Chapter 25: Surprises

This curse also means that, while the techniques used by the Olympians will work for a time, we will eventually lose control and give in to the Enlightenment, into the power and the passion it brings. This now brings me to the Great Prophecy.

- Poseidon's Notes, Page 33, On the creation of Atlantis.

The day had come.

There was no more time, it was now or never, and Annabeth knew it.

She stood next to Nico, who was dressed in his full hunter regalia, including his ridiculous cloak, carrying a bag with all the supplies they would need in case they got stranded. The chances were low, especially since the entire mission was supposed to take only a handful of hours, but Annabeth had insisted on a contingency. If things went well, the supplies would come back with them, but if it didn't, Annabeth was not going to die out there ripped apart by those monsters.

"Nico, remember, if you feel like you can't do it, you back out immediately. We can't afford to lose you" Bianca said, adding almost as an afterthought "and Annabeth."

Percy hovered next to her. Rumour-turned-known-secret was that the two had been spending more and more time together. They were not subtle about it, for the sounds of their activities had even bothered Annabeth almost four rooms away for at least two nights in a row. She supposed she was happy for him and for Bianca. The two were good for each other, but the secret looks and the subtle touches reminded her of her own boyfriend, somewhere beyond the walls of their slowly closing prison.

"I know, Bi. We will be fine. We've trained as much as possible." Nico said, popping a square of ambrosia in his mouth. It was some of the last that they had in the underworld, and without access to New Rome they were not going to get any more anytime soon, but she supposed that if there was anything that would help them now, it would be ambrosia.

"Good. Are you ready, Annabeth?"

"As much as I can." Annabeth was not fond of shadowtravel. It was nauseating, and the short time where she experienced sensory deprivation always sent her into a panic. She had never appreciated how important her senses were until all were taken away. At least she learned something that might interest her mother. "We have everything we need. We're good to go."

"Just a recap then." Bianca said, "You will be teleported to the House of Night. Where, I don't know, but make sure that by the time its midday you find yourself at that exact spot. Try to learn as much as you can from our enemy, and keep out of sight. If worst comes to worst, find your way to either New Rome or Half-Blood Hill. Argus should still live there, he might be able to get you to Olympus Academy. Oh, and whatever you do, don't look into the mirrors."

Annabeth nodded, and Nico stood close to her, awkwardly holding her close.

"Tell Will and I will kill you."

"I fear only three people, DiAngelo, and you are not one of them. Solace, however…"

Nico muttered something, before Percy stood in front of them.

It was incredible to see how much he had grown in the handful of weeks they had known each other. In the beginning, Percy was this shy, broken boy, too afraid of his own shadow and power. Now, he led hunters against monsters, he fought fiercely against creatures taken directly from hell, and he controlled his power with roughness that could only be attained by someone trying to learn as much as possible as quick as possible.

It was incredible…but also terrifying.

"Was this what Poseidon was like?" she thought, comparing the boy to the vastness of the sea, "Is this why you fear him so much, Mother?"

A thin sheet of water spread in front of him, its source a pair of vases at the edge of the wall. Bianca turned a glass prism in her hand until a thin beam of light crossed the room and hit the water. A rainbow spread, and Percy manipulated the water to expand it in all directions.

"House of Night." Bianca said, tossing a drachma into the rainbow. Somewhere, very far away, Iris activated her Enlightenment and the image changed to show a small inner courtyard between broken down pitch black walls. It was incredibly dark, with the only light coming from the broken ceiling above it. Annabeth could see the overgrown plants and grass inside, yet behind it was a hidden elegance, secrets in the architecture that wanted to be uncovered.

Nico focused on one of the shadows, and beneath his feet tendrils reached out to him.

"Good luck." she heard Bianca say, before everything turned black.

Annabeth wiggled, but Nico held her tight. She was panicking, even after all her preparation, she was panicking. She couldn't hear. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't smell, see, or feel. It felt as if she was falling, twisting, and spinning at the same time. Her stomach lurched, and just as she was about to loose her breakfast, her feet hit something solid and she immediately pushed away from Nico and began to heave.

"Sheesh, dramatic much?" Nico said, earning him a glare from the blonde girl.

She heard the familiar sizzle of the IM rainbow disappearing and only then she began to take in her surroundings.

They were inside some sort of temple, and while she could see around her, the only reason was that the roof let in a thin stream of sunlight through its missing pieces. There were no windows, except those created by the walls breaking down, and no places to put any form of torch or illumination. The flooring was half black marble and half grass and soil, and pillars of black stone rose to hold together whatever little remained of the once grand triangular roof.

At the end of the temple, a large statue of a woman carved in dark marble, her eyes hidden behind a blindfold, reached out with her hands. \

"This was once a temple to those who worshipped the first enlightened." Nico said, answering her unasked question, "the lady Nyx, known also as the Firstborn Lady of Night."

"I didn't know this existed."

"Like my sister said, it's not necessarily a secret, but not something advertised. As you know all firstborn are a sore topic for the hunters of Olympus, but for the house of the Dead…well, there's no easy way of putting it. Lady Nyx is our founder."

"What?" Annabeth knew the Big Three came from old families, but…that old?

"Well, not exactly our founder, but basically her house, the House of Night, turned into the House of Darkness after a particular affair where a child of Night and Darkness was born out of wedlock. That child went on to fuck a bunch of people, and lo and behold, the only remaining branch of that fuckfest was us. Yay." Nico said it with as much enthusiasm as a damp fart that it made Annabeth chuckle. "we need to get going."

Nico grabbed his cape, and much to Annabeth's shock, he shook it and it turned into a rather thick looking aviator's jacket.

