Hello everyone. Before you start reading I'd like to make a few facts clear. Firstly I thought this idea up as I was having my yearly marathon of crappy Fanfiction stories. It just so happened that, like, 5 of them were "Commander of Chaos", "Assassin of Chaos", "Captain of Chaos" –esk clichés. I'm not sure if these are still around, but this story was festering in my head as a result, about 5 months ago… so clearly this story is becoming pretty addicting for me.

NOW BEFORE YOU LEAVE! I'd like to say that is more or less of me taking the attributes and trying to make the best out of it. So, no, this won't be another one of those clichés, in fact it only has elements or traits, but overall completely different.

One last thing: just so no one gets confused while reading, here's a brief history of the setting. This takes place SIX years after the Percy Jackson series (not including the Heroes series). Another war has taken place (I'm not going to talk about it now, I'm leaving that for later). And lastly, Percy has a brother who is also gone (I skipped the part where Percy is treated like crap for future parts).

My last stand, my final challenge, behind this last remaining obstacle is my true ending, the solution that will mend my burning tempest. My only remedy will be a swift death after my vengeance is satisfied.

"Achilles!" I called out, brandishing riptide beside me. "Let's go." Without waiting for the response I charged forward, cutting riptide into the final fiend, the Destroyer of Percy.

Annabeth crumbled the small letter in her hands, her lips flattened and her jaw tightened. Never before had she felt so empty, so thoughtless like an idiot or a simple shell, hollow and worthless. Her mind shut off, working on nothing but the grey pebbles beneath her feet.

The sky wasn't happy, it never seemed to be anymore, ever sense then...

A stream of tear spill over her eye, sliding down her face to her chin then dropping onto her lap.

"Come on." Another voice whispered, one that sounded familiar, but it wasn't his so it didn't matter. "Is that His note?" She asked, earning no response. "Don't do this to yourself, you're not the only one grieving because Achilles died." She said bitterly. "We're all grieving-"

"Shut up." Annabeth's voice was weak and cracking, but her emotions were all but hollow. Her once blonde hair was now a light shade of gray like the pale sky.

"Anny." The person sat down next to Annabeth. "I miss him too, but..." She looked over Annabeth, but couldn't see her eyes, which were obscured by her gray curls. "I don't know what was going on between you two, but I want you to know..." Her voice quivered a little, like reluctance. "... I loved him too."

"Shut up!" Annabeth yelled, for the first time since Achilles's death she regained her strength, forcing out so much energy that it sent tingles through her skin. "You don't understand." Her voice started off strong but broke when she said: "understand". Her grip on the letter tightened further, squeezing as if her life depended in it. "You don't understand anything..."

Thalia bit back her retort, instead she got up and stared down on Annabeth, then she left without another word.

Her strength left her, draining away like water from a broken bucket. "And I don't understand either."

"Kronos rises once again." Chiron said, placing his hands on the ping-pong table, his fingers dragged against the numbing surface. "And this time we lack every key player we once had."

The meeting room fell into bitter silence, the lamp behind Chiron did little to battle the cold blackness around them. Nine. Only nine demigods circled the table, nine leaders out of 13 cabins.

Of course due to Nico's unpredictable behavior, he was once again off on his own, soloing through the cold winter for quests and monsters to brave. Hera and Artemis would drop dead before seeing a demigod representing them in the meeting room. So why was there still only nine.

Because he's dead, gone off and vanished from existence. But who could blame him for doing so, after how we treated him, abused him, used him like a worthless pawn. Even the gods have to beg for us to see his face once more. Why haven't I seen this before?

But you did.

Yes, I did notice, I saw his frown, his sorrow, and his tears, but I did nothing to comfort him. I ignored him, forgotten all about him like an old doll.

He didn't matter to you.

My head fell once more, hanging in hopeless disappointment. Why didn't I do anything, why was I so fixated on all the little things to totally forget his face, I couldn't even remember his eyes or his voice. He came up as a blank, nothing but a white mask with black eyes.

Then another face took on the mask, a more defined structure, a broader chin and sharper eyes, dry straw like black hair. It was He, the man the averted everything, the same man that flipped this camp upside-down.

"Why is this happening?" Anthony asked, the temporary counselor for Apollo. "I thought that it'd take thousands of years for him to reform?"

"Unless the Heart Stone was not destroyed." Chiron said and immediately Thalia jumped on the defensive.

"Achilles destroyed it, don't even joke about that!" She shouted, her voice echoed in the dark room.

