I looked over at Grover as he held the dead tortoise-lyre. Apollo wanted us to capture the Celedon using THAT? I wanted to say no to the quest, but you can't really do that to a god. They might turn you into a dolphin or just vaporize you. I'd been threatened with both often enough.

Apollo either didn't notice the look of incredulity on my face or more likely, didn't care. He clapped me on the shoulder, as if everything was settled and agreed to, which in his mind, I suppose it was. "Excellent!" he said, beaming. "I'll meet you at the Empire State Building at sunset. Bring me the Celedon. One way or another, I'll convince Hephaestus to fix her. Just don't be late! I can't keep my audience waiting. And remember, not a scratch on-"

*CRAAACK*

The air a few meters away from us seemed to twist somehow, turning weird, glimmering shades of green, before expelling two figures onto the ground, and then fading into nothingness.

One figure seemed larger than the other. The figure groaned and raised his head, revealing a teenage boy not much older than me, wearing an orange hoodie. His face seemed almost green, and I hastily retreated a few more steps, which turned out to be a wise decision. He vomited on the ground, groaning.

The other figure wasn't doing much better. She sat up, revealing a pre-teen girl with short black hair, rhinestone glasses askew on her face, and wearing a green dress. I frowned at that dress. It seemed vaguely familiar.

The girl's face was also tinged green, but she didn't hurl. Her eyes darted around, scanning for threats. Her eyes narrowed slightly when she saw Apollo, and I saw her hands twitch slightly, as if getting ready to attack, if it came to a fight. Good instincts for a demigod, but I hoped she wouldn't suddenly attack the greek god. He'd just threatened to incinerate Grover if he scratched his lyre. I was pretty sure he'd vaporize the girl on the spot if she tried to hurt him.

Then her eyes fell on me and Grover. They widened slightly, and she seemed to relax. At least her hands had stopped twitching. "Percy? Grover?" she asked, sounding confused. "Where are we? What happened? Who's this guy?" she asked, gesturing towards Apollo.

"Uuuuh…" I said. I had no idea who either of these people were, but the girl at least seemed to know me. And she didn't recognize Apollo, which surprised me. He looked pretty similar to his most common portrayals, with his golden hair and perfect teeth.

She looked over at her companion as he groaned and sat up. He glanced around, a look of recognition passing over his face as he looked at Grover and I. Then he noticed Apollo, and his jaw dropped.

Apollo meanwhile was looking at the arrivals curiously, seemingly unsure what to make of them. He didn't appear particularly worried, but I supposed he'd seen much stranger things than kids appearing out of thin air. He grinned when he saw Hoodie Boy staring at him, his jaw slack and eyes bulging. "Ah! An adoring fan!" Apollo cried. "I'm afraid that I don't have time to talk, I have to practice for the concert tonight. I don't know who you got to teleport you here, but you'll simply have to buy a ticket like everyone else if you want to come."

The boy continued to stare for a moment, then started making choking noises. Moments later, they graduated to full-on deranged laughter, tears streaming down Hoodie Boy's face as he gave up on trying to get up and simply rolled onto his back.

The girl looked at him, concerned, as the boy giggled as if his mind had snapped. "Apollo!" she cried, alarmed. Weirdly enough, she seemed to be talking to her companion, not to the god standing next to me. "APOLLO," she shouted, this time more firmly, "Tell me what's going on."

Apollo looked affronted at the implication that a girl was trying to tell him what to do, but I could also see a trace of fear in his face. She still seemed to be talking to Hoodie Boy, not actually TO Apollo, though she'd used his name twice.

Hoodie Boy slowed down his laughter, regaining enough breath to speak. "This… this HAS to be an illusion. A nightmare. It CAN'T be real."

The girl frowned and closed her eyes. Her brow furrowed as she concentrated on something. A moment later she opened her eyes. "Feels real to me. I can sense Grover and a bunch of dryads. Also a lot of trees, grass, and flowers. It feels nice."

I wasn't sure how this girl could sense all that. It sounded like she could sense nature, which made me think she was a daughter of Demeter, but I'd never heard of Demeter's kids being able to sense satyrs.

"But this CAN'T be real!" Hoodie Boy repeated himself hysterically.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Because that's ME!" Hoodie Boy pointed at Apollo, who looked more and more uncertain about his supposed fan.

Apollo looked somewhat panicked at that, but tried to downplay it. "You AREN'T me. Now I don't know what's wrong with you, but I need to start practicing, and these two need to capture my rogue backup singer," he said, nodding in my and Grover's direction.

"Rogue backup singer?" Meg asked, arching an eyebrow.

Hoodie Boy nodded. "Those golden women are my backup singers. But one of them malfunctioned and ran off. I guess I sent Grover and Percy to retrieve them?" he looked at me questioningly, as if asking for my confirmation. I nodded, though I thought that Apollo saying that I needed to retrieve them a minute ago should have been confirmation enough.

Apollo interjected, "HEY, they're MY backup singers, not YOURS! I don't know WHY you think you're me, but you're NOT!" His words were firm, but his expression was uncertain.

The girl (I really had to ask for her name at some point) snorted. "Yep, I can tell he's you."

It didn't sound like a compliment.

"Why don't you get the backup singers back yourself?" she asked Apollo, addressing him for the first time.

"That's what heroes are for, doing things we don't want to be bothered with. Plus, like I said, I need to prepare for my concert."

The girl stared at him for a moment, then firmly declared, "You're stupid."

I gaped at her. I thought I was the only one who would so blatantly insult gods to their face!

