Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Thirty

The Key

Annabeth walked me back to my cabin before leaving for her own. She wanted to make sure I got there without being killed by one of Andee's brothers. She had to have been devastated by what happened too, but she wasn't showing it. She wasn't one to display her emotions very openly.

As soon as I saw her walk into the Athena cabin, I did a quick glance around and snuck over to the Zeus cabin. I had only ever been in Andee's cabin once before, but it had changed quite a bit in those few weeks. There were a few small piles of clothes on the floor and music instruments hung up along the walls. Her bed was a little messed up, and her walls, dresser and wardrobe were all decorated with pictures.

I looked at all the pictures, seeing different ones from before I knew here where she was smiling with Val, Annabeth and some other friends I had met at her farewell party. Then there were the photos she had taken during our quest, laughing and smiling with everyone in the middle of danger.

I smiled a little as I looked at them and then moved over to the bed, sitting down at first. The exhaustion from the day came over me and I just fell down onto the bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, all I could smell was Andee. That very distinct smell that could make me relax and feel safe even like a disastrous day like today.

I closed my eyes and all I could see when I was sleeping was Andee staring at Kronos, her eyes the same molten gold color that his was. The jewel of her necklace had turned a sickly green color, which meant that she was no longer in control of her own body and mind.

It was hard to sleep and when I finally did, all I had were nightmares about all the horrible things that could be happening to her. It went on like that for a week. I would train all day (only because Annabeth would literally force me out of bed to stop sulking, but thankfully would ignore the fact that I was in Andee's cabin and not my own) and at night, I would go back to the Zeus cabin, only to be plagued by horrible images of Andee with golden eyes every time I closed mine.

After one particularly long day where a war council meeting was planned to try to figure out a plan of action (which was never actually completed, by the way), I went back to Andee's cabin and was about to flop on the bed and pass out for the day when someone coughed. I had my sword drawn and was ready to fight, just to see that it was Nico sitting on one of the other beds. He was wearing his usual black jeans, aviator's jacket and black shirt with dancing skeletons on it. He looked grim, as if he were about to tell me even more bad news, which I didn't need.

I put Riptide away and gave him an exasperated look.

"Annabeth told me you'd probably be here," Nico said awkwardly, fidgeting with his sword for a moment before saying, "I found the key. The real one."

That sure got my attention. I looked at him and he pulled a scroll out of one of the pockets of his jacket. It was the same scroll we had found in the maze that was supposed to be the key to defeating Kronos. "It was a trick, Nico. We already know that."

"No, it isn't," Nico said, standing up and handing me the scroll. "You of all people should know by now that things are never as simple as they seem. You've known you were a half-blood longer than I have, and even I was able to figure it out." I gave him a look and he shrugged. "When I looked at the message closer, every sentence began with a specific letter."

"So what does that mean?" I asked.

"The letters at the beginning of each sentence spell 'River Styx'," Nico said and suddenly the room went cold. "What do you know about Achilles' Curse?"

I thought about it for a minute, trying to think back to all of my Greek history lessons in school, at Camp and from my different quests. "He was invincible except for one spot on his heel. That's where the saying 'Achilles Heel' comes from." I paused for a moment trying to recall more information and Nico gave me a look. "What? That's all I've got!" He rolled his eyes. "What does any of that have to do with the River Styx and fighting Kronos?"

"You really need to start reading more," Nico muttered, shaking his head. "Anyone who bathes in the River Styx gets the strength, power, speed and near invincibility of Achilles. The bather chooses a spot that keeps them grounded to the real world and their mortal life after they've bathed in the river. If the person loses focus on that point while they bathe in the river, their soul will be incinerated."

"Sounds like a grand time," I said sarcastically before realizing what he was implying. "Wait, you really think I should bathe in the River Styx? Are you nuts?"

"It's right here, Percy! It's the key to winning against Kronos!" Nico said, shaking the scroll for emphasis.

"I don't know," I said, my head swimming. "I need to think about it."

"Think about Luke, Percy. There's no way the camp will be able to defeat an entire Titan army and you know that. The whole battle is going to come down to you and Luke because you're the only one who can possibly beat him." I remembered how hopelessly outmatched I had been against Luke on the Princess Andromeda. It finally made sense how Kronos had done it – he had gotten Luke to bathe in the River Styx so that he was near invincible. The perfect host. "Unless you want to have your soul reaped by a cursed blade, this is the only way."

"Nico, I don't know about this – maybe we should try fighting without –"

"NO!" Nico yelled. I hadn't seen him this angry in a long time. "You have to do it now! As soon as the fighting starts, there's no way we'll be able to make the journey. This is our last chance." He gave me a serious look. "Two years ago, my sister gave her life to protect you. I want you to honor that and do whatever it takes to stay alive and defeat Kronos."

I didn't like this idea, but the reasonable part of me knew it was the only real chance I stood against Kronos. It was the only way to avenge everyone who had already given up their lives to protect me. It was the only way to protect my mom, Paul, my friends. It was the only way I'd ever be to save Andee.

