AN: So, my computer is still out of comission. I felt okay about rewriting Chapter 10, though, as I didn't really like the initial version I wrote. Chapters 11 and 12, though, I really like and don't want to have to rewrite. I will hopefully be able to get my computer working this weekend and will be able to give you both of those next weekend. I am updating from a computer in the library tonight. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. As for London, it's pretty awesome. If you want to learn more about my London adventures, I will occasionally be posting videos about my London adventures on YouTube. My chanel name is MStorm011, or alternatively, search for my name, Benjamin Falter.

This chapter's featured character was created by Witch Demigoddess. Thank you for your character.

Chapter 10: Daniela

After my latest dream with Kronos, I found it impossible to sleep. I sat up in my bed and looked at my alarm clock, slightly bleary eyed; it was three in the morning. I lay back down and closed my eyes, trying to sleep, but my thoughts buzzed. All of what Kronos had said was just too confusing. I didn't understand what he meant about his mother, or about time going wrong, and the more confused I got, the more I thought about it, and the more awake I was.

Finally, I climbed out of bed, and stepped out onto the fire escape. The moonlace was in full bloom. Standing on the fire escape had a calming effect on me, and I began to think a little more clearly. Something was wrong with time, that much was clear. Perhaps that was why Kronos was being so generous with his information; he was genuinely concerned about the time stream and he wanted to fix it, but because he lacked a physical body he couldn't do it himself. Kronos never did anything for such a simple reason though. He wanted some kind of leverage over me, and if I accepted his help, then he would use it as an opportunity to do something truly awful. But what? I thought irritably.

Kronos had implied that this business involving the fifty demigods was only the beginning of something bigger, but what worried me the most, was what he said about it never occurring. According to him, the time stream I was in now, shouldn't have been happening, and, in fact, it would be erased and not happen at all. Perhaps he was lying, but whether it was the truth or not, it plunged me into despair. Why bother doing anything at all if, in the end, it would just be erased?

Maybe this had been Kronos's plan: he wanted to make me lose hope and direction. If it was, it had worked. I sighed and leaned on the railing of the fire escape. I needed someone to talk to. I went through my options. Mom would worry too much, and I didn't want to bother her. If I told Paul, it would make it back to my mom, and besides, trying to explain everything to Paul, who was 100% mortal would be… difficult. I couldn't tell Thalia either. If she lost direction and focus because of this business about the time stream being erased, then the rest of the demigods at Goode would be left without us. Rachel was another option. As the Oracle, she might've been able to help me make sense of all this weird stuff involving time streams and Kronos's mother, but I had had enough of prophecies. I didn't want her to spout one out if I could avoid it. Nico was busy with his research, whatever that was, and besides, I'd never really felt able to confide in him. I felt like he should be the one confiding in me; I was supposed to be his mentor, not the other way around.

And then there was Annabeth. I should've told her right from the start about my dreams with Kronos, but I hadn't. I was afraid that if I told her the truth, she would get angry and resentful for hiding something from her for so long. Besides, she was hiding something from me: that thing that she was always trying to tell me, but couldn't bring herself to do it. I started to wonder again about that, but of course thoughts on my dream with Kronos intruded again, and I found myself contemplating telling Annabeth about it. No doubt she could help me make sense of it, but I still found myself hesitating. What if she got upset at me? And what if it just brought up memories of Luke? I didn't want to do that. She'd told Luke as he was dying, that she loved him like a brother, but I wasn't so sure of that. There was definitely a time when Annabeth was in love with Luke, and just thinking about that made me feel a little jealous. I sighed. I didn't know what to do. I was lost and confused. I needed to tell Annabeth, but I couldn't.

"You look upset," a voice from my left said.

I jumped, and spun around. Standing there on the fire escape with me was a girl. She was very pretty, and looked to be about my age, with almond eyes and carmel colored hair that was braided over one shoulder. Her dress was white and sleeveless, with gold trimming around her neckline. I recognized her immediately. "Calypso," I said, "What're you…" I trailed off as I realized that I was only wearing boxers and a t-shirt. My face heated up to about a million degrees. "I- gee, let me go inside and get some pants…"

Calypso laughed and said, "That won't be necessary, Percy. I've seen you more compromised than this." I didn't know what she was talking about, until I realized that on Ogygia I had woken up in new clothes. I'd never thought about it before, but I supposed that meant that she had changed my clothes at some point, which meant… my face felt so hot, it must've been on fire. Calypso laughed again. "I am sorry, Percy. I did not mean to embarrass you."

She didn't sound real sorry as she continued to giggle at the apparently hilarious look on my face. "What're you doing here?" I asked. "Not to be rude, but why aren't you on Ogygia?"

