~ ☼ ~

We arrived at the Empire State Building as one ramshackle army, all of us looking worse for wear from the long car ride. Not from the, y'know, threat of death. Driving through traffic in both Queens and Manhattan can be pretty stressful.

I got out without looking at Alec or Riley. Instead, I just stood there on the Manhattan sidewalk, shifting uncomfortably while Percy Jackson's green eyes looked over all of us like he was trying to figure out which of us were actually loyal to the cause. I knew there was a spy, but Riley had said they weren't in Cabin 7, so I frankly did not care. Or I told myself that, at least. Even though I looked around and was saddened by pretty much everyone being here.

Percy gave us a short little speech. Apparently, we weren't here to fight yet, but to have an audience with Zeus and demand his help in defending Olympus. I did not know why we had to ask someone to defend their own home, but such were the gods. I was more excited, deep, deep underneath my angst, about visiting Olympus.

I'd never ever done that before.

We all followed Percy and Annabeth into the Empire State Building, then packed into two elevators to go up like a really sad field trip. We even had our matching shirts, but no brown paper bag lunches, unfortunately. Maybe some food would've calmed me down.

I stood there uncomfortably. The elevator smelled like our sweat and business men's cologne simultaneously, and they were playing disco on the little radio inside.

"Ugh," Michael Yew whispered, next to me. "I hate the Bee Gees."

I gave him a look. "You have opinions on disco? It all blends together to me."

He gave me an equal look. "You don't have opinions on disco? The Bee Gees suck. ABBA is supremely better."

Well, I could agree with that. Even my cold dead heart could appreciate Dancing Queen. But before I could tell my brother so, the elevator suddenly shot up.

I thought I was gonna be sick.

I nearly fell backwards, but there were too many kids packed in for that to happen. I leaned against someone I think was in the Hermes cabin, then found my balance just as the elevator settled at the top. Then the doors opened, we stepped out, and, like I'd just eaten a piece of ambrosia, all my sickness washed away.

Mt. Olympus was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.

Awash in late afternoon sunlight, it glittered like a Mediterranean seaside town, all white buildings built into the clouds and endless gold roofs. I could smell incense and flowers on the wind. But something felt cleaner than any town on Earth could be. The marble shone more beautifully than any marble I'd ever seen, and the peach tint to it all made it feel like we were stepping into one of those old Rococo murals on the ceilings of old palaces.

I know a little bit about history, okay.

I heard one of the Stoll brothers whistle low, and the other brother elbowed him. But I couldn't exactly blame him, even though it felt too lighthearted for the situation. The only thing that would've made it better was music, pan pipes or lyres or something.

"Let's go," Chiron said.

I hadn't even seen the second elevator had come up. But sure enough, here they were, and I realized with a start that in following Michael, I had been separated from the rest of my cabin. I watched as we all reconvened while moving forward, Lucky and Brynn and Will as impressed with Olympus as I had been. Riley met my eyes, then looked away again. I wanted to walk beside her, and beside Alec, but I kept to myself.

As we crossed over the sky bridge to Olympus, somebody pointed something out - blue lights, shooting through the sky. They did no harm, more like electric smoke bombs - normal fireworks, then? - than missiles. Still, they scared us. We hurried quickly onto Olympus.

The place was dead empty, emptier than a school in the summer. I didn't understand where everyone was. I wanted to ask someone, but I kept quiet; luckily, I heard a comment from a Hephaestus kid.

"I wonder if dad's on the front line with everyone else, or if he's being kept in some cave pumping out weapons."

His sister snorted, but I was curious. I hadn't realized the gods were fighting. For some reason, I was under the impression that they had just left - just fled to leave the city to its own defenses. I looked around, waiting to see one, as Percy hustled everyone into the throne room. As I stopped, someone bumped into me from behind. One of the unclaimed Hermes kids. Few of them remained at Camp after joining the Titan Army had become a possibility.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"Sorry," I returned back to her.

She looked me over for a moment, then said, "You knew Kiera and Aria, right?"

I blanched. "Um. Yeah."

I braced myself for the attack, but the girl only gave me a tiny smile.

"I was kinda friends with them," she said. "I'm Kris."

Then she caught up with the rest of the crowd. I stood there, shocked, following her with my eyes. Annabeth's gray eyes were flashing over everyone, keeping a headcount, but the only other person who wasn't following Percy was Alec, hesitating outside the entrance to the palace of the gods. Under those marble eaves, he looked so egregiously normal. Once I'd caught his eye, he quickly went inside.

