I can't believe none of you mentioned anything about Hades' visit, Nico going off to talk to Percy or 'what's going on?' or anything. Honestly, people! Get with it!

And to Guest- 'cos I can. It's all part of the plan.

Alvie kicked a pebble, the medallion's chain coiled around his fingers, swinging at his side. Elsie and Alokia talked to him every now and then, but their attempts to get him to talk became less frequent as they realised it was pointless.

He had given up on his attempts of destroying the medallion. It was bloody pointless, as Elsie had said, and he was better of spending his time trying to figure out why they had found it, why he was the only one that could hold it and why Apollo had left it at the bottom of a pool.

Sighing, he gave the pebble a hefty kick again and it clattered against the wall of the wartime tunnel they were walking through. They had no idea where they were or what time of day it was. They had no idea what day it was, it was that bad. Alvie only spoke when he had to give directions. Somehow he knew which way to go, without a clue as to where it was leading.

Obviously, he was thinking about Max. Crystal had told him it wasn't his fault, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it was.

"We should set up camp soon." Elsie voiced, half-turning to look at him. Alvie just nodded, flicking the chain and spinning the medallion so quickly, it whistled slightly.

They found a spot about five minutes later. It was in a dead end tunnel with bits of debris floating about in an ankle-deep puddle. They tried to use some of it, the drier parts, to light a fire. It didn't work very well.

"Alvie, did you think of anything?" Alokia asked gently. Alvie shook his head, tossing the medallion in the puddle. It sunk with a dull thud, bubbles distorting the surface. "I take that as a no then." Alokia sighed.

"Try and get some sleep, Alvie." Elsie ordered. Alvie resided to his sleeping bag, but didn't go to sleep that night. He was used to dozing off to Max talking in his sleep, but all he heard was the bubbling of water, Alokia and Elsie talking to each other in quiet tones and a ringing in his ears, which quickly became irritating.

He rolled onto his side, placing his back to the girls so they would think he was asleep. He wasn't tired. He was just miserable and slightly annoyed, missing Max and hating that stupid medallion. Not much.

"Do you think he knows where we're going?" Alokia asked quietly. Elsie sighed.

"I don't know. His… his psychic powers might have been whacked since what happened."

"But he gives us directions. There has to be something he knows."

"He's probably trying to work that medallion out." No, he wasn't.

"If this is Apollo's doing, I'm not too keen on him anymore." Alokia muttered. "I mean, OK, the psychic bit is pretty cool, but look at what it's doing. Alvie goes blind; cries blood; gets nosebleeds if he stresses his powers too much; comes up with prophecies that are either carved in stone, like, forever ago or ones Rachel has come up with; then he's put on this quest and loses his brother…" Alokia's voice caught here. "All he's got to show for it is a medallion thing that won't do anything other than make a pretty penny at some point."

"And boil water, apparently."

"What?" The bubbling Alvie noticed earlier was getting more ferocious and echoed eerily around the tunnel. He was still under the pretence of sleeping, so rolled onto his other side and looked at the boiling water discreetly. Thankfully, the puddle was distracting the girls. "Why is it doing that?"

"Not a clue, sis." Elsie dipped her foot in the puddle and kicked the medallion out. It skittered to a halt next to Alvie and he saw, before closing his eyes, that it was perfectly dry. "Wake him up and see what he thinks."

"No, let him sleep." Alokia sighed. "He doesn't have it easy, does he?" (Very sorry about that, my lovely readers)

"Hmm…" Elsie hummed. "Get some sleep, Kia; we'll talk in the morning."

Alvie lay awake for hours. Elsie never noticed, talking to herself about anything just to keep herself awake. He would have happily switched places with her on night watch duty, but she would bop him on the head and order him to go to sleep or else.

She would sleep. He wouldn't. It was a waste of hours, as far as he was concerned. Instead, he picked up the medallion when she wasn't looking and rolled back onto his other side, his back to her. He didn't understand why it heated up or anything. It had seemed perfectly regular in that pool. Why had it gone nuts in the puddle?

Turning it over in his hands, Alvie noticed something he hadn't noticed before.

It wasn't a medallion.

It was an over-grown locket.

Yay, pictures of Apollo and his dysfunctional family.

Or, going by Alvie's luck, it was another prophecy or instructions for the quest and he would be stuck on this stupid thing forever.

Easing the latch, Alvie opened the locket as carefully as he could.

It was empty.

