So, my stupid computer wouldn't let me edit my A/N on the last chapter, but I thought I'd tell you, I've had the last chapter ready for a couple of weeks, but I haven't been able to update AT ALL. It was annoying me like crazy, but it's given me and my friend lots of time to write. (:

Margie's POV

"ANNA! EVIE!"

The familiar grin of Andromeda Jackson curved upon her lips. She looked better than when I last saw her. Maybe she had gotten a little life back since Elaine . . . no, Margie. Don't you dare. Long story. Let's just say that it's one of the many reasons why I hated Luke with a burning passion.

"Why, hello there." Anna said with even more of a smile. Her eyes flitted towards Bianca. "So, you're Bianca, I presume? Oh, and Nico."

"Yessss," Bianca said back, peering over at me. She looked terrified. I have her a gentle smile. Nico just looked at Anna like she was crazy. Well, she was covered in blood. Why is that when I see Anna, her body is covered in blood?

"It's okay, Bianca," I said reassuringly. "This is my best friend, and cousin, Anna Jackson. She can help us. And you've met Evie."

Evie smiled at Bianca chillingly. Bianca seemed to understand. Evie was there the first day I was attacked along with Bianca. In fact, Evie was the one who warned me, and that's why I stole the scissors off of her desk.

"And I'm Percy," Percy suddenly interrupted. "No need to introduce me, Marge. You sure do know how to make someone feel like a third wheel."

"And this is Percy Jackson, Anna's brother. They're twins."

"I see," Bianca said. I felt bad for her. She seemed so confused and misplaced.

"They're also demigods." I whispered. "Pretty powerful demigods."

Anna glared at me. "You already told her?"

"She deserves to know." I glared back.

She sighed. "It would be safer if she didn't. Especiallyright now."

"I know, I know, but I had to." I slowly began to explain the whole story of us sneaking around class, to Dr. Thorn threatening us, to us escaping and Bianca nearly getting kidnapped, and to us finding Nico in the bathroom and then Dr. Thorn and Mr. Melano finding us once again.

" . . . but I think we lost them, and Hey, are you guys okay? Anna, you look like you're about to pass out."

"Well, they're two reasons for that. One, I just lost a ton of blood. Two, we killed Mr. Melano already. How is he chasing you?"

"Wait, you KILLED him?" I prayed to the gods that they didn't do what I think they did.

"Well, actually, Ikilled him, thank you very much. But he was a monster, and a bad one at that. He had a knife at Anna's neck, and I wasn't about to ask him to politely let her go." Evie said, getting a tiny bit defensive.

"A knife at your neck?" I turned to Anna and saw a tiny cut on her neck. The blood was drying. "Oh, my gods. What happened to you?"

She begins to explain to me what happened to her. So, basically, she drew one of her freaky drawings again, and then she saw the man in the picture, and so then Mr. Melano took Percy and her out into the hallway. They were knocked unconscious, and stuffed in a janitor's closet. I started texting her, and the ghosts I had sent her for help got her out of the closet. But Mr. Melano was waiting for her, and had a knife at her throat. Evie threw a knife into his back, but . . . took it out.Oh gods. For a daughter of Athena, she seemed pretty stupid to do that.

"So . . ." I began. "You took the knife outafter you killed him?"

"Yeah, what'd you expect me to do? This is a school for troubled children. Most of the people here are barely trusted with anything sharper than a crayon. I really couldn't sneak in that many knives, and I wasn't going to waste this one."

I thought back to one of my many conversations with my father in the Underworld. "Well, my dad told me about these monsters, special monsters, very rare. They're immortal, and very hard to kill. They usually appear in human form, but have superhuman abilities, which would explain how Mr. Melano got from the top floor to Dr. Thorn so quickly. If you do manage to kill one, you have to leave the weapon in them.Otherwise, they're fine. It's like they've never been hurt."

"So, basically, we went to all that trouble, and Mr. Melano is as good as new?"

Just when I was about to say yes, someone said it from behind us.

"Yes."

It was Mr. Melano. Why couldn't he just DIE ALREADY?

We all whipped our heads around. "I see you children have found each other."

Anna looked very very angry."And I hear you're obsessively gathering demigods like a freaky bobble head collector on Ebay."