"AJ?" Annabeth asked. "You coming?"

I blinked, surprised she knew my name.

"Uh, yeah," I said, jogging over to her. "Sorry."

She said nothing, only brought up the rear. The doors to the Hall of the Gods were open, but if they weren't, I imagined I would've heard a giant thud behind us. Then it was just the couple dozen of us, in a stadium-sized throne room. Annabeth passed me, looking pensive. I watched her like I had Kris.

Percy talked to Hestia, the goddess of the Hearth and the only one who had remained on Olympus. I was impressed, but also felt awkward, as I stood in the back of the crowd, feeling like this was a really wack field trip. Then, Hermes appeared, and Percy instructed the Stoll brothers to lead us all out of the throne room.

"See who's left in Olympus," he said. "Meet me and Annabeth back here in thirty minutes."

So we did as he told us, a few groans and complaints. My eyes traced over Hermes, a dashing -no pun intended - figure as we left, but he was not a god I was particularly interested in.

We got split into two groups, narrowly matching our usual Capture the Flag teams - Athena, Apollo, and Hermes vs everyone else.

Great - I'm stuck with all the people I have tension with.

"We'll take the south part of the city," Connor said. "Travis, Annabeth put us in charge - maybe you should lead the other group. We'll split up."

"You're just saying that so-"

Connor grimaced, doing a cut-throat motion, and Travis immediately shut his mouth. Before anybody could ask what that was about, Travis grinned.

"Got it," he said. "Team Red plus me, let's go."

They set off, and that left Team Blue to go south.

Mt. Olympus was as beautiful in its side streets as it was in its main plaza. It truly was a city up here amongst the clouds, terraced and cleverly built to fit everything in. Each building seemed to constantly try to stretch higher, be more lavish, than the last; between them were lush gardens or sweet streams running towards the cliff-face.

I hopped up on a curb to entertain myself by keeping my balance. A moment later, I realized someone was beside me again.

"This is so pretty," Kris said. "I've never been here."

I glanced at her, feeling a little suspicious. "Me neither."

"It's crazy, isn't it?" she asked. "You think we'd be allowed up here whenever we wanted."

I would've been even more suspicious, but she said it glumly, not angrily, so I chuckled.

"Yeah, seriously," I said. "We should all have townhouses up here."

"A villa for every cabin!"

Now I laughed, and Kris added, pointing at one villa we passed - decorated with flowers, which told me it might belong to some high-ranking nymph or maybe a muse - "That could totally be Cabin 10's. They'd love that."

Cabin 10 was Aphrodite. "They so would."

We giggled again, then went quiet, but it was a nice quiet. I think everyone up ahead was doing stuff, but we were just kind of trailing along. Connor, for once, seemed perfectly eager to take responsibility; he was knocking on doors, running back and forth like a kid trick-or-treating, making sure nobody was here. The Olympians had all gone to fight, as I knew now, but I had to wonder where the nymphs and muses and minor gods were. If the minor gods even lived up here.

I glanced at Kris, wondering whose daughter she was. She was pretty average looking, just like me - ash brown hair, brown eyes, freckles. I think she might've been 13 or 14. I was this close to asking her an invasive question, when suddenly she gasped.

"That's Athena's temple," she said, pointing out a tall, imposing marble structure set back from the main path, built with only the smoothest, most perfect architecture - no ornamentation or decoration. Sure enough, some of the Athena kids were pausing around the gates that cut off the path that led to it, though Malcolm, the vice head counselor, was trying desperately to get them to keep up.

"Wow," I said, letting out a long breath, as we passed the olive tree-lined driveway. "That's impressive."

I thought of Lucas - no, of Pallas, in the river in Pittsburgh. She'd given one last message for Lucas to give to his mother, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. I paused, too, though the Cabin 6 kids had already carried on. Kris paused with me, a few feet ahead.

"What is it?" she asked.

I couldn't help it. She was being nice, and I hardly knew her. So I said, "The quest Aria and Kiera and I went on - it was with this other kid, too. Lucas Burgess. His mom was Athena."

Kris' face fell, and I instantly felt bad. But she gave me a polite "I'm so sorry. Did he...?"

"Yeah," I said, quietly. "He did."

What was Pallas' message? I could not remember it, no matter how hard I tried, and it was driving me crazy. Had Lucas ever even told me?

