And I'm back with yet another chapter!

To SilverDiamonds: About that teleportation thing, yeah, it was actually explained in the submission, but I didn't think we should go into it at the moment. What's up with the squinty eyes anyway ;P

To MadnessAndMe: Hahaha! I actually wanted it to be Aden's POV at first, but then I felt the story might flow better with Nea's. So that's how we got here :) I'm amazed that you saw the tweak with the chapter names! I thought no one would ever notice.

To Magick From Your Heart: Guess you'll find out what happens at the party in this chapter :)

To Blood Sentry: You know what? I love your awesome super long reviews. And most of all, I was so dam stunned that you can actually guess what I was planning in this chapter. I mean, CAN YOU READ MINDS OR SOMETHING? Maybe it was a bit obvious what I was gonna do. I don't know. Anyway, I hope you like it even though it won't be too much of a surprise.

Once again, thank you everyone for the lovely reviews :)

Nea Whitley, 17, daughter of Athena

The chalet was packed. Luckily for us, the lady at the reception managed to find us an empty room. She was annoyed at first, saying that we should've pre-booked a room a week in advance so that there was no last minute hassle. But that's that, and we've got a room anyway.

The room wasn't too shabby either. Sure it wasn't quite suited to fit all six of us, but it was decent, had two bedrooms and a cozy living room. Add a mini kitchen to that too.

We figured it was okay since after all, we would just be staying here for a night before making a move again in the morning after we've found Apollo.

I handed out the room card to the others, who were sitting - and some of them were actually dozing off - on a large sofa waiting for me to come back.

"Finally." Marius said, rubbing his eyes and trying to get to his feet. "I'll see you guys back in the room. Goodnight."

Nile, who was sitting beside him, rolled his eyes and shoved him back in his seat.

"Okay, now that we're out of camp, we have to be much more on the alert." I said. "A pool of six demigods out in the open, monsters are bound to sniff us out."

"Sure." Fairy said. "We have to look out for one another. If you notice one of us are missing, don't go running off on your own. Report back to us and we'll think of a plan."

"Right. Teamwork." Kai summarised and I had the feeling she wasn't too keen on this whole 'teamwork' topic.

I crossed my arms and gave a pointed look. Kai just gave me a shrug in return.

"So," I said, "if a group of us wants to rest in the room tonight, we've got to have another small group of us to keep a lookout."

"Sleeping." Marius said with his eyes closed and head propped up on the back of the sofa.

"Fine." I huffed, momentarily wondering why on Gaia had Kai wanted him to come along. Oh wait, sure, it was Kai I was talking about.

It wasn't Kai who came to his defense through. Nile did. "Hey! While you guys slept in the car for most of the drive, Marius and I were trying to keep our eyes peeled to get you here."

"Who else wants to take a rest back in our room with Marius?" I said in a bored tone.

"Me." Nile said.

"And count me in too." Aden said.

I waited for more of them to declare that they wanted to nap, but none of them did.

"Great." Kai said with a hint of a smile on her face. "Proves that us girls are way stronger than the guys."

I couldn't help but feel grudgingly that she was right. We've got a bunch of weakling with us on the quest. Just great, isn't it?

We girls didn't hang around to party together. Kai suggested that we split up to take a look around as well as search for Apollo, which I thought was useless seeing that Apollo would only be out in the morning, if he even came to chalets though.

But since I couldn't standing being in the vicinity with Kai always disagreeing with me, I thought maybe she was right, and we should split up. Besides, I liked having some space to myself. Helps me clear my head and think about what we should do after we've found Apollo.

"Would you like a drink, Miss?" A pretty girl clad in a white apron and carrying a tray filled with glasses said. I assumed she was a waitress.

"No thank you." I said kindly.

I've never been to a party before. Not even those that teenagers go after school with their friends. I didn't have many friends in school before I even found out I was a demigod and got shipped out to Camp.

