XXI

Percy

Percy's body ached really bad. The strange thing was, he was being hit by gigantic pieces of paper, and all he felt was a dull throbbing in his foot, and nothing else hurt as much-not as much as it should have. He tried to remember exactly how he had gotten here, but all of a sudden he couldn't.

He started to panic. He felt his throat closing up.

He had to focus.

He concentrated on the slapping of the paper. As soon as they realized he wasn't really getting hurt, they started to give him paper cuts. Percy ducked just in time to avoid a rabid Trollface.

Percy really wished he knew anything, when all of a sudden a huge Confession Bear popped up out of nowhere and impaled its paper claws in his eyes.

But he didn't feel anything really painful.

It really just felt like a little constant throbbing, and not much. But then he realized something.

His vision wasn't exactly high quality. The memes were black or grey, more or less, and Percy only could tell their colors because he had seen full color pictures of them in real life. He realized he'd had a similar experience about a hundred times before, even before he'd gone to Camp Half-Blood.

This was a dream.

He ignored all the Trollfaces, Confession Bears, Harlem Shakers, Smugleaves and Nyan Cats, and concentrated really hard on his mind, really, really hard, and the scene finally changed. And this time, he got really angry.

He was a ghost with large chicken wings for arms. He grumbled. So now, he was the Chicken Man. What joy.

He saw Octavian in a little van, riding towards the magical boundaries of Camp Half-Blood. Suddenly, a huge vortex (or portal) opened up in front of the van, and the vehicle tried to stop. Percy flew in on the van, and he could hear some screams of panic coming from inside it. The van went straight through the portal, and popped out the other side, still on the same road… except for one thing.

Octavian had vanished.

Percy could have laughed out loud, but he realized the portal was sucking him in, as well. He tried to run, but the only problem was that the portal was way too powerful for him to get away. He got sucked in.

He flew though a long tunnel of sparkly lights, and ended up in a cave with stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The cave was big-at least 50 feet tall. Octavian had gotten up, quite shaky from the ride, and was walking around the room. Percy saw shadows rising from the walls. Octavian started to back off. He made a bolt for the exit, his arms trembling, but a slab of rock suddenly appeared, and Octavian slammed against it.

When Octavian regained consciousness, Beanie Babies appeared around the walls. Some had their inners chopped out, and others were fine. A voice echoed around the chamber, "Come forward."

An altar appeared, along with a flaming brazier. The voice then said, "Use this toy. It is from the other camp."

A panda beanie baby floated towards Octavian in a ball of light. Octavian, who was probably too shacked to say anything, silently gutted the bear and sprinkled the inners on the brazier. The flames grew bigger, and as Octavian looked into them, he grinned.

He found his voice again. "Camp Half-Blood is doomed by fate."

"Then write it on the floor with this piece of charcoal." The voice continued. A piece of charcoal appeared on the floor.

Percy didn't like this. This looked too "In Order". First an altar had appeared, then a brazier, then a piece of charcoal.

Octavian wrote on the ground.

Your Camp is Doomed.

Sincerely,

Octavian.

Percy had a feeling he wasn't bluffing. Camp Half-Blood was destined to be destroyed by the Romans. He flew closer to Octavian, and caught a glimpse of what Octavian saw.

Camp Half-Blood was burning. The Big House was on fire, and people were running. Roman Demigods chased them, yelling insults about Greek Mythology. Suddenly, the scene changed. A huge statue dropped down in the middle of two sides charging towards each other-one wearing purple shirts under their armor, the other wearing orange ones.

Or else. A voice echoed through Percy's mind. It sounded suspiciously like Rachel.

The vision ended. Octavian fell to the floor. The vision had shaken him in some way, because he had trembling arms and legs.

Shadows started to appear on the walls, engulfing Octavian. He got up to his knees, a look of absolute terror on his face, and ran. The cave exit opened, and Octavian went for it.

Suddenly, Percy felt a sharp, throbbing pain in his foot. He forced himself to wake up, and he looked at his foot. Lava was crawling up it.

He yelled in pain, and ran away from the lava crawling across the floor. The hole he had crawled into the room from from was now filled with lava. He backed up into a corner, but there was no exit anywhere near him. It was a solid wall behind him.

On the other side of the room, a cloaked man and a fat, chubby guy who was slightly shorter than Percy. The cloaked man looked at him and suddenly Percy felt really sleepy. The man's face kept shifting, and it made Percy really sleepy. He said, "You will die now."

Percy was so tired, he didn't even focus. He was about to walk onto the lava, when his mind suddenly spoke to him. Whoa, Percy. Thou shalt not walk on lava. He stopped, and looked at the chubby man's face instead, and saw his eyes glowing.

Percy knew something weird was going on. People did not usually have glowing eyes. The cloaked man then said, "Perseus Jackson, you prove to be extremely annoying to kill."

Gaia? Then who were the two men?

He realized that he had heard a description like the one this man had before, way before.

Grover had told him about this man. Grover had gotten hypnotized by this man before.

This man was Morpheus.

So Gaia had started to control people too? Well, that sure was great. Now Percy would have to deal with controlled people as well as the Doors of Death. Great. Just great.

He realized Gaia's plan. She had counted on Morpheus' powers to make him fall asleep, then used Hypnos' powers to give him a dream so that he was distracted while the lava caught up to him.

Morpheus (or Gaia) said, "Sleep."

Percy fought against the urge. Then a wave hit him. It felt so peaceful, so carefree, so good…

He shook his head out of Morpheus' enchantment, and tried to find an escape path. He felt the wall behind him, hoping to find a door. Nothing. He tried the magma again.

After intense seconds of concentration, he finally commanded the lava. He smacked it against the wall, but nothing happened. He tried a little harder, but the wall didn't give way. Frustrated, he put the lava back.

Morpheus and Hypnos (or Gaia?) snickered.

"You can't get out." They said in unison.

A ridiculous idea popped into Percy's mind. He thought for a while. It probably wouldn't work, but he summoned the lava and thrust it at the laughing pair of gods.

As the lava came above them, the laughing stopped. Percy forced the lava that was not being used down the hole, and ran towards the two gods, hoping to find something behind them. His heart sank when he realized nothing was there.

Suddenly, a force pushed him back to his side. A hand seemed to be pushing him down. It turned him over, and behind him, possessed-by-Gaia-Morpheus said, "Well. Look who failed right when the answer was in front of him."

What? The answer was there all the time?

Percy didn't get time to think, because Morpheus said, "Now, SLEEP!"

Percy fell asleep.