Act II: Percy Jackson and the Lost Treasure

Chapter 1: Flashback of the Future

Words: 3,677

Recap: So it's the start of a new chapter.

Darkness.

That was the first thing I noticed. It came to me like a wave that won't recede, engulfing me in the abyss and cold, suffocating me yet unrestricted. It was so uncomfortable that I wouldn't have mind wearing my tight suit that mom had forced me into, that had me think living in the underworld would have been better than that.

The universe likes to prove me wrong.

The darkness, the cold, and the silence were overwhelming me that I found myself screaming. I wasn't sure what I was crying about or if I was just desperately trying to call out to someone, but in the end, I couldn't even hear my own voice.

The solitude was torture, and I could barely take it.

I wasn't ashamed to say I broke down crying at the spot, holding myself together as I kept mouthing the soundless word for help.

Then a voice called my name, and I whirled around so fast, I thought I broke my spine. Seeing Wise Girl there standing like the sun illuminating the dreary dark place. I found my legs running without thinking or comprehending why she was here and how. All I cared about was to feel her in my arms and never letting go.

But just when we were only an arm's reach from each other, her face contorted in surprise when she toppled down to the ground and looked back to find a single thin strand of web tied to her leg. As much as she tried to claw in the darkness, desperately holding on. She was pulled away into the crack, but nonetheless, I reached out for her.

The crack was blinding white in contrast to my knowledge that the Tartarus would have been pitch black, but that doesn't make the fear any less scary, and I never thought there would be a time I would think I would be scared of the light because it was currently where my girlfriend is being dragged.

I screamed her name despite my own voice being unheard and reached for her. Our hands were inches apart. When I was just about to grab her, I felt my body being restricted by previously invisible, thin wires and found myself being held against my will, watching in horror as Annabeth reached the white chasm before disappearing from sight.

I woke up with a scream, sweat dripping off my head and back before wiping it off. My ears perked at the banging sound of my dorm's door, and I rushed up to open it. Behind that door was Grover, but he wore bloodshot eyes, his hair was shaggier than I ever saw him with, his teeth gritting nervously while his cloven hooves tapped frivolously. He must have been half-asleep as he kept making knocking motion even after I opened the door, and needed to blink a few times before he realized I was in front of him.

"Oh, thank the Olympians Percy, you're awake. Your nightmares have been driving me crazy."

I winced and smiled guiltily at him for giving my best friend a hard time. You see...you might not know or most likely forget, but Grover and me have an empathetic link. It's a telepathic connection satyrs have with people, making it capable of sensing each other's presence and emotion. It sounds convenient and all, but it does have its downsides. If either one of us dies, the other will most likely die as well or sink into a vegetative state.

At first, I managed to convince Grover to retain the link so either of us would be able to go out and help whenever one of us needs it despite how far apart we are, and it proved its usefulness. We never mentioned it after the war with Kronos, even though we knew it was there, so the link got shoved at the back of our mind until it was forgotten. However, after the Second Giant War, it comes to my attention that as I relived my nightmare through Tartarus, Grover had the unfortunate fate to experienced the same agony through my dreams. I suggested we had our empathy link cut afterward, but Grover would have none of that. Saying that I would need someone to wake me up from my nightmares with no one living in my dorm. I tried to reasoned him off why it was a bad idea, but Grover would have none of it.

"You didn't agree to cut it off when you know I might need you. Now I'm doing the same since you obviously need it, so I'm not cutting the link," Grover said resolutely then. Of all the few times for him to grow a pair was when he had to stand up to me. It became a habit afterward that whenever I suffered in my nightmare Grover would come and wake me up.

"Sorry about that Buddy, is it just me or did Anna-"

Grover cut me off, "She's already waiting for you by the campfire. I figured Hestia must have done that as a favor." I nodded and went toward the campfire, where I saw her waiting for me with a blanket on. Had it been before, we wouldn't be able to stay because then, the harpies would try eating us. But after a few words from Chiron and even Mr. D himself, the three of us manage to be an exception to their meals.

I sat beside her by the Campfire while Grover sat beside me. Annabeth snuggled closer and put her head on my shoulder while I put my hand around her waist. If the three of us weren't so worked up from waking up a nightmare, I could have pretended that we were a group of teens sneaking out late at night and search comfort from each other. Reminiscing the warmth with my two best friends when the danger of being a demigod felt so much simpler. A different time where the situation with a girl next to me was different, the horrors we faced were different, and yet the one thing that stayed constant was my friends, keeping me sane throughout my rollercoaster life.

"How's Juniper, by the way?" Annabeth asked Grover after a minute of silence.

