Bast went on ahead to get them a car. Carter, Sadie, and Percy began walking to the cemetery's edge, with Percy carrying Nico piggy-back style. Carter was glad to be spared that task. He remembered how hard it had been carrying Nico in Central Park, like the kid's aura was sucking the life out of him. Apparently demigods were more resilient than normal humans, and even magicians. Carter had been impressed with how Percy had batted the House of Life magicians' fireballs aside with his bare hand, like he was resistant to fire. He guessed that demigods had some sort of magic immunity, or at least that Percy did. Carter remembered what Anubis had told him about Nico's powers being linked to death, which was what made the Ribbons of Hathor so dangerous to him. He guessed that Percy would have fared better against them.

"So which god is your father?" Carter asked Percy asked they walked. "Zeus or Poseidon? Or is your mother a goddess, like Hera or Demeter? Or are you and Nico actually second cousins, rather than first cousins? Because if I remember right, there's a lot more options that way."

"My father's Poseidon," said Percy. "God of the Seas. So that makes Nico and I first cousins, technically speaking."

"Technically speaking?" asked Sadie. "If your fathers are brothers then that makes you cousins in any way of speaking. That's what cousins are. People whose parents are your parents' siblings."

"It doesn't exactly work that way for demigods," Percy tried to explain. "Our gods don't have DNA. So if you gave Nico and I a blood test it would show us as unrelated. We usually don't refer to other demigods whose god-parent is a sibling to our god-parent as our cousins, or acknowledge any sort of family bond."

"Then . . . why are things different with you and Nico?" asked Carter. "If you don't mind me asking.

Percy paused to hoist Nico higher onto his back so that the boy wouldn't fall. Nico's head rested on his shoulder, but Percy didn't seem to mind, probably because Nico didn't seem to be drooling. "We've been through a lot together," said Percy at last. "We're friends, first. Acknowledging that we're cousins makes things easier in the outside world a lot of the time. And . . . well, I owe Nico."

"Do not." Nico's voice was muffled since he was speaking against Percy's shoulder, but his words were able to be understood.

"I thought you were sleeping," said Percy, looking surprised.

"Why would you think you owed me?" asked Nico. "I owed you, remember? You said so at the Styx. Styx . . . Cerberus likes sticks. He likes to chew on them. I bet he likes to chew on jackals too. Ha ha."

"Why don't you try to take a nap, Nico?" suggested Percy.

"But you said I owed you. You don't remember?" asked Nico. "Maybe it's because you're ADHD. I'm not though. At least I was never diagnosed as that by a shrink. At least I don't think I was. They didn't have that when I was growing up."

"You still are growing up. And you made up for what you owed me by showing up at Olympus with your father and your undead army."

"That was fun," said Nico. "Best party invitation I ever got. But why would you owe me if that made up for what I owed you?"

Carter guessed that Nico was being like Cerberus with a stick about that owing thing, but he was interested to hear the answer. And interested to hear more about this party involving Olympus, Hades, and an army of undead, but he figured now wasn't the best time to ask about that.

"I owe you for breaking my promise," said Percy. It sounded like he was trying to keep his voice down so that Carter and Sadie wouldn't hear, or maybe just so they'd know that he didn't want them hearing and they weren't welcome to ask questions.

"Promise? What promise?" asked Nico.

"Bianca," said Percy. He paused like he was waiting for a response, then he stumbled a step. "Nico . . . I'm not positive because of the invulnerability thing, but it kind of feels like you're trying to bite me . . ."

"Agh em!" Nico said, then moved his mouth away from Percy's shoulder. "I mean, I am! You didn't break your promise. You told me there weren't any guarentees on quests. You just promised to try. And you did try. I saw . . . in my nightmares. I said I was sorry about being a brat, Percy. I'm still sorry." Suddenly he shoved at Percy's back, dislodging himself and causing Percy to drop him. He landed on the ground without even attempting to break his fall, and didn't even try to get up. "Is that why you're nice to me? Because you think you owe me? You don't, Percy. You don't owe me anything. You don't have to be here. Wah!" Nico gave a shocked yelp when Percy picked him up again and tossed him over his shoulder the way a fireman would carry someone.

