So, I haven't updated in 20 days, but since it's only 3 days before school's out, I have some time away from studying for end of the year exams.

I guess you deserve it, for reviewing and being fans of my work.

It seems, with the release of The Battle of the Labyrinth, that some of my guesses about Nico and his magic were right. Strange language for spells, a sacrifice, black cloak, skull jewelry, and black clothes.

Hmm…blood was my sacrifice, but they used Cokes and Happy Meals. But Minos did say that they used blood millennia ago…so I was part right.

Chapter 19

Déjà Vu

My eyes fluttered open, but my conscience was still weary. I grasped at the last tendrils of a pleasant dream, hoping that the remnants of that adventure wouldn't fade. A dream of dancing white bears and a cloud wreathed mountain hung in my mind, but I sighed, pushing myself out of bed. And the dream left, leaving a faint sense of loss, one that I ignored, in order to pursue my mundane life.

As I left my bed, I went over the checklist in my brain. It was routine; something I did everyday.

Yep, I was still Alexander Nicholas Prentiss, and yes, I still lived in Rome. Nothing had changed, no matter what I wished for.

Because I'd always wanted to be someone, not the ordinary, gangly teenager that I was. I wanted something special to happen to me, like the discovery of a magical superpower or something. But I was always, eternally remaining that normal, average kid. I sighed.

At the least, I wanted a sibling. But I had none, and so I was alone.

I walked to the breakfast nook, staring at the galettes and the juice on the table. My mother sat opposite, reading a newspaper as she sipped at a mug of coffee.

"Your father said that we should move to New York and live with him, my prince." She smiled at me, wrinkles in the corners of her eyes betraying her tiredness, weariness, and her loss of sleep. "Your father pays the bills, so I thought it would be for the best."

"Mama! Father wants to make a purchase or something, and he has to show off his perfect family. Trophy wife, check, normal son, check. I don't want to go; I've just started a new school year!" I said, counting things off on my fingers. "Plus, I don't want to lose all my friends, and-"

She cut me off. "Alexander, you know it's for the best, don't you? It's the only way we can live like this!" She gestured around us, to the mahogany cabinets on the walls, the stained glass kitchen window, the round, solid oak dining table, frescoed ceilings.

For the second time in this short day, I sighed. "Fine, mama. We don't have any other choice."

-

We packed up our bags, and used the tickets that my father, Jonathan Prentiss had sent my mother days before.

I helped my mother load suitcases into taxis, paid the taxi driver in the correct number of euros, and went through the gate to the plane.

And on the plane, I watched my mother's tired eyes.

She had been pretty, years ago, before she had married my father. She was like a rose, fresh and beautiful, enjoying the days of spring.

And like a rose, she had faded. Stem drooping, petals wilting. But she was still a rose, but one that had aged. She was still pretty, compared to others, but she'd never be restored to youth.

I just daydreamed on the plane, watching the golden coins on my mother's bracelet jingle, thinking of the morning, when everything had seemed so perfect and ordinary.

That dream I had…the white bear and the clouded, misty mountain. No, it hadn't been just one mountain, it had been more…hundreds of them speared upwards, their high stony peaks capped in white, frosty, pristine snow. But there was one that was taller than the others, a father among his children, one that stood high, higher above its frigid brethren.

And that bear…had I seen it before? I couldn't have, I had never seen a bear outside of a zoo. But I retained a strange sense of déjà vu, a feeling that I had never experienced like this before. It was quite disconcerting; I felt like I was redoing the motions of the me I'd reincarnated.

And for some strange reason, I could feel myself thinking, thoughts that just drifted in with no sense or control.

Hmm….my mother will bribe me, or make it up to me, or whatever, for the relocation….

This thought came to me, and I just pushed it away, thinking it was nonsense. But some part of me was skeptical. I sighed, flicking through the selection of movies provided by the stewardess. There wasn't much, so I just leant against my soft, puffy seat, tapping my fingers on the armrest.

And I jerked upright when my mother turned to me, a soft smile on her face.

"Alex, cheer up. You'll live in the lap of luxury. Why don't we go to Elmont? It's in New York, and you'd really love to see the races."

I gaped at her, my arms gripping the armrests, digging into the padded vinyl.

"Alex, my prince, are you all right?" she asked, concerned.

I nodded, swallowing. "I'm just a bit airsick, Mama, no need to worry."

She smiled at me again, her fears pushed away, and turned back to her magazine, her fingers twisting the golden bracelet on her wrist. She always did that when she was worried, her manicured nails making the gold circles jingle.

