Images flashed through my mind, like I was watching a slid show on the back of my eyelids. It was fast and blurry and very confusing. I saw random people riding the Subway in New York. I saw a group of young kids at a play ground, picking on a small child. I saw a loan kid, no older than 10 running for her life down a back alley with some kind of huge dog chasing after her. I wanted to help her, but I was stuck, I wasn't even sure if this was real or not and couldn't do anything. My mind slid through more images of random people and crowds, but mostly young children.

The video feed flickered and then slowed down. I saw Sally and my dad. They sat at the dinner table in my apartment. They both clutched mugs of tea, there was a shimmery watery image of Chiron hovering over a steaming tea kettle. Percy had told me it was called an Iris message. Sally and Paul looked stressed and worried. I couldn't hear what Chiron was saying. Sally took a shuddering breath and Dad put his arm around her and pulled her close and muttered something to her and then looked up at the Iris message of Chiron and said something else. The image disappeared.

The image changed and now I saw a kid with a black threadbare cloth around his one eye. He was tall with thick black hair, he looked pale and very angry. He was yelling at someone. Again I couldn't hear what he was saying. He was standing in a back alley. He yelled something and then threw something. He stood taking deep breaths. I watched as he spun around towards the brick wall, he slipped behind the big gross garbage dumpster. That's when I saw the blue glowing ∆. He pressed his hand over the sign and the wall split. I watched horrified as he stood staring down into the darkness. He shook his head and slipped into the darkness of the Labyrinth. The wall slid shut behind him and then the image changed.

I saw Grover and Tyson. They were running down a hall made of mud and grass, tree roots grew above them and tried to snage and ensure them. Tyson just ripped at them, snapping them like they were made of nothing more then paper.

They faded and I saw camp again.

I saw Selina Beauregard, Charlie Beckendorf and Lee Fletcher. They were all armed in battle gear. The three of them must be in watch right now. They had a tent set up not too far away, there were all kinds of traps and trip wires set up. Looked like the Hephaestus cabin was busy, all kind of sharpen sticks were dug into the dirt pointing at the entrance. I watched as Kayla, Clarisse and another kid with grey eyes walk up.

Kayla said something and Lee nodded. Beckendorf took his helmet off and also nodded. The three who were on guard clapped hands with the new group and the new group took up their watches.

The image changed yet again. A kid sat alone wrapped in darkness and shadow, at first I thought it was the same one eyed kid, but when he looked up he shook his shaggy black hair out of his eyes. He had two eyes. And they seemed to look right at me. He narrowed his eyes.

"Who are you?" He hissed.

It was like when I was in Hephaestus workshop, I had no idea what was happening. But somehow this young kid could see me.

"I asked you a question, spirit. I didn't summon you!"

"I...I don't know what's going on!" I stammered, "but I'm definitely not a spirit!"

"Your not a ghost and your not dead." The kid said, his dark eyes were narrowed in suspicion.

"Definitely not. I'm...umm sleeping. I think. In an Ikea somewhere that's connected to a Labyrinth..?"

"Your in the Labyrinth?" He asked, I could tell he was surprised.

"Uhh, not at the moment. But we were...were in a quest....we were with-"

"Percy Jackson. I know."

"What? How? Who are you?"

"I- I meet him at- I ran into him. Your his sister, aren't you. Eleanora."

I took a closer look at the kid. Well as best as I could. He had black taddered jeans, a black t shirt and an aviator style jacket that was too big for him. Pale olive coloured skin and dark almost black eyes in the shadows of the dark room.

"Nico Di Angelo." I guessed.

"What? How- how do you know me? We've never met."

"No. But Percy told me all about you. He's super worried about you! Are you okay? Where's that ghost dude you were with ..?"

"He's talked..talked about me?"

"Ya man! Percy is super stressed and worried about you! Where are you? Are you safe? Also...I don't know how I'm doing this!"

"No one ever worries about me." He snapped, leaning back into the shadowy corner.

"Well me and Percy are two that will."

"Well don't. I'm fine. I can take care of my self!"

"Dude your like 8!"

"I'm almost 12!" He snapped back.

I rolled my eyes- or at least I think I did. I had no idea what was even happening, if I was even visible to him or like Hephaestus he could just feel my presence and talk to me.

"Yes. Much better. Alone in an evil Labyrinth that can think for itself while this evil Luke guy and an army runs around the same place, and your taking advice from some evil ghost. Yes, clearly your taking great care of yourself!"

"Leave me be!" He said it with such conviction that I almost did.

