From the outside, it looked like the past. The inside was the future. There was no present.

Polished, marble tiles, bright lights and white walls. No where to hide. No shadows. No place safe.

I felt like I was trapped in a scientific experiment. Like I was just another rat they performed tests on.

We'd entered through the side door. Yes, even evil dude's had side doors on their mansions - didn't take too long to find it either. But we were feeling so exposed, we were forced to go back outside into the dreary world.

Luke closed the door behind us and stated the obvious. "That was a very bad idea."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "That was your idea, remember? 'All powerful Chaos army marches through the side door.'"

"That was a bad idea." He repeated.

Annabeth clenched her hand around her dagger. "We need a plan."

"We don't have time to plan." I muttered. "We have to go back in."

"Nah," Luke said. "Man, did you see that place? What're we meant to do? We practically know nothing about this guy. We'd be completely exposed to the enemy. Annabeth's right, we need to come up with a plan B."

I looked up to the windows above our heads, curved and elongated, as if they belonged to a Roman monument. Then I smiled at my friends. "No, we don't need a Plan B. We just have to modify Plan A."

Annabeth frowned. "How?"

"Well, we're here to get Ariel right?"

"Yes." She replied.

"A distraction. You guys enter through here, and buy us enough time to-"

"Enough time to what? Climb up to her window like a freaking monkey?" Luke asked me.

I smirked at him. "You're forgetting Castellan, I can fly."

Luke muttered something about me being the Chaos Army Commander, followed by a string of profanities.

Annabeth looked at me and said, "I'm coming with you."

"What?" I asked her. "Did you think I was actually going to pull this off without you? We're gonna kick butt." She gave me that familiar hard look of vengeance.

Silena laughed and said. "Alright Percy. We get it."

I smirked at her before pulling up the hood over my head. Everyone else did the same and for a moment, we just stood there, looking at each other, not really saying anything. The silence felt like a good bye, and nobody had to voice out what we were all thinking.

This could be the last time we stand together as a family of cloaked Dementors. I'm gonna miss you guys.

Then Beckendorf took charge. "Let's go."

I took Annabeth's hand and pulled her to my side. "Ready Wise Girl?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

I took her by the waist and willed the air to pull me up. Annabeth wrapped her arms around my neck and held on tight. It reminded me of a time so long ago, under the New York sewers, when we tried to escape that fire breathing giant. At least this time she wasn't punching me.

I stopped at the first window we came to and looked inside. Immediately, Annabeth said, "No."

The room was blindingly white and there was nothing in there but a lone table and a chair, like an excruciatingly lonely detention room.

"Go higher." Annabeth told me. 

All the rooms above us looked the same. White walls, a desk and a chair. Nothing else. It felt like we were going on forever, felt like we were never going to find Aerial.

Then we came across a different place - a prison cell. There was a man inside the caged doors, a thin, shriveled man, nearly dead in his ragged clothes.

He looked up slowly, looked right into my eyes and made a three fingered claw over his heart. A ward against evil. His eyes were golden but I couldn't figure out why they felt so familiar. Annabeth held onto me a little tighter and whispered nervously, "Keep going, Percy."

I was just about to but then I saw through the caged doors of the cell into the one opposite where a smaller boy slumped in an iron bed.

As if he sensed me watching him, he looked up, just enough for me to see him properly.

"Oh my gods," Annabeth muttered. "Is that-"

"Yeah. We have to get in there."

"Right." She said, looking at the iron bars that separated us from the prison. "Go left, we'll get inside through the next window." I did as she told me to.

Annabeth broke the glass with the butt-end of her dagger and we carefully squeezed through into another horrifyingly blank room. Except this one had a bed and on the table to the side was a plate full of blue pancakes.

Just the sight of something so familiar in the strange world stopped me in my tracks.

I vaguely hear Annabeth whisper, "She was here." And that woke me up from the momentary stupor.

"We have to find her." And as if by silent agreement, we headed for the door at the other end of the room. The corridor was just as blank as anything else. It felt like everything here was designed to confuse people, to make them feel lost and hopeless.

But it didn't take long to find the door that lead to the prison cells. It was the big white metal one with the yellow sign that read 'MONSTERS'.

Evil people were loosing their creativeness.

I took Riptide from my pocket and cleanly sliced through the edges of the door. One big kick was all it took for the thing to fall inwards.

The inside of the prison was dark and after being in the light for so long, it took a while for my eyes to adjust, but when it did, the horror sunk in.

On either side of us, were cells, but there were no monsters in there. There were people. Old, bleeding people, faces masked in anguish and pain.

Most of them didn't even looked up at our entrance and those who did stared with empty eyes. Annabeth took my hand and I held on to it tightly. We quickly made our way through the aisle to the cell with the young boy.

He was standing up, watching us.

When we stopped at his cell, he said, "Who are you?" His voice sounded hollow and dead and his face remained stony but any doubt I had of him faded away. This was Khristan, the guy who'd been with Ariel in my dreams.

Annabeth took charge. She walked forward, right up to the bars and said in a gentle voice, "You're Khris right?"

He frowned but stayed silent.

"We need your help. We have to find Arial-"

At the sound of her name, his expression changed. The stony face vanished and tears blinked into his eyes. "You won't- You won't find her." He choked out. "You're not going to find her. She's gone."

"What do you mean, she's gone?" I demanded.

