WOW. Never in a million years did I think I would get more than 100 reviews! Though that may have something to do with waiting 5ish months before posting a new chapter... *looks down awkwardly* yeah... sorry about that. But anyhow you guys are awesome, and make my day! :D Thanks for the birthday wishes too. Now without further ado: chapter 13. Enjoy!

The blonde-haired boy pushed his bangs off his face and yawned.

"Whuzzgoinon?" he slurred as he tried to sit up, only to have a spasm of pain cross his face and he slumped back down on the bed.

"Cam!"

At my voice, Cam's eyes popped open and he squinted at my face.

"Gods, Percy, is that you?" he cried, trying and failing to sit up again. There seemed to be something wrong with his chest. I did a quick analysis of his condition. His skin was bruised, and his muscles stiff – but he would be fine. Eventually. All of it only took half a second, so I barely paused before I responded.

"It's me. Hey, what happened to you? I'm so sorry there was nothing I could do back there on the quest. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cam said with a grimace. "Well, sort of. I'm sore as anything, but I don't think I'm hurt too bad. I don't blame you at all though, honest." His expression confirmed what he said and I relaxed a little.

"Well, at least you're safe now." I looked over my shoulder to the doorway, wondering where Calypso had gotten to. "How did you get to Ogygia?"

"Where?"

"Ogygia," I repeated. "It's an enchanted island. One of Atlas's daughter's in exile here, but don't worry, Calypso is…" Sweet, beautiful, lovely, "Very caring. I landed here after I blew myself out of Mount St. Helen's; Calypso nursed me back to health."

Cam nodded. He also moved his shoulders slowly, testing out the muscles. "That makes sense. I thought the beautiful girl standing over me was a dream. I guess it was real!"

I don't know why, but it bothered me a little to think of Calypso tenderly caring for another guy. Something in the pit of my stomach felt off. It seemed like I had been feeling like that a lot lately, especially after talking with Annabeth. But now wasn't the time to think about that. I had enough on my plate without worrying about my inner feelings. That could wait for the rest of eternity.

"So what happened?" I pressed.

"I – I'm actually trying to figure it out," Cam's forehead wrinkled with thought as he moved on to his legs. "But it's too fuzzy. The last thing I remember if being up high. Really high. Like, on top of the clouds high. I think I passed out because there wasn't enough air, but I remember falling. So I guess I landed here?"

"Ogygia doesn't exist anywhere in particular so that makes sense," I said. "But what happened to the shoes? Wait, I see them." I stared at the pair of Converse that were arranged neatly on the floor by Cam's pillow. "Close your eyes," I instructed. A second later, there was nothing left but a pile of ashes and four feebly fluttering wings.

"Um, Percy?" Cam asked after I swept the mess out of the door. "Did Patrick…"

"No. It was someone else. And I'm going to find out who, don't worry."

"Okay." With a look of relief, he sat back onto the pillows. Apparently his muscles were all in working condition. "I was afraid… well, he's my best friend, you know?"

"I –" But before I could finish my sentence, the sound of walking feet, and soft singing entered my ears. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the curtain covering the doorway was swept open, and Calypso glided into the room. Her caramel coloured hair was in a long braid, and she was wearing a floaty dress that seemed to blend in with the pile of snow white blankets she carried. If I didn't know better I would have said she was a goddess. She was singing to herself, and had a pleasant expression on her face – like she was in the middle of a dream.

Then Calypso noticed me. Her eyes widened, and the blankets tumbled out of her hands.

"Hello," she said distractedly as she scrambled to pick them up. "I am sorry Percy, I... I did not expect you here!" Stowing the blankets in a wardrobe she turned her attention to Cam, whose cheeks turned pink when she stroked the hair off his forehead and fixed his covers. Calypso was avoiding my eyes, though, and it was making me nervous.

"Is... everything alright?" I asked tentatively.

Calypso bit her lip.

"Can we talk outside, Percy?" she asked.

"Sure." I nodded to Cam and followed her out of the cottage. She walked all the way down to her moonlace garden, before turning to face me. With a start I realized there were tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I reached out to touch Calypso's arm. She shivered where my fingers grazed her skin, and pulled away.

"Forgive me," she whispered. "This has never happened before. My punishment... I do not know why..." she trailed off helplessly.

A knot formed in the pit of my stomach when I realized what she meant. Beyond being kept captive on her island of Ogygia, the gods would punish Calypso further by sending her one hero every few centuries. Calypso wouldn't be able to help falling in love with the hero as she cared for him, and she would always give him the option to stay with her forever. But he would always want to return, breaking her heart. I had been one of those heroes, but things had changed when I had become immortal. It hadn't occurred to me that another demigod would arrive on Ogygia eventually, and I knew that Cam was just the beginning. Calypso's love for me would fade as time went by.

I nodded and looked out to the sea, not trusting myself to find the right words for my feelings. There was a long moment, and then Calypso said, "This is unusual. I do not know why the gods would send another hero so soon. Never has this happened before."

"I wouldn't have mattered," I said, shaking my head. "It still would have happened eventually. It's not your fault."

"But it is," she said miserably. "I knew that this was to come eventually. I should not have let you return here. It was unforgivable."

"I forgive you," I said, and I knew I meant it.

"Thank you."

I gave her a hug – one final gesture of affection. The feeling of her hands on my back was comfortable. It made me sad to know I'd probably never see her again.

