(Disclaimer: all of this belongs to Rick Riordan, except for Terra. I made her up.
Note: The "wonderful" goddess that brought my character to this world. I'm also running out of character to do pictures of, please help me!!!! Comment what picture you want me to do next, please!)

Leo turned around and faced forwards.

My Girly Side:
Oh my gods!!!!!! I can't believe I just gave him a kiss on the cheek!!!!!! AHHHH!!!! I'm so happy right now I could burst!!!!!! Ahh!!! I can't stop smiling!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!! I feel like a six year old girl again. Wow, just wow. I can't believe I actually did that!!!!!! EEEEP!!!!!!!

My Mature Side:
Argh! Get ahold of yourself, Terra! Come on, your almost sixteen. Grow up!

Girly:
But we kissed Leo!!!!!!

Mature:
And????

Girly:
He smiled!!!!!!!!

Mature:
Terra, someday your gonna need to seriously grow up. I mean come on. Think things through! What if he rejected you? What if your mind was just making up the fact that he liked you and he really didn't? What would you have done then, huh?

Girly:
But he didn't reject me.

Mature:
Yes! We've established that a long time ago! Just please start thinking before acting! What if Nico were here?

Girly:
Oh my gods. Nico.

Mature:
Yeah, weren't thinking enough, were ya?

It went on like that in my mind for next couple minutes. I couldn't get over the fact that I had kissed Leo on the cheek. I looked at Leo and noticed how worried and distraught he had become.

"Leo, you okay?" I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah....not bad for a brainwashed zombie." He looked kind of embarrassed.

I know how he feels. How we weren't able to control ourselves over Medea's powerful charmspeak. How we were so easily turned against each other, so ready to kill with one command.

Leo looked past me and at Piper. "Thanks for saving us back there, beauty queen. If you hadn't talked me out of that spell-"

"Don't worry about it," Piper said.

Leo gave a weak smile, then faced forward. I looked down at my hands, still covered from the gloves I made. I took a deep breath and made them disappear. I looked at my badly burned hands. They were red in some patches, there was a blister smack dab in the middle of my left forearm, and my arms ached terribly.

"Terra! Your arms!" I heard Piper almost scream from right behind me, which really hurt my ears.

Leo snapped his head back in alarm and noticed my arms right away. His eyes grew big. "So that's why you had those gloves on."

I closed my hands and hugged my arms to my chest, I wasn't sure I could tell them about my legs, but I did. "It's the same on my shins. It was from fighting the sun dragons. I made contact with it's skin and-"

"Do you have medicine for it?" Piper asked.

"Maybe," I slipped off my backpack and unzipped it. Smoke erupted from my backpack. "Oh no."

I remembered when I slammed into the wall. I had my backpack on. The force of the impact broke all the vials and the chemicals mixed. Once the smoke died down, I looked inside. The whole thing was a mess, broken shards of glass, and a large amount of liquid sloshing around on the bottom. I was glad I had made the backpack's outside impenetrable. The glass would've killed me when I rammed into the wall, let alone the explosion. I made a glove on my right hand and started rummaging, trying to find the secret compartment I had made and kept the most precious vials in. I couldn't find it with all the glass and liquids floating around. So I shoved all the glass into the liquid and made it into one huge chunk of frozen potions and broken vials. I popped it out and made it hover in the air with my powers since it was to risky to actually hold it.

"Heads up!" I shouted and tossed the thing backwards.

I heard Jason scream in surprise, but there were no thuds or crashes, so I knew it didn't make contact with anything.

"You almost killed me!" Jason said.

"And?" I asked. "Your still alive aren't you? So there's nothing to worry about."

"But....." Jason stopped.

I located the zipper and unzipped it. I pulled out several small, skinny, wooden boxes. I read the labels and found the one I was looking for.

"Aha!"

