Well, this is chapter 3.

I was hoping to publish this sooner since I already had it planned out, but once I started writing it, I realized I had no clue how best to write out my ideas, so it took a little bit longer than I had hoped to type this chapter.

Something weird happened with the second chapter and it didn't appear on FanFiction for almost 10 hours after I posted it. I'm, not sure why, but it was weird.

Thanks for the reviews and such and enjoy this chapter, it will not be fun for Percy, but if you enjoy his emotional pain, you shall enjoy this.

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.

Percy POV

I never could remember my dreams from when I was unconscious, I just remember waking up and feeling that something was wrong. I opened my eyes and was immediately awake, I wasn't sure how long I had been out for, but after spending months needing to be able to wake up at a moments notice, the instant my eyes opened I was ready to attack.

I looked around, expecting some monster to be about to kill me in the middle of some forest somewhere. Then I remembered that I had finished my tests and had gained Athena's approval. I remembered that after defeating the last mass of monsters, I had passed out. I took in my surroundings and realized I was in the bighouse. I was in the infirmary area.

Before I could completely take in the room, someone was giving me a hug and bleating in happiness. "Perrrrrrrcy! You're awake! You have been out for three days and we were all worried about you."

I looked down at Grover and said, "Sorry G-man, didn't mean to have you all worried. I was just a little exhausted from my quest and it all seemed to catch up to me."

He smiled at me and I smiled back. "Well Percy, it's nice having you back again. You were gone for almost five months and you never contacted us once. We were all worried about you."

I smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I wasn't allowed to contact anyone while on my quest. I didn't want you guys to worry, but it had to be done. What about you though? Aren't you the Lord of the Wild now? Shouldn't you be doing your nature duties and stuff? How long have you ben here for?"

He grinned at me, "Well, I have been doing my duties quite a bit actually. Once I heard you were back though, I figured I could take a little break and go meet up with my best friend for the first time in five months."

I couldn't help but smile at that, "Well, thanks Grover. Now, how long am I stuck in here for? Can I leave whenever I want to? I want to go catch up with the rest of my friends as well. Also, how's Annabeth doing? I haven't seen here in forever and I really want to talk to her now."

Grover got a strange look on his face for a second, almost like he was scared of something, but it quickly went away and he was back to smiling at me. "You can leave whenever you feel better. You are the Savior of Olympus so no one dares to tell you what to do As long as you are feeling up to it, you can get out whenever you want. As for Annabeth, I would check the arena or the forges or her cabin. I haven't been around much lately, so I'm not sure how she is doing, but since no one has told me anything bad, I can only assume she is doing all right."

I smiled at Grover and climbed out of the bed I was in. I gave him a pat on the back and thanked him, "Thanks again for being here for me, now get back to your duties before you start getting in trouble." With that, I walked out of the room, through the bighouse, and out into the camp.

It was a nice day, maybe 80 degrees and sunny. There were a few clouds hanging around and there was a cool breeze blowing through. I looked around and could see campers going about doing their daily activities. Nothing seemed even remotely amiss, which seemed odd because normally demigod instincts were accurate and I had a sense that something was seriously amiss. I sighed, first things first, I though. I walked off to go find Annabeth, I wanted to tell her all about my mission and catch up with everything I had missed, I figured I could also ask her if there were any problems around camp I should know about, since I could feel something was wrong.

I headed over to the forges, since Grover said she might be there. I had no clue why she would be there, but Annabeth always had a reason for doing things and I had learned that if I needed to know, I would find out. Anyways, I got to the forge and found it mostly empty. There were a few Hephaestus kids there, forging weapons and building stuff, but no sign of Annabeth. I turned to leave but before I could, a familiar voice said, "Hey Percy, it's good seeing you again. I saw you fight off that small army the other day and was pretty impressed, I was going to go down and fry their butts off and help you, but Athena stopped me from it."

I turned around and saw Leo grinning at me. He always was a good guy to hand out with. He was reliable and good with his hands. He was also a decent fighter. During the Giant War, we had become pretty good friends, well, all seven of us prophecy kids had gotten pretty close, but Leo was always pestering me and hanging around me, so we grew closer. I smiled at him, "Thanks Leo. It's the thought that counts though. Also, I'm glad you didn't come down to help. That was part of my quest and I had to do it alone. Also, the monsters were only there because of me so I would have felt bad if someone else had gotten hurt because of them. Anyways, it is nice being back. Speaking of which, you wouldn't happen to know where Annabeth is would you?"

