A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Stolen Chariot
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sword of Hades
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Bronze Dragon

George and Martha Saves My Life

I love the Mist. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, morph into a bird to fly down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound following you, and thanks to the Mist, people probably just see nothing out of the unusual.

I took a risk of using my mom's cell phone to call Annabeth once in the tunnel, but only reached her voice mail. I'd gotten surprisingly good reception down there and when I reached the block of the Empire State Building, I took the risk again.

This time, Annabeth picked up.

"Hey," I said. "You get my message?"

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!"

"I'll fill you in later," I asid, though how I was going to do that I had no idea. "Where are you?"

"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. I told Chiron about Nico as you ask. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, there's no way the gods-"

"Trust me," I said. "I'm already at the Empire State Building. I'll see you when you get here."

I hung up. My hands were trembling. I wasn't sure if it was a leftover reaction from my dip in the Styx, or anticipation of what I was about to do. If this didn't work, being invulnerable wasn't going to save me from getting blasted to bits.

It was late afternoon and Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and looked confused when she came close.

I whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too,

The door slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive. I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Castor, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll Brothers, Beckendorf, Katie Gardner,m and Annabeth along with most of their siblings. CHrion came out of the van last, His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap kuft, The Ares cabin wasn't here, but I tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story.

I did a head count: forty-two campers in all.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here. At the same time, however, many of them also looked anxious as they looked up at the Empire State Building. I realized they were campers that only train during the summer and must have never been to Olympus before. Only time demigods are welcome to Olympus is during the Winter Solstice or they have to go there as part of their quest.

As I looked at their faces-all these campers I'd known for so many summers-a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy.

But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. I needed them. Besides we got our own spy now and only Chiron, Annabeth and myself know.

Annabeth came up to me. She was dressed in black camouflage wit h her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung ove there shoulder-ready for stabbing or surfing the internet, whichever came first.

She frowned. "What is it?"

"What's what?" I asked.

"Y ou're looking at me fun n y."

I realized I was thinking about my strange vision of Annabeth pulling me out of the Styx River. "It's, uh, nothing." I turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

My mentor shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convinced him to defend the city. If not at least spare whatever gods still loyal to Olympus fighting Typhon. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

I asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

Chiron shook my hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."

It sounded eerily close to what Achilles told me. Then I remembered Chiron had taught Achilles. That didn't exactly reassure me, but I nodded and tried to give him a confident smile.

"Let's go," I told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a bigblack book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when we all filled in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

"We're here to each the six hundredth floor," Annabeth spoke up since I never actually had to deal with the security to reach Olympus (I normally just fly up there).

He checked us out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. I couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice our weapons, so I guess he wasn't fooled by the Mist.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along.

I decided to speak up. "Forty-two demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

He thought about that. Then he hit the buzzer and the security gate swung open. He took out two key cards and handed it to Annabeth and me. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with your group. Make it quick."

"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," I added.

"Um, no,": he agreed.

I tossed him a golden drachma and we marched through.

Although I never rode up to Olympus I rode the elevator down, and I know it can't fit forty-two demigods, so we decided to take two trips. I gave my card to Malcolm Pace as I was riding up with the first group along with Annabeth was riding up with me in the first ride. As soon as the elevator closed, Annabeth slipped the key into the slot. The card disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600. She pressed it. The old disco song "Stayin' Alive." started playing and a terrifying image flashed through my mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six-thousand feet over Manhattan.

I'd seen Olympus several times, but it still took my breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. T hen I realized the mountain was silent-no music, no voices, no laughter.

Annabeth studied me. "You looked different," she decided.

"Let's just say, I decided to stop running when the going gets to tough for me," I said, bringing back what she last told me about me running when I find myself facing something I can't face. Which wasn't a complete lie.

"That's good-I guess-but where exactly did you go?"

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined us.

"Tell you later," I said. "Come on."

We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be into it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and duckjed inside, closing his shudders.

We passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

"Hate her," she muttered.

