Hey, here's another chapter! Thanks a lot to all those readers and writers who took the time to review, it really means so much to me. I just love to read your feedbacks; it makes me want to write and finish this so I can start the sequel!

Well, Enjoy!

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The moment I came back, Carter went hysterical. They were at some gas station/diner beside the highway, but luckily, there were only few mortals around. Carter grabbed his did his sword-trick again and pulled it out of thin air. He stabbed at the ground, and yelled, "Hah-ri!"

The mortals stopped what they were doing, and fell to the ground, unconscious. Carter put his sword away.

"Nico! Where the hell have you been? Did you even know how worried we were? You could've died, for all we care!"

I rolled my eyes. Did he not have any faith in me? I mean, I'm the son of Hades, for crying out loud!

"I'm fine Carter. Just went to…visit some relatives." I told him.

Behind me, Drea and Iris were giving me quizzical looks. "You went to Hades?" Drea asked me.

"Not exactly…" I couldn't tell them that I went to Bianca, which would've only worsened things. From the look that Carter was giving me, I was a hundred percent sure that he didn't believe me, which kinda sucked. But, if he had been living with Sadie…I could tell why.

Carter glared at me. "Look, if you don't want to tell us, fine. But we need to continue with this quest." He trudged outside, and Drea and Iris followed his lead. On their way out, Drea whispered to me, "Nico, you have to trust him. All the time you were gone, he looked like he just lost his little brother or something."

I nodded, taken aback by what she just said. Did Carter really see that way?

I was about to go out when all of a sudden, carter, Drea and Iris came barreling back in. "Duck!" carter yelled.

I ducked, just in time to see a shadow loom over us, and the roof above us was torn from the building itself. I felt water dowse my back.

"What in the name of Zeus was that?" I demanded. Thunder rumbled outside. Oops.

A roar answered my question. I looked up, just in time to see a column of water slam into my face. I flew backwards right into the wall, and my vision became fuzzy. Form what I saw, I could swear that a giant crocodile man was trying to kill us.

Two pairs of arms grabbed my and hauled me out of the way, just as another stream of water was blasted from where I was a few moments ago.

Then, somebody slapped me in the face. Thrice.

That got me back to my senses.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" I said, rubbing my sore cheek.

Drea smiled smugly. "Good, that actually worked now could you please- look out!"

She pushed me out of the way, before she slammed by a giant, green, scaly hand. Her body was thrown straight into a china cabinet. I winced at the sight. Gods, that had to hurt.

That's when I remembered the mortals. I scanned around, and saw that all of them were piled in a corner, one on top of the other. Not a very subtle way of keeping them safe, but at least they're out of our way.

I rushed outside, where I saw Carter, twenty feet high, encased in his glowing avatar of awesomeness, battling the crocodile dude sword-on-staff, which was just about the same height as he is. I had to admit, Carter had some pretty good moves. He ducked a swipe from the crocodile dude's staff, and punched him square in the gut. That sent the crocodile dude staggering back a few steps. Carter followed with a slash from his sword, and it connected with the crocodile dude's chest, but unfortunately, he was wearing armor, so that didn't do much of anything except cut a gash in the chest plate.

The crocodile man laughed, and slammed the butt of his pole into the avatar's face. Carter lost his balance, and fall on the highway, hard. His sword skidded away a few feet, and the impact caused the highway to crack. Iris and Drea stood a good distance away, launching arrow after arrow at the crocodile man. Several found their mark in the chinks of his armor, but he pointed his pole at them, and water came gushing out. They leaped to the side, and the force of the water carved a crater in the concrete.

"You were a fool to challenge me, eye of Horus! To think that a puny mortal like you could beat me, hah!" he raised his pole, preparing for a death blow.

I took that as my cue. I shadow traveled behind his foot, and plunged my sword hilt-deep into his heel. Normally, it would be like a bee sting for a dude his size, but since my sword is pure Stygian iron, it slowly sucked the life force out of his body, and that had to be painful, immortal or not.

"Ow!" he bellowed. He dropped his pole in surprise and pain, and Carter launched himself at the crocodile dude. He pointed his hand to his sword, which disappeared front of my eyes, only to reappear in his hand a second later. I wondered if he could teach me how to do that.

Carter nodded to me. "Thanks for the save, Nico."

"Yeah." I staggered a bit. Luckily, Iris managed to catch me with his hands. "You okay, man?" he asked me worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, trying to get up. Instead, I fell back down, but this time in a sitting position. I rubbed my forehead. Seriously, the pain was killing me!

