-Percy-

She just stared at me like I was crazy like I was a whale who had hind legs and was talking in a British accent. Her mouth opened once, twice, but no words came out.

"What are you talking about, Percy?" Annabeth cried, looking from me to Addie. My eyes were still locked on hers. Eyes that looked eerily similar to my dads, to my own.

"What did you see?"

Addie's voice was quavering, and I felt the rocks slowly shifting underneath me. Was she doing this on purpose, or was she about to have a freakout? She broke our eye contact, burying her face in her hands. She had leaned far back away from me, and she drew her legs up to her chest.

"I really think you-"

"TELL ME WHAT YOU SAW!" she yelled. The rocks shook around us like a mini-earthquake had hit. Dust and tiny pebbles fell around us, covering us with a fine layer of dirt. Addie had not moved or flinched, but her frame was shaking slightly. Her rasping breaths filled the cave, and she was trying to keep her composer. Annabeth grabbed my hand, and I squeezed it back gently.

For the first time, I noticed something on Addie's left wrist. She had on a pair of thick coppery-gold bangles, one on each arm, but below the one on her left was a gold bracelet, dark with age. It was the very same bracelet that Tiberius gave her all those years ago.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I should not have yelled like that. Please tell me what you saw, Percy. It is just as likely to be a trick as it is the truth." There was pain in her voice, pain unlike any I had ever heard. I felt a pressure behind my eyes, and I had to take a deep breath.

I began to talk about everything I had seen, and as I told it, Addie's frame slumped further and further. Her hands left her face, and her expression was dead. There was nothing on her features, but if you looked in her eyes, you saw years of sadness in them, like they were filled with utter despair. It was like she was watching it happen all over again, the ghosts of her past haunting her once more. I stole a few quick glances at Annabeth. Her expression was shocked, but she was doing her best to hide it. I finished the story, and silence enveloped us for a few moments.

"Is that true Addie? Is Poseidon your father?" Annabeth questioned quietly.

"I cannot acknowledge my father in any way," she said in a monotone. Her hand went up to her forehead, rubbing it gently. "It is all true, though, every single part," she said looking into my eyes. She was telling me what she could not.

I had a sister.

Holy Zeus, Addie was my sister.

"Addie, what happened to your brother, to Tiberius? The others?" I asked her gently.

"They are all dead."

She was looking at the ceiling. Her eyes were closed, and there was a single, small tear running down her cheek. I wanted to comfort her, to help her somehow.

"That wasn't your-"

"DO NOT say that it was not my fault," she said slowly, dangerously back at me. Her tone was so steely and calm; I felt a shiver of fear roll through me. But I knew she would not hurt me, I knew she was just angry at herself.

"How was it your fault?"

"Because I could have said yes. I could have just-"

"Let Mars do what he wanted?" I stated simply. She looked me in the eyes, the same hopeless look she had on her face when he threatened her.

"He did anyway," she said, misery in her voice. "At least if I had said yes, I could have saved them."

I felt my stomach roll, and I looked at her in a new light. After everything that Addie had been through, how could she be so good? How can she still be so calm? Why was she not kicking their asses like I suspect she could? I was getting angry. I had no idea why. Maybe I was angry for her? Maybe I was angry at her for not fighting, so being so…so…

"Why are you so okay with it?" I cried in frustration. "Why aren't you mad? Why..." I huffed, unsure of how to continue.

"I was mad, Percy. I do not have a choice but to be okay with it. As much as I hate to admit it, they were right."

"How in Hades name were they right?!"

"Sometimes, being the hero means sacrificing yourself for the greater good."

I did not know how to reply to what she said. There had to be more, there had to be something more than happened before she was cursed. It just seemed like I was missing something.

Addie had handed us an apple apiece, along with some water and sandwiches, before she had walked out. In a deadpan voice, she muttering something about us both getting some sleep while she scouted out our path to the Stone. Annabeth had laid her head on my shoulder, telling me everything that had happened while I had been out. We ate while we talked, and still, Addie had not returned.

"That doesn't make sense," I muttered out loud. "The last thing Mars, Ares, whatever, said to her does not match up to what her curse is. There has to be more to it, I know it."

"I don't think she wants to talk about it, Percy. I mean, I wouldn't either. I could only imagine what she goes through. She's probably done things that she hates herself for, not to mention what Mars would make her do," she replied, disgust edging into her tone. She shuddered against me at the last thought, and I rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

"I don't understand though. How could they punish her if she didn't do anything?" I asked frustrated.

"Maybe she will open up and tell us, but I do not think we should push her. I like Addie, but she seems….I don't know, broken maybe? I feel like she's so close to breaking," Annabeth said sorrowfully. "I think pushing her would be a bad idea."

