August 18, 2009

I don't know what made me think that I'd be able to sleep soundly that night. You'd really think I would have learned by then that that just wasn't the way my life worked. I'm a demigod, a child of prophecy. I don't get breaks. The figure in front of me was unlike anything I had ever seen before, it reminded me of the first time I saw Hades. For the second time in my life I was entering a world that I did not understand. It was mesmerizing, more like a lack of being than a being. The world seemed to bend around it, like a black hole with a human silhouette. It startled me when it spoke, nothing about it changed, no body language, no lip flaps, just a voice. The voice was unidentifiable, surely ancient in origin, but that was about all I could have told you.

"You've done well Perseus, but I worry for you." it said.

That wasn't what I was expecting, plenty of gods had entered my dreams over the years, but none of them had ever said anything like that. Hades, we just fought a war strictly because the gods didn't have it in them. It almost scared me more than what I was expecting the figure to ask of me. "You must go to the moon Percy Jackson, I forgot my favorite pair of sneakers there."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Chaos, I was there at the beginning, and I will be there at the end." it said.

"I see, there's no way you are here about that prophecy Rachel just spit out right?" I asked. I couldn't help it, this just seemed too out of the ordinary. I couldn't help but think it was the most likely conclusion. "Seven half-bloods shall answer the call and whatnot."
"I am uninterested in the nature of that prophecy, I am here to see you. You are a pure soul, and today you have made a great sacrifice for the sake of others. Yet I lament that it may not have been the correct decision." it said.

That made my blood boil, I had never been more sure about something in my life than I had been about my wish. If the gods could keep their promise then we could prevent another Titan war from ever happening again, that was all I wanted in the world. For the gods and their children to actually feel like a family.

"I don't think I agree with you, Chaos." I said.

"I only come to warn you Perseus, I wish to guide a soul as pure as yours so that it may stay that way. I ask that you watch your friends, and your back. This warning applies especially to your love. If you do not you may find your pure heart sullied. I will be watching." Chaos said before it let my mind wander back into its unconscious.

…

Waking up had never been a strong suit of mine, but the last few weeks had made it even harder, especially the last couple days. I wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the prophecy had gotten to me. I felt like a sacrificial lamb, the only reason I had been so carefully pampered and taken care of was so that I could die at the right time. Hades, even Annabeth knew about it, she'd known about it for a long time. Waking up when you're dreading the next day is hard, then multiply that by at least five 'cause no one wants to wake up on the day they'll die. I pulled the covers up over myself even more than they already were, I was dreading today for a different reason.

The prophecy was over, these people didn't have to pamper the little lamb anymore. Somewhere in the back of my head I was always worried about it, what would happen when I was just another demigod. I'll admit it, I was scared that they were going to abandon me, scared that they only cared about me because of what I had to do, what I would do for them. I'd seen Annabeth's dreams in the sea of monsters, and they didn't include me. That was a long time ago, I scolded myself. But was it, Annabeth had known Luke for at least five years when she met me; I had known her a little bit more than three. Luke died yesterday, we both watched. I tried my best not to think about it, I couldn't handle the thought of it. Annabeth was only with me because Luke was dead, that was traumatic and I was a shoulder to cry on. A rebound. The image of Chaos flashed in my mind, is this what they were talking about?

I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to get out of bed, if I didn't I was probably going to die there. I threw the covers off me, and slapped both hands to my cheeks. There was always one person who would love me unconditionally, I knew that. That was where I wanted to be. I needed to see my mom. I'd put her through so much recently, the constant disappearances, the missions, a full scale battle for Manhattan. She deserved a day with her son, and I thought I deserved a day with my mom.

After last night's dream and the events of recent days I wasn't ready to see anyone yet, I meandered through the cabins and over to the stables while trying to stay out of sight. It was still early enough in the morning that the shadows did most of the work for me. When I arrived I heard a lot of whinnying externally, but in my head it was a lot more like the last scene in episode IV. I would never get used to being called lord, I just wasn't cut out for it. Imagine my ADHD self having to look over other people, I could barely keep track of my own schedule.