Mr. Melano smirks. "I'd watch your mouth, daughter of Poseidon. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve." And he disappears into thin air. I hated it when monsters did that. But luckily, I was usually good with finding them.

"Okay guys," I said, taking charge. "We might have to split up-"

Just then, the windows shattered and rain poured into the school. I instinctively covered my face with my hands as glass shards planted themselves in my arms. And in came all of the Underworld. You know, sometimes I wish my dad could control them for once. Every monster anyone could possibly imagine came crawling, slithering, flying, or crawling in through the windows. Why did things like this always happen to me?

Fire is everywhere I look, and it's not just normal fire. It's Greek fire, probably the most dangerous things to both humans and half-bloods, maybe even to the gods.

I raise my sword and watch as Bianca ducks as a chair flies over her head. She's screaming about Nico, but I ignore her for the moment. I'm too focused on killing this stupid empousa. Another bad memory. And I think she remembered me.

"Ah, I see you've gotten your sword back," She hissed. But then she frowned. "But you're minus your silver-haired friend . . . Elaine, I believe?"

That was it.

I screamed and cut her head straight off before she even had the chance to attack me.

Elaine was always a sensitive topic for me. I reached for my left hand wrist and gripped it. I hated my past. I hated everything that happened. Another monster came after me, and I was more fired up than ever. My hand dropped by my side, and I sliced a sky spirit in half.

Anna reached me, and she had a monster with her.

"We-" She ducked. "Have to-" She stabbed the monster once. "Evacuate-" She rolled. "The mortals-" She jumped. "And find-" She blocked a hit. "Nico."

The monster turned to dust.

"What do you mean, 'find Nico'? He's right . . ." But he wasn't there anymore. "Hades. Can you find him? Do you think-" I slid forwards on my knees to avoid being sliced by a knife in midair. "You could take care of the mortals, too?" I glance back at her.

In our little group, we had a plan. I was the bait (of course), Evie figures everything out, Percy is the back-up, and Anna's the one who handles the mortals. She was the only one who could work with the Mist—the barrier so that normal humans couldn't see our demigod world. Thalia, our old friend, taught it to us, but Anna was the only one who succeeded in using it properly.

"I'll try," She answers. "If you can take this fight to the roof, I think I can get them out."

I nodded, and stabbed a dracaena that was in front of me. I started to slowly step backwards, glancing into Bianca's eyes. She had managed to get a weapon. It was a knife made from Stygian iron. I don't know where she got it from, because no one had a knife made from that sort of iron. She had a gash on her arm, but other than that, she appeared to be in pretty good shape. Plus, she was a good fighter. Percy and Evie were holding their ground, as always.

"MARGIE!" I heard Anna scream. "BEHIND YOU!"

I didn't even have time to shriek. Someone gripped my hair tightly and started dragging me backwards. I kicked and struggled, but my hands and ankle were most definitely not the best things to use as self-defense right now. My ankle just healed from having it broken, and my hand still hadn't heal. It was in too many bone fragments to fix. I almost tripped as the person holding my hair started making their way up the stairs.

And then I did something that may have been slightly crazy, slightly stupid.

I was holding my sword still, and I sliced through my hair, the part that was being held. My once beautiful, curly, black, long hair was no more. It was extremely short now, and the rest of it lay on the ground in a clump. I looked over at Percy and Bianca, who had some very shocked expressions on their faces as to what I just did, and immediately knew what to do. They began to lead their fight up the stairs, too, and when Evie finally realized that no one was down on the first floor anymore, she took her fight to the stairs as well. Anna was complaining about something about her hand. I didn't have the time to look. A very stubborn dracaena was looking to rip my head off.

"You're a stubborn one aren't you?" I growled, and continued to slice it.

"Not as stubborn as you." It hissed back.

"Touché."

"But I have to bring you to Castellan."

I knew what she meant. Luke Castellan.

"Ah, but he always wants what he can't have."

And with that, I stabbed her once more, and she disappeared into dust and back to the Underworld she went. I peered back at the door. It was the door to the roof. Anna wanted me to go there, and so I was. I unbolted the door (don't even ask me how I knew how to do that) and flung open the door. It was still storming, thunder rumbling, lightning flashing, and rain pouring. Percy, Bianca, and Evie seemed to get the message and slipped onto the roof as well.