Many people would say that they feel lonely when they didn't have many friends. But honestly, I didn't mind. What's the use of having friends when you could do anything by yourself? Correct, you've got it right. No use.

I was brought back to the present by the waitress again.

"It's just water, Miss." she said sweetly. "Helps to refresh your mind."

I shook my head. "Thanks for offering, but I don't need one right now. I'll let you know if I need one."

The waitress didn't look disappointed from the rejection. She just smiled and walked away.

Rule Number Two: Don't accept drinks from anyone especially if you're in a party. They're usually spiked.

And unless you want to end up drunk and out of control of your own self - which just by thinking of it makes me feel wobbly inside - don't take a drink.

I continued to push through the crowd who was dancing to the blaring music and waving their arms the the air, lost in the depths of the song.

I was just about to look for Fairy when both Kai and Fairy tapped me on the shoulder. Kai was holding a half drunk glass of water in a hand while Fairy was pulling her along.

"Nea, you've got to hear what Kai told me." She said excitedly. "Kai said she spotted Mr D at the bar and gave her a lead. I wasn't there though, I only found out when I bumped into her a few minutes later."

I arched my eyebrows, "Really? What did you and Mr D talk about then?"

I pondered about how likely it was to run into Mr D by accident at a place like this. Lots of wine, a rowdy environment. It all seemed quite probable that Mr D would be around. Besides, this chalet was not too far away from Camp Half-Blood.

"Well, we talked for a bit. He was quite reluctant to give much information, saying that Olympus was kind of in a mess now that Achlys was causing trouble. Even the gods were being secretive." Kai said.

"Aaaand?" I moved my hand in a circular motion to get her to tell me more.

"I told him we were looking for Apollo and asked him if he knew where Apollo might be."

Fairy cut in, "And apparently Apollo hasn't been seen in a really long time. Months. Disappeared without a trace. Artemis has even called her Hunters to search for him. This seems pretty serious, don't you think?"

I nodded slowly. If Apollo was gone, we couldn't ask him to help us. That leaves us with just one god who could help us. A god that I wasn't too fond of.

Mr D. Dionysus, the god of wine.

"Hmmm…." I turned to Kai. "Can you show me where Mr D is? I'd like to talk to him."

"No." She replied simply.

"How come?" I said. "I thought we agreed we'd do things together?"

She glared at me, which I hated to admit, but was pretty intimidating. "I can't show you where he is because he left this party."

I was at a loss for words for a minute. I wasn't someone who trusted others easily. Now I was left with this chunk of information from Kai which could either be true, in which case was some help to our quest, or totally made up.

Still deciding whether or not to believe everything about Mr D being here, I was interrupted by yet another waitress holding up a fully filled tray of drinks.

"Would you lovely girls care for a glass of water?" She said, before adding with a wink. "Party is pretty hot, isn't it?"

I cringed at the way she said it. I politely refused the drink, and she turned to Kai and Fairy.

"What about the pair of you? Here's a glass." She lifted one glass off her tray and held it out to Fairy.

Fairy shrugged her shoulders. "Sure. I'm getting thirsty anyway."

Kai gave a cheery smile at the waitress. "I would take one. But I've had a glass already." She held up the empty glass that she was holding.

The waitress nodded, then walked away, offering drinks to the other people at the party.

I blinked. Dazed for a moment. What was I thinking about before the lady interrupted? My mind felt foggy, which was really weird. Being a usually focused person, I was confused as to how quickly distracted I was.

Kai looked at Fairy, who was slowly swirling the water around in the glass.

"You know, the water actually tastes sweet. It helps you loosen up." She said.

Fairy gave her a thoughtful look. "Hmm...I could do with some relaxing."

My mind whipped back into it's normal state at their exchange. Water? Sweet? What was Rule Number Two regarding accepting drinks from a stranger at a party?

It could be spiked.

