I have not only read The Sun and the Stars twice, but also managed to finish my editing for this chapter on time plus not fallen behind in my homework! Look at me adulting!

PJOPJOPJO

"Oh I'm sure that's not true Percy," Alex told him in a completely unhelpful tone of voice as Jason read the new title. "Chiron's likely hacked off at you too for losing the game and fighting with Thalia."

"Thanks Alex," Percy resisted the urge to throw her from her chair on purpose this time. That surely wouldn't help the fact everyone in here probably hated him too for nearly killing them every five minutes.

The least the Oracle could've done was walk back to the attic herself.

"No!" Will looked at him aghast. "The less she uses this midnight stroll ability, the better!"

"I didn't hear you volunteering to take her back up there!" Percy huffed.

Rachel was biting her lip to stop herself laughing at Will too just a bit. She was used to the Apollo cabin being overtly nice to her and always thought it was some connection to their dad, she'd never realized it was because they were just so relieved to have the last one gone.

...I didn't figure that was because we were the most popular.

"And here I was always a little upset I'd never gotten a yearbook before," Percy rolled his eyes, "now look at me, winning a whole competition!"

"I'm sure it's a great honor?" But Jason looked a little queasy too at the idea of this.

...I whacked her mummified face against the trapdoor frame and dust flew.

"Cursed," Alex and Magnus said together.

"I was born cursed," Percy sighed. "I'm sure she can't do any worse to me."

"Let's just hope the curse isn't following you around giving you everyone's prophecies," Rachel mock shivered.

... Who knew a mummy could weigh so much?

"Be grateful she doesn't go around in a sarcophagus," Alex shrugged.

...the spirit of Delphi had gone out of her way to exclude me.

"That is exactly what happened," Alex agreed. "I'm sort of impressed."

"At least somebody is," Percy told her indulgently. If everybody in here did hate him too, they weren't acting like it.

... she'd said nothing, not even a hint, about Annabeth.

'She's alive, she's alive, she's a live...' Percy was starting to drive himself nuts he was repeating that over and over, but there was no other answer out there, apparently not even a magical one!

Grover made the comment he wanted to be out there, and Percy asked looking for Annabeth?

Grover blushed and quickly said that too.

"Wow, I thought he and Annabeth were friends," Will seemed mildly offended. He knew life goals and ambitions were important of course, but he'd have still thought Grover would want to be looking for Annabeth more than Pan.

...I felt kind of selfish, because I'd forgotten about Grover's life ambition.

"It's not that selfish," Thalia promised with a look of fond exasperation that was still quite strained on him, and possibly Grover. "Annabeth's been missing for days, Pan's been missing for thousands of years. We prioritize the warm cases before the cold ones."

"He did almost die for that quest last summer though," Jason shrugged, "I can see why he's still so invested."

...Grover hadn't been able to continue his search. It must've been driving him nuts.

"Nuts and berries," Magnus echoed a little sullenly. Maybe if Grover did find Pan though he'd grant him a wish, like saving Annabeth!

"I've let the trail go cold," he said.

"You were kidnapped and nearly married to a cyclops," Nico corrected. "It was an understandable diversion."

"You are trying to replace me as Grover's best friend," Percy grinned at him. He couldn't think of a thing to say to him, at least that would have been something!

"Hardly," Nico muttered.

... I wanted to encourage him, but I didn't know how. My optimism had been trampled.

Will gave Percy a smile brimming with confidence though and said, "well the bright side to losing the game means the Hunters might be in a better mood now. Maybe they'll talk to Grover without slapping him?"

"Thanks you two, I'll hide you around the corner next time I need to cheer someone up," Percy gave a reluctant grin.

... she looked at Grover and said, "Tell Percy to get his butt downstairs."

"A classic," Alex snorted.

"Better than shocking his eyebrows off," Magnus muttered.

... cabin leaders to discuss the prophecy. Unfortunately, that includes Percy."

"I'm so sorry I couldn't send Tyson in my place," Percy told her snidely.

She hesitated like she was still going to give him the same treatment now, but then gave a brave smile and snipped, "see, everyone comes up with the best ideas out of the moment." Mostly she was just stung for a spurn Percy couldn't even know. She didn't have any siblings to send in her place if she didn't want to deal with something.

The council was held around a Ping-Pong table in the rec room.

Jason looked as if he'd been stabbed in the gut and yet couldn't tear his eyes away from the carnage as he got to hear more of this strange setting.

... the wine turned to Diet Coke. Nobody drank that either.

"It was diet!" Percy emphasized to some of their confused faces.

... Bianca, who had kind of become Zoe's personal assistant, took the other end.

Nico pushed his seething resentment aside hard to try and appreciate the moment Zoe was taking his sister under her wing...and turning her into a man hater who probably would have grown to loath him if she did survive. Gods this letting go shit was hard!

Will gave him an uneasy smile, clearly wishing he'd speak his mind, but Nico pressed his lips firmly together instead. Bianca was his businesses, and while he occasionally still got sympathetic looks from everyone, most often Percy, for her being mentioned, nobody had yet asked him how it was having a long distance sister for a huntress and he wasn't going to be talking about it any time soon since he wouldn't be able to avoid it in the near future!

No Ares kid was there. All had 'accidental,' broken limbs from the game via the Hunters.

"I'm pretty sure they actually bragged about that to their siblings when they got back," Will told them. "It's some kind of badge of honor in there to get the most injuries you can walk away from in a fight. They still argue about it though since the whole cabin wasn't there, but it's on record one of the highest broken limbs in any game."

"I'll sow them a patch," Thalia smirked.

...Zoe started the meeting off on a positive note.

"Wait, that was everyone?" Nico asked in surprise. "Why weren't you there?"

"I wasn't the head of the Apollo cabin at the time," he reminded with a very, very sad smile. He was busy in the infirmary, and Kayla had later said she didn't have the heart to go and sit around a table wondering who wasn't coming back. "Most of the cabins don't have year around campers for all the kids to get a voice." He couldn't help thinking how ironic it was Nico seemed surprised by this, since he'd never been at camp long enough to represent as head of his cabin. Bianca was unintentionally filing the roll now, marking the first and only time in camp's history they'd had a child from each of the big three there to direct a quest.

