none of us have access too. They, through me, may be able to cure Thalia's tree or at least severe it's connection to the Barrier. Something is better then nothing."

Chiron nodded, his body weak from trying his own magic for so long. "That would be more the welcome, do what you can and report back soon."

"I will need some things... " Aaron said, moving towards the tree, ignoring or at least trying to ignore the stench of the posion and the wood rot. "I need salt, water, roses and ..." He almost buckled over as a rush of knowldge over took him from the Spirits. It came not in words but direct knowledge right to his brain. "I need the blood of demigods, drops from six children of Apollo and two children of Demeter. They will act as a conduit for a purging spell, allowing me to connect to the tree and channel the poison away from it, or so is my hope."

Will approached first, holding out his hand. "Tell us everything you need and will do it."

Behind him, five other children of Apollo nodded. Aaron turned to the Daughters of Demeter lingering by. After a moment of looking at each other, they nodded and Miranda moved forward.

"We will give you what you need."

Aaron smiled. "Thank you. Now, I just need to write this spell down, so I do it right... it is a bigger spell then anything I have ever cast... I can only hope I manage it."

Chiron nodded, limping forward towards the Camper holding his wheel chair. "Then we wish you all of the luck you may need, and may you be nore fortunate then I."

''"

It took nearly an hour for Aaron to write everything down, with Agnes and Diane both correcting and prodding him as he wrote down the various ins and outs of the spell. His hands shook as he did so, the knowledge they flooded into his mind was... beyond anything he had ever attempted.

"This isn't a healing spell... what makes a purging spell a purging spell?" He asked, curious and concerned.

Then the pain started, he buckled over, holding his head in agony as the familiar stench of Agnes' magic overtook him. "Trust us." She said, her tone colder then Boreas' most frigid winds.

"Why... why are you doing this?" He wanted to scream, the pain was immense, his felt like he was going to explode, his head tightening and tightening, he breathed out hoping it would stop.

"Have Faith." Agnes said, a sound echoed five other times behind her, even by sweet Diane... leaving him wondering.

'What the hell did I get into. What are they going to do...'

Something had changed, with the Spirits, they had changed or perhaps something about this situation, this spell... it changed the spirits within him. It brought out something that until then they had hidden. He was afraid, terrified even, wondering just what they were hiding but knowing that it could be fatal to ask.

And so he kept on writing down the spell, barely hiding his shaking as Will walked into his room.

With his typical charm, Will smiled. "You ready soon?"

Aaron looked down at the papers before him and nodded. "Sure... let's go."

Together they moved out of the Big House and moved towards the Tree. Aaron saw the supplies he asked for were all readied for him, put in a circle around the tree. He gulped, knowing now that there was something darker about this spell, something the Spirits were hiding. He could only hope it was something he would survive.'

Grabbing the salt, Aaron carefully drew a circle around the tree, then intersetcing it he drew another circle where he would sit. For both circles he drew small runes, ones for power, channel, control and spirit. Runes that would bind the poison, he hoped, and allow him to purge it out of the tree. If all went well, then he would at least slow down the progression of the poison... and that was a good thing.

Right?

Shaking, more out of fear then anything, Aaron sat down in his circle and grabbed a bowl, passing it around with a knife to the demigods in question who each cut themselves and allowed their blood to pool into the bowl. When it was finished it was passed back to him, and he placed it in the center of the circles, where they intersected. He felt the great power of the blood, the mixture of humanity and divinity boiling away, Sun and Earth mixing as one. Potent magic that would charge, connect and conduct the magic he was casting until it broke through the poison and saved the day...

Right?

Realizing that for the first time in a while, he had no idea what he was doing, Aaron grabbed his talisman and pulled it off, dipping it into the blood and laying it there. He then put a second bowl underneath the tree where the poison would hopefully leak out.

Focusing on the energy of the Spirits more ready then ever, boiling at the edges of his mind and soul, Aaron pushed and started his chant. The power flooded him and flowed outward, towards the talisman. The blood around it boiled as he chanted.

"Per os et sanguis: et Solem terra sub pedibus nostris, et excoquam ad unwanted essentia. Aperi mundum haec essentia, cum una pars sit influunt e mundo, et facti sunt. Ne putant esse effodienda est ... illud fieri."

