First Person: Zytaveon

That night, I hoped that my dreams/nightmares were lightening up, considering I slept well last time (granted I nearly drowned in the process, but hey, I both survived and slept dreamless, so a guy can hope, right?), but, of course, that didn't happen.

I was in my mom's apartment this time. This is where my hope for a nice dream began. And, where that hope was quickly crushed to pieces. I stood in the kitchen, looking over to see my mom walking around in the living room area, which was just a couch, table, window, and an 18x10 inch TV. She was sitting on the couch, looking at a photo album sitting on the table. I couldn't see the photos from here, because she was sitting with her back to me, but she looked to be smiling at them.

"Veon, come and look at these photos." I instantly obeyed. I hurried past the kitchen counter and plopped down on the couch next to my mom. I was really little, maybe four or five, so I was a lot smaller than her and couldn't reach the table. She pulled the photo album into her lap, slightly draping the end over mine. She put an arm around me and pointed at a picture that my dad had shown me. My mom and Hades were standing on the balcony of my mom's room here in the apartment. Hades was dressed casually, jeans and black short-sleeved T-shirt, while my mom was in a white sundress. They looked like opposites, black and white, but at the same time, they looked happy together, they fit. When she turned the page, I saw the three of us. It was the picture that Aeolus had given me. My mother was holding my dad's hand, her ring clearly visible on her left middle finger, while the two of them were looking down on little me, smiling.

The next page…showed the apartment being struck by a lightning bolt, the entire building going up in white flames. The next picture was of me, hugging my knees as I sat in a closet, trying to hide from the flames and crying for my parents to save me. The next, my mother had me in her arms, running down the stairs of the apartment. The second picture on the page was of my father, dressed in all black, jeans, shirt, shoes, along with a cape, running to the burning apartment. I don't know how I knew, but because the white flames had taken the building, he couldn't teleport to me and my mom. At best, he could run to us. He came the moment he realized what Zeus was going to do, but he wasn't able to teleport into the building, only outside of it. It was as if the whole apartment building was in some kind of dome that prevented Hades from snapping his way in. Hades had protected his children last time with Nico di Angelo, and Zeus would not allow that again.

"Oh, I remember that one," My mother, Zoraya, said, pointing at the picture as though it showed us at the carnival or something. She turned the page, and this time, it showed Hades frantically running up the stairwell. My father's only option was to run up the stairs to try and meet us in the middle. If he made it to us, he could shield us from Zeus's wrath as he did with Bianca and Nico before. But it was a losing battle, and everyone knew it. The second picture on that page showed him looking up to us, Zoraya with a little me in her arms, trapped a floor up between two large chunks of the ceiling that had fallen in front of her, and fallen behind her. She was staring at the hole in the ceiling expectantly. She knew what was going to happen next. He shouted for us to run, I remembered, but there was nowhere to go.

Suddenly, I was there, I was in Hades's position, standing a floor below my mother, who now stood alone, without a child in her arms. She looked down to me now, the calm and hopeless expression gone from her face and replaced with fury and disappointment.

"You left me to die here," She declared over the crackle of flames and the crumbling of the building. "Why did you leave me alone?"

"I didn't!" I shouted, my voice overlapping with my father's. Was it him she saw, or me? "I never wanted to leave you! I'd do anything to bring you back!"

"You killed me. If you'd never been a part of my life, I never would've died. Then, you trapped me in a sleepless slumber, suffering every moment, frozen in the second I died for all eternity, and displayed like a trophy. But you have a life without me, I suppose. Go on ahead with your existence, pretending like you cared about me, that you loved me, that you saved me somehow. I will never forgive you for what you've done." She spread her arms, and then the lightning bolt struck. She was knocked back, but she didn't even hit the stairs behind her before the entire apartment exploded.

Now I found myself standing on the Argo II's deck. In front of me was Zy looking dazed, her eyes glossed over as though she was dead. Around her neck was that same necklace that her mother had worn in that flashback, the same white, oval gem with the same aged, bronze back and black leather cord. It seemed to flash for a moment, and then Zy was encompassed by a white aura. The aura brightened until she was engulfed in pure light and she could no longer be seen. Then, the aura separated from her, the mass of energy shifting to her side as she fell to her knees. That light transformed into a person.

It was hard to tell their gender, like an anime character but in real life. Their face was unnaturally perfect. Their skin was so pale it might as well have been white and it was smooth like porcelain, their features like that of some kind of elf, their hair and eyes pure white. Their body flowed down like some kind of dress or cape, misting outward at the bottom like a waterfall. Their nails were long and sharp, their fingers delicate, but still deadly. They had no irises, but even so, you could see the coldness in their gaze.

"You have failed me," They said in a voice that still didn't give away their gender. It was a deep voice by both female and male standards, both genders easily capable of reaching that pitch. There was the familiar "Don't f-ing mess with me" tone that I'd been seeing a lot of recently, and most of them all came from one source. That was Zyanya in all her non-host glory. That was the real her.

"I tried," Lucy said, breathing heavily. "I did everything I could for you. I kept you alive, I did everything you told me to. I tried to get him back, I swear."

"You failed! You let your heart get in the way, you allowed him to mess up everythingwe were trying to do!" She pointed an accusing finger at me.

"It's not his fault! He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't mean to do anything wrong."

"You are right. He did not know of any errors he made. His naiveté could not be helped. Yours, however, cannot be excused." She looked to the goddess, her face filled with knowing and desperation.

"No…don't…! Don't bring them into this! Don't take them away!"

"I lost someone I loved because of you. Now you will lose someone close to you. Both have failed the trials, both are worthy of my wrath. You shall choose which one." Kaze appeared next to me, a large wall of light behind him. Ribbons of white energy wrapped around him like tentacles, holding his limbs tightly and unrelenting despite his struggles. I felt the rope-like strands of light grabbing onto me too, pulling me back with incredible force. They didn't have any give when I thrashed against them, their grip more solid than iron. Behind me, I could feel my own wall of light, and it was buzzing with heat, like an enormous furnace. The ribbons of light were slowly dragging us back towards the walls, and I knew that if either of us were pulled into those things, we'd be roasted, and not in the metaphorical sense.

"No…no, not them!" She pleaded, sobbing as she looked back and forth between us.

"Choose which I will save, and which I shall condemn."

"You…you can't…I can't make this choice! They're innocent! They shouldn't have to suffer my punishment!"

"Quite the contrary. They are your punishment. I am offering salvation." I felt the heat burning at my back as I was pulled ever closer, and Kaze began to shout in panic.

"Onesan! Help me! Please! Don't let her do this!"

"Choose." Lu looked back and forth between us, but for the first time since I'd met her, there was genuine helplessness in her eyes. She'd had indecision before, but I had never seen her so afraid. She had been abandoned, she was alone and powerless, more so than she'd ever been.

"I…I can't…I'd never…" She sobbed.

"Me!" I said firmly. "I'm the one who failed. I should've been smarter, I could've done things different. It's my failure that caused this. I'm the one to be punished."

"Veon, no!"

"You need to be with your brother. He needs you more than I do."

"Veon, you don't understand-!" She stood and tried to run forward, but a wall of energy formed behind her, identical to ours, and the ribbons grabbed her before she could take a single step.

"Very well, Zytaveon Kanazoi," Zyanya said. "You shall be the one to suffer punishment." I expected the heat to grow now, but instead, it went away. Then, Kaze was the one to scream. The light grew brighter around him as the tentacles pulled him into the light behind him. The heat radiating from it seemed to double, and I heard and smelled something burning as he was engulfed screaming at the top of his lungs.

"No! Please!" Lu shouted, sobbing heavily and fighting her restraints with everything she had. "This is my fault, this is my punishment, not theirs! Not his! Kaze-kun! Ototo!" Kaze's shouting was drowned out by the whoosh of energy, the dome of light that swallowed him pulsing. Then, it condensed to reveal Kaze again, the light going into him. His eyes glowed white, his face trapped in a state of shock. He hovered slightly off the ground, his arms and legs thrown out and his body glowing white. Then, light came from his mouth as well as his scream came out a final time, and the light from his body expanded in an explosion of pure heat and energy. I covered my eyes as he went nuclear, and the blast lasted for an eternity before I finally felt the heat dying down and the air stop humming. When I opened my eyes, the ship was still in one piece, but there was a burnt mark on the deck where Kaze had been. The walls and ribbons light disappeared, and Lu was on the deck where she had been, on her knees and sobbing into her hands. The goddess was gone, though her voice echoed through the air.

"I have offered salvation to your brother," Zyanya said. "He will now be free forever, his soul protected by my light for eternity. Now the two of you shall suffer the hells of living, and when The Fall comes, you will have no protection from me." Her presence seemed to fade with a breeze, and suddenly we were left alone.

As my best friend sobbed on the deck, I had no idea what to do or say. If it was a choice between her brother and me, I would've taken the punishment. This isn't what was supposed to happen, this isn't what I wanted. If Lu had to face the end of the world with someone, it was better her brother than me. But that was Zyanya's punishment, I guess. She "saved" Kaze by protecting his soul, leaving Lu with the person she didn't want, leaving me to regret, see her sob and not know what to do anymore. There was no way to comfort her, no way to say sorry, no way to say that things would be okay. There was nothing to say when I just killed her brother.

I was woken by a ship's horn, blasting so loud, it nearly shook me out of bed. Everything within me was already trembling. Sometimes my nightmares had me fighting or being tortured before I was taken to that dreamscape where I could actually remember things, see an actual scenario that was close to my heart. Two different stages of my dreams, a physical torturous stage, where I felt pain beyond measure, and then the emotional one, where I saw scenes that rattled me from the inside out. I always woke to numbing pain across my body from the first stage, though there were no physical wounds left, and my body trembled from the second stage, but seeing that nightmare shook me more than any of them.

My heart was pounding so hard, I was afraid I was going to have a heart attack. My hands were shaking badly, and everything was numb from both fear and pain. Usually, these effects disappeared after a minute of breathing, as though my nightmares didn't want anyone to catch them in the act of terrifying me. If anyone walked in on me while I was sleeping, I had no doubt I'd be thrashing around in panic or begging for help, so that obviously wasn't the case. I wondered if the effects would last longer as time went by, but I really didn't want to know. After the numbing pain, I felt fatigued, as though I'd just run a marathon at full speed without stopping. I was tired, but I was calming down.

I was just getting my heart rate under control, when that ship's horn boomed once more. It sounded like it was coming from several hundred yards away - from another vessel. I scrambled to get dressed, the distraction helping to get myself under control again. The good news was, I had experience with waking up when my alarm was too quiet, or I accidentally dismissed it instead of snoozed it, and knew how to get ready in two minutes flat. Once I had my weapons snapped on again and ran out the door, I was good as new, as though my nightmare had never happened.

By the time I got up on deck, the others had already gathered - all hastily dressed except for Coach Hedge, who had pulled the night watch. Frank's Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out, Percy wore pajama pants and a bronze breastplate (which was an interesting fashion statement, but not one I hadn't seen before considering I'd seen demigods who'd had a rude awakening before), Haze's hair was all blown to one side, as though she'd walked through a cyclone, and Leo had accidentally set himself on fire, his T-shirt in charred tatters and his arms smoking. Zy and Kaze were still in their pajamas, but they were fully armed, Zy with her belt of goodies along with her bow drawn, and Kaze with his shuriken. Zy was the kind of girl who somehow woke up with perfect bed-hair, and if it wasn't perfect, it just took one sweep through her hair with her fingers to make it so. I did notice, that her eyes seemed red from crying. Had she been in that dream too?

About a hundred yards to port, a massive cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at us from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies, some smiling and taking pictures. None of them looked surprised to see an ancient Greek trireme. Maybe the Mist made it look like a fishing boat, or perhaps the cruisers thought the Argo II was a tourist attraction. Not to mention how weird we must've looked, half-dressed and half-armed for a fight. I mean, we were a bunch of teenagers and Hedge was the only adult, and with his height, he didn't look exactly look chaperone-worthy. Then, there was Kaze.

"KON'NICHIWA!" Kaze called, waving his shuriken above his head excitedly. Really, shouldn't the tourists be a little worried about a thirteen-year-old kid with the brain of a nine-year-old waving around a very deadly, four-bladed weapon the equivalent of four swords? Mist is a thing, and none of them know about Kaze's circumstances, but seriously. The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit. Coach Hedge plugged his ears.

"Do they have to be so loud?"

"They're just saying hi," Frank speculated.

"WHAT?" Hedge yelled back. The ship edged past, heading out to sea. The tourists kept waving. If they found it strange that the Argo II was populated by half-asleep kids in armor and pajamas and a man with goat legs, they didn't let on.

"SAYONARA!" Kaze shouted.

"Bye!" Leo called, raising his smoking hand.

"Can I man the ballista?" Hedge asked.

"No," Emily said, smiling at the waving tourists. Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water.

"Where are…oh. Wow…" I followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at. The cruise ship had been blocking our view of a mountain jutting from the sea less than half a mile to the north. On one side, the limestone cliffs were almost completely sheer, dropping into the sea over a thousand feet below, as near as I could figure. On the other side, the mountain sloped in tiers, covered in green forest, so that the whole thing reminded me of a colossal sphinx, worn down over the millennia, with a massive white head and chest, and a green cloak over its back.

"The Rock of Gibraltar," Annabeth said in awe. "At the top of Spain."

"The Rock of Ravatogh sounds cooler," I said. She pointed south, to a more distant stretch of red and ochre hills.

"That must be Africa. We're at the mouth of the Mediterranean."

"What now?" Piper asked. "Do we just sail in?"

