Chapter 2: Out in the World

Even as I kicked up sand and water along the beach I was still thinking about what memories I now had when a voice interrupted my train of thought.

"Percy!" called Reyna.

"Hey!" I yelled back.

I had forgotten I wasn't the only one who came to Marshall Beach when I needed to think.

As Reyna made her way across the beach I felt a pang in my stomach. Reyna had been the guy, Jason's, girlfriend, and had really been hit hard when he went missing. I felt pretty bad for her. I mean he left, no note, no goodbye, no nothing. In a nutshell, it sucked. Not just for Reyna, but Jason was sort of the leader around here. They had just won the Titan War, Jason had defeated the Titan Krios himself.

Now, after so much time, I had sort of taken over that position since I was the only other kid of the big three alive that we knew of. In a nutshell I was slowly integrating with the rest of the campers. Well, they hadn't given me evil looks every time I passed of them for months now. Once they saw that I was great with a sword and good at battle strategy, they welcomed me. The weirdest thing of all, though, was that they thought of everything in Roman terms, where as I thought in Greek.

"Earth to Percy," Reyna said, waving a hand in front of my face.

"Oh, sorry," I apologized, "I was just lost in my head."

She nodded her understanding. "Anything in particular?"

"Everything."

"That's a lot. Easy to get lost, I guess."

"Not if you only have five months of everything."

She didn't have a response to that, so she continued. "Anything special in this maze you've gotten lost in?"

I paused for a moment before I told her about my Greek/Roman dilemma.

"I'm not sure why you think in those terms. That might be how you learned them or maybe those are the only names you were told."

"Why do you guys go by the Roman version anyway?" I asked, never having known.

"It was how they ended. The personalities the gods kept. It fits," she shrugged.

I shook my head in response looking out at the ocean. As I stared I saw a man wearing bermuda shorts, a faded t-shirt, and a fisherman's hat holding a fishing pole. He cast out the line and then reeled it back in. Rubbing my eyes furiously, I looked again. There wasn't anyone there, let alone a man fishing. The thing was I knew that guy. I had seen him before, fishing in the ocean with me on the beach having come from camp. But it couldn't have been. Reyna had told me herself that this was the only camp for demigods in existence and that I hadn't been here before.

Reyna looked at me curiously and asked if I was okay.

"No, I think I'm honestly going crazy." She threw me a sideways glance so I tried to explain. "There are so many things that are ... familiar, but I just kept figure out how they are familiar."

"Look, it's just your amnesia. You've obviously learned a lot going rogue and everything. That's probably what you're sort of remembering."

"No, it's not that. Well, maybe, but I don't think so. There are things about camp that I know. And you said I had never been to camp before." I threw my hands up in frustration as I finished.

Reyna was silent for a long time before she spoke. "How badly do you want your memories back?"

I looked at her stunned. "Is there a way?" I choked out. The people at the infirmary had told me that I might never get my memories back. They had given me a lot of medication, but none of it had worked. All that I could do now was hope.

"Maybe. Look, Percy, I'm not for sure or anything, but there might be a way."

"Tell, me!"

"I might know someone who can help you out."

"Who?"

"It all started when the Titan War started," she said.

I nodded showing that I knew what she was talking about, and she continued.

"Things heated up really fast. There were monsters constantly at the borders of the camp trying to break through their magical boundaries. Lupa started to worry that they might. Ja- Jason and I overheard her talking to a few of the counselors. They asked what she planned to do about it, and she said she would talk to someone who owed her a favor."

"Who was it?" I interrupted.

She glared at me.

"Sorry," I muttered. "Go on."

"The counselors asked her that too. She wouldn't tell them. All I know is that the next day Lupa was nowhere to be found. Don't ask me where she went or what she did, I don't know," she told me, holding up a hand. "Lupa came back the day after with a young man. Let me tell you, he did not look happy to be here, not at all. No one seemed to know he was here either. I asked Hazel about it, but she thought I was crazy. I knew he was here, though, because I had seen he and Lupa were arguing."

"So Jason had this idea to follow him and see what it was he was here to do. That night we snuck out of our cabins and tracked him to the edge of the camp where he was standing with Lupa. They were talking, but not bothering to keep down their voices thinking they weren't being eavesdropped on."

"Lupa must not have taken you two into account," I said laughing.

Reyna playfully punched my arm then continued.

"Anyway, Lupa called the guy Snake and kept asked him technical questions about the barriers and he said it wasn't good. They were weak. Lupa asked him if he could fix it. He gave her this creepy little smile and said no. She told him that he owed her a favor and he said that he had fulfilled that by doing exactly what she had asked of him, coming and taking a look at the magical borders and telling her what was wrong."

"Lupa must have gotten pretty mad at that," I commented.