His smile disappeared for a second before reappearing and I wondered what he was thinking. He looked away from me and said, "Annabeth? Oh, I'm not really sure. I would check the Arena though, she likes to relieve stress by practicing there and testing new battle strategies and that kind of stuff. Hey, you think you could tell me about your quest and why those monsters were after you? I'm kinda curious about that."

I smiled at him, "Thanks Leo. If you want, I could tell you about my quest later. Right now though, I have to go find Annabeth." I then walked out of the forges and headed towards the arena.

As I walked, I ran into several of my friends who all wanted to know about why I had been gone so long and why there had been so many monsters after me so close to camp. I told them all I would tell them later and continued on my way to the arena. When I finally got there, there was a class going on and Annabeth was helping to teach it. It appeared as though she was working with some Hephaestus kid. They were currently sparring, so I decided to watch for a little bit.

As I watched, the Hephaestus kid, who was fighting with a sword, came charging at Annabeth who was using her knife. The guy swung his sword at her, but she just ducked under the blow, got close to him, and held her knife to his throat. With her free hand, she smacked his sword arm and he dropped his sword.

Since the little sparring match was over, I clapped and walked in, "That was a nice move Annabeth. Congratulations, it appears you have gotten even better with that knife of yours while I was gone." I smiled at her, but she appeared to be almost afraid of me.

After a few seconds of staring at me in surprise and worry, she regained her composure and forced a smile onto her face, "Hey Percy. Welcome back from your quest. It's good to see you up again, that battle you had at the camp boundaries was impressive. It seems you have gotten even better at fighting while you were gone as well."

I smiled at her, "Hey Annabeth, can we go somewhere and talk? I want to catch up with you after having been gone for so long."

She smiled at me, but for some reason it seemed forced. "Yeah, we should talk. In private. Come on." That's all she said before grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the arena and towards the forest.

I tried talking to her, but she wouldn't respond at all. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but my feeling that something was amiss was getting stronger by the second. The way Annabeth was acting had me worried, she never acted nervous or fidgety, but here she was, acting nervous and fidgety.

After we had gotten a ways into the forest and away from all the campers, she stopped and turned to face me. I was about to speak, but the look on her face made me stop. She appeared to be nervous and scared and looked like she was trying to find the words to express what she was feeling. After several minutes of silence, I managed to speak, "What is it Annabeth? What's wrong?"

She was fidgeting and wouldn't meet my eyes, but she took several deep breaths to try and calm herself before she started speaking, "Percy, please don't take this the wrong way," she began. She paused and looked at me, as if she expected me to explode at any moment.

My sense of dread was building; she couldn't be trying to say what I thought she was. There was no way that would be possible. But what else could have her looking so worried while everyone else was fine? I looked at her, begging her to just tell me.

She sighed and continued, "Percy, after you left for your quest, I was worried about you. My stress had me fighting a lot more, which caused me to go through a lot more training dummies and such. Due to this, I began hanging around the Hephaestus cabin a lot since I was constantly asking them for more special dummies. There was one guy in particular who I worked with. After the first couple of months, in order to stop having to make so many new dummies all the time, he began training with me and working as my partner."

I could feel my eyes starting to water. I had been afraid of where this story was leading and I was really hoping that it wouldn't end how I thought it would, but the more she said, the more likely I felt like I was right about how this was going to end. I had sat down on the ground across from Annabeth, and I was wishing I were standing, so I could just run away and not listen to this, but I knew I had to hear this story out to the end.

Meanwhile, Annabeth was continuing her story, "Each day, I began spending more time with him. At first, it was just traing in the arena, but then I was helping him in the forges as well, or he would help me with my architecture work. It was nice having someone else around who could understand the work I did and even provide meaningful input for it. About four months after you had left, I began to realize that I had growing feelings for him, and my feelings for you were going away. As soon as I realized this, I felt guilty because you were on a quest to prove your love for me, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn't contact you to tell you to just come back, and I couldn't force myself to love you anymore."

By this point, the tears were flowing down my face and I was shaking my head, trying to deny that this was happening to me. Why couldn't I ever have good things? I could never just have a happy ending. Why did the fates hate me so much? What had I ever done to deserve this pain I was feeling? All I had ever done was try to save everything I cared about, and for the most part I had succeeded. So why did I need to loose my true love?

Annabeth tried to smile apologetically at me, but it wasn't working. I could tell she was having a hard time telling me this. I knew that she didn't want to hurt me, that she was telling me this only because I needed to hear it sooner rather than later and that it would be best if I heard it from her. I could tell that it wsa hurting her to hurt me like this, but I could also hear the truth in her words. She really meant it. She no longer loved me, and instead was in love with some Hephaestus guy. "Who is he?" I choked out.

