AN: Alright guys here's chapter three, and Percy is back! Yay! Just a warning but this one gets a little dark and violent near the middle and end, but what do you expect, after what happened?

And just wanted to say thanks to both Enderlord and Death Fury for reviewing on both chapters it gives me motivation to write, anyways, hope you guys enjoy!

Camp Half-Blood, Big House

Percy POV

I sat up groggily, not remembering going to sleep and wondering where I was. Out of habit I checked that Anaklusmos was still in my pocket, and sure enough there it was in pen form. Satisfied that I had something to defend myself with, I looked around seeing a heart monitor attached to my chest so I figured I must be in a hospital of some sort, and tried to think back to what happened. One of the last things I remembered was being at camp.

'Camp!' I thought. 'This is the med bay in the Big House!'

With that thought I relaxed completely knowing I wasn't in danger. The very last thing I remembered was walking to lunch and feeling an incredible pain all over.

'That must have been when I passed out,' I thought. 'But what caused that pain? How long have I been out? And why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?'

When I thought that I felt a nagging in my brain and my right hand began to itch.

'What is it? What is it? What am I forgetting? And why does it feel so important?' I thought, beginning to poke myself in the forehead.

'Don't blame them...' I thought. 'Wait, what? Why did I just think that? Maybe I need more rest.'

As I was about to roll onto my side and go back to sleep, the door to the room opened and in walked Will Solace reading what I assumed was a medical chart. As he looked up at me he started when he saw my eyes were open. A moment later I saw several emotions flick across his face, relief, sadness, guilt, and was that anger?

"Finally your awake, we didn't know if you were ever going to wake up," Will sighed.

"What happened to me?" I asked. "All I remember is searing pain, then I woke up here."

Will looked conflicted. "It...would not be my place to tell you," he said slowly.

"Why not? Your the doc that helped me, right?" I said jokingly.

"Um, no actually, I'm not," said Will. "It was my dad and Hades who cured you."

I stared at him shocked that it would take two gods to heal me and that they actually would.

"What was so bad that I needed two gods to heal me?!" I asked incredulously.

"Like I said," Will replied. "I'm not the best one to explain all this, I don't even fully understand it. Just wait here and the gods will take you to Olympus and give you an explanation."

I nodded, but was again confused as to why the gods were doing all this, I might have saved them but in my experience gods were pretty ungrateful. Figuring it would be awhile until someone would come and get me, as well as not wanting to smell in front of the Olympian Council, I decided to get up, take a shower, and find a change of clothes. When I stood up I had to grab the edge of the bed to steady myself because my whole body felt extremely stiff and my legs seemed weaker?

'Hmm, they must have begun to atrophy, I must have been out longer than I thought' I mused. 'Wait, atrophy? When did I learn that word? I must have been hanging around Annebeth too much.'

As I started walking to the door, I felt the wires connected to the heart monitor halt my progress, so I lifted up my CHB shirt, ripped them off, and let them fall to the ground.

'Wait, Annebeth? Where is she? I don't think she would leave my bedside, if I was as indisposed as it seems. Indisposed? There I go again with the 25 cent words. Wait, wasn't she my girlfriend? Then why do I-' I was brought out of my pondering by the sound of a door slamming open. I looked up to see Will slightly out of breath with a worried look in his eye, that quickly turned to one of annoyance.

"Why are you up and why did you take off your heart monitor?!" Will demanded.

"Well you said the gods were going to take me to Olympus, so I was going to find some clean clothes and take a shower, sorry if I scared you," I said sheepishly.

Will glared at me, then relented after a moment. "The bathroom is down the hall, I'll go grab you some fresh clothes and put them outside the door." Will said turning away.

"Wait," I said. Will turned and looked at me questioningly. "Do you know where Annebeth is?"

"She's...in her cabin taking a rest from watching over you," Will said, turning on his heel and walking away before I could say anything else. I raised my eyebrow at that but then shrugged assuming he must have had other things to. I walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind me, locking it. I disrobed and stepped into the warm water of the shower and felt re-energized. After a bit my mind wandered back to my thoughts before Will interrupted.

