Hello again. This is the second installment of RE: Curse of Echidna. It is not five chapters plus an interlude as the first installment was, but rather only a single chapter. This has to do with the fact that it is finals time, so I've been busy with studying and papers and etc. and as such do not feel sufficiently far enough ahead to post more than just the one chapter. I apologize. Next weekend should be a bit better. Hopefully.

Next, when I wrote the original Curse of Echidna, I had reviewers submit entries for characters to be put in the story. I am reusing those same characters in order to give those original creators' the opportunity to see their character's chapter get a facelift. This is the first chapter with a reviewer submitted character. The creator of the character appearing in this chapter is called SailorSea. Thank you SailorSea for your character.

Finally, I use the phrase deus ex machina a couple of times. For those of you who don't know what it means, it means "god made it happen" and it is a literary plot device used in order to get characters out of a situation that seems impossible to get out of. This is often used by lazy authors in order to creat a quick fix, or else when editors are unhappy with the way things turned out, so the author just quickly fixes the issue. I actually use the plot device, but it is quite intentional, and done almost as a joke.

Chapter 6: Charlotte

Needless to say, that had been one of the worst weekends of my life. I had failed to save a demigod's life, Hyperion was once again at large, Helen had very nearly discovered my weak point, and Kronos was still alive, out there somewhere. But Monday, unfortunately, wasn't exactly rest for the weary.

That morning, after the Thalia and I managed to work through the shower situation and eat breakfast, we went downstairs and out onto the street, where my new car was parked on the curb. It wasn't anything particularly special, but it ran and didn't look terrible. Paul had also been kind enough to procure me a school parking pass, so that wouldn't be a problem.

I hoped in on the driver's side, and Thalia sat next to me. I started up the car, and we were off. Traffic was, surprisingly, not bad, so we arrived at school with plenty of time. After stopping by our lockers, and just generally milling around a bit, we went to home room, being some of the first people there. Maybe this car thing wasn't too bad, after all. We took our usual seats in the back. We were both much quieter than usual. I was still depressed about James's death, and vexed about my dream about Kronos, which I hadn't told anyone, not even Annabeth. For some reason, I wanted to think this one over myself.

Thalia, too, was quiet and reserved. I think she was just tired. It was only the second week of school, and we were both frayed and worn out.

After a while, others began to file in. Thalia absentmindedly pulled out a piece of paper, and just started reading it. I had a feeling that it was the list of demigods, but didn't say anything. Neither of us were really interested in this day at all. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like our morning announcer felt the same. Helen's voice had her usual over-peppy-ness, but I also detected a hint of savage satisfaction in her voice.

Her announcements were mostly the normal stuff, until we heard, "And finally, will Charlotte Dempsy please report to the main office after school." Thalia gasped. "Have a nice day," Helen finished.

"Shit," Thalia said. "Charlotte Dempsy is on the list."

I banged my head against the desk. "Can't there be one day that we don't have to save someone?"

"C'mon, Percy," Thalia said, "you know that's not how things work. Not where you and I are concerned."

"Ugh," I said. "I had a swim meet today, too."

"Yeah… I was thinking… you know, with both of us having all this demigod stuff going on, I think you and I should both quit from our respective teams. It's too much to deal with."

I thought a moment. "Yeah, I guess. You know, just when I thought I had a chance at being a normal kid for just one school year, you walked in the door."

Thalia made a face. "Please, you'd be bored with normal. I know you, you'd get stir crazy."

I sighed. "I just can't believe I let him down. That kid died because I wasn't good enough."

Thalia opened her mouth, no doubt to make some comforting comment, but just then, the bell rang, and I got up and left quickly. I didn't want to talk about it. Too many people had died because of me. Bianca, Beckendorf, Ethan, Silena, Luke… now I could add another name to the long list of people I had been unable to save. I wasn't going to let it happen again. I was going to save Charlotte, and every other demigod at Goode.

Later that day, I went to my coach and explained that a family emergency had come up, and that I wouldn't be able to stay on the team. He begged me to at least stay through this meet, but I shook my head and apologized again, telling him that next year I would try to come back.

Also, I realized during lunch that Thalia and I had never actually made a plan to go save Charlotte, so I set out to look for her. Thankfully, due to the Bonnie and Clyde situation, I knew what class she had next. I hurried to her class before lunch actually ended, and waited. It would be so much easier for us if we both had the same lunch period.

