The voice had been talking to Cassie almost nightly at this point. Mostly just the same few phrases, but they were more frequent and more audible nonetheless. But this time the voice was finally feeling chatty. Or, more chatty than usual.

"Cassiopia"

"Hey, Voice" She said, uninterested. It didn't answer for a while.

"Free me"

"Yep, find you, free you, help you, September eighteenth. You got it."

The voice didn't 'get it', of course, which irritated Cassie immensely. She actually had time to complete the mission… Whatever 'the mission' was. Almost three months. Not the 'few days' deadlines she had been used to reading about Percy Jackson. Three months! Plenty of time! Except she had no leads. No idea what the voice needed, no idea where it was, no idea who it was …

"Who are you again?"

She got no reply, but she wasn't expecting one.

"And where are you?"

Cassie had asked these questions at least a few dozen times before, without response. But this time, after some minutes, a faint answer, "Chaos"

What!? WHAT. "You're Chaos!?" She asked eagerly (she assumed he was answering the 'who' because as far as she was aware, Chaos wasn't a place. Not that she was aware of a being called 'Chaos', but there were stranger names out there). Cassie had never heard of a god, or she guessed he could be a titan, named Chaos. But she knew what 'chaos' was in English and it sure didn't fill her with feelings of bubbly excitement. Not like if he had said he was "Flower" or something… Because… What if it was a monster talking to her?

Suddenly worried she was talking to something just as or even more evil than Kronos, Cassie hesitantly continued, asking not for the first time, "Uhh… Why am I freeing you?"

"Free me"

Cassie clenched her jaw. Or she would have if she could feel her jaw being clenched.

'Free me'. Likely story; she was just going to go off and free something named "Chaos". Maybe before she would have, back when he hadn't called himself 'mayhem'. Turmoil. Literally chaos.

"Yeah. Well, how? And why? Who are you, and where are you even trapped!?" Not that she couldn't imagine up a few situations for the 'why' that would end up with Chaos being imprisoned forever.

A slow response again, "Chaos."

Cassie's eyes opened and she immediately swung her fist in anger. It was partly in frustration at the always-unhelpful answers, and partly because every time she dreamed about the voice she never felt rested.

Her first hit the floor with a loud thud, and it actually kind of hurt (it really hurt for a few moments, actually), but she didn't let it show.

"Real helpful Mr. Chaos" She mumbled as she dragged her hands down her face to wake up.

Percy, who was sitting with his knees pulled to his chest seemingly deep in thought, was the only one who had noticed her, and he gave her the slightest of looks, but he didn't say anything. He didn't say anything to anyone the rest of the morning.

Cassie had known all along whom Percy's father was, but the awkwardness and tension in the cabin over the reveal was affecting her too. Every conversation somehow seemed to lead to 'Well, great, Poseidon broke the oath and now we're facing the apocalypse'.

She would have offered to help Percy move out, but when she saw him put his few belongings in a single backpack and sleeping bag, she realized that it wouldn't be needed.

He left early, but the tension took a while to dissipate.

Almost immediately after he stepped out the door, people started talking about him.

Not that they hadn't been talking about him while he was still there, it was just that now they were louder and more open about it. A few of the campers went together up to Luke who was sitting on the edge of his bed (near Cassie's spot so she overheard everything), and one of them told him that they didn't want to join the sword practices anymore if Percy would still be training cabin eleven. Bad luck, they reasoned; didn't want to be in the blast zone if some god decided to zap Percy. When another camper nearby overheard an voiced her agreement, Luke gave in.

Cassie didn't miss the slight tightness in his jaw as the group left.

And then Cassie hesitated. She was there for a reason, right? Why would she be in the Percy Jackson story, with knowledge of what was to happen, and not be meant to change something? Luke was a 'bad guy'. Maybe she could stop that.

Too bad she had no clue what to say.

"Poor Percy", she started hesitantly. "Must be really hard for him, to have all this thrown at him."

Luke looked away. "It must be..." She almost thought he sounded sincere. "The gods broke their oath. They could have prevented…" he trailed off.