'She was my girlfriend, right?' I wondered as I tried to think back. 'Yes, I can still remember the way her lips had tasted on my tongue, when we were kissing behind the Athena cabin, which probably pissed her mom off, thinking of it. I still remember how I felt when I wasn't with her; impatient to see her again. So why when I think of her now, why do I feel nothing? We weren't just some passing fling were we? No, I didn't feel this way until I woke up, which means this is some kind of outside forc-Aphrodite, that bitch!' I ground my teeth as I felt my hand begin to itch terribly. 'If she did something to me, I'll kill her,' I swore in my head.

'No, I need to wait I don't know for sure its her, it could be another of my enemies, I need more evidence first,' I thought. It was at that point I realized I had finished my shower and was just standing underneath the now cold water. I shivered a bit and stepped out, dried myself, and dressed in the clean clothes Will had brought me. I walked to the living room about to leave and look for Annebeth, when a golden flash lit up the room forcing me to avert my eyes. When it died down I saw Apollo standing in all his 'glory' an unusually gloomy look on his face.

"Hey, cuz, you look better than I thought you would," he said, placing a hand on my shoulder which proceeded to glow briefly, and I felt the strength in my limbs return to their normal state. "I just returned you to the state you were in before you fell unconscious."

"Th-thank you, Lord Apollo," I said, bowing.

"Don't worry about it, Perce, like I told the other Olympians, you're one of my favorite demigods and get rid of that bowing and 'lord' stuff we're family, and family shouldn't act that way no matter what my father says," he said.

My mouth dropped open, Apollo was usually one of the most narcissistic and egotistical gods and, from what I had seen, would enjoy every moment of someone bowing to him.

"You don't think that badly of me do you? And you should close your mouth, you're drooling," said Apollo his face lightening slightly.

"Sorry," I said wiping my mouth. "It was just a surprise, that's all."

"Alright, lets get this over with," Apollo said placing his hand on my shoulder again, light covered my vision, and I felt my self being whisked off elsewhere.

When the light died down I could see that I was now in the Olympian Council room, where I saw several of the gods giving me concerning looks. The most disturbing of which was Athena's gaze of absolute and barely constrained rage that was so terrifying I almost flinched, but when you get the same look from the Titan of Time it makes you a little resistant. The next worrisome was Aphrodite's tear and makeup streaked face that looked at me with sadness and a bit of fear.

'If she was the one that did something to me, why would she look at me like that? It would explain the fear, but nothing else,' I thought slightly bewildered.

I was shaken out of my musings by Apollo patting me on the shoulder and giving me a sympathetic look before growing to his godly height and taking a seat on his throne. The moment Apollo began walking away, Poseidon stood from his throne, shrank to his mortal height, and began walking towards me. When he reached me he pulled me into a hug that would make Tyson jealous, and I felt a single tear hit my shoulder.

"I thought you were going to die," he muttered just loud enough for me to hear.

"You know me Dad, I'm always cheating Thanatos," I said with a slight smirk, releasing him. "Now is someone going to tell me what exactly happened?"

Poseidon then walked back to his throne growing to his godly height once more. "I think it would be best if I explained," he said summoning me a chair to sit in. "It's quite a long story."

As he began the story, I immediately had to interrupt. "Annebeth was unconscious too? I didn't see her in the med bay and Will said she was in her cabin resting," I said confused. 'Well at least that explains the scream I heard,' I thought.

"Sit down and shut up, sea spawn, until told otherwise," Athena growled at me, hatred now evident in her gaze now as well. That got me to be quiet until it got to the point that Apollo was explaining why we were unconscious.

'I knew it must have been her,' I thought, my eyes red with rage. Before anyone could react I had launched myself at Aphrodite, Riptide already uncapped and ready to strike her down. However when I looked into her eyes I saw pure fear as she flinched away from me, not even raising her hands to defend herself. I wanted to push Riptide into her heart when I thought of what she had done, but I had seen those eyes before, seen the way she had shrunk in fear. I had seen it on my own face when I was younger and Gabe was drunk. He would beat me into unconsciousness, and I quickly learned not to try to defend myself least it be worse. So when I felt the arms of my father and Apollo wrap around my torso I let them pull me away and disarm me.