Will had a chipped tooth, Nico noticed, and there was something about the way he was being studied that made him want to blush. "Maybe I was watching the orientation film again," Will added cheekily.

"You're obsessed," but Nico found himself smiling back at this guys effortless good mood.

"This is pointless." "Cheez Whiz!" Grover gasped.

"Not the rebuttal I would have used," Rachel grinned.

"Let's see if it got through to her," Jason chuckled.

..."West!" Bianca said.

"That is a very vague direction," Percy spoke from experience, "usually in no straight line."

"I'm sure you could write a book on your worldly advice," Thalia said grimly, and she was so distracted she seemed to miss the obvious about the literal book she could have been waving under his nose. If Percy was hacked off at her now, he was probably going to be royally pissed at the entire universe when he remembered he wasn't even supposed to go on this quest until he invited himself along.

... her dark eyes reminded me of someone famous, but I couldn't think who.

"Lame!" Alex shouted, studying Nico's eyes now in hopes for a hint.

"He'll probably remember it after they tell us who their mortal parent is, typical," Magnus shrugged before looking curiously at Nico too. It actually made quite a bit of sense that a lot of demigods would have famous parents, those put on pedestals in society would be most likely to catch an immortals attention.

Nico quickly looked away from the both of them and tightened his jacket around himself, fighting back the urge to scream at all of them to buzz off. Their speculation was natural, but it didn't mean he liked being on trial. Jason mercifully kept reading instead of directly asking to his relief.

... "The Hunters do not need thy help."

"You'd think somebody as old and wise as her would know better than to fight these things," Thalia still scoffed a bit at her stubbornness. They would have gotten on well if Zoe had lived.

... like she was trying to form the word. "Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help."

"So she went from Ye Old English to Southern Hick English?" Rachel chuckled as Jason, poorly, tried to imitate a drawl. "Poor thing has nothing on some of the dialects I've heard trying to imitate us." Her dads wide array of conference calls were occasionally fun to listen in on to mock at the very least.

... "Campers and Hunters must cooperate." "Do they?" Mr. D mused.

"What other interpretations are there?" Jason asked eagerly. "For once this one was pretty direct, I can't imagine a lot of surprises to come." He seemed to be missing the glaring detail some of those literal directions were two deaths and a vague point on a compass.

"You keep thinking that man," Percy looked at Jason strangely though, considering the last two had some pretty obvious twists at the end. Nico was glaring at the book too, as if just waiting for it to jump up and bite him, while Thalia was twirling her bracelet around. Percy swallowed and hoped he was wrong this time.

... "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

"I wasn't aware gods had to pick a side," Alex rolled her eyes. "They're on their own side, and he wants all of you dead."

"Dude," Percy groaned even if he did agree.

"Dudett!" Alex challenged back this time rather than waiting for him to correct himself.

Percy stared at her for a moment, before shrugging and saying, "yeah, sure, whatever."

...Zoe grimaced, but I could tell Thalia had scored a point.

"My one and only," Thalia agreed with mock pride.

... Dionysus muttered. "Another dull annual meeting."

"Don't let him lie, it's his favorite time of year for getting to leave, hence the cheez whiz," Will shrugged.

... We will lose another year of war preparations."

Jason still looked a little tongue tied reading that like he struggled more with the concept of the gods as bickering idiots than he did half of the monsters. He still slipped up and stuttered over the Greek names and more than anything, even appreciating greatly Diana seemed odd but not as backwards as the rest of them, Jupiter himself wasn't leading these war preparations.

He kept plowing on though, stubbornly determined to finish what they'd started and not pass up on his killer headache just to read like everybody else managed.

"Are you suggesting that the gods can't act together?...You're right, of course. Carry on."

"Jeez, you weren't kidding about his good mood," Percy said to Will, frowning why she didn't get the glowing eyes of doom even if he did agree too.

...possibly even more important: to locate the monster she was hunting.

"I don't see how that's more important," Magnus grumbled, trying not to look at Jason with betrayal just because he read it. "If the Goddess of the Hunt couldn't find the thing before getting caught, we focus on her first, then the killer beast."

"If the beast kills all the Olympians first than none of the gods will be anybody's problem," Jason said practically, clearly agreeing with what he read anyways.

"They need to get to Annabeth and Luke first," Magnus insisted, "find out what their master plan is, not just stumble around looking for it."

"You think he'll just tell now because he was caught?" Jason said in a very practical way, but it still sounded condescending to Magnus's ears. "They should circumvent around what they're being forced into, not walk into the obvious trap. Going looking for the monster first-"

"Hey!" Percy and Thalia said together to break up the growing tension as Magnus still opened his mouth with a familiar, only to them, stubborn Wise Girl comment.

Thalia continued earnestly, "I wasn't lying to Oceanus, we do enjoy your insights, but this did already happen," she gestured at Percy who now had a seemingly permanent gray tone to his skin as he struggled against the headache of who was right and what they did do. "Arguing about our past won't help us get out of here."

Jason and Magnus sat back to let it go, while Alex looked a little disappointed at them being cut off. She liked seeing Magnus this passionate.

...Everybody looked at me. Thalia even forgot to ignore me.

"I swear you could annoy the god of peace into not ignoring you," Thalia brushed off, "it's no major accomplishment."

"Five seconds," Rachel mock stopped a stopwatch. "It took you two five seconds to go from agreeing to snapping at each other again."

"Not even close to our record," Percy shrugged.

"We're supposed to have five," I said, feeling self-conscious.

Oddly enough, not a first for him, Nico was smiling to himself he wasn't surprised anymore Percy wasn't leading the meeting and dishing out orders how to save everybody.

"Three Hunters, two from Camp Half-Blood..."  Thalia said. "It does make sense."

Percy grinned at her she was now actually agreeing with him, but she only smiled faintly back. She already knew which five were supposed to go wasn't going to sit well with him.

... "I would prefer to take all the Hunters. Strength of numbers."

"She's just fighting this every step along the way," Will said in exasperation.

"It's a miracle she's even waiting around anymore rather than sneaking off to do this herself," Thalia agreed. Without Artemis's last request for them to remain at camp, Zoe likely would have been doing exactly that.

