SO… you guys probably want me dead now, huh? No worries. It's Christmas so you can go ahead and try to figure out where I live. XD (Cheskie, don't even try.)

Chapter 32

"Hold on for me, please…"

The voice echoed in his mind. He was back in the dark, but it was far worse than before.

He couldn't see anything, but he could feel and hear everything. The pain coursed through his entire body, no exceptions. He felt hands on him, trying to bandage his wounds and cuts. He felt like his head was stuck under a boulder, slowly being flattened to a pancake along with his chest.

There was also screaming, voices yelling back and forth to one another. He recognized these voices. They were calling his name, blaming themselves for his injuries, begging for him to wake up.

If only he could.

Another sudden burst of pain caused him to cry out once more. It was getting worse. Without doubt, Kronos's sword had been coated in poison, and it was getting into Percy's system. He was surprised he was still alive. People had always told him he could handle a lot. But this burst of pain was even more intense than the last ones.

He felt more blood run down his skin. He felt weak. He was hanging on by two fingers and he wanted oh so badly to let go.

The people surrounding him took off the remnants of his armor, tossing them to the side. They pressed the wounds, trying desperately to stop the blood. He almost couldn't take their screaming and bickering.

"We need to stop the blood!"

"No! Quit it! You're hurting him!"

"We need to seal up these wounds!"

"Just let him bleed it out!"

"He'll die of blood loss, you idiot!"

"Well what do we do then?!"

Percy wanted to scream at them to just shut up and let him die, but he was in too much pain to form any words.

"He's losing his pulse!"

"There's too much blood!"

"He can't breathe! Stop that!"

There was a sudden silence, everything ceased. The hands stopped working, there wasn't a single sound save for Percy's raspy breaths. He was almost relieved, if it weren't for the fact that he was dying.

"This should help him. It's medicine." The voice was familiar, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly who it was.

"Why should we trust you, witch? What are you to him?" someone to his right questioned.

Witch. Rachel. The voice came from Rachel. She made spells, potions. Percy vaguely remembered a time when she healed a wounded lamb's broken leg using some herbs she picked up from the woods. They weren't that close, but at this point, Percy was so sick of the pain he trusted her enough to heal him, or to end his misery. Whichever would do.

"T… t-trust… h-her…!" He said with extreme difficulty.

Everyone was shocked for a moment, and then they all sprang into action. They let Rachel pass and let her do her work.

He felt her lay her hand over his forehead. And as she drew it back, he opened his eyes just a crack to see a blurry silhouette of a red-headed girl wielding two pads of green in her hands. Percy couldn't be sure, but they seemed like leaves of some sort. She pressed them to his wound and gradually, he felt a cool sensation spread through him. The pain started to fade slowly, but not entirely. The burning ceased and he finally got air into his lungs.

He took a few deep breaths and mustered a small "thanks", but he doubted anyone had heard him. He felt so exhausted. He closed his eyes again and let himself fall into the supposedly comforting embrace of sleep….. had it not been for the nightmares.

"Thank you," The princess mustered a small smile to the red-headed girl. "For saving his life."

She shook her head, her apple green eyes sparkling. "I owe him." She said. "He saved my life. What I've done… well, this isn't enough. He's still in danger. I've stopped the bleeding for now and he can somewhat relax. But the poison is still there, I've just slowed it down."

"Poison?" Annabeth exclaimed, running a frustrated hand through her disheveled hair. "What do you mean poison?"

"The sword was coated with some sort of venom." Jason said grimly. "Luckily, it's the type of poison that eats away flesh. "

"What's lucky about that?!" Annabeth demanded, outraged.

"Well," he said, carefully avoiding the princess's equally venomous gaze. "It's long term exposure to air has thickened it, slowing down its progress at burning through Percy from the inside."

"How do you know all that?" Thalia asked, rather intrigued.

"Close examination of the sword." Clarisse answered nonchalantly. "Also Pollux has knowledge about these kinds of things. His father grows herbs."

Then the princess turned to Rachel. "How did you know about the poison?" she demanded, feeling rather irritable all of a sudden.

Rachel shrugged, wrapping her brown cloak around her shoulders. "I'm a witch, aren't I?" when everybody stared at her unconvinced, she sighed, relented. "Dreams." She said, as if that explained everything.