I opened the box and slowly pulled out a small vial with black liquid. It had no cracks at all, good. I popped off the cork and stared at the liquid. I was warned it was the worst tasting of all the medicines, but healed burns in 10 minutes, so it was worth it. This was one of the more important medicines since I burn easily. (Found that out the hard way at Camp.) I braced myself for the horrible taste and poured one single drop on my tongue.

At first I tasted nothing and just shrugged my shoulders as I put the cap back on, but once I put the vial back in the box......it came. I grabbed my throat and gagged. It tasted like an uncooked rotten egg that stayed out in the sun and was slowly cooked on a stinky shoe in the dumpster. It overloaded my tastebuds.

"Aaarrggh! *hack hack gag*" I said holding my throat.

"Terra! What's wrong?!" Piper asked.

"Tastes *gag* terrible!!" I managed to say.

Piper sighed. "I thought you were dying. *sigh* You scared me."

I got used to the taste and stopped gagging. "I was for a second."

"We're going to have to put down soon," Leo warned us. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."

"Okay." I said.

"Yeah." Piper agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is-where are we going?"

"The Bay Area," Leo said. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"

I turned to look at Piper, she just stared down, looking sad and angry at the same time. Leo had said something wrong, but I couldn't tell what it was. Jason ended up talking instead.

"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap."

Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said you guys would die in the Bay Area. And besides....even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas, or Aquilon, or whoever he was, said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."

"Sooo..... How are we gonna find him?" I asked.

Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of us, but all I saw where clouds and the lights of a few towns glowing in the dark.

"What are we supposed to looking at, exactly?" I asked, seriously confused.

"That....whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air."

"Right," Leo said. "Could you be more specific on the 'whatever-it-is' part?"

"Like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."

Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"

"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly."

"Or maybe it has something to do with you being the son of the sky god." I said.

"Or it's another trap," Piper said.

She sounded so broken with despair, like somehow every trouble we've faced is her fault.

"Pipes, you alright?" Leo asked.

"Don't call me that." Piper snapped.

"Okay, fine. You don't like any of the names I make up for you. But if your dad's in trouble and we can help-"

"You can't," she said, her voice getting shakier. "Look, I'm tired. If you don't mind..."

She leaned back against Jason and closed her eyes. Wow. She really didn't want to talk. I wish she would just tell us what was up with her. I didn't like having a friend that's so troubled that she won't let people help her. I wanted to help, and it might make it easier on her.

We flew in silence for a while, but Jason spoke soon after Piper was out.

"Medea said you were keeping secrets from us, Terra." He said, sounding a little broken.

I lowered my head. "She was right."

Jason and Leo didn't make noises, but I could feel their surprise. "I know I've been keeping secrets from both of you. Leo knows a little more than you do though, Jason."

I could feel Jason become even more surprised.

"Leo already knows that I'm a servant to the goddess of the earth. Apparently, Khione offered me to her as a servant when I was born, and apparently that's something bad, so yeah. That's what Leo knows."

"So what's the secret you've been keeping from both of us?" Leo asked, sounding a little hurt too.

I sighed. "Jason and I really did come from the same place. We knew each other, very well....."

"We were friends, right?" Jason asked.

"At first we were, but something changed. We started whole-heartedly resenting each other. One time we got into a fight because you almost hurt my actual friend, even though I told you not to. After the fight I lost my rank of authority, and you didn't. I got so mad, because you had started the fight, and I hadn't. I guess I was jealous because everyone there treated you special, and I wasn't.....That's all I know so far."

I turned to see Jason's expression. I could tell it was mixed with disbelief, surprise, and slight anger, but I couldn't tell who it was directed at. Then his face went totally surprised and he started to blush really, really hard.

"Jason....you okay?" I asked.

"No. I'm not." He paused for a long time. "I remember that....we really did hate each other, didn't we?"

I nodded my head slowly.

"I'm so sorry, Terra. I didn't mean to talk about your family and friends like that. Believe it or not, I was jealous too."

I rolled my eyes. "Of what?"

"You were a powerful demigod. I remember how I could barely win a fight with you, and you hadn't even been claimed until that night. You didn't have powers and I did, and you could beat me in a sword fight." Jason said.