...Zoe picked up a paddle, studying it like she was deciding who to whack.

"I vote herself," Alex offered, "you can't guarantee how good a weapon is without first hand experience."

"Please tell me you've never tried to cut off your own hand?" Magnus asked.

"Nah, but it is a very sharp wire, that I have tested," she grinned. Magnus decided he didn't want to know.

...I guess because he was the only god present and gods are supposed to know things.

"Are they?" Rachel gave a bemused smile. "I can't get a straight answer out of Apollo when Elvis died, I'm not sure I expect them to know everything."

"I swear he was just there to watch us argue, he missed his family," Percy rolled his eyes.

... They make for terrible party conversation."

"So when are you supposed to discuss politics, dusty ancient monsters, and religion exactly?" Nico asked with a faint smile. "Not at party's, not at dinner?"

"It doesn't sound like it would make great pillow talk either," Alex nodded seriously. "I think it should be reserved for rallies when everyone's shouting at each other."

"I can't tell how much you're joking, but I do know now isn't that time," Thalia sighed.

... none of them quite make sense. Typhon,

A horrible pain erupted in Percy's mind, causing him to twitch uncomfortably. He had a really bad feeling about that name.

... I fear this monster may be more elusive. Perhaps even more powerful."

There was a heavy current around the room, and for once it wasn't from Percy. It was now twice mentioned that things should have been stirring down in Poseidon's domain, and the god of the seas truly seemed stretched thin keeping it all in order. Even Thalia, Will, and Nico weren't entirely sure what they were doing down here now that could lean towards any good news.

"That's some serious danger you're facing," Connor said. (I liked how he said you and not we.)

"Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that," Will grinned.

"It sounds like at least two of the five are going to die."

Nico couldn't decide in that moment if he wanted Percy to glance at Bianca, to notice if she was upset or dismissive of that. She shouldn't have gone, she was to new, she was just trying to impress the Hunters... How she'd even gotten herself onto this quest was a question he'd never thought about long enough to wonder on. It was like ripping claw's out of his chest even trying.

..."If I were you, I'd stay out of the desert."

Jason gave an uneasy laugh as he tried to pull up a map of the US in his mind, but it wasn't very accurate he was sure. Places, locations, he was sure there were giant blurry patch's all over, but he was confident enough to say, "it's not exactly as if you're going to get a choice if you're following a specific trail, but if you stay to the north you might have a better chance."

"Define land without rain though," Alex reminded. "Under the ocean could technically be a land without rain, any location that's gone more than a few days could be a land without rain. It's the dead of winter, half the continent could be a land without rain while it's snowing."

Will watched Nico take a shuddering breath and shift something around in his pocket. Gods he wanted to just ask what he was thinking, but he seemed to be taking their speculation in stride. At least, it wasn't making him feel worse as far as he could tell, or he was so lost in thought he wasn't paying attention.

... the Titan's curse must one withstand. What could that mean?"

"Even in a group, there's a leader of the quest," Jason said confidently. "It's likely only one of the five will have the answer."

"Maybe not even one of them, it could be Annabeth or Artemis, anybody associated with the quest," Magnus stubbornly reminded.

Jason nodded peacefully to that, he wished there was somebody around that was known to interpret prophecies. He again glanced at Will and away, there really was something about him that should be clicking in his mind.

Chiron and Zoe exchange a nervous look. Whatever they were thinking, they didn't share.

"Typical," all eight of them muttered.

"If anybody actually spoke what was on their mind without prying it out of them, save for Percy, these books would end in half the time!" Alex groaned.

"And Chiron is the worst," Percy agreed.

...Whose parent would kill them?" There was heavy silence around the table.

"I think the easier question would be who's parent would save them," Alex whispered morbidly. She watched as Magnus winced, the fact that he had no clue about his godly parentage was probably driving him nuts. Jason was in the same boat and tracing the lines of his tattoo with a familiar look of frustration.

Even Percy wasn't immune to this, because his mortal mother was the only answer to her question.

... Would it sometimes be easier just to let them die?

Thalia could have answered that one from experience, and the resigned sigh that passed her lips was the answer.

... I should've sent Poseidon that seashell pattern tie for Father's Day after all.

Rachel at least still got a laugh out of Percy's random sense of humor.

"There will be deaths," ..."Oh, goody!" Dionysus said.

Nico began mentally imagining melting his Wine Dude figurine next. He'd definitely hunt down his card again just to rip it in half at minimum.

..."Ah, pinot noir is making a comeback. Don't mind me."

"If we could we would," Percy assured.

"Percy is right," Silena said. "Two campers should go."

"Yeah, the gods enthusiasm of this aside," Jason muttered.

..."What would thy mother say?"

"Learn to pick your battles?" Will offered without hope.

"Only if you get her good side," Nico corrected with an eye roll.

...He didn't talk much, but when he did, people tended to listen.

Percy felt a funny feeling in his mind trying to connect some dots there, but he couldn't imagine what.

..."The girl who likes to hit people on the head?" Travis asked.

"Don't we all?" Percy asked innocently as if he had no idea where this was going. For once he had a pretty good guess though that didn't resort in a headache for future knowledge, but prior.

...You want to give it to her?"

"Well Phoebe's going to die," Magnus sighed.

"Nah, they've never killed anyone," Will tried to reassure, but hesitated a moment to long and reluctantly added, "um, I think."

... Zoe didn't know them as well as I did. She just sighed and took the T-shirt.

"And Chiron didn't stop this!" Magnus yelped.

"Learn to pick your battles," Will repeated in exhaustion. "If the shirt explodes, it'll mostly likely be on the bus."

"Remind me later Will, we might need to work on your encouraging speeches," Thalia sighed.

"There's no help to be given when it comes to them," Will shrugged.

"As I was saying, I will take Phoebe. And I wish Bianca to go."

Nico had gripped the hilt of his sword and was moving before the third syllable had left her name before Will grabbed him and pulled him back down.

"You'll regret it later if you stab Jason while spearing that book," Will promised him, his hand still warmly encircling his wrist.

Nico decided he had to trust him on that right now because it didn't feel like it...but at least Bianca hadn't volunteered.