"Aye boss, where we off to today?" Blackjack asked me.

"We are gonna head to the city and go check on my mom." I said.

"Aye aye boss." He said, and I hopped on.

If I ever get used to flying over New York City I thought, I might as well keel over and die. Some things just never get old; that was one of them. I loved that city, I had spent the last week desperately trying to protect it from a who's who of mythological monstrosities, but it looked like almost nothing had changed. The city was so big that it seemed to recover instantly, it was like it didn't care that a literal deity had led an army through its streets yesterday. The empire state building stood tall and proud like it was saying 'as if punk' to the whole world.

Blackjack was trying to tell me about this 'pretty pony' he had seen in the stables after the battle for Manhattan, but I wasn't really listening. I was just trying to maneuver him to Paul and Sally's new apartment on the lower east side. The idea of the two of them being together for real was still a little uncanny. If I ended up with a mortal younger sibling running around I couldn't imagine what I would do. Would I be able to spend any time with it? Would I be able to tell any stories from the Greek half of my life? The questions seemed less important to me than how cute I was sure it would be. Then again its name would be Blofis, not Jackson. That kinda irked me.

I had Blackjack set me down on the roof of their apartment building. "Circle back around lunch." I said.

"Aye aye boss." he said in his classic jovial tone.

I opened the roof access and descended the stairs to their floor. The apartment was easy to find even though I hadn't spent much time there. My mom had put out a welcome mat that read, "Home is where the heart is." The mat had little hearts all over it of course. The mat did not prepare me for what I was about to see inside. The first thing I saw when I opened the door was Paul's head. It had been removed from his body and jammed onto the end of one of the ceiling fan's blades. The fan was spinning leaving the poor man's head in an endless carousel of gore, vacant eyes half open with a gray tongue lolling out the corner of his mouth.

His body was in the hands of the culprit, and unfortunately I recognized him. It was Joe Bob the laestrygonian from my last game of dodgeball at Meriwether prep. I couldn't bear to take another look around the room, but I knew that I had too. If I didn't even though I was about to do some horrifying things to Joe Bob, I might not do enough. I looked past the horrifying toothy grin on the monster's face as he bit right into Paul's collarbone, and I saw her. My mom, Sally Jackson, was dead. It looked like she had tried to defend herself to no avail, there was still a kitchen knife clutched in her hand. I knew as well as I'm sure she did that that knife wouldn't do a thing to Joe Bob, but she had to try. There was blood all over the oven door, making it clear what he had done to her, and after he had done it he had all but stuffed her limp body in the oven. I don't think I had processed it yet, I don't think I could have. I looked away from her body and my heart broke, I snapped, all I saw was red. On the counter was a baking sheet with a batch of blue chocolate chip cookies ready for the oven. I fixed my gaze on Joe Bob. I was about to take my time.

He had the gall to laugh at me. "Kronos had me wait for them. One last contingency plan, just to make sure you lost." He said with his blood soaked grin as he jutted his putrid thumb over his shoulder pointing at the wall behind him. There written in what I assumed to be my mother's blood were two words that sent me spiraling over the edge. "You Lose".

I took two steps forward uncapping Riptide and slashed off Joe Bob's feet at the ankles.

"Arggghhh" He let out a blood curdling scream. He clearly wasn't ready for the consequences of his actions.

I took a step back waiting for him to try and stand up. When he did his legs failed beneath him and he slipped on his own blood which was flowing like a hose from his fresh wounds. He fell face first onto the floor breaking my mother's new coffee table. I swiftly removed both of his hands at the wrist. He wouldn't be needing those. I moved in preparation to start skinning him slowly when I glanced at my mother's mutilated corpse. She wouldn't have wanted this. I stopped in my tracks.

"You don't deserve mercy." I whispered to Joe Bob before I quickly sliced off his head. His body fell away in the golden ashes that had so often caused me to celebrate in the past. But that day I simply sobbed.