I reacted instinctively. As Fairy raised the glass to her lips to tip the seemingly innocent water into her mouth, My hand flew towards her, knocking the glass hard and startling her, causing Fairy to suddenly release her grip on the glass of water, sending the glass and it's contents falling to the floor.

The clear liquid splattered all over the floor. The glass shattered into a million tiny fragments which sprayed in all directions.

And even in a noisy environment such as this, I noticed that the sound of the glass shattering had been heard by everyone in a five meter radius around us. They had stopped dancing, and looked at the commotion we'd made.

"What did you do that for?" Fairy whispered at me.

"Do you always have to ruin the fun?" Kai demanded.

I wasn't even offended by her remark, since I was still a little in shock that many of the people at this party was probably drugged. We could've become drugged like one of them too - Kai had even had a glass already - and it was so early in our quest.

"Guys! The drinks are spiked. It's drugged. That's probably why the people looked so dazed and happy at this party." I said.

"Woah, woah, woah." Fairy said, doing a timeout sign with her hands. "You're saying that everyone who drinks this stuff are not themselves?"

"Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying."

"Hang on. But I've drunk a glass and I still know what I'm doing." Kai said.

I agreed. "Sure you do. But give it a while when the effects wear off, and you can tell that you've felt different. You're already drugged right now."

"Okay." Kai shrugged. "But I'm telling you I won't feel any different."

I needed to get us moving. I could see a reddish glow on the horizon. It was going to be sunrise in a few moments. However, right now, I had another problem. If Kai had drunk the 'water' when she said that she talked with Mr D, how could I know for sure if what she said was not because she was affected by the drug?

"Kai, I need you to tell me clearly, what else did Mr D tell you?" I said firmly.

"He told me everything will be over in three days. That's when Achlys planned to take over. She wants a full out revenge on the world because they never gave her any credit. They felt she was useless and a 'total waste of space' since she is the goddess of misery and sadness. No one wants any of those, see?" Kai said.

"What does Achlys plan to do? Did Mr D also say anything on that matter?" Fairy asked.

"Oh yeah." Kai remembered. "Mr D told me that if we don't stop Achlys in three days, the world will start to die out. Achlys wants to shroud the entire Earth in a blanket of darkness. She's snuff the life out of everyone. It'll be the end of the world."

I pondered on what Mr D said, and saw a connection, "That must be why he captured Apollo. There'll be no one to ride the sun chariot every day. She's putting her plan into action."

Fairy clapped her hands together. "You've got it!"

"But I don't understand one part." I said. "If Apollo has been captured by her for months already, how is it there's still sunrise?"

I pointed at the sun which had already started to rise.

"Easy." Kai said. "Mr D told me that Apollo's sister, Artemis, had been helping him do it. But she gets weaker and frailer with each day she helps him. Right now, she's very weak. She can barely walk on her own. Her hunters has had to carry her around. That's why Mr D says it will all end in three days."

I knew what Kai said was true. This couldn't possibly be all made up. Everything made sense. It fitted well. Too well. Now we knew about Achlys plan, we still didn't know how to stop it. We have to make a move. In three days, this would be all for nothing if we didn't find and stop Achlys.

"C'mon. Let's find the guys and get out of this stupid party." I said.

If I thought it was going to be easy, I was so terribly wrong. I'd totally forgotten about the waitresses who'd offered us the 'water'. As we shoved through the crowd of people, my eyes caught sight of the apron clad waitresses converging in on us. Their stunningly beautiful faces held a menacing side to them.

I quickened my steps as I pushed through the crowd. My hand subconsciously fingered the metal bangle on by left hand, which was actually my sword in disguise form.

Action scene is coming right up. Sit tight for the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed this :) I know the guys are not really in this chapter, but I'll bring them back in the next!

Reviews:

1) Thoughts on Nea?

2) Thoughts on chapter?

3) Do you feel that the pace of the story is too fast or slow? Suggestions on improvement.