Percy took the book from Alex with a significant look at Annabeth. "Hopefully I can get through this one without someone snatching it away from me."

"I was doing your head a favor seaweed brain, don't want it to overheat," she grinned.

"Oh, you think I can't finish a chapter without you," he crossed his arms, crushing his finger in the pages of the book without care. "I've probably read more than you have owl breath."

"Ha," Alex cheered softly under her breath Percy had remembered that one. Magnus tapped her on the shoulder and whispered softly, "are we supposed to let them keep going?" He only managed to remember the sign for supposed to off the top of his head.

"Eh, I don't see why not," she shrugged.

"You've probably been skipping whole paragraphs and summarizing from memory, it doesn't count!" Annabeth lobbed back.

"Ehhem," Thalia did clear her throat though with an amused smile and ruin their fun. "Percy, if you don't want to read, I'm sure Annabeth will for you."

"Hey, no, what," Percy stammered as he held the book. "I can read fine Thalia!"

"I question it too though," she smirked.

Percy strolled casually back to his seat between the two girls and read the chapter title, enunciating every syllable as if practicing for the first time. It did not help his situation all it caused was a chorus of snickers around the room, Alex even adding in a baby voice, "Forget your rubber duckie there?"

It was kind of nice, Percy shook his head, that no matter what shit he went through, at least someone got a kick out of his misery.

As he tried to properly get started, Annabeth covered his hand with hers. Just there, leaving her overlapping fingers on his while he held the book comfortably. She was so warm he wondered if she had a sunburn or had been carrying around lumps of coal. The truth was he didn't care why she was, he just smiled as he read.

...The skeletal guards shoved me through a wall, and it became solid behind me.

"Kinda cool?" Jason offered. "How many solid walls have you gone through without breaking them?"

"You're about to find out," Percy rolled his eyes. He hoped Jason was as resistant as the Kool-Aid jar guy, he'd be a little sorry if it actually hurt him.

...Hades's dungeon was meant for dead people, and they don't breathe.

"Why would Hades dungeon dead people?" Magnus looked at him strangely. "He's got the fields of punishment specifically for that."

"Hades special punishment for certain ones to keep them right under his feet," Thalia shivered. "I'm over here praying we don't hear who Percy's neighbors are."

...forget fifty or sixty years. I'd be dead in fifty or sixty minutes.

Nico winced at Percy once again thinking he was going to die any minute, and now it was all his fault. "I'm sorry," he said again, hoping Percy knew he really never meant it to come to this.

'I'm sorry for trusting you,' was still the first thought that crossed Percy's mind, but he sighed. Nico really hadn't done anything unforgivable, and to be fair, he'd been sitting through far worse torture to scrape together his past too with bubblegum and blonde hair. 'It's not the first thought that matters in the end, it's the one you act on,' his mother had once told him kindly as she dabbed at his bleeding lip one too many days after school. 'That's what matters Percy. I'm happy you told him to shut up first, that's who I want you to be next time.' He'd never quite managed to live up to that advice, but he kept trying. "I'm sorry too, I was pretty harsh."

"Well one of you should definitely be sorryier," Thalia kept to herself who she thought that should be, she was trying to be mature and not reignite an argument that wouldn't lead anywhere good; even if she did understand Percy's anger all too well. "But if we just let you two go on like this all day I'll die of boredom."

"Tempting," Percy nodded. "Nico, I'm sorrier- ouch," Thalia had jabbed him in his liver. Or his pancreas. One of those organs that hurt a lot when her fingers hit it!

Annabeth looked rather impressed about it too, wondering to herself if it was some combination of him letting his guard down around someone he trusted to feel it so much and Thalia's stronger than average strength as he looked at her gray eyes in betrayal before moving on.

... must've been about seven in the morning, mortal time, and I'd been through a lot.

"Understatement," Thalia mock whispered.

Nobody even had the heart to play that off with her. It was just too true.

I dreamed I was on the porch of Rachel's beach house in St. Thomas.

"Just for that extra kick in the rear of the life you could have been having," Magnus said in sympathy.

"I feel like if I ever tried to skip out on such a luxury as being trapped in Hades dungeon I'd be hit by a car or something for divine retribution," Percy scowled.

Annabeth shivered in revulsion of such an idea that really could happen to him any day. She'd have to hose him down just to hope to save his life for starters before this curse kept him safe.

...The smell of salt air made me wonder if I would ever see the ocean again.

Alex was now imagining some convoluted way of Percy getting out of his current predicament by just pulling the ocean water right through the Underworld and flooding his cell along with Hades's entire kingdom in a fit of rage. It was probably a tad delusional, but pretty satisfying all things considered imagining the god of death dripping wet and calling Percy the worst plumber ever.

...Why she'd be reading about vacations while she was on vacation, I wasn't sure.

"She's got to make sure she's listed somewhere as being on the hottest vacation," Thalia said scathingly. "Oh, no, she's already planning the next one, or, or, she's looking to buy another island."

"I feel like if I had that much money I'd do something stupid, like try to buy all the soda companies out and install free drink machines in schools," Percy grinned.

"Yeah!" Thalia said in delight. "Atomic Bomb's for the masses!" They high-fived over their insane drink where they mixed all the fountain sodas together while the other couldn't watch and then dared each other to taste what all had been mixed.

"At least you'd be bringing happiness to children of the world," Annabeth chuckled.

...She wore Bermuda shorts and her Van Gogh T-shirt.

"Isn't that the guy that cut his ear off?" Will asked.

Percy laughed in delight and told him, "she gets so mad that's the only thing most people know him for. Don't get her started on Prisoner's Round, she'll chew your ear off."

... I only remembered the dude's name because he cut his ear off.)

Will laughed right along with him now, hoping to bring it up next time he saw her at Camp...assuming he ever saw her again.

...wasn't with them on vacation...Then the scene changed to St. Louis, under the Arch.

