[And the answer is...

Look back.]

"Did it work?" I asked as Annabeth reappeared. She nodded.

"I honestly never knew that Seaweed Brain could act that well." She admitted teasingly, but a tinge of sadness edged her tone. "B-but it reminds me of Tartarus." She whispered. I looked at her, concerned.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, patting the seat beside me.

 She nodded a little. "When an arai cursed Percy, he got the curse with Gorgon blood. One side of the blood can kill you, the other will kill. A while ago, he tricked a monster that was hurting harpies into drinking the vial of poisonous gorgon blood. He cursed Percy and when he killed an arai..." She let out a little sob. I rubbed her back comfortingly.

"It's going to be fine. This time it's not real. It's just for show. Also, Aquaman should really win an Oscar for his acting. The dude's really good." Just then, Nico and Sophie came back, melting out of the shadows.

"Dude! Jumping out of shadows is not cool. It's Tammy boy's thing here to do that." I pointed at Bangs boy. "But two people? No way." Nico and Tam rolled their eyes in unison.

"Um, Percy may have been discovered as alive." Sophie mumbled. My heart dropped.

"Is he ok?" Annabeth shot up from her chair. "What did they do?"

"Relax, Annabeth. He's fine. He's probably sassing their butts off." Nico assured her.

PERCY'S POV-

"I thought elves were pretty." I remarked as Gisela came into view. "What did you do, get plastic surgery?" She hissed in anger, and I smirked. Dam, I feel like Keefe now.

"Perseus Jackson." She seethed. "How nice of you to visit. Why, I was just preparing the Neverseen for your death." I yawned.

"Uh, I don't have my ticket slips right now, but I'm pretty sure you'll be number 16429573. Get in line." I counted on my fingers silently. "Of course, almost dying is so yesterday. Staying alive is all the rage now, don't you think?" I leaned back on the cave wall and crossed my arms. "Wait, you guys aren't tuned into the news, right? Elves don't watch humans and all that blah blah blah."

"Enough!" She held a knife to my throat. Bruh. She wasn't even holding it right.

"Umm, you're not holding the knife right. See, you have to hold it like this, not like a pencil. And maybe tilt that—" I got cut off as Gisela pushed it up harder. Beads of scarlet dripped from the edge.

"Weak." I scoffed, and judo-flipped her. I twisted her arm and she shrieked in pain. The knife clattered to the floor.

"This isn't even sharpened." I noted as I examined it. "Have you ever heard of polishing? Works wonders." Gisela recovered and snapped her fingers. A coil of black rope appeared in her hands. She lunged. I sidestepped.

This is too easy, I thought. She growled and stomped her feet in various patterns. I frowned. How was tap-dancing going to save her? Suddenly, a crack appeared, and ten dwarves sprang up. They pinned my arms before I could reach for Riptide. 

"Hey!" I protested. They put a gag on my mouth before I could say anything. I squirmed. Being ADHD demigod like I am, I couldn't really stand this place any longer. I wanted to vapor-travel out, but I needed to teach that Gisela lady a thing or two about me. And also, a thing or two about how to actually hold a knife right.

"Admit it, Perseus. You have lost. You can either join me, or die." I nearly snorted into my gag. Please, she was technically at my mercy. I pretended to be afraid.

"Oh, I'm so scared!" I try to say. It came out as, "Mphhh! Mph smff scmpphh!" Oh well. She got the message. She smiled. 

"What was that, dear?" She said sweetly. I shrugged off the gag. "I said, oh! I'm soooo scared!" She grinned even more, if that was possible.

"Dude, do you not know the definition of sarcasm?" I asked. "You definitely have something wrong with you." She snarled. Now she got it. 

"Jeez woman, were you living under a rock?" I asked incredulously. "Sarcasm was here for like, 445 years. How do you not know that?" She tsked.

"I've been here much longer than that, Perseus." She scowled. Oh. I forgot about the whole 'elves are practically immortal' thing.

"Ok, yeah, so you're really old. So what? You should've been around when sarcasm was invented." 

"Why are we talking about this again?" She muttered. "Stupid child, distracting me and all that."

"I'm technically not a child. I'm 19." I reminded her. She rolled her eyes. Wow, I really like pissing her off! "And also, you're right. I am distracting you. Sophie should be here anytime now..." I whistled to myself, tapping my foot. Gisela threw her arms up in exasperation.

"I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS ANYMORE!" She shouted. "JUST KILL HIM ALREADY!"

"Oh, no you aren't." I heard a familiar voice.

"Annabeth!" I managed to get out before being silenced again. Ewww. I did not want to know what dwarf hands tasted like. Strong arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me into a tunnel. I was dragged through the dirt. Again. For the last freaking time, Demeter, CEREAL IS NOT THE ANSWER TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS!