"Did you know I only hated you because you reminded me of my sister?" I asked.

"Huh?" Jason asked confused.

"Yeah, after I left, my friend, his name is Octavian, he talked to me. He told me that you can hate someone because they remind you of something you don't like about yourself. We figured out together that I hated you because I failed to save my sister, failed to keep her from being sent away, just like how your sister did. You were a constant reminder of what I failed to do, therefore I hated you."

He sat there. "Emotions are complicated."

"Yes, they are." I said smiling.

"What was your sister's name? And what happened to her?" Leo asked.

"Her name was, or is I hope, Zoe. Khione came back when I was six and she gave birth to Zoe. My dad was happy for a while, but lost it when Khione left him again. He resorted to alcohol. He decided to give Zoe up for adoption when I was eight, but I didn't want her to go. I would literally fight with him over it, but of course he won. So off she went, I visited her every day at the adoption center, but she was adopted three days after he put her there. Some young couple who wasn't able to have kids got her. I was so mad, but once I grew a little older, I realized how it was kind of a blessing to the couple. I didn't hate them as much, I knew it was my father and mother to blame. Knowing that Zoe's a demigod, a powerful one no less, I worry about her. Wondering if the people who adopted her could accept the fact that she's part Greek god. If they would dump her out on the streets once the monsters came, or accept who she was and still love her. I worry about monsters getting her and killing her since she doesn't know what's going on, or what to do. It drives me nuts sometimes."

"Well if she's anything like you, she'll be fine."

I thought Leo said this at first, but it was actually Jason.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

I noticed Leo starting to nod off. He must be tired. Before I could offer to help, Jason spoke up.

"Catch a few Z's," Jason said. "It's cool. Hand me the reins."

"Nah, I'm okay-"

"Leo," Jason said, "you're not a machine. Besides, I'm the only one who can see the vapor trail. I'll make sure we stay on course."

I patted Leo's shoulder. "It'll be okay, go to sleep."

He nodded, handed the reins to Jason, and leaned up against Festus, soon he was fast asleep. I couldn't help but play with his hair again. Please, don't judge. You'd probably be doing the same, after all it was really awkward with it just being Jason and I. I needed something to distract me.

After the longest time I succumbed to the wonderful world of sleep too. Roll the memories.....ugh.

I didn't recognize where I was, but now I could see normally, nothing was fuzzy. I was about the same age as the last one, but obviously a little older. I was running down streets, away from something.

"Come on, Terra! This way!" I heard a boy shout.

I followed him down another street. I recognized this boy as younger Jason. Why were we running? My memory-self turned around, but there was nothing there. We kept running anyway. Then I heard the screeches, owl screeches, but they didn't sound exactly owl.

"Jason! The Strixes are still there! What do we do?" I yelled at him, he was now next to me.

"I don't know, these guys are really determined." Jason looked ahead, and then his face lit up. "We go underground!"

"Underground? How?!" I asked.

"The sewers!" He said pointing to a passing man-hole cover.

"We're gonna need a huge lead to give us time to do that." I told him.

"Or...we just need protection for a while." He gave me a wide smile.

"How?" I asked, getting annoyed at how he would just leave me hanging.

"You make a shield around you and me with your powers while I lift the cover, then we go down into the sewers and come back up when it's safe!"

"Good idea! Let's hope it works!" I screamed over the noise of the birds.

Why are we running away from birds? What are they called? Strixes? That sounds weird. I'll have to do research on that later.

We stopped at the next cover and while Jason pried at it with his fingers, I stood next to him and made an ice dome. I could hear the birds pecking at it and the shield was already starting to break.

"Jason! This isn't gonna hold for long!" I said patching up the holes the birds were pecking.

"I'm trying!" He grunted and I heard the lid scoot against the floor.

I forgot about patching the shield and helped him move the cover. As soon as Jason got down, the shield broke. Big owl-like birds came all around me and Jason and I could feel them start pecking at me. Man-eating birds, great.