OK…

Elsie yawned and grumbled a curse. Alvie heard her nudging Alokia awake. Alokia was more observant than her sister and would constantly check on him. If she realised he was awake and had been since they made camp, she wouldn't be very happy.

No, it wasn't empty. Alvie's fingers had found a secret hatch in the velvet lining of the locket. He didn't open it or anything; it just vanished seconds after he touched it.

Inside was a golden-white ball of heat. It practically blinded Alvie.

Then it exploded and he knew it was trouble.

Crystal was bored.

Nico was out somewhere, covering Percy's lessons class as far as she could work out. She wasn't allowed in his classes and Percy wasn't teaching. He didn't feel like it. Chiron had given him time off to get his head together and get back in the game, but it had to be impossibly hard to go through losing a child. No child should die before a parent. Crystal had heard that saying quite a bit on TV. It wasn't exactly ideal for a parent to die before a child, but at least the parent had lived and left a mark in the world.

All she had for company was a bothersome crow that was constantly hungry, demanding food and attention. Crystal had lobbed a squashed bit of bread at the bird at some point, but that only encouraged Madam to annoy her even more.

Crystal probably wasn't allowed to train because Nico had put his tuppence worth in. She can't train 'cos she'll want to join the quest and if she joins the quest, Joy's going to kill me. Crystal could totally imagine him saying that. It was obvious he loved Joy to bits- everyone did- but if Crystal got so much as a paper cut, Joy would turn into the Queen of Hearts, screaming 'OFF WITH HIS HEAD!'

Smiling at that mental image, Crystal looked around the Hades cabin. Her eyes landed on the Mythomagic figures. She knew, thanks to Percy, that Nico had been obsessed with the game as a kid, constantly going on about attack points and stating random facts about the gods, which would have landed him in a lot of trouble, but he stopped playing.

She got up and went to inspect the toys closely. She had no idea what the gods looked like, except Hades, so she tried to guess. They probably didn't even look like the toys, but she might as well have something to do.

Madam settled on the edge of the dresser, careful not to disturb the toys and watching Crystal with those beady, black eyes.

"What? I'm not going to break them." Crystal grumbled. Madam pecked at her hand. Crystal glared at the bird, but Madam only took flight and landed on the bedside cabinet next to Nico's bunk. "What-?" Madam pecked at the drawer before looking up and squawking pointedly at her. She repeated the actions a few times until Crystal realised that she was supposed to go over there and open the drawer.

Inside, amongst all the junk, was a prism next to a drawstring pouch of drachmas. "OK, good bird and I'm very sorry for throwing bread at your earlier." Madam cooed approvingly and went and settled in the bowl of water Nico had set out for her.

It took Crystal a while to remember how to get an IM working, but when she did, she messaged her mother.

Joy was in the bathroom, still in her pyjamas, and staring down at something in her hands. Crystal called her and Joy whirled round. She looked confused for a few seconds, hiding whatever was in her hand behind her back. "Hi." Crystal smiled.

"Crystal?" Crystal nodded. "What-?"

"It's called an IM, Mom. It's an Iris Message. Demigods use them all the time to contact others."

"Iris… isn't that the rainbow goddess?"

"Um… I think so. I'm still learning all this stuff. How are you, Mom?"

"Oh, I'm OK. Boring here on my own though…"

"You've got Pebble."

"Ah, yes, amazing company, a cat."

"Mom, don't be sarcastic, that's my job." Joy smiled at her.

"How are things there? Is Nico keeping you out of trouble?"

"He's practically wrapped me in cotton wool and sat me on the shelf. You can't do anything because your mom will kill me. He's terrified of you."

"So he should be." Joy gave a curt nod. "Anyone hurts my baby and there will be bloodshed." Crystal laughed.

"Mom, you're awesome."

"Yes, I know I am thank-you. Is Alvie there?" Crystal's smile faltered.

"No, he's still on his quest."

"Baby, has something happened?"

"Uh, well…" Crystal rubbed at the back of her neck awkwardly before walking her mother through what had happened. Joy's eyes grew wide, round and tearful when she heard about Max. She knew some of the story behind his old behaviour, but was fully aware of the fact that he had been trying to make things better. "Alvie's crushed, Mom. He keeps blaming himself because he made a mistake."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he said he had this vision thingy and that he saw Tobias fighting Luke in that tunnel with the poisonous air, but it wasn't Tobias, it was Max."

"Oh dear… oh, the poor baby… When is he coming back?"

"Nico said in a week, hopefully." Joy sighed, watching her daughter, concerned. Then she frowned, her eyes calculating and serious.