"Idiot. I'm here because we're friends."

"That's not what you just said! You said you owed me, but you don't."

"Well let's put it this way," said Percy. "I owe it to you as your friend to be here. I know if I was in trouble, you'd be there for me. Wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, but . . . but . . . can we stop at McDonalds on the way to where Thoth is?"

"What's that about ADHD?" muttered Sadie.

"Shut up you freaking Brit harpy!"

"Hey!"

"Nico," said Percy, setting his cousin down for a second. "Let's try to get along with these guys, for now at least."

"So who's Bianca?" asked Sadie snidely. "Your ex-girlfriend? Did Percy steal her? Is that why he-"

"STA ZITTA! SHUT UP!"

Nico's eyes flared red fresh blood as he spun on Sadie.

Carter grabbed his sister's arm and pulled her back away from the enraged demigodling. "Now would be a good time to shut up, Sadie," he advised.

"You don't know what you're talking about! So shut up! Unless you want one of the corpses in this graveyard to clear out of his coffin and make room for you!" Nico screamed.

"Nico, stop!" Percy was much braver than Carter would have thought anyone could be. He grabbed Nico to stop him from advancing toward Sadie, disregarding the kid's glowing red eyes and the shadows that swirled around him like tar black ghosts. "We have bigger things to worry about than a stupid girl who doesn't know what she's talking about. Your dad's going to start a war, remember? We've only got three days to stop it."

"Less than that now," said Carter quickly. "It was three days when Bast was at the First Nome. Now it's more like two and a third days or something like that."

"Nico, come on!" Percy put himself directly in front of Nico, blocking his view of the Kanes. "Snap out of it. You don't have the energy to be doing that right now."

Nico's eyes must have stopped glowing because the red light Percy was blocking dimmed and faded from behind his silhouette profile. "What? Huh? Percy? Are we at McDonalds yet?"

"Not yet, little cousin," said Percy. "We've still got a ways to go. Can you still hang on if I carry you on my back?"

"Uh, yeah . . ."

Carter was amazed that the whole incident was put behind them that quickly. Only moments later they were walking again, just as they'd been before. Nico put his head back against Percy's shoulder and appeared to go to sleep, but he'd looked like he was sleeping last time, so they couldn't really be sure.

"By the way," said Percy very softly. "If you value your health, never mention her again."

He didn't say who "her" was, but he didn't have to. Whoever this Bianca was, she'd sure done a number on Nico.

--------------------------------------------------

The rest of the trip to the Pyramid Arena where Thoth had taken up residence went without incident, and if Carter had any gods that he prayed to he would have been thanking them. Nico slept the entire way there, except to inhale the three Happy Meals that they picked up for him at an all night McDonalds drive-thru, then he fell right back to sleep. Carter had the presence of mind to remember how many baboons had been around Thoth at the university last time they were there, and warned Percy, who decided it would probably be best if he carried his cousin into the pyramid, and let him sleep as long as they could. Not that there was a whole lot of chance that the baboons would be having a game of pick up at two in the morning, but it was better not to take chances. So Nico got another piggy-back ride, through the halls of the deserted pyramid shaded sports arena, and Bast decided to take care of the car since she still had issues with Thoth. The magicians and demigods made good time since there were no distractions and before long they were in front of an office door with a gleaming gold name plate on the door, proclaiming it to be the office of Coach Thoth. Even in the hallway, Carter could smell a barbeque going.

They knocked before entering this time, and went in to find Thoth measuring BBQ sauce into a beaker while blues music played from a phonograph that was probably older than all four of the teens/preteens combined. Thoth looked up as they came in and gave them one of his odd smiles.

