Disclaimer, I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Yet.

Italics mean unnatural communication

x-X-x is a dream state transition and vice versa

3TB for short


What's Outside's Inside's

Jason POV

The Argo II was back in the air, and we were back on course. We were behind schedule, but beside that we should be on track again in no time. I hope so at least. While the Argo was up and running now, her crew wasn't.

Percy and Annabeth's fight had started off a chain reaction, and now everyone was edgy. Everyone had taken sides on the argument, despite how stupid it was. They were both broken, we shouldn't be driving a wedge between them, let alone everyone else. But here we were, doing exactly that.

Piper had taken Annabeth's side. That had been easy to see from how quickly she snapped to defend her. She wasn't talking to me now. Frank had also taken her side, stating that Percy seemed more unpredictable than usual, and not in the good way.

Hazel had come to Percy's defense with me; she'd known Nico before Tartarus, and I guess she knew the after effects better than most. She understood what Percy and Annabeth were going through, if only in spirit. So the sides were even, with Percy, Hazel, and I taking one side, and Annabeth, Piper, and Frank on the other.

And then of course there was Leo in the middle. Poor guy. My best friend was getting a lot of smack for not joining either side, although most of it came from Piper and Frank. Leo stayed to himself a lot nowadays, staring dreamily at a picture of a girl Hazel had drawn up for him.

He was so love-struck I didn't even know where to start, and for some reason that made my heart twinge a little. Sure I was glad that my little pyromaniac had finally got himself a girl, but it just felt… wrong.

Not that I knew about relationships or anything though. Ever since the fight had started Piper and I had been at ends, and the few times we talked to each other were filled with uncomfortable silences. Why couldn't things go back to normal?

Because we're demigods that's why, duh. Sometimes the amazing superpowers didn't really make this life worth it all.

So now I was caught in yet another split, this one completely stupid. Of course they were both acting differently, they'd literally been through hell and back. If you didn't come back from that screwed up, then you already had to have some damage done to you, or at the very least be some twisted psychopath.

The only reason the others were so quick to gang up on Percy was that his signs showed easier. His powers were stronger than ever, they clung to his emotions, and worst of all, they lingered just beneath the surface. Something about him had changed after he fell into the pit, some of that childish innocence that he held had faded away.

And as much as I supported and protected him, I realized that I didn't like the result. I didn't like the potential that had come at the loss of that innocence. Potential has a funny way of deciding how it will change a person, and I knew from experience that potential and rejection didn't give good responses. Fixing Percy needed to happen, and fast.

And that was without even thinking about what to do with Annabeth. It was harder to see through her lies, to see her new flaws. But you could do it if you really tried, you could catch the mania burning in her eyes sometimes, that perfect control slowly ebbing away.

Her breaking point was just as close as Percy's. But at least she had Piper. They seemed to have bonded, and when they were together, that fire in Annabeth seemed to die down, just a little. We could fix Annabeth easily. Percy was the hard one. Percy needed someone to talk to, someone to trust. He had tried out there on the beach, he really had.

Maybe he just needed a little nudge in the right direction. We hadn't exactly been the best of friends, but he need the support. Just like Nico had. Hmm…. Nico.

How was he holding up? After his confession he'd seemed better, more open. But with what Cupid had said, and the way he still said Percy's name… there was no way he was over Percy. Yeah there was hate in his voice, anger, a negative emotional goldmine in the making. But his eyes said a different thing.

They still shined when we had talked about him, and I might have been dreaming but when we woke up on the hill and Nico realized he was holding his hand, I swore I had seen a blush. What would Percy think of all that? If Nico came out, what would Percy do?

Before I'd been certain that Nico just needed to get it out in the open, to stop denying it to himself and accept who he was. Yeah Percy would have probably done something stupid and ended up going off with Annabeth, but it would have been done. Nico would have had closure and he could heal, he could truly move on.

But now I wasn't so certain. Percy, Annabeth, and Nico were all broken. The actions of three already unpredictable heroes were bound to only be worse now. And with only a few days left until the end of the world, we didn't have time to fix them.

Or did we?

Maybe it was time to take matters into my own hands. Piper was working on fixing Annabeth, it was time to fix Percy. Percy needed a friend now more than ever, and with him and Leo tying as the very heart and soul of our crew, we needed him back up in action more than ever.

It was time to get to work.

