Chapter Three

The four unconscious kids were still in the infirmary the next day. Will and Austin were taking care of the four and observing them closely as they didn't seem to move except to breathe.

Will always went to his brother's bedside to check for any change in him every half an hour, even if he was just with him two seconds ago. Grace, Ginger, and a few other Aphrodite kids checked up on Laya every two hours or so. Some of the kids from the Hermes cabin checked up on Jayce every hour. A few Athena kids would occasionally stay to help just to see how their brother was doing.

"No, nothing's really changed. It's like they're in some sort of controlled sleep..." Will trailed off, speaking to Travis, Connor, Grace and Annabeth, all of which happened to come to check on their siblings at the same time. Austin had taken a lunch break when it seemed nothing was going to happen.

Annabeth hesitated for a moment before voicing her thought, "Do you think... it's like the sleep Morpheus put the mortals in during the last war?"

Will shook his head, "I had Clovis and Rachel from Morpheus come in to check for that. It's a negative."

"Well, if anything changes..." Grace trailed off, nodding to Will.

Annabeth sat next to Luke's bed for a while, observing the young boy, before getting up to leave. The Argo II was leaving for Camp Jupiter in two days and she couldn't be left behind. They wouldn't survive a day without her.

Travis and Connor stayed longer, and they were the first to notice change in their sister.

Jayce groaned and rolled over onto her side before curling up. The covers moved and Connor shuffled around the bed to pull them around her.

Will appeared at their side seconds later, "What just happened?", even though it was slightly obvious.

"Well, she just started moving a bit..."

"She probably moved out of a deep sleep and into a lighter one. She might wake up soon," Will said, just as the other three did the same.

Mumbling to himself, he moved around to pull up their blankets and check their temperatures, even though fevers weren't a symptom in the first place.

"You can never be too sure," Will explained when the Stolls questioned him, "And you guys should go to dinner, I said she might wake up soon, not that she will wake up soon,"

They were hesitant to leave, but did anyway. Right when the Stolls left and Will turned away for two seconds, Luke strained to open his eyes, but they drifted shut as the small action seemed to take a lot out of him.

Laya was in a white room. She didn't recognize it. The one thing that caught her attention in the bare room were the three orbs of light that seemed to float there. One was cream colored, while the other was golden. The last one was a green color that reminded her of the springtime.

"What are you?" Laya demanded, a bit scared and freaked out.

"Relax, child. We are goddesses. We did not mean to harm you," the golden orb seemed to say. Her senses told her that the floating balls of light were talking, even though it was basically impossible. But then again, anything was possible in the world of Greek gods.

"Did not mean to? Meaning you did already? You made me pass out?" Laya's manners flew out the window. She heard immortals were arrogant, but she didn't think it would be to a point where they'd cause demigods to collapse.

There was a pause. "Yes, but not purposely," the cream orb said.

"What are you talking about?"

"If we did not find bodies soon, we would have faded and ceased to exist," said the green orb.

"What do you mean?" Laya found herself saying that often, "I know you all have your own bodies! And from what I've heard, you have two! You don't need mine!" Laya accused. The information was possibly true, she had heard Annabeth talking to another daughter of Athena about it.

"The two forms are part of one body, you ignorant child," The green orb radiated power that made Laya feel like it was glaring at her.

"Calm down, Persephone," The golden orb tried to soothe her.

"I will not calm down. If this girl believes things about what she does not know-"

"Then it is our job to inform her," the cream orb finished.

"Persephone? The goddess of springtime, Persephone? What's going on?" Laya was tense.

"We are not here to harm you, you can relax," the cream orb said. Laya had now found a way to differentiate the three (supposed) goddesses. The cream orb spoke casually, as if she was talking to a friend, and the golden orb spoke calmly with a sense of royalty. The green orb spoke with power in a queen-like way, which made sense because Persephone was the Queen of the Underworld.

"It appears that Gaea is more anxious for her victory than we thought," Persephone started.

"I'm sorry, My Lady, but what?" Laya calmed down from her rush of anger and disbelief.

"Gaea is getting desperate, though she doesn't wish to show it." The golden orb spoke.

"She has created a monster," Persephone took up from where she left off after Laya nodded in understanding, "She has not released any other giants for a reason. She has used the energy she would have spent on releasing the giants on creating a monster that could do something the giants could not. It is a way of cheating into her win."

"She wishes our pride to be shattered," the cream orb explained.

"Tell me, child, in our godly forms, how would you described us?"

Laya had never seen the gods or goddesses in person before, so she just shrugged.

"Our physical forms make people nervous, intimidated. We have a sense of power in that form. These forms we are in now are our spirits. Our power cannot be used in this form. We would have become diluted, and faded forever. We needed a body."

Laya squinted confusedly, "So you're saying the monster ate your body?"

"Not exactly. Our entire form is broken down into energy. This form we're in right now is pure energy, that cannot be taken, but it needs a form as a... container, so to speak. Our physical forms are concentrated energy, focused into making something physical. That can be taken because it is physical, though we can normally stop whoever tries." the golden orb said.

"Can't...you just make new ones?" Laya questioned.

"No, we cannot. Do you not think we would have done that in the first place?" Persephone asked icily.

"We would have, if the monster had not drained us to begin with. We spent most of our power fighting this monster, and without our true physical forms, we cannot, how can you say it, re-energize." The cream orb said.

"So you're stuck the way you are? In my body? Wait-why would you tell me all this? Why can't you go to other gods for help? Why get me stuck in this?" Laya said, suspiciously.

"This monster is incredibly difficult to defeat. Especially when it has been created to absorb energy, specifically, those of a gods, or goddess'. Other immortals likely to be drained by now, and have found other forms unless they have found a place to hide." The golden orb said as Persephone seemed to huff in her energy state.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Laya asked slowly.

There was silence.

"Hello?" Laya called. It seemed like the energy orbs had went dormant or something similar.

"Because you need to know it. We are a part of you, for now." the cream orb explained.

"But aren't these, like, godly extra special secrets no mortal should know about in any cases?"

"Do you swear on the River Styx not to reveal a word of this information to those who do not already know?" Persephone asked boredly.

"Um, sure?" Laya was confused. This was going by a bit fast for her.

"There. Problem solved."

"Why do I need to know this?" Laya questioned.

"Do you really want to know?" the cream orb asked.

"Well, yeah. I need this information for something don't I..." she trailed off, realizing where this was going.

"By the Fates, you've been assigned a quest."

Haven't updated in a while. Oops. Sorry. And I wasn't really sure how to phrase this chapter, so it sucks more than usual.

Other people's OCs may start showing up soon.