Grover's blush was evident despite the light of orange campfire that would have obscure it, "She's...she's great. Amazing, actually!" He gushed, looking down in embarrassment, but I smiled when seeing his beaming face. Happy and glad, knowing my best friend is head over heels with the girl of his dream. I looked down at Annabeth, and my smile dropped when I saw her smile didn't reach her gray eyes.

"How about you guys?" Grover asked us when he recovered some.

"We're good," I answered automatically. Knowing the underlying question he made. Grover wasn't the first to ask us that, and I couldn't blame any of them. Tartarus had taken a prominent and evident toll on us, and no one can't look at us without asking us how we've been.

Suddenly, I felt Annabeth shaking beside me. She was crying. It took a lot to make Annabeth cry, so to see her breaking down like this shook me a lot.

"I can't...this is just so frustrating. I thought with the war over everything would be back to normal, you know? The hard part shouldn't be about learning to get back to normal, not having panic attacks at the slightest trigger, and for once, we get to sleep without worrying about nightmares."

I let her cry on my shoulder as my hand soothingly rubbed her back. I didn't say anything as I let her rant as much as she needed. It was frustrating for me too, even though the war is officially over, for us both, it felt like it isn't over, and if we closed our eyes, the nightmare and pains would feel more real than the peace we felt right now. The strain and adrenaline we felt for weeks in Argo II from the constant going, going, going finally unwound, and feel truly safe again. While it was a great relief and joy that it was over, but after everything we've been through and seen, it still felt surreal to me...to us. Our minds still had a hard time wrapping around the current reality of things.

"We'll figure it out," I finally said, "I don't know if we'll ever be okay again, especially when Tartarus had taken a bigger toll than either of us bargained for. But we'll figure it out, we always do...together."

Annabeth's hand went to clasped with my own, "Together," she said. Because we both knew that knowing we had each other was all that mattered. We didn't say anything afterward, just taking comfort from each other's presence. After Annabeth managed to sniffle her tears and composed herself.

"Sorry, I guess...I still can't believe we're actually here."

I smirked, "Don't be sorry. In retrospect, we really should have been dead thousand times over."

Grover chuckled at my words, "That's true, you two have always been good at defying the odds. Do you know how many cans I desperately wanted to eat while worrying over the two of you."

"Yet, you love us too much to do otherwise."

"Don't remind me."

The three of us laughed, and the night felt a little bit better for us. I then heard the soft clop-clop of familiar horse hooves and turned to find Chiron walking toward us, "Good evening, Heroes."

"Chiron, what brings you here?"

He didn't answer me immediately, he settled for a short silence, probably contemplating his answer. "Percy, Annabeth," he began, "I have trained a lot of heroes in my long life. Many I put my faith never came back. Many would emerge from the shadow and surprise you, yet you become heroes surpassing even my own assumptions.'

We all chuckled at his admission, but I was as impatient as ever when it came to serious things. "Not that I'm not flattered, but is this going anywhere?"

There was a solemn silence before Chiron jerked his head and turned, "I think I have a way to help you with your night problems, come with me."

The three of us exchange glances, but without a word, we followed Chiron back to the Big House. When we entered, none of us expect to find Clovis, Son of Hypnos, sleeping on the table with a calm and peaceful look on his face. Chiron sighed at his predictable antic and shook him awake.

He abruptly stopped snoring, opening his eyes wide and zeroing it into the group. "Oh, you're here, about time. I got tired of waiting."

"Clovis, I left you for barely for a minute."

"Irrelevant. Now, Annabeth, Percy, you should sit down for this."

"Wait, what's going on here? Clovis, what are you doing here?"

My question raised an eyebrow from him before turning back to Chiron, "You haven't told them?"

"I was getting to that," Chiron sighed, "Children, I had consulted with young Clovis here on the issue of your recurring nightmares and how he'd be able to help your problems."

We were silent when we took in the information and sat across him. We didn't say anything, but our posture showed we were eager to listen. "Okay," Clovis yawned before continuing, "So...Tartarus, can't blame you guys for having nightmares about it, it'd be weirder not to. Now, what Chiron had requested me to do is to seal up any dreams concerning it."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, it's not an easy spell to do, so not many know it. Luckily for you guys, I do."

"Are we? What's the catch?" Annabeth asked, her eyes were skeptical, and her question elicited a sigh from Clovis.

"Well, the reason it's a difficult spell depends on the dreamer. You see, it's used more as a crutch rather than a way to keep it away permanently. You'll still be able to recall the times you had there off course, but it would be no different to watching yourself in a movie-like experience. You know what you're doing, but you'll be detached and won't recall the feelings you experienced. The fear, the desperation, the anger, the sadness, it will all be locked away."