"You didn't think I would be wearing a cape, did you?" Nico looked annoyed.

"I…uh…"

"I swear…kill you…fucking…" he muttered as he angrily stomped away towards the entrance. When they came out, Annabeth realized that they were at the top of a rather tall hill.

The sun felt good on her face. After weeks stuck in Underworld, which was a place where true sunlight didn't hit, it felt good to feel the warmth on her skin and to smell the wind.

The hill was one of many in what appeared to be a vast empty valley, but the valley was not how it was supposed to look like. Around her, a scenery of black and darkness stretched across the surrounding hills, scorch marks still smouldering from where the fires had started. There was no animals, no birds, not even a flower had survived. It was all…dead. In the distance, tall mountains rose above the sky, and thick dark clouds seemed to stick to them.

"Underworld…" she had never seen the hidden city, much less from the outside, but it was unmistakable to her now. At the foot of the mountains, a vast forest grew at its shadow, now turned to ashes and burnt wood, and in the distance Annabeth could see smoke rising from what appeared to be a massive camp.

If that didn't convince her that the monsters were there, the three dozen Hunter heads placed on spikes on the outside of the forest sealed the deal.

"Oh gods…" she said.

"Fuck." Nico summarized.

The two shared a look before they ran into the corpse of the forest. Searching for a particularly tall tree that could give them some vantage, Annebeth climbed as high as she could and raised a pair of small binoculars to her face.

It was inconceivable to her. Beyond the trees, all she saw was tents upon tents. Creatures, tall, grotesque, and of different proportions seemed to walk around them in large groups, and while they were too far to make out what they were, she didn't need to use her enlightenment to figure it out. She communicated her findings to Nico with the secret sign language of the Hunters, something devised by the Lady Aphrodite during her time in Olympus, and landed next to him after jumping off the tree.

"Come. Let's see what we can figure out. My sister needs us." Nico said from and walked deeper into the forest, walking quietly among the trees. After a moment, Annabeth followed, trying to step exactly where Nico did to muffle her own footsteps and not step on too many twigs and burnt wood.

As they walked deeper into the forest, something began to stand out to Annabeth.

"Psst." she said, and thankfully Nico heard her, for he turned around, his hand on his hip where his sword smoked.

She nodded towards what had caught her attention: a corpse. It was the bloated body of one of the same monsters that had become so common in Underworld. It was slashed with a single thin line across its neck, clean and quick.

"We're not the only ones here." Nico whispered.

"They're killing monsters, we should find them."

"Quite a jump. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that, but they're still an enemy. Don't be hasty."

For once, she was thankful for Nico's caution. The deeper they walked into the forest, the more monster corpses they found, and the excitement of an ally turned into the fear of something worse as the corpses were more mangled, more brutally killed, and more in number.

"We're being followed." Nico said, not stopping his walk. "Don't react. Just walk."

Nico guided them through the trees, occasionally touching them. As annabeth walked passed one, she noticed how a thin line of black smoke seemed to trail after his fingers.

Eventually, they reached a clearing, and Annabeth gagged.

All around her, mountains and mountains of corpses of monsters were littered. Some were horribly disfigured, others had almost animal-like appearances.

At the center, ten spikes with ten heads seemed to warn them that they had entered somewhere that they weren't supposed to be in.

"When I tell you, you're going to hide among the corpses. Don't come out, hide. Use that little hat your mother gave you if you must, but whatever you do, don't come out."

Annabeth nodded, looking towards a pile of corpses that looked relatively hollow.

Suddenly, Nico yelled, and his aviator's jacket melted into his black cloak. He covered himself in it, and disappeared in a burst of shadows.

Annabeth ran, jumping into the pile of bodies and pulling out an old new york yankees cap. Her mother had gifted it to her, the only thing she had ever received from the woman. It would allow her to appear as one of the corpses to a quick glance, although an in depth search for her would betray her. No matter.

She heard someone curse in the forest, and someone laugh, but she also heard horrible screeches and growls. As she hid, she couldn't help but look at the bodies.

The faces were disfigured, yes, the eyes different sizes. But there were still humanoid. It wasn't anything new, but she felt her mind working furiously as she scanned the dark black mark on the neck of one of the creatures. A circle of laurels depicting an eye, an hourglass at its centre.

There was something there, something she didn't know, but it was important. The eye, the hourglass…

"Is she here?" said a female voice.

"Kid said so, yeah. Heh, he gave the old boar a good thrashing. You think it was alright leaving those two alone?"

"I find it amusing to leave them together, no doubt they'll resort to killing each other if we don't hurry. Now, where's the girl?"

Annabeth reached for her dagger. She reached into her mind, into her enlightenment, and began to craft the best way she could get out of the situation.

Corpses? Yes, they were the main problem. If she pushed them to the side, it would be a distraction, she could sneak away? No, sneaking wouldn't help. She wasn't as quiet as Nico, and they could catch her. That left fighting. Could she stall them long enough to find an opening? It depended on whether they were trained or not. And what weapons they had. She had a dagger, from the corner of her eye she caught the sight of a scimitar, and then a hand reaching out to her.

Annabeth spun, raising the dagger to slice through the fingers, but a golden blur stopped her from attacking.

"Woah there, Annabeth. It's alright. It's just us." said a voice. Familiar, but distant. The man's hair was a curly black, his features were elfish, and he held a sly grin as he held her hand. Annabeth stared into his eyes, blue eyes that were so familiar to her, and she recognized the man.

"Lord Hermes?" she said, shocked, and the man had the gall to smile.