~Playlist: "Alone" by Halsey~

"But I'm still alone in my mind"

Ana's POV

Piper is tiny.

That is the only thought in my mind as I stare down at the frozen girl. Her eyes are shut, frozen eyelashes glued to her face to keep them sealed. White ice covers up the color of her skin. Somehow, she looks so much smaller than I've ever seen her.

"Can you help her?" Daphne asks me kindly from her spot by the door.

I shrug helplessly, unable to peel my eyes away from Piper. "I don't know what you think I can do."

"You're the daughter of Hades," she reminds me, and I involuntarily shudder, "you can do this."

"But she's not dead," I say uncomfortably. Death is taboo to say in a hospital room. "Isn't there my department? Dead people? None of the people in this room are is dead."

"Persons," interrupts Malcolm, a friendly son of Athena, who tagged along with Daphne. I stare at him cluelessly for several seconds. He catches me looking at him, and shrugs. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But it's 'persons', not 'people'."

"Is persons even a word?" I ask, grateful for a distraction.

"Yeah, it is," Malcolm says, his eyes lighting up. "It's used to talk about a group of individually identifiable individuals, while people is used for a large, faceless group--"

"Malcolm," interrupts Daphne. "Not the time."

He smiles sheepishly, and shoves his hand into the pockets of his jeans.

"Anastasia," Daphne says, the warmth in her voice irresistible. I look into her deep brown eyes, and automatically feel relaxed. "I know you can do it. Touch her arm, and try to feel her beneath the ice."

I raise my eyebrows at her, but she isn't fazed. Realizing it's best to humor her, I place my small hand onto Piper's arm and close my eyes. I gasp, but not from the cold; from her thoughts.

Cold.

That word sends snapshots of memories to Piper, all of them too rushed together to discern a single one. All I can see is a girl with dark hair and eyes.

So cold.

Now, the girl is standing on the deck of a ship, her dark hair waving in the wind while two boys are standing near her.

Khione.

The name whispers on repeat through her thoughts. A name for the girl with icy eyes.

Then, I feel myself slipping away from Piper. I reach out desperately, but she's too absent to help me. I fall through complete darkness, unable to open my eyes and return to the real world.

In the darkness, I see three options: a warm fire, an owl staring at me with intelligent gray eyes, and an ever-changing silhouette bursting with shards of color. I drift towards the fire, fragile fingers outreached to grab a tongue of flame.

I touch the fire, and my mind fills with thoughts once again.

"You're running out of time."

A voice, one I've never heard before, speaks. In Piper's mind, I knew she was thinking, but this voice is clearly speaking.

I know what I'm doing.

Daphne's voice fills my mind, her's clearly thinking.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Chosen One," the voice muses, her voice filled with sympathy, "with time as one of your enemies. I'm fading quickly, Tana. You must hurry."

I can't leave. They're my friends, my family.

Daphne's voice is so determined, so stubborn and full of love that my heart swells.

"I would never try to take you away from you family, Tana, you know that. But my own family needs me, needs you to relieve me of my burden. Let me fade away, Tana. Let me finally leave."

I will. Just not now, Hestia. Something happened to Piper. Somehow, Khione came here, even though nothing more than a demigod is allowed inside the D.I.. I have to figure that out first. Besides, I'm not even done with my training--

"You're more trained than I am, Tana. There's no more time for excuses. You've been Chosen; you must fulfill your prophecy."

I will. I just need time.

My eyes fly open, finally ripping me from the black place I was in, and I stagger backwards. Daphne catches me, and supports me. She helps me regain balance.

"Who's Tana?" I ask her hesitantly.

Daphne stares at me, distrust and anger invading her normally happy and kind face. "Were you in my mind?"

"Yes," I say, knowing it's too late to lie. "I didn't mean to, but something ripped me out of Piper, and your fire gravitated me."

"Daphne," Malcolm says, his eyes wide.

Daphne ignores him. "Ana, I know you didn't mean to, but do you know what you just did?"

I shake my head wordlessly.

"You invaded the mind of a goddess. I was talking to Hestia. You shouldn't be able to do that, you shouldn't even be able to penetrate my mind."

I shake my head again, feeling so small. I barely notice Malcolm quietly shutting the door, leaving himself on the other side. The anger in her burning eyes makes my mouth go dry, makes my stomach squirm. But then, anger raced through my veins.

"How did you know I could do that?" I ask. "Why didn't you tell me until now? What did I even do?"

Cold!

Piper's voice screams through my mind, and I wince. Even now, I can feel the whispers of Daphne scraping against my mind.

"Ana," Daphne says, sounding tired. "I just don't know, okay?"

I stare at her face, one that's almost as familiar as my own. Years of looking up to this girl has given me the ability to read her face for hidden emotions. Right now, she's tired and angry and distracted.

"Daphne, what's going on? Why is Hestia in your mind?

Silence greets my question. I stare at Daphne, my eyes smoldering. She, on the other hand, just stares at Piper's frozen body.

"The gods are fading," she whispers after a long time. I blink in surprise: this is not the answer I was expecting.

