Will (POV)

"Bianca… she didn't make it."

"Child of Hades, what more could I do to you? You are perfect! So much sorrow and pain!'

"You promised you would protect her!"
And so you run away again, from your friends, from yourself."

I wake up with a start, attempting to get control of my breathing.

I have been having these dreams for years. Can I call them dreams? It's more flashes and voices. Flashes of the same boy with gaunt white skin and black hair. The dreams are never the same, but I know it's the same boy. The Son of Hades, but I know that's impossible, there are no children of Hades.

My mind must have been telling me I was a demigod when it first began, when I was ten using this idea of a son of Hades, and it just grew more in my mind, inventing more and more horrible things for this boy to go through.

I sigh, brushing my hands over my eyes, attempting to rub the sleep out of them.

"Hey Will, are you okay?" Mikayla asks from across the room.

The golden walls of the Apollo cabin seem to have lost their shine without the constant laughter and music that used to be our cabin. The music's gone now. It left with the rest of our siblings after the Titan war.

"Will!" Mikayla asks again, suddenly appearing at my side, her bright blue eyes shining with worry. Her long blonde hair is braided and draped over her shoulder. Despite standing up Mikayla is almost eye level with me.

"I'm fine, Kayla." I tell her, attempting to smile reassuringly.

She raises her eyebrows, clearly not believing me but drops it. "You can stay with me you know. Mom won't mind."

This isn't the first time she offered. She seems to think I won't survive being the only Apollo camper left. I think she might be right.

"Camp still needs its head medic." I remind her, attempting to drag myself from the comfort of my bed. "And I'm head counsellor. If we get any new siblings I need to be here."

"Whatever Will. Just don't work yourself sick, alright?" she sighs, trying to catch my eye.

I nod half-heartedly. I've been working in the infirmary non-stop since the war. Nobody escaped the war uninjured.

I quickly throw on my scrubs and run to the infirmary, ignoring Mikayla's protests from behind me.

"Hey Will!" Percy yells from across the dining pavilion as I pile my plate high with fruit.

I wave half-heartedly, wondering why in Apollo's name is Percy awake at six am.

Before I can make my quick escape, Percy has reappeared at my side.

"Hey Sunshine!" Percy exclaims, his smile looking forced. "My stitches are itching again."

"I'm sorry Percy, you're just going to have to wait another week to have them removed." I sigh. Honestly it's a miracle Percy survived the war at all. He was fighting on the front lines against all of the monsters, Titans and just about everything else in the world.

"Can't you just pray to Daddy Sunshine and heal them up?" Percy sighs.

"Healing magic takes a lot out of me." I remind him. "Can't you heal yourself?"

He shakes his head. "Some things even water bending can't heal. And thanks again for helping Annabeth."

I give him a small smile. At least I could save somebody.

"Well I should go. I need to pack my bags and go before the harpies eat… well everything." Percy tells me.

"Alright, but don't forget to come back next week to get those stitches removed." I remind him.

He nods before running off to the blonde daughter of Athena across the Pavilion.

The war had taken everything. We had won but at what cost? The final battle had lasted almost a week. The battle utterly destroyed New York. It hadn't taken much for the mortals to believe a bombing from an unknown terrorist organisation had caused it. Though Olympus had moved, the Gods had barely been effected by the battle, dismissing the thousands of mortals and Demigods dead as collateral damage. Hades seemed to be the only one bothered, but only to complain about the paper work caused by the massacre.

"Hey Will!" Lou Ellen greets cheerfully when I arrive at the infirmary, her purple hair messily piled on her head, strands falling over her emerald green eyes.

I give her a small smile of acknowledgement before walking over to Travis's bed to check his vitals.

"He's fine, doc." Lou Ellen tells me. "I already checked."

"Still not conscious?" I ask her. I used to love healing, helping people, seeing the looks on their loved ones faces when they survive. After the battle of the Labyrinth I thought I knew how bad it truly was, but I was wrong.

She nods solemnly. "Honestly I don't know what we're going to do if he does wake up. If he knew about Conner…"

I look over to the brunet's sleeping face, his mischievous expression still printed on his face.

"I don't know." I whisper, before tearing my gaze away from the Stoll, and moving onto another patient.

"WILL!" Lou Ellen's voice rings in my ear, awakening me from yet another dream.

This time there had been no words, just darkness. I think I was falling, but I never seemed to reach the bottom.

"Sorry." I mumble, pulling myself from the chair.

"Dude what's up with you?" Lou demands. "You never sleep during the day," she tells me, before changing to a mocking tone. "It wastes too much sunlight that you could spend doing fun things like exercise and studying blood cell deficiencies!"

I roll my eyes at her terrible impression of me. "I just haven't been sleeping well."

"Have any of us?" she asks, suddenly turning serious. "I can make you a dreamless sleep potion if you'd like."

I shake my head. No matter how horrible the dreams are I don't want to lose them. "I'll be fine."

She scoffs. "Whatever, why don't you go back to your cabin and get some rest? Everything's fine here."

I go to protest, but decide against it when I see her piercing glare. I can't help anyone if Lou Ellen kills me.

After being literally thrown out of the infirmary, I do as I am told and make my way back to my cabin and collapse on my bed with a groan.

"HEY BILL!" A familiar voice greets me. Oh no.

I sit up with a start, to see the blinding grin of Apollo.

"It's Will, Father." I correct for the twelfth time.

"Whatever." He shrugs offhandedly. "And what have I said about calling me Dad? Father sounds all stuffy and serious."

"Is there any reason behind this visit? Is there another Haiku you wish for me to hear, Fa- Dad." I ask, trying to keep my annoyance out of my voice.

"Well if you'd like to hear more Haiku's-" he begins, his grin widening.