"Ah, if it isn't the Kanes. And without Isis and Horus this time. And the son of Poseidon himself! But who's that on your back? Oh my . . . it couldn't be . . . Anubis?" Thoth came toward them looking exactly as he had the last time they'd been there. He still had the same tangled blond hair, faded jeans, and lab coat with BBQ stains on it, which gave him the appearance of a mad-hippie-scientist.

"Mmm . . ." Nico's eyes fluttered and then opened as though he subconsciously realized people were talking about him. "What's going on?"

"Most unusual, most unusual!" Thoth looked at him delightedly. "You have succeeded in taking a demigod host! How on earth did you manage such a thing? I would very much like to know. If I could, perhaps, take a son of Athena as a host-"

"I don't recommend that," Percy said warningly, stepping backward, away from Thoth, to keep distance between the eccentric professor and his cousin.

"One demigodling is causing enough problems as it is, Jahooty," said Sadie. "Hades is going to start a war with either the House of Life or the Egyptian pantheon if we don't figure out a way to fix this."

"Fix?" Thoth looked confused.

"I'll show you." All eyes turned to Nico, or actually to Anubis, since that's who seemed to be in charge of the body they shared at that moment. Percy set him down and Anubis stepped forward, holding one of Nico's pale hands out toward Thoth. His fingertips started to glow, but Thoth didn't make any movement to step away, even when Anubis touched the other god's forehead with his glowing hand.

Thoth's eyes widened. "Oh. I see. Well, this certainly is a problem."

Anubis stepped back and blinked several times. Then he backed up several steps, to stand right next to Percy, and Carter guessed that it was probably Nico in control again. "Well?" asked Nico. "Do you know anything about this?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," said Thoth. "You were smart to come to me, Anubis. I might be the only being in existence capable of helping you through this, as I am in possession of the only complete surviving copy of the Prophecies of Cassandra."

Nico's face darkened. "The Mad Oracle?" he asked incredulously. Or perhaps it was Anubis who asked. Carter didn't know and was starting to get confused.

"Mad isn't quite the term I would use to describe Cassandra," said Thoth, waggling a finger at the demigodling. "Modern society has come up with quite a few more accurate and politically correct terms such as bonkers, barking, nuts, mental, looney tunes, fangirl, psychotic. I assure you Cassandra was all of these, as well as all their unpolitically correct terms for crazy as well."

"This isn't a joke, Thoth," said Anubis grimly.

"And I am not joking, my boy," responded Thoth. "Though Cassandra was, in every sense of the words, a rabid and ranting bitch, she was still endowed with the gifts of prophecy."

"Would you mind explaining this to the rest of us?" Percy asked. "We're trying to stop the war too, so it would be nice if you brought us up to speed."

"Yes, of course," said Thoth. "But in a moment. There is one thing I would like to try first, a test to see how badly caught in Nico di Angelo's soul Anubis has gotten himself. It might even be that I can detach them here and save us all quite a bit of trouble, as well as a very long lecture filled with synonyms for insane. Anubis, please show me your heart scarab."

Carter watched as Nico/Anubis began taking off his jacket, and noticed that his hands seemed to jerk sporadically. Percy seemed to notice too.

"Nico? Are you okay with this?"

When he answered it was with Anubis' voice. "This is necessary, Percy."

Percy grabbed Nico's wrist. "So in other words, Nico's not okay with it."

Anubis jerked his hand away and stepped back from his host's cousin. "Thoth is the wisest being in existence, and is charged with maintaining order and balance. A war between the House of Hades and the House of Life would be cataclysmic to the balance of our societies. A war between the Greek and Egyptian pantheons would be even worse. If Thoth believes he might have a way to put an end to this here and now, then we would be fools not to let him make the attempt. And if I can't trust him, then I cannot trust anyone." His face twitched suddenly and Nico shone through for a moment and looked disgusted. "I can't believe you're trusting a gods damned hippie with this!"

