It was dark. Too dark. The child cried out in pain and utter terror as she crashed through the trees that surrounded her. The forest was so dense and seemed to swallow her into an abyss of darkness and fear. The moon's dim light filtering through the black leaves was no comfort, but an unavoidable searchlight giving away her position, and the merciless cold of the night clawed at her face and stung her weeping eyes. Make it stop her mind screamed. Make it all go away! Let the darkness come if it will stop this pain. But it didn't stop; her heart continued to pound violently against her chest, her legs continued to burn with ice and acid and the darkness did nothing but taunt and tease her.

"Run Ally, Run!" that sweet, soft voice, now stricken with agony and desperation tore through the air like a knife; a cold, jagged blade. She knew whose voice it was, but did not turn. If she said run, than she had to run. Suddenly a quick, sharp, deafening explosion of noise seemed to bring the world to a standstill. Everything stopped and the only sound that was not drowned out was the heart wrenching scream of a new orphan. The child spun round, her throat still stinging as she continued to scream. There stood her mother, a beautiful woman with long raven hair and the brightest emeralds for eyes. Her eyes were empty, they were staring at her, but they weren't staring at her. She was no longer there; all that was left was the cold, white shell of a woman, with nothing to show of her death, but the blood that stained her blouse crimson. Several painfully slow seconds later, she fell. Behind her stood a tall, dark figure with one arm outstretched, and the berretta pistol in his hand still smoking. The frosty leaves under his feet crunched loudly as he approached her body.

"You've pissed me off too many times Vanessa" he sighed at her corpse. Somehow the crisp suit he wore was untouched by the wilderness all around them, as if it feared him as much as the child did.

"Leonavich, Marko get the kid" he jerked the barrel of his gun in the direction of the mortified girl, who stood frozen in the inky black shadows of the forest. The men approached her and, to their surprise, she did so much as whimper when they clamped down on her feeble arms. There was no point struggling or fighting back; with her mother gone, never to return, there was nothing left to fight for. She was completely and utterly alone.

"Hello Ally, I hear you are a very special girl with very special abilities. Your mummy was going to suppress these abilities and we don't want that now, do we?" the man's face was so close to hers that a white puff of icy breath brushed against her cheek as he spoke. He carefully pulled his tinted glasses onto the bridge of his nose, revealing eyes as red as the blood on his hands. They shone out in the darkness and drew the child in. She was mesmerised and confused and, in this state, answered the question just as required, by shaking her head. "Yeah, well me" he placed his hand over his own chest, "I'm not going to do that. I am going to make you a very, very powerful little girl" he smirked triumphantly. Ally was not triumphant; she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let the darkness consume her.

An explosive gasp shattered the silence as Percy's eyes shot open like springs. His heart pounded so hard under his chest that it began to ache. It was as if he were looking in the mirror, if his reflection were female and slightly shorter than himself. He looked at her mimicked features, which were twisted with shock and disbelief. She grappled her forehead with one hand, struggling to fight the fear creeping into her mind. She gulped down the air around them for several seconds before she was able to breathe it in once more.

"What was that?" was all Percy could whisper. She shook her head.

"I-I don't know" she stammered, continuing to stare at the floor, as if the explanation would shine from the white tiles beneath their feet. Then, her eyes flicked up, locking with his. They glinted with a mixture of fear, confusion and denial. "You don't think?" Percy felt his own eyes widen, and this time he gasped. He glanced at the digital clock on the wall: 7:30pm 12/08/2015 it flashed at him. It had been exactly three days since the procedure, just like Luke had said.

"It worked..."

Dear Diary,

I know what you're thinking: this is really stupid, but I'm doing it anyway. Okay, here goes nothing. So it's the 17th September 2014 and I was thinkin-

Percy slammed the leather book shut and thrown it under the desk, just in time. Annabeth entered and gave him a strange look as his swung his chair round.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked cautiously, not looking away as she bent down to grab her backpack. He shrugged and slowly spun back around, buying himself enough time to think of something.