I was hauled to an underground cave. They released their hands from my mouth and I gagged.

"Holy Hephaestus, do you dwarves ever wash your hands?" I spat out dirt and fur and some other stuff I will not name. "That's just plain nasty, bro." They just growled gruffly and tied my hands behind my back.

"Great, I'm being kidnapped for the 68th time." I muttered under my breath as they secured my ankles.

"We do not take sarcasm lightly, demigod." One of them snapped. "If you are not cooperative, Sophie Foster may end up with a stray dagger in her skull." That shut me up. I struggled a bit. Jeez, what were those ropes made out of? Nails? Ow.

"What did you do to him??" I heard a scream. It was Sophie.

"Many things, Ms. Foster." I managed to hear. I strained my ears and detected Gisela cackling softly. I rolled my eyes. She called that an evil laugh? Pfft. I slowly freed myself, making sure the dwarves weren't looking. Then I vapor-traveled out of there.

"Sophie?" I called out.

"Percy!" Annabeth strangled me with a hug. Sophie grinned behind her, holding hands with Keefe. Fitz, Biana, Dex, Tam, Linh, and Wylie were there, too. I gasped for breath.

"Since when did you do Tyson-style hugs, Wise Girl?" I wheezed. "Let me breathe, I've only been gone a few hours!"

"I am not losing you again, Seaweed Brain." She muttered into my chest. "Gisela said she killed you."

"I nearly killed her with my sass." I retorted. "Also, she really doesn't know how to use a knife." She looked up at my throat and gasped. A thin line of red was there. I touched it, self-conscious.

"It's fine, honestly. It was a blunt knife." I assured her. She shrugged. "I guess you were worse, but you still looked so..."

"Dead?" I guessed. "Please, those were my awesome acting skills! I should be in Wood Holly!" I boasted.

"It's Hollywood." She corrected.

"Whatever. Let's go kick some Neverseen butt." She nodded and unsheathed her drakon bone dagger. I uncapped Riptide.

"HEY!" I pointed to some grey thingies I saw at Sophie's house. "Um, Annabeth, what are those guys?" She rolled her eyes.

"Goblins." She whispered.

"Ok. HEY, GREY DUDES! LOOK OVER HERE! REMEMBER THIS?" I waved Riptide in the air. They froze at the sight of the celestial bronze and ran off, screaming. I chuckled.

"That took so much less effort." I smiled. "Hey, Gisela! I'm not sure if celestial bronze would work on elves, so how about I run you through it for a test?" She shook in terror. Wow, am I really that scary? I was about to swipe it through her when suddenly, Annabeth yelled.

"Percy!" She screamed. An arrow shot towards me, impaling me straight through the heart.

"Ummm..." I looked down at my chest. It was perfectly fine. Sophie looked horrified. Keefe looked at me like, dude? Why aren't you dead yet? face. Biana buried her face in Fitz's shoulder. The rest of the team had looks mathcing Annabeth's. Well, this was normal. Getting impaled by a non-existent arrow was perfectly normal. Wow, even Annabeth looked confused.

"What the heck was that?" I demanded to no one in particular.

"An illusion." I heard a voice. I whipped around. Hecate was standing there.

"Why in the Hades would you do that???" I asked. "You could just tell me to use the Mist instead of trying to impale me with an arrow that doesn't even exist!" Hecate didn't answer. Gods do weird things sometimes.

"Use the Mist, Perseus. You are at the Crossroads now." She whispered and then disappeared.

Agh, I hate it when gods do that. Oh, I'll help you. Sorry, can't help you! Bye!

"THE NAME'S PERCY!" I yelled, rolling my eyes. "Anyways, what does she mean by that? Use the Mist?"

"We can't defeat them all, Percy. Look." She pointed to the Neverseen's army. 100 goblins, 300 somethings-name-I-don't-know [A/N: trolls], ogres, and elves.

"Uh, yeah we can defeat them all." I smirked. "Just trust me, Wise Girl. Let the Supreme Lord of the Bathroom take over. It's power time, baby!" I dropped Riptide and raised my hands. A tidal wave soaked everything. Except for Annabeth and the other elves that were on our side.

When I finally let down the water, almost everything was gone. Except for the Neverseen and some goblins and ogres. Dam those brats. They had that Psionipath person or something, because they were cowering underneath a force field.

Annabeth screamed. There was a dagger in her arm. And on that dagger, was green poison, dripping onto the floor and mixing with her blood.

"NO!"

[I feel so evil >:))) mwahhahahahahahaha

Ok, question of da chapter!!!

What kind of gemstone was Kenric's circlet?

bye bye :)]