I sat on the blood soaked couch with my head in my hands, I couldn't control my grief. It overwhelmed me, consumed me. My body was wracked with sobs, eventually I simply found myself laying on the floor of the kitchen with my mother's body in my arms. I stroked her hair and whispered an apology that she would never be able to hear. I'm not sure how long I was like that, it might even have been days, but eventually a knock came at the door. I didn't answer, I simply waited.

Annabeth had come, probably assuming that something had gone wrong, but much like me she never would have expected the sight she found. I hadn't even bothered to turn off the ceiling fan. She found me in a heap in the kitchen balling my eyes out.

"Oh Percy I'm so sorry." She sobbed as she hugged me.

I hugged her back, there was nothing else that I could do. I felt so alone, she was all that I had left. Yet in the darkest part of my heart I had started to question her. She had been my link to the mortal plane, my anchor that allowed me to bear the curse of Achilles. The strength that had allowed me to turn down immortality and choose instead a path towards a better future. But I had to wonder, did she feel the same way about me? If she didn't I would make sure she did. I hugged her tighter. Once again I lost track of how long we were like that, but eventually she convinced me to go back to camp.

It was not a pretty scene when we got back, there were a lot of questions, mostly about why we were covered in blood that clearly wasn't our own. I wasn't really willing to answer any of those questions. I simply retreated into my cabin only ever talking to Annabeth.

December 14, 2009

The last few months had been pretty rough. I'd barely left my cabin and when I did it was only to do things with Annabeth. I'd been seeing her less and less with her commitment to rebuilding Olympus, and as much as the logical part of my brain knew it was because of that. The other part of my brain was starting to think that she was avoiding me, Chaos was right. Whenever we were together I tried to make it clear to her how much I loved her, tried to show her that she was all that I had. She was becoming less and less receptive, I could feel it. There was something wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

That day we had planned a picnic in central park, a nice peaceful getaway where the two of us could feel normal for once in our gods forsaken lives. However, it didn't start off all that well. She was silent for the entire ride to the park; I could tell that she was nervous. She was fiddling around with her Yankees cap the way she always did when there was something on her mind. When blackjack finally set us down in a secluded part of the park I got to work immediately setting up our spread. I was going to salvage this date if it was the last thing I did.

"So how was your day yesterday? What did you do?" I asked. Though I was immediately able to tell that this was a mistake.

"Percy when you ask about Olympus it's never like you are interested in my day, it just seems like you're interrogating me." She sighed.

I didn't respond, probably because deep down I knew I was right.

"I know that you are going through a lot, the war, your parents. That changes a person, and I can't expect you to be the same Percy I've always known all the time, but I have to be honest. Right now I need some space Percy, it doesn't feel like we're dating. It just feels like you're clinging to me with all you've got, and that isn't good for either of us. I think we need to take a little break, you need to remember who you are without me." She said in a rush of words, like she had been waiting a long time to get all of this off of her chest.

I was speechless, it was finally here. Annabeth was dumping me, she was over the hump. She had gotten what she needed out of me. Even with all that had happened to me, how could she be so callous. I stood up without saying a word, and simply nodded. I put two fingers in my mouth and let out the most piercing cab whistle I could muster.

"Wait Percy, there's more to say. We need to talk about this." Annabeth said.

I didn't really hear her though, I was getting on the back of Blackjack and soaring back to camp. I went straight to my cabin and face planted in my bed. I must have laid there holding the tears in and dry heaving 'til nightfall. Eventually a familiar figure appeared, the same one I had seen in my dream all those months ago. A figure made of nothingness, reality seemingly warping at its edges.

"If you had simply heeded my warning in the first place you would not feel as you do now." it said.

"As if," I said. I had calmed down a little by this point. Annabeth hadn't dumped me entirely. I was more capable of rational thought at this point than I had been in the moment. "She just said we needed to take a break. She's right, I have more friends than just her. I need to get back to normal."

"You continue to commit the same folly. Believing the words of that girl. I will show you the truth." it said.

I was immediately whisked away into a corporeal state. I was now standing somewhere on Mount Olympus. Annabeth was sitting on a stool at what looked like some kind of juice stand. She was not alone, next to her must have been some kind of unnamable minor god. He was a handsome young man and seemed to be taking a great amount of interest in Annabeth.