Jason grabbed me and pulled me down with him. The birds had gotten me worse than they had him. We got down to the ground, but the birds followed us down a through the sewers. We kept running, the birds were mostly gaining up on me, so Jason had to keep swatting them away with his sword. He would help me run faster every so often, but it wasn't long until the storm of birds overcame us.

I got scared, I couldn't see Jason. All I could see were feathers, beady bird eyes, and beaks. They continued to peck at me, and it felt like someone was sticking needles in me, then taking them out, then sticking them in again.

"Jason!!" I called out over the birds.

I walked around a bit, swatting the birds away.

"Jaassoon!!!" I called louder.

I could feel fear rush through me, I was starting to panic. Then I heard something in the distance.

"Run, Terra! I'll find you above ground!! Meet me at the café on the corner of Yankee and Howard!!" I could barely hear him say it, but I could tell he was close.

I ran, just like he told me. I kept running through the birds, gladly I stopped soon enough to not smack into the sewer wall. I decided to use the wall as a guide to get away from the birds. I ran and soon broke through the storm of airborne killing machines. It was dark, I couldn't see, but that doesn't mean that the birds couldn't follow me. I kept running and running until I didn't hear any noises other than my breathing and the sounds of my footsteps echoing in the tunnels.

I walked for what seemed like an hour, still looking for a way out. It was hard to tell what an exit even looked like in the darkness, heck, I could barely see my hands in front of my face. I kept walking and walking, and would call out Jason's name here and there to see if maybe he was close or not. Then I saw light.

I knew it wasn't a way out, but maybe it was someone who could help me get out so I could get to the café. I ran towards it and turned the corner and faced the source of the bright orange light.

It was a boy, definitely not Jason. His brown hair was a mass of dirty brown curls. His face had smears of dirt on it and his eyes where brown, he was five inches taller than me. I couldn't really make out the rest of his face because the way the light was casting shadows on it, but I knew he was staring in confusion at me. It took me a moment to realize the source of light, the bright orange flames casting shadows all around us, was fire that was just lying in his right hand, and seem to have no effect on him whatsoever.

"What?" I whispered. "Who are you?" I asked louder.

"Uh, no. Who are you?" He asked.

That voice seemed familiar, he also looked familiar too, but there wasn't enough light. I couldn't see all of his features, but he seemed about my age.

"None of your business, kid. What're you doing down here?" I asked.

"First of all," he said, walking up to me. "don't call me 'kid'. I can't be much older than you. Second of all, I'm here because I ran away from home. Now what are you doing?"

"Running away from man-eating birds. Now I need help to get back to the surface, can you help me?" I asked.

He examined me, and I think he finally noticed the scratches and bruises all over me."Man-eating birds, huh?"

"Yeah, don't want to meet'em. Once they see you, your as good as dead. I was just lucky to get away from them in this dark sewer. Now are you going to help me find a way out, or not?" I asked again.

"And you're not phased at all at how I have fire in my bare hands?" He asked.

"Kid," I said. "I've seen weirder things than you've ever dreamed of. Being fire resistant isn't that big of a deal where I come from. For example, I can control ice."

"I can't tell if your joking or not."

"Fine then." I held out my hand four inches away from his face and made snowflakes appear. They started floating up and swirled around in the air as if they were showing off.

He watched them disappear. "Cool."

"Thanks, now for the third freaking time, can you help me?" I asked getting a little irritated.

"What's in it for me?" He asked.

I sighed. "I don't kill you."

He laughed. "Your funny, but seriously. What do I get?"

I thought about how Jason and I would be meeting at a café. "I'll buy you a hot chocolate or something, okay?"

"Fine, seems okay. But do you promise?" He asked.

"Sure, swear it on the Styx."

"Sticks?" He asked.

It took me a while to figure out he didn't understand what I said. "Oh, no. It's Styx, spelt s-t-y-x. It's a very sincere promise to make. Whenever you swear on it, you have to do that promise, no backing out. If you don't, then something terrible happens."