"Well...isn't that great?"

"If the spell is done right, yeah, it would. It won't last forever, and the emotion I've stored away would leak slowly but surely until the dream would just be another nightmare you could brush away. But this is the tricky part. If anything and I mean anything disturbed the spell and forced your dream out, the backlash would be devastating and normal nightmares are already bad enough. Yours might risk making you insane or worse catatonic."

I winced, certainly that sounded bad. I wanted to say that I would think about it, but Annabeth surprised me by immediately saying, "I'll do it."

Grover and me looked back at her in shock, "Are you sure?" I asked.

She nodded, "It's not like we're going to any more quest. So what are the chances we get our minds invaded like that?"

"You have a point, but still…"

Annabeth sighed, "Look, Percy. I'm not asking you to do this with me. I know you're concerned, but this is something I decided that would help me. We've been through literal hell, so I doubt standard method would be of any help anyway.

"I never said I wouldn't, I just want you to be sure. There's no way I would let you do this by yourself. Together, remember?"

Annabeth looked up at my face, her lips curved into a soft smile and her eyes teared up at my words. "Together."

"Uhh...that's nice and all, but first, you need to settle one problem before continuing."

I turned questioningly back at Clovis, "What's that?"

Clovis paused before he began yawning and looked blearily at me, "Like the fact we aren't even real."

I furrowed my brows, confused until a different voice made me turn. Instead of the half-opened door of the house, I was expecting, I saw the scenery change before me as I was back to the familiar dark, dank room where cliche villains would meet and discussing their cliche evil plans.

However, I find the scene I'm witnessing to be intriguing as Moldy-Short had Circe wrapped around his snake's slimy, scaly skin and hissing on her face.

"Your plan failed," he stated coldly.

"A small setback, I assure you, Voldemort, that this was not far from what I predicted."

The hissing stopped, and the air stilled tensely as Voldemort's red eyes narrowed, "Explain," demanded him.

I couldn't see her face with her hood on, and the darkness shadowed her face, but I could have sworn I saw her rolled her eyes at him. "You don't know him like I do; Percy Jackson is not one to be trifled with and then to expect the ending to be settled perfectly. He is a thorn to many sides and had faced many adversaries and hurdles along the way and won. Despite my own hatred for him and his young age, it is a fact that he is not an easy opponent to face, and if you truly want to succeed in taking over the Wizarding World, your first concern should be finding a way to get rid of him...permanently."

"...is he why you're so adamant at targeting Hogwarts?"

"Partially. I didn't know he would come to school until it was too late to realize. Now we must focus planning our next step if we ever want to succeed because heed my warning, he's not to be underestimated with."

Terse silence dragged for second or two before Voldemort began doing his creepy snake language before the giant snake pet of his slithered away. Then with a fast whipped of her hand and brandishing her wand (since when does she use a wand?) aimed at his snake. The snake hissed out in alarm before slowly it morphed into a possum. I gawked in surprise and alarm at the sudden spell she cast.

"Let me remind you, Dark Lord," she said his title as if it was a mock title, "That I'm not one of your lowly followers, you do not get to threaten me or you will find yourself with one less Horcrux."

I didn't think it was possible, but she managed to shock the famous dark wizard enough to make him step back, "How did you-"

"-know? Honestly, you're not as subtle as you might think. So let me make this clear to you. We. Are. Partners. I do not serve you like your mindless little followers so I deserve the respect needed to make this partnership work so threat me again or you'll find you have a harder time getting what you want, and believe me after seeing what I've seen, you won't get far without my help."

Brandishing her wand again, the possum turned back into the giant snake and it began to slither around Voldemort like a cowering dog. He didn't say anything and look stunned, but that didn't stop him from changing the subject.

"So how do you plan to handle your pest?" he asked.

I noticed the slight hint of grin beneath the dark shadow of her face, "By breaking him apart of course, gradually from overtime, physically and mentally. Unlike before, he is alone, so it would be easier to finally see his own mind tear himself apart."

Voldemort tilted his head, curious of her words, "What do you mean by that?"

"Do you really think that I didn't consider letting the plan fail without repercussion to my dear Half-Blood?"

The words became like a trigger, I felt gravity pulled me down, and I was falling into the dark, dark abyss. Down, down I went until I found a sliver of a shining web strand that I grabbed in the sheer attempt of survival and couldn't believe the luck that it worked. I made a huge sigh of relief until looked down and froze at the sight I saw. Hundreds-no, thousands of monsters were waiting below, jeering and laughing at my pitiful sight as they waited, without much patience, if they kept doing jumping jacks, for me to literally fall into their arms. It was like a sea of all the monster who ever had a grudge on me.