"Ah, the Cult of the Flower Children, a most fascinating organization," mused Thoth.

"Go to the crows, bird-brain," said Nico.

"I beg your pardon!"

"My host speaking, Lord Thoth," Anubis said quickly, taking control again. "Not me. My apologies."

Percy seemed to hesitate, unsure whether or not he should go against the Egyptian gods to back his cousin's wishes or not.

"We should give Thoth a chance, I think," Carter told him. "Thoth has helped us before." He decided not to mention the questionable methods Thoth had used.

Anubis removed his jacket and pulled off his shirt, at least honoring Nico's wish not to imitate any girls at Mardi Gras.

"Very interesting," said Thoth, stepping closer to Nico. He knelt in front of the boy so that he was at eye level with the scarab and touched it carefully with two fingertips. "It really does have a pulse of its own. It really has replaced your host's heart. What an amazing phenomenon."

"Well?" asked Sadie. "Can you fix them?'

"I must at least make the attempt," said Thoth. He placed his palm over the scarab, covering it completely, and then began to glow with a soft yellow light. Like the light emitted by the Ribbons of Hathor, it looked tranquil, almost holy. And just as he had in the presence of the Ribbons of Hathor, Nico began screaming like his heart was being cut right out of his chest.

"Oh no, not again," moaned Sadie.

"Stop it right now!" screamed Percy, moving to intervene. Thoth had already stopped on his own before Percy pushed him away. Nico crumpled to the floor and curled into a ball like he was trying to protect his heart scarab. Everything in the room was silent except for his painful gasps and sobs.

"That is it!" shouted Percy, kneeling beside his cousin and putting a hand on his shoulder, keeping his own body between Nico and everyone else in the room. "From now on the heart scarab stays covered up. No one else sees it and no one else touches it!"

"I am truly sorry," said Thoth, looking shaken himself. He looked down at Nico with a touch of guilt in his expression. "That was not the result I intended to get."

"Nico? Hey," Percy turned his attention to his cousin. "Nico, can you hear me?"

"Hurts," Nico gasped, curling into a ball even tighter.

Percy gave everyone else in the room a dark look, as though daring them to make fun of his cousin, then picked up Nico's jacket and draped it over him. "It's alright. You're going to be okay."

"Hurts so much . . ."

They gave Nico some time. What else could they do? They were all feeling a little guilty for going along with Anubis and Thoth's plans when Nico obviously objected to them, and now he was the one who was paying the price. It was enough to make anyone feel bad.

Finally, after five full minutes of shaking and whimpering, Nico managed to pull himself together. Percy helped him sit up and get his shirt and jacket back on. Then Nico leaned with his back against the wall looking dazed and drained.

"Are you hungry?" asked Carter, taking note of how tired Nico looked and remembering how hungry he and Sadie had been after using magic when they'd been possessed by Isis and Horus.

"Yeah," muttered Nico. It was his first word to anyone other than his cousin since the incident.

"Are there any vending machines in this building?" asked Carter, fishing into his own pockets for change.

"No need for that," said Thoth, sounding very cheerful all of a sudden. "I have some barbeque prepared! Let's see . . ."

It was the oddest impromptu picnic Carter had ever been to, not that he'd been to many picnics. But he was fairly sure that normal picnics didn't involve eating brisket out of petrie dishes, adding extra sauce from beakers, drinking lemonade out of flasks, or having the food heated by Bunsen burners.

"So now what?" asked Nico, reviving after eating some of Thoth's barbeque, and drinking an entire flask of lemonade. "Did you learn anything useful while you were flaying my artificial heart, or was that a complete waste of time?"

"Well," said Thoth, "The news isn't very good. What I discovered was that your soul and Anubis' are not merely tangled, as I had assumed, and as he had hoped. They are actually fused together and can't be separated by any natural means."

"Of course not. That would be too easy," muttered Nico.

