Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy. XD

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A wave of curiosity suddenly overcame me. Who were these people? What are they doing here? Where do they even get there strange powers?

"What are you? I suddenly blurted out. ADHD tends to make me do that.

"We are human beings, thank you very much." Sadie huffed, a little bit annoyed at my question.

I blushed, embarrassed. I suppose my question came out wrong. To my relief, Nico stepped forward. "Sorry for my friend's-"he glared at me in a stop-trying-to-embarrass-us kind of way, "-very rude question. What she meant to say was, you three aren't Greek, aren't you?"

Sadie shook her head. "No, we're not Greek, whatever it is that you mean by Greek. I am the current host of Isis, Carter is the host of Horus, and Zia here was the host of Nepthys."

"Was?" Percy asked.

"She and Nepthys weren't compatible, you may say in way. Nepthys is a river goddess, while Zia is a fire magician, so Zia hosting Nepthys only had a negative effect on both of them." Sadie explained. "Anyway, we told you our story, now why don't you tell us yours?"

"Before that, let me ask you one last thing. Isis, Horus, and Nepthys are not Greek gods, aren't they?" I said.

"No. They're Egyptian." Carter answered.

My eyes widened. "Oh shit." I mouthed. Unfortunately, Sadie seemed to understand.

"What was that?" She demanded.

I wasn't sure what I was gonna say. "Um…can you excuse us for a minute?" I dragged Percy and Nico somewhere where we can't be seen or heard.

"What was that for?" Nico asked, annoyed.

I glared at him. He back off. "We need to leave. Now."

Percy looked confused, then offended. "But Annabeth, those people are waiting for us-"

"Stop it Percy. They're Egyptians. We are not supposed to initiate any contact in any way with them. Chiron himself told me so."

"But, why?" Nico asked.

I was getting really irritated with these two's constant questioning. Why can't they just believe me and go?

I shrugged. "Just because. Now let's go."

"No." Percy said firmly. "Annabeth, those people saved our lives." He pointed to carter, Sadie, and Zia, who were patiently waiting for us, although I could already see irritation forming on Sadie's face. "I don't know about you, but that's not the proper way to thank someone who just faced a monster to protect your life." He turned around and walked back to them.

I looked at Nico and asked, "Well?"

He pointed to Percy. "I'm with him." Then he followed him.

"Okay, fine! If this ends up so bad that it becomes the end of the world, again, then don't come looking for me!" I threatened, but went with them anyways.

"What took you so long?" Sadie asked. She narrowed her eyes at me, as if she was holding me responsible for that.

"We needed to talk." Percy answered. "Do you guys want to go with us to camp?"

"Percy!" I said.

"Sure." Sadie said. She was looking sparingly at Nico, and she was blushing. Hmmm…Nico was thirteen-ish, and Sadie looked like she was twelve…. No. Not even gonna think about that.

"Cool." Percy said. "Let's go."

The whole ride back to camp, I kept playing scenarios on my mind about what would happen if Chiron saw these two. Zia refused to come, saying that she had something else to do. The worst case scenario that I could think of was that Chiron would kick us out of camp, forever, for this. I shuddered at the thought.

"We're here." Percy announced. He got out of the cab, paid the mortal driver a huge wad of cash so he won't complain or ask why five children were suddenly getting off at gods-knows-where in the middle of the night.

"Um, why are we stopping here?" carter asked.

"You'll see." Percy answered. We trudged uphill, and came to rest on top of a hill with a pine tree standing at its crest.

Percy looked at them, at me, and thought for a bit. "Now, I don't know if the barriers will allow you to enter the camp, so just enter slowly." He took my hand, to which I probably blushed, and ran towards the camp borders. After we passed through, we turned around and waited for them.

I saw Carter shrug, and ran as well. But, as I and Percy expected, the barriers stopped him before he even got to camp grounds, and threw him back a good three feet. Dusting himself and standing, Carter threw a string of words that were probably very rude in Egyptian before putting a hand on the barrier. "What is this thing made of, steel?" he grumbled.

"No," I said, laughing. "It's magic."

