-Addie-

The doors were now shut, and it took all I could to keep them that way. I reached for the magic inside me, the last big spell I was going to cast if I could not stay alive.

"Thánatos gia ti zoí," I whispered. Death for Life, how fitting, I thought to myself. Maybe it was not even the words that shut the door. Maybe it meant that my death, my sacrifice, was for Percy and Annabeth's lives. Either way, it worked.

I felt the energy of the magic before it flung me back. Rocks started to fall down, and I caught them in the air before they could crush me. The doors collapsed in on themselves, swirling into a black hole. A loud roar filled the cavern, and then it was silent. The doors were gone, hopefully back in Thantos's control.

Well, it was silent except for Hyperion shouting through the rock wall. I could see his face now, fury evident in his features. He was yelling curses at me in Greek and something else, an older language that I did not recognize.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled at him. I picked up a larger rock on the ground and flung it into the hole. It stuck into the wall, but it was starting to collapse. I had a minute or two before they got through, so I took the chance to rest.

My body was beginning to drag again. The little strength that I had received from the potion was starting to wane. I looked at the bottle of nectar tucked into my waist, and I debated on going ahead and drinking it. I decided against it; I was not that desperate yet.

Reality was starting to set in, the fear and apprehension that I had hidden around Percy and Annabeth creeping back into me. It was easy to be brave when you had someone to be brave for. It was a lot harder when you were alone and no one was watching. A small gasp, a sob really, escaped from me.

I was alone. Alone in Tartarus.

I did not count the angry horde of monsters that were trying to break in and kill me.

A few straggling tears were rolling down my cheeks. I hated crying, but I could not take it anymore. I was almost two thousand years old, and I had a lot of close calls with my life. However, I had never been this bad off. For just a second, I wanted to be normal. I wanted to be able to fall apart, to not have to be strong. I wanted to sit here and cry and be miserable. Because there was a very, VERY good chance I was going to be dead soon. Either I would die from the poison, or this army was about to kill me.

I was not a god. I was still very much human, and I was extremely scared.

I had always believed that you died at your time, so if this was it, there was nothing I could really do about it. I had two choices. I could give up, let them take me, and the poison would kill me, or I could fight.

I knew what I was going to pick because that was what I wanted, not the gods.

The wall was crumbling down now, and more red light spilled in. My daggers formed into my hands, and I gripped the handles tightly. Hyperion walked in, along with his brother. I stood up, but I could feel myself shaking all over. I took a deep breath. I had to get it together. They both had an evil glint in their eyes. Both of them pointed their swords at me, the tips just a foot or so from my chest.

"The great Euadne Maximus lost and alone in the pits of hell!" Krios sneered. I looked calmly around me as other monsters filed in. I looked quickly to my right, where a pool of boiling lava was bubbling sluggishly. I wondered…

"You've lost, child. Gaia is the only way for you to be cured. There is no hope in siding with the gods. Will you come quietly, Euadne?"

I focused on the lava, and it responded to me. I flung the contents on Hyperion and Krios, sending them burning to the floor. I parried a blow from an earthborn, keeping the lava around me as a sort of shield. I vaulted over a telekhine, and I had made it to the archway.

"Get her NOW!" Hyperion yelled, flinging lava from his now burnt and golden face.

I ran out, back into Tartarus, not waiting for them to react.

Let the games begin.

-Percy-

Leo had said he needed time to fix the ship, so we were still at the House of Hades. It had only been about ten hours or so since we got out of Tartarus, but it felt like it had been days. Even fresh pizza on board the ship was not helping. I'd much rather have slices from Addie's bag.

They had told me all about what happened on their side. They sailed the Argo II here from Rome encountering plenty of monsters, dead people, gods, and demigods. Hazel and Leo had dispatched a giant, and Nico and Reyna had gotten the Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood. Jason had given up his praetorship to Frank, who now looked like a buff version of the Frank I had come to know.

We told the others of what had happened on our end, but we left out Addie's personal story. We did not tell them because we did not feel it was something that we had a right to tell. I did not say much; Annabeth did most of the talking, which I was thankful for. I know we had both tried to contact the gods, but we had gotten no reply. The others said any friend of ours was worth saving, but they had not had any luck either. I could not sleep alone that night, so I snuck into Annabeth's room. We had curled up together on her bed, neither one of us saying anything. That was one of the things I loved most about Annabeth. She knew even without me having to tell her.

On top of all that, I was angry. I had hoped that I would hear from my Dad now that we were out. I had not talked to him since way before all of this stuff went down, right after the showdown with Kronos. Had he completely forgotten that I existed?

Every minute that went by, I was getting angrier and more restless. I was getting more worried about Addie, too.

I had woken up early, just as the sun was coming up on the horizon. Annabeth had gotten up with me, the same circles underneath her eyes that were underneath mine. A few of the others were up already as well, working on the boat. Frank and Piper were both still asleep, but Jason and Hazel were talking to Leo at the prow of the ship.

"Early morning?" He asked me good-naturedly. I tried to smile back at him, but truthfully, I just was not in the mood. I watched as Leo's face fell. I knew he was just trying to keep everyone's spirit's up. In that moment, he looked just as lost and broken as I was. He seemed different somehow like he had gotten older or something.

"Couldn't really sleep," I told him. Annabeth was just standing beside me, and she leaned her head on my arm. In truth, the reason I went into Annabeth's room is because I had sworn I had a dream about Addie. Crazily enough, Annabeth had been having the exact same dream. What we saw…. It was haunting me still, the images flashing across my mind.

"I can't imagine why," Jason yawned, leaning against the railing beside me.

"Where are we heading, when the ship gets up and running?" Annabeth asked.