What was she doing, I wonder. Was she trying to protect me, to defend Achilles for my sake or was she just so in love with him, herself. Either way, it sickened me. The small folded letter in my pocket weighed down my pants.

Let it fall, humiliation is what I deserve, that was the least I could pay for Him, for my cruelness, for everyone's cold shoulder. But I knew what truly weighted me down, a small bronze pen.

"There might be a possibility that the Heart Stone was not truly broken, perhaps not completely." He said, giving careful consideration to Thalia.

"So what do we do now?" Anthony gripped the table's edge until his knuckles turned white. Poor boy, he always wanted to be a counselor but not now, no one wanted to be after the Third War. "We don't have Achilles this time."

Chiron scratched his chin for a moment, feeling distracted, maybe even contemplative. But of course there was no way he'd let me in on it. He never did anymore.

"A quest." I found my voice answer the question before I even realized I ever talked. The room grew tense, everyone turned towards me, waiting, anticipating for me to elaborate, but found no such thing. I stayed silent; it was just a wandering thought that found its way to my tongue, no reason to defend it.

"Perhaps," Chiron's eyes narrowed, he was on to something. Don't tell me he's actually considering. "A quest it is then!" His eyes set directly on me. "Considering you thought this up, Miss Chase, mind doing the honors."

"I'll take it!" Thalia cut in, her concerning eyes switched to me. What did she thing I was, a fragile doll? I won't just sit here waiting for her to rub me all over with a cloth and sit me aside safely away from any danger.

"It's mine." I stated. "I thought it up, therefore I claim it. Let me see the Oracle."

"Hey." Rachel scooted aside and patted the couch. "Come, sit."

I did so and fell lightly on the cushion, I feel so weak like never before. Pathetic how frail I am right now, all my life training all resorting to this.

"So, How are you doing?" She asked, placing her hand on my back, the notion made my guts turn. Why was everyone treating me like a glass?

I nodded, but that only meant the complete opposite.

"If you'd like the talk." She gave a halfhearted smile, but it was enough for me to get back to task.

"I need a prophecy." a concise demand.

"Yeah, I know, I overheard." Rachel smiled. What a strange girl, stating that she didn't want anything to do with the meetings yet post up on the wall in the next room eavesdropping, which wasn't so secretive, considering she once stumbled and fell, quieting the meeting room with her curses. "Come at me." Her eyes shut, and soon she was gone.

"Oracle." I stood up. "Give me a quest to solve this riddle." My hands reached into my pocket and pulled out the small crumbled letter, unfolding it to reveal its content to the green mist.

"Take to the lands of far off undead.

Soak the relict in waters of white.

Visit the endless maze and capture the wildest beast.

Simplest creature, bearing the greatest challenge.

Face your lost and accept your fate." Rachel shook her head as if clearing from a daze. She blinked at me and seemed to remember what had happened. "How was it?"

My head hung low and she received her answer. Everything seemed simple enough, but the last line was far more then revealing. Accept my fate, huh. A bit blunt for the Oracle isn't it.

So I returned to the waiting counselors in the next room, eager yet dreading for my return.

"Well?" Clarisse demanded. "What's the prophecy?" If you'd shut up and let me talk...

"'Take to the lands of far off undead. Soak the relict in waters of white. Visit the endless maze and capture the wildest beast. Simplest creature. Bearing the greatest challenge.'" I intentionally cut last phrase, why give more dread than already present?

"Hm." Chiron stayed silent, clearly seeing through my lies, but said nothing of it.

"What's with the third line?" Clarisse raised one eyebrow. What's with you face?

"It's the Oracle, what did you expect?" Anthony retorted.

"Shut up, Replacement!" That made Anthony quiet down, a low blow even for Clarisse, but I guess all is fair in love and war.

"Well," I began, not that I was all that excited to set off on a quest just to find my lost, but I wanted out of this camp. "The first part is easy enough."

"Hades." Thalia leaned in.

"But 'soak the relict' what could that..." A sudden realization hit me partially with the help of my heavy pants. Something that's left behind by something that once lived. The pen served as more than an acceptable relict. "We'll get there once we get there." cross the bridge when something-something that I can't remember.

"The endless maze must be the Labyrinth." Thalia thought out loud.

"That'd work if it wasn't destroyed years ago." Clarisse pointed out.

"Well, isn't the Labyrinth alive?" Anthony asked. "So shouldn't it be healing?"

