Serena was a bit shaken by their encounter with the ghost; she had never seen one in person before, not to mention one who apparently had a taste for destruction. Trying her best to concentrate on the task at hand, Serena lead the trio to her father's palace.

They had paused to rest for a minute or two when Will suddenly asked, "Hey, Serena, do you know how long these potions Lou Ellen gave you last?"

"Uh," Serena had to think for a moment before answering. "I think Lou said that they last as long as you're underwater. When you come up for air, they wear off."

"You think?" Nico asked.

"Okay, I'm 98.5% sure that's what she said," Serena said defensively.

"I hope that 1.5% doesn't come back to hurt us later." Nico paused for a moment, then continued with, "What about that ghost we saw? Anybody have an idea as to who he was?"

That one stumped everyone. The ghost was very vague about his identity, but he knew about both Nico and Serena. He didn't pay much attention to Will, but that was probably because he wasn't mouthing off to the spirit. Will had an easier time controlling his temper than the other two. Unfortunately, the spirit hadn't given them much information to work with to figure out who he was. "I'm not from your father's underworld, boy. You have no control over me." Serena thought back to the ghost's words. Then something clicked in her mind.

"Well, one thing we know about him is that he's not Greek." Serena found herself saying.

"What do you mean, he's not Greek?" Will questioned.

"He said that he wasn't from Hades's underworld," thunder boomed in the distance at the mention of Hades.

"Be careful with saying names, Serena! Names have power." The son of Apollo huffed.

"Sorry," Serena said sarcastically. "If the spirit isn't from the Greek underworld, he's got to be from another one."

"Another underworld..." Nico muttered, thinking to himself.

"What is it, Nico?" The daughter of Poseidon asked.

"Percy and Annabeth once mentioned something about Egyptians. Do you think maybe..." Nico trailed off at the end of his sentence.

Will finished Nico's thought. "...that ghost was from the Egyptian underworld?"

Serena's eyes widened. "That's exactly it...Egyptian...I can tell that's right."

"It would make sense, wouldn't it?" Will commented, though Serena didn't really notice. Her expression was one similar to that of a person in a trance.

Egyptian...I should know something about that. I know that I should, but what is it? The daughter of Poseidon was now constantly asking herself. At the mention of Egypt, bells went off in her head, causing a chain reaction. It had triggered a faint and distant memory, one she didn't quite recognize. The memory seemed to trigger something else, like her consciousness was being taken somewhere other than her surroundings. The young demigod felt the world around her grow more and more distant, until everything went black.

Something strange was going on. Will could tell that something was up. First, an insane ghost threatens to kill them. Then, they figure out that the ghost was probably Egyptian. A few seconds or so later, Serena suddenly passes out. What was going on?

Will shook himself from his thoughts, reminding himself to focus on the matter at hand. Serena was their guide, and now she was unconscious. Luckily, Nico had spotted the palace not too far away from where they had stopped to rest. Will and Nico carried Serena in between them as they swam towards the underwater palace.

"Dove sono?" Serena muttered quietly in her sleep. Will didn't understand it, but Nico was obviously confused.

"[What]?" Nico responded with. No reply. "Huh. Didn't know she sleep talked."

"Would you mind translating for me?" Will asked, slightly annoyed.

"Sorry," he shrugged. "She could've been speaking nonsense, but; sounded like 'where am I?', I think."

"Scusate..." Serena muttered quietly under her breath.

Nico frowned. "That means 'sorry'."

"Maybe she just talks in her sleep?" Will offered. He shifted his grip on her, letting his neck stretch. As if on cue, Serena mumbled out something incoherent

Nico shook his head. "Probably. Gonna ignore it."

"La Sala del Giudizio?"

Something that clear caught Nico's attention, no matter how much he wanted to ignore her. It was like hearing one half of a telephone call, only the person you can hear is incapacitated and can't explain the concerning one-off sentences you hear. Judging by the look on Will's face, he'd realized how specific that sounded and felt the same way, inclining his head to him in a silent question.

"'The Hall of Judgement'," Nico frowned again. "Isn't that from Egyptian mythology? The Hall of Judgement was where they weighed a dead person's heart against the feather of truth."

"And Serena passed out after Egypt was brought up. Do you think that the Egyptians have something to do with her?"

"Maybe."

Now it was Will's turn to frown. "This is bizarre. Don't you think? First a ghost, then Serena passes out, and now she's speaking Italian in her sleep."

"I see ghosts all the time." The son of Hades shrugged.

Will huffed. "Well of course you do. To me, it's plenty weird."

Serena mumbled out a long string of half-formed words, not enough to make much sense of but entirely longer than the rest of what she'd said so far. Nico thought he caught 'friends' and something about a dark room before she cut herself off again.

"Okay, that one was complicated." Will stated. "It's like she's talking to someone. Now that is strange."

They traveled in silence for a few minutes after that, with Serena occasionally muttering something. When they arrived at the palace, mermen guards came up to the trio. They seemed to put their weapons away when they saw Serena. Well duh, Will thought to himself. Of course they would recognize their master's daughter.