"Percy, you have to stop, it wasn't her, the Fates made her do it," said Apollo placatingly.

"It's okay, I can't do it, I want to, but I can't," I said. "You can let me go, I swear on the Styx I won't harm Aphrodite today." They released me and I took my seat again as thunder rumbled overhead.

"Yeah, because you're weak," I heard Ares mutter.

I began vibrating in rage, until I felt my chair arm break and realized I was actually using my Earth-shaker powers and took several deep breaths to calm myself after which I motioned for Apollo to continue. As he kept on I began becoming more and more concerned.

'No, no, no, no, she's not dead, right? Please tell me I didn't lose someone else!' I yelled inside my head.

When they told me the only solution they had found, I felt myself slide out of my chair ending up on my knees facing the floor, as I realized the truth that I had begged to be a lie.

"Dammit! Gods Dammit! Not another one!" I screamed as I began punching the marble floor. "WHY? Why is it everyone but me? Why must I live on while everyone I care for dies around me?!"

'And the worst part is I don't even feel a broken heart, I just feel emptiness,' I thought, but I couldn't say that out loud, they would think I was a monster.

I couldn't punish anyone so I just kept punching the floor, I could hear shouting in the back ground but I didn't care, I could see the blood coming from my knuckles but I didn't care, I could feel a hurricane starting around me and an earthquake erupting under me but I couldn't care, so I just kept punching until I felt something strike me in the back of the head and I welcomed the onsetting darkness like an old friend who would take my problems away.

Mount Olympus, Apollo's Temple

For the second time that day I awoke confused and with no idea how I had gotten there. Looking around the room I saw rows of hospital gurneys and blindingly golden walls with inscriptions depicting figures playing music and reciting poetry, so I figured I must be in Apollo's temple. At that instant, everything came back to me in a rush but I figured it must be some sick nightmare, until I felt the same emptiness and knew it was real, and so I cried. Cried over everything I had lost, wanting to lash out but having nothing to lash out at, until I looked at my arm. I pulled out Riptide, noticing that my knuckles were healed, uncapped it, and slid the blade on my forearm expecting it to cut, but nothing happened. That's when I remembered I still had the 'blessing' of Achilles, so I capped my sword and with it in pen form began stabbing my arm as hard as I could. It didn't break the skin but it did hurt and let me forget in the pain of the moment. Through the pain I vaguely heard someone come into the room and rush to my bedside, but I just kept stabbing my arm until I felt someone grab my arm, stopping me. Then I was enveloped into the warmest hug I had ever felt, and after a moment I stopped resisting and just cried into the shoulder of who ever was holding me. After what could have been a hour or a second I finally calmed down enough to release my prisoner and saw that it was Apollo, who was looking at me with concern.

"Feel better?" he asked worry marking his brow.

"Yes, I needed that," I responded, slightly embarrassed that someone had seen me break down like that.

"Don't feel embarrassed," Apollo said as if reading my mind. "I somewhat know what you're going through and I had someone who helped me."

"What happened?" I asked, glad for something to get my mind off my problems.

"Well it all started when I was young, and quite arrogant," began Apollo. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Okay, okay, even more arrogant than now," he corrected, rolling his eyes. "And I came across that narcissistic asshole Eros practicing archery."

'Oh the irony,' I thought.

"As I watched him, he didn't even hit the bulls-eye once, not even by accident. So I walked up to him and ridiculed him for it, until he was red in the face with rage. I thought it was quite funny at the time, thinking a minor god, could do nothing to me, an Olympian," Apollo said, a faraway look in his eye. "Then the jerk told me I would regret belittling him by showing me the power of love, I, of course, just scoffed and flashed away."

"Man you really were a dick," I said. "You sound like one of my bullies in grade school."

Apollo just glared at me. "Do you want me to tell the story or are you just going to sit there and judge my past actions."

"No, no, go ahead, my mouth just gets a bit ahead of me sometimes," I said cheekily.

