Have a Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and whatever holiday you celebrate like, IDK, Beaver Day? Well, I was hoping to publish this chapter with 10 reviews but whatever. I will not post the next chapter with out one more review. I'm serious, well, not really. But ya'll have to tell me what you think. For realsies. Oh my gods I sound like my sister. Comment, please. This is me begging. I will give you brownie points. I need reviews. First person to give me a review gets 15 brownie points, next 10 points. Don't be mean, I need reviews! I'm being a bit melodramatic here but please review!

Chapter 16

When we saw him, he appeared as a 16 year old boy with tan skin and jet black hair. He had bright green eyes and looked like my version of Harry Potter without the scar or glasses. He had his arm around Lisa and was smiling like only a god could. She was still in her true form, but wearing a black outfit with many ways to conceal a weapon, as if ready for combat. A group of girls walked past then started giggling, blech. I walked right up to him and he laughed, like he thought I actually wasn't going to show up.

"Ha! A daughter of Neptune thinks she can beat me!" He seemed a little tipsy. Lisa laughed with him at my confused expression.

Shannon asked, "Are you drunk?"

He slurred, "No, gods can't-" He slumped over on Lisa.

She knocked him off her and said, "Nope, poison. I think its Arsenic or something. That should give us about 5 minutes to talk. Andy, you are really stupid sometimes! He relies on his powers for fighting. Its not that hard to beat him, but you have to know his weaknesses. One, he is only good with swords and stuff like that, so your knives and anything else long distance is gonna be really useful. Two, he doesn't care about anyone but himself. You cant hurt him by killing his followers or me. I'm just a... perk, to him. If you give him a few small scratches, that should do the trick. A large cut will defiantly be harder to make, but way more effective. When you manage to do that, get as far away as possible. I'll do my best to shield you, but I can't for very long. He'll release his true form and blast everything back. The heat will be too much for Nico and Shannon, maybe you can handle it. I don't know, your brother once blew up Mt. St. Helens so, yeah. Uh, what else was there..." She snapped her fingers trying to remember what else she had to tell me. "Oh! He's not gonna like what you're wearing to fight him in. I bet he's gonna use his powers to change you into what I'm wearing or something similar. He thinks that if you wear something like that when he 'beats your no good cocky brain' then you'll be 'degrading the value of his victory'."

"Nice guy. Not quick to judge at all..." Shannon murmured under her breath, but we all heard her. The four of us laughed as if we weren't about to face certain death and enslavement. As we composed ourselves, Kratus stirred. He quickly got up and brushed himself off pretending he never was on the ground.

"Well, you three are going to try to best me in those ratty garments. You'd think I was fighting peasants, not highly trained demigods." With a wave of his hand, we were covered in a red light and were wearing similar outfits to Lisa. She smirked behind Kratus. I had to fight to keep a straight face.

I asked, "The three of us? I was under the impression a one on one power play was me against you." He laughed like I was stupid.

"Dear Andromeda, I have already won. You claimed that I could do whatever I wanted with your friends, so I'm sending them with you." What? He continued, "They will be going with you on your fight for survival. If my power does not kill you, then you have won with the help of your friends. If my power does kill you, then your friends have done my bidding and are free to go if they survive. Have fun..." My vision swirled and the image of Kratus and Lisa was the last think I saw. I opened my eyes and saw a brown, brick ceiling. I sat up with my head spinning. I saw Nico and Shannon, sprawled out on the ground, inside marks shaped like their bodies. The marks expanded out, until a circle was formed. Taking in the rest of my surroundings, I noticed a blue light expanding. The light took on a human shape, and revealed Lisa in her real form that she showed to us earlier. She was floating up in the air, and when she noticed, she laughed, causing Shannon to sit up abruptly. Nico was still spread out, not moving.

"What the Hades?" I asked. "Where are we and what are you doing here?" Lisa looked at me strangely. Her aura glowed a bright orange and she collapsed.

When she got up, she replied, "I have no idea what Hades has to do with all this."

I rolled my eyes and shot back, "There's no need to be a smart Alec."

"Fine. I think we're in a dreamscape and I'm assuming I'm supposed to be your guide."

I asked, "Whats a dreamscape?"