"I want to help her, Annabeth. I don't know how or why, but I do. She seemed so happy to be around us; she was happy for us, that we had each other. I want that for her too. I want her to have back everything that was taken from her."

"Hopefully, we will get the chance to do that, a chance to help her."

I took Annabeth's face in my hands, holding her gaze with my own. I do not know exactly what possessed me to do this. Maybe Addie's story had gotten to me. Maybe I realized that it was likely that we would die soon, either down here or when we got out. But I had to tell her. I had to tell her how I felt.

"No matter what happens, I want you to know that I will always fight for you. I'll never leave your side willingly again. I'd fall into Tartarus a thousand more times if that means I get to spend my life with you. I love you, Annabeth Chase. I want to grow old with you, have a family. I want us to be happy. I want the chance to have a life with you, a chance to love you. I want everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I want you to punch me and call me a seaweed brain when I am acting stupid because that is the girl I fell in love with. You are the reason I want to be the hero, so that maybe, one day, it can be just about you and me."

She looked back at me, those beautiful grey eyes swimming with unshed tears. A small smile crept on to her face, and then she was kissing me fiercely. My hands wound into her hair, and I felt her grab onto my shoulders. For just a few precious moments, it was bliss; it was just me and her. She slowly pulled back, looking at me like she never wanted to stop. I leaned back, and Annabeth snuggled into me, her head resting on my shoulder, her breath hitting my neck. I laid my head on hers, wrapping my arms around her.

"I love you," she whispered back to me.

We sat there together, just enjoying the few precious moments that we had to ourselves, no monsters or gods involved.

-Addie-

When I had gotten back from scouting, Percy and Annabeth were leaning against the side of the cave, both of them fast asleep.

I felt bad for yelling at Percy earlier. It was not his fault. He could not help what he dreamed. I had tried to figure out how he had seen so much of my life before the curse. I had walked around these depths for a couple of hours, trying to calm my raging thoughts. Now, I was tired, and I had to get some sleep. I could feel my body on the brink of crashing. I could not afford to lose control; the slip up earlier weighed heavily on my mind. I had almost caused an earthquake earlier! I needed to sleep, so I sat down opposite them and curled up on the ground. I went over in my head reasons why Percy would be having dreams about me.

I could only think of three possibilities.

One, one of the gods knew I was down here with them, and they were trying to interfere. That only made me madder. Had they not messed with my life enough!? You would think they would stop riding me just a little. After all, I had been incredibly good the past thousand years, following every command without question, even lending advice at times. I actually became friends with some of them, and Ares had seemed to finally quit being such an ass. He may still take every opportunity to make my life miserable, but hey, at least he kept his nasty hands to himself and not on me. But this theory did not make sense. If they knew I was down here, they would have called me back.

So I moved to option two. Somehow, Athena or my father was sending the dreams. I could not see Athena doing this; she knew how much I hated it, how I did not want to talk or be reminded of that time. My dad may be doing it, trying to pull Percy and me closer. If he was, he was doing it more for Percy's sake than mine.

Which leads to option three: fate? It can happen; I have seen it many times. Sometimes, a higher-order just wants things to be a certain way, and so mysterious things just happened. There were just some things the gods could not even explain. Maybe this was fate, maybe I was meant to tell my half brother about my life…but every time I thought about it, a pit of despair opened up in me. Hearing that story was like living through it again. Every bit of pain and guilt washed through me, making my chest ache. I made a vow to myself after all that happened, a vow to never be that helpless again. So I learned to fight harder and faster, to control my powers. I learned magic from Hecate and Circe and educated myself as much as I could. Some of the immortals feared me, scared of what I was now capable of. It helped in ways; it most certainly made my job easier….

My thoughts were drifting now, lost in a sea of black. Pinpricks of light flashed across my eyes, and I felt a pair of arms snake around me, pulling me closer to them. I smelled roses and sandalwood, and I sighed in contentment. Part of me understood I was dreaming, but I did not care. I would have rather dreamed of him than anyone else in the world. I opened my eyes, finding a pair of light blue-grey ones boring back into mine. His shaggy, sandy hair hung just above them. It was straight with a slight curl at the ends, a light-colored halo around his face.

His hand reached up to me, caressing my cheek. I leaned into it, into the touch I had missed more than anything in the world. There were no cameras back then, no way to capture what I remembered about him. This was the only way I could see him, to feel his touch once more.

I felt him pressed up against me, feeling every familiar inch of him. My body craved him, like a person from a desert that needed water. My arms snaked around him, and I began to sob into his chest. He held me close, gently stroking my back with his hands. Every overwhelming emotion was spilling out of me, every fear I had in my mind.

I missed Tiberius more than anything in the world.