TW: dark thoughts and mentions of blood

Cal was completely over bed rest. She'd been confined to her hospital bed for 3 days since waking up and she couldn't believe she'd sat still for that long. It became almost painful after staring at the same boring 4 walls everyday.

Anakin came to visit every day, which definitely helped stop her from ripping her hair out from pure boredom. Sometimes he'd poke his head in for 5 minutes for a quick chat, and others he'd stay for well over an hour until a healer came and bustled him out.

At first he'd tried to ask questions about her past and about her home, but Calliope would give vague replies and divert the conversation. She didn't want to accidentally say something that would get her blasted to smithereens by Uncle Z. He got the message eventually that she didn't want to talk, and instead Anakin would tell her about the new world she was supposedly in. It had taken a little while for him to convince her she was on a different planet, but the fact that her healer was BLUE made it pretty hard to argue.

During their chats Anakin would occasionally get into heated rants about someone named Obi-Wan. Cal didn't want to say something that would offend him during his rants, so she usually just nodded when she felt it was appropriate. Their daily conversations had also helped her fully recover her voice, so they stopped speaking to each other in their minds.

When she was alone in her room she let herself think of home to try and keep her brain busy. She wondered who had won the war, or if Gaea had risen and wiped everyone out. Those thoughts never led to good places though, so she tried to think of happier times. She remembered when she and her siblings had put shaving foam in Lee's bunk, and her siblings doing the same to her when she'd become cabin leader. Will had probably taken over now that she was gone. She wondered what had happened to the rest of her siblings. Austin, Kayla, Victoria. Little Timmy who'd come to camp only a month before the Romans attacked. She thought of Nico, and how she'd noticed Will sneaking looks at him when he thought no one was looking. She hoped they'd get together eventually. She'd have to give Nico a shovel talk.

If she ever got back.

•••••••

"Hey Cal," Anakin smiled as he walked in with Healer Che. "We've got some good news for you!"

She smiled back at him as Master Che and Anakin came and stood on either side of her bed. He seemed chipper that morning.

"I'm going to give you an exam, and if I think you're well enough you can get up for a small walk," Master Che told her. Cal's eyes went wide.

"You mean I can get out of this room?" she asked hopefully.

"Only if you're well enough," Master Che clarified. Cal looked over at Anakin and saw a grin that matched her own.

The exam didn't take very long. A few prods to her side, a scan with an X-ray looking machine and a short mobility test. She passed with flying colours, and after a fleeting mention of how quickly Cal was healing, she was making her way slowly out of her room and into the rest of the hospital with Anakin hovering at her side.

Cal glanced over at him. He was staring intently at her feet as if he anticipated her tripping.

"Is there something awesome I'm missing on the floor?" Anakin jumped, then turned to her with a sheepish smile.

"Oh you know," He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "There are some really nice… tiles?"

"I'm a big girl, Anakin. I can walk on my own," he flushed and looked down sheepishly.

"But if it makes you feel better," Cal looped her arm with his, "Now if I fall you're going down with me,"

Anakin chuckled but didn't say anything more. They walked around the Halls of Healing for a little while before Cal decided she wanted to see outside. Cal felt an overwhelming sense of anticipation staring at the door. From inside the healing halls she'd been able to hold on to the delusion that this was all just an elaborate prank, and everyone from camp would jump out and yell 'SURPRISE' at any moment. She knew this was very unlikely, but there wasn't much else to do while stuck in a room with no windows.

Anakin looked at her, silently asking if she was ready. She took a deep breath and nodded. The door slid open and for the first time in days she saw natural light.

They walked into a hallway that looked like it belonged on mount Olympus. With its polished stone and large columns, it seemed fit for a God. There were huge windows at one end of the hallway that had a soft orange glow shining through them.

She walked over and stopped in front of the window and gazed out of it. Past the flying cars, past the huge skyscrapers, to the sun hanging low between two buildings in the distance. It felt different. Back home the sun gave off a sense of warmth and familiarity, like it was smiling at her. This one was colder. This was not the star her father drove across the sky every day, and it was not smiling at her.

"So. What do you think?" Anakin asked and she jumped. She'd almost forgotten he was with her.

Cal glanced at him, then looked back out the window.

It was a cityscape as far as she could see, like a futuristic downtown Manhattan. Annabeth would've had a field day just looking at how everything fit together. Every single bit of space she could see was utilised for something. Skyscrapers rose up so tall she was amazed they didn't just fall over, and in between everything, little flying cars wizzed about at all levels.

"You have flying cars," Cal didn't quite know how to process that. She'd known that wherever she was was more advanced from their medical equipment. But flying cars...

"We call them speeders,"

Cal looked over at Anakin. His eyes crinkled and he'd pressed his lips together to try hide the grin that was forming.

