"I love dreams!" said no demigod ever.

The last time this had ever happened to me it had been a very unique experience. When I arrived at camp I mentioned it to Percy as nothing but a conversation piece, but he assured me my dream was very real. I learned that demigods often have dreams that tell them about things that have to do with stuff that's going to happen to them eventually. He said that if I was having dreams about the Trojan War, then I needed to learn more about it and be prepared as I might just have to go on a quest involving it soon.

So to help out a friend, he got Annabeth to teach me about the Trojan War. It's a good thing I enjoy history, or else I wouldn't have been able to keep up with her. Now here I was, having another freaky dream about the war. Only this time it wasn't nearly as pleasant.

I looked around me to see where I was this time. Moaning and screams came from all around. I was once again in that field outside the walls. Only this time I was in a camp filled with wounded and dying soldier. Around the wall was a line of corpses, all wearing various colors signifying where their loyalties lied. I was thankful it was only a dream, had I really been there I would have been throwing up all over the ground.. I had seen some gruesome sights, but this was just too much.

The smell of rotting and decaying flesh, corpses being burnt in bonfires. Even though I couldn't throw up, it still sent me to my knees. As I sat their hugging myself I felt a stranger come up behind me and lay his hand on my shoulder. Percy and Annabeth had told me that even though they were real events, they were still just dreams so nothing could harm me, well not physically at least. Out of fear my hand darted for my back where my bow would have been, but with it being a dream, and me laying in my bed there was no weapon. And even had I had it, I doubt I would have been able to hurt him. It calmed my nerves down to see who it was though. Seeing his face and knowing his great deeds made it a little easier to cope with my surroundings.

"O-Odysseus…" I said to the man before me. "it's been a while."

"Has it?" He asked. "For us it has been but a few hours. How long has it been for you?"

"About a week," I lowered my head a little and whispered. "though it feels more like a year."

Odysseus gave me one of those understanding looks. "I see, the last time we met you didn't know you were a demigod, right?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah."

"Tell me then, who is your godly parent?"

I almost instinctively told him, but then realized that probably wasn't such a good idea. Here in this time, Artemis breaking her oath of chastity would send the world into an uproar even worse than it has in mine. Had it been anyone else I would have kept my mouth shut, but this was Odysseus, if I couldn't trust this son of Athena, then who could I trust? "If I tell you Odysseus, you must keep it a secret even from the gods."

"I see… so it is Artemis."

I stared at him wide eyed. "How did you-?"

"I am a son of Athena, Arc. I wouldn't make a very good hero if I couldn't so much as deduce the parent of a single demigod."

I guess I had to agree with him. It WAS Odysseus after all. "You must have a difficult path ahead of you if Artemis is your mother. I would pray for the gods to watch over you, but I think that would only cause more problems."

"The thought is enough, thank you Odysseus."

"No, we should be thanking you, Arc. Because of you Achilles and Ajax have been far more careful during their fights. Judging from the look on your face this is the first time you've ever been on a battlefield. I'm sure it looks bad, but I assure you had you not come and warned us about how little time they had left, it would be far worse."

Worse? I didn't even want to imagine that. What could be worse than this? "Ah, it seems that you're time with me is running out."

"Huh?" I looked down and sure enough, my body was beginning to go out of focus. That always meant that either I was about to change scenes or wake up. Either way my time with Odysseus was up.

The scene shifted and I was suddenly in a hot , muggy place filled steam. Stone tiles sat under my feet and the sound of running water echoed off the walls. It was a beautiful room, White marble columns rose to the ceiling holding up the roof and lounge chairs made in an ancient style laid scattered about. Pedestals could be seen here and there, often with a bowl or cornucopia full of fruits like grapes and apples.

I couldn't see very well on account of the steam, but decided I'd look around a bit. With no real way of getting my bearings, I chose to follow the sound of the water. As I got closer I saw that in the center of the room was a large dip in the ground filled with hot water. It had steps leading down into it and a ring of gold tiles along its outer edge. I had seen things like this in pictures and movies before. In ancient times people weren't as conscious about their privacy as they are now. So they built huge public baths that multiple people could bathe in regardless whether they were family, friends, strangers and more often than not different genders.