"Could have prevented?" Prevented Percy from getting attacked by the Hellhound? The minotaur? From growing up with a poor single mother? "Like as in interfere? Aren't their laws against that?" Cassie tried to remind him, to make him see there was no other way. To see that Poseidon, that any of the gods, didn't want Percy or any of them to suffer or deal with all their hardships and responsibilities that came from having godly heritage.

"Cassie," His intense look held her gaze, "Do you know the consequences for gods interfering in our lives?"

She didn't, actually. He could tell.

"Exactly. It's just a made-up rule. In the ancient times, the gods were constantly involved with their children. Achilles and Thetis? And Heracles? Athena practically raised him. Perseus and Zeus? Even Dionysus!" He stood up and took a step to be right in front of her and lowered his voice; people had started staring.

"Cassie, they'll tell you there some 'divine law', that the 'universe will be thrown into Chaos'. It's a lie, Cassie. The gods don't interfere with us because they don't care."

Chaos! Distracted by that name being thrown out, Cassie was unable to think of anything to respond with.

Luke sighed, and Cassie blinked as he went to search for something in his trunk before walking out. Oh, how she wanted so much to ask about Chaos, but she also knew it was the completely wrong time.

She turned to the camper nearest to her, Alex, for help, but Alex just bit her lip and hurried out the door after Luke.

Well... So much for bringing Luke to the 'side of good'.

She almost rolled her eyes. Now what was she supposed to do?

Since 'reasonable mediator' was clearly not her forte and helping Luke, at least at the moment, was useless, her first thought was to go find Malcolm. Malcolm was her assigned teacher of all things Greek. Until, of course, he had stormed out on her…

But Annabeth. Annabeth might help. Activities wouldn't start for another half hour since they got to sleep in on Saturdays, so she would, hopefully, be free.

Cassie started towards the Athena cabin and almost found it cute how when she got there Annabeth was brooding just outside the door, staring at nothing in particular across the valley and muttering bitterly, "Dirty rotten… Gotta get a quest…"

"Hey Annabeth," Annabeth looked to her, startled. "Got a second?"

The grey eyed girl took a second to clear her head and focus her thoughts, and then nodded.

"I have a question about a god."

"Okay, which one?"

Cassie hesitated, somewhat unsure if she should even be asking, or if it was one of those taboo names like 'Kronos' that you just didn't talk about. "Well, it may be a titan, I guess, but… 'Chaos'."

Annabeth furrowed her brows, "Chaos?"

"Yeah, just, anything about him"

Annabeth pulled out the baseball cap that had been tucked in her back pocket and started fidgeting with it, which Cassie didn't take as a great sign. "Well, Chaos isn't really a 'him'. It's not a being, technically," She explained. "In some stories Chaos is sort of the father of the primordials, but it's not quite a god or titan. It's more of a thing. A nothingness."

"A nothingness?" A nothingness! That explained exactly what Cassie experienced in her dreams so perfectly that she couldn't keep the excitement from her voice at finally getting some answers.

"Yeah, like a void."

"A god of the void."

"Not quite, like I said, Chaos isn't a being."

What? No, he had to be. He was clearly talking to her.

"At least, I've never heard any stories about… 'him'... Just picture outer space." She tried a different approach, "It's a nothing. Empty. Well, not that space is empty. At all. It's actually quite full when you think about it; nebulae, solar winds, quasars," Annabeth continued listing more things, but Cassie ignored them. She was stuck. Again. Back to square one. Chaos wasn't a god? He wasn't the one talking to her? What the heck!? So… It was a place then? That's where The Voice was? It was trapped in Chaos…?

"Yeah, that makes sense!" Cassie cut the other girl off. "But then, what lives there?"

"Nothing. It's a void. It is nothing." Annabeth said slowly, repeating the fact again.

But what Annabeth had described fit perfectly. Cassie was sure what she was experiencing was Chaos. It had to be The Voice, or, well, The Voice had to be 'there', didn't it? But Annabeth's answers left no room for argument.

"Okay… So then one last question… Where is it?"

Annabeth gave her the slightest of looks. "It's nothing" She said, even more drawn out than the last time. "I don't think you understand what that is..."