"Yes. But in the pursuit of knowledge many doors are opened that-"

"Save it," snapped Nico. "I don't care about wisdom and all that garbage. That's how I got on the Athena cabin's bad side, but that's another story. So why don't you just tell us about that Crazy Cassandra or whatever you said her name was. Anubis seemed to think that whatever she said would be a waste of time, but he's a freaking idiot, so I'm all for hearing about it."

"Yes, yes . . ." Thoth wiped sauce from his mouth with what looked like a piece of filter paper. "More lemonade?"

Carter would have sworn that Nico's eyes flared red like they had in the cemetery, but only for a second.

"I want to hear about Cassandra."

"Yes, and I'll tell you about her, young demigod, but you should eat more. You'll need the energy."

Nico accepted another flask of lemonade and took a drink. He made a face. "Bitter," he muttered, but took another drink.

"Alright. Cassandra," said Thoth. He produced a clip board from somewhere and began thumbing through the papers on it. "Let's see . . . shopping list . . . thesis on the origins of jazz . . . SparkNotes for Twilight . . . ah ha! The prophecies of the Mad Oracle!" He unclipped a piece of ancient looking papyrus and waved it around like a banner.

"Get to the point already."

Thoth cleared his throat. "Well, to start, do you demigods know who Cassandra was?"

"The prophetess from the Iliad?" asked Percy.

"Yes and no," said Thoth. "Homer, you see, was somewhat inaccurate in his portrayal of her. Greek myths in general tend to have her back-story wrong. They say that she was a human gifted with prophecy by Apollo, but who spurned his love and was cursed to never have her visions believed. Though I'm sure the two of you know that Apollo's oracles are required to be chaste, thus Apollo himself wouldn't be messing around with them."

"So what's the real story?" Nico wanted to know.

"The real story is that she was a mortal woman who could see through the Mist," said Thoth. "And she did take into her the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi and became a prophetess of Apollo. Foresight into the future can be a very powerful thing. It can be a gift-"

"A gift or a curse, blah, blah, blah," Nico interrupted. "Yes, we know. Tell us why this is important."

Thoth looked like he would have been offended if it had been anyone else who'd interrupted him so rudely. But perhaps because he thought it might be Anubis and was used to Anubis' bad moods, or perhaps because he felt bad about what he'd did to Nico, he let it go.

"After getting a taste of power, Cassandra wanted more," continued Thoth. "She was a smart girl. Ambitious, perhaps power-hungry. Or perhaps she simply wanted to put herself on a level closer to those who she was always around. Even with the spirit of the Oracle, she was still merely a mortal. Surrounded by demigods who came to seek her prophecies, she realized how lacking she was in real power and she wanted to change that.

"Your myths say that Cassandra was the daughter of the King of Troy. This is true. However, what your legends fail to mention is that Cassandra was descended from Egyptian royalty on her mother's side."

"She had the blood of the pharaohs then," Carter realized.

Thoth nodded. "And can you guess what she did to obtain more power?"

"She tried to get herself possessed by one of the Egyptian gods, as well as by that oracle thingy," said Sadie.

"What a stupid freak," muttered Nico darkly.

"Her powers of prophecy gave her no warning as to what would happen when she became a godling as well as an oracle, because the magic of the Greek and Egyptian pantheons does not and cannot mix," said Thoth. "Both have similarities, yes. Elemental powers, shape-shifting, and prophecies, but the energies that they use are completely different. The Greek Oracles do not have visions of the problems of the Egyptians because they are not on the same wavelength, in a matter of speaking. The reverse is true of the Egyptian diviners as well. Think of it as AM and FM radiowaves. The Oracles aren't attuned to the Egyptian channels, and the Diviners aren't attuned to the Greek channels, leaving both pantheons blind where mystical attempts to spy on the other is concerned."

"So what happened?" asked Percy. "Did the possession thing fail?"

"It did not."

