Percy awoke to darkness.

But did he really?

His eyes were shut and there was nothing around him, how could he be awake? There was nothing but void ahead of him.

He could sense and feel and smell and hear, and once he opened his eyes he could see too.

He didn't like what he could see.

There was nothing but darkness - but that was a lie. Red and orange and brown tendrils wriggled around him out of the corners of his eyes, coiling around him and hissing before retreating just as quickly. They felt like furry snakes, but were also slimy and slick and dirty and disgusting and wrong.

The air was choking him, even when he tried to hold his breath it forced its way into his lungs and through his body and he was being choked and why couldn't he breathe what was touching him why was he in the void oh gods things were starting to react it knew he was here the darkness was just as aware as he was when you stare long enough into the void it stares back–

He was screaming for it to end he didn't want this he didn't want this he didn't want this Nyx was right he was afraid but he couldn't be afraid because he couldn't afford to be afraid but he was afraid and he wanted it to end he wanted his mother and he wanted to be home he didn't want this but the eyes were watching him now and he wasn't safe and he'd never be safe and no matter how bright it was everything returned to darkness and–

Bloody nails gouged deep holes into his palms. His screams were louder now. He thrashed around in the bed, begging for the darkness to be taken away.

Someone was screaming back. That just made him fight harder. He didn't want to go.

It was like an invisible force was holding him down. He couldn't move. He couldn't blink. He couldn't breathe.

Riptide erupted in a frenzy in his pocket. The sword's silver sheen glowed blindingly, briefly banishing the darkness. Percy embraced the feeling, relishing in the glow of the blade.

"Agh! What the fuck!"

Apparently, someone did not.

To be fair, Riptide's glow was the equivalent of a flashbang going off in the darkness, so Percy could kind of understand the irritation. Even so, the warm glow of his pen and the light that permeated the room was more than worth the brief discomfort whoever was in here with him was facing.

Suddenly the lights flickered on, and Riptide immediately went dim.

Percy was left staring awkwardly up at Hermes, who was holding him down by his wrists.

"What the fuck," he blurted out, causing the god to blink.

"I think if anybody gets to say that, it's us," Hermes snarked, before gesturing over towards the light panel where Frank (who was still trying to rub the stars out of his eyes) was standing. "Gave me quite the fright, kiddo!"

"And gave me quite the case of temporary blindness," the son of Mars groaned, "Why is your sword so, uh, flashy?"

Percy shrugged. "No clue."

"Are you alright?" Hermes asked, more direct this time, "You were out like a light, and all of a sudden you started screaming bloody murder. We had to hold you down to keep you from hurting yourself."

He winced - both at Hermes's words, and the feeling of blood on his palms from where his nails had dug in. "Yeah. Just– just a nightmare."

Frank gave him a worried look. "I've had my fair share of nightmares, and I've never screamed like that."

"Well, uh," he started to mumble, "It was a bad nightmare."

"Bad?" Hermes repeated, a questioning look in his eyes.

"Yeah," Percy responded quietly, "Bad. I'm fine now, though."

Frank looked like he thought Percy was bullshitting, and Hermes looked like he knew he was bullshitting, but kept his mouth shut.

"Alright," the god conceded, before waving Frank off, "Thanks for helping with this, you're free to leave now."

Frank blinked. "Just like that? I run in here in the middle of the night after hearing Percy shrieking like a banshee, you make me help hold him down, then Riptide turns into a mini-sun and suddenly everything is fine?"

"Yep." Hermes was stone-faced. "Appreciate the help, but there's a reason I've been waiting for Percy to wake up. He and I need to have a little discussion - be a dear and get Hazel for us too, please! The door's that a-way!"

Frank didn't look very happy with Hermes's words (or his attitude), and Percy couldn't really blame him, even if he didn't fully understand what was going on.

"Uh, thanks," Percy said after a second, causing Frank to look towards him with a raised eyebrow, "For checking on me. And helping. Appreciate it."