"See her day without you, and learn the error of your ways." it said.

Annabeth laughed at something the minor god said and turned to him smiling. Gods she looked so good when she smiled. There was a little bit of wind blowing her hair back over her shoulder, It was like I was watching a movie. Unfortunately the movie quickly switched genres to horror when the minor god leaned in and kissed Annabeth. The scene dissolved barely a second later.

"Agh what the fuck was that." I yelled at Chaos. "What happens next?"

"There are many more things I must show you. We do not have time to dawdle." it said.

Before I could disagree any further we were looking at an entirely different scene, Connor and Travis Stoll were walking along the edge of the canoe lake talking to one another.

"You know these days Percy is actually a lot less fun to be around." Travis says. Before Annabeth appears at the edge of the conversation.

"What did you say about Percy?" Annabeth asked, a confused look passing over her face.

"Nothing, just that he's a cog in the machine and whatnot. Grinding at our freewill and creativity, I don't know how you stand it." said Connor, dejectedly.

Annabeth laughed and the scene dissolved.

"Well that doesn't mean anything." I stuttered. "I'm sure they are just joking around."

Another scene appeared before me, this one more direct than any that had preceded it.

"Sometimes I just wish Percy was less dense." Annabeth said to Rachel. They were sitting within the confines of the Oracle's new cave, which just so happens to be furnished like the inside of a forty year old man's garage mixed with a pretentious art studio, rather than a teenage girls' space.

"Yeah I know what you mean, the guy is kind of an idiot." Rachel laughed as Annabeth lightly shook her head.

"C'mon it's not that funny. I mean seriously without the Titan war we would have never gotten together." Annabeth said with her head in her hands.

I could feel my heart breaking, all of my worst fears had been proven true. The love of my life didn't actually care about me. Chaos had been right all along. It had tried to warn me, but I had been too stubborn to listen. Now here I was, having lost all that I had worked for, just another cog in the machine, a pawn. Able to be controlled and manipulated with ease, I had nothing of value left in the mortal world, my mother was dead, my friends had been transactional, and I had simply been a rebound for the girl of my dreams. There was only one thing left that I could do, one final attempt to salvage what was left of my life. I had to confront Annabeth, that was the only way that I could know the truth. I stormed out of the image of my girlfriend betraying me, and back into my cabin.

"Where are you going?" Chaos asked me.

"To talk to Annabeth." I said bowling through the door to cabin three.

"It will only cause you more pain." Chaos said.

"I have to." I said, leaving the figure behind.

I walked to cabin six, with hope in my heart that all of this could be cleared up. That it was all a misunderstanding, and that I could go back to living a normal life. That the one person who had been there to comfort me after my mother had passed away hadn't been faking their sympathy all along. I needed something to be real, I needed to reach out and touch something. If all that was left of my life was the fact that I was pretty good at fighting wars and pissing off gods I wasn't sure what I would do.

I knocked on the door and Malcolm answered, "Is Annabeth here?" I asked quickly.

"Percy it's like ten o'clock. You can't be here." He responded, rubbing his eyes sleepily. I heard rustling behind him and Annabeth appeared over his shoulder.

"Percy what is this about? You know what we talked about earlier today, I meant it." she said.

"I know, don't worry this won't take long. I'll be out of your hair soon." I said spitefully.

She immediately looked shocked, her eyes widened and her posture stiffened. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

I grabbed her hand, and pulled her along. "C'mon you'll find out." I said.

"Wait Percy what is this about?" She asked, prying at my grip.

I let her go, "Just follow me." I said as plainly as calmly as I could muster.

She looked genuinely scared, "Ok." she said.

We walked for a few minutes until we were on the bank of the lake where our first real kiss had taken place. The location of the happiest night of my life would now be inextricably linked with the end of that same period. It only felt right, like the most natural way to tie up any loose ends.

"Ok Percy you need to start explaining things now, you aren't acting like yourself." Annabeth said, rubbing her wrist and eyeing me cautiously. I could tell she was trying to figure out what I was thinking, she was always doing that. Though it seemed a lot less innocent now, maybe all this time she had spent so much time trying to analyze me because that made me easier to manipulate. I couldn't handle the anxiety any longer, I was about to explode.