"I mean, she's gone!" He shouted at me. "My father took her and- and I tried. I tried to stop them. He sat down on the steel hard floor of his cell and curled up in ball, muttering nonsense and crying.

Annabeth took out her dagger and broke the lock with a single stike. She pushed the door open and walked inside. Kneeling beside Khris, she slowly took his hand and made him look at her.

"She's going to be okay. We're going to find her, but we don't know where she is. We need your help. She needs your help, Khris."

He looked at her eyes. Recognition flashed over his face. Maybe he was remembering the same silver eyes with the sea-green specks.

"We have to be quick." He said quietly.

And as if to prove his point, the ground beneath us shook and we heard an explosion somewhere below us.

"What was that?" He asked me.

I smiled at him and gave him a hand. "An army."

He took my hand and pulled himself to his feet. "You'll have to follow me."

* * *

Khris took us to a whole other part of the building, where the halls were darker and the floors were made of obsidian.

All around us, the marble palace shook. Sometime in the middle of it all, a loud alarm started blaring out, but we didn't stop. Not until we came to that simple wooden door.

Annabeth didn't wait. She pushed on the door and it opened easily. When I stepped in after her, darkness engulfed me. The loud squeals of the alarm faded into background noise. When my eyes adjusted, I noticed the tall figure silhouetted against one of the walls.

Then the screaming started. Horrible, tortured screams.

"NO!" A voice rang out, a loud yell. It took me a while to realise it was Annabeth. The screams abruptly stopped and lights flickered back on, not as powerful as the ones outside, but enough to illuminate the entire scene.

Arial was lying on the floor, her breathing heavy and laboured. It didn't take a genius to figure out where the screams had come from.

Facing her, facing us, was the guy in the red cape.

He had his arms folded behind his back and at the sound of Annabeth's voice, he looked up, almost lazily and said, "Ah, good. You're finally here."

His mouth turned into a disapproving scowl when he said, "And Khris, my son. What a pleasant surprise."

"I'm not your son." He growled back.

"Of course you aren't." His father muttered. The pain in Khris's eyes was unmistakable, but before he could do anything, the man raised his hand. A bright red light filled the room and Khris flew at the wall. A loud thud and he lay unconsious on the ground. 

The man raised his hand again, this time pointing it towards Arial.

Annabeth was onto him in an instant. She pulled out her dagger, hands shaking in anger, pointed it at him and shouted, "Don't you dare lay another finger on my daughter!"

And like she was lightning, she charged at the man and prepared to attack.

I rushed forward and knelt beside Arial, picking up her limp body in my arms. Her head lolled to the side and her mouth gaped open lifelessly. She wasn't breathing.

I set her down gently on the floor again and took her small hands in my big, scarred ones. I tried to focus all my energy into her. Vaguely, I heard the battle behind me, and a small voice at the back of my head blamed me for leaving Annabeth  alone to fight the master of Evil.

But no, Annabeth was fine. She was a warrior. She was going to be okay.

She'd never forgive me if I didn't protect Arial. I'd never forgive myself.

I closed my eyes and just like I'd tried a long time ago when she'd fallen unconscious at sword fighting, I channelled my power into her heart. And I felt it, felt her heart - clouded over by secrecy and darkness. I imagined power slowly seeping through and felt the darkness give way to light.

Her hands suddenly felt warmer. I opened my eyes and for a second, nothing happened. But then she started breathing. A bit of colour came back into her face.

And that's when everything went wrong. Annabeth let out a strangled cry and fell. I heard the man laughing victoriously behind me, but that wasn't what stopped me.

Arial was looking up at me, eyes wide open but they weren't the mix of green and silver I'd remembered.

They were red.

A dark, cold hearted red.

* * *

A/N

You know the problem with the QWERTY keyboard? The letters surrounding C are X and V. So every time I type up Percy's name, it either comes out as Perxy or freaking Pervy!! So I'm literally sitting here typing, "Keep going Pervy." Gods of Olympus, I am SO done Stupid samsung and their slippery keyboards!!!!!

OKAY, SO I feel kind of heartless at ending the chapter there after making you all wait for so long, but THIS TIME, I swear by the Styx, I WILL UPDATE SOON!

I just had a lot of homework and assignments and tests and I was so busy, I did not have any time to write much. But who am I kidding? That was NO excuse to stop writing for you guys! But thank you for being SO supportive! GOD I CANT BELIEVE I MADE YOU WAIT AN YEAR FOR A FREAKING UPDATE!! I AM SOOOO SORRY!!!!

THIS IS SUCH AN UNFORGIVABLE CRIME!! I DESERVE TO GO TO FANGIRL PRISON.

I'll try and update by next Sunday at the latest...if not, then the Sunday after that but NO LATER!!

I hope you liked that chapter though. Was it too short?? If it was, I'll make the next one EXTRA-long :) I OWE YOU GUYS!

* * *

BTW, On a completely unrelated note, GUYS LISTEN TO THIS SONG 'All About Us' by He Is We and Owl City. Think about Percabeth while listening to it. You know that really cute scene at the end of the Titan's Curse when Percy says, 'I think I owe you a dance' and they dance to that sad, hopeful little song filled with uncertainty? Think about that moment and listen to the song!! You'll get it.

Also, If you're imagining the evil dude as Jafar's identical twin, you're forgiven. I am too...