The bell rang, and a few minutes later, Thalia came along. "Percy? What's up?"

"We don't have a plan," I said. "For saving Charlotte. Where do you want to meet? What do you want to do?"

She scratched her chin. "Well, meet me by my locker five minutes before school ends, then we'll go down and stake out the office."

I nodded. "Alright, sounds fine." I went to leave, but Thalia grabbed my arm.

"Hey, look. It's okay. No one is perfect, Percy. And… you've seen others die before. Why is this one affecting you so badly?"

I frowned as the bell rang. "I guess… we just go through so much death and destruction. It's not fair that things are instantly starting to escalate again. Death shouldn't be happening so soon after so much of death. And… Death's own son… how could he let that happen to him?"

"I don't have the answers Percy. Look, I've gotta get in there. You'll be okay." Then she surprised both of us by hugging me. It was the hug of one who considered themselves a sibling. When she pulled back, the look on her face was as confused as I was. "Percy… I think… I think I consider you my brother." She tilted her head slightly. "It certainly feels the same as…"

"Thalia," snapped a voice from the classroom, Mrs. Rolle, "were you planning on actually joining us?"

"Sorry," Thalia said. She gave me one last look, almost like she wasn't seeing me, but someone else.

I tilted my head, confused. Hugging me felt the same as… what?

I made it through the rest of the day, but my mood didn't improve. Classes were far too long, and only increased the amount of time that something could go wrong that would mean another death on my conscious. And I was tired, so very tired.

As I sat through my history class, my ADHD mind reminded me of the conversation I'd had on the phone with Annabeth last week, when I'd first told her about the situation at school. She'd been about to say something at the end, but she'd cut herself off. What had that been? I puzzled that through the rest of class. I had meant to ask her about it the next time we spoke, but I'd forgotten about it until now. I would have to call her once this whole Charlotte business was over with.

Speaking of over with, the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. The next period I had study hall, and it was the last class of the day. The proctor for this study hall was really strict, and wouldn't let anyone leave, which left me with a problem. Thalia had told me to meet her by her locker five minutes before school ended, and I had no intention of missing that. I was determined to save Charlotte.

I had two options: skip study hall and risk getting in trouble, or use one of my most shaky demigod abilities. All demigods had the ability to influence the Mist, and make people think what whichever demigod wanted them to. It was sort of the demigod equivalent of a Jedi mind trick. Thalia was particularly adept at it. I, on the other hand, was extremely poor. I'd started trying to learn how to do it as soon as I'd seen Thalia do it for the first time. Come December, it would be about two years since me trying to learn that demigod power. I was still struggling. I couldn't exactly practice a whole lot, but the few times I tried, I succeeded only about a quarter of the time.

So it obviously seemed like skipping was a better choice. Unfortunately, just as I'd decided that, the athletic director showed up, and had a long talk with me about the swim team, and why'd I'd quit. The late bell rang, and he insisted on walking me to class so that I wouldn't get in trouble for being late. I didn't, but then there was a major issue. Now the only way to get out of class early was if I managed to successfully influence the Mist.

I sat in the back, focusing hard, and watching the clock. Sometimes, influencing the Mist was easier with an object, so I pulled out a blank sheet of paper. If I had been any good at forging, I would have just forged a note excusing me earlier, but I was so lousy, that would have been more doomed to failure than trying to influence the mist.

So, as the five minute mark approached, I went to the front with my "psychic paper" in the hopes that I could make her think it was a note excusing me early.

"Hi," I said, handing her the paper. As soon as she took it, I snapped my fingers, tried to work in that special quality of voice that influenced the Mist, and said, "As you can see, this note excuses me early from class."

She looked unimpressed, "Jackson, this is a blank sheet of paper."

Shit. I cleared my throat, snapped my fingers, and tried again, "Are you sure, ma'am?"

Her eyes glazed over. "Yes, of course. You may go." She handed me back the blank sheet of paper.

I was dumbfounded. It had worked. "Thank you," I said quickly, then bolted from the room before my little trick had worn off. In the hall, I did a double fist pump in the air. I couldn't believe I'd actually been successful, but it wasn't the time to celebrate. I got serious again and darted in the direction of Thalia's locker.

"There you are," she said. "Good. Alright, let's get over to the main office."

