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P
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Did I ever tell you how demigod dreams suck?

My entire body erupted in pain. How had Apophis known where my Achilles spot was? But I didn't care about that. What was more important to me was the fact that that snake had Annabeth.

I tried to stand up, but my legs felt like jelly. I couldn't even life my sword.

Water, I thought. Where is the water?

Then just as I was about to give up hope, I saw a fire hydrant a few meters away. I raised my hand, willing the water to come to me, but the pain was too much. Black spots danced in my eyes; I knew I was going to die. Then I started doubt. Why did I even do this? Why did I even help those Egyptians? Why did I risk mine and Annabeth's lives for one girl? Can I even finish this stupid quest? Most importantly, could I even save Annabeth and Sadie?

Great, I thought. I am about to die, and that's when I think about these things.

I closed my eyes for the final time.

(A/N: Don't kill me, or close this window yet! Read on!)

I was at a river. I vaguely remember a boat, Charon, some coins, Cerberus wagging his tail happily at the sight of me, and my Uncle Hades screaming at me for almost dying and leaving his son to die, and him literally punching me back to the world of the living. Who knew hades can punch that hard?

The next thing I knew, I was looking at my own body. Zia was beside me, with a pudgy man in a pinstripe suit and wearing a leopard's cape, but I felt power radiate from him. Hieroglyphs danced around him; forming into what I think were words, and unraveling just as quickly as they formed. I was lying on a white bed, with floating candles above my head. They were burning low, almost black.

"He is not dead." Zia said.

"Not yet." The man in the pinstripe suit said.

"But Amos-" he cut her off.

"You know the rules, Zia. The Greeks and Egyptians were never meant to join. I don't know what you were thinking, bringing that boy here! I can sense the sea in him, he's probably a son of Poseidon." He said.

"Amos, please, listen to me. Percy was injured! I had no choice but to bring him to you!" she defended.

"You could have let him die." He suggested.

Zia glared at him. "Never."

"We shall postpone this argument until the boy is awake. Now, what was the other thing you wanted to tell me?" he asked.

Zia took a deep breath. "Amos, Sadie's been taken, by…Apophis." I was confused. Sadie wasn't taken by Apophis, she was taken by Cade. Why would she lie to him?

Amos paled. "Impossible! Apophis could have never gotten into Brooklyn! Unless Sadie wasn't in Brooklyn…" he mused.

Zia cringed. "No…she wasn't. She was taken at the Greek camp." She confessed, rubbing her arm.

Amos' eyes widened at her confession. "You fool!" she screamed at her face.

I wanted to sock him in the face there and then, but my body wouldn't move. Then, I realized I was in a dream.

Amos was furious. A vase near them exploded for no apparent reason, and I got a feeling that it reacted to his mood. "Why would you take her to a Greek camp? You knew the rules, Zia! You knew! And now, because of your disobedience, my niece is missing. She's probably dead, for all we know!"

In an instant, Hades was beside me. "Forgive me Jackson, but you needed to see this."

"So, this is the past?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No. This is actually happening now as we speak." HE looked At Amos and Zia again, who were shouting at each other in anger.

"Oh."

I saw Amos turn around. There, Atalanta was tied to a chair. The ribbons I saw on her earlier were now only tied at her arms, feet, and neck. "Where is she?" Amos snarled at her.

"I don't know." She yelled. Amos pointed the staff he was holding at her and growled, "Tas."

The ribbons began constricting her. She started choking, and begging Amos to let her go. She fell of the chair, writhing from suffocation. Zia stared at Amos In fear, and began pleading with him to stop.

I started drifting away. "No! Hades, let me help her!" I told him, but he wasn't there anymore.

Instantly I was in another room. Annabeth and Sadie were hanging from their arms, chained up to the ceiling. Cade was all too happily hitting them with a whip.

"Stop!" I tried to say, but my voice wouldn't work. I tried to shut my eyes, but it's as if someone kept prying them open.

Sadie screamed in pain. Cade struck her back again with the whip, and the force sent her spinning. I got a good view of her back; it was lacerated, with fresh blood dripping down to the floor. Sadie was shaking from pain, her skin was pale, and I could hear her ragged breathing. She faced me again, and I saw her eyes; they were closed. Tears were leaking form the corners of her eyes, and she was biting her lip to keep from screaming, drawing blood.

"Cade, why are you doing this? Stop hurting her!" Annabeth said.

He raised an eyebrow. "You want me to hurt you instead? I'll happily oblige." He took the whip, and stuck her in the chest. It tore through her shirt, punishing the skin underneath. A red gash was left, and blood poured out of the wound.

I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip his arms right out of its sockets and strangle him with his own whip. I wanted to…

Annabeth screamed in pain. Cade only laughed, and whipped her more times than I could count. He didn't care where the whip hit, he simple slashed for the sake of torturing her. After he finished, the only thing that I could still recognize of Annabeth's body was her stormy grey eyes, riddled with pain.

Cade turned back to Sadie. He caressed her cheek, and kissed her forcefully on the lips. That woke her up. She spat in his face. He wiped away the spit, and lashed at her even worse than Annabeth. Her blood-curling scream filled the room; it was even worse than the fries' screeches, and that was saying something. The final lash struck Sadie directly on her cheek. Her head was thrown sideways from the impact, and I almost vomited at the sight.

Cade's whip was dripping with blood; both Annabeth's and Sadie's. He laughed manically, and grabbed something from a chair. I peered at what it was, and I paled. In his hand were two full bottles of alcohol.

He emptied their contents on the already bloody girls. First Annabeth, then Sadie. Their screams echoed in perfect unison. He only laughed, then grabbed something else from the chair.

This time, I wanted to kill myself, just to escape from what was about to happen.

Cade was holding Annabeth's dagger.

He dug the dagger deep into Annabeth's arm. She screamed in pain. He laughed, and dragged the dagger through her skin, making bizarre patterns that I knew were going to leave a scar. I cried at the sight. This was too much! For Annabeth, she could probably live through this, but Sadie was only a thirteen-year old girl! If we were lucky, she would only lock herself up in her room for the rest of her life after this. If we weren't, she would probably try to kill herself at any opportunity given. I paled at the thought.

She grinned sadistically at Sadie, and stabbed the dagger at Annabeth's arm, and left it there. Luckily, she already fainted from the pain, so at least she didn't feel that. He grabbed something from his pocket, a blowtorch. He turned it on, and put it near Sadie's already burning skin, just right below her waist, cooking her already lacerated skin. If I said that she screamed in pain, it wouldn't do her any justice. Her tears were obvious now; and she screamed bloody murder repeatedly. She clenched her hands in pain. I would do anything to get them out of this torture already. After a few minutes, Said stopped screaming, and hung her head. Cade lifted her head, and saw the she too, passed out from the pain.

Satisfied, he left the room.

Suddenly Hades was beside me. "Now you see Jackson. Cade is being controlled by Apophis. HE has the Kane girl, and also Athena's daughter. If you cannot save them, and doubt yourself now…" he looked at Annabeth and Sadie. "I can feel their life force fading. You need to save them Jackson, or else." He let that hang. We started drifting away again.

I nodded, still looking at the girls, who were twitching in pain. From afar, they looked like pigs ready for slaughter, rather than human beings.

"Now go and wake, Jackson. And do not fail me. " With that, he disappeared in a cloud of darkness. I felt myself being pulled back to my body, as if it was yearning for me to wake up again. That's when I remembered. Atalanta was still in danger.

I took a deep breath. I need to finish this, for Annabeth, Atalanta, and Sadie.

Good? Bad? Tell me!