We all went back-to-back in a circle in the middle of the roof. Monsters came from every side and Evie whispered, "Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . NOW!"

We charged towards the monsters. Bianca went straight for a sky spirit, I went straight for an empousa, and Percy went straight to a dracaena. The empousa were good at taunting people. I always got distracted or hurt by what they said, but not this time.

I clashed my sword, and she grabbed my left-hand. Oh gods. I knew where this was going.

"How's your hand doing, mia dolce Angelo?" She mocked, and then smirked. With one tight squeeze, I screamed so loud it echoed off of the mountains in the distance. I dropped to my knees, dropping my sword in the process. Her smirk grew even wider as she raised her hand to slice my head off. Just then, a flur of black hair tackled the empousa to the ground.

Bianca.

She raised her knife to stab the empousa, but the empousa flipped around and pinned Bianca to the ground. She struggled in the monster's grip, her knife still tightly in her right hand. But her wrists were pinned down. There was no way she'd be able to move.

"DISSAPATE!" I screamed, focusing all of my energy. Typically, I had the power to send any monster to the Underworld, but I was too weak. My hand hurt, my head pounded, and my wrist bled.

My wrist. They only wanted me.

Bianca managed to wriggle out of her grip while she was distracted by my screaming, and stabbed her in the back, taking the knife out immediately. It turned to dust.

"Holy crap," She whispered. "Did I really . . .?"

I nodded.

Her face lit up. "AWESOME!" And she continued fighting. I switched my sword to my right hand, and went straight after Mr. Melano. Bad mistake. He had a weapon of his own. Our swords clashed, and he smirked.

"We all know you're hurt, Margaret," He whispered.

I ignored him, and aimed my sword straight for his chest. It deflected, bouncing of, and skid to the across the roof, landing at least ten feet away. I didn't have telekinesis like Anna. I had the ability to sense auras.

"We all know you're suffering."

I wouldn't let him get to him. He swung his sword in the air, nearly slicing my chest open. I jumped back and landed on the ground, slicing my leg. Now I couldn't move. He walked up slowly to me, pointing the sword straight at my face.

"We all know you're going to die."

Why was he telling me these things? Was he trying to hurt me mentally? Because, if so, it wasn't working. I was done with letting myself get hurt mentally. Just when he was about to ram the knife into my face, he yanked me up and placed an arm around my neck, dangling me a little too close to the edge of the building for my taste.

Don't look down, I told myself, don't look down, don't look down, don't look down.

The door came in from the outside, and Anna stepped onto the roof, frozen in shock.

We must've been a mess. I was being held captive by Mr. Melano, Percy by a sky spirit, Evie by a dracaena, and Bianca by an empousa. I looked into her eyes as she said the typical, 'let my friends go' speech. She saw the look in my eyes as I pulled away from Mr. Melano, making a mad dash for Anna. And I was so close.

But Mr. Melano kicked my ankle.

You see, when Anna and I had had gotten hurt over the summer, I had that ankle broken. I had just been recently able to walk on it. I felt the bone go out of place, and I didn't even have the energy to scream. Instead, he grabbed me again, placing his arm around my neck once more.

"Now, Miss Jackson, just come quietly and there will be no problems for your friends. No one needs to be hurt, Andromeda."

"Anna, NO." I said. "Don't you dare-"

Mr. Melano's hand clamps over my mouth so I can no longer speak. I start struggling and try twisting in his grip, ignoring the ache in my entire body.

Mr. Melano turned to Dr. Thorn. "Is this one disposable?"

"If necessary."

Oh gods. Help me for once.

And with that, he threw me off of the edge of the building.

…

Being thrown off of a three-story school.

Hmm.

Not one of the things I would imagine it to feel like.

It's even more terrifying than they make it out to be in the movies.

Rain stung my eyes so I could barely see, and what was left of my high pain tolerance was thrown out of the window. Not to mention there's a lake right where I'm falling. I wasn't the daughter of Poseidon. I was the niece of Poseidon, and I was going to be crushed if I fell into that lake.

Just then, Anna came up next to me and enveloped me in her arms as we crashed into the water. She made an air bubble as we both struggled to swim upwards, but both of our ankles were hurt. We came up from the lake, crashing on the shore, panting from exhaustion and flip around to face the front. It's sunny now, and I silently whisper, "Thank you." To Zeus and whoever else let me live.