After walking downstairs, and towards the office, the bell rang, signaling that school was over. Thalia and I ducked into the empty closet across from the office and sat silent, waiting, Thalia holding the door open just a tad, allowing her to peak out. After the huge mass of students had passed by, Thalia whispered back to me, "I think that's her. There's a girl going into the office."

I nodded then whispered back, "So what's the plan?"

Thalia turned back to me. "Plans? Since when have you and I ever had a successful plan? Let's go."

She burst out of the door, and I followed. We came into the office, where Helen was standing. "Ah, Jackson, Grace. I wondered when you two would be arriving. How are you doing, Jackson? I know that the death of James must have weighed heavily on you."

I lost it, and ran at her. Thalia grabbed me and struggled to hold me back. "Not here, Percy. Not now. You've got to control yourself. If you assault her here, then you'll be in real trouble."

Helen smirked. "Quite right, too. There are, of course, cameras in here. And, as you know, there are other people who work in this office that would hear you if you tried to beat me up. Now, Jackson, to business. You see, I want something, and you want to save someone. So I'll give you an ultimatum. I will give you Charlotte, hand her over to you, and you can take her to that silly little camp of yours. But you have to give me something in exchange. I want to know where your Achilles Heel is. And don't tell me it's your heal, I know it's somewhere on your back, I just need to know where specifically."

"And if I don't?" I asked.

"Well, then, you'll have to watch Charlotte die. You see, I've introduced her to a very dear friend of mine, someone with whom I believe you are acquainted. She's my Aunt, she's everyone's Aunt. I must say, she makes amazing fast food. And don't even get me started one her artwork."

My mind raced. Who was Helen talking about? Who could it be? Fast food, artwork, Aunt… Aunt… Auntie… Aunty Em… Medusa! "No!" I exclaimed. "You wouldn't!"

"But I would," Helen said. "You don't know it, but Aunty Em has been teaching her since the year began. In fact, she's Charlotte's pottery teacher, with whom Charlotte gets along very well with. Charlotte came in to have a meeting with her. With a mere snap of my fingers, I can make a message appear to Aunty Em to take that silly headdress of hers off. You and I both know what will happen then."

I opened my mouth in dismay. Thalia spoke up. "Aunty Em?"

"Medusa," I told her grimly.

Thalia looked shocked. "Oh my gods… Helen, you wouldn't."

"You seem to be forgetting," Helen said, "that I have no reason not to. Nor have I given you any indication the past, oh, almost a week the year has been going, that I would hesitate. I practically killed James to get my way. Why should Charlotte be any different?"

Thalia and I looked at each other. We didn't seem to have much of an option. Especially if Helen could tell Medusa to turn Charlotte to stone with a mere snap of her fingers. We didn't have any options at all. And then, suddenly, there was a deus ex machina moment (wow, having an English teacher as a step-father had actually caused me to learn something), as Nico shadow-travelled into the room right behind Helen.

"You," he said with spite. "I found you."

"Shit," Helen said as she whipped around.

I took her distraction as an opportunity. I motioned at Thalia to help Nico, then I ran off as quietly as I could, looking in all the doors to the various rooms of the office. I finally found the right one, or at least, the only one with a middle eastern woman in it. As I was about to burst in, I heard Helen say, "Jackson!" followed by a snapping sound.

On cue the woman started to take off her headdress. I had no time to think. I burst into the room, jumped up on the table between Medusa and the girl, and saw, clearly and with horror, Medusa's face. Snakes writhed and hissed on top of her head, her skin was a sickly color, and she looked really mad. I thought that would be the last thing I ever saw. I thought I would be turned to stone. I was not, as much to her surprise as mine. Luckily, I recovered more quickly. I ripped out Riptide and stabbed her in the middle of the chest. Suddenly she was a pile of dust.

I turned to the girl behind me. She had hazel colored eyes and long brown hair. She was dressed rather formally for school, wearing a plain white blouse and a long skirt. She looked really shocked. "Hi," I said. "The name's Percy Jackson. Sorry I just killed your art teacher, but she was Medusa. Any questions?"

She blinked, still shocked and unprepared at all for what had just happened. It was at that moment that Thalia burst into the room. "So, Percy, we should go. Teachers came into the room and grabbed Nico. He shadow-travelled away before they could call the cops or anything, but I'm afraid that if we don't leave quickly they'll blame us for beating up Helen."

