Chapter 3: The Dream

About three seconds after I feel asleep, I blinked my eyes back open. Okay… no dream. And suddenly, I wasn't tired anymore. I got out of my bunk and walked out of the cabin.

What I saw stopped me up short. Everyone was getting ready for battle, putting on all that protective junk and whatnot, but also putting on what looked to be liked scuba diving equipment.

I walked up to the girl Annabeth I had talked to earlier, who was helping Percy put on the scuba stuff. "Hi, Annabeth. What's going on here? Is something wrong?"

She ignored me. "Percy, has your father came back with any news?"

He sighed. "Typhon has completely destroyed his palace. I don't know what to do. He won't let me go down there to help him. Echidna is reeking havoc like her normal self, and Typhon's children aren't exactly a help."

She didn't reply. "I hope Alena's smart enough to get us out of this."

"It's probably already too late, anyway." said a satyr who had came over, "I bet it's too late."

"Way to be optimistic, Grover." said Percy.

"Well, sorry. But how did he get out of Tartarus in the first place?"

"Grover, we already know that no one knows that! If you're not going to help at the moment, I suggest you leave." said Annabeth.

Grover, his head down, turns and walks away.

"You didn't have to be mean." says Percy.

"Yeah, yeah I know. It's just… we just got done with one war, I don't want this one. I suppose I'm a little irritable."

Percy snorted. "A little?"

"You know what --."

"I get what you're talking about. I don't want to fight in this war. It doesn't seem fair to have to." said Percy, changing the subject.

"Yeah, but we still have to."

They were quiet after that. I sighed. "Still here, guys. Hello?"

"They can't hear you." said a calm voice behind me. I slowly turned around and stared into the face of a man I did not know.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"Who do you think brought you here?"

I swallowed hard. "Morpheus?"

"Yes, little girl. I brought you here. Normally, I don't show the future, but I thought you'd be interested to watch this."

"Watch what?"

"This. The future. Your failed attempt at saving the world." Morpheus smiled.

"Failed?" I asked, my stomach suddenly hurting.

"Yes, failed. See, everyone here is getting ready for battle. You all are going down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to fight Typhon. Mostly you, with your fantastic powers, but everyone fights him. You fail because you fail to remember one crucial person and go after the wrong person."

"What? What do you mean? Who should I be going after?" I ask.

"What makes you so certain I am going to tell you?"

That stops me up short. "Why wouldn't you tell me?"

He shrugs. "I don't feel like it."

"I beg your --?"

"Shush, little girl. Watch your inevitable doom." he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I screamed at no one. "Come back and fight like a man!" I stomped on the ground like a big baby. "Tell me what I'm going to do wrong! Come BACK!!"

Suddenly everyone began to march forward into the distance… into my and their inevitable doom. I ran to catch up with Annabeth and Percy. "Stop! Stop you two, don't go! It won't help!"

I tried to grab Annabeth's arm to hold her back, but an unseen force held me back. She kept on marching, her face neutral, but determined. How could I get through to her to tell her to not leave?

"So silly, little girl!" cried a voice from above. It was Morpheus's voice, but I couldn't see him anywhere. "You can't get her attention, there's no way to stop the terrible thing that is bound to happen. That's why they call it the 'inevitable doom!' Silly girl!"

I frowned, then screamed at the top of my lungs, "STOP! EVERYONE STOP NOW!!!! YOU--HAVE--TO--STOP!!!! TURN AROUND!!!!"

I stopped screaming abruptly when I saw myself walking past. I had the full body armor on, including the scuba diving stuff and something that looked like a snorkel. I would have laughed at how stupid I looked until I noticed the look on my face. I looked mad enough to kill a bull with one deathly stare. I watched open-mouthed at myself as I walked away. Why didn't I just stop? Why didn't I just listen to someone else for once in my life, even if it was only me from the past?

"Alena?" I called out. She… me… (whatever) didn't turn around or look back. She just kept marching in perfect unison with everyone else.

Is that it? Are we just doomed? And is it all my fault?

A boy with black hair started to walk by. I recognized him as Jake, the boy I bumped into earlier. I called out, "Jake--stop."

The boy stopped. Filled with hope, I caught up to him and stood in front. "Jake, you have to stop. Everyone is going to be killed!"

He cocked his head to the side. "Who's there?"

Good, he could hear me. Why only him, though? Did it matter really--I could get through to someone! "It's me--Alena."

"Alena, where are you? Aren't you up there, closer to the front?" he looked around. He couldn't see me, I realized.

"No, no. It's not me, exactly. I mean, it's me, just not… me. Never mind. You have to stop everyone. You can't go into the ocean."

He smiled sweetly at the place where my voice was coming from. "Oh, Alena, don't worry. I'm scared too. Everything's going to be fine, I promise. We'll win this war just like the last one. You are more powerful than Typhon, you'll beat the crap out of him."

"I know I will." I said, impatient. "It's not that I am worried about that, we will destroy him. The problem is we are going after the wrong guy!"

He smiled again. "Oh, come on. We know he's the one in the prophecy because he came back."

"Jake, listen to me! We are going after the wrong person! Tell everyone to turn around!" I said.

He shook his head. "I'm telling you, don't worry. We are doing the right thing. Let's go, Alena."

He walked away from me. I stood stunned for a second, then felt complete despair. I couldn't even get through to the one person that could hear me. That's it. I'm dead. We're all dead. And it's my fault. All because of me.

"So true!" called Morpheus from above.

"Leave me alone!" I yelled at the sky. "This is all your fault!"

"My fault? I thought this was all your fault."

I hesitated a second. "This may be my fault, but having to see it is yours."

"Oh, I did you a favor. Now you know not to go after Typhon."

"But I don't know who to go after! And how do I know this isn't all a lie, that you are trying to trick me so I don't go after him later?"

He laughed. "I am not that smart."

I nodded to myself. That was true.

"There's no way out, though. You have no way of figuring out the real person you have to go after. No way." he began to laugh evilly.

I noticed everyone had already passed me and was leaving the camp. How were they going to get to the Atlantic Ocean--walk there?

No! Who cares at the moment? I had to stop them!

I ran a few steps and yelled for everyone to stop. I kept on screaming… and screaming and screaming, trying to get through to the campers, while Morpheus cackled like a madman.

I woke up on my bunk, the covers tangled around my body, in a cold sweat. "Oh my gods." I whispered to myself.

I saw Thalia's head poke out from the top bunk. Sleepily, she asked, "Alena? Is something wrong? Are you okay?" she rubbed her eyes.

"No, I'm not okay." I said.

"What's wrong?" she jumped down from her bunk, somehow quietly landing on the wood floor. She sat on my bunk.

I licked my lips. Should I tell her? Would she just have the same reaction as Jake? Would it even help?

Might as well. What do I have to lose? "Well…" I told her my dream. She listened carefully and didn't interrupt.

When I finished, she sighed. "Are you sure you weren't just dreaming? I mean, we don't even know for sure if it's Typhon we're after. It could be any Titan, or god, actually. We don't know."

"But it's Typhon, Thalia! I'm telling you!"

She went to reply, but was cut off when the door burst open. Zeus walked in. "Thalia, Alena. We need you right away."

"Why?" I asked.

"Rachel has the prophecy about the war. Looks like we'll be going after Typhon. He has somehow managed to get out of Tartarus, and we don't know how."

I looked at Thalia, who's face remained neutral, but the look in her eyes told me she realized that my dream was real.