"Don't be stupid-"

"We'll give it a try, if not then we'll walk around a park maze or something." I interrupted.

"What about the beast?"

"We'll find it in the Labyrinth." I glanced at Clarisse. "Or the park maze, either one."

"If everything is settled." Chiron clapped his hands together. "Shall we select the members?"

"I'll go!" Thalia's hand flew up even before Chiron finished talking.

"And who else would you like to accompany you?"

"Rachel." A sudden bang sounded in a room over followed by a curse; the room fell silent as the girl in the next room recomposed.

"Sorry." Rachel's voice said through the walls. "I was just hanging a picture frame."

"No." Clarisse barked. "She's not trained and not the mention she's the Oracle, we can't risk her getting hurt."

"We need a good pair of eyes." I bit back. "And unless you've found out how to see through the mist completely, back off."

The girl seethed with anger, something that once scared me, but now it's just annoying.

"This is all so stupid!" She screamed and stomped out of the room. Not surprised, the same thing happened when Achilles died, now the whole camp is out of joint, everyone's gloomy faced and pathetic, but I'm the last person worthy to call anyone else pathetic, I can't even stop crying, even now.

"Let's go." I said to Thalia who followed like a dog. "I want to set off before it gets dark."

Besides Rachel's frantic hyperventilating and over packing, we were very well on schedule, the going-before-it-gets-dark schedule. Which doesn't sound hard but having to force Rachel to repack three times was a big time waste.

Before we departed, Chiron waved us towards a secluded part of the hill where the demigods knew to stay away. There he remained silent, scanning over us like some complex puzzles.

Give it here; I'll piece that shit right up.

Well maybe not quite as fast as I would before, my mind seemed to be at an all time slow, which was great news for the quest.

"I've also spoken to the Oracle before this day." Chiron finally admitted. Was that why he called the meeting? Well other then the whole Kronos reforming aspect. "It seems some great force is at work." Of course he's not going to come out and just tell us the prophecy. "This quest, I feel, will greatly contribute to the change that is before us. I cannot reveal the prophecy, however you may know that this quest most likely will be a search for a cornerstone to this uprising war." The ground silenced, no one moved or so much as breathed.

"Cornerstone?" Thalia finally asked.

"A person," Chiron eyed them. "someone with as high caliber as to be able to change the tides of this war."

This excited Thalia, a little too much.

"Who, do you know?" She chimed. "Please tell us." You mean "me"?

"No, the prophecy neither told nor gave clue to this character." Chiron shook his head; this however did not upset Thalia.

"Well," She said with a barely contained smile. "we definitely know who it is." I did.

Percy.

"Achilles." Wha-? "He's not dead, is he?" Thalia's smile widened into a grin, this girl. She turned to me and placed her hand on my shoulder as if sharing a dirty secret. "Isn't that great?"

"Let's not jump to conclusion." Chiron raised an eyebrow, thanks. Thalia frowned, almost a pout.

"We don't want to jinx it." I said, which seemed to ease her a bit. What was so great about Achilles again? He had a silver tongue, a great speaker and an even better show off, I'd be lying if I'd said it never looked him over twice, or three times.

"Now, shall we see you off?" I nodded, finding myself extremely sleepy for some reason. We waited on half-blood hill until a runner appeared.

"It's open." He coughed out. "But it looked a little dangerous to venture into."

"Danger's the name of the game!" Thalia pumped her fist a motion that confused the runner, just a moment ago she was all sad and moody now she's all hyped and ready. Girls...

"Bet Clarisse is pretty flushed about now." Rachel sang. What's going with everyone all of a sudden?

"We should go." I turned around and headed for the camp van the other two followed distantly behind, no doubt whispering about my attitude.

Since the van was pretty old Argus had a jolly time turning the key before the engine decided to cooperate and being inside that tank when the engine roared was like listing to fire truck sirens. So my decided to hang outside, feeling the worn paint of the van, slowly peeling off, the strawberries beginning to lose its color, turning a pale pink.

It was in here that we rode to New York, to face the Titan King for the first time, my nerves nearly ate me up, I held my hat so tightly that I very well would have snapped if not for the bus pulling to a stop. It was there that Percy met up with us, ready, completely armor-less, so ready to fight, so ready to protect without a second thought.

Two bangs that jolted me back to reality.

"Hey, Anny, lets go." Thalia opened the sliding door and crawled in, for a moment I felt a strange fury rise within me, then it subsided.