"But you said–"

"The AM/FM analogy is for the fortune telling abilities only," said Thoth. "The actual divine powers themselves are more like AC and DC currents of electricity."

"I don't know what that means," said Nico, looking annoyed.

"Two different types of electricity," Percy tried to explain.

"There's more than one type of electricity? Since when?" demanded Nico.

"Uh, I don't know. I don't really think it's important right now, but . . . it might have something to do with magnetism . . . or something." Percy looked a bit lost. "Anyway, that's not the point. Just accept that there are two different types of electricity and most electrical stuff can only use one type of electricity or the other . . . at least I think that's how it works."

"Okay," accepted Nico, "But what happens when you use the wrong kind of electricity on an appliance?"

"If you're lucky, it just won't work," said Percy. "If you're not lucky and your device is faulty or the wiring is shoddy, it could explode."

"So the hippie's telling me that I'm going to explode."

"No . . . maybe . . ." Percy looked quickly to Thoth. "He's not going to . . ."

"We were discussing Cassandra, if you recall," said Thoth, looking humored by the situation. "Your cousin's situation is unique. Let us review the knowledge that the past has provided us before we begin making predictions about whether or not Anubis' host will explode. More lemonade, Nico?"

"Is it going to keep me from exploding?" Nico wanted to know.

"No evidence suggests that it would."

"Then no," snapped Nico. "It's too bitter."

"You mean sour," said Sadie.

"No, I mean bitter. Like chocolate with no sugar at all. Not like Sour Patch Kids, which are delicious and full of artificial colors and flavors."

"So what happened to Cassandra?" asked Carter, hoping to get them all back on track again. "Did she really manage to become a host for one of the gods?"

Thoth nodded. "She did. A very minor Egyptian goddess known as Hetepet, who had a small cult devoted to her."

"And did she explode?" asked Nico.

"Can we get away from the whole idea of exploding?" asked Thoth.

"Hey, if you thought you might explode, you'd probably want to find out more about it too!"

"Your cousin's exploding example was just an analogy!"

"You're an analogy."

"Do you even know what an analogy is, demigod?"

Nico shrugged. "No."

Thoth covered his eyes and shook his head. "The worst thing about you demigods is your lack of education. Allowing your so-called dyslexia to prevent you from gaining knowledge-"

"Every bit of knowledge that I once had got washed away by the River Lethe at my own father's orders," said Nico bitterly. "So I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I've only had a few years to start building it back up again."

"Your own father had you mind-wiped?" asked Carter horrified.

Nico shrugged again. "Daddy issues, remember? So what happened to Cassandra?"

"She went completely insane," said Thoth.

"Am I going to-"

"We don't know if you're going to go insane or not, demigod. Never before in history has there been an instance where an Egyptian god succeeded in taking a demigod as his host, and believe me, many, many of our gods have tried. When things were at their most desperate in our struggle with the House of Life we almost started a war with the Greek gods who were quite miffed that we were snatching their children. That would have been catastrophic.

"But until today, I did not believe it even possible for a demigod to host an Egyptian god," said Thoth. "If I had known it was possible, I would have intervened sooner when our pantheon was making so many attempts at it. The result when Cassandra, an Oracle, succeeded in hosting a god as well, was horrible. Her visions became corrupted. Her powers began tearing her fragile human mind apart. At the best of times, the Spirit of Delphi is stressful. The Egyptian Goddess' power magnified that and she lost all reason. She went completely mad and began prophecizing doom and calamity every single day. She seemed to know when every human she saw would meet their end, and she made it a point to tell them. Those with the worst fates she specifically sought out, as though to torment them with the knowledge of their demise. So naturally, people began to disregard her prophecies. It was difficult for a man to take her seriously when she informed him that he would meet his end when a boat anchor hit him in the back, sunk into his skin to hook behind his spine, and jerked his vertebrae out through his back when the ship set sail."