I didn't have the luxury of being able to full think this through, but I didn't have a lot of time to do anything these days. It had to be done.

"Alright," I said. "What do we do first?"

"We need to talk to the person who left us this key," Nico said and I looked at him strangely as he started towards the door. He led the way outside and sitting beside the campfire in the middle of the cabins was a strangely familiar eight-year-old girl and a giant hellhound. The mousy-haired girl was scratching the hellhound's ears, the dog's tongue flopping to the side as she panted happily.

That was a first.

"Hello, Percy Jackson. Would you like something to eat?" the little girl asked, waving her hand and making a whole picnic appear with different sandwiches, fruits, potato salad, pasta salad and all sorts of other foods I hadn't had in a long time. When my stomach rumbled, I realized how long it had been since the last time I'd eaten.

I had learned enough in my years of being a demigod that you did not take food from anyone that knew your name. If they knew your name and you'd never met them, chances were that they were a monster.

"Hello again, Lady," Nico said, bowing to the little girl. I looked between Nico and the girl and decided I should probably bow as well.

Then I sat down and just as I was about to take a bite, I thought of Andee and what I'd always been told to do at camp and scraped part of my meal into the flames. "For the gods," I said under my breath.

The little girl smiled at me. "Thank you. As tender of the flame, I get a share of every sacrifice, you know."

Now I remembered why she looked so familiar. "You were sitting here when I first came to camp."

"Yet you did not stop to talk," she recalled sadly. "Alas, most never do. Nico was one of the few who did – the first in many years, actually. Now everyone rushes about with no time to visit family. Although you've done that recently, haven't you?"

"You're Hestia, goddess of the hearth," I said, pausing for a moment to take a bite of my sandwich. "So you're X? You're the one who left us the key?"

"I apologize for having to be so cryptic and hard to find," Hestia said regretfully. "As you know, Zeus does not like the gods interfering with half-bloods, but as you may have noticed, they have much larger problems to deal with. It was lucky for all that Nico took the time and figured out the message as quickly as he did. One day longer and all may have been lost. I am guessing you have decided to take the same path as Luke Castellan?"

I nodded.

"Not all powers are spectacular, you know," Hestia said. "Sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding. When Dionysus was made a god, I gave him my throne to avoid a civil war among the gods. Now I tend the fire and keep the peace. Can you do this?"

"I don't know what you mean."

She studied me for what seemed like hours. "Perhaps not yet. But soon, because when all the gods are off fighting, I'm all that's left. Home. Hearth. You must remember me when you make your final decision. Should you continue your quest, you must seek your mother's blessing. And since you sacrificed to me, I will return you to your own hearth. I will see you again on Olympus, Percy Jackson."

The goddess waved her hand and suddenly Nico and I were sitting on the couch in my mom's apartment on the Upper East Side. Unfortunately, the hellhound (which I still didn't know anything about) took up the rest of the apartment.

"Who put this wall of fur in the doorway?" I heard Paul ask.

"Percy?" my mom called. "Are you here?"

"Yeah, mom! I'm here!" I said. We started maneuvering around to try to get to the kitchen. "Nico, what's with the hellhound?"

"Oh, that's Mrs. O'Leary. She's completely friendly. I took her in when I went to that ranch I told you about – she wasn't being treated the best and being a son of Hades, she likes me a lot," Nico said. And that was that.

We finally made it to the kitchen and Mrs. O'Leary stayed in the living room with her head resting in the doorway so she could still watch us.

As soon as I saw my mom, my arms were around her, hugging her tightly and starting to bawl my eyes out. I had lost so much in the past week or so with Beckendorf dying, Andee being taken and finding out that I was going to die that hugging my mom reminded me how badly I was hurting and how much I needed to keep my mom safe.

"Percy, it will all be okay," my mom said soothingly, rubbing my back. I told her everything that had happened, only leaving out the part where I was going to die at the end of this. She didn't need that added stress.

"So all of this talk about monsters and being a demigod…it's all true? Every bit of it?" Paul asked. I nodded as I sat down, wiping my eyes with the heels of my hands as I tried to get myself back together. Even though my mom and I had told Paul everything about who I really was last fall, and he had met Andee but I guess when she wasn't fighting or using her powers she didn't seem very demigod-ly (I think she did, but mortal eyes tended to see what they wanted to see).

Nico gave me a look and I nodded, knowing what had to come next. I explained to my mom and Paul about the impending battle and Nico's plan.

My mom didn't like the idea. Actually, she hated it. But after explaining that it was the only way to stop an invasion of New York, Paul was able to help me convince her to give me her blessing.

"Before you go, Percy," my mom said, as if reading Nico's mind, "if you…if you survive this fight with Kronos – and you had better survive – send me some sort of a sign. Maybe something I could see from anywhere in Manhattan, like a flag or a flare."