"You bet. She started cussing him out in, guess what, Greek. That's not really the point, but I thought that might be important, although I don't know how. The guy Snake just stood there looking amused. Finally he told her that he could give the borders more life force but that the camp would need someone with magical abilities to fix this."

"Life force?" I asked, not entirely sure what that meant.

"I've never figured that out, but he went over the barrier and placed both hands on it. A black power burst from his hands and jolted through the entire thing."

"Hmm," was I said.

"Back to the magic. Lupa said that she could just get some of the kids of Hecate that practiced magic to work on it. Snake told her flat out that that wouldn't cut it. He said this problem need a powerful magician. Lupa said she didn't know anyone stronger than a child of Hecate when it came to magic so Snake went on talking. He said they needed to be trained in the old ways, that the crap they were taught here wasn't anything more than a few parlor tricks. Lupa took offense and started cursing again while Snake just stood there. After awhile Lupa asked if he knew anyone who could help. He shrugged then just walked off."

"This Snake person just walked off?" I asked, incredulous.

"Yep, Lupa growled a lot then went back to headquarters. A few days later Snake was back. He said everything was taken care of; the big bad monsters wouldn't be back. And they weren't."

"So he did help you guys."

"Yeah, I guess."

"But what does that have to do with me?" I asked, not entirely sure where she was going with this.

"Everyone at camp has tried to help fix your memory, but even the practicing magicians couldn't. Snake could help with the border issue. Why couldn't he help with your memory problem. And even if he can't," she amended, "he might know someone who can."

Maybe it was just me, but that seemed like a long shot that Lupa wouldn't even let us take. "That seems like a leap," I pointed out to her.

"Yeah, but there weren't a lot of options to begin with, and this is sort of a last chance desperate move."

"Really?"

"Yes, but if you don't want to even ask Lupa about it," she trailed off as she stood up.

"No, I never said that," I responded quickly, getting up, too.

"We'll talk to her at lunch then?" she asked me.

"Sure, yeah, but I still don't think she'll say yes."

"I know, but it's worth a shot, right?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Well, I guess we've gotta get back and get to work. There's that big tournament next week."

I suppose I better stop here and explain. MCS has a tournament every few months in order to commemorate their Roman ancestors which doesn't really make sense to me seeing as most of these people aren't descended from the Romans. It's just that one of their godly parent was Roman, even though they were originally Greek. Basically, they have gladiator fights that aren't to the death (usually). The last one they had I participated and actually won. Everyone was astonished that someone who was still sort of an outsider could win, but after that, I was one of the top dogs.

"Now?" I whined.

"Hey, we can't all have this ridiculous natural ability with a sword you seem to posses. Sorry," Reyna shrugged.

I made a face but followed her back to camp. It wasn't more than a few miles and we filled the time talking about who would place second in the games since I would obviously place first. Reyna said it would be easier to knock me out of running this time since my head was becoming an increasingly bigger target. I told her I would be fine and not to worry about me. She just rolled her eyes.

Once we were back the sun was actually up in the sky and everyone was getting up. I went back to my cabin to find a sleepwalking Bobby asking the time. "About five-thirty," I told him.

"Ugh," he muttered. "Remind me to tell Lupa that we need to set a later wake up time."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll agree to that," I joke.

"Good point."

After breakfast and weight training I went to the colosseum to get in some practice before lunch and my talk with Lupa. There were a few practice dummies in the arena so I slashed and hacked at them until they were thoroughly destroyed.

"The expenses for equipment will continue to rise if you continue to do that," said a voice that sounded like a growl.

"Sorry, Lupa," I apologized, bowing to show respect. The campers were a little more lax with each other, but in the presence of a camp leader, counselor, and director, you showed the upmost respect for them.

She just stared at me with what looked like grudging pride, but I was still learning to read the emotions on a wolf's face; so I couldn't be sure.

"Reyna told me you wanted to talk to me."

"She did?" I squeaked. I thought she would be with me because, well to tell the truth, Lupa is perfectly terrifying.

"Yes, don't worry, she already explained everything. If that girl needs to learn anything, it's to be scared and hold her tongue." Lupa muttered the last part with a smile playing around her mouth/snout. "Anyhow, I cannot condone such a quest without something more concrete than it might help you retrieve your memory."

"I understand," I said glumly. Even though I knew it had been a desperate and an unlikely hope, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. If you've ever had amnesia you'll know what I mean when I say you're chasing this feeling, this thought that you can't really pin down. I was getting sick of it, and I wanted it over.

"Unfortunately," she began again, "I just so happen to know that this crazed idea you two have cooked up has most of its basis in truth."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, you're lucky Reyna and Jason have no real respect for rules here and listened in to my conversation with Snake."

"Ah, yeah."

