I don't own PJO. Unfortunately. That would be amazing.

Margaret's POV

Now I was flipping out.

Dr. Thorn still hadn't come back yet, and of course, when I assured Bianca I would be able to safely get her, Nico, and myself out of the school, she would refuse and say we should 'stay put'. So I did what she had suggested, but my hands were still sweaty and clammy and my Stygian iron sword had turned back into my skull ring. I was surrounded with a bunch of soldiers from the World Wars, and it was freaking Bianca out. What she didn't know is that only demigods could see them. She tried to make conversations with them, but they didn't really have anything to talk about, considering that they were from the 1940s, and she was from the 21st Century. One time, I almost banned them back to the Underworld when Bianca said that one of them looked like they were going to eat her.

But they obeyed me. It's not like they had a choice anyways.

I had sent some to Anna, and I only hoped that she received their help. I told those soldiers to listen to Anna or whoever was in charge.

Oh yeah.

Anna.

You see, Anna was the first person I had met when I moved to America. I could always speak English, but I was also fluent in Italian. Anna found it cool how I could speak in both languages, and didn't even have an accent. Anyways, my mother and her mother were good friends, but Anna suddenly disappeared a year ago, when I was twelve. So I never talked to her again until I recently found out I was a demigod. Turns out Anna was at some camp for demigods called Camp Half-Blood with her twin brother, Percy Jackson, and she had made some very good friends with some of the kids there.

She insisted upon me coming to camp, but due to my father, I knew I wasn't going to make very many friends, but I went anyways. There, I met some of the best friends I've had in a lifetime. There was Evangeline Peck, or Evie for short, and Luke Castellan. But Luke was not to be mentioned.

EVER.

I refused to talk about him, under any circumstances whatsoever. Anyways, I stopped going to Camp Half-Blood when Luke . . . well . . . when Luke left.

I became a normal seventh grader and there I met Bianca and Nico di Angelo. They were almost identical to me, with their olive skin, dark eyes, and black hair. It was haunting how much Nico looked like my little brother.

My mom remarried when I was a little girl and I had a three year-old brother named Arrigo di Mio, but I always called him Ari. He died, though, when my stepfather hit him a bit too hard. My stepfather was also not to be mentioned though I barely remembered him. It's all kind of fuzzy. I died by Ari's side so I guess you could say that I have this special connection with Nico now. Nico resembles my brother quite a bit-and it's actually still quite frightening how much he resembles Ari. I am actually VERY close with Nico. I have been often told by Bianca about how jealous she is of my relationship with him. It makes me smile and feel special, because I honestly love the kid. He's like my own. I would do absolutely anything for him and Bianca. Now that I knew that they were demigods, that was about to be tested to a fine line.

ANYWAYS, Bianca still looked pretty scared. She looked even more scared when footsteps lingered throughout the hallway. I immediately placed her behind me and placed an arm in front of her. "Stay behind me, Bianca."

She clutched my arm tightly. "O-Okay."

The footsteps came to a halt in front of us. But there was nothing there. Nothing at all. That alone was enough to scare the crap out of Bianca. She dug her black-painted fingernails into my skin rather hard and I inhaled sharply.

"W-What was that?" She whimpered.

"I don't know," I turned to four of my ghosts. "Find them and bring them to the stairs."

"Yes, young master." They turned and walked off.

I whispered to Bianca, "I want you to listen to me carefully, all right?"

"All right."

"We're going to leave. We've waited long enough. We need to find Nico. Do you know where he is?"

"He usually ditches science by hanging out in the bathroom."

I sighed. "Then that means he's downstairs."

"So?"

"So, that means every second we're standing here talking, every second he's at risk of getting attacked. Is that what you want, Bianca?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Then follow me."

"But . . . Dr. Thorn told us to stay where we are."

"Is either your brother or him we ditch. You choose."

Bianca lowered her head. "Him."

"That's what I thought. Now follow me."

We slowly got off of the walls and made our way to the stairs. There was a large glass window in front of the stairs, and then a balcony. The school sort of reminded me of some ancient palace or something. Anyways, Bianca looked scared out of her own mind. All of the school lights were darkened, but thank the gods that due to the lightning flashing outside, there were shadows in the corners. That way, if we heard anyone, we would be able to blend right in.

We were creeping down the stairs like, you know, the mortals do on Christmas Day to sneak a peek at all of their gifts from Santa Claus. My ring was tight on my finger, ready for me to spring it open if necessary. Bianca's hand was trembling on my arm and I honestly felt sorry for the girl. Then there were more footsteps. I grabbed Bianca and yanked her into the shadows with me and whispered something in Latin.

"Misceo,"

And then we completely blended in.

"What's happening?" Bianca asked, quite alarmed.

"Shh!" I yelled quietly. "Just because you can't be seen doesn't mean you can't be heard."

And so Bianca shut up. I focused my attention back on the two figures in front of me. One was Dr. Thorn, and the other one Mr. Melano, the vice prinicpal of our school. He didn't look too happy. Not that he did in general anyways. Dr. Thorn and Mr. Melano would probably get along perfectly fine if they actually tried. But instead, they were arguing with each other.