"You're laughing at me,"

"Oh no, I'd be much too frightened to laugh at you," He shook his head with a laugh.

"What, a girl in a hospital gown recovering from a stab wound? Terrifying," Cal rolled her eyes. He chuckled in response and they went back to staring out the window.

"You did scare me,"

Cal frowned and turned to look back at him.

"What?"

"When I found you," he clarified, "You were lying there covered in blood, and for a second I thought you were dead. And then when you were in surgery I didn't know if you were going to make it, and I was covered in your blood, and I didn't even know your name. Then you didn't wake up for two days and I was terrified that you wouldn't and..."

Cal hugged him. He clutched at the back of her hospital gown and dropped his head on top of hers. She hadn't known how much of an impact she'd had on him. It truly meant a lot that this person she'd met barely a week ago cared about her so much.

It hit her then just how far from home she was.

"I want to go back," Cal pulled away with hardened eyes.

Yes, they were having a nice moment, but she didn't want to be too vulnerable with him just yet.

"Okay," He must have sensed she didn't want to talk, so he offered her his arm and they made their way silently back inside the Halls of Healing.

Once she was back in her bed Cal didn't feel any better. Her eyes stung with barely held back tears and her expression was stoney. She didn't want to cry in front of him. She didn't want to admit how much his admission had affected her. Anakin shuffled around awkwardly for a few moments, before he left and said he'd be back tomorrow.

The automatic door swooshed shut behind him and Cal shed her first tears since waking up in that room. All she wanted was for Will to walk through the door, wrap her in a hug and tell her everything was going to be alright. She missed everyone from camp. Her siblings, all the kids from the other cabins, the satyrs and nymphs, Chiron. Even Mr D. She would've given anything to be back on the archery field with one of Percy's arrows in her leg if it meant she was home. She'd grown up at camp. It was more of a home to her than her mother's house ever was.

Cal curled up and sobbed until she fell asleep and dreamed of sun lit fields and bright smiles.

•••••••

It was another 3 days before she was deemed well enough to be discharged.

Anakin had come over that afternoon as she was getting ready to leave.

"From the way you're bouncing you'd think you were the one getting out of here and not me," she smirked.

He stilled and tilted his head at her.

"What, I can't be excited that my friend is getting out of here?" He asked.

Cal smiled at that.

She'd already changed into the clothes that had been provided for her, as they'd had to cut her jeans and T-shirt off when she arrived. She was sad she'd lost her camp shirt, but was happy they'd saved her necklace and given it back to her along with her armour, the med pack she'd been carrying and some new clothes. It was nothing fancy. Just a beige linen shirt and trousers.

She was just gathering up the pieces of her armour and putting them in a bag when Anakin spoke again.

"Do you remember me telling you about the Jedi Council?" Cal turned to look at him and flipped the top of the bag closed.

"Yeah. They're like the leaders of the Jedi right?" Cal asked as she straightened.

"Essentially. They make all the big decisions and assign everyone their tasks and missions,"

"Okay," she paused and expected Anakin to keep talking, but when he didn't she put the bag down and turned to face him fully.

"What is it?" she asked.

Anakin let out a sigh and sat down on her bed next to where she was packing.

"They want to speak to you tomorrow before you leave. I imagine they have questions about how you got so far into the temple without detection,"

Cal paused her packing. What would she say? Would they believe her if she told them the truth? She supposed she had until tomorrow to figure out what she was going to say.

"Okay," was all she said.

"And they've assigned me a new mission. I'm actually supposed to be on my way there now, so I won't be there tomorrow when they question you,"

Cal stared at him and was hit by a sudden wave of anxiousness. She'd gotten used to seeing him everyday, and from what she'd heard of his previous missions, he could be gone for weeks.

"Cal?" Anakin asked, "Are you okay?"

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and let out a breath.

"Of course. Do you know how long you'll be gone?" She tried to sound happy for him. She knew he felt cramped in the temple and ached for some excitement, but she selfishly wanted him to stay there with her.

"I don't know. I'm not going off-world, but I don't know how long it'll take for the situation to resolve,"

"Oh," Cal focused on a scratch on the wall to avoid looking at him, "Well I hope you stay safe,"

Anakin sighed.

"Cal I—" She cut him off before he could finish.

"I know how much you've been wanting an assignment. This'll be good for you! I hope you enjoy it," Cal forced a smile and turned to look at him. She was a big girl, she could survive on her own.

Anakin stared at her skeptically for a few moments before he sighed again and stood up.

"This is a communicator," he explained as he handed her a small device,"I've input my comm details so you can contact me if you need to. I have to go, but I'll contact you as soon as I can,"

Cal nodded.

"Stay safe," She said. He smiled at her before he left the room.