"You will always be a hero, Percy," Calypso whispered in my ear before I pulled away. "They can't change that in you."

I expected the beach at Camp Half-Blood to be deserted when I returned. The campfire would be over by then, so I knew that Annabeth would have gone to bed. I didn't think I could face her after what had just happened with Calypso. Cam was going to stay on Ogygia until he was 100% better (or at least, that was his excuse for staying with Calypso), but I was going to tell Chiron he was alive to get back in the camper's good books.

As for the beach being empty, I was only half-right. Annabeth wasn't there, but someone else was.

Even though the moon was high overhead, the lady was dressed in a skimpy bathing suit and wore oversized pink sunglasses. She sat on a Victorian-style beach chair and was sipping nectar in a martini glass as she leafed through the Olympus Observer. The headline (New Daughter of Poseidon Makes Quite a Splash!) didn't help my mood.

I cleared my throat, and the lady looked up – her ridiculously red lips forming an 'O' in surprise.

"Why Perseus Jackson," she said innocently. "Fancy meeting you here!"

She waited for me to respond, and when I didn't she lowered her shades and gave me a seductive look. "Really, Percy, you could at least say something."

I stayed silent. One, because I hadn't quite figured out what to say and two, I was afraid if I did decide to talk, I would end up shouting.

Aphrodite waited a moment, and then put her sunglasses back on before saying, "Well it's true and you really are an official god now! Since my obvious beauty and magic girdle," she gestured to the golden sash around her waist which she used to seduce all the mortal men, "Seem to have no effect on you so far, I have to assume everything went as planned. Marvellous!"

My lips pressed together. "I should have known you were behind this."

"Now, now, be reasonable," said Aphrodite. "It's my job to make sure everything in the love department if working properly, so obviously I had to step in and set things straight."

"How? How is any of this," I waved to the ocean, meaning Calypso. "Supposed to make things better?"

Aphrodite folded her magazine and sighed. I wasn't sure if it was directed to me, or her fingernails, in which she seemed to have found a tiny flaw.

"Well if course I've already told you that! Why do we have to go over this every time?" she sighed, pulling a bottle of red nail polish out of nowhere. "Don't you remember the first time we met?"

I sifted back through old memories. It was when we were going to rescue Annabeth and Artemis. There was something about 'not making things easy'.

"You're telling me you did this all for Annabeth?"

Aphrodite beamed. "Of course! What have I always said? You two are destined for each other. I didn't want Miss Tragic Prisoner over there messing everything up."

I was on the verge of losing it. The breeze picked up, churning the water unsettlingly.

"So you think you can just waltz in here and do whatever you want? You seem to forget that I'm a god too here. I'm perfectly capable of choosing my own fate, thanks!"

Aphrodite sighed again. "It's always the old argument. The minor gods always think they're capable of running the world. Then they get all upset when we more experienced Olympians take matters into our own hands. Really Percy, you have to see the logic in this! Now get back to camp and start wooing miss Wise Girl!"

"You – you –" I couldn't think of the right insult. For the first time I understood why some of the minor gods had sided with Kronos. The Olympians could be so... so... annoying! And Aphrodite's smirk made me want to punch her pretty face.

"Okay, if you haven't noticed," I said. "Annabeth is mortal."

The goddess waved a hand dismissively. "A minor inconvenience."

"Minor!" I was almost shouting. "You're insane! How in a million years do you think that some sort of destined lo –" I stumbled on the word. "Love can happen between a mortal and a god?"

"Well I don't give away all my secrets now don't I? That's just the fun of it. Everyone always end up following their hearts in the end, though, and then they get their happily ever after. It's just so cute."

But I was only half paying attention. My previous words had just registered in my brain. Through my anger I couldn't help but feel a small shred of hope. Gods and mortals fell in love all the time. Maybe there was some way for me and Annabeth to be together if we felt that way... but no. This was Annabeth we were talking about. I gave myself a shake, my sarcasm kicking in.

"Yeah, that will definitely work on Annabeth. I'll just go up to her and say 'Hey, crazy goddess wants us to skip off into the sunset. Do you love me yet?" That would get me a punch in the face at best. I'm barely off her blacklist as it is!"

"I have been making matches for more years then you even know numbers for, Jackson," said Aphrodite with a bit of an edge. "If I want it to work, it will."

I snorted. "Okay, sure. Tell Annabeth that."

Aphrodite pursed her lips. "I was expecting you'd take this better. Evidently Miss Exiled made a bigger impact on you than I expected."

"Yeah, wow. You messed up there didn't you? Good job."

I expected the goddess to fight back. Get mad and pelt me with hearts and roses and cute little cherubs or something. I wanted her to. I needed a reason to rearrange her flawless face. Instead she did the one thing that made everything worse – she spoke with pity.

"Well, think about it for a while. Deep in your heart, you know I'm right. Why? Because I always am! Now give a lady her privacy. Scat!"

Without saying a word, I turned on my heel, and stomped up the beach, making sure to aim the sand I kicked at Aphrodite's beach chair. She had no right! Her and her dumb love ideas… I arrived at the Big House but didn't bother finding Chiron to tell him Cam was alive and safe, I just sat on the porch and fumed. And when Grover found me the next morning, I was still there – my thoughts as jumbled as ever.