The son of Mars sighed. "Don't worry about it, dude," he breathed out, "I'm just happy to see you awake again. I'll go get Hazel for you guys. Goodnight."

He left quickly, shutting the door to the sick bay behind him and leaving Percy and Hermes to themselves.

Percy looked towards his companion in confusion. "How long was I out?"

"Around a day," Hermes said flippantly, "I carried you and Hazel back to the Argo II after everything that happened in Olympia. Wasn't exactly a warm welcome we received, considering the fact that you looked like you had been hit by a semi truck. Zoe was pissed."

Percy winced. "If it's any consolation, I definitely felt worse than I looked."

"Well," he chuckled, "Don't tell your pretty little friend that."

He just rolled his eyes. "Stop talking. Please."

Hermes huffed. "Whatever, kid." He was silent for a moment, slowly gathering his thoughts. "You wanna talk about it?"

It was almost certainly Percy's nightmare, and just thinking about it again made him flinch. "No thanks," he said quickly, "I've had nightmares about this kinda stuff since I was twelve. This is nothing new to me."

Hermes was unconvinced. "Percy," he started, "It's not good to bottle this kind of stuff up. I know that… whatever happened down there couldn't have been good, but–"

"I'm fine," he said stubbornly. "I can deal with it."

"Sure, maybe you can," Hermes agreed with a nod, "But should you? The answer is no. Gods only know how many things I've made worse, how many relationships I've ruined by giving those I've cared about the cold shoulder."

Percy was quiet. He really didn't want to talk about this anymore.

"Maybe you don't want to share with me," the god trucked on, "That's fine. I'm not saying you have to treat me like your chaperone while I'm here. But everybody on this boat is your friend. Everybody here is willing to lend you an ear, or a shoulder, or whatever. Talk with Zoe - she was down there for even longer than you - or Hazel, or Frank, or Leo, whoever you want. No one is going to judge you, or think less of you, or anything like that. We care, Percy. It's not the easiest thing to open up about, but I promise you that you'll feel better off after you let it all off your chest."

The look Hermes was giving him tore straight through him.

Percy didn't like it very much.

"We'll see," he mumbled quietly, pulling his legs up to his chest and shrugging, "I don't know."

Hermes sighed, but before he could respond the door flung wide open. Hazel practically teleported over to Percy's bedside, gripping the railing in worry.

"Percy!" She whispered hurriedly, thankfully not reaching to crush his ribs again, "Thank gods. You– you were in really bad shape after that fight with Enceladus…"

He cracked a small smile at the girl. "I've been through worse."

"Speaking of Enceladus," Hermes interrupted, "We need to talk about what happened at Olympia after he ran away."

"Why?" Hazel questioned, yawning as the adrenaline started to exit her body, "I mean, we freed Nike, didn't we? Everything is fine now."

Hermes acknowledged her with a nod. "Maybe so, but Nike had some interesting things to say afterwards. Do you remember that, Percy?"

He nodded slowly. "She…" he trailed off, "She said she'd show up in Athens with the rest of the gods when we arrived to fight the Giants, and gave me that leaf crown thing. And… and–"

"And that one of us is going to die," Hazel said quietly.

"Yeah." Percy winced. "That."

Hermes hummed. "You kinda skimmed over the laurels there, kiddo," he said sharply, "Do you not know what that means?"

"No?" Percy blinked. "Um, she said I was, uh, the leader of the Seven now, right? I don't plan on changing anything, if that's what you're worried about."

Hermes shook his head fondly. "No, Perce, that's definitely not what I'm talking about. Clearly you haven't been reading up on your mythology." He pointed to Percy's head, and only then did he realize that the crown of laurels was still sitting softly atop his crown. "Nike doesn't crown champions often - especially not in the modern era. I think she gave one to MacArthur after he returned to liberate the Philippines during the last World War, and look what he went on to do."

Percy blinked. "Win the war?"