Grover let out a whimper, looking at Apollo. His face had hardened, and he began glowing. I edged towards the girl, hoping to somehow protect her from the god's wrath. What she just did was dumb, but she didn't deserve to die for it.

The girl, who previously had been completely relaxed, started showing signs of fear and uncertainty in her face. Before she could say anything else, Hoodie Boy surged to his feet.

His knees shook, and I was sure he was about to fall over, but he somehow stayed standing. His expression made me freeze. Apollo looked angry, even irritated, but Hoodie Boy's expression was absolutely livid. His hands shook. For a second I thought it was because he was still shaky from the teleportation, but then I realized it was in anger. But… there was MORE than just anger in his eyes.

"Do not harm her," he hissed. He might as well have been shouting. "Don't you dare harm ANY of them."

"You're not-" Apollo cut in, trying to appear intimidating. But it was clear he was terrified. I wasn't sure why - there was no way this kid could kill him, and probably not even harm him. But his voice shook anyway.

"LOOK AT ME!" Hoodie Boy shouted. "REALLY LOOK AT ME, DON'T JUST STARE THROUGH ME LIKE WE ALWAYS DID, DON'T PRETEND PEOPLE FEEL THE WAY THAT'S CONVENIENT FOR US, FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, TRY TO UNDERSTAND!"

And Apollo LOOKED.

His expression morphed from uncertainty to pure horror.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" He cried.

"Yep," Hoodie Boy said, popping the 'p'.

"What's going on?" I asked, feeling like I'd missed something.

Apollo just continued saying "No no no," pacing around, looking like he was about to have a panic attack.

"He just realized that I was telling the truth." Hoodie Boy said calmly.

Wait, so that meant…

"You're Apollo?"

I took a closer look at him. He looked nothing like the god, though that didn't mean much. Gods are shapeshifters, they can look however they like. It was weird for Apollo to choose such a normal-looking form, however. With his brown curly hair, average muscle tone, and acne-ridden skin, he just looked like a typical teenager. I wouldn't have given him a second glance if I had passed by him on the street. Great for going incognito, but if he was trying to stay hidden, then why was he going by his real name? And why hadn't he just changed form in front of Apollo, if he wanted to prove it was him? Also, why were there two Apollos?

Hoodie!Apollo looked closely at me, as if searching for something. It felt like he was actually listening to what I said, unlike with the other Apollo, who had brushed off my objections to his quest.

Whatever it was, I guess he found it, because he began speaking. "I AM Apollo. But I'm not a god right now. My father stripped me of my divinity and sent me down to earth, because he needed a scapegoat for how poorly the last war went. I was convenient. I made some bad decisions, but most of the things he blamed me for were NOT my fault. He sent me down to earth in this mortal form, with no powers, no equipment, and a faulty memory. I couldn't even remember what he wanted me to do in order to regain his favor. To make matters worse, that's when some mortal thugs showed up and beat me up."

"I sent fruit after them and they ran off," the girl added.

I was tired of calling her 'the girl' in my head all the time. "What's your name?" I asked her.

"Meg," she replied, though her gaze had wandered from me towards the still-pacing god. "Hey, how long is he gonna freak out?"

"Give it a few more minutes," he replied, sounding resigned and a bit annoyed.

"So, uh… how are there two of you? And are you talking about the war with Kronos?" I asked, trying to get things back on track.

He regarded me thoughtfully for a moment. "If this isn't an illusion, then it looks like we either traveled to another universe, or back in time somehow-"

His eyes widened and he jolted. Back-in-time, he mouthed.

"Jason," he whispered. "Crest."

I didn't know who they were, but Meg did.

"Can we help them?" she asked urgently.

"We have to try."

Frantically, words spilled out of him. "Jason Grace, he's Thalia's little brother, he went on a quest with us that he KNEW he'd die on, because the prophecy said that if he helped us, either he or Piper would die, and he couldn't let Piper die. A-and Crest, he's a Pandos, he's with his uncle and other Pandai, but he wants to be a musician. He- he just wanted to play the ukulele. He- he-" Apollo started sobbing, grief twisting his expression.

I slowly approached the teen, and reached my arm around him. I watched him carefully, ready to withdraw if he didn't want to be touched. Instead he leaned into me and cried into my arms.

I still wasn't 100% sure that this guy WAS Apollo - he certainly didn't act like the deity. But he needed help, and a hug. I knew what he was feeling. It was the same as when Bianca had died. And if this kid Jason WAS actually Thalia's brother, and he had died… well I still remembered telling Nico that his sister was dead. I didn't want to think what Thalia's reaction to being told that her brother was dead would be like.

We just stood there for a few more moments. Then I heard a soft coughing from Grover.

I looked over at him. "What?"

"Uh, Percy? What about the Celedon?"

OH NO.

"We've gotta GO!" I shouted in alarm, dread trickling down my neck. If anyone had gotten hurt because we'd been distracted…

"Why?" Meg asked.

"Apollo's backup singer can enchant people, make them angry, or sleepy, or a bunch of things. In a city like New York, she could EASILY cause a bunch of major traffic accidents," I said.

Meg and Apollo looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Meg broke away first.

"We're coming with you," she announced. "We want to help."

Apollo nodded, looking nervous, but determined. "I should have done it the first time around. But at least I'll help this time. I should be resistant to her music, I might be able to help."

I looked at them and nodded. I wasn't sure what they could do, but I wasn't going to turn down more help. "Okay, let's go."

As we left the park, I spared one more look at the god Apollo, muttering to himself wildly, and then ran off with my new friends.