Leo POV

Calypso stared down at me from her paper palace, unblinking as I lounged back, staring up at her. Things hadn't been going smooth lately. The whole crew was up in arms with each other. Hazel was mad at Frank because he was accusing Percy of being a monster, Frank was mad at Jason because of Roman Bro stuff, Jason was mad at Piper because she had started the whole thing, Piper was mad at Percy for being mean to Annabeth, Annabeth was angry at Percy for somehow being a monster, and Percy… Honestly I think Percy was mad at himself.

That really made me want to join Percy, because he wasn't blaming anyone for whatever had happened to him, he was trying to just keep on going. But at the same time that made me made, because my staying neutral made everybody, sans Percy, ticked off at me.

I'd just wanted to stay out of all this, try and fix up Festus, and find a way back to Calypso's island. Was it really that bad to want to go back to the girl of my dreams? Apparently so, because everybody glared at me as they went by. It hurt the most when Piper and Jason did it, two of my best friends. Especially Jason. The guy had been like a hero to me, scooping me out of the lame, avoid at all costs slump at school and making me part of his group.

He'd been the guy I wanted to hang out with all the time, the friend who didn't run away when I accidently burned off his eyebrows with my latest gadget, or smack me when I blew stuff up. Wait, actually he did. But everybody did that, and besides, his smacks were more of the 'what-were-you-doing-you-could-have-hurt-yourself-dude' smacks, rather than the 'oh-my-gosh-the-elf-on-crack-blew something-up-he's-going-to-kill-us-all-with-a-pocket-nuke-stop-him' that everybody else gave me.

I miss just hanging out with him and Piper. Well, right now I miss just hanging out with him, having bro moments. Those moments were the best, it was like the rest of the world just fell away, and all my craziness and antics didn't matter, because all that mattered was that we were together having fun.

Maybe when all this was done we could go do that again, we could all get together without trying to kill each other, without monsters or gods or angry sheep trying to kill us. Maybe we could just relax and have fun.

That's what the crew needed! Fun! That's what would bring us all together again! And I knew just the guy to go to; Percy! Granted he may not have the comedy genius I have or the knack for being the life of the party, once again, like I do, he was pretty big. The whole camp liked him (well most of them anyways. There were a few Ares kids who always glowered and muttered something about toilets and revenge whenever somebody talked about him), and he'd definitely had a few ragers.

I scrambled to my feet, knocking over a few piles of nick knacks and blueprints, stumbling out the cabin door and heading towards Percy's cabin. I round the corner only to collide with my blondie, almost falling before he caught me, righting me in the process.

"Thanks. I totally had that by the way, I was just-"

"Going to give the floor a hug?" Jason asked with a grin, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged grinning "You know me so well."

"No kidding. Which is why I'm worried, because I see that spark in your eye which means you have a crazy idea, and crazy ideas and you aren't always the best plan."

"Your right, we're a brilliant plan." I shot back, crossing my arms and hopping back and forth from foot to foot.

Jason rolled his eyes saying "Spill."

I gave a dramatic sigh before my grin came back and I started bouncing. "Well I just know that everybody's fighting, and I thought that the best way to get everyone to stop fighting is to have a party. You know like they do in all the old movies? The greasers and the jocks have a battle, but then somebody has a party and they're forced to hang out and realize they're both awesome and start partying and then the movie has a happy ending with crazy music?"

"Can you repeat all that? Maybe not at chipmunk speed?"

I glowered at the blonde who just smirked playfully and ruffled my hair.

"I'm just messing with you firebug. I think that's a great idea, what's the plan?"

"Well I'm going to go get Percy and try and cheer him up, then we'll work on getting him up and about, then get Buford fixed up and in a tux, send out a few invitations, get the music going, and viola, we have a party! What do you think?" I waited patiently, trying to ignore the jealous twinge that hit me when Jason jumped at Percy's name.

Why did he have to get all Jason's attention? They weren't even good friends, heck, half the time they were together they were trying to kill each other. Then again the scary death kid didn't seem that friendly with him either, but somehow the two had seemed pretty buddied up ever since they got that stupid scepter. I'd felt that same twinge back then, and the thought of losing him still made it hit me harder than ever.

"You know what?" Jason asked, snapping me out of my angst "I think that a party's just what we need. Let's go get Percy now."