"It's because of you I am not," Calypso said. "When you defeated Kronos, you made a request to the gods that I be pardoned, don't you remember?"

"Oh yeah," I said, the memory returning. "It was part of my package deal from the gods. So… you were freed from your exile?"

She nodded, smiling. "The world has changed so much. I have a lot of catching up to do. I think I'm going to try to bring my beautiful flowers to people who don't have gardens, and try to get everyone to make for themselves a garden."

"That's great," I said with a smile.

"Yes, it is. But I wanted to come and thank you, Percy. Without you, without your selfless request, I would still be on Ogygia. I also came to make you an offer. I am… very much behind the times, and I have a lot to learn about the world. Would you consider joining me, and staying with me?"

A repeat of the offer I had gotten on the island, except this time, if I accepted, I would still be able to visit my friends and family. Besides, part of me said, Kronos said that the time stream I'm in would be erased, so there wouldn't be any real repercussions. But I couldn't accept the offer. Calypso may have been my biggest "what if," but Annabeth was more important to me than anything. Even if this time stream got erased, as Kronos claimed, I wanted to spend it with Annabeth, not with Calypso. That had a profound impact on me. Even if none of it actually mattered, I still had to live my life to the fullest. Even if this section of my life was erased from the face of time and no one remembered these events, these events would still come, and I wanted to face them head on.

"I can't," I told Calypso. "I'm involved with someone else. I'm sorry."

Calypso smiled sadly. "That's okay, Percy. I expected as much, but I thought that I would offer. Maybe I can still help you before I go. You looked upset when I arrived. What is wrong? How can I help?"

"I think you already have helped," I said. "You made me realize the importance of life, even if it seems meaningless."

"I'm not sure I understand," Calypso said.

"No," I agreed, "I'm not sure any immortal would. But thank you, Calypso. Go out into the world and spread you garden to all four corners of the globe."

She smiled again. "Thank you, Percy. Because of you, I can." There was a flash of light, the smell of flowers, and then Calypso was gone. I yawned, and went back inside. It was 4:30. If I went to bed now, I could get another couple hours of rest before school, and something told me I was going to need it. I lay back down and didn't have any troubles sleeping.

When my alarm went off at 6:30, I woke up with a new determination. Whether any of this mattered in the grand scheme of things, it mattered now, and that was what was important. I beat Thalia to the shower for once, then went and made myself toast. I was still exhausted; that wasn't going away anytime soon, but today, I felt like I had a new start. Calypso had helped me resolve my troubles, at least for now. I had a sneaking suspicion that they would creep back in soon enough, but for now, I was feeling pretty good. As Thalia walked into the kitchen, she eyed me suspiciously.

"Alright, Percy," she said, "something weird is up with you. You still look exhausted and miserable, but you're acting positively chipper."

I shrugged. "I decided that today was a good day for a new start." I cut myself off with a huge yawn. "Even if I'm drop-dead tired, I want to get to work and save some demigods."

Thalia narrowed her eyes. "Whatever you say."

She insisted on driving because of how weird I was acting, and before long, we were pulling into the Goode parking lot. We found a really good parking place (Goode, good) and walked to the front doors. As we passed by the windows of the cafeteria, I noticed that it didn't look like there had been a fire at all. I commented on this to Thalia, who said, "Well of course not. Helen and Echidna probably manipulated the mist, made everyone believe that there wasn't a fire at all."

I thought about that. It seemed pretty reasonable. I was given further evidence of Thalia's prediction during Helen's announcements, when she didn't refer to the fire at all, something which probably would have been mentioned in great detail if the mist weren't covering it up. I wondered if Paul remembered about the fire, or if he had forgotten about it along with the rest of the mortals.

As we were leaving homeroom, Thalia pulled me aside in the hall. "Seriously, Percy, you're starting to worry me. Why are you acting so weird today?"

I sighed. "I just… I had a dream last night that made me think about some things… and it made me come to a realization. That's all I can really say."

Thalia made like she was going to argue, when we heard arguing. We glanced over at the line of lockers across from us and behind Thalia. There was a girl arguing with a school counsellor. The girl had really long black hair in a high ponytail, with her bangs loose. Her eyes were really dark. At first I thought that they were black, but eventually I decided that they couldn't be balck and that they had to be a really dark blue. She wore a black and dark blue v-neck t-shirt, and a necklace with a blue stone on it. Her dark skinny jeans ended when they went into her black combat boots. She looked intimidating, but the counsellor looked even more intimidating. The counsellor couldn't have been human. I could tell because instead of legs, she had twin snake trunks. It was a dracanae. Thalia and I cursed.

The girl was saying, "I'm not unstable! There was a fire yesterday! Why won't you believe me?"

"My dear," the dracanae said, "I think that everyone would remember if there wassss a fire yesterday."

The girl threw her huge pile of books on the ground. "Nobody sees or remembers anything!" she snapped.

"Ssssstep into my offisssse," the dracanae said. "We can disssscusssss this imaginary fire of yours inprivasssssy."

The girl glared at the dracanae, then picked up her books and stormed off. She passed Thalia and I. The dracanae hissed irritably, then went into her office, slamming the door behind her. Thalia and I looked at each other. I could see that both of us were thinking the same thing.

"You go after the girl," I said.

"And you take care of the dracanae," Thalia said.

We nodded in agreement, then Thalia ran off, after the girl. I went across the hall. According to the name plaque by the door that the dracanae had gone in, this was the office of Mrs. Sess, school counsellor. The name sounded familiar. Then I remembered. There had been a Queen Sess in Kronos's forces at the battle of Olympus. She was Queen of the dracanae. How she had survived the battle, I didn't know, but it was time to take care of this queen.

I knocked on the door. A voice barked, "Come in!"

I opened the door. "Hi, Mrs. Sess?"

She was looking down at papers on her desk. "What isssss it? I'm very busy!"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I thought that you'd be able to make time for me. I'm pretty sure you know me." She glanced up, and snarled angrily and looked terrified all at once. Pretty impressive. "So you do recognize me," I said. "Good, I'm glad that the dracanae remember me. School counsellor is quite a step down from queen, your highness. Now are you going to let me dispel your essence to Tartarus the easy way, or the hard way?"

She dove across the desk and slammed me against the wall. I hadn't had time to draw Riptide. She slashed at me with claws, but I ducked underneath. The office was cramped, but there was no way that I was going to let her out into the halls. I drew Riptide. She hesitated briefly, and I shot in a quick question. "How come that girl didn't see your form through the mist? I mean, clearly she remembered the fire, so why couldn't she see how ugly you really are?"

Queen Sess snarled. "The missssst isssss woven more tightly around me and the other monssssster faculty."

Then she slashed at me with her claws. I caught the swipe on the flat of my blade, then swung at her. She was fast, and managed to avoid my blade. She knocked aside a potted plant and drew from behind where it had been a spear. She stabbed at me, but I knocked the spear aside. I tried to stab her, but she was too quick. She got behind me and made a stabbing motion. I swung around just in time, and the stab that would have caught me in my weak point connected with my side. The spear tip shattered against my skin.

I smirked to hide how worried I was about the closeness of that stab. I bashed Sess in the head with the butt of my sword. She stumbled backwards into her desk. I made a wide, arcing, downward slash, but she moved just in time, and Riptide got imbedded in the desk. I tried to pull it free, but Sess knocked me over with the shaft of her spear. As I fell, I grabbed onto Queen Sess's spear shaft and used the leverage of me falling to send her flying across the room.

I stood as quickly as I could. The desk was now between Queen Sess and I. I gripped Riptide's hilt and pulled with all my might. Sess was getting up. I pulled on Riptide harder. Queen Sess was back up and leaping towards me. With a massive tug, I ripped my sword free of the desk. The momentum of my pull swung Riptide over my head in a massive arc that caught Queen Sess, who was in the air, right between the twin trunks and cut her in half. She exploded into monster dust, which fell all over me. I spat dust out of my mouth.

"Come on," I said indignantly. "Now I have to shower again."

I dusted myself off as best I could, then left the office. I hurried to my class. As I entered, I apologized for being really really late, then took a seat at the back of the class.

My fight with Queen Sess had left me drained. My determination wasn't gone, but once again my exhaustion was over-powering. I met Thalia on my way to gym. She had the girl from earlier with her. The first thing I did was yawn.

"Back to normal, I see," Thalia said. "This is Daniela de la Nuit. She's the daughter of Nyx."

I yawned again and waved at Daniela. I made the mistake of looking into her eyes. Instantly I was filled with fear, and I saw images of myself doing terrible things to my friends. I blinked hard and forced myself not to focus on Daniela's eyes. "I'm Percy," I said. "Nice to meet you."

"You guys can remember the fire?" she asked sceptically.

"Yes," I said. "In fact, we were in the cafeteria when it caught fire. We got a girl who had been trapped inside out."

"Well," Daniela said, "good job. Thalia was saying that I can't stay here, and that it's too dangerous."

"Yes," I said. "I know trusting strangers isn't really a good thing, but you can trust us."