Nico and Percy exchanged glances. Percy's expression was unreadable. Nico's was a little too amused. "And I thought Rachel was bad."

Percy frowned at that. "Rachel's not-"

"Kidding, Percy, kidding."

"Before Cassandra's parents had her interred in Troy, she made a prophecy about the End of Days to the Cult of Hetepet in Lower Egypt. It foretold the end of the world with the appearance of a dark champion with a stone scarab for a heart."

"And you say you have a copy of the prophecy?" asked Carter.

Thoth nodded and held the sheet of papyrus aloft again. "The Mad Oracle made many prophecies of doom and destruction, and despite her being obviously insane, her visions themselves were true. Such as the one about the mushroom cloud of doom. Quite a few people thought that one was referring to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when it was first published, which caused quite a panic amongst the cult in Victorian England. And then that dreadful portent about-

"I don't care!" Nico bit out angrily. "Just read the prophecy about the stone scarab!"

Thoth sighed and began to read:

"Born of the Evil Day and the River of Life,

And of He Who Unlocks Death and a Daughter of Rome

Are the Death God of Desecration and Strife

And the Ba King who rises in the Twenty-First Nome.

Death and Death's Son, fused at the soul

With a stone scarab for a heart

In one body are whole.

When balance and order are sundered apart

And chaos and disorder eternally reign

When hope is lost and the gods' temples are razed

A dark champion shall put an end to the pain

By giving rise to the End of Days."

The magicians and the demigods were silent for several moments after Thoth finished reading.

"That's some depressing stuff," said Sadie at last.

"No kidding," grumbled Nico. "I'm starting to think exploding might be an okay option after all."

"So . . . the way that prophecy sounds to me . . ." said Percy hesitantly, "Is like this person with a stone scarab for a heart, presumably the dark champion, is going to . . . well . . ."

"Destroy the world." Nico's voice sounded dead. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them looking miserable.

"But it doesn't sound like this person would do it maliciously," Percy said quickly. "It sounds more like . . ."

"Like mercy killing," said Sadie. "Like everything is over and the bad guys win. And this dark champion decides that the only way to stop people from suffering is to end it all . . ."

"Hetepet's Cult must have been made up of a bunch of gods damned wing nuts," said Nico venomously. "They cut out their deads' hearts and replaced them with stone scarabs to try to jump start this prophecy? Hoping their dead Aunt Cleo would end up becoming this dark champion when she was a ba, and ending the world? What in Hades was wrong with them!"

"You know this prophecy isn't necessarily about you, Nico," said Percy.

Nico fixed him with a look that would have made most people flinch.

"It doesn't have to be," Percy insisted. "I mean, remember the last Great Prophecy when we all thought I was going to have my soul reaped? These things are always more ambiguous than you think."

"I don't know about that, Percy," said Nico. "This time it seems pretty clear."

"How so? I mean, even in the first line, that stuff about an evil day and a river of life? That doesn't even make sense."

"I'm afraid it does," said Carter. He looked at Sadie who nodded, agreeing that he should tell them. "Evil Day is Set, Anubis' father. That's his true name. I don't know how happy he'd be to learn Cassandra wrote it down in a prophecy, but that's not the point. It definitely has to be him, because his wife was Nephythys, a river goddess. The River of Life."

"And He Who Unlocks Death," said Nico. "That's definitely my father. His keys lock and unlock death, as does his sword. I know you remember how much trouble that caused. You almost lost all your memories in the Lethe during that fiasco."

"But the Daughter of Rome –"

"Obviously my mother. You were there when Hades said it. Her father was an Italian diplomat and she was a native of Venice. Italy was always the heart of the Roman Empire . . . come to think of it . . ." Nico's expression suddenly changed drastically. He looked very, very upset.

"What's wrong?" asked Sadie.

"This means I'm not an American!" said Nico. "All this time, I thought I was, but I'm not! I'm Italian! This is awful!"

Everyone stared at him. "What?" Percy finally asked.

