This might be my favorite chapter so far:) I hope you think the same. I enjoyed writing it!

Sorry for typos/OOCness.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 23

Annabeth

There was no way Nico was going to die.

It was completely improbable. Nico di Angelo was a young, teenage son of Hades that had been born many decades ago. He'd survived everything that the world and gods had thrown at him. He was the Ghost King and spent most of his time roaming the Underworld. There was no way he would forever reign in the Underworld.

"Prophecies always have double meanings," Annabeth said shakily. She was still gripping the Sibylline Book in her arms. "You know that. The Great Prophecy said that you were going to die, but it was Luke instead." It still hurt a little bit to think about him.

Percy shook his head and looked down. "Yeah, but someone still died. Actually, a lot of people died." He sounded pained.

Annabeth too looked down at the book. "Percy, look at this. The bottom of the page is burnt off. What if there's more to the prophecy? Maybe it's just incomplete. There are so many possibilities. Let's not just say that Nico is going to die right now."

Percy looked up, seeming a little calmer than he had before. "Maybe your right. I guess we have to move on. I mean, we have bigger things to worry about."

"Exactly. Now, think about the rest of the prophecy."

"It was so much longer than they usually are."

"Six to eight lines longer actually. But that's not the point. 'The Giant Stalks the Six Waiting for War. The Earth Mother Haunts at the Doors.' This confirms our suspicions. There is a giant watching us. But, I guess he's also looking at everyone else, since they're the six."

"Waiting for war? What war is that supposed to be?"

Annabeth thought about his question for a second, then snapped her fingers with realization. "Camp Half-Blood versus Camp Jupiter. The Giant is probably going to try and… influence them somehow."

"And the Earth Mother Haunts and the Doors. That's Gaea, and she's haunting the Doors of Death, but how? She not alive yet. And which set of Doors… there are two."

"Well, maybe it's like the gods and goddesses. They can be in multiple places in one time. Gaea wasn't alive when Leo was attacked by her as a child. She's comes into our minds all of the time. Maybe it's just her spirit or a shade of her that is coming after the demigods."

Annabeth looked down at the book again. The weight of it seemed to be even heavier than before. Feeling cold chills on her back, as she had before she'd even reached Camp Jupiter, Annabeth gingerly set the book back down on the pedestal. She shouldered her bag a little better.

It was nice to have all of her normal stuff back. She found a new sheath for her knife and attached it to her forearm. It seemed a little necessary. She was worried that something bad was going to happen, but when nothing did, she relaxed her shoulders.

Percy started walking around and observing everything. Annabeth went on the other side. They made sure that they didn't need anything else before descending the stairs again. Annabeth had to go slowly, which was a minor setback.

The boot wasn't made for running or walking fast. It was heavy; she was glad that she wasn't on crutches with this thing. The sole was curved, so she could rock on the shoe. Plus, it made her about four inches taller than she really was. But she couldn't jump in it. Her ankle was completely immobilized.

Another good thing was that her ribs almost felt normal again. That nectar had really helped her. The gauze wasn't showing that much blood. Her head felt fuzzy from the loss of it. She had a headache and thought about stopping in the medical section again, just to see if there were any aspirin.

"Can we stop there?" she asked, and he nodded. "We still have time to spare," he told her.

So they stopped on the medical floor again. Annabeth loaded her backpack with the things they needed. Some ambrosia and nectar, bandages, antiseptics. Her ankle tingled a little bit as she walked around. She grabbed a bottle of aspirin while she was walking around.

"Ready to go?" Percy asked. She nodded and then went back down to the lobby, or ground floor, or whatever it was supposed to be called.

As if the house knew that they were leaving, a new sign appeared right in front of them. Percy dodged out of the way, and Annabeth tried, but then she realized she could do less in the boot than she thought. She tried to squat out of the way, but her boot stopped it, and the sign hit her in the forehead and sent her backwards.

Her vision went black from a second and she found herself sprawled on her back. Her head wasn't bleeding, she knew that, but it throbbed. Her eyes were crossed as she tried to focus on the three Percy's above her.

"Oh… are… okay?" he asked. She couldn't certain part of what he was saying. His fingers touched her forehead. "Did… happened? Is… boot… idiot," he mumbled to himself at the end.

"I'm okay," she tried to say, but she sounded like she had no teeth. "I'm good."

"You got knocked pretty hard," he told her. He pointed to his own head. "You have a big knot, right here." He was pointing right between his eyes. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you want me to-"

"Don't sweat it," she told him, standing up. It didn't work. The stupid boot. She couldn't stand right up. She had to turn over onto her hands and knees and push herself to her feet. Percy tried to help her, but she refused him. She felt weak constantly needing his help.

She wasn't liking the boot as much anymore. It didn't help her at all, except for walking. Percy read her expression. "Annabeth, you need to keep it on. Don't worry, your ankle will get better soon, and then we can get rid of it."