Hermes laughed. "Kid, he's pretty much the only reason Japan exists as it does today. After the unconditional surrender, he practically built that nation back up with his bare hands. He was a son of Poseidon too, y'know - I'm pretty sure that Hirohito guy was a son of Apollo, and boy did the photograph MacArthur had them take stir up some shit - but I digress. Let me give you a list of names - Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander, Saladin, Washington, all people she's given her laurels to. They founded nations, built empires, toppled, eliminated, and created dynasties. I'll put it like this - no one she's ever given laurels to has been forgotten, and you're the next man up, so to speak."

Great. Even more pressure on his shoulders. Did Percy ever mention how much he hated being a demigod sometimes?

"So?" He asked incredulously, "That doesn't change anything. Should I turn this boat around and head back to America to invade Canada? We're kind of busy here."

"No," the god agreed, "It doesn't. It's more a symbolic recognition of what you've done and what's to come, but it is very powerful recognition - not just to the Greek world, but also to mortals."

Percy sighed. "Wonderful. Maybe I'll accidentally sink Athens into the Aegean and I'll end up on an international terror list."

"You're just full of sunshine and rainbows, aren't you?" Hermes snarked. "Just relax. This isn't even the main thing I wanted to talk about, you know."

"Is it about one of us being fated to die?" Hazel questioned, making Percy jump - with how quiet she had been, he had almost forgotten she was there.

Hermes nodded solemnly. "Yup."

"Why do we need to talk about this?" Percy hissed, taking both his companions by surprise.

"Because," Hazel said softly, "We need to decide on whether or not we're going to tell everyone else about it."

He blinked. "And why would we do that?"

"So that they can prepare themselves for the inevitable," Hermes continued, "And… I might know of a way to prevent it."

The god punctuated this by toying with some dice in one of his hands, but was quick to hide them once Percy caught a glimpse. He ignored it, however, and merely raised an eyebrow. "How can you possibly prevent–" he cut himself off as he was reminded of the fact that Hazel was literally right next to him, "I mean, while Thanatos is free again, how can you prevent death?"

Hermes frowned. "I'm not entirely sure," he admitted, "But I know there is a way. Back when Artemis's friend Hippolytos was killed a few millennia ago, she brought his body to Apollo's mortal son Asclepius - the best physician in all of Greece. She had him create a potion known as the physician's cure that brought him back to life."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, but Percy didn't so much as flinch. Hazel squeaked in surprise, jumping slightly at the noise.

Hermes just looked annoyed.

"As you might have guessed," the god continued, "There were a few people that weren't exactly thrilled with that. Hades especially - said it messed with the natural order of things. Zeus killed Asclepius, Apollo got mad and killed some people, Zeus got madder, but in the end things settled down. Asclepius was made into a god to keep Apollo from permanently holding a grudge but in turn was turned mortal for a while, it was a whole thing, and the physician's cure was banned."

Thunder rumbled in the distance again, as though Zeus was starting to consider coming down to the Argo II himself just to prevent this discussion from continuing. Even the waves beneath the boat seemed unhappy, though Percy had no clue why his dad would care about this sort of thing.

"Okay then," he said slowly, the gears in his head already beginning to turn, "Let's say we try to get this physician's cure thing. How do we do that?"

"That's the hard part." Hermes's frown deepened. "I don't know the recipe. At least, not the full thing."

Percy blinked. "So we can't just go to this Asclepius guy and ask him to make it for us?"

Hermes opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly slammed it shut. He squeezed his eyes shut, brow furrowing, and after a moment Percy began to wonder if he was alright–

"Fuck, I hate telepathy," Hermes whined, "Do not react to this. Zeus is probably already throwing a fit at me even suggesting this."

Easier said than done. It wasn't every day that a god started talking in your head.

Percy glanced towards Hazel, and sure enough she looked just as uncomfortable as he did. At least they were suffering together.