No, he'd have rather she did! That she'd wanted to do this, to prove herself, not be told to do it by the upstart who'd dragged her into this in the first place!

Will was rubbing soothing circles into the back of his wrist though and it was finally distracting enough he jerked his arm away and muttered, "fine." Unbeknownst to Nico, the shadows on the wall stopped shifting about, but mercifully nobody had realized it was him again. They were all looking at the ceiling and the door for the culprit of Oceanus popping up again. Jason wasn't even looking at him in anger or fear for his life being threatened as he casually went back to reading. Why Nico wouldn't want his sister on this quest wasn't hard to guess. If he'd had a sister, he'd be worried about her going off on this dangerous mission too.

... "There is no better way to prove thyself."

Thalia watched miserably as Nico shook his head furiously as if to chase the words away. She couldn't claim she'd have made the same call, she wouldn't speak for Zoe's motives if she could. She knew how badly this was hurting Nico though, and she couldn't say anything to him. She'd lost her little brother to the unknown, but she had asked and begged and demanded from every deity until she couldn't feel anymore what had happened to him. Nico had vanished when they'd returned, gods knew what he felt about his sister never coming back. He wasn't giving much away now except a lot of anger.

... "I think not, satyr. You are not even a half-blood."

"Is she going to protest every person there?" Alex asked in exhaustion. "She shouldn't even get a say, who put her in charge here?"

"Herself," Thalia reminded with a very understanding grin. She had a tendency to take lead in all groups too. "Chiron won't let her dictate the meeting," she promised, otherwise Zoe wouldn't have sat down in the first place.

... it occurred to me we'd reached the number five, and I wasn't in the group.

"Slow clap for you pal," Jason smirked.

"I will break your fingers if you try," Percy scowled not at him though, his sea green eyes locked on her suddenly averted blue ones on the floor.

...Percy has to go. I didn't mean- I'll stay. Percy should go in my place."

Percy kept forcing himself to breathe through his tight chest as he strained his neck to look at the book and back to her. This wasn't right, and she knew it. He wouldn't be happy going on this quest without Grover, but if that was how it had to be...

... "Why?" Zoe asked. "Because of thy friend Annabeth?"

Yes. Was that so awful of him!? He'd already been denied his own quest, by that useless God and the Oracle herself, no way was he going to sit aside and pass this up!

... Silena, the Stoll brothers, and Beckendorf were staring at the table.

A torrent of water surged through the room and created a new crack on the ceiling at the betrayal trying to rise fast in his throat, that his friends whom he'd known before Thalia even fell out of that tree wouldn't even side with him over this, but he forced it away and locked himself on the book not to impact anything again as the water steadied around them.

Chiron then, Chiron must see he was the best bet to go!

...The Hunters should be allowed to approve their companions."

Percy couldn't stop himself this time and whipped around to look at Thalia so fast she flew out of her seat by the force of the ocean, sprawling on the floor as Percy slowly, carefully unclenched his hands from fists but didn't apologize. Jason kept reading rapidly, a reminder the words were their only way out of this. Percy could barely hear him through the buzzing of his ears as he waited for Thalia in the book to say she'd back out then, force Zoe into no other choice.

Thalia sat up slowly, brushing her dripping hair out of her face as she watched her friends glower carefully.

... may the gods be with you."

Percy closed his eyes gently, trying to reach out for his father again as he prayed for guidance, 'please let her be alright.'

Nothing. No sense of warmth, no presence other than the icy cold depths of the ocean around them. He didn't know what he'd done to gain his dad's attention before but wish for Gabe's death, but he wasn't going to do that now as he slowly looked back at Thalia and tried to say as calmly as possible, "You couldn't just let me have this?"

"What was I supposed to do Percy, hide you under my jacket?" Thalia clearly still thought him nothing but an idiot as she stubbornly refused to see any other answer. She crossed her arms but remained on the floor, eyeing her chair in case it came pelting towards her more than looking at him.

"You could have opted out, like my friend offered to do!" Percy missed Grover like a physical ache, but even his best friend had more value on this quest than just some boy.

"Zoe never would have let you come! I had to be there, you of all people should have understood that!" She was trying so hard to reason with him, but it was doing no good, they could all tell he was only getting angrier as his hands spasmed in frustration, but he was valiantly still keeping a lid on it not to drown her, or them all.

"Right, because you should always get first picking on a quest and I get left behind! Sent back to my mother!" It was petty, and just mean to throw that around, but he was tired of them all looking at him with envy because he had a home to go back to when Annabeth was out there, perhaps not even knowing he knew she was alive, that he wanted more than anything to be looking for her.

"I had no where else to go! Back to a school where I was flunking every class, getting attacked every weekend, had no one else? Stay at camp alone? Chiron's my friend, but he's not- she was my only family!" Thalia lost her own fight and shouted back now, slamming her fist on the floor, a crackle of electricity arched only between her fingers and linked several plankton into a dead sparkling trail as they floated to the floor around her when she slowly drew her fist back.

Deep down, Percy knew she was right, he didn't hate her, but he couldn't look at her right now as he stormed out, every muscle tensed. He felt someone move behind him and snapped, "I need a sec, alone!"

...

Percy stood on the terrace over looking the dark ocean beyond. It was a circular walkway, crumbling even before the cracks they'd added in the domed ceiling behind him as he paced the length, a pathetic resemblance of intricate iron bars mostly vanished with time. He'd tried willing himself just an inch off the ground from every pebble of this place and it was doing him no good. He could not leave.

He'd known that when he came up here, and still he blamed himself.

He could remember a lot from his past now, little things that had been trickling in over the past few days. His mom's teary eyed smile when he brought home his first assignment with a C+. A few years later, her proud promise he'd keep getting better when he cried all night because he failed a test he'd really tried to study for, before Gabe called her off to do some cooking.

He remembered riding Pegasus at camp and training with all the cabins, Chiron continuing his teachings about Latin when he could hold his attention, and Annabeth.

Her architecture books, a scar she had on her foot from her first archery practice, brushing out her hair in the sunshine. She taught him how to bake a pie, and he went home that semester to do it for his mom, bringing that tearful, joyful smile to her face once more he so rarely saw. Annabeth was so patient with him studying no matter how many times he got the answer wrong. She still sometimes stepped on his face when they climbed the lava wall together, and he was pretty sure it was on purpose at least half the time as she giggled from the top and reached a hand down for her eleventh win in a row.

