'Damn that stupid general!' I thought. 'Making us wake up at dawn! Yeah! How 'bout I 'Dawn' my foot right up your ass!'

"Why are you talking to yourself?" said a familiar voice.

"I was talking to myself?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said as she sat down next to me. She was pale, and her eyes were puffy, as if she had been crying the whole night.

"Nico, I have to tell you something…"

"What is it?" I asked, intrigued. What could possibly make her this this… emotional?

'Percy?' I thought. My eyes widened as I thought his name.

"Remember when your dad made you deathless, and he also gave you a lot more power?" she asked.

"Yeah," I stretched out the word in curiosity.

"Remember how you looked for Percy's soul in the underworld, but couldn't find it, so you were sure that he wasn't dead?"

'What is she getting at?' I thought. "Yeah," I dragged the word out again.

Annabeth's face suddenly scrunched up in an expression of anger and pain. "Well, our little friend 'Sir David,'" she inserted quotes with her finger, "had to kill Percy for his first assassin assignment." I wanted to say, "Wow! He was an assassin?" but I didn't think it would help the situation.

"Wait, wait," I cut in, "I told you that Percy's soul wasn't in the under-"

"THAT'S BECAUSE DAVID STOLE IT" she whisper-screamed.

"What?" I asked, puzzled. The only person that could steal souls was my dad.

"HE RIPPED IT OUT OF PERCY'S BODY, AND STOLE IT!"

"Annabeth, first of all-"

"He said he'd show us all how he rips people's souls out today."

I didn't say anything because, in truth, I wanted to see how David could to something only my dad could do.

A blow horn blew across the lawn. Annabeth and I simultaneously groaned.

"Time for training! Yay!" I said with mock childish joy.

!#$%^&*()

We followed the general to the beach, Annabeth eyeing him with a look of pure hatred, and me eyeing him with one of pure curiosity.

"Hey?" Noah's annoying voice bounced off the waves.

David didn't move. He just stood with his back to us, his eyes closed, smelling the fresh scent of the ocean.

"Ah, excuse me "General" I was talking to you." It all happened so fast. I didn't even see David, but all of a sudden he was on top of Noah with a dagger at his neck.

The general stuffed his hand into Noah's mouth. When he took his hand out, he was holding onto Noah's tongue. In one foul sweep, David cut half of Noah's tongue off, and got up.

Blood spurted out of Noah's mouth. His scream nearly pierced my eardrums.

I was shocked.

"Ah, shut up." The general said waving his hand. Noah's mouth was instantly bloddless, and his tongue was healed, well at least what was left of it.

The general held up Noah's tongue.

"I'll give this back to you when you've learned some respect."

Noah got up with a murderous look on his face, but he didn't say anything.

David took out two things from our chest that looked like scythes with chains that dangled from the bottoms. The scythes were glowing red, and each one of the blades was split down the middle. (Basically, they're The Claws of Hades from God of War III. So just imagine those, except red not purple. If you haven't played God of War III (Awesome game, by the way) and you want a better idea of what "David's" weapons look like, because these will be his permanent weapons, go online and look up, "God of War III- The Claws of Hades" on or , then click on "Images" and you'll see a detailed pic. of one of the Claws. If you don't find the pic, go on Wikipedia and it'll have a pic.) The chains wrapped around David's arm so the scythes just dangled there. The general took the scythes in his hands and held them up for us to see. Annabeth and I were still in shock after what he did to Noah, so it took me a second to ask, "What are those?"

"The Claws of Chaos." He replied, eyeing them with great pride and respect.

"What's with the chains?" I asked, intrigued.

David just smiled. He pulled his hand in the air and threw his left hand Claw. It wizzed past me, the chain following, and impaled into a tree about twenty feetaway. The general jerked his hand back, and the tree de-rooted and flew toward us. Annabeth and I jumped out of the way, but Noah was still groggy from the tongue cutting and got hit with it. He flew backwards and fell on the sand, unconscious.

I moved toward the unconscious boy, only to have the general snap his fingers and heal Noah completely.

"How are you doing that?" I asked bewildered.

"I'll explain." The general said, obviously exited.

We all looked at him.

"These weapons," he started, "are the most powerful weapons in the universe, and once belonged to their namesake, Chaos, the Void, Creator and Master of everything."

"Wait just a minute," Annabeth cut in, looking very annoyed. "The most powerful weapon in the universe is Zeus's Master Bolt." The sky thundered.

Now it was David's face's turn to be annoyed. "No," he said, "You humans and your self-conceited gods only think that Zeus's little firecracker is the most powerful weapon." The sky thundered again.

Annabeth and I looked at each other, a look of doubt on both our faces.

"And you want to know something cool? These weapons can rip the soul out of anybody." David said, excitement lining his voice.

Annabeth gasped. My lower-jaw hit the ground. And all Noah could do was try to say, "My ass," but instead spat all over everything.

