Disclaimer: The same as always.

This oneshot is a little more... angst and tragedy. I was sad while I wrote it. You can also tell the star of this particular story is going to be Percy Jackson, but I made the scenario (hopefully) a bit more different than you thought would happen.

So, without further ado, I present to you—

No one reads AN notes anyway. Why am I bothering?

Starring Percy Jackson

Percy fought off one last monster from the Argo II docks before he collapsed against the mast, exhausted.

What a month.

For exactly one week and two days he and Annabeth had been stranded in Tartarus, forging ahead to the Doors of Death with only the smallest of rays of hope to guide them. The things they had seen down there... That was a scar that would never heal.

But the worse part was that the monsters couldn't die when killed.

Subconsciously, though, Percy had also became a better warrior—down in hell, you were forced to trust your instincts, so your reaction-time became faster, and you could hear even the softest of footsteps stalk you as you slept.

Unfortunately, though, these things left him extremely jumpy. Even the slightest disturbance set him on attack-mode. But that could also be a good thing (sometimes) when you were defending a giant flying warship from monsters.

Someone patted him on the shoulder, and he looked up to find it was Annabeth. "Sleep," she said, not making it sound like a suggestion. "You are exhausted. You need some rest."

Unwillingly, Percy nodded and stood up again. He walked down the staircase to the second level, to where all the rooms were, and into his. He fell asleep almost instantly.

-o-O-o-

Monsters… everywhere…

Clawing at him… as he closed the doors of death before them…

Shrieks of anger and rage… thirst for blood…

Annabeth… falling into Tartarus…

…and Percy leaping after her.

Falling and falling, feeling the wind rush by him as time seemed to slow down. Annabeth fell beside him, her eyes closed. She was barely breathing. And she seemed so peaceful…

…and so dead. Percy reached out and brushed his fingers across her face, and suddenly her eyes snapped open, blood red. She shrieked horribly, vicious fangs replacing her beautiful teeth. He finally landed on firm ground, but only for a second until it disappeared from underneath him, and then he was falling again…

…this time landing in a pool of water. Percy broke through the surface, gasping and soaked to the skin. The water seemed to be pulling down on him, wanting him to drown. That was when he realized he was completely naked, and there were horrible sea monsters swimming beneath him. He kicked and thrashed, trying to swim away, but the water pushed on him and forced him to remain in place. The monsters came and went, until the only ones left were a pack of hungry piranhas.

Then the monsters attacked. The pain was so real Percy cried out in real life, grimacing and holding his bedsheets tightly. He was dragged under, warm blood rising up from where he was attacked. He tried to use his powers to get them to leave him alone, but they didn't work. They were pulling him deeper and deeper… and he couldn't breathe. His vision began to swim. Nothing was clear. His lungs desperately needed air, but he had none. The pain hurt. He hated the pain. White ate the corners of his vision, and the scene around him shifted into another.

He was sitting at the very back of a classroom of a hundred students. All the classmates around him were either chatting to their friends or reading a book or doodling on his or her work… none paid Percy any attention.

"Soon…" a distant female voice announced, and everything around Percy continued in slow motion. Screams and pained whispers echoed from nowhere, and one by one all the students around Percy turned in their chairs to face him. He realized they were all people he knew, and they each boasted glowing red eyes and demon grins. One-by-one they morphed into the background until only his closest friends remained. Just by looking at them, he saw terrible things that would happen to…

Piper… wounded, on her knees and barely alive…

Jason… a dagger lodged in his shoulder, staggering away from a dead Roman soldier… Reyna…

Thalia… pinned to a tree by arrows lodged inside her hands and feet, screaming in pain…

Frank… unmoving on the ground…

Nico… eyes widening in fear as a battleaxe came down on his head…

Grover… leading an army of satyrs and nymphs dressed up for war, roaring and charging toward the enemy…

Hazel… sobbing in her hands on a battlefield of dead…

Leo… gone… Percy didn't know where, but he just knew that he was gone.

Then black. Just black and nothing else. "It hurts, doesn't it," a sleepy voice said, and suddenly Annabeth came into view. She was smiling brightly, as if she were in the middle of having a wonderful day. But suddenly it changed to a mask of horror.

"Percy!" she shouted, fear in her voice. She turned and screamed at something behind her. "Help me!"

Without thinking, Percy raced toward her. But as soon as he reached her she disappeared in a shower of white crystals, leaving him all alone in a large black space of nothing.

-o-O-o-

Percy gasped awake. He shot upright, heart pounding. Without giving it a moment's thought he raced up to the deck, where Annabeth was.

"Percy," she said, spotting him. "I thought I told you to go to sleep."

He was so relieved to see that she was alive that he hugged her for what felt like forever. "You okay?" she asked him in his ear after a minute.

"Yeah," he replied quietly, pulling away.

Annabeth's smile was sad. "You're not," she said, shaking her head. "I know you're not."

And then he knew she had the exact same nightmare.

Yeah... sadness.

Anyway, since the story was so short, I'm gonna have a little story time.

(YAY STORY!)

Today I went to this presentation nearly six hours long organized by Free the Children called We Day in Toronto. I loved it, and I'm starting to look at life in a whole new perspective. So many great speakers and performers showed up, such as two cast members from Glee, Demi Lovato, the Jonas Brothers, Imagine Dragons, Austin Ma. something (I don't really care), and that girl who sings "Stompa"—Serena Ryder I think.

I just made you guys jealous.

But there were also speakers such as Martin Luther King III, who was AMAZING, and Spencer West, a guy who climbed Kilamangaro... and has no legs. And a girl my age who plans on becoming Prime Minister of Canada, and a blind girl who talked about her own experiences of how she was bullied in school, and the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space Chris Hadfield, and so many others... and I cried so much, and I think it was a wonderful experience and I recommend it if you should ever have the wonderful opportunity of going.

(And I think Carly Rae Jepson is making an appearance in Minnesota with Bridget Medler...)

Review, please!