"Where do you want to take me?" she asked.

"To a place called Camp Half-Blood," Thalia said. "It's a safe place for people like us. You can get triaing there to fight monsters."

"Monsters?" she asked. "There's no such thing as monsters."

There was a hiss behind us. It was a horde of dracanae, probably upset that I'd killed their Queen. "What do you call those?" I said with a yawn. I drew Riptide, and Thalia pulled out her spear.

The snake women attacked, but they were no match for Thalia and I. We cut them down as they advanced, acting perfectly as a team. Daniela, meanwhile, stood in awe, fear, and shock all at once. At one point a dracanae made it past Thalia and I. I yelled, "Heads up!" to Daniela, and threw her my sword. She caught it and swung, just as the snake woman was bearing down on her. She burst apart like a piñata. I, meanwhile, strangled one of the snake women with my bare hand. Soon, the hall was full of piles of sand.

"The janitors are going to be pretty mad at us," I observed.

Thalia snorted, then we walked over to Daniela. "Believe us about the monsters now?" Thalia asked.

Daniela nodded numbly.

"Alright," I said. "Let's get you to camp."

"Wait," she said. "I can't just go to camp. What about my dad? He deserves to know what's going on. And… and I need to get my things."

Thalia and I looked at each other nervously. Mortal parents were always tricky. They didn't always know or understand the truth, and sometimes explaining to a parent would cause them to have a mental breakdown. Nevertheless, if Daniela wanted to tell her father, she deserved to be allowed to tell him.

"Alright," I said. "We'll go see your dad. Where do you live?"

That night when we finally got home, the energy that had gotten me through the day, given to me by my conversation with Calypso, had dissipated. Once again, I was plagued by thoughts of Kronos, and what he could possibly be up to. Luckily, though, I wasn't questioning whether everything was worth it if, in the end, it would just get erased. I knew that I had to keep moving forward. And the only way to do that was to sleep. I went straight to my bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

"Tired?" a voice asked. I leaped up and drew Riptide. Nico stood in the shadowy corner of my room, his hands raised in a placating gesture. I cursed and put Riptide away. This was the second time in less than twenty-four hours that someone had just appeared and scared me.

Nico looked better than he had when I'd seen him a couple days ago. He didn't have any bruises or cuts. He seemed to have gotten a haircut; though his hair was still long, it was definitely less shaggy. He also seemed to be wearing new clothes. He had on black jeans and a grey t-shirt underneath a black jacket. "What is it, Nico?" I asked, barely suppressing a yawn.

"I thought I would stop in," he said. "I wanted to tell you that I've finished my research for the time being. I can't get any farther without a research team, and everyone I'm interested in having join my research team is otherwise occupied."

"You came here just to tell me that?"

"Well, no," he admitted. "Percy, I want revenge on Helen for killing James and releasing Hyperion. I know holding grudges is my fatal flaw, and I know that she is your problem, but I want to help you defeat her." He pulled something out of his jacket pocket and tossed it at me. I caught it. It was a black stone. It was smooth, like it had been weathered for a very long time.

"Thanks?" I said. "But how is this stone supposed to help me defeat Helen?"

"That's a Stygian Stone," Nico said. "It is pulled from the riverbed of the Styx. They are almost impossible to obtain, and as such, you won't find it mentioned in any of the old myths."

"How did you get it?" I asked.

He paused, as if considering how much to share. "Someone owed me a favour," he said. "This is how they repaid it: by retrieving two stones from the Styx."

"How did they do it without being destroyed?" I asked.

Nico hesitated again. "In life, he bore the curse of Achilles, like you." Was he talking about Luke? What favour did Luke owe Nico? "Anyway, as I said, I had him retrieve two stones." He held up one identical to mine. "Stygian Stones can be linked. These two are. You can use them to call on each other in a time of need. I want you to have that. If you need help with your fight against Helen, grip the stone in your hand and think about me. Mine will heat up, and I'll know you need me. Not only that, but it can guide me to you. I would be able to shadow travel right to where you called me from."

"So this stone is basically the Nico di Angelo hotline?" I said.

"Yes, basically," he said. "Remember that stone if you get into trouble. And also, summon me when you are preparing for your final confict against Helen. I want to be there. I want revenge."

The talk of revenge unsettled me, but I nodded. "Okay, Nico. If we need you, Thalia and I will use the stone to contact you."

Nico nodded. "Thank you, Percy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have someone to check on. Sleep well."

Nico stepped directly into the shadows and disappeared. I flopped down on the bed and closed my eyes. I was tired, and I needed sleep. Within seconds, I was asleep.