A/N: Alright. Here's the last of the fill in the _ chapters. Enjoy and please review!

Wake Me When You Need Me

BOOM! echoed from the TV as a grenade exploded.

"Dude, that was the worst throw ever, of all time." Jack said.

"This game is rigged!" Percy yelled.

"No, you just suck."

Percy glared at Jack. On screen, Jack's character, wielding an energy sword, cut through a horde of aliens. "See, it's that easy."

A giant, gorilla-like alien rumbled into the room. It picked up Jack's character and threw him into the wall. Percy's avatar, a human-friendly alien, took down the beast with a shotgun. Percy smirked at Jack, who gestured impolitely with one of his fingers in response.

A door creaked behind the couch the boys were sitting on. Percy paused their game. "Uh oh, the fun police is shutting down the party."

"Nah, it's just Quincy," Percy punched Jack in the arm, "I didn't mean 'just' like that, you know, it's just that we, um, expected Dax to come out and yell at us."

"Does he do that a lot – yell?" Quincy asked.

"Not really. We just like to tease him. It's so easy – and fun – to get him fired up." Percy explained.

"And he's a really light sleeper." Jack added.

"I couldn't sleep at all. I've never been on a ship before. It's a weird experience." Quincy said. He found something interesting about his feet.

"Grab a seat then." Quincy looked up in surprise, like he had expected them to tell him to go back in his room. "You ever play Halo?"

Quincy walked around them to sit on the other section of the L-shaped couch. He sat on the edge of the cushion, still uncomfortable around Percy and Jack. Percy offered him a third controller. Quincy blinked a few times, then reached out and took it.

"Um, no. This was never my game. How do I play?" Quincy asked.

"We're all on the same team. We have to stay alive, blow up some aliens, and save the galaxy. Routine demigod stuff, except when we die we get to – NO!" Jack explained as his character was sent flying into the air by a small alien with a rocket-launcher. His screen shimmered golden, and then his character was back on the ground, unhurt. "Like I was saying, you get to respawn when you die."

"I'd love to be a child of that god." Percy said.

"So, Quincy, what is your game then?"

"I never had an Xbox or anything. I always played computer games. World of Warcraft is my favorite."

"Cool. As long as you didn't say Zoo Tycoon or something." Percy said, eyes glued to the TV.

"Hey! I loved that game." Jack said.

"You were probably the kid who let the man-eating dinosaurs loose in the park for fun." Jack didn't protest. Percy started laughing.

"So…" Quincy began, trying to find his confidence, "What else can you guys tell me about this quest? I know the prophecy, but not all the details you guys do."

Percy and Jack shared a quick glance. Neither was sure how much they could trust Quincy. He was clearly very powerful and he was the son of a Titan. Then again, Percy had never met a demititan that meant him any harm.

"Honestly, not that much," Percy said, "We're pretty sure that the giant in the prophecy is Atlas. We've got the giant Alcyoneus, the bane of Hades, still on the loose. Our friend Nico di Angelo, a son of Hades, went missing not that long ago."

"That's the good news. Our other half, the crew of the Hephaestus, is on its way to Brazil to complete the other half of the start of the prophecy. We haven't gotten any word from them. Is that weird, Percy?" Jack said.

Percy had not put much thought into their friends. Their own trip had been so eventful he hadn't had much time for his mind to wander. "Probably not. Let's check in in the morning."

"What are they doing in Brazil?" Quincy asked.

"They are rescuing the daughter of Day. Whatever that means," Jack said.

"I don't think there is a god of day," Quincy said.

"Exactly. We're just as confused as you are." Percy cursed as his character exploded.

Quincy did not take his eyes off the TV. "My sister mentioned something about a frozen key and a breach of some kind. Does that mean anything to you?"

Percy and Jack shared another glance. Percy said, "Your guess is as good as ours."

"Are we supposed to use the key to close the breach or open it, you think?" Jack asked. Only the explosions from the TV answered him.

Percy mentally sighed. They only seemed to be finding more questions, and no answers. He prayed to his father that the others uncovered anything that could help them.

"Ah!" Quincy yelled as his character was tossed into the air by a green monstrosity, "What are those?"

Jack laughed. "Those? Those are part of a hive-minded infectious parasite trying to devour all sentient life in the galaxy."