"Once I get their soul out of the body, I can add it to mine and make myself stronger."

"Can you rip immortal's souls out?" Annabeth asked. I guess she was right about Percy and this guy.

He sighed. "Yes, but it's much much harder to do. You see, every set of gods for each planet, yes each planet has a different set of gods, was given some of Chaos's flame. The flame is part of Chaos's very being, so it is deadly to both god and mortal. But one can forge a great weapon out of the flame. Now, each weapon will be different, according to the flame's planet, it might be a spear, a cutlass, a broadsword, a scimitar, or even a bow and arrow. With this weapon, one will be able to kill an immortal. But when an immortal dies, its soul is let lose from its body, and that immortal becomes ten times stronger then her or she was. That's were my blades come in. With them, I hock onto their souls and steal them."

"Now, usually, I do this to mortals just buy hocking onto their bodies. When I pull enough, their soul eventually comes out, and joins mine. Even if a mortal has Achilles' Curse, I can take their soul. Immortals are not mortals. Their soul is too hard to take out of their bodies by simply hocking on to it through their skin."

"You have to kill them, get them to release their soul. Only then, can you take their soul."

I was utterly board, but Annabeth had a cascade of questions. "Have you ever taken an immortals soul? How many souls have you taken? Wait, you said that the flame was deadly to both gods and humans, how do you forge something out of it?"

David smiled. "No, I have never taken an immortals soul. If I had, and if it would've been a god, I would've had to stay on that planet and be the god that I killed, for, I would inherit said god's power's."
"I have taken exactly three-hundred ninety-eight souls."

"And as for your last question, each planet has also been given some of Chao's skin, yes I know gruesome, for it was the only thing hat could harness the raw and great power of Chaos. In order to form the immortal killing weapon, one must find the skin, and press it to his or her bare skin. Chaos's skin will attach to yours and you will be able to touch and work with the fire."

"Do you know were Earth's fire and skin are?" Annabeth asked, still curious.

I had to admit, I was pretty interested. I mean, this guy could take an immortal's power! That's totally badass!

"I know were ever planet's fire and skin is. This planet's fire is on Olympus and is called, "The Flame of Olympus." Earth's skin is in a box that is currently in a temple which is located on the back of the Crooked One, Kronos, Lord of Time. He wonders in the pits of Tartarus, with the temple on his back."

"The Temple of Pandora…" Annabeth muttered, rubbing her chin and looking at the grass.

"How do you know all of this?" she asked David.

The general's expression went blank. "That's not a question you should be asking, soldier."

!#$%^&*()

Annabeth and I were walking down to the pavilion to have dinner. When we saw it, we were totally surprised to see Poseidon, god of the sea, in there, screaming at someone.

"…HE CAN'T EVEN TALK PROPERLLY!" he shouted. With a start, I realized that the general was the one being shouted at, and he was totally cool about it.

"Like I said before," David said, "he was being disrespectful, so I removed the tool he was using to be disrespectful with, his tongue. I already told you I'll put it back… one day." In some distant part of my mind, I remember David going on about how is Claws gave him magic. I also remember believing the story about the Claws being more powerful than the Master Bolt. He had sunk the blades deep into my shoulders when I said that he was talking crap (not the best idea, by the way.) and started pulling. I was totally freaked when a blue, see-through replica of my body started coming out of… my body.

When I saw the replica, I instantly knew that it was my soul. He had taken the blades out of my soul, and said that next time, I wouldn't be so lucky.

I noticed Dionysus cracking up in the corner. Poseidon's face turned red with anger and he flashed out of the room.

The general sat down and started eating, then looked up and yelled, "What are you pussys looking at?" everyone immediately went to sit down.

Later that night, something happened. We were talking, and suddenly…

ROOF!

It took everyone a second to realize that our favorite Hellhound was at camp.

ROOF!

"WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT?" everyone looked at the general. He was standing and he had gone very pale, stroking the most noticeable scar on his face. The one that crossed over his eye from his temple. His eyes were widened in an expression I had never seen on his face…Fear.

"Is that a-a… dog?" he asked.

All of a sudden, Ms. O'Leary jumped out of the bushes, and started attacking David with her tongue. The general let out a high-pitch scream (Which surprised everyone) got out from under Ms. O'Leary, and ran like the wind to the big house, were he and his commanders were staying.

Charlotte sighed and stood up. "I'm sorry everyone." She said. "But our general got his most vivid and painful scar," she ran three fingers from her right temple to her nose, indicating David's scar, "from a giant hound on the distant planet of Nemocron Xius 8 when we were waging war there."

"He has developed an unconditional fear of all dogs." She sat down.

'So,' I thought, 'the great and mighty general, who could rip the soul out of an immortal god, could be scarred to death by a tiny Toy Poodle?'

'Interesting…'