"Look," the god continued, "Asclepius's cure hasn't exactly been unknown to the world ever since he revived Hippolytos. Gods go crazy for that kind of thing - you have no idea what kind of things we do to have the power to bring back our lovers, children, or mortal companions, even if it's only for a little more time. Zeus doesn't know about it, of course - or at least he doesn't know that gods other than himself have had Asclepius make his cure - but it happens from time to time. The problem is that he won't gather the ingredients himself - too suspicious - and gods can't exactly galavant around the countryside for this kind of stuff either. We make our kids do it. They get a prophecy, they go searching for whatever it is Asclepius needs, and either they fail or they succeed. I know we need something, a flower, I think, from Delos, but beyond that I have no clue. It's a longshot at best, and at worst is completely out of the question."

"So why would you even tell us about it in the first place?" Percy shot back, angry that his hopes had been raised only to be immediately dashed by the god in front of him, "If it's completely hopeless–"

"Because I care about you kids," Hermes interrupted, "And I know a lot of us up there do. None of us want to see one of our children die, much less because of dirt-for-brains, and I'm betting that if you somehow did acquire it Zeus would be willing to let it slide since, let's be honest, just about every god on the council would side with you guys on this."

There was a pause after Hermes finished speaking. The water was beginning to churn outside, but Percy knew that he wasn't to blame for the sea's anger tonight. Poseidon must have been in a pretty shitty mood.

He sighed. "Okay. Got it. A risky quest in the middle of our current quest that might save the person fated to die but might also fuck all of us over, and we wouldn't even know where to start. And we only have like a week and a half before Gaea wakes up and starts destroying shit."

Hermes nodded. "That about sums it up, yes."

Percy sighed angrily. "Awesome," he grunted, "What do you think, Hazel?"

Hazel jumped again at being called out again. "I… I don't know," she admitted, casting sad eyes at Percy, "But I think we should try. It's better to at least try and save them, right? But… it's your call."

Oh yeah. He was apparently their leader. This was his call to make, wasn't it?

Percy felt like his brain was at war with itself. He couldn't just say no and doom one of their own to their fate - he wouldn't. He'd seen far too many people, far too many of his friends to add another to that list.

But at the same time - it was a hopeless endeavor, wasn't it? A magical quest to gather some ingredients for a supposed potion that could save one of them, one that they didn't even know the recipe to, while they were in the middle of trying to stop Gaea. They didn't exactly have a lot of time on their hands, now did they? And even if they did, who's to say that this wasn't just a wild goose chase? What if Asclepius just refused them?

Percy's choice was obvious.

"We'll try and gather the ingredients for the physician's cure," he decided, "But we're not telling everybody that that's what we're doing."

Hermes looked confused. "What?"

"Just make up an excuse," he said quickly, "Just– just tell them all that it's an order from the gods or something that we need to gather some stuff for them, or that it's needed to defeat Gaea, it doesn't matter. We'll tell Annabeth the truth in private, because she's the smartest one out of all of us and the most likely to figure out the ingredients we need, but the rest of them need to stay in the dark in case we fail."

His heart was pounding in his chest as he made the call. What if it didn't work? What if it was a stupid plan? What if this just led to more deaths? What if–

"Alright," Hermes agreed, "Good plan, I approve. I'll come up with something and Hazel can fill Annabeth in afterward."

The girl nodded. "Okay. I think this will work. Do you want me to–"

Whatever she was going to say was lost to history. Something slammed into the side of the Argo II, sending the ship careening to the side for a brief, terrifying moment. The waves beneath grew fiercer and fiercer, and Percy was immediately on his feet and trying to calm the raging waters.

Thunder howled in the not-so-distant distance. It was as though the storm that had been slowly brewing was right on top of them. Even from within the bowels of the ship, he could feel the winds that were howling right outside. He was starting to think that it wasn't Zeus who was throwing around the thunder earlier.

Just as Percy began to right the ship, it was slammed against the sea by something once again. It took a lot to keep the ship from capsizing.

All of this happened in the span of a few scant seconds.

"What the–" Hermes tried to get out, before getting knocked onto his face by a third charge.