"First thing you do after we start taking a break is go kiss some random minor god huh?" I said.

She briefly gasped and responded with what sounded like a "Huh wait what?"

But I didn't let her interrupt me. "Then you go and talk shit about me behind my back with our friends." I said. "Am I just a cog in the machine to you? Another piece of a puzzle that you need to solve to get what you want?"

"Percy, stop." Annabeth whispered weakly.

"I'm so dense, a real idiot, without the giant war we would have never gotten together." I said as if I was trying to hammer in the final nail into the coffin of our relationship myself.

"Percy, how do you know about all that?" Annabeth asked, looking taken aback, tears were welling up in her eyes.

She couldn't even deny it. All she could do was cry and ask me how I caught her in her little act. Desperately reaching out with one final tactic of emotional manipulation. I wouldn't let it affect me. I simply walked past her and back to my cabin, Hades I didn't walk. I sprinted, there was someone I needed to talk to. I just had to hope that their offer was still valid. I could hear Annabeth calling out to me, trying to catch up to me. I burst through the door of cabin three. My home away from home for these last three years, even if it was an illusory abode I would miss it. I had to admit there were people I would miss. My dad, and Tyson in particular. I wouldn't be able to say goodbye to them, but they would have lived beyond me and forgotten about me anyway. I would just have to hope that our relationships had burned bright enough for long enough that neither of them would feel as though they missed out.

Chaos was standing there waiting for me. "Are you ready to accept reality." the figure asked.

"I am." I said.

"Swear absolute fealty to me, you're new master." Chaos said.

"I swear on the river Styx-" I said, but was interrupted before I could finish by Chaos.

"Spare me the notion of that petty river's power, bind your soul to my cause." Chaos said.

"I swear my undying loyalty to your will." I said, practically in a daze.

We were gone in the next instant.

December 14, 2009

Annabeth's POV

I really felt like I couldn't have picked a shittier day to decide and tell Percy that I needed space. He had just finally started to come out of his cabin again. Though I had to admit that it was that change that made me realize how strained our relationship had truly become. I was all that he ever talked about, the only person that he ever interacted with. I was all the support that he had and it was starting to become too much for me, I felt like I was abandoning him, but I couldn't breath. I wanted so desperately to be there for him, but as overdeveloped as my brain was I had to admit to myself that this was too much for me to handle emotionally alone. I needed some space so that I could prepare, come up with a strategy and get him out of this funk. Our relationship was just unhealthy, it was like I was one of his possessions. A teddy bear for him to cling to, I loved him, but I had my own shit to take care of as well. We were two different people, gods. I felt like such a bitch.

I had let him fly away from central park alone and clearly hurting, but I needed to accept that it was my only option. Have faith that soon the pain he was feeling would be worth it and the two of us could come out on the opposite side of it together and even stronger. For now I was going to do what I needed to do to refresh myself, I was going to go to work and take my mind off of everything else. Then I could attack my Percy problem with all that I had. Unfortunately my attempts to take my mind off everything were ruined by an overly ambitious minor god at one of the new juice bars that I had installed.

I was sitting there contemplating the delicacy with which I would need to handle my current situation and the intricacies I would have to navigate as I did so when the sleazeball sat down next to me.

"You're not from around her are you?" The godlet said.

He said it in a way that was so presumptuous that it made me genuinely laugh. The nonsensical nature of the situation had me tickled pink. I smiled and turned to him.

"No I'm not, that must be why your charms don't work on me I said." Looking him dead in the eye not dropping my now sinister smile. He unfortunately didn't catch my drift, or more disgustingly simply ignored it.

"Give me a second chance." He said before leaning in and kissing me square on the lips.