Annabeth sighed, squeezing Percy's hand in hers. She wanted to ask if he'd ever been tempted to hold Rachle's hand while she'd been in here. She wanted to demand why Percy could dream of her in her swimming suit in a better life when he was at his lowest.

She stubbornly brushed it aside though, her worry for where Rachel actually was outweighing those small details. She'd rather have her in here, where they knew she was actually safe, jealousy and all.

I'd been there before. I'd almost fallen to my death.

"We really need to take you on a cross-country trip and stop to commemorate all the places you've nearly died. We can bring stickers," Jason said with a painful sounding laugh.

"Sounds like the perfect thing to do the second I get my license," Percy chuckled.

... A foot the size of Yankee Stadium was about to smash me when a voice hissed, "Percy!"

Percy was shivering nonstop in his seat by then, like he should have a cold and be sniffling, and they couldn't blame him. Jason had always imagined these dreams as just Percy observing these events, but to suddenly imagine him just standing there, helpless to watch, was the worst thing he could do to him.

...Before I was fully awake, I had Nico pinned to the floor with my sword at his throat.

Magnus couldn't help but wince at the sheer violence of that action. That kind of stuff probably happened all the time at camp. When kids grew up with their first instinct being to draw a weapon, to see everyone you passed on the street as a threat, this was the inevitable outcome.

Percy pressed his hand to his mouth in horror at what he'd done to him. He looked at his own hands and really hated what he was capable of. What he'd need more of to take out Kronos. Not the kind of take out Nico had apparently wanted to do with him at one point.

Will was squeezing and releasing Nico's shoulder like he was a new pressure cuff as he closed his eyes and clearly swallowed hard against anything he wanted to say about that. Percy was supposed to protect Nico. He wished that had prevailed, but he'd be happy to pick up where his distracted ass left off when he ran into the sunset saving the world.

...I wished he hadn't said something logical like that. I let him go.

"Nico's now two for two, winning those logical arguments," Alex said calmly enough, honestly hoping to avoid another fight starting. She liked Nico and Percy too much to pick sides, even if it was pretty tempting to call Oceanus back in here on her terms and strangle him, she'd have to stop and take time to fill them in on the plan. It was just too much to do when right now they all needed a breather.

... if he'd wanted to kill me, he could've done it while I slept. Still, I didn't trust him.

"And why the hell not?" Will tried not to ask through gritted teeth. He forced a smile and really tried to shake off his wavering anger and annoyance. "I get you woke up on the wrong side of the cell Percy, but you're being a tad dramatic."

"Only a tad?" Percy raised an unamused brow. "I've never been a tad anything, maybe I should up my game?"

"Percy, stop instigating Will," Thalia still felt like an over-exhausted babysitter as she looked at Annabeth, who was being no help as she sat frowning at the book like nothing else was happening.

"Relax man," Percy rolled his eyes, clearly ignoring Thalia. "I didn't feel any bad sense when I met Nico in here, I obviously forgave him." He said while watching Nico, who was sitting in uncomfortable silence. Percy hadn't actually felt anything too intense upon meeting Nico other than a sense of knowing him, just like Thalia. He honestly wished he had, he'd obviously screwed up in his past by never growing any closer with Nico than he had Thalia, who was off roaming the world half the year. At least she was with friends, her own family. It seemed Nico likely hadn't found that before this catastrophe, and Percy still felt personally responsible he hadn't managed to integrate Nico into camp better, considering his disastrous attempts to go it alone had gone.

"We have to get out of here," he said..."Does your dad want to talk to me again?"

"I'd really hope he would just use Nico to summon you if he wanted to talk though," Annabeth said in exhaustion. "Better than the furies who would just rip you limb from limb and deliver you that way."

"Hades might be a little upset if they did that," Percy mock agreed, "he'd have to talk to each piece of me, and you know none of me would be listening, he'd have to repeat himself a million times. This is better."

Nico managed a laugh, a subdued one, but it rattled loose whatever tension had been left in the room from this ordeal.

... I didn't know what he was planning." "You know what your dad is like!"

Apparently not as well as he thought he did, Nico winced. That was three consecutive times in Percy's life he'd been duped by someone obviously not with him in mind, granted one of which Percy and Thalia also helped, just far more reluctantly. He really didn't know what he was supposed to do to stop being such a useless idiot.

Percy was still watching him beat himself up over there, and couldn't just sit there. "Look, you obviously knew what you were doing was wrong by not telling me!" He still couldn't help the anger bleeding into his tone. "Just, next time, tell me what's going on Nico, please!"

"I promise," Nico nodded, really meeting his eyes. "I'm sick of always being a problem to you."

"You're not a problem to me Nico," Percy sighed. "You're, just, really naive or something, or trusting, I don't know. Stop hanging around people who get you in trouble." He groaned; he sounded like a school counselor.

Nico frowned, because he wasn't going to stop. He still wanted a connection with his dad, he'd still keep visiting gods and that ranch and places Percy probably wouldn't approve of for his own fascination of the world and hopes the places he'd visited in the past weren't just the death and decay he'd left them in.

He glanced at Will. Percy clearly wouldn't want to come and still wouldn't approve, but he wasn't sure he cared anymore, even if a part of him would always crave Percy's approval. Will was already smiling right back.

... I wanted to strangle him again. Unfortunately, he was right.

"Is this how you feel all the time?" Nico asked Annabeth like every word was sapping more strength from him as this dragged on.

"Pretty similar, yeah," Annabeth grudgingly nodded. "Some days I'd rather build a temple out of spaghetti than try getting him to agree I'm right."

Percy did not like the sudden implication being offered of how similar Nico and Annabeth were and decided he needed to move on from this conversation very loudly.

...I dragged him out of the servants' entrance and into the Fields of Asphodel.

Will's heart softened like a gooey marshmallow at a campfire. It didn't matter how angry Percy really had been. He'd just stepped in and helped support him no matter how many times he'd called him a creep. Nex person who complained Percy shouldn't sing along to 'Friendship Saved Pythias', he'd duck tape their mouth shut.