"The two children of Poseidon have escaped!" Mr. Melano screamed. "I had it all planned. Knock them out, get the rest of the demigods, and take them to the General. It was so simple. But the daughter of Hades texted her and sent her some ghosts from the Underworld, and then the daughter of Athena rescued them."

"You're referring to Miss di Mio and Miss Peck, aren't you?"

"Who else?"

"Well, there's always the two di Angelos."

Bianca peered over at me and I quickly covered her ears. I would not let her be claimed as quickly as I was. But before they finished their sentence, they stepped closer to Bianca and me. I let go of Bianca's ears in shock. They could smell us. What were you thinking, Margie? REALLLLYYY? Because monsters can smell demigods, you know, and considering we're BOTH children of the Big Three, that just makes the smell all the more stronger. The shadow-blending seemed to keep us momentarily safe, though.

Bianca covered her mouth with her hand, trying to suppress a scream. Her dark brown eyes were wide, and I quickly twisted my ring back into my sword. Luckily, the transformation was a silent one. I knew what had to be done, despite the little voice in my head screaming at me not to. I never listened to that little voice. I never listened to anyone.

I slowly took a few steps out of the shadows, my hand still gripping Bianca's wrist.

"What're you doing?" She whispered. "Do you have a DEATH WISH?"

Dr. Thorn and Mr. Melano's eyes immediately fell upon mine.

"Ah, Miss di Mio," Mr. Melano said. "We were just talking about you."

"Yeah, I heard," And I yanked Bianca out of the shadows and shouted. "RUN!"

And so she did. I had never seen her run so fast in my life. I was behind her by only a few inches as we ran up the stairs together.

"GET THEM!" Dr. Thorn's voice boomed.

Uh-oh.

Not good. SO not good.

Bianca swerved a corner, trying to get Mr. Melano and Dr. Thorn off of our backs. She stopped abruptly at a large air vent.

"Bianca, what are you doing?"

"Air vents. They lead to some of the main areas in the building. If we can find one that leads to a bathroom, then maybe we can find my brother, and maybe even your friend, Anna."

Was she crazy? Was she absolutely crazy? I was claustrophobic enough as it was, and crawling in an air vent was definitely on the lists of my things not ever do, right there with taking a vacation to the sea, riding an airplane, climbing a mountain, and standing outside during a storm.

"No," I said defiantly. "No way. No way in two Underworlds am I going in there. No freaking way."

Dr. Thorn was only a few feet away. I could sense it. Bianca sighed, and then pulled me in by force. Since when was she that strong? Bianca grabbed the vent to close it up, but then Mr. Melano reached out and attempted to yank Bianca out of there.

"I don't think so!" I screamed. And I hit him right in the gut. He doubled over and Bianca quickly closed the vent and sealed it back up. She scrambled backwards in the vent and breathed out heavily. We waited until the footsteps went away to say something.

"That . . . was too close," Bianca mumbed under her breath.

"L-Let's just find N-Nico," I said shakily. I felt like I was being closed in already. Never a good sign. "Please. B-Before I start hyperventilating."

With a smirk edged in her voice, Bianca said. "Since when did a daughter of Hades have claustrophobia?"

"Long s-story. Just g-go!" I yelled.

We both began to crawl on our elbows in the air vents I couldn't hear anyone behind us, and that didn't stop Bianca from speeding through the vent like a cheetah. I could barely keep up, and it made it all the more worse with my stupid claustrophobia. The whole building was blackened, sort of like a blackout, but the lightning allowed some light in, whether is was yellow, blue, purple, or some other color. I had seen lightning in varieties of colors. Believe me. I would know best. So just take a VERY claustrophobic and petrified-of-storms Margaret and stick her in an air vent while it's storming.

Nope. Not a very good combination. I was freaking out enough as it was, with my sword clinging on the metal-yep, metal. Once again, it's still storming outside and we're technically in the air, so we're technically in Zeus's territory. I was surprised Zeus hadn't zapped me to a crisp yet. The air was getting unusually stuffy, and soon enough, I started coughing. Bianca was getting concerned for me, even though I assued her I was totally fine, she still kept freaking out over me. We neared a room that was completely lit up and I figured it was either the girl's bathroom or boy's bathroom. Bianca was leading the way, so she opened up the vent and landed swiftly on the tiled ground, her legs bent.

"NICO!" She called.

"Gee, thanks for helping me, Bianca," I mumbled. I threw down my sword first and then fell to the tiled ground, much less swiftly than Bianca. I dusted off my black skinny jeans and picked my sword back up, gripping it tightly.

"Oh, my god," Nico's voice. "Is that a real sword?"

"Yes, it is. And I need to get you and your sister out of here," I placed them on both sides of me as we began to walk to the exit of the bathroom. Nico looked slightly confused, slightly scared at what was going on, and why I had suddenly came from an air vent with his sister with a sword in my hand. I flung open the door and kept Bianca and Nico close to me. And like I said, that was about to be tested to a fine line. And the first line began to cut when I heard Dr. Thorn's voice again.

"Children of Hades," He said. "Come with me quietly and I won't have to destroy the whole school."

"Run?" Bianca suggested.

I nodded.

"RUN!"

And run we did. We ran all the way back to those stairs, and who was there shocked the Hades out of me. "ANNA! EVIE!"

This chapter was courtesy of my friend (: R&R, no flames (: