I opened my eyes to find myself in a white void.

Well, not exactly a "void". This place had a floor, and seemed to have a sky as well. And not far from me lay another girl, seemingly older than me. She had raven black hair, which looked spiky and punk-like, and her arms were folded behind her head as she lay there, seemingly gazing at the white sky above.

Where was I? Did I die? But then if I did…where was mom?

I decided to go and talk to the girl, and find where in hell was I in.

As I stood up and started walking over, I could see the girls features from an angle. She had a smooth, freckled face, and wore a black t-shirt and ripped grey jeans. Her sneakers were grey, and her socks were ankle-high. She also seemed to wear some sort of bracelet, and next to her lay a black leather jacket with a can atop.

When I neared, I could see the girl's eyes were closed. She looked peaceful, lying there, sleeping. I felt bad for disturbing her…but hey, I needed information. So, I knelt down beside her, and gently shook her shoulder.

A pair of lightning blue eyes snapped open and stared directly into mine.

Before I knew it, the blue-eyed girl had pushed my off her, slammed be onto the ground and pinned me against it, as well as producing a charged spear cracking with electricity, lightning bolts zipping up and down the shaft. She leaned forwards and growled at me, "Who the hell are you?"

I opened my mouth in shock, "erm…what?" was my best response I could muster.

She rolled her eyes, evidently exasperated by my response. "Are you sent by Hades? Or any other of the gods who hate me? Like Hera?"

"What? No." Wait. She just said something very, very odd. "Wait a second. Did you just say…Hades?"

She stared at me as if I was an alien. "Yes. Are you deaf? Or do you have any hearing impairments?"

I felt my face get red in embarrassment. "N-no, I don't have hearing impairments, but…you said 'was I sent by Hades'. Are you telling me that…the Greek myths are real?"

She got off me quickly, gawking at the revelation that I had no clue about what she was talking about. "What-how-who are you then? And what are you doing here, of all places?"

"You still haven't told me where here is." I retorted, and it was her turn to look embarrassed. "I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't realise that you were-no, are a clueless girl. Just like I once was." She then turned her electric blue eyes directly onto me, and for once, smiled at me.

"Let's start again, shall we? I'm Thaila Grace, daughter of Zeus."

Okay. That was something. "You're…You're the daughter of Zeus? Like the god of lightning? The king of god-no sorry, gods, plural?" She nodded, her eyes looking at me proudly…but also with a hint of sadness. "Yes, that Zeus."

"But then…shouldn't you be all powerful and stuff like that? Why are you…here?" I asked, confusion evident in my voice. She sighed, turning away from me as she spoke. "Some time ago, me, Luke and Annabeth- you probably don't know who they are- found each other, led to each other by subtle clues. We formed a tight bond, and a satyr was send to fetch us to camp. On the way though, monsters heat popping out of nowhere- we were all injured by them. Annabeth, she was seven at the time, couldn't even walk properly because her leg was cut by one of those things, Luke was badly bruised, the satyr almost died. But out of all of us, I was hurt the least, and so when we were at the camp border and realized there were too many of those…things, I volunteered to stay behind. To be a distraction."

Her voice trembled slightly, and I could see her hand raised to her face as she presumably wiped a tear off her face. She continued, "I tried to kill all of them, to give my new family a chance. They…they made it, but I was too badly wounded at this point to join them. I remembered a hellhound pouncing on me, and next thing I knew…I was here." I could hear her sniffle, and I felt sorry for her. She sounded-and looked- not much older than me, and yet she already had to endure such hardships, and be tossed into…nowhere in particular. Here.

I stepped forwards, and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. I felt her shudder at the touch, but she then turned around and hugged me tight, her light sobbing and sniffing the only sound I could hear. I hugged her awkwardly, patting her back and rubbing it to try and comfort her. Eventually, the broke off the hug and held me by the arms. "I'm…I'm sorry…whoever you are."

With a jolt, I realized I hadn't even introduced myself. "Oh-oh God!" I blushed furiously, as I quickly uttered out, "Perseas Amphitrite Jackson. Daughter of…uh, I don't really know." My gaze darted up to look at her face for a bit, and I could see that she was puzzled-maybe even confused slightly by my response. "If you don't know your heritage…wait, do you even know who the Greek gods are?" She asked, and I felt her grasp slip from me.

"Yeah. And…hours ago? How long was it before I came here…anyway, it's not important. Let's just say, I learned that they are not just mere myths a short while back." And it was my turn to avert my gaze, as I mumbled, "the hard way."

A silent tear streaked down the corner of my eye as an image flashed in my mind- mom, reaching out to me, her eyes pleading, held in the air by that-that beast, that monster, before disappearing into gold dust. It wasn't until I found myself sobbing into Thaila's shoulder did I realize I was crying.

"It's okay, it's okay…" it was now her turn to comfort me as I held her tightly in a teary embrace. Getting a hold of myself, I gently pushed her away from me, but she still held me at an arm's length, her grip loose but comforting. "Did something go wrong? Did something happen before…before you got, you know, here?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yeah…my mo-mom, she got killed right-right in front of me. The minotaur-it held her in a chokehold, and she ex-exploded into gold dust." Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened and then closed like a fish. Finally, after a moment of stunned silence, she uttered, "…minotaur?"

"Yeah…you know, the half bull half man monster. It was trying to get Grover, before mom sacrificed herself to distract the thing from him and-and me." I sniffled.

"I see…but…the minotaur. No one has seen that th8ng in centuries, last I heard. And also…how did you know Grover?" She asked, staring me directly in the eye. "Grover? He's my best friend. He…he was my…my protector, in a sense. After a freaky incident on a bus ride back to montauk-my home, he sort of said he had a mission-or was it a job? Either way, he said he had to protect me, and…I guess it was either my dad, or someone else, who ordered him to do it. To be frank, I was shocked to find out he was a satyr." Her eyes, narrowed in suspicion, gradually returned to normal. "I feel bad for Grover then…if you're here too, he must've failed in some way. Then…he's failed twice. Oh, poor Grover…"

At my confused expression, she explained, "Grover was the satyr assigned to lead us three back to camp. He explained, on the way, he couldn't fail this or he'd get badly punished. He'd already suffered a failure before, as the demigod he escorted back died just a week later due to their wounds. Now you're here…and judging my the looks of it, he"s failed you too."

"But what's the significance of failing?" She sighed and explained a bit more to me. "If a satyr fails too much, they get…kind of expelled. They're not allowed to search for their lost god, or worse, expelled and casted into the mortal world to fend for themselves." I must've looked shocked, because she comforted me a bit more, "don't worry, he probably will be fine-" her sentence was cut short as she looked down at my arm. "What?" I asked, before looking down and letting out a gasp myself. "It's…it's glowing."

And indeed it was.

Both my arms were glowing, the glow intensifying more as it neared my fingertips. My feet also seemed to start glowing and a tingling sensation begun tickling my arms. It felt itchy at first, then painful, and I whimpered. Thaila held me tight, and it helped ease some of my pain, but then pain flared across my body and I wailed out in pain as I felt myself being plucked out of this space. The final thing I saw was Thaila's concerned and frightened blue eyes, before everything went dark again.