..."Alarms," Nico murmured sleepily.

"What do we do?"

"What were you hoping he was going to say?" Magnus looked around at Percy in concern. "We should just chill here with a cup of tea, my dad will totally understand."

"Maybe with a little less sarcasm, but yeah Magnus, I would like that," Percy groaned.

He yawned then frowned like he was trying to remember. "How about, run?"

"Nico, with the best life advice over here," Jason snorted.

"He could replace Chiron if we're not careful," Thalia chuckled.

"You guys are so hilarious," Nico rolled his eyes affectionately, a very new feeling he hadn't grown tired of.

... more like doing a three-legged race with a life-size rag doll.

"I could've renamed you Scrump right then," Percy groused, mock rubbing his shoulder as if he was heavier than the actual literal weight of the sky. "I'm pretty sure bugs have laid eggs in your ear at least once!"*

He got a lot of blank stares, and he felt only a tad guilty once again realizing his childhood was still leagues better than half these guys as he'd spent afternoons watching movies with his mom at least sparingly, so he read slightly louder than was necessary.

...The spirits of the dead made way like the Celestial bronze was a blazing fire.

Will really wanted to suggest next time they just start with that, but even Percy might not have been able to defeat every minion of Hades before they regrew and Nico would have had to do his thing anyways. He just sighed, again, at realizing Nico's powers affected him so badly.

"Could you do that shadow trick now, if we wanted to sneak in and out of somewhere?" Alex asked.

Nico grinned. He really, probably shouldn't have answered like that, but it was sub-par compared to the chaos Alex would wrought with it, so he did anyways. "Not to do anything to crazy. I can only hold my breath so long, and I haven't been able to practice as much as I'd like."

"We'll work on it," Alex chuckled, though Nico got the disturbing idea of Alex telling Percy to drown him until he could indefinitely before he shook it off with the mild comfort he did need slightly less oxygen intake than the average demigod thanks to his dad.

...Mrs. O'Leary bounded out of nowhere and ran circles around us, ready to play.

The eight shouts of delight for her always popping up when Percy needed her should have caused more alarm than it did, but if that Ocean Titan had anything to say about it, he could to Mrs. O'Leary himself.

...The word Styx got her excited. She probably thought I meant sticks.

"You still owe her and Cerberus so much playtime," Alex nodded. Percy had a feeling Alex was going to follow him around and remind him of that for the rest of his life, possibly engrave it on his tombstone. Unless he committed at least twelve hours a day to this apparent overlap, or invented a stick throwing machine.

... Cerberus barked, sounding more excited than angry, like: Can I play too?

Alex would have been the perfect person to be reading this part, Magnus grinned. The enthusiasm and chaos she put into every word that never left anyone in doubt Percy was having the time of his life running away on an adrenaline rush and would probably be back for seconds next week given his luck Percy was sort of lacking as he tried to stay upbeat, but mostly sounded very done.

...Nico slid off Mrs. O'Leary's back and crumpled in a heap on the black sand.

Nico mock rung out his jacket. "You think your sand gets everywhere? I was finding that stuff literally still clinging to my skin for weeks."

"We all know not to have a beach day in the Underworld Nico, I promise," Percy shrugged.

"Besides, the umbrellas would clash," Alex nodded seriously.

..."Your powers drain you too much," I noted.

"Thanks for the update," Nico said with a mild frown. He loved being reminded as many times as possible he was so much weaker and bad at this than Percy. He sighed and let the grumpy thought go. "I honestly don't know why. I feel like I was cursed by some other god, since it's not that bad with you two."

"It's possible, I wouldn't put it past Persephone," Percy agreed in concern. "Or just the way you learned might have screwed you over in the long run."

Nico rolled his eyes. Percy would never let go of the fact that he'd never gone to camp.

"Minos probably wasn't the best teacher, I doubt he really wanted to help," Thalia nodded at Percy.

Nico froze, his mind itching uncomfortably for a moment before he retorted in anger, "he didn't teach me everything I can do!"

"He probably didn't teach you everything you shouldn't do either," Annabeth said simply. "From what I've heard, you always seem to go all out, and passing out isn't all the rest you might need."

Nico tried not to glower at them, none of that sounded like useful advice, but the annoying truth was they weren't wrong either. He'd managed to figure everything out for himself or at the beginning with that ghost. It's not like Percy and Thalia had guides for their powers, they'd figured out their own limits and pushed from there. Maybe it hadn't helped by Minos telling him he didn't have any.

... "With great power, comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later."

"Was that a Spider-Man reference?" Will yelped in delight.

"Yeah," Nico grinned. "I like sneaking into those, those ones with cars all over."

"Drive-ins?" Will said in surprise, he'd only heard about those as old-school dates.

"Yeah," Nico nodded, "I hid underneath this minivan that had a whole group of kids to watch. They kept the volume decent, not ear ringing like those huge theaters, and one kid dropped a box of chocolate out the window he didn't want to get out for." Nico's smile was far too happy for describing something so sad. "Anyways, the kids kept talking over the movie telling fun facts, but they got real quiet during that quote and I could tell why, I got shivers," he held up his jacket coated arm with a fond smile like he'd known he was hearing a piece of history. "Did you know he was the first teenage superhero who wasn't a sidekick? And, and that those webs coming out of his wrists he makes himself in the comics? I want to find out what happened and how he lost one of his abilities if I can."

Percy wasn't sure if he should keep reading or get the kid a blanket if that was the highlight of his summer while he'd been having the best times of his life with Rachel having milk-snorting competitions and she kept trying to buy him singing fish that wouldn't shut up about hound dogs as gag gifts.

Nico seemed done talking though. He seemed to have realized they'd gotten completely off topic and was blushing slightly, looking from the book to the floor.

"Whoa, zombie dude." I caught him before he could pass out again.