She looked at me and didn't respond for a little bit, "I don't know if I should tell you that right now. I don't want you to do anything stupid."

I shook my head even more as the tears continued falling, "I won't do anything stupid. I promise. I just need to know who he is. I need a name. Please Annabeth, tell me."

She sighed, "The guy I was sparring with during the lesson you watched. His name is Kyle. I'm really sorry Percy, I never wanted to hurt you, but I couldn't help it. It just happened and Kyle makes me happy and I love him. I hope we can still be friends and that you can move on and find happiness with another girl." She then stood up and walked back towards camp, leaving me sitting alone in the forest, crying silently over what I had lost.

After a while, I managed to calm down a little bit. I was still sad about losing Annabeth and a little upset. I knew I shouldn't be mad at her, but after everything I had just done, I couldn't help but be a little resentful. I didn't want to be mad at her, so naturally I tried to be mad at Kyle, but I had promised not to do anything stupid, so instead of taking out my anger and sadness on him, I just sat in the forest and kept my misery to myself.

After I had calmed down enough to walk again, I went to the beach. I knew that the beach would help me to refocus myself and help get over my depression. When I got to the beach, there was no one else there, which I was thankful for. I walked up to the waters edge and sat down. Feeling the waves roll up to me and then past me helped to calm me down even more. I sat there for hours. Eventually, it got dark out and I realized I had missed dinner and campfire. People were probably worried about me, so I figured I should head back to camp.

Then again, I could still feel my emotions threatening to run wild, so maybe going to camp wouldn't be the best option. As calm as I was now, I knew that I needed to vent. The problem was how I should do that. I had gotten always been a powerful demigod and a decent fighter, not many people could fight me and push me. After my quest though, I knew I had gotten immensely stronger, so I wasn't sure if there was anyone at camp who I could vent my emotions on in a fight. The training dummies wouldn't be enough either.

The sea does not like to be restrained. I knew that, and so I knew that I wouldn't be able to bottle up my emotions for long. I needed to vent, and soon, before I accidently let it all loose and end up hurting people.

A wave rolled over me and I felt something. I stood up and walked into the ocean and I could feel something fighting. I dove into the ocean and swam towards the source of this and before long, I found myself in front of a massive sea monster. Good, I though, this should help me to vent some of my pent up emotions.

The sea monster was about 50 feet long and was covered in hard scales. It looked like a green whale with four legs and sharp teeth. I uncapped Riptide and swam straight at it. The sea monster moved a lot faster than I would have thought it could. As I moved in to strike at its neck, it turned and bared its fangs at me, ready to bite me in half. It would have also, except I could control the ocean and was able to will the currents to pull me away, right before I became monster dinner. I then swam through the ocean as fast as I could will the currents to move me, and slashed at the monster as much as I could.

Fortunately, I was able to hit it quite a bit, unfortunately, the scales were incredibly hard and managed to absorb most of the impact before I could cut through them, allowing me to only leave small gashes. The monster appeared to be weaker on the bottom, but every time I tried to strike it there, it would slash it me with its legs and claws, forcing me to move out of the way. On and on we went like this. I would deliver a few small cuts to the monster, and then try to slash at its underside only to be blocked by the monsters sharp claws and strong legs. It would also try to eat me and bite me with its jaws, but I was able to dodge that pretty easily.

Eventually, I got an idea. After I gave the monster a few more cuts on its thick scaly back, I moved to try to attack the underside again, but this time, when it tried to push me away with its claws and then bite me, instead of fleeing, I dove right at the mouth. I used my control over the seas to try and force the mouth to stay open while I jabbed Riptide straight through the back of tis throat. As soon as I did that, I released Riptide and willed the currents to pull me out of the monsters mouth.

The monster let loose a wail of pain and fury, and then dissolved into golden dust that was then spread throughout the ocean. I felt Riptide return to my pocket and I swam back to shore. I walked to my cabin and fell asleep.

For the next week, I was pretty miserable. I tried not to show it, but I didn't do a very good job. Most people just started avoiding me in hopes that my depression wouldn't rub off on them. Every now and then, Annabeth would give me a sad smile, but other than that she was perfectly happy. She was always with Kyle and he seemed to be able to keep her happy. I still hadn't talked to him yet, and to be honest I had no plans on doing so. At least not yet anyways. Annabeth tried to talk to me a few times, but I would always disappear before she could get to me. I wasn't mad at her; it just hurt to be around her.

