Chapter 7 is here :) We are now nearly halfway through the second act of the story. Things are going to get a lot worse in the next few chapters, although some signs are alreday here :) Enjoy and please review.

Better late than never: Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or any of the characters. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.

Chapter 7 Visions

Annabeth Chase stared at Sam Parker who was being tended to by Lou Ellen and Suzan. They showed him several items and he had to name them. It had been nearly a full week since the meeting and the incidents. A week since they had been confined to the hospital. The storm had subsided after two days, but there had been news of another storm on the horizon.

'That's a silver dollar,' said Sam. 'So we have: a bronze dagger, a gold sword, a picture of John as a lumberjack, an actual scalpel and the silver dollar.'

'You sure?' asked Suzan.

'Absolutely.'

'Then you're wrong,' said Suzan. 'That's no silver dollar, but a drachma.'

Sam groaned and closed his eyes. 'I'm tired, can we continue this another time?'

'You heard the man,' said Harley as she entered the room where they had placed the targeted ones. 'Get lost and Lou, you should be resting.'

Lou Ellen glared at the head medic but she sighed and left by saying goodbye to Sam who did not reply. The mages left their younger brother.

'How are you doing, Annabeth?' asked Harley as she closed the curtain around her bed and slipped the cuff around her arm.

'Good considering the events? Have you heard about the defences?'

'No, but you shouldn't worry about that. You need to focus on getting better. How is the training going with the mages?'

'Good, I'm getting the hang of seeing through the illusions, but detecting the actual Mist is more difficult.'

Harley removed the cuff and listened to her heartbeat.

'You seem physically fine, but I'm concerned by the psychological effects of the manipulations. I know that seeing your worst fear and enemy isn't exactly fun.'

'Arachne is not my worst enemy,' said Annabeth defensively.

'And yet she cursed all of Athena's children with the fear of spiders, if you could you'd slice her to bits, right?'

Annabeth closed her mouth and grumbled a positive answer which made Harley grin.

'Harley, you are going to fix this, right?' asked the daughter of Athena as she picked up her notebook with her theories on the prophecy.

'I'm a doctor, Annabeth, it's my job to heal you. Now, you should rest, so no late night code breaking anymore, understood?'

Annabeth tried to give her an "I didn't do that" look, but Harley only stared her down until she dropped the pen back on the table.

'Should've known this place wouldn't be empty,' said Sam as he closed the door on the rooftop while a bright light shone in his eyes.

Annabeth lowered the torch and motioned for Sam to take a seat next to her. Sam looked at the grey eyed blonde. Even after being confronted by her worst nightmare, the leader of the Athena cabin still looked as if she could kick ass.

'Why are you here, Sam? Shouldn't you be sleeping?'

'Shouldn't you not do any investigating on the prophecy?' replied the son of Hecate. 'But to answer your question, I wanted to look at the stars. They're still there are they?'

'Yes, Sam, the stars are still there.'

'Just checking.'

The two demigods sat in near darkness and silence as Annabeth had placed her flashlight on the ground with the notebook on top.

'How did you get past the guards?'

'Yankee cap and through the window. You?'

'Cloak also has an invisibility enchantment. Wasn't easy to do either. So, how far are you with cracking that code?'

'Not that far. I've been running possibilities in my head, but it is impossible to crack prophecies until they come to pass according to Chiron.'

'Let me hear it again, I'm kind of good with impossible things and besides aren't you as well? I mean you're Annabeth freaking Chase, saviour of Olympus, survivor of Tartarus and you got Percy into college. If that doesn't cover impossible things.'

Annabeth let out a laugh. 'You're absolutely right. We've pushed back against everything that Fate has thrown at us, this has to be doable. It's the "three be yearned" part that has me worried. Logically it means that three of us will die or something along those lines, but it could very well be someone else.'

'Three is a magical number, so are five and seven,' replied Sam. 'The Seven, The five Fallen, Three of us that will fall. Three eldest gods, three questers, three Fates, three times three Muses. There are fifty-four cards in a deck which is eighteen times three.'

'Are you sure you're falling math? You seem pretty good with numbers.'

'Magic has a lot of numerical things going on,' said Sam with a shrug. 'Five is the number of elements in Chinese magic, Camp Jupiter has five cohorts, seven is the number that you get on each opposite side of a die, which together makes twenty-one, which leads to 2+1 which is?'