"Dude. I ain't a ghost. And I ain't dead. You can't control me. If I wanted I could stay beside you the hole time. A big bright ball if sunshine. Bring back some colour to that complexion of yours. When was the last time you are boy?"

"Your not my mother. Or sister! Go away and leave me alone." He cried.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No! Imma stay here!"

"Leave me alone!" He cried.

"Nico, have you eaten?"

"Yes."

I could tell he was lying

"I'm a daughter of Apollo. I can tell you're lying."

"You're as bad as Bianca!"

"Don't know who that is, but thank you!"

"She was...was my sister. She was always annoying, making me eat."

"Smart girl. And I'm sorry for your loss, Nico."

The image of the scared shadow clade boy wavered. But before it vanished, I heard a small noise, like that if a muffled sob.

The image vanished. And now I saw Percy and Annabeth. I wanted to yell out, I wanted to reach out to them. I wanted to hug him tight. I missed him. They both looked sweaty and dirty. And very stressed. I had no idea where they were, but I could see some kind of ragged rock behind them, like they were in some kind of cave. This time I could sort of hear. It was distorted but I could here it, like an out of tune radio.

"I've got a plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider—maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what’s going on." Percy said urgently. I could  see how worried and panicked he was.

"But you’ll be killed!" Annabeth hissed.

Percy looked worried, but he forced a scoff,
"I’ll be fine. Besides, we’ve got no choice."

Annabeth glared at him like she was going to punch him. I agreed. I wanted to scream at them, don't split up! Never a good idea! I wanted to do something and not just watch like some movie. And then she did something that clearly surprised Percy. She kissed him. It wasn't slow and romantic or anything, it was quick and kind of desperate, I could tell there was a lot of unsaid words in that hasty kiss.

"Be careful, Seaweed Brain." She whispered. She put on her hat and vanished.

Percy sat there for a full minute, his eyes wide mouth open, just totally frozen. I probably could have asked his name and he wouldn't have been able to tell me. He was frozen in shock. If the situation around him wasn't so dangerous, I would have laughed at him.

"There!" Some weird looking monster yelled.

the monsters were the oddest assortment of things; their faces were dogs, with black snouts, brown eyes, and pointy ears. Their bodies were sleek and black like sea mammals, with stubby legs that were half flipper, half foot, and humanlike hands with sharp claws. If you blended together a kid, a Doberman pinscher, and a sea lion, you’d get something like what these monsters looked like.

A whole crew of them came charging across a bridge toward Percy. Most of them looked quite young, but that didn't stop how horrifying they looked. He ran for the middle of a platform, surprising the four elder sea demons so much they dropped what they were holding. It was a huge sword, about six feet long and curved like a crescent moon. I hadn't seen a lot of weapons in my weekish of being a demigod, but this unfinished whatever-it-was- was absolutely the scariest thing I would ever see. Hands down. This weapon won.

The bigger demons, which I was going to guess we're the older ones got over their surprise quickly. There were four ramps leading off the platform, and before Percy could dash in any direction, each of the demands had covered an exit.

The tallest one snarled. "What do we have here? A son of Poseidon?"

"Yes," another growled. "I can smell the sea in his blood."

I watched as Percy raised Riptide. My heart was pounding, I wanted to help, I wanted to be there, again I was just watching this, the heat rose from under Percy, the heat waves made everything shimmer.

"Strike down one of us, demigod," the third demon said, "and the rest of us shall tear you to shreds. Your father betrayed us. He took our gift and said nothing as we were cast into the pit. We will see him sliced to pieces. He and all the other Olympians."

I was waiting for Percy's big plan. He said he had one. But as he edged a bit more into the centre, I saw his eyes darting around, despiritly trying to figure out a plan. It dawned on me that he had no pkan. He just wanted Annabeth out of harm's way. I hope she was smart enough to listen. And this might be the place I would watch my brother die. I was stuck, I watched helplessly as the young dog faced monsters crept closer and into the platform now, too, snarling.

I wanted to yell and call out. But it was a movie inside my head and I was stuck.

The tallest dog demon said, "Let us see how strong he is. Let us see how long it takes him to burn!"

He scooped some lava out of the nearest furnace. It set his fingers ablaze, but this didn’t seem to bother him at all. A few others did the same. The first one threw a glop of molten rock at Percy and set his pants on fire. Two more splattered across his chest. I screamed. Percy dropped his sword in sheer terror and swatted at his clothes. Fire was engulfing him. Strangely, it felt only warm at first, but it was getting hotter by the instant. I watched as it burnt up him clothes, leaving big red angry marks.  He hadn't burned the skin, but it was red and angry looking.