"Sure, I bet it's just a bunch of superstition." He said.

"No it's real. And if you don't believe me, go ahead. Make a promise that was sworn on the Styx and break it. See what happens. But when it does happen, don't come crying to me."

"Okay. You need some help with those cuts you got?" He asked.

"I'll be fine." I said and opened a backpack I had. It wasn't the one I have now, it was green cloth with brown leather. I pulled out a canteen. I drank some of the liquid in it, I recognized it as nectar.

"Where's the nearest exit?" I asked him.

He looked around and scratched his head with his free hand. "Uhh. I don't know, but we could just walk around for a while, I'll find something."

Ugh. This guy had no idea where he was going, did he? I didn't want to walk much longer, my legs were throbbing and needed a break.

"Actually," I said. "We might just need to rest for a while. I've been running for my life the last two hours, and let me tell you, it really takes it's toll."

The boy shrugged. "Sure, whatever floats your boat I guess."

He sat down on the opposite side of the tunnel. I sat down too, and we just sat there facing each other. I could feel myself start nodding off. This is weird. I'm falling asleep in a dream. Well....technically it's a memory, but hey, I'm asleep, so yeah.

"Why do you need to go back up there if you were getting attacked by man-eating birds?" He asked.

"Huh?" I asked groggily. "Oh, um. My friend and I are on a quest to find this sea monster and kill it, we're on our way to Aeolus the go-" I caught myself. "Uh. This guy who can help us. He'll tell us how to kill it. And the, um, birds separated me and my friend, and so he told me that we need to meet at the café on the corner of Yankee and Howard. Do you know that place?"

"Oh, yeah. I know what your talking about. Starbucks, yeah. Your still buying me that hot chocolate, though." He paused for a second. "So, wait. Your on your way to figure out how to kill a sea monster? Where in the world are you from?"

"California."

"Whoa. Where do you need to go to find this Olios guy?"

"Aeolus, and we need to go to Pike's Peak, Colorado, but we keep getting thrown around the states. We try to take short cuts, and they back fire." I said.

The boy whistled.

"Why did you want to know?" I asked.

"Well....I don't know. I just get lonely running away by myself....and when I heard you were running away from something too. I don't know, maybe I thought we could stay together, but obviously you got to go soon, so yeah, forget it."

I felt flattered that this random boy was thinking about running away with me, even though we've only known each other for several minutes.

I needed sleep. I felt my legs getting weak, asking to lie down on a soft bed and let me enjoy a nice long nap. But all I could do was set my backpack down on the ground and lay on my side, using the backpack as a pillow.

"Don't ditch me while I sleep, okay?" I asked the boy.

He nodded. "Swear it on the Styx."

I smiled and closed my eyes, instantly falling alseep. I soon woke up, because the boy was shaking me.

"Hey, girl. Wake up. You've been asleep for like, two hours. Thought it would be nice not to leave that friend of yours waiting so long."

My eyes snapped open and I sat up. "You let me sleep for two hours? Wow, thanks."

"I was able to take a nap too, so no problem. But come on. That friend of yours might be getting impatient."

I stood up and put on my backpack. The boy still had fire in his hand, casting eerie shadows over us. I still have a feeling I know this kid, who is he? Maybe if we get into the light of day I could tell what he looks like and see if he is familiar or it's just my brain being weird as usual.

We walked down tunnels for the longest time. The boy would just choose a random tunnel, or so it seems, and then choose another random tunnel that leads to different tunnels that he will just randomly choose from. I had a feeling we were lost, so I asked.

"Are we lost?" I asked.

"Uh...no." He said as he chose another tunnel.

"We're lost." I stated.

"No, we're not. I know where I'm going." He said.

"Then how close are we to an exit?" I asked.

He paused. "Yeah......we're lost."

"Knew it. Now how are we gonna find an exit if we don't know where it is?" I asked.

"Well, there's bound to be one every once and a while. So we're bound to find one." He said.

"What do they even look like?"