"Urrr... studying" he replied. He couldn't tell whether it was because she was tired, or because she just simply didn't care, but she left without saying another word. He let out a slow sigh of relief, before shaking it off and picking up the book. He patted its leather backing. "Maybe another day buddy," he sighed again, "maybe another day." Outside, the sun was beginning to lose its grip on the day. The sky was streaked with pinks and golds, and now only weak beams of light filtered through the leaves of the woods to their camp. Grover made is way over, filling his lungs; breathing in the orange vapour called 'evening air'.

"You okay Percy?" he asked, leaning into his friend's field of vision. Percy blinked hard and shook his head, as if he had just snapped out of some sort of trance.

"Yeah, I'm fine" he replied, letting his voice trail. Percy, be careful. Don't go to the water's edge. A familiar voice echoed in his head. The voice was implying that the wherever the water was, it brought danger. Then Percy got an idea. A reckless, stupid idea. "It looks like our water supply is getting low; I'm gonna go top it up." No Percy his father hissed inside his skull.

"Okay, but be back soon" Grover called after his friend as he disappeared into the trees, skipping slightly as he waved him off. Small puffs of dust and dirt danced
around his hooves.

"You don't speak to me, you don't listen to me, and I've only ever seen you once. If this means I get to see you again or even talk to you, it's a risk I'm willing to take"Percy said out loud. The voice was silent. It was probably cursing somewhere in Olympus. Pebbles crunched loudly under his sandaled feet as he burst out of the safety of the woods and into the open. The lake in front of him was wide and strangely freeing; a large expanse of water stretching out, cutting through the trees like a huge cyan motorway. In the distance it curved and flowed from sight, creating an interval in the dense tree line. From where he was standing he was able to watch in awe as the sun shared it's bright, vibrant colours with the world for just a few seconds more, before the last of it slipped under the gently lapping waves. Darkness fell, and a chilling breeze seemed to pick up from nowhere. Percy then remembered the bucket hanging from his loosely curled fingers. "Right, water" he whispered to himself. His reflection rippled gently just inches from his face. It displayed a boy he hardly recognised anymore. His face was distorted by the breeze, but also by a look of depression. Is that the way he appeared to everyone else? The image was a lot worse than what he felt on the inside. Then again, when he thought about it, maybe it wasn't so different. He just felt sort of numb; he even couldn't explain it to himself. One second his reflection was alone, and in the next it was one half of an image. The image shown two people, one being him and the other being a boy, or rather a man now that he hadn't seen in a long time. "Luke?"

"Hello Percy" the boy in the image smirked, his lips moved in sync with the voice that had reached Percy's ears. The pebbles sprayed out and scattered far away as Percy spun round and scrambled back. Luke laughed slightly. "What kind of greeting is that? Not happy to see me?" He was now crouching over Percy, who could go no further without falling into the lake.

"B-but y-you, you died" he breathed. A look of annoyance flashed across Luke's face.

"What, got déjà vu, have we?" the smirk lingered on his lips once more. Percy threw himself to one side in an attempt to get out of reach of Luke, but it was too late. Before he had time to react, Luke had gripped his coat with one hand and was dragging himself to his feet. He wanted to cry out, but the other hand clamped down other his mouth. Luke pulled him closer so forcefully that Percy's back collided with his chest, though he thought nothing of it. Muffled cries escaped Percy's lips, but Luke began to hush him.

"Ssshhh, sshh" he whispered, almost mockingly, into his ear. Percy's cries of fear were replaced with one of pain. A sharp stinging sensation bled out into his neck, and it took him a second to realise that Luke had dug a needle deep into a vein and injected him with the contents of the syringe. His struggling ceased, as did all noise. His eyelids became heavy, and his knees buckled. He fell limp and helpless in Luke's arms. The world became darker and darker, until... nothing.