Simon was a fighter. He packed weapons, a shield, and even a helmet from Capture the Flag. He grabbed some ambrosia and nectar from the infirmary and stuffed it in his bag, alongside two water bottles and protein bars. He'd stolen the cure from cabin six, crept back to the infirmary, and with the help of Fabia fending off the harpies and Eleo carrying me (you can laugh, but she was very strong and although it hurt when she moved me a certain way it was quite fun), we snuck into one of the camp vans, outside of the camp border. Fabia, upon Simon's insistence and my request, left her chariot at camp. This meant a few things: it would appear that she was still at camp, and it would take her longer to get to the River Lethe. Of course, her appearing she was still at camp was vital to our cover story.

Eleo was going to drop us off, and get back to camp as soon as possible. She'd keep people out of the infirmary somehow, and me, Simon, and Fabia would all allegedly be inside. Tiana would wake up for a session with Caleb and instead sneak away to hold position at the infirmary until Eleo came back. Eleo warned that the hardest person to fool should he ask himself was Chiron. She couldn't lie to him, she'd been here far too long, and if he asked, she wouldn't be able to keep him from getting inside. That was okay. As long as it gave us enough time to prove most of the camp wrong, anything Eleo did was amazing.

Meanwhile, I packed a crutch, the will to live, and a full set of heavy metal armour. Where Simon could seriously kick ass, like he had allegedly been doing prior to me seeing the Catoblepar, I was not a fighter in the slightest. On top of that, I was injured. Moving hurt, some times it got worse, others better, but I couldn't do anything if my life depended on it. I guess, since Tyler seemed to have been willing to use his sword on me before without hesitation, my life really did.

We had to get in the van as soon as possible, and leave as quick as we could. Once we were on the open road, we continued discussing the plan. I left one ear bud in, part because the music calmed me, and part because having a conversation and listening to music at full volume gave no room for my mind to wander. I'm not giving you the full extent of this, and I won't, but you need to understand. The most difficult thing throughout all of this isn't the monsters, the people who don't believe me, Tyler and his army, finding out I was slowly dying anyway, or even my mom... It's constantly wondering, constantly fighting with my own thoughts about if any of this was happening. If any of this was real.

Moving on, we figured this could happen a few ways. We were going to stick with Matt's idea to use my ability to control the Underworld to my advantage. To my knowledge, we'd have a leg up on the army because I and likely Tyler were the only ones who would be able to see the ghosts. This being said, us relying on this rag-tag group of ghosts who had only died recently or recently enough that they escaped the Underworld with their memories intact might go wrong. I could control factors of the Underworld, sure, and the dead seemed to be drawn to me - hence me 'hallucinating' most of my life, but Tyler was proposing a jail break, no forgetting their memories, free roam of the above ground... There was a possibility they'd stop fighting. If Tyler could make them listen to him, all bets were off.

Even still, talking about this made me think again to his plan, and how little sense it made. Let's say his plan worked. He got rid of Hades, took the title as god of the dead, and then what? You don't become immortal because you put a crown on your head (I don't think, mythology is weird though...), and the other gods wouldn't stand for it. That thought provoked another, and I remembered the first time I'd met my dad, the moment that provoked this whole quest and slew of problems. Hades was pleading with Zeus to help him with his problem, and the god of gods maintained that it wasn't his problem. Would the other gods care?

I was getting a headache. Simon told me to sleep, and with help getting into the back seats, I made myself as comfy as possible and heeded his advice. Of course I put the other ear bud in and turned up the volume before hand, so I could drown everything out.

~

I woke up in the worst way possible.

Eleo had accidentally hit the world's biggest pothole taking a side road to avoid police, which sent me flying upward, and landing hard back against the seat. I had woken up in mid-air, and between my flailing arms and my not-so-great landing, my abdomen burned like the hot sun. I clutched it tight, wincing as the arm movement also triggered pain in the cut there, and Simon later informed me that I let out a scream. Can you blame me? It felt like my stomach was on fire; my eyes watered, I couldn't get a breath in.

Fabia leapt from the passenger seat over Simon's seat to mine.

"M'Lady, what can I do?" She asked.

"Sorry!" Eleo called from the front.

Simon groggily peaked over his seat, looking concerned but tired. Outside the sky was only just beginning to lighten up. Somewhere in the commotion my headphones had fallen out. Simon reached into the bag he was using as a pillow and pulled out some nectar and ambrosia. I had calmed down significantly by this point. My wound still hurt like the sword was still in it, but I had gotten my breathing back to normal and sat up with the help of the legionary standing awkwardly over me in the low roofed van.