Moments, memories he was to young to understand why he clung to them so dearly now in fear they'd slip away again.

His harsh pacing increased, he was creating more cracks on the walkway from how hard he stomped every step as he looked on into the darkness. Watching the disformed sea life, the plankton, but nothing. Not another soul for miles. He knew he should go back in there, apologize to Thalia because this wasn't her fault, but the idea of just sitting there knowing he was useless on this quest, of all quests, was going to send him into a frenzy state.

Nobody came up though.

If it was a Titan's plan to make him weak, hateful to the gods for never seeming to get anything right, it was starting to work. If Zeus had just believed him when he was eleven, Luke might have been destroyed by now!

If the plan was to make him hate this strange group of kids, his friends, it wasn't. Percy knew if he sat up here for a week they would respect the space he'd asked for.

It would get him no closer to an answer though.

Thalia was his friend, he respected the hell out of her in just the few, short months he'd come to know her for all she'd been through. Bickering over the campfire together how to make the perfect s'more while Annabeth sat between them laughing. Whispering during practice of all the techniques they couldn't use on anybody but each other, they were the only swordsmen at camp who could match each other. Then getting in the ring and having it out, laughing off every bump, bruise, and scrape. She got a quiet, haunted look in her eyes when she gazed at her tree to long and went still. Sometimes he remembered those dark days of his first time at camp thinking his mother was dead, only to shake it off and see her watching him with a knowing, sad smile.

Gods Annabeth had been right about them.

...

Magnus was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs with a bag of blue candy.

He was sitting on the bottom step, his blonde hair and hunched over profile as miserable as Percy felt as he offered the bag. Percy's mind glimmered a taunting image of Annabeth, alone and dying under a pile of rubble as he slumped down beside him. 'She's alive, she's alive, she's alive...'

And Thalia would get her back, even if he couldn't.

"Thanks," Percy sighed as he took it, popping three different shades of blue jellybeans into his mouth at once. "Sorry, I really needed that break."

"I know you're angry at her, I kind of am too," Magnus nodded as he dug around for a blue piece of chocolate. The idea Percy was only going to keep up with what they were doing on the quest in fragments of nightmares terrified him, what else was going to be covered in this book in the meantime would be just as trivial and frustrating to them all. "Just, wanted to know if you had anything else you needed to get off your chest before we keep going. She doesn't expect you to come back not angry at her, but still."

"I don't think poor Jason's innocent ears should hear the cursing I want to remind him of on her," Percy glibly answered around another mouthful of sweets. He took his time chewing, then swallowing before saying again, "thanks, but I kind of did say it. I know it's not true now, not the way she's been my friend since I woke up down here, but when I look at her all I think of is how perfect she acted. Annabeth never shut up about her, now she might be going to join the hunt with her savior all those years ago? Chiron expected her to be the child of the prophecy, and I'm kind of relieved about it, but also I sort of suspect she came up with the perfect solution and I just got dropped at the of bottom the ocean to be forgotten about. Maybe Poseidon's using this as some kind of do-over? I sound crazy."

"No, you don't," Magnus promised. "Trust me, I've met people who literally pass the crazy test. You sound like a really confused guy who's trying to get your memory back one word at a time like some cosmic joke."

Percy watched his gray eyes for a moment, as something bubbled on his tongue he only could have said to her, had she been here. It still felt rotten to say to him, of all people. "I'm making myself finish this for my mom, I have to get back to her, but Annabeth too. Just to know she's alive, okay out there somewhere as more than a feeling."

He'd expected the sadness to creep over Magnus again and still felt the guilt full force when it did. He almost hoped Annabeth's cousin would tell him the unspoken hurt he'd been carrying around in here the entire time.

He didn't, just dug out a blue cookie and munched on it until Percy got back up and Magnus rose with him.

Percy flopped down without invitation between Rachel and Thalia once more, with a sheepish look at the dark haired girl. "Sorry, for taking that out on you. Again."

"Wasn't the first, probably won't be the last," Thalia shrugged with an already forgiving grin, and a punch on his shoulder that probably had a little more zap to it than any other friend would get. "Honestly Percy, I'd have probably just killed you if you tried to go on this quest without me, so," she shrugged in a 'what can you do' way.

He wondered if that whole immortal thing is what gave her such patience, but hoped it was that they didn't want to kill each other by the end of this quest. Either way, he waved for Jason to keep reading again to get to something he could look forward to.

I didn't show up for dinner, causing Chiron and Grover came looking for me.

"You're lucky Percy," Rachel told him gently as he sat crumpling and tearing at an empty bag in his hand without any hint of going to get seconds. "I know it doesn't feel that way right now, but not everybody does hate you."

"Yeah," he agreed, but it didn't make his frustration any less when Thalia winced. He knew what she wasn't volunteering, her preparation for this quest. Something else he'd barely gotten his first two times. Somehow she'd gotten more notice than he'd ever gotten and had probably packed the perfect solution to everything they stumbled across.

He shook off the begrudging thoughts though and elbowed her. "I bet you never get advice from a pink poodle or get to ride Rainbow."

"If we start comparing quests we're going to be here for a long time," Thalia chuckled, resisting the urge to brag about her kill of the five Daemones of Ceramici by herself.

... He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset.

"Grover's not a horse, so I don't think everyone hates you right now," Alex helpfully reminded too.

"He's the one being the least like a jackass around there," Percy agreed, though he was sitting there waiting for it now. For Chiron to tell him what that look during the meeting meant, and he wasn't going to like it.

... I'll look everywhere for Annabeth. If I can find her, I will."

"That damn tracking song better be something special," Percy scowled, not understanding Thalia's odd snort.

..."Oh," Grover said. "You mean alone.

"People usually reserve single words for group efforts, Grover's mistake is understandable," Alex smirked.

...He trotted out the door, blowing his nose on his sleeve.

"He needs a hug," Will sighed.

"He needs a box of tissues," Jason said more critically, "is that what they eat for comfort food?"