"Sorry," I said, after a moment, realizing that the rest of Team Blue had gotten much further down the path. The last thing I wanted in the middle of the war was to be stuck by myself on Mt. Olympus; I think that might earn both Kris and I a smiting from the Olympians once they returned.

"It's okay," Kris said, smiling awkwardly. "Let's go."

~ ☼ ~

Once Olympus was well and checked, we gathered back in a little park near the edge of the mountain. It was nice, like one of those scenic overlooks you can pull off into off the side of the road. We all mingled, waiting for Team Red to return. Once they did, Connor immediately broke through our crowd and strode towards his brother, who met him with a grin.

"I got it," he said. "You got yours?"

"Hades yeah," said Travis. He reached into his pocket and brought out a really shiny cup. Someone near me gasped, and a Cabin 6 girl said, "That's a godly chalice!"

Just as she said this, Connor reached into his own pocket and brought out a flask. I had no idea where he had gotten it from, but he took the godly chalice from Travis' grasp and poured the contents of the flask into it. The liquid within was bright gold and shining.

"Golden apple juice," said Travis, as if this explained everything. "It transforms once it meets Nestor's cup."

"What is it? Like, a super powerful nectar?" somebody asked, while the same Cabin 6 girl was still smarting that Travis had stolen a godly chalice.

"Nope," said Connor, popping the P. He grinned, then held up the chalice like he was giving a toast. "Just really good shit."

Somebody else gasped, but most of us immediately began to laugh. Before we knew it, Connor was pouring a drink over and over again - his flask seemingly endless - while Travis passed around the chalice. It was like communion. When it came to me, Connor grinned.

"Enjoy it, Hood," he said. "It tastes like-"

"Shut up," said Travis, elbowing him, like he knew what he was going to say and didn't want to let him.

I narrowed my eyes, but couldn't help but giggle surreptitiously. "What does it taste like? Beer?"

Then I took a sip, and realized it tasted the furthest thing from beer (or what I imagined beer tasted like. Gods knew I'd never drank alcohol). It was fruity and smooth and sweet, and was more like caffeine than anything.

"Dang," I said, and Connor laughed. "Right!"

I savored the taste, smiling as the buzz came on. Maybe it was a placebo. Maybe it was my new friend, reacting just as positively, or the fact that we were all doing it like this was Jonestown. Either way, I felt good.

But the Stolls had hardly gotten to the next person after Kris when suddenly there was a very loud noise. First, it sounded like a car crashing, then another squealing to a stop. It happened sort of all at once and in quick succession at the same time. A million bangs: car crashes, subway crashes.... plane crashes? Then, all of a sudden, it all stopped. The world was silent.

We all froze at once.

"What was that?" asked Lacey Gonzaga, her mouth flying open.

"Shoot!" said Jake Mason. "Come on."

He broke out of the crowd, running down to the ledge just below us, where there were a bunch of those binocular things they have at the top of overlooks. Some kids followed him, and I saw as panic exploded on all of their faces. It took me a moment to follow too, my fear getting stronger the more my friends reacted.

"What is it?" Malcolm called out, just in front of me, as we caught up with Jake.

Jake moved aside from the binoculars, letting him through; the Stoll Brothers and Katie Gardener took another one.

"What is it?" another camper asked, since Jake hadn't answered verbally.

"I-" he looked incredulous. "I don't know!"

Malcolm moved away from the binoculars, his face pale as he met the Stoll brothers' eyes.

"Go get Percy and Annabeth," he said. "Something is seriously wrong."

Travis immediately did as he was told, but this still didn't help the rest of us who couldn't get a binocular. Connor - maybe that was Travis? - was hogging his, and the Aphrodite girls were gaggling around another.

I moved out of the crowd over to the side of the ledge, peering my head over the guardrail as much as I could, trying to figure it out. I was near where the guardrail ended, and there was a small space between it and the beginning of the hill side where one could fall through. But I paid attention. Didn't I?

I couldn't see from here, not through the clouds. We were too high, and looking over it made me dizzy. I quickly moved back, leaning against the railing for support. I felt someone's presence a moment later. I looked up to see Alec.

"Where's Riley?"

His voice was hard, but once he saw how sick I looked, his face softened. Too bad, because what he'd said had shocked me out of my sickness. I stood up straight again.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "She's not up here?"

"I haven't seen her since the Hall of the Gods," he said. "I thought - maybe she just-"

"What!" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I thought maybe she had just gotten lost in the crowd!"

