Disclaimer: I don't own anything. The amazing Rick Riordan does.
Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews! I love that people actually like what I'm writing! So, please enjoy this chapter and remember to review!
Chapter 15: A Few Startling Events
As Percy and Set fought, Nico ran to Annabeth's side.
"Are you OK?" He asked her with concern. "We were really worried about you."
"I'm fine," Annabeth said, gripping the hilt of her bronze dagger tightly. "Now let's kill this jerk and end his evil plan."
"Agreed." Nico replied and the two of them rushed to help Percy.
Meanwhile Carter, Sadie and Zia were examining Set's throne. At the base of it, a golden coffin was embedded into the surface, almost like a footrest.
"Dad's in there," Sadie said with absolute certainty. "Should I Ha-di it?"
"No." Carter said, a steely expression on his face. "If you do that, you'll kill him."
"Oh, Sadie said. "I-was She was interrupted by a loud, sickening crack from across the room. As they turned, they saw about ten grizzly skeletons with M16's advancing on Set. Nico, obviously the one who had summoned them, fell to his knees with the exertion of using his powers.
"Nico!" Sadie screamed as Set lunged towards him. "Look out!"
But it was too late. Before any of them could do anything, Set had swung at Nico with his huge iron staff and hit him hard on the head.
"No!" Sadie screamed as she ran "his side. "Nico, please, wake up! Don't let Set win!"
Behind her, Percy and Annabeth continued to fight off the Red Lord. They were making very little progress, but that didn't stop them from attacking and attacking as best they could.
Carter meanwhile had taken on the avatar of Horus and was charging in to help the others. Zia, attempting to help too, shot a blast of white-hot fire at Set with her staff.
Enraged, Set knocked her across the room with a blast of sand from his staff. She slid to the ground, her body still and bloody.
As the battle continued, Sadie noticed that Nico's body was shimmering. Knowing instinctively to look away, Sadie quickly glanced away from him, and then back again. And when she looked back ... well, Nico was awake. Not only that, he was wearing a slightly different outfit.
Instead of his skeliton patterned t-shirt, he now wore the same shirt that Anubis had worn the last time she'd seen him. And when Sadie looked at Nico through the Duat, she could see Anubis, just beneath the surface.
"Nico," Sadie whispered. "You're hosting Anubis?"
"Yes," He said, seeming to speak in both his own voice, and Anubis's. "I am now both Nico and Anubis. It is, a meeting of minds, if you will. But don't worry, I'm still the same. Nothing's changed between us."
Sadie, instead of responding, kissed Nico, or was it Anubis, on the lips.
"Um," He said, blushing with shyness, "I-was
What he would have ended up saying, Sadie would never know. That was because Set had chosen that moment to hurl Percy, Annabeth and Carter through the hole at the top of his pyramid.
Then, out of nowhere, Blackjack the pegasus came down and kicked Set in the face so hard, that he fell ungracefully on his butt.
Without missing a beat, Blackjack picked Set up and carried him up through the hole at the top of the pyramid.
"Well," Sadie said, turning to Nico/Anubis. "How are we getting out there?"
"Like this," He said, and a door of darkness appeared in front of them.
"Wait!" Zia cried weakly from the corner of the room, "I have a piece of information you will need if you are to destroy Set."
"What information?" Sadie asked Zia, who looked, Sadie thought as pale as any skeliton that Nico could summon.
"His secret name," Zia responded. "It is Evil Day."
"But, how could you know-was Sadie began but was promptly cut off by Zia.
"No time," She murmured weakly. "Now go and destroy that fiend before his pyramid is completed."
Sadie nodded, opened her mind to Isis, and together she and Nico/Anubis jumped through the door of darkness to the outside of Set's pyramid.
What they found wasn't pretty. Carter, Percy and Annabeth were holding Set back, but only barely.
"Sadie!" Carter shouted to her. "Read the spell, now!"
Swallowing, Sadie unrolled the scroll, summoned the Feather of Truth and began the spell.
As she spoke the ancient words, white light shimmered around her and she rose about an inch above the pyramid's surface. But then, as she neared the end of the spell and Set was held by shining white ropes of light, she saw, rising from the collapsing pyramid, a tiny red snake made of smoke.
Sadie paused in her spell.
"You see, Horus!" Set cried triumphantly, still encased in his white ropes. "Isis never had the stomach for this!"
"Look!" Sadie cried and instead of finishing the spell, she threw the Feather of Truth into the air and just for a moment, it illuminated the tiny, red snake.
"Apophis," Nico/Anubis muttered. "Of course. That explains why Set's plans were so ambitious."
"It explains nothing!" Set snarled. "I made my own choices!"
As he spoke, the last part of the pyramid crumbled, revealing only dust and two unconscious figures on the ground.
"No, Set," Sadie said. "You thought your decisions were your own, but really it was Apophis whispering in your mind."
"Well," Set said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "He always was a sneaky one. But if that's the case, why didn't you send my to the Duat anyway?"
"Because, you're one of the gods," Sadie said. "And you may be useful to us. But don't forget Set, I have your secret name now, so don't be trying anything funny, or I will send you to the Duat."
Set mock-saluted and then he disappeared in a cloud of red smoke and sand.
Author's Note: Well, I hope you enjoyed that guys. I think I'll have one more chapter after this one, and then this story will be done. I've really enjoyed writing it, and I hope you guys have enjoyed reading it. So, once again thank you for reading and please review. hunterofartemis126 (Nicolaclair)