(Percy's POV)

"3! 2! 1!"

Darkness.

"Hello?" I called out, my hand reaching for Riptide, still in pen form.

"Percy?" Annabeth responded.

"Annabeth? Are you ok?" I asked, feeling for her in the dark. She had sounded close.

"I'm fine." she assured. One of my hands landed on her shoulder, and I found her's, holding it tight. I kept my other hand in my pocket, right next to Riptide.

"Good. Any idea what happened?"

Before she could answer, we heard cackling laughter from a familiar voice.

"Nemesis." Annabeth said with disgust.

"You guessed it! I've got a surprise for you." she said.

"What did we do?" I asked.

I wished I could see her. Nemesis was already terrifying. The pitch fact that I couldn't even see her made it worse. Not that she would look like her, she would look like someone I hated. Still, it would be hard to fight an empty void.

As if the room had read my thoughts, I could suddenly see Nemesis's face. It was a face I didn't think I'd ever seen before. She was wearing sunglasses, so it was hard to tell. But still, I couldn't help thinking it might be her actual face.

"Oh, just ruin everything." she snarled.

"What?" I yelled.

"You weren't supposed to come back. That Leo boy opened the cookie, and he was supposed to pay the price for it. You weren't supposed to come back from the underworld!" she said with contempt.

Then she smiled. That made me even more nervous. Not to mention creeped out.

"But I called in a...special favor for you both." she cackled again.

"Actually, we're all uh, good on favors, thank you," Annabeth said.

"Ye-yeah, but thanks anyways," I agreed. "If you could just show us the way out, we'll be going now," I tried, knowing it was completely pointless.

"Like I'd let you leave!" she hissed. Smiling again, she said, "Especially not after the Lord of Time himself agreed to help with this."

My heart skipped a beat.

It couldn't be true. It couldn't. Kronos was...

Nemesis must've read the looks on our faces. "No, no, he's not back."

I sighed in relief, then remembered that we were still in a bad situation anyway.

"So then what do you mean..." Annabeth mumbled. She still looked pretty pale. I figured I looked the same after that misunderstanding.

"Oh, make no mistake, he shouldn't be able to do anything at all right now, but oaths sworn on the River Styx have a way of keeping themselves, no matter what the circumstances." Nemesis explained.

"But why would he swear to help you?" I asked.

"Even the greatest gods and titans still need my help sometimes. So we made a deal, long, long ago, even by an immortal's standards. And he agreed to grant me a favor, one that I still haven't used yet." she replied.

"But why waste it on us?" Annabeth asked.

"It's not a waste to me! In case you haven't noticed, mortal, revenge is kind of a big deal to me!" she yelled back. Her smile returned once more. "Now, I'm going to send you far into the future. To a time where one of you will die. And, even better, maybe even by the other's hand. In any case, watching other's like you tear themselves apart is sure to break your caring, fragile hearts. But enough talking. It's time for the show."

"Wait, what?!" I yelled. This was all so confusing. Then, still gripping Annabeth's hand, the world became a spiral of different colors, and I felt like I was spinning and flying all at once.

The last thing I heard was Nemesis's voice, cackling and saying, "Goodluck in the 75th Hunger Games!"