"So it's nowhere" Annabeth looked to the side but gave a single slow nod, which made Cassie think that there was more to the answer than just a nod, and that Annabeth just didn't think was worth explaining. "Okay," She tried to sound satisfied, like Annabeth had helped, "That's exactly what I was wondering about. Thanks!"

Annabeth finally gave her a slightly quizzical look, "Anytime… But why do you ask?"

Cassie was momentarily caught at how to respond. Mentioning she heard it in a dream would probably be a big red flag. Put her on some demigod watch list or something. "I heard his name" ("It's not a 'him'" Annabeth mumbled) "and had never heard of him before. I was just curious. Thanks again! I appreciate it!"

Cassie kept her voice as light and nonchalant as possible, and ended the conversation before Annabeth could probe anymore.

But apparently Cassie's concern that Annabeth would be suspicious was for nothing. Annabeth just shrugged, told her it was no problem, and went back inside her cabin to brood some more.

As Cassie walked away, she was momentarily relieved, but her mood quickly returned to one of irritation. So it wasn't Chaos talking to her? Well that didn't help at all. Cassie rolled her eyes. Back to worrying about Luke again, she supposed.

The scene from earlier that morning replayed in her head, and she was reminded of how horribly that had gone… Nevermind. Enough of that for one day.

It was a relatively normal week at camp, despite the heightened tensions. Then on Monday morning, Percy didn't show up for breakfast. It normally wouldn't have been a big deal, or even noticed probably, since breakfasts weren't as big of an occasion as lunches and dinners, so people came and went as they pleased, but with everyone on edge because of the upcoming (possible) war between the gods, people were assuming the worst. He ran away, the gods killed him in his sleep, he got a quest….

Actually, Cassie didn't hear anyone speculating the last one. No way would Chiron be desperate enough to grant that noob a quest! (Clarisse's words)

No, they majority decided, he probably ran away.

Cassie was playing volleyball with some other campers against the satyrs not long after when they finally saw Percy show his face. Percy, understandably, looked slightly worried, but the satyr he was following to the big house, Grover of course, looked close to fainting.

Percy didn't look much better when he left the Big House. Unsurprisingly, neither did Grover. Annabeth, now traveling with the two, looked like she was going to shout with joy any second, which is how everyone was able to guess what had happened.

"Looks like Annabeth finally got her quest" Michael, who was serving (and who was also surprisingly good at volleyball despite his height), said with a tone Cassie couldn't decipher. Happy for her? Thought they were doomed? She couldn't tell.

Most campers Cassie talked to seemed to fall in the latter category. Everyone trusted in Annabeth's skills and knowledge. But of course, she wasn't the one they were relying on to save the world; it was the new kid who just days before hadn't known the Greek gods even existed. And Grover too. Everyone liked Grover as a satyr. But they also knew he was pretty… useless.

That was initially how the fighting started. The ones who had hope versus the ones who were realists; The ones wanting to wait out the quest versus the ones wanting to prepare for war. Somehow, and Cassie didn't exactly follow 'how', but somehow, that quickly turned to a fight over 'which god is in the right'.

The Athena cabin was blaming Poseidon for being greedy and power hungry. Ares, Apollo, and Aphrodite were giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Most of the other cabins were waiting it out since there wasn't any hard evidence. Or they were just apathetic and didn't care who was right, so long as it didn't end in the apocalypse.

Hermes' cabin left a lovely situation for Cassie to be in. It was almost a complete split on who campers supported. And Luke backed both sides. Not 'backed' as in 'defended', but more 'provoked'. "Why should Zeus get all the power anyways, he did this-and this-and this" or "Poseidon has always been jealous, remember when he _", or "He (referring to either god) is probably trying to start a war. It makes sense, you know, because (convincing argument)" and such.

It was because one of these speeches that Cassie dared to talk to Luke about 'the light side' again.

"Hey Luke," She started casually after a training session, as he was cleaning up the last of the straw dummies and everyone else was on their way back to the cabins. "How long have the gods been around?"

He didn't look her way as he answered with a shrug, "Just about forever, I think. Not too sure."

"And they've been running the earth ever since? Protecting us and controlling the-"

"Protecting us?" Luke turned his head, his face surprisingly blank, "Cassie," He said as if in pity, "we just finished a swords class so you can defend yourself from monsters. Demigods fight to protect themselves, don't expect anything from the gods," The end came out with more disdain than he probably intended.