"Well I know it has a ladder, so we'll just keep our eyes out for a ladder on the sewer wall."

"Wow. This is going to take forever." I smacked my hand on my forehead.

"Well, aren't you little Miss Positive?" He said sarcastically.

I laughed dryly and then we stayed quiet for a long time afterward. We kept walking, and I was still following the boy, even though I knew he didn't know where we were going. Several minutes passed, we kept glancing down other tunnels to see if if they showed any signs of ladders, nothing so far. But then we found one.

"Hey, what's that?" I asked, pointing down one of the tunnels, there was something against the wall.

"I don't know, let's check it out."

We walked down the hallway slowly, the boy was going first, since he had fire. He stopped right next to it.

"Told you we'd find one." He said.

"It's a ladder?!" I asked, excited to get out of the darkness.

"Sure is." He looked up and then over at me. "Ready?"

"I guess so." I climbed up the ladder and tried to lift the cover, but I barely moved it, giving us the tiniest strip of day light. "Come up here and help me. I can barely move it."

The boy put out the fire in his hand, causing it to go dark. I tried pushing up the huge piece of cement, but it seemed to be heavier than the one Jason and I had lifted. I heard the boy climb up the ladder and soon felt him squish in next to me in the narrow space. His hands went up to the cover and we lifted it together, letting light stream in to the sewers and finally being able to see fully. It was sunset. I climbed out all the way and the boy followed me out. We dragged the cover back to it's spot and ignored the strange stares from pedestrians.

"Now where are we?" I asked. I looked up and down the street we were on and my eyes landed on a street sign. We were on a street called Derby. Great, how close is that to the corner of Howard and Yankee?

I walked up to a man and asked him if he knew, he just grunted and kept walking. How rude. I tried asking several other ladies and gentlemen if they knew and they either didn't, totally ignored me, or didn't say anything.

I finally had success with a woman holding the had of a little girl with pigtails. "Excuse me, ma'am. Do you know how to get to Starbucks on the corner of Howard and Yankee from here?" I asked politely.

She smiled. "Yes, you go down the street until you reach Olive. It's quite a distance, but you should make it there before the sun goes all the way down. When you get to Olive street you turn right, and head straight on until you come to a middle school called Webster. You turn left after the middle school and after a few intersections you should reach the street Howard. I believe that it intersects with Yankee on the right side, so turn right."

"Thank you." I said and waved as they walked away.

I pulled out a pen from my bag and a small sketch pad. I jotted down:

1. Reach Olive, turn right

2. Reach Webster school, turn left

3. Reach Howard, turn right

"Alright, finally got the instructions." I told the boy.

I looked up from the notepad and finally got a good look at his face. My mind exploded. Oh gods. It....it couldn't be. No...this has to be a coincidence, a very big coincidence. This can't be who I think it is. But all his features, from his pointy ears down to his scrawny body structure, tell me that it's him.........he even had the same devilish smile.

"Nice, now let's move. I'm really looking forward to that hot chocolate you said you'd buy me." He rubbed his hands together.

We walked down the street just as the lady told me, looking at all the stores we pass. Some were restaurants that looked very appetizing and my mouth started to water at the sight of a steak being served to a man. My stomach growled.

"Sounds like someone's hungry." The boy said.

"No kidding, I think people in Arabia heard that." I said.

He laughed. Even the laugh was they same, how he cocked his head back a bit and closed his eyes. This couldn't be true.

I could see the sun starting to disappear. We needed to move faster.

"Come on, we need to pick up the pace. It's getting close to dark." I pointed out.

He looked over at the sun. "Alright, should we run?"

"Why not?" I shrugged my shoulders.

We ran and we finally made it to Olive street and we turned right. We continued to run and the sun was gone as soon as we got to the middle school. We turned left on the street after it and we started running harder. I felt my legs starting to get sore again, tired of running so much. We passed one, two, three intersections until we found Howard street. It was quite a busy road, but the sidewalks seemed to be less crowded. The street lights and lights on stores and restaurants helped us see where we were going, but we had to go up lose to the street signs to read them. After four or five blocks, and some pretty close calls with some reckless drivers, we found the corner of Howard and Yankee. I looked at the big green words "Starbucks" and the mermaid logo. Why did they choose a mermaid? I don't know.

