Chapter Thirteen: Eternity

Annabeth POV

Over the next few days, Percy and I continued to write to each other. It was the only way to cure our boredom.

So, what's up? (Percy.)

Nothing much. -Annabeth.

Yeah? Nothing's really happening here either. (Percy.)

Okay then. Love you, bye. -Annabeth.

Yup. Bye. (Percy.)

I sighed, closing my diary. There was never anything really interesting to write about. Kana popped out of the book.

"Bored again?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Then let me tell you a story," she said. "Once upon a time, there was a girl with blond hair. Her name was Annabeth. She got separated from her boyfriend—and now a bunch of possessed demigods are sneaking up on her and she doesn't notice them—!"

It took me a moment to register what she was saying. Then I looked behind me. Clarisse was right there.

"Oh my gods!" I said, grabbing all my stuff and beginning to run. Kana trailed right next to me. "Need a ride?" she asked.

"Sure!" I said, and she plucked a flower petal from the flower in her hair. Another petal immediately grew in its place. She took the petal she had plucked and threw it. It grew in size until it could've been a boat.

"Get on it," she told me. I got on. The petal rose off the ground, like a magic carpet.

"Now you might want to hold on—" She was a little too late. The flower petal shot forward at lightning speed.

.

.

.

When you were a child, did you ever wish to ride a magic carpet?

I would advise you to reconsider that wish. Flying through the air at over 300 mph is not fun. Don't believe what anyone else tells you.

My hair felt like it was about to rip off my head. My arms were pinned behind my back, and I couldn't fight the pressure and pull them back. Worse of all, spit was flying everywhere.

Once again, I thought of the possessed demigods. Where was Nico? I was really beginning to wonder about that. Didn't he always stay at Camp Half-Blood? In that case, why wasn't he possessed when everyone else at Camp Half-Blood was?

Percy POV

I was all alone once again. Annabeth and I didn't really have anything interesting to write about, so we'd just given up. Kana had also gone over to see Annabeth. I was just a bored guy with no companions.

I sighed and flopped backwards, accidentally upsetting a small stack of words. They scattered all over the place. Then, after a short pause, they got up by themselves and stacked themselves back onto each other.

Okay then.

I decided to take a walk. I got up and began to walk along the towers of words, stopping to read each one.

I didn't really know how long I'd been walking. Hours, maybe? I walked up to a tall tower and read it:

We've got yet another addition to Camp Half-Blood, and this time it's—gasp, a son of Hades! Really now!

You know about how the Big Three made that pact, right? Not to have any children?

You see, at the very beginning, we thought they'd actually be able to keep it. A child of one of the Big Three was a Big Deal. They could shake up the world. We thought the gods might be able to keep this pact.

Then, of course, there was Thalia. Who was followed by Percy.

Jeez.

All this time, we'd thought that Hades was the one who miraculously kept the pact. Turns out we were quite wrong. Now we know for a fact that he actually sired two children—a girl and a boy. The girl died, unfortunately, but the boy is still here.

His name is Nico.

I stared at the entry for a little bit. Nico. Nico. Nico. The word echoed in my head. I thought about when we were being chased by the possessed demigods. I didn't see Nico there. Where the heck was he? Where was Nico?

Then I thought about something. When I took the word "pen", a pen had appeared…

NO, Percy. Don't you DARE, I said to myself.

Of course I didn't listen. Maybe it was pure curiosity or something that made me do it. Or maybe it was destiny.

I reached out and grabbed the word "Nico".

Nothing happened at first, but then there was a flash of blinding light, and I saw Nico di Angelo, crumpled in a heap before me.

Nico POV

GGAAAAAUUUGH. What the Hades just happened.

I was just fighting a monster and I was just about to win! Seriously! Just about to feel the triumphant glory of killing a monster!

Then, before I knew it, I was lying on my stomach in a world filled with words.

I groaned and stood up. "Where the heck…" I began, but then I saw Percy standing next to me.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. Are you the one who summoned me here?" I asked.

"Y-yes. Sorry 'bout that," he said, looking kind of guilty.

"I was just about to defeat a monster, and you just ruined it," I said, jumping at him, determined to land some sort of blow on him. He simply picked me up, bridal style, and began to run.

I continued to kick and punch, trying to get him to stop ("I didn't sign up for this, Percy! Let me go! Let me go!").

After a while of running, my attacks slowly died down and eventually I was just scowling at him with my arms crossed.

At last, he put me down, and took out a pen from his pocket. He knelt down and began to write on a bit of blank white space below a tower of words.

Hey, Kana. I've got a bit of a problem here. Come immediately unless Annabeth needs help.

I was quite shocked to see letters forming on their own underneath what he had just written.

It doesn't seem like Annabeth's in any immediate danger. I'll be over soon. Just wait a sec.

-Kana.

Percy then turned to me. "Don't worry, Nico. You'll be back where you were soon."

"No need," I muttered. "That monster probably already escaped anyway."

Percy opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a voice behind him.

"So, you needed me, Jackson?"

We turned around. I saw a girl who looked like Annabeth, but with red eyes and an updo hairstyle.

"Who the Hades are you?" I demanded.

She looked me up and down. "That's some cheeky business you're talking, di Angelo," she said. "Name's Hikana Solette, but call me Kana or you die."

"How do you know my name?"

"Pssh. Annabeth's mentioned you a couple times in her diary," she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So you're always snooping around in Annabeth's diary?..."

She huffed. "Hey! It's not like I can help it! As the spirit of her diary, anything she writes appears right before my eyes!"

I blinked. "Okay, wait a second. What the heck are you, anyways?"

"I'm the spirit of her diary, you know?" she said, producing a container of Tic-Tacs from midair and popping one into her mouth.

"Oh," I said. "That explains the resemblance. You look a lot like her."

"Yeeeaaaaaaaaaaah," she said. "Whatever." She turned to Percy. "So why'd you call me here?"

"I accidentally summoned Nico, and I need to find a way to get him back to where he was before."

Kana froze. Her eyes darted around the place.

"Eh heh…" She fiddled with her hair, then stopped and turned back to him, her eyes sharp and serious.

"There's no possible way you can do that."

"WHAT!?" I yelled. "There's got to be some way!"

"There are none that I know of," she simply replied, walking over to me. "I'm sorry, but you're most likely going to be stuck here for eternity…"