"I was proud to be a citizen of the nation that created McDonalds, but it was all a lie!"

"Are you feeling alright, Nico?" Percy wanted to know.

"No! How can I? After learning this?"

"Right . . ." Percy gave him a sideways looks. "Let's take another look at the prophecy."

"The God of Desecration and Strife must be Anubis," said Carter. "Nico himself called him the god of corpse desecration. I don't understand the thing about the Ba King though, but the Twenty-First Nome is New York."

"What's a ba?" Percy wanted to know.

"A kind of spirit," muttered Nico. He gave Percy an ironic smile. "A ghost."

"Oh. Right. Yeah, that sounds a lot like Nico . . ."

"Ghost King . . . Ba King . . ." Nico shook his head in disgust. "Why can't I be the Zombie King? Or the Lich King? He's got 4500 special attack."

"The line about Death and Death's Son being fused at the soul fits as well," said Thoth. "And you both now inhabit one body, and you have a stone scarab for a heart. Every one of the indicators fits."

"But that doesn't mean that it has to be him," Percy insisted.

"How many other people do you know with a rock for a heart?" asked Sadie.

Percy shook his head. "None, but that doesn't mean it has to be Nico. There are ways to cheat prophecies, or at least postpone them. The last Great Prophecy was delayed for over sixty years because Hades kept his kids from turning 16, the age that the child in the prophecy had to reach. Then Thalia dodged the arrow as well by getting turned into a tree for a few years, then she sidestepped it by joining the Hunters, so that she wouldn't ever reach her sixteenth birthday."

"But age is about the easiest thing for the Greek gods to cheat," said Thoth. "The markers in this prophecy are very specific. Can you think of any other person, living or dead, who even matches one of them?"

Percy glared at Thoth. "It still doesn't mean it has to be Nico. He might live a long life and die of old age in his sleep, and then someone else could come along who fits the bill even better than him."

"Do you honestly believe that, demigod?"

Percy remained defiant and nodded. "Of course I do. I refuse to believe there's no way to save my cousin from this."

"Such loyalty to distant relatives is very rare for demigods," noted Thoth.

"We've been through a lot together," said Percy flatly. "So now we watch out for each other."

"Thank you, Percy," said Nico very, very softly. Carter had never heard him sound so sincere before.

"Yes, yes, this show of kinship is quite touching, but the problem still remains," said Thoth. "Right now I see before us three options."

"Let's hear them," said Carter.

"The first, we do nothing and allow destiny to take its course-"

"Not an option," said Percy.

"The second, is that we lock Nico in the Duat for eternity, banishing him from this realm forever after finding his true name so we know for certain it will be permanent."

"That's definitely not an option!" Percy almost shouted.

"I think it's a poor choice as well," said Thoth. "If he disappears then Hades will blame the House of Life. A war will start which could cause the prophecy to be fulfilled even in Nico's absence, if he somehow found a way to destroy the world from whatever plane he was cast into."

"Wh-what?" asked Nico. His voice sounded odd, but Carter figured that some slack had to be given to him, all things considered.

"What's the third option that you see?" asked Percy. "And this better be a good one or we're leaving."

"The third option is that we move Nico's soul into the Duat temporarily, in his ba or spirit walking form, and see if any way to unfuse his soul from Anubis' presents itself," explained Thoth.

"Didn't you already say that it can't be undone?" asked Percy skeptically. "The last time you tried-"

"Had adverse effects on his physical body, mainly because it got in the way. In the Duat, or the spirit world, that would not be an obstacle."

Percy turned to Nico. "What do you think?"

"I . . . uh . . ." Nico touched one hand to his head.

"This is a lot to take in, I know," said Percy, "but it might be the best option for now."

"I agree," said Thoth, "which is why I have already taken measures to help separate Nico's soul from his body."

"Wait, what?" shouted Percy, turning back to Nico just in time to see Nico slump to the floor, out cold.