Aaron shook as the spell rocked through him, his mind and... everything suddenly aching as the stream of power became a flood. It wasn't just Agnes and Diane, he could tolerate that, it was all of the Spirits, They blasted through him, ignoring his vunerabilty and humanity and burned him out with cold. He was a vessel, nothing more, a means to an end as his power... their power, flooded towards the tree and talisman.

Fire erupted around the talisman, the salt lines dancing with blue fire that raised higher and higher. He heard Will's screams, the blood dripping down his eyes and nose, the agony of magic too great for him searing his soul and flesh...

He was going to die...

The magic slowed suddenly, and he was able to focus his vision, looking forward he saw, through the smoke, a figure... a girl. She was beautiful, with black hair and skyblue eyes. She was dressed like a punk but she seemed faded, like a ...

"Spirit... Thalia?"

He said, and she looked up, smiling at him before collasping her soul swirling and sinking like Mist,...

Straight into his talisman.

Agony shot through his head, his wanted to scream, his head bowed and his bones started grinding together. "Ahh... I... what... What's wrong, I did as you asked..."

"Her, we want her, her living soul! She would power us for a life time!" Agnes screeched, her tone losing any warmth or sanity.

Aaron knew he messed up, Chiron had been right... Spirits had only Wants, not needs... they were insane in their desires and they would consume him to get that want met. He felt it in them, tasted that madness that was flooding his soul, close to driving him utterly insane.

He had a choice... hand them Thalia, and damn that soul to a lifetime of being used by the Spirits that would drain her of the life she still apparently had...

Or... he could do the heroic and right thing and...

Shaking, he turned to a stunned Will. " Take the Talisman and run...and Tell Chiron... he was right... The spirits arAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, bending over, he felt it snap... the line between his body and soul. It hadn't just weakened like before, when Hecate could catch his soul... it outright fractured... the void rushed in his mind and he collasped, falling into the void forever...

A face appeared, fading in through the Mist of the Void... and it was Agnes'. She was sneering at him, her eyes colder then the sun was warm.

" We only asked one thing of you... and so you will be the Living Sacrifice that will give us power once more."

Behind her glistened four angry eyes that stepped forward, ready to consume his soul...

He screamed as they launched forward, no mercy or appreciation or love... just a unbridled want to live and or feed on the essence of the Living. All the affection before had been fained as they had foreseen that he would be in this position, to offer the soul of an innocent soul to them. He had failed that test it seems...

And he would not survive the punishment.

"""

"AARON!" Will threw himself forward as Aaron collpased, blood dripping from his eyes. His brown hair bleeding out it's color, his face losing any pallor. He looked less then dead, he looked a week old corpse. Will had enough understanding of magic to know what had happened, he had sensed it, tasted of the snapping of the boy's soul. "Go get Chiron now, help me take him to the infirmary. Get Mr. D too."

His brothers lifted Aaron up and with practiced speed they marched towards the infirmary. They got him there in record time, laying him down in the bed and moving into action to take care of him just as Chiron and Mr. D literally popped into the room. Mr. D was covered in bright purple flames, looking at Aaron with something akin to horror.

"They have taken his soul... why?" Will tossed the talsiman over to him, making the old god gasp. "I can sense Thalia's soul in this, they must have forced it out to feed on it but the boy refused. They took him instead."

Chiron wheeled over to them fast, putting a hand over the boy's forehead. "I cannot feel his soul... he is on his own. We must keep him alive and hope he can fight his way back."

Will gasped "That's it! He's a god, can't he help at all?"

To his shock, Mr. D sadly shook his head. "No... this is beyond me. He made a pact with the Dead, it was his choice to bond with them. They have claim to him... he must fight his way out or be torn apart and his soul fading into nothingness. It is all on him. If he returns, he may not be even all there... he may be too mad for even my powers to heal."

Everyone turned to the boy, who lay there, glassy eyes and cold,.. his very soul torn from his body...

They all prayed for his recovery. and above all else, hoped he would be together enough to survive with his sanity in tact.

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was fun, powerful and unexpected... the true goals of the Spirits for a long time...

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.

Through bone and blood, Sun and Earth, bind and purge the unwanted essence. Open the world to this essence, let it flow out and become a part one with the world. Let is be exhumed... let it be done.