"Credit for trying," Will chuckled.

...She acts without thinking. She is too sure of herself."

"Wow," Thalia mock pressed her hand to her heart, but the smile tugging at her lips meant she was aware of all those traits.

... "You and Thalia are much alike."

They exchanged indulgent smiles now and even shrugged at the same time. Another unmistakable trait of theirs, moods shifting fast enough they could ease in and out of the flow as needed from wanting to kill each other to laughing it off. Nico still sort of admired them both for that, even if it made him feel like an alien again for somehow never being anything like them.

...I didn't answer. He'd nailed me.

Alex mock raised a bow and arrow to emphasis the point while the two exchanged sheepish looks at each other for that river fiasco.

...I'd be using it for anything but writing Christmas cards.

"I'm just imagining you going around plucking cards off the end of your sword as your signature now," Jason informed him.

"Better than any Christmas gift I could think up," Percy admitted. Annabeth would probably laugh at him if he found an old cigarette lighter to flick on for her underwater. Somehow she'd kept the cool souvenir from their first quest. Maybe he could go steal her a Waterland T-Shirt?...like that would make her want to stop from joining the hunt if she survived.

..."It's no wonder Zoe doesn't want you along, with that particular weapon."

Percy smiled at the wide arrange of 'huh's,' and 'what's' and Alex verbally complaining already she doubted Chiron would explain himself for what that could mean. At least he wasn't always the one in the dark.

Only Thalia, as usual, bit her lip and looked away indicating she knew what was up with this particular weapon, but he gave her a poke with the pen now and laughed off, "don't tell me I've finally found a Hunter's secret weapon, their penmenship!"

Thalia groaned entirely authentic for the awful pun but mock-swiped it away as Percy easily switched it behind his back. "You're handwriting would send anyone insane!"

...It has a long and tragic history, which we need not go into.

"Did I not say that would come back and bite you in the ass!" Alex said in exasperation.

"I said that," Magnus corrected.

"Yeah, but I agreed," she shrugged.

"You did not," Magnus was not blushing faintly he remembered in vivid detail every time Alex had spoken to him in here.

"I was thinking it," she assured.

Jason gave a resounding sigh and kept reading loudly over them. It really was a mystery how they were ever going to finish these.

... I almost volunteered for this quest myself. I would have, if not for the last line."

This answer, at least, they knew. It wasn't an easily forgettable detail Percy's teacher's father was the enemy. Chiron would basically be volunteering himself for slaughter if he went on this quest with that line hanging around, and yet Percy and Thalia exchanged disappointed looks. If he'd insisted on going with Grover, Zoe would have likely, if just as reluctantly, accepted that.

And they both would have snuck out. It wasn't even a question to them as they tore their troubled looks away back to the book. If one was pissed at the other for being left behind, they never would have accepted co-captaincy of sitting around camp just waiting for Chiron to get back!

...an ancient gesture for warding off evil.

That got a collective smirk out of all of them again though, as they remembered that door slamming on Gabe once more.

... your time will come. I'm convinced of that. There's no need to rush."

"The actual worst thing he could have said," Nico grumbled. Was it a staple all adults said that to them at some point?

Percy gave him a similar smile of frustration for this, and Nico smiled tentatively back.

He said your time the way people did when they meant your death.

Then Percy's eyes flickered to him again, and stayed there! Nico felt his heart shriveling up in his chest as those sea-green eyes bored into him, that Percy would always associate death with him first like everybody.

"Percy," Rachel rolled her eyes, "would you stop making everything gloom and doom, especially the centaur!"

"Maybe if a unicorn shows up," he snipped back. It wasn't his fault he'd been plagued by nightmares and zombies after Annabeth went missing, he wasn't exactly in a sunshine mood!

Nico gave her a grateful, if surprised look and she gave him a cheerful grin back. And he'd always thought she'd throw him under the bus at the first opportunity, his dad cursing her Oracle and all.

... I figured my mom deserved an update.

Percy patted his pocket now, but as usual the only thing there was his pen. He wished he could update his mom now, even if she had no more advice on the situation than his friends. Just to see her smile out of a memory again.

...My mom was sitting at our kitchen table with some... guy. Laughing.

There was a choking, spluttering, very concerning noise from Percy heard under the snickers of the room almost replicating the moment.

It was almost a tinge sad though, that he'd be so surprised to see his mom so happy with someone her age.

...like a guy who might play an undercover cop on television.

Thalia however was smiling in relief Paul was finally on the scene. Even Phoebe had grudgingly admired the man's knowledge of literacy when they'd had to use the Jackson house as a waystation one turbulent night in need of a patch up. Percy hadn't even been there, he'd been out with Annabeth that night, but Sally hadn't batted an eye as she ushered the half a dozen girls in and offered them drinks and snacks as they bandaged up their wounded and caught their breath. Paul had been right beside her the whole time engaging them in different authors he was doing a study on and regaled them over a bit for Virginia Woolf he was currently chest deep in.

... my mom and the guy were too busy laughing to notice my Iris-message.

The shock that slammed into Percy would have been funny if Thalia had actually done it, instead she hid a wince. This was the last thing he needed right now, of all the times for him to see this. Now the kid was even going to start feeling outed in his own home!

... that's just Paul—um, Mr. Blofis. He's in my writing seminar."

"Teaching it?" Alex asked with a siliceous smile. "It's never a shame to ask for homework help."

"Fellow student," Thalia corrected cautiously as she glanced at Percy so as not to remind him of his profession.

He wasn't paying them much mind anyways, attention solely on the book, and a strange smile on his face.

"Mr. Blowfish?"

"I think your mom has a type," Rachel grinned, "first your dad, now him?"

Percy's smile melted away as he realized Rachel didn't know about Gabe, but he didn't want to mention him with that bright smile on his mom's face. "Whatever makes her happy," he instead shrugged.

"Blofis. He'll be back in a minute, Percy. Tell me what's wrong."

Percy smiled again, a somber thing with his head tipped curiously to the side. How she could always do that. Everybody in the world deserved a mother like his. Sally was his.

...The other stuff too, but mostly it boiled down to Annabeth.

"Those who are surprised, please raise your hand," Jason's teasing was light, he didn't pause to see the nonexistent hands, just for Percy's indulgent laugh.