I saw carter drag the crocodile dude's body to us. Carter's left eye was swollen, but otherwise he was fine. Suddenly, it started receding, until his eye was back to normal. A presence filled the air...and I shuddered involuntarily. It felt...ancient. Even more ancient then the Greek gods. I had the urge to kneel down and worship whoever this presence was, and it took all of my willpower to abstain. Strangely, all of it was coming from Carter who busy glaring at the crocodile man, Sobek.

He threw the crocodile dude's body in front of me. "Sobek." He said. Finally, a name to match the face.

Sobek groaned in pain. He tried to get up, but Carter slammed his foot down on his chest, and he was slammed face-first into the concrete.

"A servant of Apophis." He snarled. "Sobek, you are a god! How dare you defy your king!"

I noticed that Carter's voice had changed. It suddenly became lower and ancient, and his accent was a bit proud.

Sobek laughed at his face. "Ha! You were never my king, war god! Apophis has been very generous. My master will swallow that old sun god, and he will give me riches and power beyond anything you could ever give me!"

My mind was going to overdrive. During the fight, Sobek had called Carter the eye of Horus. And now, he was calling him the war god. "Carter, what is happening?" I asked.

"Silence, mortal!" he snapped. He summoned his sword, and I realized that it wasn't the same one he used before. Carter's was simple and ancient. Instead, this one was ancient, but was overdone with carvings and designs. Precious metals, namely gold, silver, black diamonds, rubies, and emeralds covered the entire blade. A golden carving of a falcon's head was placed instead of a hilt. From that, I could tell that that was the weapon of a king.

He pressed his sword at Sobek's throat. I growling sound came from the crocodile man, but carter glared at him, and for the first time, I noticed that his eyes were blazing, and I mean literally. The whites of his eyes were now the ever moving color of fire, and instead of the brown pupils, one of his eyes was gold, and the other one moonlight silver. Ti me, it's as if Artemis' and Apollo's eyes were magically grafted into him.

"That will never happen." He growled. "I will not let it."

"What are you going to do about it, Horus?" Sobek taunted. "You are just as useless as your mother. You usurp the throne for yourself! Do you not realize that half the gods are planning rebellion, just because they want Ra back as king?"

My eyes widened in revelation. The sword…Carter's eyes…his voice…Sobek calling him Horus…he was being controlled!

"I will be king!" he roared. "And nobody, not even you, will be able to stop me!" he slashed Sobek's throat, and the crocodile dissolved into a puddle of water.

"Carter, are you okay?" I asked.

He glared at me again with his gold and silver eyes, before screaming, and clutching his head. He fell to the ground, and curled up in a fetal position. Smoke curled up from his body.

"Help…me!" he choked out.

Drea, Iris, and I looked at each other. Clearly, the three of us weren't experts on how to heal god-possessed magicians.

Carter screamed in agony for one last time, and grabbed my hands. Immediately, I felt my body burst into flame. I looked down, and saw that my body was on every physical sense, all right. But my skin tingled, as if it were slowly being burned. The pain intensified, and I was on the ground like Carter, screaming in agony.

Then, we both fainted.

In my dreams, I saw glimpses of Zia, Apophis, Annabeth, and my dad punching Percy square in the chin, and sending him flying back to the world of the living. I chuckled at that one. Hades preferred to never do anything physical, except, of course, when he's with his wife (don't ask.) I shuddered at the thought. Percy must've done something really stupid for dad to get his lazy butt off of his throne and do something about it.

After that scene changed, I came face-to-face with Sadie.

She definitely looked better. Her face was contorted in pain. Sweat glistened on her body, and her skin…her skin, oh gods. Her skin looked like as though someone had used her entire body as a knife sharpener. Dried blood was stuck to every inch of flesh that I could see, and her clothes were torn. The room smelled strongly of sweat and blood. I looked up, and saw two pairs of chains hanging from the ceiling. I gazed down, and saw two pools of blood, one directly underneath Sadie, and the other one underneath the second pair of chains.

"Sadie! Sadie!" I cried. Her eyes fluttered, and she breathed weakly, "Ni-Ni-Nico?"

"Sadie! Oh gods, I'm here! What happened to you?" I ran to her, and tackled her into a hug, but my body passed through as if I were a ghost.

"Nico? Where are you?" she was fully awake now, but form her eyes, I could see pain. Pure, horrible pain.

I remembered that I was in a dream. She couldn't see me, but she could probably sense me. Then, the door opened. Cade walked in casually, eyed Sadie, and grinned sadistically. Sadie froze, and she began shaking.

