Ready or not for the next chapter, here it comes!

To hungergamesfangirl100: Well, I know Annabeth would be good to snap Percy out of it, but at the same time, I really doubt I can handle the emotional writing, so I left Annabeth out. Since this story isnt really about romance...it's about friendship, so I wanted to filter out the cheesy bits.

To swimmjacket: Percy will get his memories back pretty soon. Maybe even in this chapter ;) Mostly because it would be tough to write Percy's POV if he didnt have memories.

To child of Hermes-god of stealth: It's self doubt. That's my stupid fatal flaw I cant get rid off :(

To LastPower46: Olive green eyes? I must have forgotten that. I thought he used to have olive skin. I doubt I can write Nico's POV. His feelings are too complicated.

To : Rue might die...you have to read this chapter to find out :)

To seaweedbrainlover1117: Well, theres one good thing to look forward in this chapter :) And all your questions will be answered here. And you might not want to cross your fingers *hint hint*

Thanks for the reviews and compliments, and enjoy!

Percy

Something had stirred in his unconscious when Percy saw that he had injured Nico. At the back of his mind, something was telling his brain to snap out of it. It was a faint feeling, but it was enough to distract Percy, which earned him a long cut from Thalia.

On top of that, Percy was confused when Thalia was trying to point out who was his friend. He had originally thought that the careers had done everything for him, and saved his life. But what Thalia said made him ponder.

Would true friends let you fight alone?

The careers certainly didn't help him when he was fighting Thalia and Nico. They just stood back and watched as he fought, outnumbered, one to two.

So, unable to come to a decision as to who was truly his friend, he came out with a small test. This test would tell who was genuinely his friend, and who was telling the truth all along.

The results was not what he expected. It wasn't the careers who ran in to intercept the assumed suicide. Instead, it was the very 'betrayers' who had come to his aid. Thalia's reaction wasn't fake at all. There had been real fear in her eyes. Fear that Percy would indeed kill himself.

And even with no memories, Percy's heart told him that only someone who really cared for him, would react in that manner.

It was clear, now, that the careers had been lying all along. It was clear that the careers were the ones who had wiped out his memory, and turned him against his real friends.

After the careers seemed to realize what had happened from the little act, they scrambled off as fast as they could, deeper into the forest.

Percy was about to start chasing after them, when he heard Nico shout.

"Hydra!" Nico had screamed. "Run!"

Like the careers had done, Percy, Thalia, Nico, Katniss and Peeta ran for their lives. They didn't run very far until Thalia shouted, "We have to stand and fight! The gamemakers probably sent this because they found out you changed sides, Percy."

She was right. Percy uncapped Riptide, which expanded into a bronze sword. Thalia stood beside him, and gripped her silver bow, which had appeared out of nowhere. Nico plunged his sword downwards into the ground, and yelled, "Serve me!"

Ten skeleton warriors rose from a crevice in the ground. All of them were holding heavy looking swords. The skeletons ran at the hydra, waving their swords in the air.

But the Hydra was huge, and its skin wasn't exactly easy to penetrate. All the skeletons did was to irritate it. In short, the skeletons wasn't helping.

Percy didn't really think. This mind was blank anyway. So there wasn't much to think of. He charged head first at the Hydra. At first, the Hydra must have mistook him for a moving rock or something, because it didn't seem to notice that Percy was there, until he was a mere metre from the Hydra's back.

Only then did the Hydra stick out one of its heads in attempt to gobble him up like a juicy fly.

As the head of the Hydra swooped down to look at its victim, Percy took the opportunity to jump at its head and take the ride to the back of the Hydra.

Now, sitting on the back of the Hydra, Percy could see all its nine heads. He took out Riptide, ready for the kill.

"Stop!" Thalia shrieked. "Don't cut off its head!"

That didn't make sense to Percy. It was obvious that the only way to kill the Hydra was to cut off its head. Then it couldn't bite anyone, right?

So he ignored Thalia, and sliced off the nine heads, one by one.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

A headless Hydra now stood in its place.

Percy clambered down from its head. Job done. Nothing to worry about.

Nico face palmed. "Now look what you did. We are so dead."

Percy frowned. "Really, what is there to worry about? I just killed-"

A deafening growl cut him off in mid-sentence. And it sounded very much from the head of a Hydra. Many heads, actually.

Percy spun slowly on the spot, and he found himself face to face with an 18 headed Hydra. The number of heads had doubled.

"Styx." Percy cursed.

Thalia raised her bow, firing arrows with deadly precision at the stomach of the Hydra, making the belly of the Hydra look like a star constellation. But it was like ant bites to the Hydra.