"Perseus, I must warn you, though, because I cannot impress upon you how dangerous it would be."

I started to protest, gesturing at the dummies that were no longer dummies, but she stopped me.

"I'm not talking about monsters, Percy. I know you and Reyna could handle those."

"Me and Reyna?" I asked. I had figured it would be just me.

"Yes, this would be considered a quest. Therefore, you would be able to take two other companions. I naturally figured Reyna would be one of them. And perhaps Bobby?"

"Ah, probably."

"Like I was saying, it's not the monsters. It's the people I'm worried about."

"The people?"

"Snake ran with a rough crowd way back when and I'm sure things haven't changed."

"What's his real name?" I asked. Hey, blame the ADHD, I just can't keep my mouth shut even if someone might be giving me vital advice that could be the key to my survival.

"I'm not sure. I do know he was the son of some servant girl in Corinth, Greece. Don't ask me her name either; I don't know."

"And his dad?"

Lupa looked a little uneasy when I mentioned his father. "Ah, he was never claimed."

"Uh, huh."

"He- he's a son of Pluto."

"What? I thought there weren't any other sons of the big three that weren't minor or major gods, or is he one?"

"He's not, his father would never allow it," Lupa scoffed.

"Never-?"

"They don't get along, it's a long story, and one I'm not allowed to go into with you. The point is he's not someone to mess with, Percy."

"Where'd he receive his training?" I said sarcastically.

Lupa just gave me a dark look and said that there was a reason he was feared among those who knew him. I figured she meant he had survived on his own.

"So he can help with my memory problem?" I asked hopefully, trying to change the subject.

"Yes, I do. The only problem with that is he might not exactly be ... forthcoming."

"Forthcoming?"

"He's not such a big fan of demigods."

"He is one," I pointed out.

Lupa laughed a harsh laughed, "That doesn't matter to him."

After she chuckled to herself a few more times she looked me straight in the eye. "Perseus, listen to me. I will give you permission to go on this quest because I see that you are suffering, and I need my best fighter and the camp leader in good spirits and able to use his mind to the best of his ability to fight the battle that is coming. Get your stuff together. You leave at dusk." With that, she turned and stalked off.

"Wait!" I called. "What battle? What fight?"

She didn't even turn around.

As the sun drifted lower and lower in the sky Bobby, Reyna, and I packed up and went to Lupa. Bobby had said sure, what the heck when I asked him if he wanted to come. Not that it would have been anything else. So it was about eight or so and she was standing at the camp entrance. She looked over the three of us with a nod of approval and asked if we had any questions.

"Ah, yeah," Bobby said. "How do we find this Snake dude?"

"I thought you might ask that at one point," she muttered, rolling her eyes. As she spoke a piece of paper appeared in Bobby's hand. It said: Doa Recording Studios, Valencia Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.

"What's this?" I questioned. "His work address?"

"No, it's the one of the entrances to the Underworld."

"One of the- What?" I asked. The Underworld- something that I had never thought about until now, but apparently there was one, and it had an entrance in L.A. Go figure, I guess. But the address, I had heard before. Of course, I had no idea where but still.

"One of the entrances to the Underworld, Perseus," Lupa explained slowly, like a was a kindergartener or something. "The world of the dead."

It was kind of annoying how she would always call me Perseus. Percy, that was what I had always been called (I knew that much); Perseus seemed, I don't know, almost alien.

"I get that, but are you saying he's in the Underworld?"

"No, just the closest run down bar. I told you he and his father don't get along. He wouldn't live IN the Underworld."

"The nearest-" I started.

"Yes, the nearest bar, a place where alcoholic drinks are consumed. I have already explained to you the type of people Snake runs with. Oh, and I'm sure since Reyna has already seen him, she knows what I'm talking about.

Reyna muttered darkly, "Yeah, he's got the total I'm a bad guy, watch out look."

"Scary as-" Bobby began, but at a look from Lupa stopped. "Yeah, well, before our luck runs out," he said with a smile, "maybe we should get a move on. I hate long goodbyes anyway."

"Well then, may the gods grant you a safe and speedy quest," Lupa said in farewell.

"Yeah, okay," Bobby said turning on his heel, and he walked out of the gates.

Lupa rolled her eyes then turned back to Reyna and I. "Watch yourselves. Reyna, you and Bobby are well trained- you two could take on the worse monsters; Percy, though I did not train you, you are an able warrior that could fight a titan and win. If you all keep your heads on straight then I have no doubt that Perseus will retain his memory."

"Uh, thanks," I muttered before Reyna and I too turned and walked out of those high, wooden gates and out into the free and monster-infested world.

Chapter 3 three's almost done! Not sure when I'll update after that. It might be a week or two. Please read and review. I'd love to have ideas from you guys! Enjoy the story!