She sighed. She knew he was right, but she didn't say anything back to him. Instead she read the sign that hit her. "'Thank you for visiting. Please return any unneeded items that you might have to the basket on the right.'"

Annabeth stopped and looked to the right. As the sign had said, there was a large bin completely empty except for a few bottles of lotion and a half eaten quesadillas. There was nothing that Annabeth felt like she needed to return.

Percy didn't put anything in the basket either. He felt like whatever he had taken, he should keep too.

She continued reading. "'Please feel free to take a complementary water on your way out, located on the left. Exit through the double doors in the back. No thanks for coming. I hope you die in a hole!' That's just lovely."

They turned to the left. A basket of bottled watered was there. Annabeth took one out. Nothing looked wrong with it. She took off the cap and leaned her head back, ready to take a sip.

Percy stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not sure how safe that is."

"I'll spit it out if anything is wrong," she promised. She reached into her bag and took out two aspirin. Maybe it would help with her throbbing head too. She gulped the pills down with some water. It tasted perfectly fine and cooled her scratchy throat.

She cocked her head to the side and waited for something to happen. There was no pain, she felt okay. "It's fine," she told him and tossed him his own bottle. "You better keep one of these. I think we're going to need it."

He took it and studied it, and then shrugged. "If you say so."

They started walking towards the opposite side of the building, through the dusty rows of shelves and cases. File cabinets had overflowing amounts of paper. Then Percy stopped where he was. His back stiffened like he had been shocked. He coughed like he was clearing his throat and said, "The book."

This took her by surprised. She stopped and looked at him. "What? The Sibylline book?"

"We should've looked through it more. Let's go back up and read some more prophecies, Annabeth, while we still can. Think about all of the information in there." He turned around and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to the stairs.

She managed to stop him. "But Percy, then we'd be stealing."

"Annabeth, we aren't going to steal the books. We're just going to look through them."

"But Percy, that's still stealing. We'd be taking unneeded information. We don't need to know anything else in there. We've already learned enough. Let's leave this place before something bad happens."

"No, we're going back upstairs." Something in his voice had changed. It wasn't Percy. He gripped her arms with bruising force and pulled her to the stairs. This wasn't like him at all, and his grip hurt.

"Percy you're hurting me. Let go!" she demanded. He said nothing to her. They reached the stairs, and he started to carry her up the stairs. She tried to move her arms or grab her knife, but it wasn't helping at all. She couldn't escape, and something had happened to her boyfriend.

It was the eidolons. She was almost sure of it. "Percy, look at me," she said. Surprisingly, he did, but he didn't let go. But his eyes weren't gold like an eidolon. They were green, but unfocused. Something was possessing him. It was the only explanation now.

He started to go back up the stairs. She was running out of options. They were almost on the second floor. "I'm sorry about this," she breathed, and he kicked straight up between his legs.

It worked. He grunted and let go of her. She fell on her butt and he kept his eyes closed in pain. She started to scramble down the stairs, crawling. But his eyes opened. They were his normal green eyes, focused on her. His mouth parted in shock.

"Did I just do what I think I just did?" he asked. Annabeth nodded.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked, starting to inspect her. Her arms hurt a little bit, but that was okay.

"No, I'm fine," she insisted. "But what happened? You just started taking me to the book, and I was trying to reason with you, but you wouldn't listen so I decided to see if it was a eidolon. It wasn't; your eyes were the same. So I kicked you," she ended sheepishly.

"Yeah, and it kind of hurt. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. It was like I couldn't control my body, but I know it wasn't an eidolon. I had this… urge, I guess, to just go back and read the books. I couldn't stop myself."

"Well, like I said before, let's just get the heck out of here before anything else happens."

They returned to the main floor and weaved themselves through the many isles of items, this time holding hands. Annabeth was ready to fight off whatever was trying to take over Percy. She made sure that her knife was completely accessible. She had a feeling that she would need it.

Then, out of the blue, a cold shiver ran down Annabeth. She straightened, involuntarily. There was a sharp pain in her head, something that aspirin wasn't going to help. And then it was like she was watching from afar.

She suddenly… wasn't herself.

She had to find it. The voice her head was her master. She stepped away from the black haired man, whose hand was in her own. He looked startled. "What's wrong?" he asked. She did not answer. Her master said that he didn't deserve any answers. She always followed her master's instructions.

She walked away from the boy. He made sounds of protest and grabbed at her, but she dodged out of the way. She had one purpose.

As she had a thousand times before, she sprinted through the aisles until she found the exit. The stairs that went down instead of up. She smiled softly and walked in a trance like state to them. They were old and wooden, roped off. No matter, she had a knife.

She brought the bronze dagger out and held it high.

I'm here for you, Earth Mother.

Thanks for reading! Review challenge: What's your favorite cartoon show? Mine is Avatar: The Last Airbender (Zuko:)!

Reviews and ideas are loved. Someone reviewed saying I was really weird. My response: Did you just figure that out?:)

-BBH