Sometimes, if they had the money which few other than royalty ever did, they would have indoor public baths constructed. And if they were truly wealthy, they would hire someone to construct a room underneath where whenever they wished to bathe, their servants would light and maintain fires underneath the bath heating up the water and basically turn it into a hot tub or hot spring inside their own home. Since this was one of those types of baths, I was in the home of someone VERY important.

"Achilles?" said a woman's voice. I winced. It was an automatic, natural reaction. Being born with one of those names your parents never intended to use all of, will do that to you. Because you know that whenever they use your full first name, you're in for it, big time. "I'm sorry lord Achilles, I didn't mean to frighten you."

I turned around to face the voice and blushed at what I saw. It was the most beautiful woman in the world (at the time at least), Helen of Troy. Her hair was wet and she wore nothing but a towel and sandals. My eyes got wide as heat rose to my face. In embarrassment I quickly turned around and apologized. "Sorry miss Helen miss… I… uh… I didn't see anything… I swear… just uh... just pay me no mind!"

I felt something warm and soft grab me from behind. Helen had pulled me in a bear hug… somehow, and laid her head on my shoulder. My nose started to bleed a little. "Lord Achilles, how old are you?" I barely managed to stammer out a fourteen.

"Fourteen you say? You seem much older than that. I'm sixteen, myself."

I wasn't paying much attention. I wasn't exactly a pro on social norms, but I was pretty sure she was too close. Not that I minded… she was definitely the most beautiful girl in the world for a reason. Still though I felt what was happening was wrong, so I had to push her away, more for my own sanity than for anything else.

"What's wrong?" she asked, a little crestfallen.

"We're… kind've young and… we… don't really… know each other that well… I mean… we shouldn't be… this close and…" talking is difficult when there's a beautiful girl five steps behind you wearing nothing but a towel.

"We're… young? I don't understand. We're both already at marrying age."

"What are you talking about? Most people don't get married until they're AT LEAST in their twenty's!"

"Is… is that so? I guess the future is even more different than I thought…"

That's when the light bulb in my head turned on. Of course she was acting this way. Three thousand years ago, this would be a perfectly normal situation between people of our age. After all, they had mixed gender baths, and the age people got married were normally around thirteen or so, because the life expectancy back then was about thirty or forty. By the time you were fifteen or twenty, you had already lived half of your life.

"I'm sorry Helen." I said, my back still turned. "That hadn't even occurred to me. I totally forgot that our culture was probably different. If I offended you, I'm sorry."

I heard Helen let out a deep sigh. I wanted to turn around and console her, but given our current state I couldn't. Besides… my face was too red.

"Lord Achilles…" Her voice sounded sad. "What have you dreamt about your whole life?"

That was a weird question. Then again I live in a camp full of the children of ancient greek gods, so I'm not sure what really constitutes as weird anymore. "Well, I guess all sorts of things."

"What about… me?"

"Well I'm dreaming of you now aren't I?"

"Well, yes I guess so, but… no. No this isn't a dream. This is something different."

"Well then, no… I guess."

Another deep sigh. "You can turn around now, Lord Achilles. I've placed on a toga." I took a deep, cool breath. The servants heating the bath must have stopped stoking the fires, because during our conversation the steam went from a thick fog to just a mild mist that covered the floor. My eyes got a little wide in surprise when I saw Helen. Honestly it was like every time I looked at her, her beauty grew. I had never met Aphrodite, but I reckoned this was probably what she looked like. Then again, if she was anything like mom, she could probably take any form she wanted.

My amazement was short lived though as I watched something glistening fall down her cheeks. Once more, Helen of Troy was crying. "Helen please don't cry. I know this war is tough on you but… It'll be over soon, I promise. You can trust me I'm from the future after all."

She looked up at me like she was shocked, then started to cry harder. "I-I'm not crying because of the war… I'm crying because of you!"

I recoiled. Me? I made her cry? What did I do? Did I say something wrong? As always when I made a girl cry, I felt the familiar pain of a stake being driven through my chest and the weight of the world crashing down on me. It was never a pleasant feeling and always made me hate myself.