"Drop to the ground!" A brutish male voice shouted.

Instinctively, Percy listened, pulling Thalia and Nico down with him.

Face pressed onto the grassy surface, he heard a loud 'crunch' and the sound of breaking bones before there was silence.

Percy felt it was safe to look around, and saw that the Hydra had been hit by a large swinging tree trunk hanging from many trees. The hydra now lay unconscious on the ground.

Standing a few trees away were Thresh and Rue, the district eleven tributes. Thresh had a booby trap there all along, and had just activated it when the Hydra was directly in the path of the swinging tree log.

"Thanks!" Percy said gratefully.

Thresh nodded, and started running away. Rue was about to follow, when she jerked and fell forwards. She didn't move.

Percy felt numb, he hoped Rue had just tripped and sprained her ankle, nothing more than that. But when she didn't move for a long time, Percy sprinted up to her.

"Rue…?" He called urgently.

Then with sudden realization, Percy saw the handle of a knife embedded in her back. Sticky red blood soaked through Rue's jacket.

"No! Who did this?" Percy yelled, hugging Rue's limp body.

Slowly and painfully, Rue looked up and locked eyes with Percy. He eyes struggled to focus, but she gazed at him for a while.

"My pocket… herbs for…for your…memory." Rue muttered. "Eat…will help."

Then, Rue was motionless.

He felt for a pulse, hoping against hope that she was still alive, somehow. But it was fruitless. Rue was gone.

A cannon blast echoed in the forest.

There was a whizzing sound to his left, and Percy swirled to look where the sound came from. Clove stood about ten meters away, aiming her second throwing knife at his face. Percy grabbed Riptide for defense, just as Clove's knife sailed towards him. She had a triumphant grin on her face as the knife hurled through the air.

Percy was ready, and all he did was to swipe once at the oncoming knife, and knocking it out of the air, where it lodged into the floor.

A silver arrow whizzed past Percy's ear and hit Clove squarely in her heart. Thalia's arrow neatly brought the life out of Clove.

Another cannon blast sounded.

Katniss hurried over to Rue, and did a strange three fingered salute, before Nico said they had to move on before the capitol's hovercraft came to collect the dead bodies.

Percy dug his fingers into Rue's jacket pocket. There was a few small herb leaves in her pocket.

"Thank you." Percy whispered, pocketing the herbs. He didn't trust himself to say anything more. At the back of his mind, he knew Rue was a nice, caring girl. And the last thing she did was to help Percy get his memories back.

His throat was dry. But one thing lodged firmly in his head. The capitol, the course of Rue's death, will pay for this.

Percy watched as Thalia placed the herbs on a flat piece of rock, by a small puddle of water. Just a few minutes ago, Thalia had been examining the leaves that Percy handed to her.

"I've seen this before. Artemis taught us about medical leaves when we were hunting. But this will only work if it is a memory block. She said if the memory loss is caused by brain damage, it is impossible to recover. No medicine would help." Thalia mumbled to herself.

Peeta, Katniss, and Nico were keeping watch to make sure no stray careers are nearby after the nasty killing incident.

Thalia chose a fist-sized rock and started pounding on the leaves, breaking them into small pieces.

"Hey, Thalia." Percy said suddenly.

Thalia looked up at him. "What?"

"Thanks for saving me from the careers back then. Nico too. Otherwise they would have used me." Percy said earnestly.

He felt it was only right to thank her properly. She needn't have bothered to save him. She could have just killed him. With Nico on her side too, they could have easily overpowered him. But she didn't.

Thalia held his gaze, then went back to smashing the herbs.

"I just hope you get back your memories so you can add your dumb test to the list of other stupid things you have done in the past." Thalia replied.

She scooped up the crushed leaves on a huge leaf like a bowl. Then, she poured some water from her container in her backpack and handed it to him.

"Drink. We'll see if it works."

To tell the truth, the contents looked absolutely disgusting. The leaf bits floated on the water. But it was his only chance at getting back what memories he had lost. It had to work.

So he prayed that Rue was right, and that the leaves were indeed the remedy, and swallowed it in one gulp.

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

No old memories came rushing to him. No images of the past was recalled.

"You remember anything now, Percy?" Thalia asked with concern.

Then it felt like the blocks in his brain were removed. And he remembered from why he was sent in this arena, to how he blacked out when fighting the careers.

"Of course, Pinecone Face." Percy smirked.

Thalia smiled in relief. "And I thought you were grateful, Kelp Head."

Woohoo! Percy got back his memories with the help of Rue! At this stage, I've already thought about how the story should end, but it would be rather complicated. So stay tuned...and wait for next week's update! :)

Please review!