"Has she been cursing you or something?" I asked. Last year Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since. But considering Hera's record, the fact Annabeth was alive and sane, I figured it probably wasn't anything too harsh.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right."

"So she sends cows after me."

I tried not to smile. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place-in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the sc hool hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

"It could be worse considering this is Hera we're talking about," I said.

"It still doesn't make it easier for me to explain to mortals why I walk like I'm avoiding something or smell like cow manure," Annabeth said.

I can understand that. Demigods don't exactly fit in with mortals and we tend to stick out as troublemakers before we start attracting monsters. So when we do, or strange mystical stuff does happen to us, it makes us stand out even more.

"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon.

"What is that?" his brother Castor asked.

We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered."We're being targeted."

"Let's get to the palace," I said.

No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the throne room.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around the hearth. In one corner, a house size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam my old friend the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half serpent.

"Moooo!" he said happily, turning in a circle.

Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile. Two winters ago we'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and I'd gotten kind of fond of him. He seemed to like me too, even though I'd originally thought he was a girl and named him Bessie.

"Hey, man," I said. "They treating you okay?"

"Mooo," Bessie agreed.

We walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. YOu and your friends are welcome."

Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had done before, but she was a grown woman now.

I bowed. "Lady Hestia."

My friends followed my example.

Hestia regarded me with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."

The ot her campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles?

"You must be careful," Hestia warned me. "You gained muc h on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."

Annabeth nudged me. "Um... what is she talking about?"

I stared into Hestia's eyes, and an image rushed into my mind: I saw a dark alley between red brick warehouses. A sign above one of the doors read RICHMOND IRON WORKS.

Two half-bloods crouched in the shadows-a boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them.

Luke carried a bronze knife. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

Luke nodded. "Something down here. I sense it."

A rumble echoed from the alley, like someone had banged on a sheet of metal. The half-bloods crept forward.

Old crates were stacked on a loading dock. Thalia and Luke approached with their weapons ready. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered as if something were behind it.

Thalia glanced at Luke. He counted silently: One, two, three! He ripped away the tin, and a little girl flew at him with a hammer.

"Whoa!" Luke said.\

The girl had tangled blond hair and was wearing flannel pajamas. She couldn't have been more than seven, but she would've brained Luke if he hadn't been so fast.

He grabbed her wrist, and the ammer skittered across the cement.

The little girl fought and kicked. "No more monsters! Go away!"

"It's okay!" Luke struggled to hold her. "Thalia, put your shield up. You're scaring her."

Thalia tapped Aegis and it shrank into a silver bracelet. "Hey, it's all right," she said. "We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!"

"No," Luke promised. "But we know all about monsters. We fight them too."

Slowly the girl stopped kicking. She studied Luke and Thalia with large intelligent gray eyes.

"You're like me?" she said suspiciously.

"Yeah," Luke said. "We're... well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?"

"My family hates me," the girl said. "They don't want me. I ran away."

Thalia and Luke locked eyes. I knew they both related to what she was saying.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth."

Luke smiled. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth-you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You could?"

"Oh, yeah." Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

Maybe under most circumstances, offering a seven-year-old a knife would not be a good idea, but when you're a half-blood, regular rules kind of go out the window.

Annabet gripped the hilt.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

Annabeth stared at him with adoration. "I am!"

Thalia grinned. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

"You're... you're not going to take me back to my family?" she said. "Promise?"

Luke put his hand on her shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Annabeth said happily.

"Now, come on," Thalia said. "We can't stay put for long!"

The scene shifted. Three demigods were running through the woods. It must've been several days later, maybe even weeks. All of them looked beat up, like they'd seen some battles. Annabeth was wearing new clothes-jeans and an oversize army jacket.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled, and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.

They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white Colonial house-May Castellan's place.

"All right," Luke said, breathing hard. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

"Luke, are you sure?" Thalia asked. "You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you-"

"We don't have a choice!" he growled. "They burned our nearest safe house. And you've got to treat that leg wound. "

"This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement. I guess is even at seven she was amaze by the architectures because it didn't look that much different than when Nico and I was there with overgrown lawn and unused swing and everything, and this was vision from nine years ago.

