Remember?

Θ I See Old Faces Θ

Percy is collapsed at my feet, shaking feverishly. Nico's eyes are wide as he stares at him, and I have no idea what to do.

"Percy? Percy!" I drop to my knees and shake his shoulder.

He doesn't move.

I almost sob out loud. No way did we come this far for Percy to die now.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Nico asks.

"I don't know!" I all but scream at him. He shrinks back, and I sigh. "Sorry." I look at Percy. "I honestly don't know."

Nico shuffles his feet. "Um, I'm gonna go do...something..." Before I can stop him, he takes off back down the row, veering to the right.

"Nico, what're you-" It's no use; he's disappeared.

I look back at Percy, no longer shaking. In fact, he looks peaceful, like he's asleep.

Or dead.

Suddenly I hear a crash and Nico yells, "Annabeth!"

"Nico!" I jump to my feet. Another crash resonates through the room, followed by what sounds like a strong wind blowing, even though I don't feel any breeze.

My eyes dart between Percy on the floor and the end of the row. I don't want to leave him here, but I know he would want me to go to Nico.

I clench my fists and start in a sprint for the end of the row, following Nico's path to the right. My mind is scrambling, trying to figure out what he's doing.

"Annabeth!"

"Nico!" I follow his voice and keep running towards the fourth row from the far left. Suddenly everything makes sense.

Oh, gods, Nico, what have you done?

ΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘ

I turn into the row and am almost blinded by a burst of white light that sears into my skull. My eyes adjust and I can see a figure that's obviously Nico, standing next to a toppled shelf and silhouetted against the light.

No, not light. A woman.

She has a glow around her that tells me she's definitely very powerful. She's clothed in a long white sleeveless dress that floats around her, giving the illusion she's on a cloud.

I look to her face, but it changes before my eyes. At first she has brown hair and a steely grey gaze that seems to be staring into my soul: a perfect lookalike of my mother, Athena. Then she appears to get younger, her hair darkening further and twisting into two small, feather-tipped braids on either side of her face. Her kaleidoscope eyes examine Nico, looking like Piper McLean sizing up an enemy.

Her features keep changing between familiar faces, but my attention goes from visual to auditory as she speaks.

"Nicolas di Angelo." Her voice is velvety and smooth, and it seems to consist of four duplicates speaking at the same time. She looks at Nico with eyes that go from green to blue to brown and back, looking at Nico with a hardness in her gaze.

Nico steps back cautiously. "Um..." He clears his throat. "Yes?"

"What were you doing?"

"I just wanted to see-" Nico starts.

"You are not allowed to take others' memories," she replies with a sharp tone. Now she looks like Sally Jackson, Percy's mom, and her expression seems to be even crueler on Sally's usually-cheerful face.

"I wasn't going to take them, I just wanted to see!" Nico cries. "Is there a rule against wanting to see why your sister wanted to die?!"

"You disturbed the memories of another mortal," the woman says sharply, "which is strictly forbidden."