Every night my father would release a sea monster for me to fight with and relieve my stress and anger on. At least I assumed it was him. Every night when I was at the ocean, I could feel a new monster appear that needed to be dealt with. It was nice and allowed me to not take out my pain on other people. One night after about a week had passed and I was still as miserable as always, I was walking past the amphitheater when I heard someone speak to me.

I wasn't sure who had spoken or what they had said, but it had come from next to the fire. I walked in and saw that no one was there so I was going to walk out when they spoke again, "Hello Perseus."

I turned towards the fire and saw a young girl with brown hair and warm eyes. I bowed, "Lady Hestia, good evening. What would you like?"

She smiled at me sadly before speaking, "I wish to show you the truth."

I was confuse, "What do you mean you wish to show me the truth? What are you talking about?"

She just looked at me with her warm eyes and sad smile before responding, "The truth behind your sadness. You were always a good hero. One who deserved a happy ending. I had hoped you would get it, but alas some of my relatives thought otherwise."

Now I was even more confuse, "What are you talking about? I'm sad because Annabeth left me, what else could there be to that?"

"That is indeed what has caused your sadness, but what caused her to leave you? That is what I wish to show you. It makes me sad that several of the gods that you saved multiple times did this to you. I had hoped it wasn't true, but because of your kindness towards me, I took it upon myself to find the truth. Now, I wish to show you what I found out." She then reached out her hand and touched my forehead.

I was on Olympus in a temple. I looked around and saw Athena sitting at a desk; she appeared to be deep in thought about something. After several minutes, she stood up with a triumphant look on her face. She quickly walked out of her temple and then down the street a ways until she reached a temple that appeared to be ooze love. It was almost sickening how much love there seemed to be in the air.

Athena walked right up to the palace's doors and walked in. She didn't announce her presence, or knock, or anything, she just barged right in. I thought that was kind of rude, but then the look on her face made me think she wasn't going waste time with such unimportant things. Sitting down on a couch is if expecting the visit was none other than the goddess of love herself.

I had seen Aphrodite before, but she still took my breath away. She was absolutely stunning. I stared at her for a several seconds before I remembered that there were more important things than staring at the goddess of love. I saw open her mouth and speak, "Hello Athena. It is most unusual for you to come to me. What could I help you with? Is there someone you want to break your oath to be with and you want my help to get him? Whatever it is it must be important for you to just barge right in like this."

I thought Athena would bite her head off for talking to her that way, but instead she just ignored her and spoke, "No I do not plan on breaking my oath of maidenhood. What I want your help with involved a daughter of mine. She is in love with one who I do not approve of and I want you to help her fall for another instead."

Aphrodite looked a little sad that it didn't involve Athena, but since it involved love, she was still willing to help out, "Well, I suppose that is a start anyways. Maybe some day I will be able to convince you of the wonders of true love. Well anyways, explain to me what you need and I will see what I can do."

Athena nodded her head, "Thanks. I want you to make Annabeth fall in love with someone other than that sea spawn."

Aphrodite gasped, "WHAT!" she screeched. "No way, that is my favorite couple of all time. Why would I break them apart? And didn't you just send Percy on some quest to earn your approval? What are you playing at?"

I too, was stunned. Athena had sent me on a quest and at the same time was trying to break me and Annabeth up? What was going on here?

Athena took a deep breath, "Calm down Aphrodite. I do not approve of the boy because he is a sea spawn. His father is the worst of the gods and therefore Jackson is not worthy of my daughter. I also have two reasons why you should do this. The first is that you promised the boy you would make his love life a real pain, this would certainly make his love life a pain AND it would allow you to mess with it even more. Secondly, if you do this, because I am friends with Hephaestus, I can alert you to any traps he ahs planned for you and Ares for the next millennia. You do this favor and you won't have to worry about being embarrassed by him for a thousand years."

Aphrodite seemed to consider this. After several minutes she replied, "That is why you sent Percy on the quest. Not to earn your approval, but to get him away from your daughter. You hoped that while he was gone you could get her to fall for another man, but she didn't do that and so you have come to me for my help in the matter. Fine. This offer is too good to refuse. Swear on the Styx that you will alert me to any of Hephaestus's traps for the next millennia and I will help you."

Athena smiled. She knew that she had won and that her plan was now a guaranteed success. "I swear on the Styx that I will alert you to all of Hephaestus's traps for the next millennia. Also, I have set things up where she should end up with a son of Hephaestus named Kyle. I will keep Percy under the sky until he can't hold it any more and then send him back to camp with a bunch of monsters. If he dies, that would make things easier, but if he doesn't, make sure you have this done before he gets back to camp."