"It was my house," Luke muttered. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency-"

"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped.

Annabeth shrunk away from him, like his anger surprised her.

"I... I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back-"

A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man's voice boomed: "You should not have come home."

The vision shut off.

My knees buckled, but Annabeth grabbed me, "Percy! What happened?"

"Did... did you see that?" I asked.

"See what?"

I glanced at Hestia, but the goddess's face was expressionless. I remembered something she'd told me in the woods: If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family. But why had she shown me those scenes?

"How long was I out?" I muttered.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "Percy, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for like one second and collapsed."

I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I couldn't afford to look weak-not right now. Whatever those visions meant, I had to stay focus on our mission.

"Um, Lady Hestia," I said, we've come on urgent business. We need to see-"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said. I shuddered, because it was the same voice I'd heard in the vision.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt=and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into the smoke. I understood why she was anxious to go. Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"Hello, Percy." His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with me, and I wondered if he somehow knew about the vision I'd just had, or that Nico and I visited May Castellan to try and find out how Luke survived the River Styx. I had many questions about May Castellan, and the vision only cause more questions. But I could tell from Hermes' expression that this was not the time to ask.

I bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."

Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in my mind. Don't say hi to us, We're just reptiles.

George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.

"Hello, George," I said. "Hey, Martha."

Did you bring us a rat? George asked.

George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!

Too busy for rats? George said. That's just sad.

I decided it was better not to get into it with George. "Um, Hermes." I said. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Hermes' eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take his message."

Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned. But since I got along with Hermes better than Zeus, this might work better.

"You guys," I said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See if any of the minor gods left in Olympus will help us out. Remember, we still need as much help as we can get. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes."

Silena frowned. "But-"

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

The Stoll brothers seemed to like tha-getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids, and that's normally with the rest of Cabin Eleven. "We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving with Hermes.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him non-stop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself and lead the defenses here, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"But not to defend Olympus," I said. "We need help! Kronos has set up a trap. Typhon isn't the only threat coming to attack Olympus. Morpheus was seen scouting around the city for an attack. There are these blue lights=="

"Yes, yes, we're aware of what Morpheus was doing and I saw those blue lights. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage, nor has Morpheus been able to. Olympus has strong magical ward. Besides, Zeus has not left Olympus completely undefended. Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods still loyal to Olympus can approach from air, and only Hestia can confirm their loyalties unless its one of us Olympians. Any other god would be knocked out of the sky."

I raised my hand. "Um... what about that materializing/teleporting thing y ou guys do?"

"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through t he entire city wit h his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing that?"

Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous-hordes of monsters going up in elevator and too be honest, it did. But I still didn't like it.

"But we need Olympian help," I said.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy. In the old days Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon alone. He is the husband of Echidna and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our poforces any more than it already has much less wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."

"Progress," I said. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis,"

"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."

I didn't want to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was trying to convince himself than me.

In the corner, the Ophiotaurus mooed sadly.

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages'."

Rodents, George mused. I'm in it for the rodents.

Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don't we, George?

Oh, absolutely. Can we get back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.

"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.

The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.

"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."

""Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

"She said you should try plan twenty-three. SHe said you would know what that meant."

Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it. "Go on."

"Last thing." Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um, something about staying away from her daughter."

I'm not sure whose face was redder: Annabeth's or mine.

"Thank you, Lord Hermes." I said I fished out a drachma that I keep on me for emergencies. I tossed it to Hermes. Hermes caught it and that seemed to brighten his mood a little.

"Hermes, I... I wanted to say... I'm sorry about Luke," Annabeth said.

That caused Hermes to harden once more, only this time to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."

Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"

"SORRY doesn't cut it!"

George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmer and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.

"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."

I tried to step between them. "What are you talking about? Annabeth didn't-"

"Don't defend her, Jackson!" Hermes turned the cattle prod toward me. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."