Not his favorite nickname, Nico internally groaned, but also Percy's warm hands catching him woke him up faster than any godly food ever could. He'd felt more goosebumps all over than a hundred movies could do to him, he'd become suddenly hyper-aware of everything as Percy's green eyes studied him, the way his mouth still ticked in anger, the sudden overpowering scent of the salty ocean, the very distant sounds of that alarm in tune with his heart.

...seemed to do the trick. Nico shook his head a few times and struggled to his feet.

He'd have told his father to shove it to get out of those warm, steady hands and be able to calm his racing heart, Nico shook his head at his past self. Now Percy probably couldn't stand the idea of touching him without fearing it would somehow attract more feelings.

...Looking at the black water, I could think of about three million places I'd rather swim.

"Active volcano has to be one of them," Alex said with confidence.

"It was in the lower thousands," Percy nodded, "right beside quicksand."

"So . . . I just jump in?"

Annabeth looked very much like someone who wanted to swat him in the face with a rolled-up newspaper. "No Percy, you do not just jump in, leap in!, to the River Styx with a cannonball!"

"Not even a swan dive?" He asked with an amused grin. "I bet Nico would give me a fair score since there's no diving board."

"He would not," Nico frowned.

"You're lucky Nico's there to explain to your insane, impulsive, ideas about preparation," she finished in a long exhausted sigh he was actually still alive against all odds.

..."This is no joke," Nico warned.

One of the many, many times Nico had a love-hate relationship with Percy's ability to laugh in the face of death. He could probably rank about three million of his own.

...pale green like a shallow sea—and an arrow stuck out of his calf, just above the ankle.

Even Magnus had heard of this guy, his name was a common enough phrase, but the description still managed to freak him out plenty. "Who is Achilles a child of? Do all demigods get stuck in the way they die?" Nico had said Beckendorf was happy somewhere around there waiting on someone, but now all he could imagine was his body in flames aboard the next cruise ship Percy would try to invade.

"I presume he only appears there in spirit, like a recorded message," Annabeth shook her head, "he's most likely happy somewhere in Elysium, or if he tried for rebirth, the myths don't say. His parentage is just Percy's perception of him, he's actually the child of Peleus and Thetis-"

"He's the child of a dragon?" Magnus yelped, going paler as he expected the guy to be hiding some minotaur hybridization going on if he got angry.

"We named our guardian after the king of Phthia, he was a hero who-"

Percy probably would have let her keep going back five generations and then gone into the guy's mother before he snapped out of his love daze of just staring at her. Thalia probably would have let her too, just because she was not looking forward to another word of this as she slouched more in her seat and pulled out an arrow to start jabbing her ripped jeans. Jason definitely would have let her too because he was having the time of his life, the little nerd. Magnus wasn't exactly engrossed, but he wasn't going to shut her down either as she told an epic story she clearly enjoyed. Will had probably only ever told one person to shut up in his life, and the consequences hadn't been great.

Alex exchanged a look with Nico. Guess they'd have to be the mature ones. How lame. "And then he turned into an invisible cat and started terrorizing neighboring kingdoms!" Alex bluntly interrupted. She felt a little bad for it, but it had to be done.

"That's not-" Annabeth looked around in confusion.

"One story at a time guys," Nico calmly reminded.

"And if there's not at least one talking cat in every story I get bored," Alex shrugged.

"I haven't had a talking cat show up in my life yet," Percy tempted fate, now of all times.

"Don't underestimate the power of my imagination," was Alex's only ominous answer to that.

... your weaknesses, your failings will increase as well."

Thalia resisted the urge to pull her hood over her head and sink even farther back into her poof. What had Luke's response been to being warned away? Had he claimed he was doing this for victory and glory against the gods? Had he still been insisting he was doing it for them? Either justification made her too sick to care, and yet she still desperately wanted to know.

..."Couldn't I just, like, wear something besides sandals? No offense."

Thalia took it out on Percy. "What makes you think if you encased your foot in concrete it still wouldn't be easy for the most basic of monsters to break!"

Percy was unphased. "I like to think I keep them distracted enough it'll just be a mild work around."

"How about when I rip your face off?" She tried to fight off a smile with a scowl.

"Come at me you darned dirty Huntress," Percy chuckled.

Nico understood it was a reference more from Percy's tone than getting why he'd call her that, but he was happy to see he also wasn't the only one who didn't get it as Percy loudly kept reading past any more depressing faces to get to that awful bath with way too much enthusiasm.

... "The heel is only a physical weakness. My mother held me there when she dipped me in."

"How old was he when his mom did that?" Alex asked in disgust.

"An infant," Annabeth frowned in agreement, "there was a whole prophecy around this that I would have gotten to."

"You would have gotten to the point when Percy gets his shit together," Nico scoffed.

"I have a book with you in it mister, and I'm not afraid to use misquotes," Percy rolled his eyes.

Nico swallowed in horror what Percy could say had come out of his mouth and quickly sat back in his seat.

What really killed me was my own arrogance.

"Well I at least don't have that," Percy mock brushed sweat off his brow. "Crisis averted guys, I think I'm safe!"

He got some mild laughter, but it wasn't really funny. It was slowly becoming apparent to the three not in the know just what exactly Percy was capable of, what he'd done to himself back then in order to be on the same playing field as a Titan. What he'd committed himself to being, just shy of a god.

... He was honestly trying to save me from a terrible fate.

And not a lot of people did that for him, Annabeth bit back a sigh. There were just too many gods, too many monsters, too many people who needed something from him, even she wasn't guiltless of needing him as a partner. He could have walked away from this feat of daring, and nobody could have called him selfish for it.

Then again, Luke had been here, and he hadn't turned back.

"That wasn't as motivating as you might think Perce," Jason grimaced as he studied his hands, his tattoo. The things he could have done and would never know about haunted him every other fleeting feeling that came and went from a life he couldn't remember, but apparently shared quite a bit with Percy.