'Three,' replied Annabeth with a smile. 'But let's circle back to the three and five from the prophecy. There's us two, Percy, Hazel and Leo for the five. You, Leo and Hazel have actually been dead, but you, Percy and Hazel are the only ones with a connection to Camp Jupiter.'

'There are three male, two female. You, me and Leo are the only three not connected to a Big Three parent. The list goes on, Annabeth.'

Annabeth groaned and threw the book on the floor. 'This is so useless, we can't do anything but watch. If we can't figure this out, I might as well book myself a room in a psychiatric hospital when Arachne comes 'round again.'

'That bad huh?'

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Not even Tartarus is that bad and that place was bad.'

'You still dream about it though,' said Sam. 'I heard you two mumbling in your sleep,' he continued when she gave him a confused look. 'The toxic wasteland and fire?'

Annabeth Chase sighed. 'That place is going to haunt us forever. It's been nearly a decade since we returned and we still have dreams.'

'I have dreams as well,' said Sam. 'Not of Tartarus, but they are still dreams.'

'Your dad?'

Sam nodded. 'How'd you guess?'

'Lou once mentioned something and we watched your fight in the labyrinth three years ago. You didn't look that good. Pissed off but not good.'

'It's those images that I can't seem to forget. Of him lying there, blood dripping everywhere, my leg hurting. Aria showed me them, again and again. And the aftermath of that. There I was, no father, unknown mother, no holy trinity. Just me.'

'Trinity?'

'You know, mom, dad and child. A family.'

'And now we have ourselves another trinity,' said a voice from the shadows. 'Of two patients who should be asleep and one doctor who is going to have to order some extra restraints.' Harley stared at both of them. 'Get back inside.'

Three days later the five of them were discharged as no other occurrences had happened, but they agreed to be chaperoned around camp for extra safety.

Sam and Leo, alongside John and Piper, were at Bunker 9 trying to get the mecha to work more efficiently.

'So, we've made a mesh grid instead of a full cockpit in order to bring down the weight,' explained Nyssa going over the plans. 'We're dropping the shield in order to go for two handed weapons, again to lower the overall weight.'

'What's with the iron-bronze mix?' asked Leo.

'It's a sturdier metal than just bronze and it's easier to use,' said George. 'We've analysed the data and I think we're ready for another test run.'

'Could you do something to it for me?' asked Sam glossing over a piece of paper.

'What?' asked George staring at the blue prints.

'Add these symbols on part of the plating. John, are these alright for enchantments?'

The eldest mage took a look and nodded. 'These will do the trick, but what is that one?' John pointed at the rectangle with a large X connecting all four corners with a circle in the middle.

'Upgraded shield, based on a scutum,' replied Sam with a shrug.

John grinned. 'Of course, the Roman bloodline.'

Sam said his goodbyes as he was to be at the archery range in ten minutes for his mandatory archery lessons. Much to his annoyance, Piper offered to chaperone him there. When he protested, John and Piper only smiled.

'How are you feeling?' asked the twenty-four year old daughter of Aphrodite.

'Good, haven't had any dreams for the past three nights, so I'm pretty sure it's over for now.'

'That's nice.'

The two left cabin nine and continued their way to the archery range. As they strolled around camp, teams of three kept watch across several points along the borders. Sam spotted a team of Hunters standing next to the main entrance of camp.

'So, how's it like, being part of two prophecies?' asked Piper. It was no secret that Piper was more affiliated with the Seven, while Sam was more connected to his mage siblings, so they never really talked before.

'To be honest? It isn't the nicest thing. The first one got me carrying the fate of the world on my shoulders and had me killed. And by the look of this one, it is not going to be any easier. But you would know, right? You're Piper McLean, one of the Seven, skilled dagger fighter and charmspeaker.'

Piper smiled and stared at Sam giving him a look that would make any classic movie actress jealous. 'I did not realize that you could use that tongue for something else than snarky comments.'

'I do try to. No, seriously, you're the Piper McLean.'

'Yeah well, I was kind off taken by surprise that I was chosen for the Seven, you know? I was a freshman camper, so were Leo and Hazel. If we hadn't had Annabeth and Percy, we wouldn't have made it.'

'Yeah, getting thrown into the whole "you're a demigod"-thing and go on a world saving quest might be a bit much.'

'And taking out three quarters of an army using raw magic isn't? People were kind off mad after you came back, right?'