"So many questions today! Its a place you go when your asleep. Its kind of like a dream, but for demigods, our bodies are physically injured if we're hurt. If you die here, you die in real life. I think Kratus is working with Hypnos or Morpheus to produce this. Most likely Morpheus, 'cuz he's the god of dreams. If Kratus was taught how to make a joint dreamscape, then we are in trouble. Shannon can you hear me?" She waved over at Shannon and got a tongue stuck out at her. She laughed, "Real mature. You need to listen to this. Nico, I don't care about 'cuz this is basic 2nd year at camp information. Alright, so when you're in a dreamscape, your body can only go on for so long without consciousness. I'll bet Hypnos kids and Morpheus kids would actually become stronger in a dreamscape though."

Shannon asked, "If we're in a dreamscape and everyone else is on their feet, then why isn't Nico up?" Lisa laughed.

"My best guess is because he's mentally unstable. If Nico decides to go all psycho, he can't control himself. Say something decided to take over him, he can't resist it unless it decides he isn't worth it. If that's the case, he may not wake up in this dreamscape. It's probably over his sister's death and the fact he's from the 1900s but don't breathe a word of this to him. I've already angered enough children of Hades to know not to take them lightly. Kratus wants us to die in this dreamscape. He knows I can't die so that's why he sent me here. Unless... Andy, toss me a dagger." I did and she caught it. Lisa used the dagger to draw a small cut along her arm. A drop of crimson blood ran down her arm and she smiled like a maniac.

"What?" I asked.

"He took away my immortality." Nico groggily sat up and tried to stand, but quickly fell to the ground. Lisa tossed the dagger back and I caught it as it was changing back into a charm.

He asked, "What the Hades? Where are we and what's Lisa doing here?"

She replied, "That's what Andy asked. Dreamscape." Nico's eyes widened considerably.

He stood up and tried to take a step, but Lisa said, "No! The floor could be booby trapped! Precaution is really necessary if you value your life! And Andy's, and Shannon's, and mine. Andy, can you lift us out of here?"

I asked, "How?"

Lisa coached me through the process, "Think about the water vapor in the air. Make it into water. Now, concentrate and force the water beneath one of us." I chose Shannon. "Good, now move her towards that archway. Shannon, grab onto the bars. Andy, now try the same thing with Nico." I next moved Lisa and then she continued, "Andy, bring the water around you and bring yourself over. Pretend that you're an inanimate object that-"

I shouted, "Shut Up!" I could feel them cringe at my outburst but I didn't care. I had the water vapor swell around me and lift me up into the air. I pushed it towards the others. I looked at the bars and said, "Uh, I'll stick with floating, I can't do monkey bars." Lisa laughed, then gave Shannon a small kick in the back. Somehow, she had ended up in front of Nico. Shannon swung from the bars like a pro. Lisa followed with the same amount of skill. Nico did his best, but could hardly make 5 bars without slipping up a little.

He asked, "Can I try something a little different? I really don't like this hands approach, it feels really unstable to me."

I was concerned, so I asked, "What?" He grinned, and swung his feet onto the other bar in front of him. He let go of the bars he was holding and flipped to the other side. He kept doing this until he reached the others. I followed them and saw markings on the floor around a bend.

Lisa said, "The markings should be safe to step on. I don't wanna find out what happens when you step on the unmarked floor." Shannon swung onto the marked flooring, to find, she was floating two inches above the ground on a cloud of white smoke. Lisa did the same, as did Nico. I released the pressure of the water vapor under me and fell to the cloud.

"I gotta work on my landings." I said as I was standing up. "So, what's next?"

Lisa shrugged, "If I had to guess, I'd say we're gonna face hauntings from each of our pasts. Uh, if my past shows up, try not to scream like a baby." She was really serious but it was a little bizarre.

"Yeah right. I won't scream," Shannon joked. Suddenly, a girl appeared. She had pale skin and black hair, with a silvery outfit on that looked like the one I saw on Thalia. Instead of a silver circlet on her head, she had a green cap. The girl appeared to be about 13. A man followed behind her, wearing a white roman toga. It had many metals and had some purple in various places. The toga was stained in red liquid.

Lisa said, "Julius."

At the same time Nico said, "Bianca."

Shannon voiced what I was thinking, "We're going to see the dead."

Lisa responded, "Not necessarily. This is what we want to avenge. I still hate Julius for kicking me to the streets."

