ALL RIGHTS TO THE CHARACTERS (except Celeste, she's mine) BELONG TO RICK RIORDAN! I DO NOT OWN THE PJO/HoO OR THE KANE CHRONICLES SERIES!!!

Chapter 20 - Zia

Zia jumped as a shadow stream flew at her. It missed her by inches and she quickly grabbed Carter's arm, pulling him to the side.

She had lost Jaz somewhere in the crowd of panicked initiates.

Celeste stood at the front of the room, her face emotionless as she continued to create her storm.

Her clone was smirking beside her, shooting out more shadows. Walt was beside her, hanging unconscious.

She had to get to him.

"Carter, we have to get Walt. You distract Celeste, I'll go after him. Jaz will be smart enough to protect the initiates." Zia said.

Carter nodded. They both saw Amos in the crowd, calming the initiates and telling them to use magic.

The older ones understood and immediately began to fight back.

The younger ones, however, stayed back in fear.

Carter ran to the side, out of sight from Celeste, and sent a binding spell to her. Pink ribbons wrapped around her and she collapsed, startled, to the ground.

Her clone snarled and sent a dark cloud straight at Carter.

"Carter! Look out!" Zia screamed.

Carter quickly jumped out of the way and started to breath heavily.

The smoke cloud turned around and aimed back for Carter.

Carter pulled out his wand and shot a spell out at it. The cloud, unaffected, spun and swirled around Carter, encasing him in darkness.

Carter cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground. "Carter!" Zia screamed.

She ran to him and checked his pulse. Still alive.

Zia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and pulled him out of the firing zone.

She placed a kiss on his cheek and ran out back to the fight.

Celeste was still bound and the storm was settling down.

Her clone was red in fury, her hands thrusting out shadow clouds a mile a minute.

Initiates dropped like stones all around the room to where it was just Amos, Zia, Jaz, and a few others.

Even little Shelby was unconscious on the floor, the darkness seeping around her.

Their magic was weak against Celeste's clone.

Suddenly, a shadow struck Amos and he fell forward.

Jaz looked eyes with Zia as the rest of the initiates got knocked out.

It was just them now.

Celeste's clone smiled cruelly and thrust her hands down.

Zia and Jaz exchanged confused looks.

The clone snapped her fingers and Walt's eyes flew open. However, they were milky white, not his.

In fact, now that Zia thought about it, Celeste's eyes were looking quite strange...

Walt pulled a sword from a fallen initiate and walked towards the girls.

Jaz threw out a spell and Zia helped, but Celeste's clone simply deflected it.

"Walt, wake up!" Zia screamed.

"Walt, this isn't you!" Jaz yelled.

Both magician girls backed up, wands raised.

Walt continued not to hear them and walked forward.

"Jaz! This way!" Zia called.

Jaz followed Zia as they ran to the side. Walt followed them.

Carter's unconscious body came into view and Zia and Jaz crouched down beside him.

Zia dug into Carter's bag and pulled out a shabti.

She cast the spell to bring it to life and a rhino appeared and charged at Walt.

Walt jumped back, but one of the rhino's tusks caught him by the shirt.

He was flung backwards to where he hit the ground.

Groaning, he got up and stabbed the rhino, making it turn back into wax.

He stood up shakily and limped towards the girls.

They had to buy more time.

Celeste's clone was getting bored and shot another shadow cloud at them.

"Duck!" Jaz cried.

They both jumped out of the way and watched as the shadow hit Carter.

His body jerked as if he was electrified and his eyes flew open.

They were milky white.

Celeste's clone smirked.

Carter slowly got up and drew his khopesh, his curved sword, and joined Walt.

"How do we snap them out of it?" Zia whispered harshly to Jaz.

Jaz shrugged helplessly. "I don't think we can."

The boys approached them and they backed into a wall, unable to go anywhere.

Celeste's clone was untying the bonds on Celeste and smiling. "End of the line, girls."

Walt reached out to stab Jaz and Carter reached out to Zia.

Jaz screamed, "No!"

She leaned in the way of Carter's sword and both Carter and Walt drove their swords into her chest.

The tips of the swords went all the way through her to where Zia could feel the scratch of the blade on her knee.

Jaz let out a small muffled gasp and collapsed to the ground, blood staining her shirt.

"Jaz!" Zia screamed.

The swords were stuck in her chest and her eyes were staring at the ceiling in wonder.

A faint smile played across her lips. "You have to win this war, Zia. Kill that clone. End this. No more deaths. No more."

A tear slid down Zia's cheek.

For a second, fear and disbelief went across the faces of Carter and Walt, but then immediately changed to emotionless. They marched back to Celeste's clone and then crumpled to the ground.

The clone took Walt and placed him back in his position by her side and took Celeste, now completely unbound, on her other side.

She kicked Carter with such force that he skidded across the room. It was like she was kicking a tin can.

Zia heard a rib crack and a faint groan escaped Carter's lips as he laid motionless and bleeding on the wall.

Zia immediately turned her attention back to Jaz, who was gasping like a fish and taking Zia's hand.

"Was...was I a good initiate?" Jaz asked.

Zia nodded, tears flowing now. "The best we could've ever asked for, Jaz."

Jaz nodded and stared up at Zia until her pulse stopped beating under Zia's fingers.

Zia buried her head into Jaz and sobbed. She got to her feet and screamed, throwing a piece of rock and kicking the wall.

She screamed louder and louder. For Jaz to come back, for Walt to come back, and for Carter to be okay.

Then Sadie struck her mind. What would she do when she saw her brother in the same state as her boyfriend? She would collapse in grief and sadness.

Especially after hearing about Jaz's death.

Zia dropped to the ground and cried until the sound of a door closing echoed through the room.

Celeste's clone had left with Walt and Celeste in tow.

And Zia was all alone.