The plane hit the asphalt, the tires skidding on the painted asphalt. I jerked awake, my head full of the dizzying dreams of climbing that tall mountain, braving the glacial air, with a companion. I tried to remember his or her face, but it all came back to me as a blur, and as I tried to think about it, the more it escaped me. So I just gave up.

As I left the plane through a tube-like thing stuck to the side of the plane, I knew, just knew, that my father wasn't going to be there waiting for me.

At the airport, there was a man who held a card. And I was right, right again. On the card were my mother's and my name, and it elicited a wave of déjà vu. I had seen this before, somewhere. A movie? I wasn't so sure, maybe it was just a coincidence.

The man was a chauffer and drove a black Mercedes to a towering apartment building on the rich side of the city.

We got out, and entered the spacious lobby with cloud themed painting on the ceiling and burbling, merry fountains. The man showed us our apartment, way up at the top of the building. Its floor didn't have a number on the elevator buttons, but was marked as "P". Penthouse suite.

As soon as I got up to my room, I fell asleep, exhausted from jet lag. And when my thoughts surfaced back to reality, I half expected to find bags of clothes from the department stores nearby. I wasn't certain, but there was something nagging me to…

I got up, and looked around. One wall was a giant window, white carpeting on the floor, and in the corner, bingo, there were the shopping bags. I groaned. Was I a psychic or something?

I just threw on some clothes and skipped breakfast, just got a taxi and went to school. Like a normal kid. It was a public school, with some grafitti on the walls that a janitor had tried valiantly to remove, but failed. For some reason, I knew the location, and just went into the office to get a schedule.

I had no books, so I had to take some of the old ones that belonged to the school, and thanks to my father's influence, I wasn't questioned by office workers.

I didn't pay much attention to lessons; I just thought hard, distracted from "education" by the myriad of thoughts whirling around in my head. Was I developing some sort of super power, just like I'd always dreamed of? Or not…some strange quirk of the universe trying to trick me.

And with these thoughts, I went to lunch as the bell rang, just walking. I didn't know where the cafeteria was, but my feet, with no consent from my mind, brought me to the packed room.

I just plopped myself down at one of the seats, propping my head up on my hands, scribbling doodles on one of the notebooks that I had brought with me from class.

"Hey," someone called over my head, to a friend a few yards away, "it's a new kid!"

It was a girl's voice, and I turned to see a girl with white blonde hair and an affinity for bright colored clothes. She stood over me, and was chatting to a few friends buzzing around her like flies.

And my mouth said "Cassandra", but my head said "Who is that girl?"

My mouth was the only one people could hear.

The girl's head jerked away from her friends to my direction. "Sandy, actually. Who told you?" She scanned the row of friends, eyes narrowed.

"Umm..I must have heard in the hallway or something," I stammered, nervous and flustered. How did I know that?

"Hey, isn't he that kid that they found wandering around in Nepal?" one of the friends asked, stepping forwards. It was a boy with dark brown hair.

I nodded, still nervous. "Yes…I was."

"Cool! What were you doing?"

"I wasn't wandering around aimlessly…I was looking for-" I stopped, flushing red. I didn't know what I was looking for. I felt like I had amnesia or something, trying to dredge up the memories of a past life.

"Well, I was guessing you were doing marijuana. Or opium, I think they have that in Nepal." The boy said, smiling. All the hangers on giggled. He was the group clown, I guessed.

The girl with white blonde hair, Cassandra, laughed, her voice high and pure. There was no way that hair could be natural; it must have been bleached like that, I thought distantly. Hmm…

"Anways-"

"Alex" I filled in my name.

"-Alex, just stay with us, and we'll make your high school experience…special." She grinned at me, showing off her white, perfect teeth. "And try to avoid that lot over there." She nodded to the dark corner of the cafeteria, where kids in black and monochrome colors leaned against the walls and talked about…who knows what.

"Okay…" I replied hesitantly, "now what?"

"You enjoy your lunch." Cassandra, no, Sandy, brought a paper sack and tossed it onto the table. "It's way better than cafeteria food."

It was a sub sandwich, chips, and a can of coke, and it definitely looked better than the school spaghetti that looked like grey worms in red mud.

I had fun with my new friends, and tried to ignore that nagging sense of doubt that something was wrong. But what could be wrong?

The End.

Author's Note: Now, how did you like it? If you're smart enough, you can figure out what happened. It's time travel, for God's sake.

And if you're too stupid, I can make things easier for you.

One, they went back in time and changed the past.

Two, since they changed the past, it changed the future/present.

Three, there is a reason for this déjà vu feeling.

And also, I had this last chapter worked out for AGES, and it's finally time to put it on paper. Tell me what you think, you hate the ending right? But it's the only reasonable one.