"Your father’s nature protects you," one said. "Makes you hard to burn. But not impossible, youngling. Not impossible."

They threw more lava at him. I watched as he screamed. His whole body was on fire. I couldn't imagine that kind of pain. His face was twisted in agony. He crumpled to the metal floor twisting and withering in pain I heard the sea demon children howling in delight. I wanted to kill them. I wanted to slash them all through with my knives. I screamed and begged whatever god to let me be there and help. Instead I just watched helplessly.

Then I heard a word formed from the screams of Percy. I heard the name of his father. I heard him call out to Posiden. And then the worst gut wrenching scream came forth, like he was letting lose all his pain and sorrow, all his fears and worries, all his anger came out in that one loud scream.

An explosion, a tidal wave, a whirlwind of power pure raw power simultaneously catching Percy up and blasting him downward into the lava. Fire and water collided, superheated steam, and he shot upward from the heart of the volcano in a huge explosion, just one piece of flotsam thrown free by a million pounds of pressure.

I screamed for him. He was shot into the air with such force. There was no way he would live. Percy had blown the entire mountain.

The image broke and everything was black. I woke with a start. Someone was shaking me and screaming at me to wake up. My eyes snapped open and I saw two faces staring at me.

Raph and Will looked horrified. I felt terrible. My head pounded and I felt feverish. I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes and tried not to cry.

"Hey. Nora, what's wrong?" Will asked gently.

"Images. In my head! Like...like watching an old film movie, I saw a whole bunch...so many different things!"

"Okay...but why ..why are you crying?"

"Percy's dead!"

There was a sharp inhale.

"Nora, that was just a nightmare."

I sat up and glared at them. "No! I hissed. No it wasn't! I saw it! Like I saw Hephaestus last time! Like...I can see what's going on in other places. I don't know how! But I can! And I saw him blow a mountain or volcano. He blew it with his power and...and he's...he's..."

I couldn't finish. I placed my head on my knees and cried. I felt the bed dip and I was pulled into a hug.

"He died a hero's death. He'll go to Elysium."

Raph held me tight for a long time, my head on his chest, Will held my hand, and they let me cry. Eventually I pulled away and wiped my eyes and got up.

I couldn't sit still, I had a old senile god to find, Luke and his army to stop getting through the Labyrinth, Kronos to stop from rising and the Titan Hyperion to throttle.

The guys watched me leerily, but also grabbed their bags. The store would be opening right away. If we could find the exit quickly we'd be able to get out unnoticed by the mortals.

"Where's the map from Hermes?" I asked.

Will pulled it from his pocket. I nodded.

"And those tickets? That apparently are the ticket to finding Helios?" I asked with an eye roll.

"Also right here." He pulled them from his other pocket, and handed it to Raph.

"Good."

"Come on you Geeks. Let's go save the world." Raph said dryly.

It made the corner of my mouth twitch. He led us down the hall. The doors to the store opened and mortals started to stream in.

"Shoot! This is going to be more difficult now!"

We weaved and wove through the sudden rush of early morning shoppers. Raph stopped and looked at the map again.

"Through the kitchen displays."

We had just stepped into the first kitchen display when I froze and tried to duck behind a counter. I yanked the guys down.

"Wha-"

I slapped a hand over Will's mouth.

"Shh." I hissed.

"Silly children. Come on out, I know you're there."

I groaned. And stood up, folding my arms tight I turned and came face to face with Aphrodite. The guys sprang up and went beat red.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"Redecorating. Right dear?" She called over her shoulder. I leaned to the side and saw a huge guy with black leather pants and a jacket, he had the same dark rugged handsomeness as Raph, same broody wolf like expression.

"Father!" Raph gasped. He bent his head, placing his hand over his heart and bowed slightly.

"Son." He inclined his head.

Aphrodite glared at Raph for a moment like she was angry at him.

"Can you just pick one so we can leave? I hate shopping!" Areas grumbled.

"Yes, yes dear, patience." She waved a dismissive hand.

He groaned and rolled his eyes. He kicked eyes with Raph and looked him up and down.

"Walk with me." Ares said it more if a Comand than an invitation. He spun on his heel and stomped out of the show room. Raph followed.

"Please, sit with me a moment." Aphrodite smiled and swept her hand towards the show room table in the kitchen. It was full of all kinds of hot breakfast foods, and drinks. I glanced at Will and we hesitantly slid into a chair.

"So, Eleanora, I see you figured out how to heal your friend." Aphrodite said, handing me a plate of pancakes.

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