'Don't mention it. My fingers still tingle every time I heard the words sandpaper and porch in the same sentence.'

Piper laughed at that as they had arrived at the range. The range had been upgraded over the past years. It now had ten lanes with moveable targets in all sizes and shapes. Sam saw that most corridors were occupied by either Apollo campers or Hunters of Artemis. He walked over to one of the empty lanes where his instructor was waiting, or rather instructors.

'Eve, Lianne,' Sam greeted his instructors. 'Suzan set this up, didn't she?' he continued pointing at them.

'Oh no, Eve is your instructor for today, I'm only here for some target practice and to make fun of you,' said the daughter of Ares turned Hunter with a twinkle in her brown eyes that meant nothing good. She picked up her bow and nocked an arrow. The arrow flew and struck the bullseye.

'Like Lianne said, you're mine for the next three hours.'

Sam fell silent and stared at her. 'Three hours, no that's not… But there are others who need to practice.'

'You've skipped two of my classes to either get hospitalized or work on the mecha, I will have my three hours and you will fire arrows from that bow until your fingers…'

'Blister and bleed,' finished Sam with a sigh.

'And no magic either. I want pure human power, mortal accuracy and manly tears.' Eve handed Sam a bow and placed a quiver of arrows next to him.

'You're plain evil,' said the son of Hecate as he tried nocking an arrow.

'I know,' replied the daughter of Apollo with a laugh. 'You need to line up the notch with the string.'

'I'm trying.'

Eve guided Sam's fingers as he held the bow and string in front of him. Sam felt the arrow slip onto the string. Eve pulled the arrow off and ordered him to do it again. And again. And again.

'You're not evil, but purposely cruel,' spat Sam after Eve pulled the arrow free again for the hundredth time.

'Close your eyes,' ordered Eve. 'And nock the arrow.'

Sam closed his eyes and placed the arrow near the string. He moved his fingers and felt the arrow slip into place. He opened his eyes and saw Lianne giving him a congratulatory nod before firing another arrow into the bullseye.

'And now you should be able to do that with your eyes closed,' said Eve. 'Now, let's move on to drawing back the string.'

Sam felt his arms starting to ache, but only focused on the bow and arrow.

After three gruelling hours it was pretty clear that, like swords, Sam would never master the weapon to its full extent.

'You're never going to be a master archer, without the use of any magical boosts,' added Eve. 'But you should be able to use one if the situation asks for it.'

'And if your target is standing at ten feet from you,' added Lianne with a grin.

Sam flipped her off as he stared at his collection of arrows embedded in the dirt.

'Just practice it with stronger bows and you should be getting better,' said Eve. 'But maybe it couldn't hurt to ask John and Lou for some warrior magic.'

'Jee, really supportive guys,' pouted Sam.

'We don't do fluffy at the Hunters, either you're good or you get better,' said Lianne.

'Don't expect lies from me,' said Eve. 'I know we don't need those either. But I will need those arrows back. You're still mine for another five minutes.'

'Yeah and I'm going to Mist and Magic training after this, so hurray me,' said Sam as he walked onto the empty lanes and started picking up the arrows. He glanced back at Eve and Lianne who were chatting away.

Dark clouds gathered blocking out the sun. Within moments, thunder and rain filled the air. Sam raised his hood to keep the rain away. Lightning flashed.

'Sam?'

He looked up and saw him standing there. Black jacket with white ace of spades. Glasses getting covered in raindrops. The smile that always brightened his day.

'Dad?' Sam dropped the arrows in the wet sand. 'It can't be you. I said my goodbyes.'

'Come here,' said Paul Winter holding open his arms for a hug.

Sam walked over his father. No, he ran and grabbed him in a hug as the first tears rolled down his cheeks. 'Dad.'

'Yeah, I'm here.'

Sam buried his face in his neck. The fabric of his jacket felt familiar, yet so different, colder. 'It's really you.'

'Of course it's me. Why wouldn't it be me?'

'Because you're dead,' replied Sam. The rain had him soaking wet. He heard someone calling out his name.

'And who's fault is that?' said his father.

'Mine.'

'Yes it is, and this is what could've been.'

Sam broke free and stared at his father. Golden eyes stared back. His jacket seemed to melt and morph into a pair of wings. Black hands pushed against his chest and held his head.

'Now you will see,' said a female voice before vanishing.

Thunder roared through the skies.