Cal stood there for a moment, just taking in the silence. She tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling. Her eyes burned with tears she refused to release. Anakin had become the only familiar thing in her life. She didn't have her siblings, she didn't have her mother, she didn't have her friends. The only things she knew were tucked away in a bag that wasn't even hers.

What had her father been thinking in sending her there? Where would she live? How would she live?

Her head spun so fast she could barely keep up. Cal sank to her knees and hung her head.

She sat there on the floor until her eyes stopped stinging and her cheeks didn't feel quite as tight. She shook her head lightly and stood. Her knees popped painfully on the way up. She sat on the bed and started at the bag she would take with her tomorrow.

•••••••

Cal couldn't sleep. She decided to go for a walk to stretch her legs so she left her room and started down the bright hallway when she felt the air shift around her and tensed.

Cal blinked, and suddenly she was standing in a completely unfamiliar, dark room.

She froze.

She was fairly certain she wasn't dreaming, though the situation did give her demigod dream vibes. There was a woman sleeping in a large bed and lights dancing across the floor. There didn't seem to be much else in the room other than a shiny metal dome that the lights seemed to be coming from. She could vaguely hear someone talking from another room, but it was hardly more than a murmur. As she glanced around the room her eyes were drawn to a large window covered in blinds. There was some sort of device stuck to the outside of the window, which she wasn't too worried about before she noticed a cylinder poking through the glass into the room. She tilted her head at it in confusion for a moment before it popped open and deposited two large centipede looking creatures on the carpet.

Now that's odd.

They managed to scuttle over to the bed before the metal dome beeped and gave Cal a fright. The centipedes hid quickly before a torch light came on and scanned over the room. It passed right over her, and seemed to ignore her, before it switched off.

The centipedes zipped out of their hiding places and started to crawl up the bed more slowly than before. The woman in the bed lay undisturbed as they scuttled over the blankets. Cal started to grow uneasy.

The voice from before grew slightly louder, enough that she almost recognised the low timbre. She glanced over to the doorway for a moment before she turned back to see the centipedes extremely close to the woman's face. Cal's stomach twisted with unease. She didn't want them to touch the woman.

Cal stepped towards the bed and reached out a hand to brush the creatures away, but she blinked and suddenly she was back in the bright infirmary hallway.

She stood still on alert for a few seconds, not quite sure what to expect. She'd never had a demigod dream while awake before. She tried to figure out what any of it meant, but she didn't recognise anything in the vision. She thought it might not have been literal, and tried to think of what it could have represented, but still came up with nothing.

After a few minutes of pulling her hair out, she remembered the communicator Anakin had given her. Maybe he could make sense of what she'd seen. She pulled out the small device and found his contact before she paused. Maybe she shouldn't bother on an assignment. But her dreams always meant something, and for this one to come while she was awake meant it must have been important. And she couldn't wait until he finished his assignment, because she didn't know how long he would be gone.

Cal pressed on his contact. She rationalized that if he was busy he just wouldn't pick up.

It beeped for a few seconds as it waited to connect, before Anakin's voice sounded through the speaker.

"Cal? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'm sorry, I know you have an assignment. I wasn't going to call but I didn't know how long you'd be gone and I normally have other people me to help figure these things out and–"

"Woah, slow down. What is it?"

"Well, I get these sort of… visions? But I normally only have them when I'm asleep and I was awake this time so I thought it was important but I have absolutely NO idea what it means,"

"I can try to help you. My master is here with me. Did you want to tell us both about your vision? He may be able to provide some insight that I can't"

"The more the merrier I guess. Is he there now?"

"Yes,"

"Okay. Well, I was just going to a walk a few minutes ago because I couldn't sleep, and I blinked and all of a sudden I was in a completely different room? It was bigger and a lot darker, and there were lights sort of criss crossing all over the floor. And there was a bed with a woman sleeping in it. I looked over to the side of the room and saw a flying robot – uh droid – at the window, and it cut a hole in it then dropped these two big worm like bugs into the room. They started crawling towards the woman and they eventually got up on the bed and crawled right up to her face. I got a really bad feeling about them, so I tried to bat them away from her, but then I woke up,"

"Anakin, pull up the footage of the senators room,"

"I can't. She covered the cameras. I don't think she liked me watching her,"

"And you let her?"

"I didn't think it mattered that much! I can sense everything going on in there. And besides, she set up R2 to detect any intruders,"

"With cross-beam detection?"

"Yes, of cour–"

"I sense it too,"

"Anakin? What's going on?"

"I'll call you back!"

AN: It's been a while! Tbh I forgot I posted this and was looking through my Docs and found this chapter written up. No promises about the regularity of any more updates but there will be more at some point! Sorry... Hope you like it!

- Artemis