"There was like, 24 of us! It shouldn't have been that hard to confirm she wasn't there!"

"Well, I'm confirming it now," Alec said, his voice raising. "Do you know where she is, or not?"

I moved backwards, intimidated. Not scared, necessarily. I knew Alec would never hurt me, not on purpose, but I'd never heard him sound so angry or so violent. My eyes went to the knife at his side.

"AJ?" Alec added, after a moment, seeing my concern.

"Um," I said, trying to catch my breath. Riley was missing, Alec was scary, and they were both mad at me. What the Hades was happening? "Uh-"

I stepped off the guard rail, but my foot didn't find traction.

It all happened so quick. I didn't know how I'd ended up so far to the right, so close to the gap between the railing and the hillside. Either way, I slipped on dirt and rocks, and before I knew it, I had lost my balance.

And fell 300 feet down.

~ ☼ ~

I didn't even scream at first. Instead, I just thought, Oh my gods, AJ, you idiot!

Then I screamed.

Maybe I was too far away too quickly, or maybe he was too panicked, but Alec's light powers didn't reach me this time. I swear I saw him sprint to the cliff side and throw something out, but it ended just short of me. I felt like a stuffed animal dropped back into the claw machine right before the player won.

I was hurtling through the sky faster than I could explain to you, or at least, it felt like that. I passed through a cloud, soaking me through with water, which would've been a cool experience had it not been before me probably dying. I just fell and fell and fell, wind whipping past me. I thought of Alec, how I'd never get closure on what happened in the woods; on Riley, who I could never thank enough for being my friend. And of my parents, who thought I was safe. Who had just wanted me to take up another instrument.

Panic was setting in now. Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods-

Then, suddenly, I felt a hard thud. I barely gathered what it was I'd landed on - all I knew was that I was 1. In MAJOR pain, and 2. about to fall off of this, too. So I scrambled, holding on with all my might, and realized through the shock of it all that Hemmings had saved me.

I reached for my back, groaning.

"Hemmings," I murmured. "How far did I fall?"

Then I blacked out.

~ ☼ ~

When I woke again, I had no idea how much time had gone by. I just opened my eyes and found moonlight and artificial light flickering through tree leaves. Immediately, I lurched upwards to sit, panicked that I'd been taken back to Camp, but I hadn't.

I'd know where I was anywhere. Sheep's Meadow, Central Park. Every other time I'd been to Manhattan, my dad had made us come here, though it usually was not so... dead. Or, rather, asleep.

Because, like usual, Sheep's Meadow was a broad swath of grass, filled with picnickers on blankets, except every single one of them were asleep. I only knew they were asleep and not dead because the one nearest me was snoring. It was also dark out, which made even less sense, because I assumed most picnickers packed up and left the meadow by nightfall.

Panic shot through me, making my back hurt again like I'd been shot. I think my future child might have stepped on a crack.

Then I realized, with a jolt, there was a leaf in my mouth.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed, spitting it out as quickly as I could. It tasted like dirt, and was tiny. "What the-"

"Oh!" said a voice from behind me. "You're awake! It worked!"

I turned rapidly to see a female, previously scrounging on the ground, come running up to me. I was right near the tree line, and for a moment, in my haze, I thought one of the trees had come to life as the woman bent down next to me. Then I realized, through the shadows, it was a dryad.

"The mint!" she said, picking up the leaf. "Hold on, I have more."

She reached into the pocket of her loose dress, as I thought, that was MINT? Then, when she went to pry open my jaw, I quickly recoiled.

"Stop," I said. "What are you doing!"

The dryad, who was bigger weight-wise than Red Oak, with light brown skin and endless green curls, blanched. "I- I'm healing you."

It was then that I fully remembered everything that had happened. I was alive, thank the Gods. I hadn't fallen 300 feet and died! I was ALIVE. Woo!

Then I blinked. "Did Hemmings bring me here? Where is he? How long has it been?!"

"Hemmy is over there," the dryad said, pointing to my pegasus, who I now noticed was grazing a few feet away. He lifted up his head to acknowledge me, and I scowled. Why did he bring me here?

"I don't know how long it's been," finished the dryad. "But I've been healing you with mint. I'm American Elm, but you can call me Meri."

She grinned, and I gave her a sort of "Heh", half annoyed and half polite smile back. I reached into my pocket and brought out a squished bag of ambrosia, which I quickly shoved into my back. Campers weren't always supposed to have their own ambrosia, even in battle, keeping it instead with the medics, but I had an in.