I nodded and turned to the window, opening it. "Let's get out of here. Now. Grab Charlotte."

Charlotte just made incoherent noises. "There, there," said Thalia as she pulled Charlotte up and walked her to the window which I had already climbed out. It took a bit to get the shocked Charlotte out of the window, but we managed it. Just in time, too.

We hid under the window as faculty burst into the room we had just been in and said, "No one here. Let's keep going."

Thalia and I looked at each other, grabbed Charlotte, and raced to my car. Thalia got in the back with Charlotte, whilst I peeled out of the parking lot. Wow, I thought, my mind racing. What a moment of deus ex machina. Like… I didn't think it actually happened in real life. For that matter, I didn't think that I would remember what deus ex machina would mean.

"Lucky thing about Nico showing up," I said.

Thalia answered back, "Not really luck, no. I told him where he might be able to find Helen after you guys got back from the… after you guys got back on Saturday. It's lucky that he showed up when he did, but not that he knew where to find Helen."

"I see," I said. "Hey, Thalia, I have a question. Has Medusa ever failed to turn someone to stone who looked right in her face before?"

"No," Thalia said. "She's never failed when someone has actually seen her face. Why?"

"Well," I said, "I may have just defied reality. I looked her right in the face, I got the full blast of her power, but I'm not stone."

"That's… not possible," Thalia said. "Unless… well… I mean, Achilles and Medusa never encountered one another, and you are one of only three people, including Achilles, who has bourn that curse. It's entirely possible that the curse of Achilles makes you impossible to turn to stone. That's a surprising benefit."

"Yeah," I said, "but it's called a curse for a reason." I broke off in a yawn. "I lose energy twice as fast as you, and yet we've been going non-stop for almost a week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it too much farther on the energy I have left."

I heard Thalia start to respond, when Charlotte decided she had found her voice. "What is going on?!"

I glanced in the rearview mirror. "Trust me, you wouldn't believe us if we told you."

"I believe that you two are criminals! You killed my teacher, beat up Helen, and kidnapped me! What about my family? What about my friends? What kind of ransom are you going to charge them? And why is this car messy?"

"Easy, now," Thalia said.

"Yeah," I said. "Think for a minute, Charlotte. This is a new to me car. I haven't had the time to make a mess in it. What could possibly be bothering you about it?

"Really Percy?" Thalia said.

"It's the carpets," Charlotte supplied. "They haven't been vacuumed."

"Who vacuums the car carpets?" I asked, incredulously.

"Percy, stop," Thalia said. "Charlotte, think about this for a minute. Did you see your teacher's body when we left the room?"

"No," she said.

"Right," Thalia said. "If she had been human then you would have seen the body, but she wasn't human, and, therefore, her body dissolved into dust."

"Plus," I added, "didn't it seem odd that she was just randomly taking off her headdress? I told you, she was Medusa. She would have turned you to stone."

"But Medusa is a myth!" Charlotte protested.

Thalia sighed. "That's what we all think at first, but no, she's not. Those monsters you learned about that the Greeks believed in? They weren't myths, they were true."

"So what, are you going to tell me that the Greek gods are real?" she asked. "There's only one God."

I was silent. So was Thalia. The whole God with a capital "g" had always been… a contested thing for demigods, to say the very least. Chiron had been very unclear about whether there was a higher being than the gods and titans. But really, for us, it didn't matter. We knew where we'd go after death. Both Thalia and I had been to the underworld. After a pause, I said, "Look, Charlotte, you're going to have to forget all your preconceived notions of what you believe to be truth and what you believe to be myth. That's all I'll say."

We sat in silence as we drove through Manhattan and reached my apartment. "Okay," I said, turning to Thalia, "I'm going to run in and tell mom where we're going." She nodded.

I hurried inside and talked to mom, then I was back out in the car. When I got in, I noticed something odd. Charlotte was smiling. I gave Thalia a questioning glance. "Charlotte has a picture of her mother she always carries around. I told her we knew her mother. She didn't believe me until I described her mother as she appeared in the picture with perfect accuracy, then I told her that she might have a chance to meet her mother."

"Is that true?" Charlotte asked me, the incredulity in her voice gone, replaced with wonder and hope.

"Yes," I said. And with that we were off again.