Aphrodite looked up at Athena and smiled, "Well, you most certainly do have this planned out don't you? Well, leave the love stuff to me. If I am going to do this right, I will need several months to do this, so try to keep Percy away until then. If he shows up before I am done, it will become much harder to get her to love someone else. Now, off you go Athena, I have some work to do."

When the vision faded, I was absolutely furious. I was also stunned and completely bewildered. After everything I had done, this was how the gods thanked me? I was absolutely livid. I felt a pair of arms around me and heard a warm voice whisper soothing words to me. I felt fresh tears falling down my cheeks at the betrayal and truth behind all my pain. Before I fell asleep, I remember thinking that Athena was going to pay for what she had done to me.

I woke up the next day and realized that it was already passed noon. At first I was surprised that no one had woken me up, but then I remembered that everyone was avoiding me while I was in my depressed phase. Lucky for them, I was no longer as depressed. Now I was just angry.

I left my cabin and tried to find Grover. I looked through the camp but couldn't find him. I asked Chiron if he knew where Grover was and he told me that Grover was in Central Park. I thanked him and asked if I could get a ride there.

Chiron looked at me, "Percy, what are you planning? Lately you have been depressed, but today you suddenly seem to be better. What is going on?"

I smiled at Chiron, "Nothing, I just want to talk to my old friend again since I haven't had the opportunity to do so very often lately."

Chiron sighed, "Fine. I will have Argus drive you there."

I thanked him and then got ready to go.

About an hour later, I was in Central Park. I had told Argus to go back without me and that I would just get a cab. After Argus had driven off, I walked into the forested area of the park in search of Grover. I finally found him in the middle of a discussion with a dryad. I waited patiently for them to finish talking, but Grover saw me first and excused himself from the conversation.

He walked over to me and gave me a look of nervousness, "How are you doing Percy? I've been worried about you this past week. Your emotions are out of control."

I gave him an apologetic smile, "Sorry about that, but after Annabeth broke up with me, it was hard to keep my emotions in check. However, that brings me to why I'm here."

He gave me a curious look, "Oh? And what might that reason be?"

I sighed, "I'm really angry right now and am about to do something incredibly stupid that could very well get me killed. Because of that, I want you to break the empathy link so that if things go wrong, you won't get killed as well."

Grover appeared shocked, "WHAT! What do you mean you might get killed? What are you planning to do? And no I won't break it, I mean I kept it for the titan and giant war, so why would I break it because of a new danger?"

I looked at him and contemplated the best way of answering him, finally I have him a sad smile and said, "Look, it doesn't matter what I am planning to do. You can't talk me out of what I'm going to do so don't even try. As for the empathy link, for the two wars, if I died, the world would have ended anyways and it allowed us to communicate and keep in touch. Now however, there is no real danger of the world ending and what I am doing is pretty selfish. If you die because of my selfish actions, I would never forgive myself, so please break the link. Maybe later if I survive you can recreate it or something."

Grover sighed and I think he realized he didn't have much of a choice. "Fine. Close your eyes and I will break it, but if you die, I won't forgive you. You are my best friend after all."

I chuckled, "Well, I will try to survive." I then closed my eyes and stood still. After a few minutes, I felt a strange tingling in the back of my head that lasted for several seconds and then vanished.

Grover said, "Okay, I removed the link. Go do what you need to do, but you had better tell me what this is about when you are done."

"Hmmm, I might. It might be best if you don't know though. Anyways, thanks for breaking the link. Hopefully I will be back at camp tonight. If I am, I will send you an iris-message." I then turned around and walked off towards the Empire State Building.

Well, that's it for this chapter.

I had been planning on writing a few more scenes in this chapter, but it was getting pretty long and it has been a while since I updated so this is where I will end it.

The next chapter should be up within the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

Let me know how I did with the different characters personalities and stuff. They won't show up again for a while, but if they need to change at all, let me know so that when they do come back in I do a better job at it.

Also, if you want to be cool and stuff, send me a character for a huntress. They won't show up for a little bit, but it would be nice if I could get a little help with them. At the very least give me names. I hate coming up with names. Personalities and parents and life stories you can send me if you want, but I don't mind creating that stuff on my own, it's really just the names that I suck at coming up with.

Anyways, I love all you people who have taken the time to read and review and other cool stuff, so thanks for that.