The Minotaur, Telekhines, vampire-girl-things, the giants, Kronos, and even the human form of Tartarus himself was there. It felt like watching a get-together for Percy-haters by saying, "Hey! Who wants pizza, coke, and maim Percy at my house this Friday?" I think I even spotted Smelly Gabe in one row trying not to piss himself, yet still managing to holler at me with spittle flying out of his mouth. His red face scrunched up and an unhealthy sheen of sweat everywhere.

If the purpose was to intimidate me, then Gabe was definitely the wrong choice. He looked more like a demented hippo than anything.

But then the silver strand of spider silk snapped, and I plummeted down in what felt like a slow-mo scene from a movie.

The Minotaur was grinning, well, as much as he could with his ugly mug, and opening his arms for a fatal hug as the horde he led rushed towards me as one wraith.

I gasped, jerking up awake, panting heavily from the rush of nightmare that came to me at night. I was disoriented of where I was because of the unfamiliarity of the place until I spotted Sophia, flapping up and down and making loud hooting noises to wake me up. She stopped when we locked eyes and gave me a concerned tilt of her head.

"I'm fine," I said. But Sophia didn't believe me if the sharpened glare and the peck to my hand was any telling, making me yelp. "Okay, okay. I just woke up from a bad dream. That's all." Sophia paused as he made a pointed glare as if to say "Again?!" and pecking me once more. "Hey! I'm awake now ,so quit your pecking." Sophia did and flapped her wings smugly before she went to leave through the window to find herself some breakfast, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

It's been almost three months since leaving Hogwarts. Almost three months since I saw the literally haunted castle used as a school, since I last ate a banquet in the warmth of the Great Hall, since sleeping in the four-poster bed with my roommates, something of a novelty from me after my time in the Hermes Cabin.

As much as I miss Hogwarts, the teachers and students there, it couldn't compare how much I miss Camp Half-Blood. Every time I think back, I was struck with the feeling of fond nostalgia and an aching stomach ache. I missed the sound of muted metal clangs from the training grounds and forgery of the Hephaestus Cabin, where elated whoops of a Hephaestus kid celebrating, or cussing so dirtily that Blackjack would buy a soap company and stuff it in their face, can be heard. (He has tried, once, but then decided that the old advice rang true. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Which is why there still are soap scraps found everywhere in the smithy and stables.) The smell of strawberry and grapes from the field the Demeter and Dionysus cabin grew. The bi-weekly visits of our Roman bros or us visiting them. The twinkling sight of the sunlight reflecting the lake, and the smell of the ocean as I waded through the river shallows to get to the beach.

I didn't realize I was staring with blank look through the window, staring at the horizon of the foggy street of a small town of England, until I was snapped from the sound Sophia's flapping wings as she went inside to her perch with a dead mouse on her mouth.

I sighed with exasperation, "Sophia, what did I say about bringing in dead animals?"

She ignored me and preened.

AN: So...tell me the truth.

Who's here scream when I updated?

Okay, sorry, I'm letting my writing ego out but honestly, do tell.

Anyway, SURPRISE! I am back. Buuuuut….. hope you won't mind if my updates could only be weekly or two-weeks update since I have college and all and other story to wrote. (Damn, I really wish I could have six arms right now). Still, I'll try as much as I could. Thank you as well for your patient and showing the loves in your reviews, I hope you'll enjoy another magical ride with me.

Here's a reply to you all that question in my reviews.

DamHotDog: Good to see you join FFN :) I'll spare some time to read it. I'm happy you enjoy my work so much.

Munazza: Here's your Act II as you so waited. Also, Lily wasn't present when Percy was in the bathroom. Yes, she heard some comment that has Greek Reference but being a muggleborn that just opened her mind to Wizarding World, she won't immediately connect to the fact that Greek gods are real.

WrittenWithLove765: Nah, I'm not. Where I'm from? Keeping you at a guess is so much fun.

Lulu: The change of the cannon-HP would be written in the epilogue so you have to wait for a looooooong time.

. : Well, I had written up to ten chapters but updated weekly. I just wanted to get some break so I posted the rest since it was the finale and all. So no, I'm not a wizard or a demigod (sadly) just a girl with a few tricks up her sleeve ;)

Elusoto: I'm glad you log in :) I admit your review was definitely the most memorable and I was giddy hearing from you again. Hope you enjoy this second act as well.

Again, thank you and keep the love coming!