Okay, so I had free time in Computer Programming at school, so I decided to write this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Oh yeah, get some sleep. Yeah right. He should've known that now I'd get demigod nightmares. Seriously, they suck. This time I dreamed I was on The Princess Andromeda, listening to Luke talk to his hit-bear-men, Agrius and Orieus.
"You fools! I told you both to infect Jackson, not the girl!" Luke's voice wasn't raspy and sharp, like Kronos's. It was his voice. His eyes weren't the gold of Kronos's, either. They were the stained-glass blue they used to be.
"Y-yes master." I watched Agrius cower. Orieus simply frowned and said. "Boo-boo."
"What do you mean, 'yes master'! You've gone and ruined the whole plan! If you had infected Jackson, Kronos could've been reborn without any delays! That incompetent son of Hades would've been the Hero of the Prophecy! But--" Luke stopped talking suddenly. A slow, cruel smile spread across his face. "Wait… Jackson will go on a quest to save her, of this I'm sure. It won't be too hard to pick him off on the way… yes, and we'll use Annabeth as bait."
Like a reflex, my dream-self growled and clenched his fists. Unfortunately, Luke seemed to sense I was there. He spun to face 'me.' But before anything else happened, I wasn't there anymore. I was on Ogygia.
Calypso was kneeling by her garden. I called out to her. "Calypso!" She seemed to hear me and looked up.
"Hello, Percy," she replied. "How are you on Ogygia?"
"As far as I know, I'm not. I'm in a dream, so I'm…visiting, I guess."
"Ah. You seem troubled, Percy. Is something wrong?" Her voice was gentle and caring. Although she didn't look any older than me, she suddenly reminded me of my mom. Gods.
"Yeah, you know my friend Annabeth? She's sick; she has this disease that'll make her forget everything she knows. Luke—Kronos—infected her with the disease. I need to find a way to save her. It's really important."
"I know she's a really good friend of yours. When you were unconscious here, you only mentioned Grover and Tyson once. Other than that, all you said was Annabeth's name. That's it."
I felt my face turning red. "Yeah, she's… she's my best friend. She's like the only one who gets me, you know? Well, she gets me most of the time. I don't know why she's so mean to Rachel."
Calypso laughed gently. "Percy, you are very sweet, but you don't understand one thing—both Rachel and Annabeth are jealous of each other."
"What?" My face felt even warmer now. "Wha… that doesn't even make sense! I don't…"
"Percy, it matters not if you like one or both or neither of them. The fact remains that both of them like you, and both are jealous of each other." Calypso's voice was calm and quiet.
"How would you know?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was sorry for them. I really didn't want to hurt her feelings.
She didn't look hurt—in fact she was laughing quietly. "Percy, I am a woman, just like your friends. I understand what they're going through, truly. And mark my words, Perseus Jackson; you will soon have to decide between them. You cannot go on constantly switching your loyalty between Annabeth and Rachel."
Her words struck something in me. Something… I couldn't remember. All of a sudden the island was blurring, and so was Calypso. "Goodbye, Percy. Perhaps we will meet again soon."
In a second everything was dark, and then light again.
I opened my eyes to see the tiny room I slept in that night. Annabeth was shaking my shoulder. "Percy, wake up!"
"Wha—" I was going to ask her what she was doing, but then I remembered. There would be only one reason Annabeth would be waking me up under these circumstances—the quest.
She spoke then, and her voice echoed my thoughts. "Its morning; time to start the quest. By the way, you really should see a doctor about the drooling; you still do, you know."
"Ah, yes, how could I forget after you telling me the first time you saw me when I was fully conscious?"
Annabeth smiled. "Good times. Remember Aunty Em, and The Lotus Hotel and Casino? Oh, and don't forget—"
I interrupted. "—Crusty's Water Bed Palace and The Tunnel… I mean Waterland in Denver." I tried to hide that I was going to say "The Tunnel of Love," but I think she noticed anyway. I never thought that I'd go on a Tunnel of Love ride with metal spiders, a magic scarf, and a shield of a war god back then. If anything, Greek mythology has taught me to expect the unexpected.
"Well, come on, Percy, our quest starts in an hour, and you still need to go to your apartment and get your stuff ready." I nodded and she stuck out a hand. I grabbed it and hoisted myself out of the bed.
"I'll go now, I guess. Meet you here in… hmm, twenty minutes?"
"Sure, see you then. I'll go see about Grover."
"No, don't; I'll find him when I leave."
"Okay."
I got started in earnest then. Running out of the room, I slammed into Grover. "Hey, G-man! Get ready; the quest starts in an hour."
"Percy, I've been ready for a while now! Well, other than my hat and tin cans."
"Okay, dude. I've got to go get my stuff ready, but I'll meet you both here in 20 minutes," I answered. He nodded.
I ran down the front steps of the hospital without running into anyone else I knew. In a second, I was in the Toyota Camry, on my way through the New York traffic.