I grinned, trying to push those thoughts out of my head and following as Jason led the way to Percy's cabin. Yeah things might be a little bad now, but just give it a little time. Soon enough everything would be back to normal. We'd have fun again, just you wait. And then everything would be perfect again.

Annabeth POV

I sat hunched up in my dark cabin, wishing the light away. Light made shadows, and monsters hid in shadows, and I didn't want any more of those. I already had one living just a few doors down from me. Something had changed Percy down there in the pit, something that scared me. I could look past what he had done to Arachne- he was saving my life.

That's what my seaweed brain had always done. Saved me. Protected me. Loved me. But then he had attacked Achyls. She had been willing to go; the second the poison had started to attack she had tried to make a beeline out of there, but Percy had stopped her. That's when the dark took over Percy.

And then there had been Bob. His sacrifice had sent us up, back to our lives while, our new friends died down there, fighting a manifestation of Tartarus itself. I felt the stains from that too, having to leave him. But I felt the stains form a lot of things now.

Maybe I'd killed too many Arai, maybe we both had. All those curses, all the things we had done; it had to be why we had changed, why we were so different now. It was why we were monsters. I knew Percy wasn't the only one. A monster had come back to the world of the living wearing a Percy suit, and another had come back wearing an Annabeth suit.

I wasn't the same girl that had fallen down into Tartarus. Percy and I had fallen down, ready for anything. But now I wasn't ready for anything. We'd been shattered, and now we were coming apart at the seams, ticking time bombs. We had to hold it together, we had to make it long enough to save the world.

After that it didn't matter what happened to us. And more than anything I wanted for things to go back to the way they were. I wished I could be back in Percy's arms, I wished I could be protecting him from the shadows, the darkness. But that couldn't happen.

Because I was afraid of him now. Tartarus had changed him so much, but the changes were still invisible to the others. I had to save him, but every time I saw him, all I saw was the monster that had been the boy I loved. It was like Luke all over again. I didn't want that. I didn't want the pain back.

I needed Piper here. Piper managed to talk my pain away, even if all she wanted was to try and make me a better leader. Having her around helped calm me down, she could make the demons in my head quiet down and make the shadows stop their sinister dancing.

Maybe I should let her it, let her help me.

Maybe. Such a funny word. Maybe I should kill myself. Maybe that would end my pain. Maybe I should go be with Percy. Maybe I should go kill Jason. Maybe I should kill Leo. Maybe this was all just a plot against me. Maybe I was just some crazy girl locked up in an asylum, imagining all this pain.

I pinched myself, trying to get away from those thoughts. I had enough problems without thinking about all the maybes, my control was fading fast and I didn't need the chaos of a 'maybe' running through my head.

No, it was time to get back in control of my life. I couldn't be hiding here in the dark, waiting for thing to happen. I had a crew to guide, a plan to make, and monsters to kill. The two monsters lingering in the crew would just have to wait until later.

I got off my bed, throwing on the switch and turning back to my table. Time to get to work. I was halfway to my work desk when something passed by in the corner of my eye. I whirled around, readying for an attack, only to find a horrible monster staring through a small window in the wall.

It glared back at me with dead grey eyes, paled skin, sharp teeth, and a mess of blonde curls. It took me a whole minute to realize that it was only my reflection. I just stayed there, watching myself for a long minute, trying to figure out why.

The next second, I was across the room, and my fist was through the small mirror frame. Shards were stuck in my hand, and crimson was already starting to leak out. I smiled at that, relief flooding through me as I watched it run out. Fear had dug into me, fear that instead of blood, dust would come out, golden dust.

I wasn't a monster. I kept telling myself that as I swept away the mirror shards, repeating that I wasn't a monster as I bandaged my hand up. When I walked back to my desk I walked with purpose. It was time to get rid of the monsters. It was time to set things right.


Ta dah! Holy cow that's a lot of reviews, glad you guys are so crazy about this, I'll try and update again soon. And to theboringdolphin, he does fall in love with Nico all on his own. Trust me, all will be explained later on, so just bear with me here. Anways, we're starting to get into the plot here, I hope y'all are enjoying this. Yes, Percy and Annabeth are going to be a little crazy here. Just a little. Just enough to really get the point across. And apologies if I'm using the broken thing too much, I felt like I was pushing the point to much, beating the dead horse if you will. Anyways, thanks everybody, hope your read and review!

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