Nico came up next to us. "Guys, won't you give them permission?"

Percy smirked. "Alright, alright." He threw up his hands in mock surrender. "I Percy Jackson, give you permission to enter camp."

The borders shimmered, and Carter and Sadie passed through with no trouble at all.

"C'mon, you've got to meet Chiron." Nico urged. He ran like a cheetah all the way to the Big House, where Chiron, in wheelchair form, was playing a game of Pinochle with Mr. D, our camp director.

"Hello, Nico." Chiron said when he saw him. "And you too, Annabeth and Percy. What brings you-"then he saw Carter and Sadie "-here." He finished in a grim tone.

He narrowed his eyes and pointed at them. "They shouldn't be here. Percy, Annabeth, I can't believe that you two could be so irresponsible! Percy, I can still forgive, mainly because he doesn't know anything-"

"Hey!" Percy grumbled.

"-but you, Annabeth, you know the rules. The Greeks are not allowed to be with Egyptians. It has been that way for millennia."

"But Chiron, these people saved our lives." Percy reasoned.

Chiron held up his hand. "They saved you? That's a first." He smirked. "That's next to impossible, unless-" he looked Carter and Sadie again. "You two aren't with the House of Life, aren't you?"

"never in a million years!" Sadie exclaimed. "If you think that we would join those ungrateful, self-centered, arrogant-"

"Sadie-" Carter warned.

"Sorry." She mumbled.

Chiron's expression changed from wariness to relief. "I believe you. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Actually, Zeus changed that law a bit last millennia. You see, he decreed that magicians not affiliated with the House of Life are welcomed to Camp-Half-Blood anytime."

"Thank you."

"you're welcome. Now, it is a camp tradition to have a friendly game of capture the flag whenever we have visitors, so please, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, spread the word?"

Then we left.

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OMG! That Nico guy looks so much like Anubis, it drives me nuts! I mean, with the same black hair, style of clothing, and those chocolate-warm eyes that totally make me want to melt, if I didn't know any better, Nico could actually pass of as Anubis's little brother or something. Once Annabeth and the others left, Chiron turned his focus on us. "I can sense another presence besides yourselves. Have you been hosting gods?"

I didn't know what to say. How did he even know that we were hosting gods? Fortunately, Horus and Isis appeared beside us, but they weren't actually in a physical body. They were glowing in a golden light that surrounded them, and the only things visible are their faces, Isis on the left, and Horus on the right.

"Long time no see, Chiron." Horus bowed his head. Isis followed his example.

"Indeed, Horus." Chiron said. "What brings you two here?"

Horus looked at us. "Well, it seems that our hosts, by some miraculous reason, are here in your demigod camp, so please just take care of them, okay? OH, and by the way, love the beard. Makes you look more macho."

"Horus, stop it. You're embarrassing us." Isis chided.

"I'm just saying." Horus shrugged.

"We can take care of ourselves." I huffed, but both of them already disappeared. Then, a conch horn blew in the distance.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Both of you, do you have any weapons or armor with you?" he suddenly asked.

"We don't use armor, and we always bring our weapons with us." Carter answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Because Capture the Flag is starting."

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We spread word around camp pretty quickly. It helps that the Aphrodite Cabin are major gossipers, so in about ten minutes, everybody is already prepared for Capture the Flag. It's the Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Dionysus, and Athena Cabin versus the rest of the cabins. The Aphrodite, Janus, Hypnos, and Morpheus didn't want to join, again, so we just left them as they were. But on the bright side, carter and Sadie were going to be on our team, and if they can fight the Minotaur, they can be on my team any day.

I blew the conch horn to signal the start of the game.

We prepared ourselves for war. The Ares Cabin was already setting up traps and spiked, along with the Hephaestus Cabin, who was maneuvering a large, bronze automaton who looked strangely like a man with an eagle's head.

"Try to beat us now, suckers!" Clarisse yelled from atop the automaton. She was in her bloodred armor, taunting us and glaring at Percy like she wanted to skewer him with her spear. But seeing as how her history with Percy had been, she probably would do that first chance she got.