"That's terrifying," Quincy said.

"At least that's something we will never have to fight," Percy said.

"Amen," Jack said.

Quincy looked at the other two in horror, as if they just jinxed the quest. He is going to have to lighten up, laugh a little. Percy scolded himself. The kid did not know how to act with people yet. They were going to have to be gentle with Quincy.

"So, Q, tell me more about how you got on back at the castle?" Jack asked.

"Sorry, what? And what's a Q?"

"Q, like the first letter of your name. It's a nickname, dude," Jack said, "I meant how did you get food and a computer for your ice castle?"

"Oh," Quincy said slowly, still trying to process his nickname, "I did a lot of bartering. My skills helped. I would create ice sculptures with my powers and sell them in Halifax and the surrounding towns. I used that money to buy food and a computer and anything else I needed."

"Cool," Percy said, "What was your highest paying sculpture?"

Q's brow furrowed as he tried to remember. "I guess it was the skyline. I reconstructed the skyline of Halifax as seen from the massive window of castle. It was nearly twenty feet tall. The city paid me a lot of money for that one."

Percy could imagine a miniature city of ice in the middle of a park, sparkling in the sun's light. A monument to last a thousand years, that's what Annabeth wanted to build. Q had that power at his fingertips. Sure, his monument might have to spend that thousand years in a freezer, but as long as it did not lose electricity, it would last.

For all his strength, Percy could never build anything. He spent most of his time destroying things that were built actually. Annabeth could. With her mind, she designed buildings and monuments. Percy hoped he could be a part of it. Sadness snuck up on him then. He hoped that he lived long enough to be a part of it.

"Did you go to school?" Jack asked.

"For I while, I did," Q answered, "Then high school happened. Monsters started showing up. A pack of Hyperboreans destroyed my first high school when my gym teacher kicked them out of gym class. For a field trip we went whale watching. A group of mermaids attacked the boat. The teacher got tossed overboard. After a few other incidents, my sister and I decided that it would be best if I stayed in the castle as much as possible."

The longing in Q's voice was painful to hear. For all the complaints and issues Percy had with his childhood, he at least had some semblance of one. And he was never alone.

"You know, Q, that you don't have to go back there after this is over," Percy said.

Q looked at him and blinked a few times, not understanding what Percy was saying.

"That's what camp is. It's a shelter for half-bloods to live safely with each other. Or there's Camp Jupiter, but I have feeling you wouldn't like it much there," Percy said.

"Or there's the Flotilla!" Jack said.

Percy and Jack, trading off the part of narrator, explained the backstory of the two camps and the Flotilla. It turned out that Q had logged into Flotilla message boards and gathered a lot of information. Percy and Jack were able to fill in what he did not know.

"Whoa. Its different hearing the stories from you guys instead of piecing together sparse message board posts," Q said. He turned back to face the TV, "Still, I don't know if I would fit in at any of these places. I've never been to anything like them before."

"Nobody knows what it's like until they go," Percy said.

"Don't worry. We don't all bite," Jack said.

Q smiled. His shoulders relaxed a little and he slumped back into the couch. Percy smiled too. The promise of a home with people like him seemed to make Q feel better. He had something to fight for.

Percy let out a big yawn.

"Don't go soft on us now, Percy," Jack said, "We only have one more level left."

Percy fought to keep his eyes open for the next half hour as the three heroes plowed through hordes of virtual aliens and parasites. They activated the final ring and narrowly escaped the ensuing explosion.

"Wake me when you need me," Percy's character said to his artificial intelligence.

Percy mumbled something similar, laid back on the couch, and closed his eyes.

A loud noise, like a cruise ship's horn, jarred Percy awake. His eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet. Were they on a collision course with a floating Olympian luxury vessel?

Laughter came from behind him. Dax was grinning and twirling an air horn.

"Wake up, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, "We're almost to Panama Viejo."

"Morning, Wise Girl," Percy said.

"C'mon," Annabeth said as she looped her arm in his and led him down the hall, "Let's get some blue pancakes in you, okay? I need you one hundred and ten percent when we get down there."

Smiling from ear to ear, Percy kissed the top of Annabeth's forehead. "Whatever you need, Annabeth. I'm awake. I'm right here."