Fear shot through me at the thought of Alec, somewhere far away from me, gods know in what status by now. But it was quickly placated by the sweet taste of...

I swallowed, immediately feeling better but also very confused. It must've been because I was thinking of him, but I hadn't just tasted German chocolate cake, my favorite dessert, this time. I'd tasted a glass of lemonade to wash it down, too.

"What's that?" Meri asked.

"It's ambrosia," I said, oggling at her. As I felt better, I got to my feet, and she followed me. "You don't have that?"

"We only have healing herbs," said Meri. Then she bit her lip. "But... I guess the mint didn't work."

I frowned, getting the sense she knew very little about the actual healing properties of mint.

"Um..." I said. "That's okay. I really have to go. Hemm-"

"No!" Meri cried. Just as I turned towards the palomino, she grabbed my arm. I felt a moment of peace, until I wrenched my arm out of her grasp.

"What?" I asked, my throat tightening. "What's wrong?!"

"I asked Hemmy to bring you here on purpose," Meri said. "I have a quest for you."

You have to be freaking kidding me.

If it had been long enough, and based on the vaguely apocalyptic feel of Central Park, my siblings were already at war. I'd about broken my back - okay, not really, because I could stand and walk, but still - and now some random dryad wanted to give me a quest?

"No," I said immediately. "Gods, no."

Her face fell, and I would've felt bad had it not been for her sort of holding me hostage.

"Please?" she pleaded. "We really need help."

But I'd already turned and started marching towards "Hemmy". Just as I reached him, she said, quickly, "There's this blight that's affecting everyone. It started up here and it might be spreading towards Camp Half-Blood. We tried to get the Council of Cloven Elders' help, but they're too busy with the whole 'Pan' thing to do anything. Which, like, that's sad, but- Pan dying doesn't matter as much if we're all gonna die too!"

I blinked.

"So, anyway, I start talking to my dryad friends down at Camp, looking for someone who can help. Through them, I got introduced to Hemmy-" she patted my pegasus' head- "And together we decided on recruiting you!"

My mouth went dry.

Red Oak had comforted me after Alec had kissed me. She'd told me she wanted to help me find Demeter's sickle, purely out of altruism, and she'd befriended Hemmings to do it. Maybe that was still true, but now it turned out... she hadn't just comforted me out of kindness. She was grooming me to be recruited.

I physically recoiled.

"I don't know any dryads at Camp," I said, slowly, testing my theory.

"Maybe you don't, but they know you." She smiled, not realizing how creepy this sounded. "They see all."

Di Immortales.

Why me? Because - because Demeter had wanted my help, too? Did they think that automatically made me the Erin Brockovich of the half-blood world?

"I can't..." I said. "I have to go. I have to find my sister."

I shook my head and turned towards Hemmings, who was done grazing and was now staring at me. I stared back, trying to figure out his real gambit here.

Then, when I reached for him, he moved away.

"You gotta be kidding," I said. "Hemmings, come on."

"He won't help you unless you help me," Meri said, sniffling. "He's a chaotic good horse."

I almost snorted at that. Instead, my nostrils just flared. My back was hurting still, and my head, too. So I quickly shoved another piece of ambrosia in my mouth and ignored the taste that came with it.

"Please," I said, "We're at war. I have to help my friends. I have to find Riley."

Hemmings lifted his head haughtily, giving me the cold shoulder. My mouth went dry. I guess he was siding with them. I really hoped it didn't mean the permanent end of our friendship.

"Fine!" I said, throwing up my hands. "I'll just freaking walk."

As I turned and began to walk away, I was really hoping Hemmings would fold and come help me. But he didn't, and I grew angrier the further I walked.  And terrified. Frick. Frick.

I looked back over my shoulder. Meri and Hemmings were watching me; I just scowled again. Again, why would they want my help? Between them and Demeter, I was becoming convinced somebody had stolen my identity and used it to be a successful arborist or something.

I didn't know nature, and I certainly didn't want to walk the hour south either. As I realized this was what I was going to have to do, my panic from falling came back nearly as strong. I had no idea where anyone was, and sure enough, all of the mortals really were asleep.

Usually, Central Park was filled with noise, both from out in the city and within the park - cars honking, horse drawn-carriages, kids laughing, distant music. But I heard none of that now, only my own footsteps.

I was alone.

~ ☼ ~

A/N: It's getting good now :D