"She shouldn't be here though. I don't hate her. I accepted that it wasn't Percy's fault." Nico said.

Lisa responded, "I think that this is showing us the dead souls for the reasons of the first time we truly wanted to kill someone." A ton of souls appeared behind them and Lisa continued, "Or all the times we've truly wanted to murder someone, but didn't." I noticed that all their eyes were blank.

"This is creepy. Unavenged." Shannon read the word aloud. It was then, when I felt a tremble. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, because it was so faint.

When I finally placed what was happening, I reacted so fast, it was inhumane. My hand shot up, and grabbed a silver arrow. I corrected Shannon, "No, that was creepy."

Lisa grimaced, "Come on. We have to walk through them. The faster we move through this, the better of a chance we have of staying alive."

She took a step forwards and was met by cries of, "Witch!" or "Sorceress!" or "Enchantress!" It was probably worse for her because she clutched her head in agony.

The farther we got into the crowd, the louder it got, and soon, the cries changed into that of, "Traitor!" At the end of the crowd, there was one boy, about sixteen, standing there with a smile on his face. His eyes were a sea green, and he looked somewhat like Percy. He wore clothes like a miner would. When Lisa saw him, she looked like she was about to cry.

The boy said, "Hello, its nice to see you again." She laughed. She took another step towards him. The boy's smile immediately morphed into a scowl. He said, "I guess I've been replaced."

"No, I'd never replace you. Sal, you were the closest person I'd ever known that never betrayed me." She shook her head while talking.

The boy made a disgusted face. "That's so like you. Don't call me Sal. My name is Greenland to you." I assumed that was his last name. "I don't even know your name now."

"I haven't changed it since I met you. My name is still Lisa Davis. I went to live on land because I couldn't stand to be on open seas any more! How can you say that? I know the ghosts can hear the living's thoughts whenever-" Nico quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. He gave her a glare and she nodded. Then continued, "You aren't real! This is a dreamscape! This is my worst fear. Being told I'm a heartless being by the closest person I know! How? You were my best friend, and I still consider you my best friend after 250 years! You are the only one who knows my fatal flaw! The Sal I knew was a kind and caring person! I never thought that you would blame me! I visited you and you told me that yourself! I still come once a month! I camp out in the underworld every Christmas and New Years!" Suddenly, he started laughing maniacally. He morphed into Kratus.

"My dear! Why should you get so worked up over the man I killed?" He said. Lisa was outraged.

She screamed, "You killed him! I hate you!" She started to charge him. I quickly pulled her back with my powers. I walked up to her and gave her a hug. Hot tears were streaming down her face. The god disappeared. Shannon and I did our best to try and comfort her, but she cried for a few minutes, then pulled away. The ghosts were all gone. It was just the four of us left in the room. It seemed like we hadn't moved at all since we landed. Lisa said, "He's trying to break me." Her voice wavered, like she was going to start crying again. We sat down for a short rest.

"Who's Sal?" Shannon asked. Lisa gave a small smile.

She responded, "He was my best friend in the whole world. The kid of Neptune I was talking about before, that was him. He was the only person besides you guys that I'd ever told voluntarily. Sometimes, he would just come and seek me out, just to make me laugh. He always seemed to know what I was thinking when I was thinking it. I think, he was the only person who I ever actually trained and never went easy on. The day he beat me, he actually thought that I let him beat me. It took him 5 hours and 7 years of training." Shannon let a grin creep up on her face.

She commented, "He was cute too. What did you think Andy?" I stared at her in shock.

I shouted, "Eew! He was my brother, looks almost exactly like Percy, and my boyfriend is in this room! Why would you even ask that?" Lisa giggled.

"Yeah, but when you practically live with a guy, it gets really embarrassing." Lisa answered. I started laughing too. I took a look at Nico and he pretended he wasn't listening to our conversation, but his eyes were saying, 'Get me out of here! This is so awkward!'

Shannon looked over and said, "Ok Nico... We'll stop our gal talk and continue it later when we're out of here. We should probably get going." I felt something coming.

"Hide!" I hissed. We dove behind some pillars. I was nose to nose with Nico. I heard steps, that suddenly stopped.

The person asked, "Who's there? I can sense you, show yourself." No one dared move. The voice seemed strangely familiar.

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