Beside me, Annabeth sighed. "Great. Now that just ruined all of my plans. How are we supposed to beat them with that thing trying to stomp on us?"

She was right. We have no firepower to take that thing head-on, unless we have someone who can turn fifteen feet tall.

Then realization came to me. We have, by the name of Carter Kane.

"Annabeth…" I whispered my plan to her.

"Nico, you're brilliant! You don't know how much I want to kiss you right now." She exclaimed with glee.

I laughed. "Don't. Percy might get jealous."

She blushed. I saw her hide something behind her back. It looked a ring of some sort. She turned to the rest of our team, and yelled as loud as she could. "Everyone! You might have noticed that the red team got some fancy new toys on their arsenal. And yes, I know that none of us can take that thing on, but luckily for us, we have some new friends that might turn the tides in our favor." She gestured to Carter and Sadie, who had just arrived. "Everyone, meet Carter and Sadie Kane. They will take care of the automaton, while our team will split into two groups, one large group that can take on their frontal assaults, while another group that can sneak behind enemy lines and take the flag from under their noses. We can do this!"

Everyone cheered.

I was with Annabeth and Sadie on the second group. Since I can use the shadows, Annabeth has her cap, and Sadie can use magic, we can easily break behind enemy lines to snatch the flag.

"Nico." I heard Sadie call behind me. I turned around, and saw her looking at Carter, then at the automaton.

"He's gonna be fine, Sadie. No one dies during these games." I reassured her.

"Really?"

"Well, most of the time. Now come on! We're getting left behind." I whispered.

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Those punks are so gonna get pulverized! With this automaton on our side, nothing can stop us from getting to their flag.

BU then, I noticed something out of the ordinary. An African-American boy holding what seems to be a curved sword was looking at our automaton with determined eyes, as if he was looking at our weak points. Like he could even reach them. Another horn blew, signaling the start of the game.

"Charge!" I ordered. Our automaton went in first, stomping on the campers, ripping up trees, and generally causing mass panic. Then, everyone backed up on our automaton, hiding in the trees, except for the boy with the curved sword. He ran forward, straight for our automaton.

What is he doing? Does he really think he can defeat this thing? I asked myself. Then suddenly, the boy jumped. I started to laugh, but when he came down, it surprised me so much that I fell out of the automaton, but luckily, Chris caught me just in time.

"What in Hades is that?" I asked.

"No idea." He said. I looked into his eyes, and I can only see one thing. Doubt.

The boy was glowing. I mean literally glowing. He was encased in a golden shell that looked a lot like our automaton. He was over fifteen feet tall, armed with a glowing blade like the one he was holding in his hands. But the one thing that shocked me was his eyes. They were glowing, one gold, one silver.

"I am Carter Kane. Blood of the Pharaohs, the Eye of Horus. And you-" he pointed his sword at us "-will be chopped up like Swiss cheese before you even know it."

He charged. When his blade slammed on our spear, we staggered back a few feet, losing our balance. "Fight back!" I yelled at the driver.

"I'm trying!" he yelled back.

"Ugh! Get out of here!" I threw him out of the chair, and controlled the automaton by myself.

I thrusted my spear forward, which nearly impaled him in the heart, but glanced of his shell. He swung his sword in an arc, decapitating our left arm. I used the remaining arm to sock him in the face, and he lost balance and fell. I threw the spear. It sailed in a perfect arc, but at the last second, he rolled to his side and dodged it. He thrusted his fist forward, and a large, golden eye appeared in front of us, and all of a sudden, we were flying backwards, and smashed into Zeus's Fist so hard that it fell apart.

"System is crashing. System is crashing." A computerized voice warned me. No! I refuse to lose.

In desperation, I jumped up, put all of the remaining power to the legs, and tried to ram him with the automaton. Fortunately, it worked. Unfortunately, we both hit the ground with a loud THUD!

I could feel blood on my forehead. I climbed out of the now-ruined automaton, and was relieved to see that the driver and Chris had made it out alright. And then I fainted.