That's why Luke had been able to host the spirit of Kronos... He was invincible.

Annabeth shivered like ice had just been dumped into her veins. The idea of what he'd gone through by himself had to make her the most worthless hero to ever pretend to be as such. Nico might not be her first pick, but at least Percy had somebody to go through this with! Luke had asked her to, begged her to...and she'd slammed the door in his face.

She wondered if Janus had been laughing at her.

The prophecy couldn't have worked out any other way, she still kept trying to soothe herself months later, but it still sounded like she was lying to herself.

...or the River Styx will burn you to ashes. You will cease to exist."

Percy felt like he had a pretty good idea of which spot he'd chosen, as he rubbed the side of his head for the twinge of pain and ignored how his back felt like it had fire ants all along his spine. Particularly the part where Annaebth's nails had recently dug in. The amount of times he'd slammed himself into his seat and felt, an odd sensation, just there. Like a bean shifted around and pinged him in just that spot. It was never something he'd really paid much attention to.

"I don't suppose you could tell me Luke's mortal point?"

"What, I had to ask?" Percy grinned to Annabeth's face.

"Yeah, but, Percy," she sighed in exhaustion at still wondering how he was alive. How on earth had he managed to focus on one thing down in that river to still be alive?! She was about to find out and still found it hard to believe.

... Whether you survive this or not, you have sealed your doom!"

"Nice chap," Thalia nodded to herself. "Hope he gets lots of tributes and thanks from others he warned away."

"I'll get started on a campfire song for him when we get back," Will chuckled.

..."Percy," Nico said, "maybe he's right." "This was your idea."

"Which makes it every bit okay for him to admit this was a bad idea, as opposed to other nosy parties," Will grinned.

"I swear he's huffing laughing gas," Percy told Annabeth in mild concern.

"Nah, he's been like that since he got to camp," Annabeth shrugged. "The Stolls had a bet going if he was dropped on his head or something."

Will kept smiling like he hadn't heard a word. Percy wasn't entirely ruling out the Stolls joke. They might have been the one to do it and never admitted it.

... and you'll be the child of the prophecy." He didn't look pleased, but I didn't care.

Nico shook his head slowly. He could have spent a year trying to describe how much he hadn't been pleased about that! He'd felt like he was watching Bianca abandon him again without a care as Percy hadn't looked back. He'd felt like this was one entire huge mistake on his part and he'd only done it to try and spend time with Percy, expecting him to never go through with it. He'd felt so proud and in awe of this hero he'd never be, always stepping up to every challenge just like Nico knew he would.

And that was just the first few annoyingly contradictory thoughts. He hadn't even begun to think back then what kind of reception he'd get at camp if Juniper had happened to mention the last person Percy was ever seen with.

Before I could change my mind,

Percy barely took a breath before he decided to share one of the most intimate parts of himself, like he had been all along without much care. The truth was, he'd felt like any of them could have killed him and never known the difference until the weapon wouldn't work. No matter what feeling he'd had sitting alongside them, he'd never felt like he was more than them.

...a lot more dignified than, like, my armpit or something.

"Okay, wait, just," Alex finally managed to say while waving her hand through her muffled laughter. "There's a lot to process there, just, give me a second"

"No," Percy rolled his eyes, entirely joking. He just knew Alex would have something to say about that part.

"I'm still kind of stuck on the, hard to hit when wearing armor part," Jason admitted while Alex was still trying to collect herself. "I can count on one hand the amount of times you've worn armor, and they were all playing capture the flag. Otherwise, you never seem to get the chance." Why he never brought it on quests was sort of understandable, it would just slow him down in most cases when Percy fought so all over the place and he healed relatively quickly with water available, but still. During the greatest battle of his life didn't seem the best place to suddenly be trying to work around unpracticed techniques.

The spot was news to Thalia, and it of course spurred her into suggesting, "we should get you, like, one of those orange traffic cones and strap it to your left arm, that way people will aim there first."

"Okay, okay, I'm good now," Alex finally managed to catch her breath from laughing at imagining Percy getting stabbed in the armpit as his one vulnerable mortal spot left...which Percy couldn't find as funny for some reason. It made his head hurt. Alex still had to get one last breath before she could say, "you picked a great spot Percy!"

"Thanks," Percy said in surprise. He didn't think he'd ever heard Alex compliment someone before.

Alex sounded sincere too, but she still had an odd smirk on her face that made Percy feel like he was missing something as Magnus and Alex exchanged a look.

Did Percy really not see the irony? Magnus thought for himself as he shrugged and looked away. Achilles had just warned it would not only make him more powerful, but his weaknesses too. Percy's major weakness was his trust in others and his willingness to do anything for them...and now his literal one weak spot was getting stabbed in the back which he only exposed to those he trusted. This could possibly end very badly if he'd ever shared word of this with anyone before them.

Annabeth shook her head at these guys getting a laugh out of this while her hand twitched to cover that spot on him, possibly sew her hand there permanently.

...jumping into a pit of acid... won't be close to understanding what it felt like.

"Better or worse than the lava?" Jason asked clinically.

"On a scale of one to ten doc? It hurt! Don't recommend!" Percy scoffed.

I planned to walk in slow and courageous like a real hero.

"Percy, taking his dramatics all the way to the bank," Alex snorted.

Will at least laughed at the pun, and the callback.

... I couldn't breathe underwater. I finally understood the panic of drowning.

Thalia winced, and then turned a glare on Percy. It really was too common to him he didn't even blink, because that was a scary face. "I feel like you're mocking me! What is it with you nearly dying in liquid lately?"

"Trust me Thalia, when I'm mocking you, I make sure you know," Percy said. It wasn't an experience he'd ever wish for again, he swallowed hard and rubbed at his throat. The burning hadn't just been on every woven inch of his skin like Athena herself was practicing her newest weave on his entire body, it had gone deeper, to a burning in his lungs. Worse than choking, worse than fear holding his breath, it was a kind of inescapable menace that would not let him breathe he'd never known he was capable of being afraid of until it was too late.