"Something blue," I said, smiling at our ongoing joke. She nodded, hugged me, kissed me and told me how much she loved me before I left. Nico led the way to Central Park, to the Door of Orpheus. I had never used this way to get into the Underworld before. "So how do we get in?"

"We need some sort of music," Nico said. "That's how Orpheus did it – he played his lyre and made this entrance to the Underworld."

"Any chance you feel like singing?" I asked and Nico's eyes went wide as he shook his head. "Then you might want to cover your ears because this won't be pretty."

I remembered when Andee and I were driving through Vancouver and Andee put on music I liked, and we both started singing at the top of our lungs. I started singing that song, and I definitely couldn't sing but apparently my warbling counted as music because the boulders trembled and a triangular crevice appeared between them. The air smelled mildew and death. I shuddered just thinking of all the times I'd been in the Underworld or a creepy maze. This tunnel felt more dangerous than any of those times.

"Let's go," I said to Nico as Mrs. O'Leary bounded down the steps in excitement. We followed Mrs. O'Leary into the darkness. It felt like the stairs went on forever. They were also really slippery. The only light we had was the glow from my sword.

After about an hour of walking, I heard the roar of a rushing river. Try saying that five times fast. We came out of the tunnel of stairs at the base of a cliff. The River Styx was on my right, and in the far distance on the left was the black walls of Hades' kingdom.

"So…what do I do? Do I just jump in because I'm telling you there are much better places to go swimming," I mentioned, staring at the murky black water full of homecoming corsages and ripped up diplomas.

"This is serious. Before you go in, you have to prepare yourself and anchor yourself to your mortal life," Nico said. "Otherwise your entire body and soul will be burned away to nothing. No afterlife. No nothing."

"Great. Sounds like fun," I said sarcastically before Nico's eyes widened and he stared behind me. I turned to see someone who looked just like Ares with his battle armor, closely shaved black hair and heavily scarred face. "Achilles," I said immediately.

The ghost nodded. "I warned the other one not to take my path and now I will warn you the same. Do not do this. It will make you powerful, but it will also make you weak. What killed me was my arrogance. Beware! Turn back!"

"I have to," I said quietly. "Otherwise I don't stand a chance."

Achilles lowered his head like he was already mourning my death. "Let the gods witness that I tried to prevent this. Hero, if you must do this, concentrate on your mortal point. Imagine one spot of your body that will remain vulnerable. This is the point where your soul will anchor your body to the world. It will be your greatest weakness, but also your only hope. No man can be completely invulnerable. Lose sight of what keeps you mortal and the River Styx will burn you to ashes. You will cease to exist."

"I don't suppose you could tell me Luke's mortal point?" I asked. He scowled at me before vanishing. It was worth a shot.

"Percy," Nico said hesitantly, "maybe he's right."

"This was your idea," I told him. "Just wait on the shore, I guess. If anything happens to me…well, maybe Hades will get his wish and you'll be the child of the prophecy after all."

Nico paled at the thought.

I concentrated on the small of my back, just opposite of my bellybutton. It was a small spot that wouldn't be aimed at and would be hard to hit by accident, and it was much more dignified than my armpit. Then I pictured a cord connecting me to the rest of the world from the small of my back. I stepped into the river, and instead of walking in all brave and heroic like I had envisioned, I went stumbling in as soon as I touched the water.

It was like stepping into a vat of boiling acid, but multiply the pain by a hundred. Actually, even then you still wouldn't understand how painful it was. For the first time in my life, I couldn't breathe underwater and I understood the fear of drowning. I felt like I was dissolving in the water. I saw faces – Annabeth, Rachel, Grover, Tyson and my mom, but they faded almost as soon as they had appeared.

I was losing the fight. The pain was too much, and my hands and feet were being melted into the water while my soul was being torn from by body. I couldn't remember who I was.

"The cord," a familiar voice said in my head. "Remember the cord, you dumbass!"

I felt a tug on my lower back. The current pulled and pushed against me, but I wasn't being carried anymore. The cord was keeping me tied to the shore.

"Keep holding on," the same voice said, and in an instant I remembered it was Andee's. "We've still got so much to do."

I could see her now. Her blonde hair fell in waves down to her shoulders as she danced around a huge bonfire on the beach. Her gold bikini peaked out from her baggy white sweater. She green eyes sparkled in the light of the fire and she let out a tinkling laugh as she looked at me. "Don't be so afraid, Perce," she said teasingly, sticking her tongue out at me. "Come on. Take my hand."

All of my memories came flooding back to me. My name was Perseus Jackson. I was the son of Poseidon and Sally Jackson. I had to save Andee. I had to fight Kronos and save the world. I reached out and took Andee's hand and suddenly, I was pulled out of the river. I collapsed on the sand and Nico jumped back in shock. I was alive and as the pain subsided, I knew I was different. The process had worked. I turned to Nico. "Go to your father and convince him to help us. We're going to need it."