"Here it is." I looked at the tables outside and searched for Jason. "I don't see him out here, maybe he's inside."

I opened the door and walked in and the boy followed me in. I scanned the people sitting at the tables, no luck inside either.

"He's not here." I said sadly.

He placed a hand on my shoulder. "It'll be fine, maybe he just got lost a little longer than we did. I bet he's on his way right now."

"I hope." I sighed. "Well, anyway. Let me get you that hot chocolate. Don't want to break that promise. I swore it on the Styx."

I took off my backpack and pulled out a ten dollar bill. I walked up to the cashier and asked for two hot chocolates. She nodded and I gave her the money. She gave me back the change and my receipt. The boy and I sat down at a table close to the cashier.

"Where will you be going after this?" I asked.

"Oh, who knows. I'll try to stay hidden in the sewers for a little while longer, but I know that I'm gonna get caught sooner or later."

"Who are running away from, exactly?" I asked, remembering he was running away from home.

"My Aunt. She's mean and treats me like trash. I've been stuck with her ever since my mom died. I didn't want to be with her, so I ran."

"I have sucky family too. Never knew my mom, but my dad he's an alcoholic. He gave my sister away, her name is Zoe. I got so upset I ran off. Found a Camp that decided to house me in Cali. I met my friend there. It's the closest thing I've got to a home, even if it isn't anything near one." I said, knowing the feeling of not liking your family. "Did you ever know your dad?"

"Huh? Oh...no. My mom kept telling me that I'd meet him though, kept saying everything would make sense once he revealed himself to me. I have no idea what she means, but he's never been there for me, doubt I'd like to see him."

He's a demigod. Has to be. Having powers and not knowing father, what his mother said kind of confirms it even more. Hearing this nearly confirmed my suspicions on who this boy really was.

The cashier called our order number and I walked over to get our hot chocolates. I came back and we enjoyed our beverages. Mine was too hot for me, so when no one was looking (except the boy) I iced the cup and the drink cooled down to my liking.

"Your like me, aren't you?" He asked.

"What?"

"Like how-" he looked around and then leaned in talking in a whisper. "Like how I can control fire. You can control ice. I think we might have something to do with each other."

"How?" I asked.

"Maybe we're superheroes."

I laughed. "Me? A superhero? Sorry, I don't see myself wearing mask and a goofy costume that most likely includes tights. But, I don't think we're superheroes."

"What are we then?" He asked.

"If my suspicions are correct, you'll learn soon enough." I say as I take the last sip of my (no longer) hot chocolate.

"Okay." He whispered and finished the rest of his hot chocolate. "Well, I guess this is good-bye." He stood up and walked over to the trash can, I followed.

"Thanks for helping me. Who knows how long it would have taken me to find a way out without light."

"No problem. Well, I hope you find that friend of yours."

He was about to leave when I stopped him. "Wait. I never asked what your name was."

He turned around with that same smile on his face that I've loved ever since I met him at Camp Half-Blood. "Leo, Leo Valdez." And he walked out the door.

I stood there with a smile and watched him walk off until I couldn't see him anymore.

*Extreme Mind Explosion Noise* It was him. I knew it. But how????? HOW??????? How have I met him before, and when we meet again at Camp he doesn't say anything about this???? How???? Man, I need to ask Leo about that. Okay, one last time, I really need to get the surprise out of my system. HOW?????????????

I sat there at the same table Leo and had sat in for a half hour longer, and there still wasn't a sign of Jason. Did he find Starbucks quicker than I did and he was sitting here waiting for me and then decided that maybe I died, so he just left? Or did he just ditch me immediately to do the mission without me? Or has he just not gotten here yet? I kept sitting there, staring at the clock on the wall and then glancing outside. The waitress came up to me and asked me if she could help me, but I just told her I was waiting for someone and asked her if by chance and blonde male about "yea high" with a scar on his lip and possibly a stick or baseball bat had been in here earlier or has been hanging out outside.