"I-I'm sorry Helen… whatever I did I'm sorry."

She wiped away her tears as she talked. "It's fine Lord Achilles. It's nothing you did. It's not your fault."

"Then what-" she held up a hand, cutting me off. Pulling out her knife and looking at it she said "Lord Achilles, do you know what this is?"

Of course I did. Every demigod knew the story. It was the knife that belonged to her during the war. While she was kept locked away, that was her only source of information from the outside world. "Yeah, everyone knows your story. Heck, your knife is still in the armory back at camp, although no one dares to use it given its importance."

That managed to get a surprised smile out of her. I guess she wasn't expecting that. But it turned right back into that sad look she always wore. "Day in and day out, I look into this blade. I watch people die, villages burn, families slaughtered. I see something nice and comforting only on the rarest of occasions. It's enough to make me go insane." She gripped the blade even harder. I could understand her pain, I only saw the aftermath of a battle and it was enough to shake me to my core.

"Do you know what my only solace is? The one thing that keeps me sane?"

"No. I don't."

She turned her head towards me and smiled. I pointed to myself and the smile grew. She really meant me? How could I be her solace? We've only met once before and I said as much.

"It's because…" She blushed. Oh man that was cute. "Even though I see such horrible things, I have the sweetest of dreams. They started shortly before I was sent here. At first they were nightmares. Each day I slept and dreamt I was wandering through the fields of Asphodel." She kept flipping the knife over and over in her hands.

"They continued, even after I was kidnapped and brought here." She got a repulsed look on her face and sat the knife down. I guess she saw something she really didn't want to see. Now she was picking up and eating a bowl full of grapes. "Then I got the knife, and that only made things worse." She popped a grape in her mouth and chewed really slow before swallowing. She seemed awkwardly nervous, like she didn't want to have this conversation. Or rather that she did, she just never thought she would be able to.

"Then, on one particularly bad day, when I watched an old friend die in the knife, I fell asleep. Once again dreaming of the fields of Asphodel, only this time it was different. All the other times in my dreams I saw myself running around trying to find someone that I knew, but I never could. I just ran around aimlessly, until there was almost nothing left of me and I was left broken and empty like all the other souls." She plopped the last grape into her mouth and put the bowl down. Now she just stared into her lap. "That time though, that day, it was different. This time just as I had given up hope, a young man appeared. I was about to pass him by like I did so many others but he grabbed my arm and whispered my name in my ear. I turned to look at him and knew I had never seen him before. As I panicked trying to understand what was going on he just smiled a smile so kind and gentle. Before I knew it I had calmed down. He smuggled me out of the underworld and brought me back to life, and every dream afterwards I've had has been like that. He and I were always together doing all sorts of things. Sometimes we were here in ancient Greece, sometimes we were in a strange foreign world with tall buildings made of metal and stone. These past few years I believed that boy to be something I could only find in my dreams. And then, a few hours ago… he came to me, outside of a dream."

"You mean to say… it was…"

"Yes, you're the man from my dreams. The one who saved me from the underworld. My Lord Achilles."

I wasn't sure how to feel about that. I mean yeah, it was nice and all to know that I had helped her through such an obviously rough patch without doing a thing and all but, come on. You have someone tell you that the only reason they kept their sanity was because they dreamt of you every night… three thousand years before you were ever born.

I started to say something but realized the sound wouldn't come out of my mouth. I looked down and realized my body was phasing out again. I looked up and tried to tell her I'd be back, but I couldn't make a single sound. I think she got the message though, because just as everything went black I sore I saw her mouth 'I know' as she was waving goodbye.

"Come on Arc! You were right, wake up!" I shot up and knocked my head on the upper bunk. Curse my height. As I stood up dazed and rubbing my head I tried opening my eyes. Stars danced around in my vision as Wisteria slowly came into focus.

"Right? About what?"

"About Thalia. They just put the Golden Fleece on and she came out! Zeus will let you off the hook now!"

