My chapters are getting shorter and shorter because I had originally written it in book format, not in chapter to chapter format, so I was obliged to write more. Oh well. Here's chapter eleven. R&R!

CHAPTER XI: APPARENTLY I'M NOT THE GARDENING TYPE

Persephone led us through her garden, occasionally checking in on a flower bud or something. Each time we stopped, I grew more and more impatient.

"Young hero," Persephone turned to me, amused. "I assure you, Annabeth will not die within the next five minutes."

"Sorry," I muttered as Nico shot me a funny look.

"Ah, here we are," Persephone sighed. I looked up, expecting to see some sort of magical plant which I could take and go back to Camp Half-Blood to heal Annabeth with, but no, I found myself facing a weird vine-like plant that bowed towards Persephone.

I couldn't contain myself any longer. "Persephone, can you just show me the dragonsweed?"

Persephone and Nico both laughed, making me feel even more embarrassed. "I'm afraid you are a thousand years too late," Persephone finally said, wiping at her eyes. "Dragonsweed is...not here anymore."

"What?!" I said so loudly that several plants shrank away. "Then what are we even doing here?!"

"Perseus," Persephone said, "You see, I am here to guide you, not give it to you."

"Wait," I suddenly realized. "So in the prophecy, if the Underworld isn't the land without stars...what is?"

Persephone smiled slightly. "I think, my young half-blood, you should look beyond my garden. There are other places in the Underworld than just this little area, you know."

"But where's the damn dragonsweed?!" I was really, really losing my top now.

"Dragonsweed," Persephone finally said, "Is a was now. I stopped creating it after I realized how dangerous it was."

"So how do I cure her now?" I said, probably sounding clueless.

"You'll have to collect many different things and fuse them together in a technique known as—"

"What do I have to collect?" I interrupted her.

Persephone squeezed her eyes shut as she thought. "A cupful of water from each the Acheron, the Cocytus, the Lethe, and the Styx, a pinch of ashes from the eternal flames of the Phlegethon, the roots of a just-bloomed moonlace, and the milky-white flower of moly. Plant the flower of moly and the roots of the moonlace in the ashes of the Phlegethon, and water them with the Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, and Styx. Wait three hours and it should fuse together to form dragonsweed. Oh—" here she faintly smiled. "As you are saving your love, you must give to her the dragonsweed in a token of your love for her in order for it to properly work. Sorry—Aphrodite requested for dramatic effects." She handed me a cup and a sack with some 'flower-planting' stuff in it.

"Gee, that's great. Oh well. Okay. Thanks. Bye." And I ran off.

* * *

As predicted, Nico followed me. "Let's go to the Acheron first," I said.

"Uh," Nico said. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?" I said in a tone of voice that indicated that if he didn't say something good, and fast, he would probably be joining his daddy soon.

"Charon won't let us, most likely," Nico matter-of-factly stated. "I mean, unless we look dead. Being dead would really help. And having some drachmas would too."

"I have the drachmas," I said, "But I'm kinda lacking in the dead department."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, let's just see what happens."

We shadow-traveled to the Acheron and I took the cup Persephone had given me, took a deep breath, and knelt down to scoop up the water.

The water was gray and I could almost hear spirits murmuring and singing beneath it. Instantly, I felt like a million years old. The saddest things that had ever occurred to me flashed through my mind—people I knew dying, the battles I had faced, holding up the sky, Annabeth dying...

At the mention of Annabeth dying, I snapped back to reality and heard Nico yelling, "Percy! Percy!"

I looked up and saw Charon in front of us, his dead eyes gesturing to my pocket where I had a couple drachmas. "Oh. Uh, sure," I said, and pulled them out. I handed it to him. His hands were so freakin' cold. And I've camped out with Nico and dead people before.

Apparently satisfied, he began rowing across the river again, and I quickly dipped the cup into the Acheron. The water fizzed like a soda and I dumped the contents into the sack.

"Okay," I said briskly, brushing my hands off like I had just done some sort of Herculean labor. "Let's get to Cocytus."

"Sure," Nico said and before you could say, 'Hades hates Hercules' we were at the banks of the Cocytus.

"Good," I said, pulling out the cup. "Let's get this over with, Nico—Nico?"

Nico was frozen, his mouth agape, his pale fingers pointing somewhere in front of him. Frowning, I followed his gaze, and...

"Bianca?!"

Ooh, cliffy! I swear, I'm getting eviler and eviler!