"Crystal…"

"Mom…" Crystal feared what was coming, quickly trying to psyche herself.

"Is there anything between you and Alvie?"

"What'd you mean?"

"You know…" Joy gave a sly, knowing smile, having noticed Crystal's defensive tone. "Anything between you and Alvie…"

"Mom…" Crystal warned.

"Ooh, since when?" Joy beamed.

"Ugh, since that school party…" Joy laughed happily and Crystal felt her infectious happiness over the IM. "Don't-"

"See, I told you! I told you!"

"Mom-"

"You didn't listen to me! I said you'd be so cute together!" Crystal glowered, heat rising in her cheeks. Joy snickered, beaming and doing a weird little happy dance. "Tell me more." She insisted, sitting on the edge of the bath and looking as attentive and as excited as ever.

"No!"

"I'm your mother!" Joy protested good-naturedly, trying to look angry and demanding, but failing due to her excitement. "Tell me info or I'll, um, I'll ground you for a month!"

"Mom, you won't ground me for a month."

"Oh, you're right. I'll ground you for a year instead."

"You can't do that!"

"Yes I can! Now tell me or I'll come over there and strangle you."

"You won't strangle me. I'm your baby, remember?" Joy pulled a face at her. "Besides, you'll never find this place. It's shielded from mortals."

"Yes, but Nico's on my side. Not yours."

"I met Hades last night."

"You… did you really?" Crystal nodded. "What was he like?"

"He was kind of scary. I mean, he didn't really do anything to be scary, but that one can be serious trouble."

"What kind of scary?" Crystal pondered for a few seconds.

"You know when Nico got William to leave just by talking to him? That first time he came over?" Joy nodded. "Like that, but Hades was, like, super quiet. He smiled though, so he can't be all doom and gloom."

"You've changed the topic."

"Dammit!" Crystal scowled. Joy looked triumphant.

"Tell me now or suffer the consequences."

"What's that?"

"I'll think of something. Did Alvie ask you out or what?"

"Um… we kind of left the party… and we found a bench under a tree…" Joy nodded, silently encouraging Crystal to continue. Reluctantly, Crystal muttered something about mistletoe and kissing Alvie. Joy squealed excitedly and practically jumped up and down out of happiness.

"About time, baby!"

"Mom, will you-? Oh gods…" Nico was standing in the doorway. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough…" He smirked. Crystal folded her arms sulkily, pretty sure that her face was bright red. Nico just grinned at her; that sarcastic, troublemaker grin she was slowly starting to associate with big trouble.

"Is that Nico?" Joy asked. Crystal nodded. "Oh, I need to talk to him. Where is he?"

"Here." Nico sat on the bed next to Crystal. "How are you?"

"I'm OK. Even better now I know we've got Crystie."

"What-? Mom, what on earth is Crystie?" Joy just laughed cheekily and softly.

"Go away for a minute. I need to talk to Nico without you eavesdropping."

"But… but that's not fair. I just told you my secret!"

"Crystal Andrea Whatever-your-last-name-now-is, do as you're told!"

"My last name's Watson." Joy smiled.

"Fine then- Crystal Andrea Watson, do as you're told!"

"No."

"I'll set Nico on you."

"How truly terrifying."

Alvie came to on some stone steps. His head felt like it was full of mud and his ears were ringing. His vision improved as the seconds ticked by, but that big flash had really disorientated him.

Looking up, he saw a statue of Apollo towering over him. And on Alvie's other side was the real Apollo, seventeen years old with an electric guitar in one hand and the locket/medallion thing in the other.

"Hey." He grinned. Alvie just stared at him. Apollo's grin faltered slightly and he actually looked slightly guilty. "Sorry about Max and all, bud, but…" Apollo shrugged. "I had nothing to do with it, I swear." His smile returned, softer and more reassuring. "You tried to break my toy." He complained childishly, holding up the medallion.

"It's stupid." Alvie grumbled, pushing himself to his feet and dusting himself down.

"Yeah, so I heard. I think you said stupid about… three dozen times since you got this." Alvie continued to look at him and Apollo saw that Alvie wasn't really interested in how many times he called the medallion 'stupid'. "We need to talk." Apollo said sternly.

"Damn right we do."

Woo! I forgot my initial idea, but I've managed to come up with this instead! Is it OK?

I put another one-shot up as well earlier, in case you haven't noticed. I think I called it 'Merry Christmas, Tobias!' or something like that. If you haven't read it, please check it out! It's only short!