... I saw faces—Rachel, Grover, Tyson, my mother—but they faded as soon as they appeared...I was losing the fight.

"You are so lucky I wasn't there to kick your ass the second you got out of there," Annabeth's voice was tense, cracking with stress. She didn't care she was holding his hand so tight she was getting a cramp, because he was holding right back as he studied every press of their skin together to keep the air coming in. To remind his brain and eyes he wasn't stuck in there now.

...The cord, a familiar voice said. Remember your lifeline, dummy!

"I was wondering when you were going to show up!" Thalia nodded, her face a little too pale to really be joking, but smiling at Annabeth all the same like a proud big sister. "No wonder he asked about you before we even cracked open his first memory." She wasn't surprised in the slightest it was Annabeth who had pulled him free of that death. The question still haunted her; who had Luke seen? What had pulled him out of that river of unforgiving loss? Her? Annabeth? Kronos?

"What?" Annabeth blinked fuzzily at her, then Percy, interrupting Thalia's train of thought as well as she always had.

Percy wasn't even blushing, he just smiled casually at her. "Yeah, I uh, you were the only memory I had when I woke up in here. Everything else only came back because, well," he gestured to the multicolored books.

Now Annabeth was blushing. Her mouth fell open in an adorable O shape, Percy grinned as he watched her. The red in her cheeks made the plump skin pink, it was creeping all the way down her neck. He didn't see why she was so surprised. It wasn't his mom or Rachel he'd longed to have on this hectic mess of his life this whole time.

... I stopped dissolving. I reached up and took Annabeth's hand.

It wasn't even a 'real memory' Percy was getting back, as he touched his belly button in stunned silence as he took it all in. He read that passage again, three times in a row, as he felt such a headrush like she'd kissed him again for the first time. It might not have ever happened, that specific thing his mind had made up, but it was the most real memory he'd ever get back now. The rest didn't matter. What Kronos had tried and failed to do was an unimportant side note now.

He looked over at Annabth's stunned face and grinned.

Percy had grown up so much from that drooling little twelve year old. It was the only thing her mind would grasp on, like someone had just sprung a test on her and demanded the right answer. All she could think was sneaking into that nursing room in her cap as Chiron stepped out to have a word with Argus. Seeing the dried drool on his chin and picking up the bowl of pudding as he began to awaken.

All she'd wanted from him was answers. A way to get out of camp. A child of Zeus was there to get her out on her quest like the very one who had led her in. She'd been planning their victory and how to get that bolt back before she even met him.

Then she met him.

Reading against his memories the other night had felt like trying to see double, like reading with a concussion (which she had plenty of experience trying.) There was no set moment for him where he'd decided that she was tolerable and trustworthy and the best friend he'd ever had and his lifeline!

They were still holding hands, of course. For a moment, she let herself believe they'd never have to stop.

... I collapsed on the sand, and Nico scrambled back in surprise.

'Fylgja,' Alex wasn't too surprised at the word that came to mind as she kept watching Percy read and Annabeth stare at him with the most loving face no artist could ever perfectly capture, it was too deep to fully engrave into a still life, no matter how hard they tried. Soulmates. There was a Greek myth too she'd come across while trying to learn about her own, how all people had been a kind of two-for-one before Zeus split them in jealousy. It wasn't anything she'd ever put much stock in before she flipped the page, too hokey for her worldview.

She found herself glancing at Magnus. She wanted to share another look at these two, this room they'd got stuck in, being a literal whole other world apart from their personal Ragnarok in the making.

Instead she felt like a wrecking ball had been flung into her at the usual sweet, dopey smile on his face she'd been growing to enjoy amped up to twenty. Magnus was genuinely happy for his cousin, over there blushing and wringing her hands, then running them through her hair as she tried to stammer to Percy he meant that much to her too.

Alex turned sharply away before that wrecking ball could swing back around like a possessed boomerang, but her heart thudding painfully in her chest wasn't adrenaline. She knew it was too late. She just wouldn't go through this again.

...I looked around for Annabeth, though I knew she wasn't here. It had seemed so real.

He'd come shooting out of there like he had a bad sunburn and the most adorably bewildered look on his face like a lost puppy, only emphasized when his dog had come over and gave him a gentle lick. Percy's thoughts finally explained away why he'd had been squinting around as if he'd never seen the place before, why he'd looked right through Nico as usual while he'd been beating himself up over the fact that he'd just killed Percy.

Nico turned away without interest to linger on that, for once, as he turned to Will and whispered, "so, did you see that Spiderman movie?" It was still so weird and an odd rush to have a conversation that didn't involve Percy, or saving the world, or his creepy death powers.

"That one and the sequel, we have them on a VHS in the Big House," Will nodded. "Chiron's got a box of about a dozen. The Star Wars ones are my favorite. I think Chiron likes those superhero movies that have schlocky happy endings. I'd love to figure out how to hunt down some comics too though to see what else could be out there, but I've never even braved going into the city, um, again after all, well this."

He waved awkwardly at the book with a shy smile, expecting Nico to roll his eyes and proclaim himself an expert on street travel. He could probably brag about having tried every style of pizza right from the source or something equally cool.

"I get that," Nico nodded as Percy finally shook himself out of his stooper and tried to keep going. Simple as that. Will still felt a bit like a coward and meant to make a hasty promise he'd like to try...but honestly he wasn't sure if he was ready for that himself. He didn't know how close he'd get to the Williamsburg Bridge before he'd have a panic attack. Being down here was as far as he'd traveled from Camp since then, and it had long since started wearing on him.

... sniffed me with concern. Apparently I smelled really interesting.

She'd wined in the back of her throat as her enormous nose nudged him, Percy frowned in remembrance. He'd tried to tell her it was okay, but the words had sounded garbled on his throat as he looked up at her big confused black eyes, her tail low beneath her legs. He wondered if he just smelled interesting, or strange, or different. He wondered if he'd smelled something like Deadelus in his foreign body and she thought she was about to lose another friend.