She drug me out of the cabin in my undershirt and boxers and we ran up to the top of the hill. When we got there everyone was standing, completely stunned. Honestly did these people ever listen? I told them this would happen yet everyone was SO shocked. Percy had returned, barking orders trying to get people to take her to the big house or at least get her nectar and ambrosia. That's when I saw Brian standing off to the side with some of the others from the Hermes cabin. I rushed over to him and got him to give me some of his ambrosia, then rushed over to Thalia's side. I was well aware what Thalia meant. I, like every other camper, knew that Kronos was planning on using the children of the big three in his equally as big plans. But just like Percy I knew we didn't have time for that. Thalia was in bad shape, and she needed our help.

I fed her a few pieces while Percy tried to keep her from going into shock.

"Hey Thalia. Nice to meet you. I'm Percy, son of Poseidon."

"And I'm Arc, son of Artemis. Welcome to the Never-Supposed-To-Exist club. As a new member take these complimentary pieces of ambrosia. Don't eat too much too fast, or you'll turn into a pile of ash."

"Son of… Poseidon… and… Artemis? Seriously?"

Percy and I nodded our heads. It must have been strange for her after all I guess.

"So tell me, what's the last thing you remember?" Percy asked.

"I was… being attacked… by monsters."

"Ah I see." I said. "Well, let me fill you in on what's happened since. Annabeth is all grown up, Kronos is trying to take over the world, and Luke is like… his major general or something. Oh, and Percy and I are in the same boat as you with the whole gods aren't sure whether or not to kill us thing. On the upside, there was apparently a summer where a centaur ran around in a prom dress, not that that makes things much better."

"Arc I don't think you're helping."

"Well it's better to tell her the bad news now while she's just woken up."

"You never think, do you?"

"I try not to think. It interferes with being awesome."

"Whatever, come on, help me carry her back to the big house."

After Percy and I carried Thalia back to the big house, Chiron ordered camp to begin breakfast early. We all ate once again in mostly silence. I was used to the cafeteria being quiet in the mornings, but this was really something else.

I sat with Wisteria and the huntresses again. I'm not a big fan of sitting around doing nothing, especially after a lot of drama unfolds. The camp needed something amazing. Something to get them all riled up, put a little pep in their step. So I did the only reasonable thing there was to do.

Standing up I said "Hey Percy."

He turned and looked at me, a face as sullen as the rest of the camps.

"You. Me. Duel by the seashore. Three days."

Everybody gasped. People started murmuring. Percy was the camps most famous and strongest warrior. He had defeated a fury, the minotaur, Medusa, fought off a chimera, killed dozens of other monsters, helped retrieve the Golden Fleece and Zeus's Master Bolt, returned Hades' Helm of Darkness, and gone all the way to the underworld and back. All of this on top of the fact he was a son of Poseidon. Even though he was younger than me he was already a veteran at fighting.

As for me? I was the camp's favorite rookie. I had already defeated the Nemian Lion, Mormo, and the underworlds guard dog Cerberus. Not to mention I was the forbidden son of the goddess of the hunt and lady of the moon, Artemis.

"Why would we do that?" Percy asked. His voice seemed disinterested, but his face was starting to light up with that mischievous look of his.

"Same reason as always for me. I want to test my strength! I've already taken down three of the baddest monsters the mythic world has to throw at me. I honestly believe I can bring down the baddest guy at camp, after being here for less than a few short weeks. Camp Half-Blood's number one hero versus its newest up and coming rookie of the summer! We'll fight each other with everything we have and only one will be left standing!"

Percy's mouth turned into that perfect evil grin. I knew something like that would get his attention. There was no way Percy could back down from a challenge like this, and I had a feeling he knew it was to help all of his friends. That was just the kind of guy he was.

"All right. What are the terms of the duel?" Just as I had hoped the whole camp started murmuring and chatting. People were getting excited already saying things like "Wow they're actually going to fight?", "This is going to be great!", and "I told you they would fight by the end of the summer. You owe me five drachmas!". I looked at Percy and saw him smile. I was sure he knew what I was thinking and he was glad to see the camp going back to normal just as much as I was.

"Right after campfire. We'll duel down by the seashore on the beach, this way you and I can fully utilize our powers. We each get three pieces of equipment. Duel ends as always when we land something that normally would've killed us."

"Sounds good enough to me. Let's do it!"

