[ a partially formulated idea for a Percy Jackson fanfic written a long time ago, so excuse the lack of skill ]

   Percy was in the Big House Attic. He knew because he could smell the musty odor that always permeated the small room and when he put his hand to his side, it met the rough wooden planks that made up the attic walls.

   What he didn't understand was why he couldn't see anything but blackness. There was absolutely nothing there.

   Until he realized that his eyes were closed. Way to go, Percy. He opened his eyes and saw that his earlier guess had been correct. He was in the Attic. It looked exactly the same way that it had the last time he'd been there. The spoils of war, the cobwebs covering everything, the mummy sitting in the corner — wait. The mummy? Yes, it was there. The mummy that was the former Oracle, the mummy whose place Rachel had taken, the mummy who'd disintegrated before his very eyes a long, long time ago.

   Suddenly, its eyes flew open. They were green, completely and utterly green, even what should've been the whites of her eyes. Her mouth opened. Green mist poured out and she began to speak.

"Six shall come,

each as relation,

to the least likely pairs of the twelve."

   Suddenly, the contours of the attic seemed to fade and everything blended into a swirl of color. Percy tried to move, to get away, but he felt like he was trying to swim through molten lead.

   Abruptly, the colors cleared out and now he was standing in the middle of a busy Manhattan street. The sounds of honking cars, voices, and squawking birds filled the air, but they were slightly muffled, as if he was listening through a glass wall.

   A car honked right in front of him and Percy looked up to see a gray taxi zooming towards him at a speed that most definitely was above the speed limit. He looked closer and saw that it was made of smoke.

   Percy realized with a jolt that it was going to hit him. He tried to move, but it felt like his feet were frozen to the ground. He looked down to see that his guess had been correct. His shoes were encased in ice.

   Tires screeched as the taxi swerved abruptly to avoid hitting him. Instead, it hit a car in the next lane. Traffic came to a stop in both lanes.

   The door to the taxi made of smoke was pushed open. Something — someone — got out of the car, and two more beings after it. Fog that he hadn't even realized was there cleared and Percy recognized the Three Fates. The old ladies were haggard and thin. They'd lost the white bandanas that they'd been wearing the last time Percy had seen them and wisps of their silver hair waved around in the breeze. They weren't holding their knitting materials. All three turned to stare right at Percy, burning six holes into him. Their mouths opened, and they spoke as one.

   "Three shall rise to skylight,

   And then Percy began to levitate up, and he slowly picked up speed. His heart thudded as he rose higher and higher, until Manhattan was nothing more than a crisscross of lines. He turned his head to see Olympus in the distance, on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building.

   He stopped moving, and he hung there for a long moment. Suddenly, he began to fall. He picked up speed, faster and faster, until he was zooming towards the ground in a way that would surely end in him becoming bug splat. The voices of The Fates spoke again in his mind.

   "And three shall fall to darkness."

   And then Percy reached the ground. But instead of stopping, he went straight through the ground, until he was in the Underworld. Surprised ghouls looked up. Anger masked over their expressions and they tried to stop him, but he was too fast for them and all he felt was the feeling of their cold fingers slipping down his ankles. He went down, deep down, until he reached utter and complete darkness.

   And then he woke up.

   Percy opened his eyes to see the smooth gray ceiling of the Poseidon cabin. He lay in bed for a moment longer, letting his heartbeat settle, before he shot up.