Percy's POV

Annabeth seemed a little shaken up from her dream, so I told her to wait until we got off the subway to tell me about it. The rest of the ride she sat, staring at her hands and twisting the ring, and barely said anything.

"We're getting off here," I said, standing up.

"Okay. Where are we going?" she mumbled to me.

"No idea. I suppose we'll find a place to sit and eat."

"Food sounds nice."

I thought about our quest together when we were twelve. She would not have been the one asking questions and I would not have been the one giving directions, even though I technically was the leader of the trio. I couldn't help but smile at how much we have evolved.

"Why the smile?" Annabeth asked, nudging my arm.

"Oh, nothing," I responded. I couldn't wipe the goofy grin off my face when I looked at my fiancee. She grinned back at me. I didn't even realize we were off the subway until she grabbed my hand and began talking.

"Alright, Mr. I-Have-All-The-Plans, where to?'

"What? What makes you think I have all the plans, I don't have a singular plan!"

"Well, you acted like you knew what you were doing."

"I apologize for acting like I'm in control, because it's all fake. I thought you always have the plans!"

"Fortunately, Seaweed Brain, I do." She pulled out a list of gods-know-what.

"Exactly why I never plan ahead, because you do it all," I told her. She looked at me with a displeased expression. "And you do it so much better," I added. She smirked at me.

"You know it, and don't ever forget it," she responded sarcastically.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't, Wise Girl. I couldn't," I said, making her blush.

"Let's go get food so we can talk about the dream." She was still blushing slightly. Good. I rarely got the satisfaction of making her do that.

"Yes, I'm starved."

"You're always hungry."

After inhaling a cheeseburger, a large fry, and a chocolate milkshake, I was ready to have a civilized conversation. Annabeth was picking at her food.

"Okay, tell me about the dream," I nearly whispered. The restaurant wasn't that busy, which was nice, but also made it easier for people to pick up on our conversation.

"Well," she took a deep breath. "Our besties were the stars." That one took a minute for me to figure out.

"Like, Kelly and the Minotaur and Atlas?"

"Right. You know how I thought it was weird we hadn't had any dreams before this?" Yes, Annabeth, we just had that conversation this morning, I wanted to say. But I didn't. I just nodded.

"That's what they were talking about. Somehow they figured out how to cut off the flow of dreams to demigods so we can't figure out what they're doing."

"So how did you have this dream?" This wasn't making any sense, and we hadn't even talked about the prophecy yet.

She took a long pause before responding, "Someone... hacked the system and was able to get us a connection."

"Someone... who? Can you please stop talking in riddles, you know I hate those."

"I don't know. The face was too blurry. I have a few ideas, but they might be all wrong. The prophecy talks about a long-lost friend helping us. Any idea who that would be?"

I thought about the prophecy. The duo of the century journeys west, Following the bitter scent, they'll do their best, Old foes met and new ones too, Terror and pain will undoubtedly ensue, Starting alone they'll have to contend, But soon they will receive some help from a long-lost friend, For both pure and evil, it's a fight to the death, And someone from both sides will take their last breath. It could be anyone. I have no idea.

"Did this person talk to you?" I asked.

"Yeah, they said that they didn't know if they would be able to help with the dreams much longer. Also that they had faith in us. That's what made me think that it was the person from the prophecy."

"Was the voice male or female?"

"Well, I don't want to say for sure. The sound was pretty messed up, but my best guess would be female." She looked pretty aggravated that she couldn't figure this out.

"It's alright. We start all quests like this. We'll figure it out," I tried to reassure her.

"You're probably right." She didn't seemed convinced. I couldn't even convince myself. My words were hollow. We'd survived before, but how much longer could our luck hold out? I wouldn't usually think of myself as lucky, but if you stopped and thought about, there was always good luck to counter the bad. When Annabeth was little, she ran away from home. But she found Luke and Thalia. I had to face the Minotaur when I was twelve, alone, right after finding out I was a demigod. But it had been raining that night, which gave me strength. We were caught in the Sea of Monsters. But Clarisse happened to be close by with a boat. We'd fallen to Tartarus, but landed in a river. A river that didn't kill us or wipe our memories, too. We are demigods, but we're still alive and we've found each other. That's pretty lucky right there.

"There's some other things that are bothering me, too," Annabeth said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Terror and pain? Following a bitter scent? What does that mean? Oh, and don't forget that someone on our side will apparently be taking a final breath."

"Yeah, that's not good," I agreed. "So I guess-"

"Wait, Percy, you're not seeing it."

"Huh?"

"Someone from our side will die, and only the two of us are going..." Her words slammed into my chest like a sledgehammer. I started to have a mini panic attack right there. Annabeth couldn't die. I wouldn't let it happen.

"Percy, what are you thinking? You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking!" Why did she have to know me so well? She could read me like a book. "I am not letting you sacrifice yourself for me!"

"Who said I was going to do that?"

"Oh please, that was your thought process exactly!"

"Maybe! But it might not be one of us," I told myself more than her. "There'll have to be other people who are there besides us, right?"

"I don't know." She sighed heavily. "What does the bitter scent-" she started but I cut her off.

"You know what? Let's not talk about this anymore. Let's talk about something else." She raised her eyebrows at my suggestion.

"Okay, what should we talk about?"

"I don't know, something like normal people would talk about at a restaurant. Like maybe-"

"The wedding!" Her expression changed completely when she said this.

"Yes! Like... what about... um... I have no idea what a wedding is like," I admitted. She just laughed at me.

"Well, let's first decide where it's going to be at." We both thought for only a second.

"Camp," we answered in unison.

"Well, that's decided. What about colors?" she asked me.

"That's your department. I really don't even care."

"Hm, well I'll ask your mom about it, too. I'm sure she's going to want to help plan."

"Are you kidding? She's probably been planning our wedding since the day we got together." Annabeth laughed again. I loved hearing her laugh, especially at a time like this.

"The guest list should be-" she began, but a loud shrieking noise cut through the air before she could finish.