It was darkness.

Far as the eye could see, dark, inky blackness lay. The only thing that wasn't an impenetrable haze was the ground- a shallow pool of water lay like a twisted mirror, it's surface a state of stillness usually associated with the dead. I stood in it, the water not even reaching my ankles, but I still stood, dripping wet, as I peered through the strangely clear liquid to the unidentifiable bottom.

I was screaming, too, and the surface shuddered and broke with every silent decibel. I have no doubt that if I could hear myself, I would hear the hoarse and incoherent ramblings, but nothing carried.

Nothing would hear me- my display was pointless.

I crumpled, sinking more than a few inches downwards. The waters shattered around me like spun sugar, only to return into a pool to be shattered again. And again, and again, and again…

"I'm sorry!" my gaping mouth pleaded uselessly. "I'm so sorry! I never meant to hurt anyone! Please!"

Nobody appeared.

Another wordless noise strained in my throat.

"Please!" I sobbed. "Somebody!"

I curled tighter into myself, squeezing, if only to feel something other than the utter numbness that perverted my very being.

Nobody is here.

"Who are you?" a voice called.

Like breaching the surface after nearly drowning, the world swam back into focus, and with the came noises.

Splashes, trickles, the soft popping noises of a solid object meeting passive waters…

I wasn't alone! My head snapped up.

A girl stood before me. She was a little bit older than my physical age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy blue eyes, and freckles across her nose.

Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

"T-Thalia?" I asked numbly.

"Yes, who are you?"

How is this happening? I shouldn't be able to see her! She's a tree for fuck's sake!

"Ophelia." The name tasted like ash in my mouth.

She cocked her head and frowned. "How are you with me?"

"How am I here? How are you here? You're a tree!" I spluttered back at her.

"A tree?" She seemed baffled by this. "Why would I be a tree? No, I died protecting my family."

"You're not dead, this is not the Underworld," I insisted.

She rolled her eyes at me, "Very astute. We're somewhere in-between; not alive yet not dead." She gestured at the blackness with her hand. "A tree you said? That might explain why I'm here, but what about you?"

My arms curled around me. Droplets of my memory swirled, more perilous than any ocean. Still, if it's Thalia… "I was on a quest, but I… I lost control. Began destroying everything in sight, started screaming at the gods, nearly killed my family, the works."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's one way to do it."

"Fuck up? Then yeah, I fucked up," I agreed quietly.

"Definitely." She eyed me with scrutiny. "Hey, since we might be here for a while, what's your quest?"

I gave her a wobbly smile. "Your father thinks I stole his Master Bolt and now I have to go down to the Underworld to 'retrieve' it. My questing partners are Luke Castellan and Annabeth Chase. My Pai is Poseidon."

Now was Thalia's turn to gape at me. "Wha- How? Why? What?"

I shrugged, wiping off some tears from my face. "Don't ask me; I blame the gods for their usual bullshit."

She accepted that with a small snort. "So, my family is your family?"

I blushed and fidgeted with my jacket. "Luke and I are soulmates. Annabeth and I are slowly becoming friends."

"Wait, soulmates?"

I looked into her eyes. Something must have shown because she barely contained her recoil.

"It was the only way to save his life," I explained solemnly. "I had to tie our fate-strings together- it was the best guarantee I could wrangle."

She grabbed my face, nails digging but not biting, bringing me closer to her. She peered at me intensely.

"You'll protect them? You won't hurt them?"

"Yeah," I vowed. "I'll do everything it takes to protect them."

The silence stretched on in this empty, empty place of ours.

A beat passes, then another.

She nods, and slowly let go of me. She slides one foot back. Then another.

Once she was a respectable distance away, she softly chides, "Then go."

"What?"

"I may not still be technically alive, but you are." She shrugs. "You can go back to them."

I furrow my brow. "But how? I'm stuck here."

"Aren't you soulmates with Luke? I bet that means there's a link between your souls. Use that, and go back to him."

"I- " My eyes widen as I watch her start to fade. "Wait! I know a way to- "

"Goodbye, Ophelia."

She's gone.

And me? I'm back to square one; alone and confused.

Well, maybe not square one… If what she suggested about soulmates is true…

I focus on Luke; his smile, his hugs, the way he always twirls his blade before a fight, the way he drinks Diet Coke like it's the only liquid available, the way he ruffles my hair- always careful to make me not feel crowded-

Luke.

I think about his pain, the pain he feels for my sake, the emotions that run across his face when he thinks no one's looking, the way his shoulders sage a little more when I'm in his line of sight… The things that I don't want to think about, but encompass what he is to me anyway-

Luke.

I don't know what, but something warm, like the fire you feel after dumping your freezing hands in warm water, hooks itself around my navel-

Then I'm gone.

oOo

The grass is greener than it I remember.

Luke is sitting with his feet in the creek, the woods of Camp Half-Blood surrounding us. I know, because there's nowhere else with a creek quite like the one here.

I walk forward and drop to his side.

His shoulders tense, then relax, then tense again. Otherwise, he makes no moves to remove his forehead from his knees.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I offer.

He whips around. "Perfect, you're in my dreams now," he groans out.