They continued to stare at her expectantly as Chiron the doctor started to bandage up Percy's wounds. He took the leaves from Rachel and tucked them into the cloth, pressing them into the wounds.

"Dreams, huh?" Chiron muttered as worked on Percy. Everyone turned to him, but his gaze never left where his hands were working. "I may be a man of medicine, but they say that dreams do bring rather… prophetic scenery." He said. "Though dreams don't show the entire event and may be misleading, I would advise you listen to what this girl has to say. You say she is a witch? Then she might have a rather stronger pull with dreams compared to most people. Compared to you and me."

Rachel nodded in thanks to the physician, pulling her hood downward so that it cast a shadow upon her face.

"I know a way to save him from the poison." She stated, her voice ringing loud and clear across the small tent they were in. The sounds of chaos from outside seemed to have died down as she spoke. "It's risky and requires sacrifice, but unless you all know another way, it is the only cure. I have consulted my mentor. And Nico Di Angelo, I have spoken with him as well. He-"

"Nico?" Annabeth snorted, clearly too stressed out to do anything but contrast to everything anyone says. "What does he concern to your 'cure'?"

"Everything." Rachel stated plainly, but her eyes seemed to analize the princess up and down. "He knows a good deal in balance and herbs as not many may know. I found him by the meadow once, digging for roots as I was. I know a good deal of healing, but this cure I have… I was afraid that it was incomplete and really did require…" she hesitated, and then she continued. "Let's just say that Nico's knowledge did confirm my fears, as well as my mentor's. And there is no choice but…" she hesitated once again and stared intently at the princess. Her gaze made Annabeth uncomfortable and her irritable and bratty attitude died down.

"Forgive me, Princess." Rachel said all of a sudden. "But might we be able to talk in private? You will have to leave Percy here for a minute…."

The two strode across the palace courtyard until they reached the pond.

It was high noon when they came out of the tent, dizzy, disoriented, and partly covered in blood. These and Argus didn't say a word when the two passed by the gate.

Rachel and Annabeth didn't say anything to each other as they walked through the courtyard. The grass rustled beneath their feet and the sun, high in the sky, scorched their backs.

"No doubt," Rachel muttered to herself, pulling her hood further down over her eyes. "Apollo would be so happy if he were here. Finally getting to finish his potion..."

"Apollo?" Annabeth questioned, curious as always.

"My mentor." Rachel replied nonchalantly. "Good in medicine and spells. Tends to predict the future with dreams. Always out at the pubs… flirting." She added rather grumpily.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "He's your…you know… partner?"

Rachel's cheeks turned as scarlet as her hair. "NO!" she shrieked. "That's- that's gross! He kind of adopted me a few years back when my parents abandoned me, and I treat him kind of like an uncle. Teaches you stuff, looks out for you, but doesn't take full responsibility. So dating? DISGUSTING! Ughh!" she gagged.

To both girls' surprise, Annabeth laughed. "I never knew you could be so… feminine." She let out a small chuckle. "That sounded like something Drew Tanaka would say."

Rachel snorted. "That handmaiden? I swear, she treats herself more important than her mistresses."

The two laughed as they reached the wide pond close to the palace hedges. The water was rather clean. There were koi fishes swimming in it, going in and out of the lily pads and from under the mossy stone bridge that went across the length of the pond.

They trodded up that bridge, stopping in the middle. Their laughter died down and the mood turned solemn.

"So," Rachel began. "The cure…"

Annabeth's stormy grey eyes lifted up, her hands resting on the railing of the bridge. "What about it?" she asked.

There was an unsettling silence that lasted for several seconds, until Rachel broke it by clearing her throat, as if preparing for a speech.

"The cure," she repeated. "It's a potion of some sort. I have it, more or less ready. But it needs a sacrifice to work completely." She looked back up at Annabeth who was staring intently. "Percy is dying. He's already half dead as far as I'm concerned. The poison, I've had a look at the golden blade of Kronos, the poison is not only eating away his body, but his life force as well. He's slowly sinking into the land of the dead. The only way to pull him out of there is to give him the potion that brings the dead back to life. And to do that, we need to sacrifice the life force of another."

Annabeth processed her words, and then everything clicked into place. "So," she said slowly. "For Percy to live… someone has to die?"

Rachel nodded grimly.