...You need to do whatever you think you have to."

The God of Test Taking couldn't have appeared in this room to make them any more gobsmacked. Not a joke could pass Thalia's lips about wanting some alone time with her new boyfriend, or a sarcastic comment from Alex about Sally finally joining the Hate Percy club. Jason just shook his head that every single aspect of Percy's life somehow always surprised him as he kept going.

... even if what you decide to do is dangerous. I can't believe I'm saying this."

"I can't either," Percy promised, prodding around his ears to make sure water hadn't leaked in there.

"Maybe your mom's just pulling your leg to see that look on your face," Magnus tried to reason out, but his voice was faint. All he could think was his mom checking his gear when they went hiking no matter how many times he assured her he remembered everything. Somehow the extra sunscreen always still made it into her bag.

..."How can you be sure?" "Because she'd do the same for you."

Percy traced his fingers end over end on his pen, studying it with the same intense look his mother had given him as a rock caught in his throat. He hoped so.

And when had she ever been wrong before?

Was rescuing her into the arms of the Huntresses the best for Annabeth? He'd better start getting used to it.

... leaving me with an image of Mr. Blowfish smiling down at her.

It wasn't a smile Percy was used to people bestowing on his mother either. That polite, indifferent look of customers and cashiers alike as they walked New York. The disgusting, grimy smiles Gabe's chapped mouth had managed when he spoke.

Paul's smile had been the same kind as the last he'd seen on Annabeth's at the dance. Cheerful, excited, Paul couldn't wait to keep talking to his mother about whatever their homework was about. There hadn't even been tears of joy in her eyes, no hint of sadness in her good mood. His mother was just happy.

... I knew she would run out of strength and the cavern ceiling would collapse on top of her.

Percy longed to see that smile now rather than this! Her strained, sweating face, paler than the Oracle. Her hair had been the color of those boulders, gray and dark and hung around her face in an unrecognizable mass, her eyes rolled back into her head with pain. She was going to die.

...this voice made the ground vibrate.

Jason hadn't needed that description. It came back with a deceptive ease like nothing yet had. He didn't have to struggle a single second to hear in his traitorous mind.

It didn't stop him continuing. It only caused a slight hitch in his breath before he kept going with an almost freighting intensity once more, the same they'd seen of him on Circe's island. Jason knew of this place, even if none of them understood why.

... "She's fading. We must hurry."

Yet another crack appeared on the floor in here, with the ominous, heart stopping sound of a block of an iceberg falling into the water. They could start playing hopscotch soon if Percy didn't recreate the building crumbling on them first.

The hypocrite. Like he really cared what happened to her.

Thalia was replaying the feeling of kicking him off that ledge a couple more times with a few extra jabs of her spear so as not to add any further structural damage. It was a ripping sensation to hear heart every single time, but it soothed her need for these few moments.

... she was bleeding ichor, the golden blood of the gods.

The clasp on Thalia's bracelet was in danger of snapping she was twisting it so hard as she willed herself into this dream of Percy's too. Let herself rush forward days earlier than they'd managed, to get Annabeth free, to save Artemis this terrible fate only this lifeform deserved!

...Maybe the chains prevented her, or some magic about this horrible place.

"Both," Thalia and Jason whispered together.

They looked at each other, and a horrible idea began forming in Thalia's mind. He very well could be her little brother Jason, risen back from the dead by some twisted magic of Krono's. Some old, unplayed ploy to gain her to their side, her little brother all aged up, and hidden away on Mount Tam, the one place she'd never dared searched for him. Why would Hera have taken Jason to Krios? Some extra punishment to Zeus?

The moment was broken by Percy making a desperate, painful noise as he strained against causing any more damage during this nightmare, and Jason only batted those blue eyes at her an extra moment before he continued with the same single-minded focus to get back every detail of this.

Thalia shook her head slowly at herself, she was being nuts. Even knowing Artemis was safely out of this entrapment, some base instinct of hers was going literally crazy at her goddess in chains and causing her to lose it.

..."How dare you torture a maiden like this!"

"Our sentiments," Alex muttered, though she liked to think anybody with a heart would be outraged at any woman or man in this situation.

..."You surprised me. It will not happen again."

The frustration, the yearning for more knowledge bubbled around the room as they all longed to know for their own reasons how this had come about. Who this otherworldly figure was to take a Goddess, hear Zoe's dream for themselves.

And yet it was possibly a nightmare no half-blood could live through knowing.

...Luke, you may kill the girl now."

Every one of them went stiff as a corpse at that, even the four who knew she was alive and okay. The question remained how she'd gotten out of this, it didn't seem like Luke to disobey after he'd been the one to put her in such a vulnerable position.

...Luke hesitated.

Jason couldn't believe the words out of his own mouth, nobody could quite trust their ears for several moments before Will sighed in relief and grinned.

Thalia fought the urge to punch him for it as her hand tensed. Luke's hesitation after he'd pulled this stunt meant he'd only regretted the final straw. Not the betrayal. Not the heartless way he'd tricked her and left her there. Will had a curious look in his eyes as he watched this book, like he was considering showing this to Annabeth as if it would give her some peace. Thalia would burn this book before she let that happen.

"She may yet be useful, sir. Further bait."

A very obvious lie any of them could spot. Percy narrowed his eyes distastefully, but he couldn't bring himself to want Luke dead that exact moment any longer. They had reason enough to go save Artemis and hope Annabeth was still there. Luke was being selfish keeping her alive for his own twisted reason, like they were still on the Andromeda and Luke was carelessly waiting for her to get with the program and join him no matter who got hurt in the meantime.

In that moment though, he was the only one keeping Annabeth alive.

...her life will be meaningless. The lives of all mortals will be meaningless."

How it was possible anybody could still be on Krono's side after a statement like that left them all flabbergasted, let alone Luke not immediately defecting. Stabbing this voice and taking Annabeth far away.

His whole motivation for listening to the whispers in his dreams had been he wanted more credit, to be seen by the gods, his hatred of them had stemmed from how little they cared about their own kids. Percy sat there in boiling frustration how Luke could continue on like this.

Luke gathered up Annabeth's body and carried her away from the goddess.