Anna grips my hand tightly before she passes out. Pleasant.

I just lay there for a couple of more minutes, thinking of everything that's happened. My ankle's swollen and my leg is still bleeding, but surprisingly, I felt more alive than ever. Maybe it was adrenaline. I tended to have that at the most weird and awkward times.

Percy, Bianca, Nico, and Evie all came out of the school building. Percy handed me back my sword, and I twisted it back into my ring. Gently sitting up, I slung Anna's arm around my shoulder, our hands still joined together.

"I'm going to Shadow-Travel to my house," I said. "And you're all coming with me."

You see, my house was the house to be. My mother was paid high for her job because she always worked overtime, and we had a pretty big house. Not to mention, she was an excellent healer. I always thought she should've been a nurse rather than a Greek Mythology teacher. But oh well.

Percy nodded and took my other hand. Evie took his, Bianca took hers, and Nico took Bianca's. It took all of my strength to Shadow-Travel this many people.

…..

Let me tell you, my mother was pretty shocked when she saw us all stumble into the house out of thin-air. She immediately stopped checking her papers and stood up, staring at us.

"Not again," She mumbled, shaking her head.

"Hey," Anna spoke up. "At least we're all semi-conscious this time."

Even my mom had to smile. "Anna, mio caro." She hugged Anna tightly and Anna smiled back.

"It's good to see you again, Angie."

That's the thing about my mom.

Sometimes I swear she loves my friends more than she loves me. All of my friends love my mom, and they're always begging to come to my house.

Anyways, my mom made us all sit down at the kitchen table. She handed us some warmed up spaghetti and made us all Italian hot chocolate. As Anna's blood sugar began to get balanced again, we all began to tell my mom the story between the bites of pasta. She seemed slightly concerned as we got to the more violent parts, and as we finished the story, she went to the medicine cabinet and pulled out her medicines and bandages. She handled Anna first, wrapping bandages around her hand and placing a small band-aid on the cut on her neck.

She wrapped up Anna's ankle—the one with the limp—and then fixed Percy. He didn't have any swollen or broken bones, only a few cuts that could be covered with band-aids. Same thing with Evie. But not with Bianca. When she tackled the empousa to the ground to save me, she had broken her pinky finger. My mother tied her pink finger to her ring finger with hospital tape and placed band-aids on the rest of the small cuts.

And then it was me.

She wrapped up my ankle first, and I had a small cut on the back of my neck from the knife grazing it when I sliced my hair off. She also wrapped bandages around the cut on my upper leg. When my mom saw my bleeding wrist, she froze. I avoided her gaze.

I simple wiped it on my dirty jeans and it was ignored.

"All right," My mother said, clapping her hands together. "Now, if you're all going to the dance tonight, then I suggest you get ready." She glanced at me and mouthed, 'fix that wrist'.

I nodded, and dashed up into my room. It was perfectly intact, with its dark purple walls and black chandelier and black everything else. I threw open my closet door, but then stopped when I saw a picture on my desk. It was in a light blue frame.

It was a picture of Anna, me, . . . and Elaine. I guess I better explain it now. Elaine was everyone's best friend at Camp Half-Blood. I was pretty close to her, but Anna was closer. I had known her since I was seven. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, with her silver-blond hair and wacky clothes. But she was murdered. I never forgave myself after that. It changed me completely.

Shakily, I placed the picture face down on my desk.

I changed into a black lacy dress, and put on my trench coat over that. Slipping my skull ring off of my finger and into my pocket along with my cell phone, I walked across my room to the bathroom. I shut the door and locked it.

I then pulled up the sleeve of my trench coat to reveal my mark. It was bleeding, so I took a washcloth and soaked it with cold water, gently washing off all of the blood and rinsing the cloth into the sink again. I walked back downstairs, putting a fake smile on my face. Anna smiled, Percy smiled, Bianca smiled, and Nico smiled.

But mine is fake.

Theirs are true.

And Iwasn't true. I was betraying them all.

I was a member of the Titan Army.

Wow. That was freaking dramatic. My friend wrote this chapter. Reviews are incredibly appreciated, they encourage us. And I'd like to know if you guys see any problems or have any suggestions (: