"Why? What did you see?" Dakota asked her.

"Nothing... it was nothing..." Ari rushed off down beneath the deck.

"Ari?" I called after her, racing down the stairs. I followed her down into the storage room. She collapsed against the wall and slid down to her heels. She pulled at her silky black hair with her fists in frustration. "What did you hear?"

Ari bit her lip, "Since it's obviously not real, why bother?"

I knelt down next to Ari, on the floor. "I admit- it's not easy waking up from that- finding out nothing of what you saw is real-" I began saying.

"Not easy?" Dakota emerged from the doorway. He and Percy must have followed us down. "It's freakin' hard! You go from seeing things as they should be to seeing things the way they actually are- not easy- yeah, right. It's downright devastating." Dakota flopped down on the floor, joining us.

"You need to tell us something, Dakota?" Percy wondered.

Dakota shrugged defensively a little panicked. "No."

"You sure?" Percy asked again. He looked around at our little circle and said, "Since everyone else is so afraid of sharing- I'll start."

"Why? You're not scared?" I wondered with a little bit of awe- the first time I'd heard the Sirens song, it nearly killed me. The second time around was definitely easier. How was it that Percy had it so easy?

Percy smiled. "I'm terrified," he teased.

"Enough already- what did you hear?" Dakota pushed on.

"The Sirens were singing about the war with Gaea- we'd win, of course. I saw my mom- she was baking blue cupcakes." Percy's eyes gleamed- it was a sensitive subject. "Then, I saw you, Annabeth, were there, too. And according to the Sirens, I had never gone to the Roman Legion Camp- had never lost my memories."

"Thanks a lot, Percy," Dakota snapped sarcastically.

"It's not that I don't appreciate the Romans and everything, Dakota, it's just things would be a whole lot easier without you," Percy told him.

"But you don't seem all that torn up over finding out none of that was real-"

"Some of things I saw I can bet are true," Percy said confidently.

"You're that sure of yourself?" I grinned.

"Hmm… No- never, I should say. I don't have, um… what's that word? Hummus? No, hubris! That's it. But I think I know you pretty well- you're pretty real," Percy answered.

"Well, let's hope so," I smiled, "you've been my best friend for only like- the last five years, I'd hate to suddenly hear now that I wasn't real," I laughed and reached over for Percy's hand. Ari and Dakota quickly averted their eyes- maybe it was time to hear another experience then. "Percy told what he heard- you up for it now, Dakota?" Dakota didn't say anything right away. "I know you wouldn't be here if you didn't want to."

He gave me a look like, if you put it that way… "I saw my dad- Mars, and my mom, and my sister." His eyes widened. "They were getting along, happy. That never happens. Never," he stressed. "Someone always picks a fight or starts some sort of argument- but it wasn't like that. Like I said, things were as they shoulda been- my dad actually caring about me- my mom being around- my sister being mortal and not a hunter. And then Gwen-" he stopped quickly, saying something he didn't want to.

"Gwen? As in the wicked witch Gwendolyn?" Ari laughed.

"No," Dakota said quickly trying to deny it.

"You did," Ari snorted.

"Let's just move on- Ari, it's your turn to share," Dakota changed the subject.

"Like I'm really going to tell you," Ari smirked.

"I told you what I saw- it's only fair," Dakota argued.

Ari rolled her eyes. "What do you want to hear? That I wish I could be a hunter? That I have no one- no family and too few friends? That I saw myself as a hunter again, that Artemis had forgiven everything, and that Nico actually cared about me. That somehow all of that could still work out," tears streaked down Ari's face. "But then I hear goat-boy, and everything disappears, and none of what I saw was true."

There was a long pause before anyone spoke. "You get it then… downright devastating," Dakota sighed.

Ari nodded wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Just one question," Percy spoke up, "Gwendolyn?" He asked Dakota.

Dakota scowled, "What's it to you?"

"Just curious," Percy answered. I gave Percy a suspicious glare. "No, it's just- I don't know, I don't see it."

"What don't you see? A pretty girl who can fight and a wicked awesome son of Mars- open your eyes!" Dakota combated. His argument didn't stand very well. The truth was I was glad Dakota was saying this all- conveniently in front of Percy. I smiled and laughed a little.

That evening, Leo announced that we had crossed over the ancient Pillars of Hercules- which meant from now on we were flying over the Mediterranean! Yay! Almost there. That was the same evening that Jason, Percy, and I actually convinced Leo to cook dinner. With the help of his magic tool belt, we got hot dogs for dinner. Oakley still stuck with his canned corn for now, slightly frightened that we called out food 'dogs' and for the most part had little idea what was actually in it.

"I just want to make sure I'm not eating family," Oakley explained.

"Fair enough," Leo shrugged. Leo had also prepared some vegan option just in case, but that wasn't as successful.

I found Bobby standing on the deck after dinner. He was watching the sun dark sunset off on his own. "I always wondered what it might be like to drive my dad's chariot- the one that pulls the sun," he muttered. Hazel was listening from not too far away. She had a compass out and was working on navigating while she could still see where she was navigating- it was getting dark fast.

"Didn't your half-brother try that once?" I thought.

"Phaethon, yeah, he did- he crashed it- totally blew the chances for any of his siblings to ever try it," Bobby sighed.

"Learn from his mistakes- perhaps flying the sun around is actually dangerous," I told him. "Also, I- I wanted to apologize to you, for not trusting your sincerity when you told me that you loved me. I just heard that it really wasn't you who got shot by Callie's arrow."

"Everyone makes mistakes, don't beat yourself up over this one," Bobby grinned, leaning one elbow against the rail of the ship.

"So, what did you hear from the Sirens?" I asked him- everyone's been asking that all day today.

"Do you really want to know?" He asked me. "What did you hear?"

"I guess the same goes for me, too then," I replied. He put an arm over my shoulder and we watched the sun set in silence. Some things were better left unsaid.

That evening, Percy and I were sitting around with Ari and Leo playing with a pack of cards.

All the sudden, we heard a voice. "Annabeth! Percy!" An iris message.

"Thalia!" I recognized.

"Thalia!" Leo gasped, "How are you?"

Thalia ignored him, "Annabeth!" She cried. "Something's happened! Luke is missing!"

"What?"

The iris message flickered. "He's not here at Camp Half-Blood! I've heard rumors around camp about treachery- please say it's not true," Thalia whined.

"Thalia- I don't know, this is the first we've heard anything. It can't be true. Luke was back- he wanted the three of us to be the family we used to be. He wouldn't have," I worried even though I knew it couldn't be true. Luke was not a traitor anymore- he came back and he cared about me and Thalia- he'd never do something like that.

Thalia answered with, "How do you know that's true? He said that- he always said that. Even way back when, he sided with Cronus- caring about us had nothing to do with it."

"That's not true," I cried refusing to believe what she was saying.

"Believe what you want, I'll keep you updated," with that the Iris message disappeared.

"Bye, Thalia!" Leo said slightly dazed.

I apologize for the wait- hope you like it. Write a review, amabo te. There's more to come. Gratias ago!

Also- any thoughts on deaths of major characters? Don't worry, it's not as though I intend to kill off Percy or anything.