...An army of the dead marched toward us.

At least he said us, Nico noticed with interest. Percy didn't distrust him and hate him so much he didn't still count him as some kind of backup.

"I'm going to kill your dad," Annabeth sighed, with nobody in doubt who she meant. She said that way too casually too. She really was way too much like Percy, Jason shivered at the idea of saying something as wily as that.

Nico just nodded like this didn't surprise him. He knew she didn't mean it...probably, but she still wasn't happy about this either.

... a chariot pulled by nightmare horses, their eyes and manes smoldering with fire.

"Impressive," Alex tugged on his her with mild disinterest though. "Is that what he plans on holding Kronos back with though? Bunch of things that only have a spine but no guts?"

"Haha," Will chuckled.

"Like I said, Kronos would have crushed him, delusional, godly, idiot he was," Percy fell off into grumbles of annoyance, which wasn't leading to great listing material for them until he fixed himself in vaguely more detailed enunciation.

..."Father, no!" Nico shouted, but it was too late.

"You get credit for trying," Thalia sighed.

"Thanks," Nico still said in surprise. He wouldn't have thought someone who cared so much about Percy would even give him that again so soon.

...Mrs. O'Leary growled. That's what set me off. I didn't want them hurting my dog.

Nico had rarely seen her eyes burn red like they had. She'd looked so much like the kind of hellhound he'd seen all over the place in the labyrinth it had stunned him into silence for a moment, remembering what she really was capable of, much like her owner.

Of course it was that, Will nodded without a drop of surprise. The slightest thing could cause Percy to go into attack mode, just like Achilles had warned, just like they'd been living through in here. If Percy felt like anybody he cared about was in danger, there wouldn't be a trace left.

... If I was going to die, I might as well go down fighting.

"That's one hell of a way to test if, 'it worked,'" Magnus went from rubbing his temples at the CGI army playing in his head of all those weapons of the dead facing Percy, sitting casually in front of him and probably not dead, to lifting his fingers and using quotation marks on Percy with a deadpan stare.

Percy spread his arms wide in triumph, but his smile seemed plenty confused like he had no more clue how he'd managed to pull it off.

...It was the stupidest thing I've ever done.

"In a long, long, long, long line of stupid," Alex agreed with nothing but pride and confidence. Lucky for him, Percy was sitting right there. Percy was rubbing his heart and didn't feel that great about his never ending near deadly stunts. With any luck, this would be the last. Wait. Never mind. Kronos. That was the whole point of dealing with this.

A hundred muskets fired at me, point blank. All of them missed.

"Missed," Jason said with a hungry look in his eyes on the book. "No, Percy, you've deflected bullets before. I don't think missed, is the right word there."

Percy took Riptide in his hand, the first time he'd done so since that disastrous war council when Annabeth had convinced him it wasn't needed, the longest he'd ever gone in here without having it in his grasp honestly. He studied the plain black pen and shrugged as he pocketed it again, his thumb to busy stroking Annabeth's to care much; meanwhile Annabeth was mouthing the word 'deflected' with a concerned look around nobody felt up to explaining in detail lest it cause her to go into another rampage on long dead ghosts.

... Riptide was no longer a sword. It was an arc of pure destruction.

Nico's own imagination and wildest dreams couldn't have conjured up such a feat as Percy had performed down there. He'd fought like a demon, he'd been a blur of movement and Nico had never felt such a powerful surge of mingled longing and fear upon watching him. This nutjob had nearly killed him. This guy called him a traitor, when he had moves like that all along and his sister had still died? All the river had done was amplify what had always been inside him. This guy was a god-slayer who had swept Nico off his feet before he even knew what all that entailed.

He wondered how his dad would feel if he put a stained glass image of this up somewhere in his castle.

...The god and I both tumbled out of the chariot.

"What is it with you and chariot jacking?" Will had such a torn look on his face, like he was fighting the urge not to throw offerings at Percy's feet and laugh at the level of insanity he'd just heard. He'd seen it briefly in action, he'd heard mighty tales. This was probably as close as he'd get to living the experience, and he was entirely okay with that.

"Making them get off their high horse," Percy nodded like Will had said something perfectly normal other than Percy's second instance of dethroning gods.

... holding the collar of his robes in one fist, the tip of my sword poised over his face.

Percy tried to ignore the squirming of his stomach as his body still remembered holding Nico down and nearly choking him, gods knew how many other kids he'd scared senseless in camp over the years just by kicking butt in the arena or capture the flag.

He kept trying to tell himself he'd had to do this, he'd had to make himself like this where defeating one of the eldest gods was now practically easy and something he could do as mindlessly as eat. A necessary evil. Like his mom having Gabe in their lives, or his dad avoiding him until he needed something.

It wasn't making him feel better, it was just a fact.

...smoking, empty uniforms. I had destroyed them all.

That was the kind of power now in Kronos's hands, Jason grimly understood. Why he hadn't marched out of the sea and demolished camp the moment he'd come out of the Styx Jason didn't know, but it made a fear clamp so tight in him he expected to be constipated for weeks.

This? This really was just another in a long list of insane things Percy had done. Like Annabeth still hadn't stopped yammering about her favorite Greek hero, except he was right here muttering something about getting a snack in between sentences like they hadn't just had a break while the book of his life sat casually on his knee and he held hands with his girlfriend. The real question was, what was waiting for them above when Percy got all caught up.

...Hades melted into nothing, leaving me holding empty black robes.

"Ares didn't leave you a spoil of war," Magnus stammered like his brain was processing the idea of getting one of those from a god! Like, that was an actual, thing, Percy had just done. The guy across the room!

"Ares is a sore loser, Hades is a little above him I guess," Percy shrugged without much care why.

..."I think the river thing worked," I said.