The mermen took Serena from Will and Nico, then escorted them to one of the rooms in the large palace. Serena was carried to the room across the boys' one. Will heard the lock on the door click behind them.

"Well," the son of Apollo said calmly. "I guess we'll just have to wait here until we can leave."

She was in a cold and gloomy room, too dark for her to make out anything other than a light at the opposite end. Walking towards the doorway, Serena couldn't help but wonder where she was. Could she have been captured and this place was a prison? No, the room was too big to be a prison cell.

Through the door there was a smaller but brighter room than the one before it. In the center was a set of large golden scales, with a strange creature napping at the base. From what Serena could see, the front part of it's body was a lion, the back half was that of a hippopotamus's, and it had the head of a crocodile. It was about the size of a small poodle, but that didn't make it much less intimidating.

"That's Ammit," the voice startled Serena. Her head quickly turned to look behind the scales, and she saw a man sitting in a regal throne. He had blue skin, a black goatee, toned muscles, and ancient-style clothes topped with a strange hat. Serena looked at him with an expression of curiosity. "You are lucky he's asleep; Ammit doesn't take kindly to unannounced visitors, unless they are my children."

Serena, realizing that she was still staring, blinked a few times and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry for coming unannounced. I don't know where I am, and I certainly didn't know I'd be coming."

"It's alright, child. This is the Hall of Judgement. You are...?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Serena. Serena Laguna," she paused for a moment, thinking. "The Hall of Judgement? If this is the Hall of Judgement, wouldn't that make you-"

"Osiris. Pleased to meet you, Serena."

The demigod stared, open-mouthed, for a moment. This was all too much to take in all at once. Not only were the Greek and Roman gods real, but now the Egyptians too?

"Wait, by 'your children', who do you mean? I thought Horus was your only child?" Serena said without any thought. "Sorry, that was rude. I've never met a god in person before, so please forgive me."

He chuckled. "No, it's alright. I wouldn't expect anything else from you. As for my children, that's a long story for another time. I must ask you, why are you here?"

It struck Serena that she didn't actually know the answer to his question. She debated in her mind how to answer for a few seconds before speaking. "I-I don't know. I was talking with my friends about a ghost we encountered, the Egyptians were brought up, and for some reason I must have passed out. Next thing I know, I'm standing in that dark room back there."

The man's––god's?––eyes narrowed. He seemed to think for a second before shrugging it off. "Regardless, you shouldn't be here. It's not your time yet. You'll be needed somewhere else soon."

Serena was about to roll her eyes––of course it wasn't her time, she knew she couldn't be dead––but she stopped short in her tracks. That was probably for the best, she didn't know if there were consequences for rolling your eyes at the god of the dead, and she wasn't too keen on finding out. Looking down at her somewhat transparent feet, the young demigod noticed that she was slowly disappearing. A question suddenly popped into her head before she could disappear completely.

"Will I see things like this again? Egyptian stuff?"

"Hm," Osiris thought for a moment before answering. "I believe that you will encounter more 'Egyptian stuff', as you put it. If you were wondering when or how, that I cannot be sure of. All I can tell you is that you will play an important role in events coming up in the near future."

With that, Serena disappeared completely, and everything went black once again.

Serena's eyes fluttered open to see a stone ceiling embedded with seashells. For a moment, she thought that she was back at her cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Then Serena remembered that she couldn't be back at camp; she was on a quest.

The young demigod sat up to look at her surroundings. How long was I out? She thought.

"Oh good, you're awake," Serena looked around for the source of the voice. "How are you feeling, dear?"

Serena's eyes landed on a beautiful woman standing not to far to her right. She had flowing black hair that reached to about her lower back. When Serena looked more intently, a small gasp escaped her lips. Where the woman's legs should've been was a glittering green, scale-covered mermaid tail. Realizing that she had been asked a question, Serena hastened to answer.

"I'm fine, I guess. I've got a massive headache, though,"

As Serena looked around the room a little more, a dolphin swam through the open window. It made a few clicking sounds to the mermaid, but Serena could understand. The Lord wishes to speak with his daughter and her friends as soon as they are able.

"Ah, alright. Thank you, Delphin," the mermaid responded with. "Tell the Lord that it will be about ten minutes until his daughter will be able to meet him."

Serena could swear that she saw the dolphin nod before it swam back out the window.

"Uh, forgive me for being impolite," Serena said. "But who are you and where am I?"

"My name is Aquata," the mermaid answered. "Don't you recognize this place? Take a closer look and think. You know this place."

Serena frowned slightly, but looked around the room once more. For a few moments, she thought about why she should know where she was. Then it hit her.

"I'm in my father's palace. Poseidon's domain."

Aquata smiled at the young demigod. "Very good, dear."

Serena's eyes widened as a slight panic fell into her train of thought. "W-where are my friends? Nico and Will?"

"Don't worry, young one. Your companions are in the room across the hall. You will see them soon enough. Now, you should get ready for your meeting with your father."