"We are going to Olympus, like the original one. That's where the giant said that he would raise Gaia in two weeks, roughly. The first of the month."

I nodded my head, but I was not really listening. The sun seemed to be rising faster and faster, and it was getting awfully close. Unnaturally close.

"What in Jupiter's name…" Jason started.

All of the sudden, the ball of light slammed into the ground next to the ship, actually causing some parts of it to smolder and smoke. Annabeth and I looked at each other, and then we both scrambled down from the ship.

A bright red Maserati sat smoking on the ground. Apollo had gotten out of the driver's side, and a girl with short, spiky black hair and light blue eyes got out of the passenger side.

"Thalia?" Annabeth said from beside me.

She had on the hunter's standard outfit, a bow hanging from her torso. She looked like she was about to be sick. Apollo on the other hand… well, he looked worried. He walked straight up to me, looking like a typical college fraternity guy. He had on khaki shorts, and a white button-up shirt. He had not removed his ray-bans, but I felt my skin tingle from the glare he was giving me.

"How was she when you left?"

"What do you mean?" I stuttered back to him. Thalia had made it around the vehicle to us, and Annabeth and her hugged. Thalia turned towards Apollo, and I saw that she, too, looked concerned.

"How was Euadne when you left Tartarus?" he replied carefully, his teeth grounding together.

"She took a potion from Phoebe," Annabeth started. "She still had maybe a sip or two left of nectar. She was better than she had been before she took the potion. Other than the poison, she did not have any other injuries. Hyperion and Krios were right on her, though," Annabeth said quickly. She glanced at me, and I remembered my dream.

Addie leaned against the rock, breathing heavily. There was a cut on her forehead, and her left arm clung helplessly to her side.

"There is no hope for you, child, as long as you defy me," a soft, womanly voice echoed in the dream.

"ABI IN MALAM REM!" she shouted angrily. She pulled the vile out of her waist, uncorking it with her teeth. Krios had just come around the corner, yelling and pointing in her direction. Addie drained the last of the contents, and then chucked the bottle. It hit Krios in the head, who stumbled back into a manticore. The manticore slid around Krios, coming viciously towards Addie. She began fighting the manticore, only one dagger in her hand…..

I reached into my pocket, grabbing the necklace Addie had given me. I held it out to Apollo, who quickly took it from me. He looked at it, his expression unreadable.

"She said to tell you she was sorry, and that she would try her best," I told him.

"She always does," he sighed. He put the necklace in his pocket, but his hand stayed wrapped around it.

"Addie's a tough girl, she will be fine," Thalia said hopefully, although she sounded like she did not believe it. "She will make it, we just have to hurry."

Apollo nodded, but his expression told me his mind was elsewhere. He snapped his fingers, and the Maserati turned into a van.

"Come on kids. You are all being summoned to Olympus."

We had all piled into the van, but no one said a word. Thalia and Jason had hugged and said a few words to each other while we all piled into the van. Despite Thalia being there, Jason, along with Frank and Hazel, sat in the back of the van. I think being around Greek Apollo made them nervous. Leo and Piper sat in the next row, and then it was me and Annabeth. Thalia sat in the front, next to Apollo. No one had said anything since we got into the van. Coach Hedge had stayed behind with the ship, but Apollo muttered something about nothing would happen to it while we were gone. We were somewhere over the Atlantic now, the water speeding underneath us. He was driving like Hermes when he was two days behind on his deliveries. Everyone could feel the tension.

"Thalia, you know Addie?" Annabeth asked Thalia. She turned around in her seat and nodded, her eyes cutting towards Apollo and back quickly.

"Yeah, we met as soon as I became a Hunter. We've worked together a few times," she explained, a small smile forming on her lips. "There was this one time with a drakon that was terrorizing Nashville…"

She broke off, her gaze reminiscent. I could tell she liked Addie, too.

"How are we going to save her?" I said aloud, my tone echoing my frustration.

Everyone looked at me, including Apollo, who looked back in the rearview mirror.

"Well?" I asked, meeting his gaze in the rearview. I did not give one flying pegasus if he got angry. I did not care if the gods thought I was insolent. They could zap me or get glad in the same toga they got mad in for all I cared.

"Very carefully," he responded.

"Oh that's incredibly helpful," I snapped. I could see Apollo start to glow just a little, and Annabeth put a hand on my arm. She gave me a warning look, and I huffed, crossing my arms across my chest.

"How about we start from the beginning? Why are we being summoned to Olympus?" Annabeth asked.

Thalia looked at Apollo, who remained silent, and then back at us.

"Well, the Olympians have been in counsel ever since the Parthenos got returned. They have kind of been all over the place, so not much has gotten done. Now, without the flip-flopping, they are finally focused enough to make a war plan. The gods really just needed to summon you and Percy, but there's going to be a celebration, so everyone got invited."

"Why just me and Annabeth?" I asked her.

"Because we cannot see what goes on in Tartarus," Apollo explained. "So some of them want to know how you managed to get out and close the doors."

"But Addie did that, doesn't everyone know that?"

"No, they don't. Athena, Poseidon, my sister, and I are the only ones who know. And you cannot tell them that she did."

"Why not? You all are gods! Can't you just zap her back up here?"

"Even we have to follow some rules Percy, and things are never that simple."

"Well, can you make them simple, please? I don't understand."

Apollo took a deep breath.

"We have to tread carefully. We could summon her back, but then she could be killed by another god. We have to do it the right way, get the right gods on our side. Athena has a plan," he said. I could almost hear him roll his eyes.

"Just do not mention Addie until they directly ask you," Thalia added. I nodded my head, and I looked behind me. Everyone nodded their heads. I could see land now, the New York City skyline starting to come into view.

This was about to get interesting.