During the ride we stayed in silent, it was clear that none of us were ready for a quest, we knew something was up in the skies and oceans, we knew our job in the Third War were lacking and sloppy, how many Titans just disappeared? How many hundreds of thousands of monsters just vanished. None of us wanted to admit to it, but our job was unfinished. Heck even our most prioritized one ended in vain; Kronos was back, and quicker than ever.

We lost over half of our numbers last time, which puts us at the worst point in, well, ever. Not once have camps number dropped below 70 before, well there's a first for everything, right?

Not to mention some gods disappeared from existence. Looking at you Poseidon, who was clearly moping over the lost of the "greatest kin of Poseidon to ever live", Achilles. Which never happened when a certain other kin of Poseidon had disappeared.

Now, once again I find myself a hypocrite, because to tell the truth when Percy vanished, I never notice. I had assumed he was simply in his cabin. No, that wasn't it. I didn't know anything about him, I simply didn't care, and now he's gone, hopefully somewhere on a beach not giving a single care to us, well, me. Yeah, I hope he's forgotten all about me, I hope he has forgotten about every one of us worthless shits.

The passage to hell always seemed a bit too humid to me. Then again it was hall. The gate practically spat vapor into the cold air. It seemed taking Rachel along wasn't such as bad idea considering she was willing and happy to sing us a nice song to open Orpheus's entrance.

Now with the scarf off, we entered the steps; this quest was already taking on a climatic setting. Step one: enter hell, great start.

The stairs didn't seem to take too long, with Rachel talking half the time, seriously, I'm pretty sure she's the only one who can talk no matter what. I was half hoping to run into Nico down here, but why would just he be posted up by the entrance at 6 o'clock on a Tuesday?

Why not visit good old Hades, huh?

Because, I'd rather not become a demon slave in this lifetime?

The terrain of the underworld was quite barren, a dessert theme with cracks on the ground and stalactite that poke from the endless skies. There was no light in Hades, but there always was a hue covering the grounds, not too bright, but enough so not to fall into the river Styx.

"So what now?" Thalia asked jogging up next to me.

"What's white?" I asked simply. She seemed dumbfound.

"Paper?"

"Well, white is typically referred to as a color. However, colors are only pigments that absorb the suns light, white absorbs no light and bounces right off, therefore white is nothing. White is empty and nothingness and what's nothingness? No memory equals nothingness, the water of white is referring to the river Lethe."

"Or it could just be white water!" Rachel called out from far, far ahead. Thalia and I caught up to her, standing on a small dome of sand, before us was a curvy river of white water cutting through the land.

"Oh." I walked up to the water, searching into my jean pocket until a cold metal touched my skin. It felt like ice, and weight like a brick but I managed to pull it out, hurray.

"What's that?" Thalia came close.

"The only relict I know of." I answered holding up the pen, she raised an eyebrow and gasp, remember? Your cousin?

"Is that Percy's?" She pointed.

"Not anymore," I cradle the pen in one hand. "it never returns to him, he had left it." Like he had left me. I crouched down, closest to the riverbank as I dare, and dropped the pen in the white water; it sank in, pulled down into the misty waters. Was it lost? Had I just lost one of the most important weapons in history?

"Was that suppose to happen?" Rachel leaned over my shoulder.

"Get a stick!" I cried and we all lost it, trailing around to find some sort of long object to poke at the water, nothing.

"Here!" Thalia handed me a metal container, without a second look I plunged it into the Lethe and swirled it around trying to find a clink or anything, but the bottle began to sink as well, I pulled it out with great ease only to find the bottom half the of the container melted off. I didn't even know the Lethe could do that!

The three of us bowed our heads in shame.

"Step one: check, step two: failed." Rachel announced, her arms forming into an X.

"We'll continue, forget about the soaking part, let's pretend we've completed that as assigned and move on." Thalia and Rachel nodded, but of course we all had doubts.

I understand if it lacked action, let me relief you all. There is indeed action in the next chapter, and even more so the one after.

Annabeth won't be gloomy grump for much further.

Percy will be back.

And the cursing will ease tooooo, well, none. Do keep in mind that this whole chapter was written 5 to 7 months ago as a mini idea to keep me busy, so the pacing in this chapter is a bit rushed. The writing, in my opinion, grows a bit better as well.

Thanks to all of you reading this story, it means the world to me if you've smiled reading my work.

Please tell my how I did and if you're at all interested.