"What do you mean by fading?" I ask her hesitantly.

"They're dying, Ana. They're weak, much too weak to fight anyone else. After the Titan and Giant resurgence, and then the revival of the primordials, they're always going to be weak from now on. Hestia has always been weaker because she gave up her spot as a major god so long ago, so she's been looking for a long time, ever since a prophecy."

"And you're the one from the prophecy?"

She nods.

"How? The Oracle died years ago, how did you hear about it?"

"Hestia," is all she says. "And don't worry about the Oracle: I've found a replacement."

I gape at her mysterious words. "When were you planning on telling anyone else about your plans?"

She flinches so hard, it's as if I've slapped her. But I don't back down or apologize.

"It's complicated, Ana. It's difficult having to lead here, knowing what I'll have to do."

"What will you have to do?" I ask, curious despite myself.

She closes her eyes, dark eyelashes fluttering against a sun-kissed cheek. Then she leaves. Daphne slams open the door, and leaves.

I close my eyes, and float myself back into Piper.

Who are you?

She senses my presence immediately.

I felt you earlier, but I couldn't tell. Who are you? Do I know you?

"I'm Ana. I'm a daughter of Hades, remember?"

Now I do. What happened to me? Am I dead?

"Don't worry, Piper McLean. You are far from dead. You're just frozen. Khione is apparently an enemy of yours, somehow."

Ana, can I tell you something?

Her voice is nervous and trembling.

"Of course." I am careful to make my voice calm, as if I'm soothing a horse.

I'm having strange visions. Memories. They have me and everyone I know in them, but I don't remember them ever happening. But I look the same, and so does everyone else.

"Who's in them?" I ask her cautiously.

Me. Jason. Annabeth. Leo. Percy. Hazel. Frank. Reyna. Nico. Sometimes Thalia. There are more, but everything is so rushed that I just can't tell.

"Not me?" I ask.

Not you, not Daphne or Esmerelda or Sam or Silena or Willow or Luke.

"When did this start happening?"

Gods, it's like you're a therapist. It started when I got frozen. But Annabeth has told me about having weird memory flashback things. What do you make of this, Ana?

"I don't know," I whisper wordlessly. "Ever since y'all came, everything's been different. Weird. Daphne's been secretive, Esmerelda's more aggressive than usual, and suddenly, things have been happening. Willow gets captured, which we've been trying to do for years, a mission failed, and now, you and Annabeth are having flashbacks."

Things have been weird long before I came to the D.I.. The Selection was way weirder than this.

I laugh, the sound foreign on my lips. "Piper, we're going to get you out of this. I promise. Is there anything I can get for you?"

Though she's frozen and can't move, I can feel the smile.

There is one thing.

"What are we doing? Where are we going?"

I smile, but don't answer. We reach the white door quickly, and I push it open, revealing a frozen Piper on the bed.

Hello, Jason.

Since I'm touching Jason's wrist, he can hear it as well as I can.

"Piper," he whispers, dropping to his knees beside the bed. "I'm so sorry."

It's not your fault.

"Still. I should've done something."

There was nothing you could have done, Jason. You're not to blame. Khione is the one who did this.

"The ice goddess," he whispers. His blue eyes widen in surprise, as if he didn't expect that to come out of his mouth.

You can feel it, too, can't you? Like you have memories that you can't remember happening?

"I have a feeling I'm not used to remembering," Jason says with a smile.

Me too. I feel like I'm used to having to explain everything to you.

I want to leave, to give them privacy, but if I leave, then they won't be able to communicate. So I stay there, my hand fluttering like a butterfly on his wrist.

"Are you okay?"

It's like I'm awake, but asleep. I can't see anything, but I can hear just fine. The cold has gone away, but I still know that I'm frozen. I don't know how to describe it.

"I'm sorry I haven't been there for you," he whispers. I shut my eyes, as if that could keep their personal life out of my ears. "I don't know what happened to us."

Do you want to see something?

A memory floats through my mind. Piper and Jason stand on a roof beneath a ceiling of stars that span on forever above them.

"I'm a dangerous girl," I hear Piper say.

"That I believe," Jason responds.

They reach for each other, and dance together without music, stars casting the only spotlight.

The memory fades, leaving just Piper's presence in my mind.

"What was that?" Jason asks breathlessly.

It was a memory, but not one I remember making. They're all coming back to me. It's hard to tell what happened and what didn't. It all blurs together.

Jason reaches for her, but retracts his hand quickly. "You're still cold."

Jason, I'm literally frozen. Did you expect me to be warm?

"It surprised me!" he protests, grumbling.

Piper laughs. Is everything okay out there? Is everyone okay? How's Silena?

He winces. "She's grieving. So is everyone else. It's been hard, you know? No one expected Beckendorf to be gone."

That's the thing about death: the ones who don't deserve it always die first.

"What does that say about Willow?"

Piper sighs. It means it's going to be a long time until she's gone.

Author's Note
For those of you that forgot, Ana is one of my characters that's a daughter of Hades.

What POV should I do next? Whose eyes do you want to see through? Comment or PM me.