I was so shocked and appalled by the violation of my personal space that it took me a full second to react. By then his putrid tongue had snaked its way out of his mouth and was snaking across the front of my clenched teeth. That gave me an idea. I opened my mouth feigning as if I was going to continue to let this happen to me. He of course took the bait as overzealous dirtbags are wont to do and stuck his tongue into my mouth. I bit down with as much force as I could. He let out a scream that was muffled by the fact that his tongue was between my teeth. I got up and coaxed him off of his stool as well. I then promptly kneed him between the legs in hopes of forcing him to, as Percy likes to say, sing soprano for a week.

He fell to his knees and I spat his gold ichor in his face before promptly walking off of Mt. Olympus and hitching a bus ride back to camp. A station that we had had installed in hopes of making it easier for lone demigods to make it to Camp Half-blood safely. The ease of the commute between the city and the camp as a result was just a nice bonus. Though I struggled to imagine the impression that mortals had of the strawberry farm that appeared to be our front, what with all the kids getting off here and whatnot. It had to have seemed like we were running some kind of labor cult that was preying on young people.

I took a walk in the cold air of camp, even if there was no snow on the ground it was still a more than brisk atmosphere. On the shore of the canoeing lake I ran into Connor and travis.

".. these days Percy…" Travis said while still mostly out of earshot of me.

If they were talking about Percy I couldn't help but join in. Maybe they were worried, or maybe their perspective which was violently different from mine might help me come up with some way to get out of his funk.

"What did you say about Percy?" I asked.

"Nothing, just that he's a cog in the machine and whatnot. Grinding at our freewill and creativity, I don't know how you stand it." Connor said sarcastically. But in a way where he seemed sad and dejected.

I laughed a little bit. Even if it was a joke in bad taste I knew these guys loved Percy and were just expressing their worry in their own way.

"What did you guys do?" I asked.

"We were just trying to cheer him up a little, he's been down bad since you know what so we decided to see if a water themed prank would cheer him up." Travis said.

"What did you propose?" I asked.

"Filling the canoe lake with piranhas." Connor said fiendishly.

I laughed again. "I wonder why he didn't go for that."

"It was only gonna be during the Ares cabin canoe time. He didn't even turn us down like he normally would, he just pointed out that it wasn't their natural habitat and it would be bad for the piranhas. He looked so sad and dejected I almost cried." Travis said.

"Yeah he's been having a rough go of it lately. But I really appreciate the effort, keep reaching out to him if you can. Every little bit helps." I said before turning and walking to Rachel's cave.

"Will do." the twins said in unison.

The cave had turned into everything that I expected from Rachel. She had been getting into "making" recently which basically meant that she was channeling her creativity into things that were slightly more industrious on average. Though she had plenty of banana duct taped to a white canvas type of projects going as well. I slumped down into one of her beanbags in the corner, and put my head in my hands.

"Let me guess it's about Percy." Rachel said. "Do you want some tea?"

"You managed to read my mind correctly twice in a row." I said with what little snark I could manage.

She started brewing the hot beverage, before turning and looking at me. "What's going on?"

"Percy and I are taking a break." I sighed.

"Damn, that is a hell of a lot heavier than I was expecting." Rachel said before taking her spot in a beanbag adjacent to my own. Her's was splattered with paint that hadn't dried before sawdust had landed on it. It honestly had a decent aesthetic while clearly being grungy as all get out.

"It isn't really a break, I just need to gather my thoughts for a little bit so that I can help him out of this depression. If I don't do this then both of us are going to be wallowing in it for way longer than we should." I said.

"So he's still off limits then?" Rachel said looking me dead in the wye with the biggest shit eating grin.

I was appalled, somewhere in the bottom of my soul I was looking for the nearest pillow I could find to throw at her. "Yeah he's off limits." I said it and then I couldn't stop laughing for a solid minute, though it slowly turned into crying which lasted maybe another five minutes. When I finally stopped I looked at her again and she was still sitting in the same spot smiling and waiting expectantly. I had never expected to find such a good friend in this girl, I understood why Percy was drawn to her in the first place. She had a way of saying what you needed to hear and cutting through all the layers of bullshit that you let distract you.

"Sometimes I just wish Percy was less dense." I said.

"Yeah I know what you mean, the guy is kind of an idiot." Rachel laughed as I lightly shook my head.