"M'Lady, please," Fabia said as I slowly gave myself a helping of ambrosia, knowing it wouldn't cure me but it would likely help. "Let me fight alongside you. The boy can bring the cure. You need my assistance."

I cleared my throat, hand still pressed tight to the bandages. "I can do it on my own. How much longer?"

"Not too long. An hour away. We can stop if you need to." The daughter of Hephaestus offered.

"No. We get there, we wait, you get back to camp as soon as possible. I trust Tiana, but small things set her - ow - off. She'll need you to come take her place."

Simon locked eyes with me.

After a while Fabia had begrudgingly returned to the front seat, helmet on, plumes against the roof of the car. Eleo seemed content in avoiding the authorities and driving. Simon was still looking at me, even after I had picked up my ear buds and put them back in.

"Y/N," he mouthed to me, "Can you do this?"

I stopped the music. My best friend ran a hand through his silky blond hair.

I whispered back, "I just have to stand there, command an army of dead people who likely don't know much about what's going on, and bargain with Tyler for Matt. All without being able to move. Oh, and did I tell you about the archers on the other side?"

"Tyler is going to come after you, especially if he can see the ghosts. Y/N, seriously, I can't let you out of this van if you're going to die in that park in front of the Door of Orpheus. Do you understand?" He said is so heavy, I could almost hear how tight his chest had gotten.

"C'mon, with everything falling down around me, I'd like to believe in the possibility that everything will be okay. But if anything does happen, Simon, I'm glad I'll be by your side."

Simon clenched his jaw in determination. "Likewise, Y/N."

"And to your left," Eleo called in her best announcer voice some time later. "Central Park."

~

I didn't know if it was just the fact that the sun hadn't yet risen, but Central Park seemed colder to me. Morning joggers made their way past, a drunken man stumbled along the grass. The cluster of rocks that was the Door of Orpheus suddenly looked more eerie, like if I were to approach it it might harm me in some way.

I looked away as Fabia helped me from the van, Simon handed me my crutch. Standing up hurt, but not as much as the pothole had. For a moment I just stood there, looking at the park, turning up my music, changing the song. Eleo dropped off a small and heavy black trunk I hadn't seen before to the ground at my feet, said a quick goodbye, and once she was gone the sun had finally drifted over the horizon.

Immediately as if rehearsed, Simon and Fabia took the silver barricades from their spot along the walkway, and began hauling them towards the rock cluster. Simon seemed almost surprised to see the legionary helping. As fast as I could (which wasn't very) I hobbled after them.

"Simon, what are those for?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Right, sorry, didn't tell you. We're filming a movie, and we don't want any unwanted people coming too close into frame and ruining the shot." I furrowed my brows, at a loss of words for a second. When I understood what he meant, I said, "But we don't have a camera."

He motioned towards the black trunk Eleo had left behind that had been stashed somewhere in the back of the truck, then continued away with the metal bars. I'd help, but obviously I couldn't, and maybe that's why Fabia was. Anyway, I admired Simon's plan. Making a movie wasn't uncommon in New York, and barricading made it more real. That and having a real camera. Granted, we wouldn't have someone to operate it, but that was an easy enough lie to tell. The ghosts that people couldn't see would appear as CGI inserts that would be added in post production (shut up, I watched a lot of the behind the scenes documentaries), and any wounds earned would appear as good acting and makeup. I just hoped the mist configured to this story, and wouldn't show swords as pool noodles that somehow leave gashes. This movie set up would stop authorities (granted they didn't ask for a permit, though I wouldn't be surprised if Simon had somehow acquired a fake one), and any mortals close to the battle wouldn't get hurt. It was perfect.

More people showed up within the next hour. Having set up the camera and our boundary between the rest of park and the Door of Orpheus, there wasn't much to do but wait. Fabia promised to be quick, but she hesitated for a while before going in, making sure I was okay. While waiting, I felt my heart sink into my stomach. I was the only one to account for my dream with Matt telling me what Tyler was planning, and maybe I was mistaken. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was Henry. Simon grabbed my hand and squeezed it, noticing how tense I was. I pressed my iPod nano against the cluster of rocks and Fabia ducked inside, vial of cure ready to go. Turns out it needed to be boiled. Something about fire and the hydra venom. Once cooled, and by now it was, any amount of it mixed into the Lethe would do the trick. I put the headphones back in my ears and slowly sat down with my back against the rocks.

Music blaring, I almost missed the grand entrance. I pulled the earbuds out when Simon tapped me. He helped me stand, and I leaned against my crutch, trying to look as intimidating as possible. I didn't know how well I was succeeding, seeing as a hoard of about thirty-odd demigods marched towards me brave-faced and battle ready in full armour and weaponry. My stomach did a flip when Tyler greeted me with a smile, not at all surprised.