She was shocked. Cassie knew Luke's true opinions and loyalties, but that was borderline blasphemous. No, no, that was definitional blasphemy. "The gods provide us with the things we need to live!" She defended.

He shook his head. He had had a long week. He had just snuck a Hellhound into camp, Percy turned out to be Poseidon's kid, one of his spies was giving him problems, the camp was about to fall into a civil war, and not to mention the gods themselves were about to start their own apocalyptic fight. He was tired, he was stressed, and some naïve little camper was the last thing he needed.

He shook his head and almost downright glared at Cassie. "The gods may control their domain, but if you think, say, wine, is going to cease to exist if Dionysus gets banished to a summer camp and no longer has control of it, you need to think again. Pansies still grow when Persephone is gone and Demeter refuses to work."

Luke's shoulders relaxed when he noticed how still Cassie ha gone, and he softened his expression, "Cassie, I know they say we rely on the gods for everything, but you've gotten through life this far without them. Don't expect their help with the rest of it."

"Even if you don't think they deserve it, they're still powerful." Cassie tried to warn, without chiding him too much over his flippancy. "They can still zap you into dust if they decide you're being to rude"

"Powerful… Cassie, the gods draw their power from us. No humans, no power."

What? Who did this guy think he was?

Luke saw her brows come slightly together and explained. "The gods need us to survive… Have you heard of 'fading'?"

She had, actually. Sort of. She remembered reading of Pan in the Labyrinth. Something about nature not existing anymore, so he couldn't survive. But, nature did exist, Cassie thought. There were many untouched places still, and she knew many humans still cared for the earth… Did he actually need to fade? Luke took her silent musing to mean she hadn't heard of the term before. He explained, "If humanity stops believing in a god or goddess, they fade. They cease to exist."

And like a switch, Cassie was at full attention. Cease to exist. Like the nothingness.

"The thing they had dominion over doesn't go away. It doesn't stop working. The same if a god is killed for a time. Or banished."

Cassie was paying him minimal attention now though. The void! She was talking to a god that had faded, that had to be it! And it needed her to be able to come back into the world!

"Can the gods come back after they've faded?" She quickly interrupted.

Luke canted his head ever so slightly, "No" He shook his head, that wasn't his point, and he tried to steer her back on track to his topic, "Cassie just listen to me when I tell you that the gods aren't going to help you. You need to do this on your own."

Cassie paid no attention to Luke's statement about personal responsibility. His 'no' had been so uncommitted, so indifferent. He must not really know the answer. Just because it hadn't happened before, didn't mean it couldn't happen.

"The nothingness," She continued, and because she had been thinking about it recently she asked, "Is that Tartarus?"

With a sigh from knowing that Cassie was a lost cause at the moment, Luke locked the door to the training shed and wiped his hands on his shorts. "Could be" He finally said.

"But the gods still exist when they're in Tartarus, right?" They had to, she figured, if one was speaking to her.

But Luke was tired, and he was uninterested in this line of questioning. "Tartarus is nothing. They can't exist there." He finished. "But, if you really want to know about it, I'm not the one to ask."

Cassie didn't like that answer. It didn't fit her theory. The voice! What was he the god of!? Cassie was beyond thrilled. There must be a faded god out there who needed her to free him or something. He may or may not be in Tartarus, she would have to ask about that, but he must have been the one who brought her to her current universe. She didn't know why he would have brought her, instead of just contacting another demigod directly, but it didn't bother her much at the moment. There were more pressing questions. How was she going to find out whom it was that was contacting her? His name would have been mostly forgotten, she figured, since he had faded, but despite that, if she knew he was real and believed in him, would that be enough to help bring him back?

But then a thought struck her, and she froze in her tracks. A shiver went down her spine and the hair on the back of her neck prickled.

A god. In Tartarus. Was contacting her in her dreams, asking her to free him. To bring him back.

Just like Kronos. Just like with Luke…

So, I mean, I've finished writing this story, if that helps at all. Just needs editing. A lot of editing… It will be uploaded... Someday...