Serena was glad the meeting was over. She was not glad about her mission or the prophecy. Heck, she was downright terrified of what was in store for her future, and she had a pretty good reason for it too.

Annabeth suggesting that the Mermaid was a metaphor or someone's name didn't help Serena's suspicions, and considering how everybody treated her at the meeting, it must have been pretty obvious that the daughter of Poseidon was scared.

Hurrying over to cabin 3, Serena thought about the prophecy. 'If the Angel won't help, the Mermaid will drown'. Man, are prophecies always that cryptic? No wonder Clarisse wanted me to say what was on my mind. When Serena arrived at the Poseidon cabin, she grabbed her little blue knapsack and stuffed a few objects she had 'borrowed' from the camp store (and maybe a few campers) inside; ambrosia, nectar, Medea's SPF 5,000, and a few other things. She had asked Lou Ellen to put a spell on the bag when she had first arrived at camp, just in case she had to pack more that it would normally carry. The blue bag was now practically bottomless, and would be very helpful on this quest.

"You looked nervous back there," Percy said as he walked into their cabin. "Want to talk about it?"

"No," was her immediate response, but then she thought better of it. "...Maybe."

Serena walked over to her bed and sat down. She sighed, and then began to talk. "I'm just scared about what the prophecy could mean for me."

"Serena, it isn't necessarily about you. Sure, it was made to you, but that doesn't mean it has to be about you."

"What about the Mermaid then? I'm pretty sure I know what it means." Serena said the last part rather quietly, hoping that Percy wouldn't hear.

Of course, being the 'great Percy Jackson', he did hear, and responded with, "Wait, if you knew, then why didn't you say anything to the other councilors? To Chiron? Even to Nico?"

"First of all, I said that I think I know what it means, and second of all," Serena paused, thinking, for a few moments before continuing, her voice catching slightly in her throat. "Its because I'm afraid of it. Afraid of what it means. Afraid of what I have to do with it. Afraid that what I think it means will mean that I will drown."

"Why would you think that you'd drown? You're not a mermaid, technically speaking."

"And Nico's not an angel, but the prophecy refers to him as one anyway. Because of his name: di Angelo." Serena was on the verge of tears now. This prophecy wasn't making her feel any better about her recent nightmares. "Promise me you won't tell anybody about what I say next?" she said hesitantly after a few moments. Percy nodded, and she sighed. "What I was trying to say back at the Big House, it was that-"

She stopped talking when Nico and Will walked through the cabin door.

"Um, sorry, did we interrupt anything?" Will asked, starting to walk back towards the door. Nico pulled him back.

"No, nothing important." Serena replied quickly. "Percy's just looking forward to having the cabin to himself again, right Percy?" she got up and nudged Percy in the arm with her elbow.

"Yeah, that's it," Percy said, rubbing his arm where Serena had hit him. "Never realized how much I like having the cabin to myself."

"Uh, okay Percy," Nico walked over to where Serena was standing. "Just wanted to let you know that if you ever need to talk about something, I'll be here to listen. Okay?"

Serena nodded. "Thanks, Nico. Will. I think I should get back to packing my bag now. I know that I haven't finished, but I don't know about you guys."

"We both finished, and we came over here to see if we could lend you a hand. And to talk about the quest. We should make a plan if something happens, and even if nothing does, we should at least get some idea of what we're doing." Will answered. Serena noticed that both Will and Nico were carrying small rucksacks like hers, but in different colors. Nico's was black and silver, while Will's was yellow and gold. Serena's was a sea-green color lined with light silver.

"Well, that's very sweet of you." Serena teased, batting her eyelashes mockingly. She earned herself a laugh from Will, and she noticed the sides of Nico's mouth curve upwards just the slightest bit. The daughter of Poseidon gave him a real smile when she noticed this. She decided not to call him out on it, since pretty much anybody you asked would know he absolutely despised attention. "Anyway, a plan sounds like a good idea. Going into battle without a strategy is not really the smartest move."

Percy jerked his head up from where he had been doing a little bit of schoolwork. "Hey!"

"Oh, not you Percy. You charging into battle is a great plan. Hey, if you did it again, maybe you wont get poisoned this time!" Serena teased him. When she received a scowl in return, she quickly moved her eyes back to her bag. "Never mind."

Will was worried.

There was no doubt about it.

Serena had acted strangely after the prophecy was issued, and she hadn't improved all that much.

Will rolled over on his bed, thinking about what might await him and his friends in what felt like only a few hours, or at least until the next morning. He had discussed with Nico and Serena what their plan was, and what he had learned from Serena had been troubling.

Apparently, Percy and the entire Hermes cabin (along with everybody else at camp...) failed to see that she had been having horrible nightmares. Will guessed that the nightmares were what had affected Serena's mood the most. The past week, Will had noticed small details about the daughter of Poseidon that didn't sit quite right with him.

The younger demigod had become paler than she had been when she had first arrived at camp; on her first day, her skin had been lightly tanned. Now it was beginning to look more like Nico's complexion day by day. Her sea-green eyes were often times clouded with exhaustion, and on those occasions, Serena looked as if she hadn't slept in days.

Serena had apparently been dreaming of whatever awaited her in the near future. When Will had asked Connor and Travis about how Serena acted in the morning, what he discovered surprised him. The twins had told him that the daughter of Poseidon had usually seemed like she hadn't slept at all, and when that wasn't the case, they had been woken up by her screaming. When they looked at her, she was sitting bolt upright in her bunk, her face pale and damp with cold sweat, and sometimes, tears.

The most troubling fact that Will received had to be 'by her screaming'. From what Will had already learned from Serena, she wasn't the kind of person who scared easily.

One time, she and Nico had been walking around the forest's boundary, and a big spider appeared. A spider so big it would probably give some of the Athena campers a heart attack. Nico hadn't reacted much, other than being a little startled and trying to walk away at a faster pace than they had already been walking. Serena was different. Instead of freaking out like most kids her age would, she stopped and held out her hand to let the spider crawl across her palm. She really wasn't scared easily, thus increasing Will's worry for her.

When Will and Nico had discussed said nightmares with Serena, she had grown visibly paler than she already was. Instead of explaining what exactly the dreams had been about, she had given them a simple version: "I'm only sure that we have a long trip ahead of us, and my dad will only be able to give us the location of where we'll need to go. Other than that, we just have to trudge through it until we get somewhere."

Once again, Will found himself rolling over in his bed. He really wasn't going to get any sleep with his train of thought going the way it was.