Why would I have expected him to be? Caleb would have told him the second I turned up at camp, and maybe they knew of our leaving because Tiana hadn't done the best job of guarding the door, and he told him we'd be here, too. I should have anticipated this.

Simon must have been thinking the same thing. We didn't startle him. That being said, we still had the upper hand, granted the souls of the recently dead would listen to me. We still had the element of surprise. I recalled how much energy it took for me to use my powers, like shadow travelling. I wondered if calling these souls, forcing them to me, if that could be considered a power and not just a command they'd listen to, would drain me as well.

And then, none of that mattered.

When he got closer, enough so that two of the demigods he was with peeled back the boundaries to let the army through, I spotted Matt walking behind him. Something that looked eerily like a dagger was pressed against the back of his neck, reflecting sun into my eyes. I swallowed. I heard gasps of passersby, probably enthused by the arrival of the other 'actors', but I didn't pay them any heed.

"Let him go." I'd never sounded so sure of myself in my life, yet here I was, clutching my abdomen in one hand and a crutch in the other, standing taller than I ever had before. "Let Matt go."

Matt locked his big brown eyes onto me, jaw tight with panic. The burn tissue on the left of his face and down his neck seemed agitated; inflamed. Despite everything Caleb had done, perhaps he wasn't lying about Matt not telling me the whole truth.

Tyler smiled at me, skin as pale as ever. He held the multi-ironed sword at his side. I watched his finger twitch against the hilt, like he was itching to walk forward and finish me off. He was thirty feet away now, and the demigods who had opened the barricade had the generosity of closing it. Even on opposite sides I think most demigods agreed that this was a fight between us, not mortals.

Most demigods, but not Tyler. His hair had grown longer in the mere days since I'd seen him, tangling just above his ear in an awkward wave.

"Y/N, good to see you, sister." He said the word like it was venomous. His real sister had been killed, then her ghost slain by a demigod not unlike me. Yet using that word, sister, like we were family, like I had anything in common with him, like I had disgraced him... It made me mad.

"Let Matt go." I said more forceful now. Matt's jaw was still tight. I worried if he were to say something the demigod with the dagger to his neck would hurt him. It was my words against him. Simon probably had a dozen plans working around in his mind, but he stayed silent, waiting on me. My fight, my call, my chance to make things right.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm upset, truly. I'd hoped a blow from my sword would have killed you. Although, I am happy to see you with a crutch, at least. But let me make this simple for you: I can't kill you, but I can kill your friend over there. Simon, isn't it?"

"Kopros." Simon spat an ancient Greek curse word I'm not going to translate.

"Pleasure." Tyler replied, unfazed. That was another thing that pissed me off. He didn't seem to care. "Anyway, Y/N, I gave you a choice. You chose to save yourself over Matt. And now, he's part of my team."

The short, muscular blonde demigod holding the dagger to Matt's neck pushed him roughly forward so he was standing on par with Tyler. Tyler made an event to show us his left forearm, where a tattoo I had long forgotten about sat black and more clear. I'd never seen the symbol before; it seemed to start with a hill that rolled down into a valley. From the valley came a sceptre of sorts, that wound it's way up to a semi-circle with a dot. All of it drawn in a series of lines with no detail.

The blonde demigod pulled Matt's orange shirt collar down, and I felt my heart pound harder. It had barely been hidden by the shirt, but there, on both normal skin and the scar tissue on the left side of his neck was the same symbol that was on Tyler's arm. Only this wasn't a tattoo - it was a brand, still red and puffy and definitely the cause of the irritated scar tissue around it. I looked back up at Matt. His eyes were watery and he was looking away.

I wanted to scream. They'd branded him. A constant reminder that at any second they could hurt him. He'd have to do whatever they said. As I scanned the crowd I noticed more tattoos of the same design. Some were on shoulders, ankles, wrists, anywhere. A lot were even hidden by the fabrics of their clothes or their Greek armour.

"After all," Tyler commented. "I needed someone to help me distract Hades."

SECOND CROSSROADS:

CHOICE ONE - CALL ON THE GHOST ARMY, WE CAN STOP HIM BEFORE HE EVEN GETS A CHANCE TO GO INTO THE UNDERWORLD. THEY CAN GET MATT.

CHOICE TWO - "THEN I'LL DO IT. I'LL HELP YOU DISTRACT OUR DAD."

CHOICE CHAPTERS/INTERACTIVE CHAPTERS WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE SAME DAY. PICK A CHOICE, AND FOLLOW IT THROUGH.