"C'mon it's not that funny. I mean seriously without the Titan war we would have never gotten together." I said, returning my head to my hands.

"Yeah he needed a hell of a lot of convincing to get with you. Maybe you should have made it more obvious that you were in love with him." She said laughing at me.

"Not sure that I even could have, and he still didn't get it." I said, sighing.

"It will all work out. You guys love each other more than I have ever seen two people love each other. It's honestly kinda gross." she said.

I hugged her. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Just someone telling me that it would all work out, supporting me and reminding me that there was still hope. We chatted for a little while longer, eventually going through three cups of tea each. By the time I left I was already past curfew and had skipped dinner. I went straight back to my cabin and as I was about to get into bed I heard a knocking at the door. Malcolm beat me to it so I sat down on my bed and waited for him to deal with whatever the cause of the disturbance was. Though to my dismay, I wouldn't be able to sit on the sidelines for this one. It was Percy standing at the door. They had an inaudible exchange before I managed to make my way into the doorframe.

"Percy what is this about? You know what we talked about earlier today, I meant it." I said. Trying to diffuse the situation, I really didn't have the energy for this even if that meant I was being a little cruel temporarily.

"I know, don't worry this won't take long. I'll be out of your hair soon." he said spitefully.

I immediately realized that something was wrong. Percy didn't talk this way especially to me. My eyes widened and my posture stiffened. "What are you talking about?" I asked.

He grabbed my hand and swiftly yanked me out of the doorway. "C'mon you'll find out." he practically snarled.

"Wait Percy what is this about?" I asked, desperately prying at his grip and trying to stay calm.

He let me go, "Just follow me." He said with a clearly strained calm in his voice.

I was genuinely scared, not necessarily for myself. Simply opf what might be happening, sometimes people in states like this couldn't make the best decisions for their own well being. "Ok." I said.

We walked for a few minutes until we were on the bank of the lake where our first kiss as a couple had taken place. The location of the happiest night of my life would now be inextricably linked with the end of that same period. It felt almost like he was trying to make a point, as if whatever was about to happen would be made more poignant by our presence here.

"Ok Percy you need to start explaining things now, you aren't acting like yourself." I said, rubbing my wrist and searching his face for any kind of information that would let me determine what he was thinking. I was starting to feel more than just a little uneasy about what was happening. Something was off, he wasn't acting like himself. Somewhere in all of this was a god's work, I could feel it.

"First thing you do after we start taking a break is go kiss some random minor god huh?" he said.

I briefly gasped unintentionally, before squeaking "Huh wait what?" This proved it, something was amiss.

But he didn't let me get a word in. "Then you go and talk shit about me behind my back with our friends." he said. "Am I just a cog in the machine to you? Another piece of a puzzle that you need to solve to get what you want?"

"Percy, stop." I whispered weakly. I couldn't handle the vitriol, even if I knew something was wrong, even if deep down he didn't mean it. My heart was breaking, and I could tell that his was too.

"I'm so dense, a real idiot, without the giant war we would have never gotten together." My heart broke, whoever had done this had been pretty thorough they had preyed on us at our weakest moment. They had taken advantage of me, I had abandoned Percy and they had immediately swept into the gap that I had left and destroyed our relationship.

All I could say was "Percy, how do you know about all that?" tears were welling up in my eyes. I couldn't think rationally, I couldn't do anything. Someone had executed a pretty nefarious plan and gotten into Percy's head, I felt like the gods were punishing us for no reason. Aphrodite was just having fun with us, we were just play toys. No I snapped back to reality for a moment, Percy wouldn't believe Aphrodite, this was someone else. Quite possibly it was someone that neither of us had ever interacted with up until now. Percy stormed by me headed back into the center of camp.

"Wait! Percy come back!" I called. But he was running now. I started running too since it was the only way that I could catch up, but I was choking on tears and by this point in our lives he was quite a bit faster than me. When I finally got to the door of cabin three and swung it open, I only found an empty cabin. Percy was gone, but that was impossible. I hadn't seen him leave. Whoever had gotten in Percy's head had taken him away from camp, and I was going to find him. By any means necessary.