"Why not?" Leo asked. "It's a big shipping channel. Boats go in and out all the time."

"In the old days, they called this area the Pillars of Hercules," Zy said. "The Rock was supposed to be one pillar. The other was one of the African mountains. Nobody is sure which one."

"Hercules, huh?" Percy said, frowning. "That guy was like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn - there he is."

"Heracles, Hercules, point stands that even the most uneducated person, demigod, monster, or whatever knows at least a little about the guy whether they want to or not," Audrey agreed. A thunderous boom shook the Argo II, and I looked around. There weren't any other ships in sight, and the skies were clear. Zy gave a shrug like, "Wasn't me, peeps."

"So are these Pillars of Hercules dangerous?" Emily asked. Annabeth focused on the white cliffs, as if waiting for the Mark of Athena to blaze to life.

"For Greeks, the Pillars marked the end of the known world. The Romans said the pillars were inscribed with a Latin warning-"

"Non plus ultra," Percy said. Annabeth looked stunned.

"Yeah. "Nothing Further Beyond." How did you know?" Percy pointed.

"Because I'm looking at it." Directly ahead, in the middle of the straits, an island had shimmered into existence. I was positive that no island had been there before. It was a small hilly mass of land, covered in forests and ringed with white beaches. Not very impressive compared to Gibraltar, but in front of the island, jutting from the waves about a hundred yards offshore, were two white Grecian columns as tall as the Argo's masts. Between the columns, huge silver words glittered underwater - maybe an illusion, or maybe inlaid in the sand: NON PLUS ULTRA.

"Guys, do I turn around?" Leo asked nervously. "Or…" No one answered - maybe because they had noticed the figure standing on the beach. As the ship approached the columns, I saw a dark-haired man in purple robes, his arms crossed, staring intently at the ship as if he was expecting us. I couldn't tell much from this distance, but judging from his posture, he wasn't happy. Frank inhaled sharply.

"Could that be-?"

"Hercules," Jason said. "The most powerful demigod of all time."

"At least until my team came along," Zy said. The Argo II was only a few hundred yards from the columns now.

"Guys, need an answer," Leo said urgently. "I can turn, or we can take off. The stabilizers are working again. But I need to know quick-"

"We have to keep going," Zy said. "He's guarding these straits, and with Hercules, sailing or flying away won't do us any good. He's expecting us to talk to him, as he's the guard, so either we talk or he doesn't let us pass. Besides, it's courteous to talk to him rather than ignore him. Best try and get on his good side."

"Won't Hercules be on our side?" Piper asked hopefully. "I mean…he's one of us, right?" Jason grunted.

"He was a son of Zeus, but when he died, he became a god. You can never be sure with gods." Well if Bacchus, another god who used to be a demigod, was any indication, this wasn't gonna be pretty.

"Immortality does that to people," Zy said. "Those who are born gods are one thing, but those who start out with a little human in them can either get bored or go insane with so much time on their hands."

"Great," Percy said. "Twelve of us against Hercules."

"And a satyr!" Hedge added. "We can take him."

"How about no?" Emily said. "We don't want to make war with this guy. He could be helpful if we get on his good side. We'll send ambassadors ashore, a group of two from the seven and two from our group. Try to talk with him."

"I'll go," Jason said. "He's a son of Zeus. I'm the son of Jupiter. Maybe he'll be friendly to me."

"Or maybe he'll hate you," Percy suggested. "Half brothers don't always get along." Jason scowled.

"Thank you, Mr. Optimism."

"By that logic, I'll go too," Zy said. "No one can resist my eccentric charm." She said this while scowling, leaning on her bow, and chewing on a piece of gum like a gangster. She looked dead-tired from the nightmare last night, and her eyes were still recovering from crying, so she looked like a corpse just reanimated from the dead. Yeah, I probably shouldn't be saying that when she and I were dating. Love you, Zy. In my defense, as a son of Hades, corpses are my people.

"It's worth a shot," Annabeth said. "At least Jason and Hercules have something in common. And we need our best diplomat. Somebody who's good with words." All eyes turned to Piper. She looked nervous, but Emily shot her a smile and nodded.

"Fine," She said. "Just let me change." Kaze pointed at the pillars.

"Are we going there? I wanna come." Zy looked at him and put an arm around his shoulders. It looked casual, but she was clearly going to be protective of him after last night.

"Kaze's coming as my team's second. I think he's worthy of being a part of my team by now. Kaze-kun, you're coming."

"Yeah! More fighting!"

"Hopefully not," I muttered.

"Well, with our luck…" She muttered. "Anyway, we gotta change too. Back in a flash."