Percy grit his teeth. Now that the threat was right outside the Argo II's walls, he could definitely tell what it was. "Something immortal," he gritted out, "Trying to sink us. Feels like a Giant. Something else below the water too. Need to get to the deck."

It wasn't easy saying even that little. He was still exhausted and drained from that horrible nightmare earlier (he'd had bad ones before, but they were clearly getting worse), and now was trying to scope out the danger, speak, and fight against this clearly unnatural storm all at once.

It wasn't exactly easy.

Hermes swore. "Hazel!" He barked, "We need everybody up now! Whoever's on watch duty needs back up immediately! Tell them it's an ambush!"

He didn't wait around for a response, instead preferring to grab Percy by the arm and lunge for the door. They flew through the ship, and it only took a few seconds for both of them to be on top of the deck, right in the eye of the storm.

Twenty-foot waves crashed against the deck, barely held back by his command. If they were allowed to run free, they'd likely be twice as high. The sea rocked angrily as the sky shone a dark black, the stars completely blotted out by the heavy clouds above. The only light in the world was the occasional bolt of lightning, briefly blinding all those present and leaving nothing but blindness in their wake until it was time for the next one.

The rain was coming down hard as well, certainly not hindering Percy but definitely not giving Hermes or anybody else up here any favors. The deck was slick and slippery, and Percy probably could have swam on it by this point. The fact that the Argo II was still as stable as it was in these conditions spoke to just how incredible of a craftsman Leo and the rest of the Hephaestus cabin was.

Festus roared angrily as the masthead swerved around and around in an attempt to fight some unseen foe, the figurehead clanking as it breathed out the occasional bout of flame that was immediately extinguished by the storm.

Zoe and Jason were also on the deck, although Percy couldn't make them out with his eyes very well. They seemed to be fighting the same creature that had rammed into the Argo II earlier, albeit not very well, which was to be expected when your opponent was nearly twenty-five feet taller than you and practically invulnerable. It was a miracle the Argo II hadn't sunk beneath the Giant's weight.

Hermes seemed to know who it was before he did. The god rushed forward, an Imperial Gold sword magically in his grasp, only to meet the blade of another in a shower of sparks. His face briefly shone in the darkness, cold fury radiating from it before the dim light was snuffed out by the rain.

Jason and Zoe took the opportunity to fall back, with Jason stumbling to the ground at Percy's feet and Zoe leaning against him for support. Jason's face was scrunched up in concentration, and he had a strange feeling that the only reason they hadn't been turned to ash by a lightning bolt yet was due to his intervention.

"Percy!" Zoe shouted, although it was barely audible over the roaring gales - she may as well have been whispering. "We're under attack!"

"I know!" He roared back directly into her face. He couldn't tell if she heard him or not, especially since he couldn't make out her face.

Hermes briefly glowed golden, and Percy was quick to leave the two of them behind as he rushed to aid the god. If their enemy truly was a Giant (and now that he was more cognizant thanks to the rain, he could feel Polybotes lurking deep beneath the seas as well, along with another, more… familiar presence), Hermes would need some help dealing the killing blow.

The god flew up quickly towards the Giant's towering face, but was smacked down into the deck just as quickly - barely missing Percy's approaching form.

"Fuck!" The god hissed, already pulling himself up, "This is going to suck."

Percy didn't dare to take his eyes off of the slowly approaching Giant - he had a strange feeling that if it was able to swat Hermes out of the air, it was a lot quicker than it was letting on. "Do you know who we're facing?"

The god's eyes hardened. "Yeah," he said slowly, voice deep and low and angry, "Hippolytos - and not the one I just told you about. The son of Gaea and Tartarus, my bane."

Uh oh.

—

A/N: Yippee another chapter but it's super duper late where I am so I can't write out as much as I'd like but sorry it took so long and that it was kinda short and that it was another cliffhanger I'll try to be better next time but either way hope you enjoyed it and please let me know what you thought! Also not proofread please let me know if you see any possible errors and I will try to correct them tomorrow!

See you next time (which should be soon but I will be continuing to update some of my other stories in the meantime)!