"Thanks for the update man, really needed that," Jason snorted.

"Just want to make sure you're all keeping up, since my reading skills are so poor apparently," Percy said with 'A Look' at Annabeth.

She batted her eyes innocently, and said in a sugary sweet voice, "You're doing great sweetie, almost done with your part!"

His stomach swooped with joy at the mock encouragement. He squeezed her hand and smirked at her sarcasm before moving on casually.

... dropped the robe in the water and watched as it swirled away, dissolving in the current.

That was somehow an even bigger sacrifice than the Nemean Lion's coat had been, Thalia smiled at Percy, and he hadn't even made it as one. Just Percy, casually helping even damned souls without a second thought instead of pausing for even a second to wonder what powers he might also have with that godly bit of robe.

"Go back to your father. Tell him he owes me for letting him go."

"Because that'll go great I'm sure!" Alex chuckled in excitement which Fury was going to get a one way trip to the surface world through a new geyser when Hades ever heard Percy's name again.

"Not so much," Nico muttered quietly enough only she heard, causing her grin to somehow flicker with extra excitement for a moment, and then fade in dread as she frowned at Nico intensely why he'd know that in such a way. Gods, Hades hadn't imprisoned Nico for his part in all this had he? Percy was going to be the least of that Underdoof's problems if so.

Find out what's going to happen to Mount Olympus and convince him to help."

Percy stared intensely at Nico for a long time. Nico braced himself and felt the need to throw Will to the ground and cover him if Percy got too zealous struggling to not remember that this had worked, against all odds he and his father had actually managed the impossible and done just this to help-

Percy glanced at Annabeth and shook his head like a fly was annoying him before he kept reading. Nico silently cussed out that old Titan in his head they'd been dealing with this crap all along when she was all it had taken for them to get through this without nearly dying!

Nico stared at me. "I- I can't. He'll hate me now. I mean, even more."

Will looked to Nico with nothing but concern and sadness in his eyes. He clearly wanted to ask how that was going nowadays.

Nico bit down on his lip hard to stop himself flinging his whole heart into Will's shoulder and admitting it had its ups and downs. His dad still compared him to Bianca, but now that he'd managed to get his own Cabin in camp there were some days where he even smiled at Nico and complimented him on his mild in comparison successes before he went back to pretending he didn't exist, lest he see the ghost of Maria Di Angelo in him.

... Please, let me come with you. I want to fight."

"Oh, we know you can fight," Annabeth's tone was light enough, still a bit guarded. "The true measure of a king is how well you can negotiate though," she said with a thinly veiled smile. She wasn't really mocking him, but his ghost king title was all she really knew of him too aside from what Percy told her.

..."You mean you don't trust me anymore," he said miserably.

Percy wanted to deny that, but the truth was he wasn't one hundred percent sure about what Nico would be willing to do anymore, not enough to bring him back to camp. If Hades promised him ghost time with his mom or his sister, who would he sell out next?

Nico still looked sad, under Will's arm. His brown eyes on the ground, not bothering to look at him like he was hoping that had changed. Percy wanted it to though.

"Hey, when this is over," Percy tried to say like he wasn't forcing out every word okay-ish. "I'd like to hear if you found out more." He really meant that too. He did still want to help.

"Thanks," Nico looked around at him, smiling in surprise. Truthfully he didn't know if there was anything left to learn, but he had no problems telling Percy what there was. He might like a little more closure on Bianca's story. Thalia too. Return the gift he'd had forced upon him at any rate.

...You're the only one he might listen."

"That's a depressing thought." Nico sighed.

"Well nobody else is clearly even going to bother trying," Magnus rolled his eyes hard. "Not the Goddess of Cereal, and certainly not his grumpy wife. You might be all that's left Nico, but that just means you're also the only hope for it, which tends to get the job done."

Nico chuckled. He didn't want to give anything away about Magnus being right, but he worried at times like this a little of his father's madness had rubbed off on him when he agreed with stuff like that.

...he's still hiding something from me about my mom. Maybe I can find out what."

Nico bit back a sigh it still hadn't been as much as he would have liked. He knew her name now, her face, how and why she'd died, but it never felt like enough. Why couldn't he have a book with all of his memories back? One's with a life before that first hotel got turned into smithereens, with happy memories he didn't have to wake up from, or taunting dreams he never knew were real.

He felt trapped in his own Greek myth. Far from being the hero of course, but a life lesson somewhere in his tale about asking for more than he deserved. He'd walked away from his tidbits of knowledge with his sanity intact and left free to roam to his heart's content. Maybe it was time to put it all away, stop chasing more leads in the ghost's whispers of Tartarus and Jason's camp and try to find something new to be happy with. Maybe he could break the cycle of tragedy like Percy managed if he just found someone to be happy with without looking for more trouble.

Though it didn't seem to be getting Percy out of much trouble lately.

..."To get this war started. It's time I found Luke."

Annabeth had been leaning on Percy's shoulder at the last paragraph, mock mouthing the words along with him with a mischievous smile, but he only got a heartbeat to smile with her when he looked up at the last word to see it all vanish from her face like someone was snatching her away all over again.

She looked like she was about to call him a coward, or worse as she grabbed the book out of his hands hastily. Her thick blonde hair fell across her face, hiding it from sight as she held the red object in both hands securely.

Percy didn't understand what in Tartarus he was supposed to do as he threw his hands up and would have rather been trapped on a merry-go-round than this.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*You cannot convince me Lilo and Stitch isn't Percy's favorite childhood movie. He would've empathized with her so much with their imaginations leaving them as outsiders, and then she gets the coolest best friend ever. Stitch is blue, destructive, and with a heart of gold. There is a secret fanfiction story hidden in Percy's head of Stitch's ship landing in New York and konking Gabe on the head and then the two being best friends forever and I will not be writing it.

But do let me know what movie you imagine Percy sitting around watching. Which would he want to watch with Annabeth first?