"Maybe you should blame yourself!" I should've kept my mouth shut, but all I could think about was turning his attention away from Annabeth. This whole time, he hadn't been angry with me. He'd been angry with her. "Maybe if you hadn't left Luke with his mom in her mental condition!"

Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. I thought, Well, that's it.

But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered in his ear.

Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.

"Percy Jackson," he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again. You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much-"

His voice broke, and he shrunk back to human size. "My son, my greatest pride... my poor May..."

He sounded so devastated I didn't know what to say. One minute he was ready to vaporize us. Now he looked like he needed a hug.

"I will leave you now," he said tightly. "I have a war to fight."

He began to shine. I turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same because she was still frozen in shock.

Good luck, Percy, Martha the snake whispered.

Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.

Annabeth sat at the foot of her mother's throne and cried. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn't sure how.

"Annabeth," I said, "it's not your fault. I've never seen Hermes act that way. I guess... I don't know... he probably feels guilty about Luke. He's looking for somebody to blame. I don't know why he lashed out at you. You didn't do anything to deserve that."

Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.

I shifted uneasily. "Um, you didn't, right?"

She didn't answer. Her Celestial bronze knife was strapped to her arm-the same knife I'd seen in Hestia's vision. All these years, I hadn't realized it was a gift from Luke. I'd asked her many times why she preferred to fight with a knife instead of a sword, and she'd never answered me. Now I knew.

"Percy, Hermes said you bear the curse of Achilles. Hestia said the same thing. Did you... did you bathe in the River Styx."

"Maybe a little."

I told her the story about Nico and I visited May Castellan to find answers and that she had weird moment when her eyes had started to glow and she talked about her son's fate. Then I brought up about Hades and Nico, and how I'd defeated an army of the dead. I left out the vision of her pulling me out of the river. I still didn't quite understand that part and just thinking about it made me embarrassed.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? And Luke... di immortales, of course! That's why Luke didn't die. He went to the Styx and... Oh no, Luke. What were you thinking?"

Annabeth looked at me but at same time I guessed she was asking Luke.

"I was thinking I can save as many as possible when I face Kronos," I said.

Annabeth was still studying my face, like she was trying to see differences since my swim in the styx. "That sounds like something you would do," she said. "My mom mentioned-"

"Plan twenty-three."

She rummaged in her pack and pulled out Daedalus' laptop. The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up. She opened a few files and started to read.

"Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."

"One of Daedalus' inventions?"

"A lot of inventions... dangerous ones. If my mother wants me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad." SHe looked at me. "What about her message to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"

I shook my head. As usual, I had no clue what the gods were telling me.

Just then the Stoll brothers ran in to the throne room.

"You need to see this," Conner said. "Now."

The blue lights in the sky had stopped, so at first I didn't understand what the problem was.

The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain. They were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one gold drachma and see the city. The campers were using every single one.

I looked down at the city. I could see almost everything from here-the East River and the Hudson river carving the shape of Manhattan, the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north. Everything looked normal, but it was too quiet. New York is never silent. We should be hearing the noise of the city, even from up here.

"What did they do?" my voice sounded tight and angry. "What did they do to my city?"

I pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look.

In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence,m wrecks or anything. It was as if all people in New York had==

Grover's and Nico's words replay in my head of Grover's encounter with Morpheus: Whenever he passed by humans...

The humans would pass out. Curl up and go to sleep.

You're lucky I'm saving energy for the main event, Morpheus had told Grover.

Then a line from the prophecy rang in my ears: And see the world in endless sleep.

"Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep," I said. "The invasion has started."

A/N: I'm going to make this clear since I don't think I'll be able to bring it up in the story later on. Percy still can use swarm form with Achilles Curse, but his vulnerable spot still has an affect on it as one of the insects becomes that spot and if that insect is killed Percy is killed even if the rest of the swarm is unharmed. But that insect will also be able to blend in with the rest of the swarm making it impossible to signal out. Sort of like finding a needle in a haystack. Because of it someone would have to either kill the entire swarm, wait until Percy reforms when he morphs again, or waste energy trying to slay as many insects they can and hope they get lucky.