"No, miss. Sorry." She said and walked back to the cashier.

I groaned. It kind of sounded like Jason to just ditch me and continue the quest, but I was actually getting kind of worried. What if he didn't even escape the Strixes and he's dead? What if he ran into another monster and that one killed him? What if he got kidnapped and now I have to do the quest by myself? My head ran ramped with things that could have happened.

The door opened and I snapped my head over to look. It was Jason. He had worse cuts on him than I did from those stupid man-eating Owls. His face defined exhaustion, and when he saw me he gave a weak smile.

"You made it before I did." He said weakly.

I ran over to him and did something I thought I'd never do ever since that fight we had in Capture the Flag. I hugged him.

Gladly the dream faded, I was ready to wake up. I felt my eyes start to open, but then I felt something pull me back into the memories. Great, what now? I'm gonna figure out I've known Nico my whole life too? Or Percy? Or Will? Or Annabeth?

The image solidified into the Camp that Jason and I had gone too. I could see clearly, like my last memory, and dang, did this Camp look beautiful.

I was just walking around, fauns were asking for money, I didn't offer any. I would wave at people I apparently knew and say hello. Sometimes I'd stop and ask them how their day was and they would cheerfully tell me with a grin on their face. I would reply back that I was having a great day too.

I suddenly realized how close to my current age I was in this memory. I might have just turned fifteen. I could feel winter in the air, and my birthday is in winter, so that's probably the case. I am very happy around and on my birthday. Hey, what can I say? It's my birthday! A holiday meant for celebrating me! I'm pretty sure there's nobody out there that absolutely hates their birthday. Who's like that? Even if you're shy, or get the suckiest birthday parties, or don't get any presents, or don't even celebrate it, you have at least got to like your birthday a little bit. Come on, don't lie, you like it.

Then I noticed that there was a commotion going on over at the entrance. I ran over and made my way to the beginning of the group. There were two people coming out of the entrance and into a river to get to us. One was a boy with dark hair who was helping a dark-skinned girl with frizzy light brown hair. What is she wearing?? It's like a dress from the 1920's. She seemed about thirteen or twelve, somewhere around there.

It took them a while, but they finally made it across the river and stood in front of us. My mind did a double take when the boy looked away from the girl and at us, then he stared at me and smiled. I walked up to him.

What?????????? I swear I was joking when this started!!!! Joking!!!!! You hear that Fates??? Stop jacking my life up and making it so freaking confusing!!!!!! I was joking!!!

"Hey Nico, long time no see. Who's this?" I asked, gesturing to the girl with him.

Nico looked about the same, but you could kind of tell he was younger. He still had his aviator jacket, I wonder how long ago he got that. His Stygian iron sword was still sheathed and hanging from his belt, wonder when he got that too. I noticed he still had that skull ring, dang how long has he had all this stuff?

"This is Hazel, my half-sister." He said. "Hazel, this is Terra Jones."

"Daughter of Khione, Roman goddess of ice and snow." I held out my hand, and she shook it. "Welcome to Camp Jupiter."

"Thank you." She squeaked.

Camp Jupiter?????? Is that the name of this place????? Why did I say "Roman goddess"??? This is so confusing.

"So, looks like we got another child of Pluto. Hope she doesn't decide to disappear every once and a while. Where do you go off too?" I teased him.

"The Underworld. I do some errands for my dad every now and then."

"Doesn't he have minions for that? I think you need a break from that place, it's literally Hell." I said.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I don't mind it. I just came to help Hazel get here and get used to the life of a demigod." He said.

"Alright, let's show her around. She'll probably end up in Fifth Cohort." I told Nico as we walked through the crowd.

The dream faded and my eyes snapped open. We were falling. Falling. So I screamed.