"Fast forward one year, and I was out flirting with the nymphs as one is want to do," Apollo continued.

"You mean as a womanizer is want to do," I interrupted again.

"Okay I'm done telling this story," said Apollo, standing up.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I won't interrupt you again, I promise," I swore.

"You better not," Apollo sat back down and cleared his throat. "As I was in the middle of courting the most beautiful of them, Daphne, I felt something pierce my heart, as I looked down I saw a golden arrow sticking out of my chest. Yet instead of feeling pain, my heart was flooded with love and when I looked back into the eyes of Daphne, I felt all that love directed at her. When I looked back at where the arrow had come from, I saw Eros there, standing in the shadows, smirking."

Apollo paused for breath. "And what I said next sealed my fate."

"What did you say?" I said, unable to help myself.

"I said," Apollo paused dramatically. "'I guess that was a lucky shot coming from you' and I again saw his face cloud with red while I laughed at his expense. Then using all my charms, I finally convinced Daphne to marry me after many weeks. After which we settled down in a small cottage over looking the stream she was tied to, and for one month I experienced total bliss. It was not to last, however, and one morning when we were sitting by the stream having a breakfast picnic out of the trees came a lead arrow aimed at Daphne, and before I could do anything, it struck her right in the heart. I ran to her expecting her to be dying, but what happened was much worse. As I held her in my arms, I saw all the love in her eyes darken and be replaced with hatred. She shoved me away, told me I disgusted her, that she could never love a man like me, and ran away into the forest. Confused and distraught, I ran after her into the forest, and out of my peripheral vision I saw Eros wave at me, a look of dark satisfaction on his face. I ignored him and chased after Daphne for hours, until she got as far away from the river as she could. Just as I was about to reach her, I heard her pray to her father and watched helplessly as she turned into a laurel tree, I then felt as if my heart were being ripped from my chest and collapsed. When I woke up seeing that what happened was true, I took out an arrow and was about to use it to end my existence, thinking a couple decades of reforming would help me manage my despair. Luckily just before I was going to plunge it into my throat, it was slapped out of my hand and I was enveloped in a hug, which turned out to be Artemis, who was in the area hunting."

"Artemis, the man-hating goddess? The Artemis that shoots at you every excuse she gets? That Artemis?" I said disbelieving.

"Don't ever tell her I told you, but back then she was much less set in her man-hating ways, and we got along great. Over the years, we just grew apart." said Apollo sadly. "Anyways, I made the laurel tree one of my sacred symbols, so I would never forget."

"And that's all it took? One hug from your sister, to fix your broken heart?" I said skeptically.

"Oh Hades, no, I was depressed for a century before I finally realized I was doing everyone a disservice by neglecting them of my awesome presence," said Apollo, grinning widely.

"This is the arrogance that I was talking about," I said, rolling my eyes.

Apollo just laughed. "In all seriousness, if you just stay depressed and hurt yourself, you'll also hurt everyone around you that cares about you. You should go back to camp, talk to your friends, talk to your mom, if you look for it you'll able to find comfort somewhere."

"You're right, I'll probably be sad for awhile, but life goes on with, or without you, right?" I responded, some light returning to my eyes.

'I can't let Mom and Paul worry about me now that they have a new baby,' I thought. 'It would be best if I stayed away, until I can at least function normally again.'

"Would you send me back to camp, Apollo?" I asked. "I don't really want to walk."

"Of course, cuz," he said placing his hand on my shoulder and flashing me away.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I saw that I was back in the Poseidon cabin, next to my bed. Suddenly feeling very exhausted, I fell onto my bed, with only a few tears wetting my pillow before I fell into a dreamless (thanks, Morpheus) sleep.

AN: Well there we go, and if anyone thinks that Percy's emotions yo-yoed a bit at the end there, I always felt that Percy would be kind of bipolar, just like the sea, calm one minute, stormy and violent the next. Also, I would like to know if you thought Percy's breakdown was believable. Again, tell me what you like, didn't like, or anything really because it lets me know that I am doing this for a purpose. And remember it might not be the same Hephaestus time, but it will be the same Hephaestus channel.

(That was horrible, I know)