The camp erupted into a frenzy of absolute chaos. The Aphrodite and Hermes cabins wasted no time gossiping and spreading the news to every camper, nymph, naiad, dryad, and such that they could find. If there were ears to listen, they were speaking every word they could into them. The Hephaestus didn't stay for long. They got up and walked off as they each started sharing plans and ideas on how to build a set of stands that would let everyone in the camp watch without Percy and I blowing them to bits. Some of the Athena members must have overheard them as they started walking and talking with the Hephaestus cabin the minute they walked by their table. It wasn't all that surprising to see those two cabins working together. Children of Hephaestus may be able to build just about anything, but they often lack creativity. Athenians minds never stop coming up with ideas, but they rarely have the ability to bring them to fruition. When you put those two cabins together they could do just about anything.

The Ares cabin was probably the most excited. Not much of a shock since all they really cared about was fighting anyway. Children of those such as Demeter and Dionysus started working together to come up with refreshments (Non-Alcoholic they assured us). Even some of the hunters of mom were excited (of course they were all talking about how nice it would be to see me lose for once). Within minutes the only people left at the food pavilion were me, Percy, Annabeth (who looked way better compared to this morning), Grover, Wisteria, Brian, and Chiron. We all walked over to Percy's table with the same idea in mind.

"Alright, I'll tell you two of the items I'm bringing, my sword Riptide and the shield Tyson made me to the duel. What about you?" Percy asked.

Annabeth punched his arm. "You aren't supposed to say that Percy!"

"I'm bringing my bow and my trident." Wisteria whacked me in the head. "You aren't supposed to answer the question nimrod!"

"Hey guys! Calm down!" said Grover and Brian in unison. Chiron started laughing and that got the rest of us going to.

We continued talking about utter nonsense as time continued to go on when I suddenly started thinking about my dream last night. Not knowing who to ask, I looked over to Annabeth. Seeing as she was a daughter of Athena, I assumed she had to have SOME idea. "Annabeth, in the dreams we demigods have, is it possible to touch or be touched by things in the dream?"

She looked at me quizzically, like I had turned into some new test subject for her to study. I was glad she was such a good girl. I could easily see her going mad and turning into one heck of an evil scientist. "I've never heard of that happening before. Why do you ask?"

"Oh uh, no reason." and no luck, apparently.

"If there is one," said Chiron. "I suggest you tell us." The look on his face was surprisingly serious, so I decided to spill the beans of my dream last night (making sure to leave out all the embarrassing details).

I watched Chiron's face age about twenty years in a single moment, and if Chiron is worried or depressed about something, then that doesn't bode well for anybody else either. "Chiron," I asked. "What does that mean? What's wrong?"

"Arc, only two others have ever been able to physically interact with things in their dreams. Both of them did incredible things, but had lives filled with strife and pain. Perhaps it will be different for you than it was for the first Achilles and Heracles."

Whoa. Those were some big names he was throwing around. In fact, they were the biggest. The two most famous demigods of all time. And needless to say, I was scared. They both went through Hades and back, and I wasn't a big fan of a hard lifestyle. I liked lying back, relaxing. Not years of endless fighting. But if things turned out for me like it did for them, then it wasn't meant to be.

Of course, I don't believe in fate, so obviously I'm going to fight it every step of the way!

After chatting with them for a while Brian, Wisteria, and I went back to the Artemis cabin. If I fought Percy like the way I was now, I'd lose hands down. He had way more combat experience than I did and whereas other campers would be totally exhausted after everything he had been doing over the past week all he had to do was swim around in the ocean for a few hours and he'd be back in tip top shape, if not even better. But I had an idea that would give me an edge. If my plan worked I might just be able to beat him, barely.

That night was going to be great. I just knew it.

A/N: I apologize so much for not keeping up with my stories! If you looked at my profile you probably saw why. To those of you who didn't see my computer was broken and I couldn't post any new material as a result. Don't worry though, everything is back in order and I promise to keep things updated as well as I can! I'm not sure how well that will be as my first born child is being born in March so I'm obviously a little busy with that! Thank you all and keep those review's rolling in! Thanks everyone!