"What makes you so sure this is a dream?"

He paused. "Isn't it?"

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p.'

He stares at me, wide-eyed and mouth open.

I looked down at myself. My clothes had changed; instead of my legging and T-shirt, I was wearing a flowy white dress. My feet were bare and my hair blew in a surprisingly nice wind.

"...I'm sorry for hurting you," I whispered, focusing my sight on my soft, barely calloused, hands. "I never meant to hurt anyone."

"You just wanted them to stop." His eyes are soft as they look at me. "Trust me. I understand."

A single tear trickles out of my eye, and I hurriedly wipe it away. "I still shouldn't have lost control."

"No. You shouldn't have." He sighs and gazes off into the distance where birds flew soundlessly. "Next time you do, they're going to kill us all."

It's not a question. For him, it's a fact. Honestly? I agree with him.

"I'm sorry," I repeated.

Luke shakes his head. "I know. But they don't care."

I throw myself backwards, letting my dress and hair fan out on the grass. My toes curl around the pebbles in the creek.

"You wanted to know how I know too much," I stated as I watched the clouds pass by. "Do you still want to know?"

He slowly lowers himself to lay beside me. "Yes."

"Would you let it be if I asked you to?"

"No."

I shuddered, eyes vacant as they sought answers from the heavens. "... Very well. I can't tell you all of it now but, I'll tell you what I can."

I can hear his head turning to face me, to stare at me in wonder and intrigue. I ignore it.

"I know the future," I say, keeping my eyes stubbornly on the false sky. "Or, well, a future."

He stays silent, still gazing at me.

"I don't know why, but I was given this gift- or maybe it's a curse- and I know what is going to happen. No, actually, I don't. Saying it like that makes it inaccurate." My hand comes up to card through my hair. "I've talked to the Fates; they said that the actions I'm going to take are going to render that future obsolete. To put it simply, I know what happens in another world, and our would is similar enough to that one that I can predict things with uncanny accuracy. But, I don't know for sure what will happen in this world, because what I've been doing? It's definitely not what the other me had done."

I fall quiet, eyes half-lidded as I basked in what could very well be the last bit of peace I would ever get.

"How?" he finally chokes out.

I squeeze my eyes shut. "I don't know. What I do know, I can't tell you yet."

"What can you tell?"

" This," I breathe out. "That I've changed so, so much. The Oracle- The Fates- warned me that Life is fragile. With any luck, it'll be for the better, but you know what they say about Mice and Men, and the best-laid plans between them. "

He shifts, hand reaching out to grasp my own. Around us, the world seems to hold its breath.

"What will happen?"

It's not a demand, but I respond to it like one anyway. He deserves nothing less.

"I don't know. I don't think anybody knows," I sighed out truthfully. "Other than those who can naturally see the future, and maybe not even then. Not helpfully, at least."

I finally let my head roll over so I could see his blue eyes looking back at me.

"I don't care," he spoke fiercely. "I don't care about that. As long as you're my family, my little sister."

I couldn't stop the tears even if I wanted to. "You won't believe that once you know everything. 'Beware betrayal,' the oracle warned me, and I think it's my own betrayal of you."

"No!" he insisted, grabbing my hand. "I refuse."

"You can't refuse Fate."

"And I refuse to let you go."

I rolled over so my whole body was facing him. My hand gingerly cupped his face. Our foreheads pressed together, the act more comforting than anything I could think of.

"Thank you."

I let the words hang between us. I pray the meaning of it to be a thousand songs better-left unsung but heard of anyways, and I pray he feels the same. I pray- because sometimes, that's all I can do.

He smiles at me, a toothy thing that makes me a little more whole. "No. Thank you."

We stay like that, for a while, content in the warmth that only comes from being wholly and utterly at ease.

"How long do you think we have before we wake up?" I speak up.

"I don't know, I don't think anyone knows," he echoes, a teasing edge gracing his face.

"Well then," I grinned at him. "Might as well make it count."

I focus, and soon, a sweet tune sweeps through the air.

"How did you do that?" Luke asked in wonder.

"It's a dream! We can do anything we want in a dream!" I laughed. "Shh! Listen!"

Hozier's singing fills the woods:

' Her eyes and words are so icy

Oh but she burns

Like rum on the fire

Hot and fast and angry as she can be

I walk my days on a wire.'

"This song is from the future," I tell him. "It's my favourite song."

' It looks ugly, but it's clean,

Oh momma, don't fuss over me.'

"It's beautiful," Luke sighs, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head.

Unfettered joy prompts me to mimic him.

' The way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine

Open hand or closed fist would be fine

The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.'

I don't know how long we laid there by the creek, listening to 'Cherry Wine,' but by the time the false sky became dusk, I felt like the world was in my grasp once again.

This is my second chance. I'm not failing it.

A/N

Raven: hey guys, I'm not sure if "Sweet Dreams" is an interlude or an entire chapter, but I supposed if you squint it can be taken as either-or.

Izzy: I had a sudden mood change in the past four-ish hours. Have a lot of Soft!Ophelia to drown out the past angst. I'm sorry for before :(