"No father." I say quickly. I am definitely in no mood to pretend to like Haiku's about Artemis sucking.

He pouts. "Maybe later. I have a quest for you."

"What?" I ask, sitting up even straighter. "You mean telling Percy he has a quest? Because I can find him for you."

He shakes his head. "Nah Sea Spawn always gets all the important quests. I'm just as much of a god as those thunderheads."

Thunder rumbles above us, making us both roll our eyes.

"Anyway, I've been having these annoying visions lately: death, suffering, Tartarus, bitchy earth grandmother destroying everyone, A son of Hades-" Apollo whines.

"Son of Hades?" I ask quickly, interrupting his ramblings. "I've been having dreams about a son of Hades since I was ten years old."

"Seriously?" He asks. "Like father like son. I guess you're meant for this quest. But of course I already knew this as I am the all-knowing god of prophecy." He boasts, pushing out his chest and grinning proudly.

I hold back a snort. "So the quest?"

"Right this will be a solo quest-" he begins.

"Quests must have three people!" I tell him. "It's a sacred number."

He sighs. "Well I only have enough time sand for one."

"TIME SAND?" I ask, suddenly feeling extremely worried.

"AH! AH! I'm the God, let me speak." He tells me with what I assume is a glare. "Anyway you may have noticed things aren't exactly going well-"

I snort, before muttering. "You don't say."

The Apollo cabin was massacred, but Apollo doesn't seem to even care.

"ME TALK!" He exclaims. "Anyway, it's not meant to be this way. Hades was meant to have helped us, his son was supposed to have convinced him."

"Hades doesn't have a son! He's been forbidden from having children." I remind him.

"Would silencing one of my own children be excessive…" Apollo mutters to himself. "Anyway this son was supposed to arrive on the third day with an army of the dead and help stop Kronos as well as help with the battle of the labyrinth, but he never did-"

I think of the flashes of the boy in black armour surrounded by skeleton warrior I had dreamt about during the battle. I had pushed it off as mindless hoping for someone to come and save us. Could he be real?

"Another war is coming, a war against Gaea." He tells me.

I feel my chest tighten. Another war? We barley scraped through the last!
"Without him, winning will be impossible." Apollo tells me solemnly. "Apparently Gaea has taken my thing and predicted her own downfall! Or at least had a physic do it." He pouts.
I nod, attempting to wrap my head around the idea. "So Gaea killed the son of Hades before he could help stop her?"

He shakes his head, glaring slightly at the interruption. "The kid didn't die. If she killed him Hades would know, so she just made it look like Thunderpants took him. The kid just grew up without the demigod weirdness."

I feel a sudden rush of happiness. The boy in my nightmares had been through so much, I don't think I had ever seen him smile. But that pain never happened, he had a normal life.

"But we're going to fix that." Apollo continues, making me internally groan.

Suddenly Apollo hands me a golden watch, which I tentatively take.

It seems to be made of pure imperial gold, the face shaped like a sun, with an hour glass in the centre and roman numerals carved around the outer ring.

"Uh… what is this for?" I ask nervously. "And if this quest is so important can't Percy do it? He's the hero, I'm just the medic!"

Apollo rolls his eyes, but otherwise ignores me. "When you get there you need to find the kid and give him the watch. When he wears it he'll become the correct age. Oh and feed him this." He tells me, before handing me a small vial of water.

"HUH?" I protest, only to once again be ignored.

"Now you won't be in the exact right time so Clay Face isn't watching, hence the de-aging. Once that's done bring him to the Lotus Casino in Vegas where his sister is waiting and TA DA! You're home free. The watch will activate in an hour."

"Wait, how do I get back?" I ask, beginning to frantically pack my bag.

"Oh and I almost forgot the most important part: the prophecy." Apollo cheers, ignoring my question.

Apollo coughs, before opening his mouth to deliver the prophecy.

"To the past you must go."

Child of Death to save

Stop Clay Face."

How is he the god of poetry? Or Prophecy? Or a god?"

"But how to I get back?!" I ask again.

BYE!" Apollo exclaims before disappearing into sunlight.

I groan, before continuing to pack my things.

What did I get myself into?

After frantically running around camp to retrieve all the supplies I could find, ignoring Lou Ellen's protests at me being out of bed (Something that has not lost its irony on me). I make it back to my cabin just in time, feeling incredibly out of depth.

Why was I the one having those dreams? I'm just another camper, I'm not special like Percy, Annabeth or Thalia. I'm just a healer.

"Hey Will!" Mikayla greets when I dash into our cabin, eyeing the duffle bag draped over my shoulder.

"Did you change your mind about going with me?" she asks cheerfully.

I shake my head. "Dad showed up. He had a quest for me."

Her eyebrows shoot into her hairline. "What?! Please tell me it's just finding his surf board again."

I shake my head before explaining it to her.

"Wow." She mutters. "No offence to you, but this seems like the sort of thing a big three kid should be doing. You know what, I'm going with you."

I shake my head. "There's not enough time sand, I'll be fine." I tell her, feeling insincere.

"Will, Dad's the god of truth I can tell when you're lying. Are you sure you're up to this? You're only fourteen."

"You're ten, you can't judge. And Percy and Annabeth held the sky when they were fourteen." I remind her.

"Yeah well they're just plain strange." She tells me.

I take a peek at my watch. "No time, and there probably won't be much fighting anyway. I just need to find… crap what's his name." I attempt to reassure her, before getting side tracked.

"YOU HAVE TO FIND SOMEONE AND YOU DON'T KNOW THEIR NAME!" She yells.

Before I could argue I feel an odd sensation on my left arm where the watch is sitting on my wrist, before my entire body seems to be sucked inside of it as though it is a vacuum.