Inside the apartment, I grabbed basically everything I thought we'd need and stuffed it into a bag. You know, javelins, knifes, all that jazz. I also threw in a small pouch of Drachmas and a roll of mortal cash. I barely managed to stuff in a few sets of clothes, like ten shirts and two pairs of jeans. Riptide was in my pocket, as usual.
Just as I was about to leave, I heard a sound behind me. Immediately I spun around to see…
"Rachel?" I asked, even though she was standing right in front of me. "What are you doing here?" I heard the surprise in my own voice. I knew she knew where I lived, because we studied together sometimes. But it's not like I was going to read about the Revolutionary War in the summer, at least not by my own free will.
"Well, I dropped by after you didn't reply to any of my e-mails last night, or pick up any of my phone calls! Jeez, Percy! I though you had a run-in with a monster or something, but you're obviously fine. You could at least have, like, called—" She stopped talking as soon as she saw the bag in my hands. "Hey, what's up?"
I groaned internally. It would take way too long to explain the entire story, and I only had… I glanced at my watch… 10 more minutes to get to Providence Park. (That's the hospital, remember?) Crap.
"Well, see, I'm going on this one quest with Annabeth and Grover. It's urgent. I'd love to chat more, but I have to go." I blurted it all out in a rush. She blinked and asked,
"You're going on a quest?" I nodded quickly.
"I'd really like to tell you more, but I have to go…now," I said, stressing the now.
"Oh. Hey, maybe…" she started to say something, but I was already on my way down the stairway to the parking lot.
Just in time, I ran up the gray stairs into the hospital. On my way in, Dr. Heale stopped me. "Ah, Percy! Just the guy I wanted to see!" He seemed in higher spirits than the day before.
"Hi doc. What's going on?"
"Percy, I'm just coming from Annabeth's room. I see she still remembers yesterday."
"Yes, she does. But what happens when she forgets? When she forgets about Etgroftnig? What do we do then?"
"Don't worry about that at all. I've given her a bracelet that continuously sends very slight vibrations up her arm. It's programmed so she can remember basic skills, like how to eat, drink, talk, and breathe. In addition to that, she will remember three more things- one, that she is a demigod, and two, the skills of fighting. The last is perhaps the most important: she will always remember that she has Etgroftnig."
It was a bit of a relief that she wouldn't forget how to fight. I didn't want to imagine her against a monster without a clue of what she should do. But talking and eating? I was just terrified. What kind of a disease would have someone forget how to breathe?
"Well, Percy, you should go. Your quest starts in half an hour." I gave him a weak smile and continued to room 818.
When I got there I saw that Grover and Chiron were the only ones there.
"Hi. Where's Annabeth?"
Grover smirked. "Well, well, somebody's eager to see Annabeth," he sing-songed.
I felt my ears turning red. "No- it's not-ugh, Grover!" Grover just laughed. He was about to say something when the door opened and Annabeth came in. She had a blue backpack strapped to her back, and she was dressed in a navy blue sweatshirt and dark jeans –clothes that wouldn't show much wear even if she was in a few battles. Once again I realized how far ahead she thought.
"Hi guys! When do we leave? You know, for the quest. The one that's today. That'll take us to the west coast."
Apparently when Annabeth got nervous, she talked a lot.
"Jeez Annabeth, calm down, we're leaving soon… I think," I looked at Chiron, who, in turn, looked at his watch.
"Soon, in fact, you are leaving now. Check your bags one more time to see if you have everything," Chiron suggested.
All three of us nodded and opened our bags. I looked once again and counted my nine shirts and two pairs of jeans. I saw the bag of drachmas and felt the wallet in my pocket. I felt Riptide, too. Yep, I was all good.
I looked up and saw that Annabeth and Grover were still checking their stuff. Grover was muttering, "Tin cans…apples…recyclables…cap…"
Annabeth was speaking quietly, too. She said, "Shirts, jeans, purse…" she muttered something indistinct here. "Knife…picture--" All of a sudden she cut off and blushed. In a second she looked up too and said, "I have everything I need."
Grover said, "Same here."
"All right then. As you may recall from your first quest, you were dropped off at a bus station," Chiron started.
"Oh, you mean the bus we blew up? Of course!" I said sarcastically. I mean, come on!
He ignored me. "Well, this time you will not be taking a bus. You will be driving yourself. We got the car cheap from Mount Olympus. However be careful; you do not want to anger the gods by mistreating their gift."
Before I knew it, we were ushered out of the hospital, into the parking lot, and into a white van. Here we were again, on a quest, once again across the vast country of America.
I don't like this chapter too much; nothing much happened. Drop me a line, I'll update faster. Thanks!
… Oh, right, if Calypso seemed OOC, it's because she's starting to get over Percy. I'm not a big fan of Percy/Calypso. Sorry.