Favorites, follows, and reviews keep the plot bunny going!

Music I listened to was Kaleidoscope by blink-182 and Count On Me by Bruno Mars.

Percy fell asleep that night and, once again, had one of those annoying dreams that leave demigods constantly worried about the future.

He dreamed he was looking down into the pit of Tartarus. The blackness was suffocating. He couldn't even see his hand right in front of him. He felt like he was being dragged down into it. A deep, gravelly voice that made him want to cringe was calling up to him from the crater.

"Percy, FREE me! Let me continue what I started! No one respects you; the traitor son of Hermes gets more attention than you. We can change that forever! Percy, FREE me! Let me continue what I started! No one respects you; the traitor son of Hermes gets more attention than you. We can change that forever!"

The voice repeated the same mantra over and over again, every time becoming more and more urgent and increasing in volume until dream-Percy felt like Zeus before Athena sprang from his head. In other words, MAJOR headache.

Right before that happened, Percy woke up gasping for air. He was covered in sweat and his heart was beating rapidly. He looked around wildly for a moment and then realized he was safe, still in his cabin. The seashell alarm clock on the dresser by his cot said it was 3 o'clock at night.

The witching hour. How appropriate.

He rolled over to make sure Annabeth was still there with him. When he saw that she was, he breathed a sigh of relief. That dream had made him feel so empty and alone. As though no one cared about him and never would. As though there was nothing left for him but to give himself over to the voice in his vision / dream.

He sat up and got his breathing under control. When he had, he started to consider what the vision had meant. Then he realized it had been Kronos. But he must have been mistaken. They had destroyed him. How could he still be alive enough to send messages?

He shook his head, got up, and went outside for some fresh air. He looked across and saw Luke doing walking back and forth distractedly. Luke saw him and came over to stand beside him, leaning against the cabin wall.

"Couldn't sleep?" Percy asked.

"Nope."

"Me neither. I had another crazy dream that I probably shouldn't even pay attention to. But I'm still worried. The prophecy Rachel gave talked about the one who causes unrest and I think I dreamed about Kronos. But that can't be, because he's gone. You made sure of that."

Luke turned abruptly to look at him. "What was your vision like? Explain it to me. Now."

"A voice that grated on my nerves every second I listened to it kept telling me that it needed to finish what it started. Like he wanted me to help him. And when I woke up, I felt really alone, like no one cared and helping him was all I had left. Stupid, right? I've got Annabeth, Thalia, Grover. But now I feel like I actually have to convince myself of that."

Percy laughed nervously and hugged his arms. "And for some reason I'm super cold like I stayed in a freezer for 2 hours."

Luke furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Yeah, that's Kronos alright. But how is he still so strong? He shouldn't be already able to call out to people." Then he sighed resignedly. "I guess that's what the prophecy was. Our fight isn't over."

"That's what I was thinking. Well, this is great. Just great. We'll tell the others in the morning. No point in waking them up. Annabeth is really grumpy when she's hasn't had enough sleep."

They stayed there in silence for a while until something occurred to Percy. "Wait, your dreams of Kronos went like that too?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, how did that work? I mean, you still had Annabeth. It wasn't like you were on your own."

Luke stared at Percy ad then smiled slightly. "Note to self. Sons of Poseidon have no tact. I'll keep that in mind."

"Sorry."

Luke sighed and slid down to sit on the ground. He brought his knees up to his chin, wrapping his arms around his legs. Percy sat down too.

"I totally failed on my quest. I was supposed to get an apple from the Garden of the Hesperides." He pointed to the scar on his face. "Instead I got permanently scarred by Ladon. So everyone thought I was weak and useless. I believed it. Kronos played on those feelings. He told me I could achieve incredible power by helping him, and make my dad notice me for once."

He took a deep breath. "As for what you said, Annabeth kinda hated me after Thalia … became a tree. She blamed me for it, thought I could have stopped it from happening. Maybe I could've. Anyway, we weren't as close as we used to be. Believe it or not, I was always a bit of an introvert. I didn't have a lot of friends, and no one as close as Thalia or Annabeth. I hid missing Thalia with anger, so most kids didn't want to hang out with me. I scared them."

"Some things never change," Percy teased.

"Ha, ha. Real funny."

"Well, you have another friend now. Me," Percy said earnestly.

"Thanks. That's good to know. By the way, how did you know you could trust me when you handed me that dagger?"

"I don't know, I just did, I guess. So, how are things with Thalia?" Percy changed the subject since things were getting awkward.

"How are things with Annabeth?"

"Do always answer a question with a question?"

"Maybe," Luke grinned. "Yeah, things are going surprisingly well with Thalia. Speaking of which, I'm practically Annabeth's older brother so I should give you the talk."

Percy laughed. "Fire away."

Luke made a playfully intimidating face at him. "If you hurt her, I kill you. Plain and simple."

"Seems fair. Same for you, too. I'm gonna go back to bed now before she wakes up and thinks I ditched her."

"Good idea. 'Night."

"'Goodnight."

Then both of them went back to bed feeling a whole lot better.