I wanted to kill him, to reach out and strangle the life out of him with my bare hands. Or at least send some skeletons after him. But I couldn't. They couldn't even see me, bar Sadie, who was looking around frantically, as though she were expecting me to come out of nowhere and save her. I cringed at the thought. That was what she was probably thinking.

Cade reached inside his pocket, and produced a blowtorch.

Sadie's eyes widened at the sight.

"Ready for round two, love?" he asked innocently.

Before I could ask myself what he was planning, he clicked the switch, and blowtorch produced flame. My eyes widened, and I paled at the sight. He couldn't be...

Cade walked over casually, and started dragging the blowtorch all over her body. The skin sizzled at every touch, and…oh gods…Cade was burning Sadie alive!

"Please! STOP! PLEASE!" Sadie screamed in pain. I could not even imagine what she could be feeling right now. Her screams echoed along the walls of the room, which only made the scene more unbearable for me.

"Cade, you sadistic bastard, let her go!" I screamed, but Cade didn't hear me. Oh right… I'm in a dream.

Sadie struggled to get her body away from the flame, but it was no use. Cade burned her arms, legs, and even parts of her face. A black spot was situated right underneath her shin, where the skin was burned. Badly.

I looked away, unable to take any of this anymore. Sadie was screaming, and cursing Cade a lot, both in English and Ancient Egyptian, but the last three words she said really made my heart break down:

"Nico! Help me!" At that statement, Cade turned around at three hundred sixty degrees, checking for any signs of me. He looked almost worried. When he was sure that I wasn't there, he turned his attention back to Sadie.

Cade only laughed. "Your boyfriend is not here now, Sadie. Now, if you want me to stop, tell me how to get inside the First Nome."

Sadie shook her head, unable to say any words due to the pain.

Cade raised hi eyebrow. "No? Then that just means round three." He turned the blowtorch back on, and repeated the process until Sadie finally went limp.

I cried. What kind of boyfriend am I? And for that matter, what kind of friend am I? Here is Sadie, the only girl I loved more than my sister, and who I would gladly die for, being burned alive right in front of me, and I couldn't do a thing! Not a freaking thing!

Cade walked of the room, but not before spitting on her face.

"Wait, where's Annabeth?" she asked weakly.

"Oh, the demons are…playing with her." Cade smiled.

As if on cue, Annabeth's screams pierced the air.

That woke me up.

The first thing I noticed was that we weren't definitely in the Highway anymore. But at least we were safe…probably.

Tall, black columns rose from all corners of the room. The room itself smelled musty, as though it wasn't used for a long time. The walls were red, and carved with pictures of a snake swallowing the sun.

I sat upright, and looked around. Drea and Iris were not in the room with us. Carter was beside me, still passed out. I wondered what exactly happened back there, and why would Horus possess him at that moment.

The sound of a door opening broke me from my thoughts. One of Apophis' demons came in, being flanked by ten more. They walked towards me hesitantly, as if they learned of what I did to their brothers.

"Son of Hades, you will come with us." He said.

"And if I don't?" I answered back. "I could shadow-travel out of this place, along with Carter, and kick your asses at the same time."

"Just try." He taunted.

I smiled, and willed the shadows around me. Just as I did, there was a horrible screeching, and pain erupted all over my body. I fell back, and hear the clinking of handcuffs. Wait, handcuffs?

Sure enough, my hands were cuffed in what looks like stygian iron, but I knew it wasn't. The chains were draining away my powers, and I was feeling weaker and weaker by the moment.

"What…where are we?" I asked weakly.

The demon grinned. "The prison of my Lord Apophis."

I sighed. Oh great. Well, if I look on the bright side, at least the line of the prophecy finally came true: A son of death, the eye of Horus, a child of dawn, and a son of love, the four to the west, will find the snake, and keep it from the world above. Then something came up in my mind. We didn't find Apophis, he found us.

In the midst of being captured, powerless, and probably certain death, I couldn't help but smile.

And keep it from the world above. Oh, after what I saw Cade do to Sadie, I would do more than keep him from the world above. I couldn't wait to kick Apophis' butt to back that prison where he came from, and probably throw Cade down with him there, as well.

So? Another fight scene, another more detailed torture scene, and the prophecy is finally beginning to come true? What will happen to our heroes? Read and find out next chapter! Oh, and it's Percy's POV next chapter, and I can only tell you this: Percy + Amos +Zia +Atalanta = bad.

Lastly, here's what I really want to learn from you. Is this chapter good? Bad? Review me and tell!