"Percy," Rachel gave him a vigorous shake to his shoulder and he blinked to see the red in his eyes was real, the floor was glowing, the heat radiating from beneath their feet through the fissures. He quickly clamped back down on his anger and the boiling water receded, but even so, Jason rushed to finish this already.

... We must greet your Hunters and make sure their quest is, challenging."

"No, no you mustn't," Alex was twining her hair between her fingers with her own pit of unease growing as she didn't take her eyes off the floor. If anything else happened to Annabeth over the course of this, Percy was going to literally kill them. She was going to be pissed if she died.

... "Hello?" I called. I crept to the door.

"Hooves," Percy murmured, his hand relaxing away from his pocket on instinct for the vaguely familiar sound in his mind from all the times Grover had come knocking on his door.

Somehow he knew it wasn't his friend back in the middle of the night. A horse, something he should have been remembering about a horse, and it wasn't Chiron...

I found myself face-to-face with a black pegasus.

Magnus grinned in delight while Alex snorted with shock. "I think you should just strictly stick to making friends with livestock, it seems to work out best for you."

"The Minotaur would disagree," but Percy was smiling along too for the friendly house call rather than another disaster.

It was still lackluster, the turn around from his newest grave nightmare was a permanent scar on the floor, but Nico watched with the same anger he'd felt for Bianca at that ping-pong table as he studied Percy trying to smile and keep going. It wasn't quite as admirable as it had always been to him at the beginning, just another facet of Percy to him he understood and could never be himself.

..."Blackjack," I said,

"Who?" Jason asked, thumbing through the pages in his mind to see if he'd missed something.

"That pegasus that escaped Luke's ship," Percy reminded him, for once, in exasperation. "He kind of took to me,

"He?" Alex interrupted, more in surprise than outright offense. Percy had yet misgendered her, on purpose, and it seemed strange he was doing that to a horse.

"Oh, yeah, Blackjack's not a mare, I guess, he definitely sounded like a male now when he called me boss," Percy agreed with a shrug.

Alex considered this for a moment before saying, "Some fish can change gender. Poseidon created horses, therefore horses are fishes."**

Percy looked at her for a long moment before turning away so his brain didn't explode.

"Anyways," he continued to address everybody and rather pointedly, "I guess it hadn't been mentioned yet," he messed up his hair as his scalp tingled with the settling of memories. "He'd showed up a couple of weeks after we'd returned to camp during lunch in the middle of the pavilion, much to everyone's surprise. Nobody would quit fawning over his coloring. Silena volunteered to put him in the stables, but he just followed me around for days until finally I convinced him to start trusting others. The apples, sugar cubes, and donuts all the campers slipped him helped a lot with that. Now he just shows up at all hours, calling me boss and telling him to help with sea life."

"How'd he get the name Blackjack?" Magnus asked eagerly.

"He said he spent the first few days free flying to Vegas," Percy chuckled. "I don't know, Blackjack was what came to mind and stuck, he never protested." He cheerfully recalled as he relaxed in his seat.

This wasn't the first time this had happened, and Percy was almost smiling again for at least some familiarity around camp again, even if it wasn't with Annabeth rolling her eyes and shooing him away to go help some otter pups while she went back to her voluntary studying.

...It's five in the morning. What you still sleeping for?

"Are horses nocturnal?" Was Jason's brilliant interruption of that stunning silence.

"Pegasi aren't," Percy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "This one just seems to be literal!"

...Don't call me boss." Whatever you say, boss.

"I like him!" Alex laughed at once.

"He's very likable," Percy agreed indulgently, "when it's not 5AM!"

...I'd had very little to do with it, but Blackjack credited me saving him.

"Would you rather he follow Chiron around calling him boss?" Thalia grinned.

"Yes," Percy reluctantly smiled along. He was sort of kidding anyways. As annoying as it could be, Blackjack was too good a friend to even think of passing along anyways, even with the misguided credit.

"You called that pegasus a mare though," Alex reminded. "Am I missing something?"

"Their voices aren't an exact science, it doesn't sound like ours," Percy gestured between them.

"That horse reared though, couldn't you see-"

"Dude," Percy cut in with exhaustion, "I didn't sit and study-"

"Dudett," Alex snipped back, "you have a bad habit of-"

"Dear gods make them stop!" Rachel cut in loudest of all with a winning laugh.

Jason was on Rachel's side and kept reading as they made silent faces at each other.

...they'd call me to come underwater and help.

"Are you applying for saint hood?" Nico asked with a weirdly teasing smile Percy wasn't used to seeing on his usually stoic face. Not that Nico would admit this was how he'd spent those days imagining Percy at all hours, doing exactly these good deeds at the drop of a hat, any time or day as he swooped his hair aside. Bianca loomed in his mind, but he wanted to be what she'd asked of him, and he'd never before taken the time to talk to Percy without the impending guilt of just watching him a moment to long before. Not that this could possibly be what she'd want for him either, though he'd never the opportunity to ask...

"Only if it's the saint of naptime," Percy sighed, making Nico chuckle. Will was grinning at the sight and Percy decided not to question it, at least he wasn't glowering at him and creeping him out.

...Blackjack whinnied softly. It might've been a laugh.

Percy gave an exasperated sigh at all of their little grins, but he'd had worse experiences lately than getting mocked by a horse and his friends.

... I had a feeling that I wasn't coming back to my cabin for a long time.

"I swear your impulses are going to make or break the world," Jason told him with excitement as he passed the book along.

"Fingers crossed it's make," Percy shivered as his hand was still reaching uselessly for a cap that was not here, a hand that his fingers could not find. Constantly sitting on the edge of his seat waiting for the next thing to drop in his head was leaving him with a persistent, sick, dreaded feeling in his gut he was starting to wonder if he'd ever shake.

PJOPJOPJOPJOPJO

*Keto is later depicted as the Goddess of All Sea Monsters in Mark of Athena, making me wonder if RR meant for this to be Cetus, which is a sky-scraper-sized sea monster. In general the likely answer as with all the plot holes in this series is he probably just changed his mind later and depicted her differently.

**Suggestion offered by LaytonJr, the answer made me laugh to much not to put it in.