Leo's arms and legs trembled as he halted in the bright lights, his breath like fire in his lungs. He tried to calm his racing heart, to stop his watering eyes in the face of his friends and this next room. It didn't help that the last of the relaxing sleep magic had faded, leaving Leo to experience all of his remaining dread in full force.

The flooring here was no longer marble, but instead the same tile he'd found in every classroom and government building he'd ever been in. Years of staring down at the floor in classrooms after being reprimanded by teachers in his youth, hoping desperately that his classmates wouldn't see his tears, came flooding back to him. The collision of guilt, anger, and sadness when a social worker told him that he was burning his bridges every time he ran away came back to mind just by being in here.

The whole place was a standard office space, with one of those old metal desks with a wooden top. There was a device that Leo would have thought was a computer, though strange clear tubes seemed to come out of the bottom console, leading little balls of light to about a hundred different little screens like old TVs. There was a stack of papers on the desk in a Manila folder as well as a mug that read #1 B̶o̶s̶s̶, where Boss has been crossed out in Sharpie and replaced with god of sleep.

The office was weird and out of place being inside a temple. Not to mention that the inside of the space seemed a lot larger than the outside of it. Although Leo had much bigger things to worry about, he kind of wanted to see the blueprints for this place.

As soon as the trio took everything in, blinking in the bright artificial light as if walking out of a dark movie theater, Nico seemed to realize he had been holding Leo's hand. Leo's face flushed, and Nico pulled away so fast he slapped his own leg.

It was then that they seemed to attract the attention of someone. Leo could hear shuffling in another room, and his heart jumped as he gripped his knife. However, instead of Nyx, out of the conjoined room walked a man. There was no doubt he was a god, though. The man stood over seven feet tall, with white dreadlocks contrasting his brown skin. Leo couldn't be sure he was quite looking at them once he did-he didn't have pupils, only an eerie purple glow filling his entire eyes. He looked at them and raised his brows, sitting down in his rolling desk chair.

"So," the man commented, casually as ever. "You made it through. I was, uh, watching it on one of these," he pointed dismissively to one of the screens, which Leo noticed was broadcasting them. Leo couldn't see much detail, but he looked as if he'd just slept under a bridge the night before-and he would know. "But I got distracted. Had to put on another pot of coffee, you know. Anyways, color me surprised. No one's really made it through before."

"We noticed," Piper replied quickly, then she took a step back. "Lord Hypnos, I'm sure you know about our quest, and what all it involves...?"

The god, Hypnos, frowned as he looked at his computer, clicking something and then typing something out. The trio waited in tense silence for what felt like forever-Leo knew they didn't have an appointment exactly, but would it kill Hypnos to listen to them for a minute after everything they'd been through?

No, it wouldn't. Because he was a god.

Hypnos paused, finally looking at them. He then looked back at his computer, typing a few more things. Just as Leo was ready to groan and lay on the floor, Hypnos typed one more character, and the screens clicked on in a flurry of light and sound. Leo could see dozens of people in a variety of situations-one pink-haired girl seemed to be on a ferris wheel with another girl, leaning in to kiss her. An old man was fishing off a boat and caught a fish that had to be eight feet long. One poor red haired boy was in school giving a presentation, and suddenly his clothes popped off, leaving him in his underwear.

"These are dreams," Leo noticed, looking in fascination from screen to screen. As soon as he took one in, he seemed to want to take in another, a switch flipping in his brain to obsess over each one.

"Precisely, Leo Valdez," Hypnos replied, and with another click of his mouse, the screens flipped to people he knew. His Aunt Rosa, feverishly cleaning before a guest would come to visit-to Leo, she deserved much worse stress dreams. Then there was his kindergarten teacher, dreaming of a wedding in a perfect dress.

Then there was Sarah. Leo's eyes stung just to look at her-and she didn't seem to be doing too well in her dream, either. She'd always had night terrors, and in this one, she was running through a thick woods, being chased by some sort of creature with glowing red eyes. This setup didn't have any audio, though the fear in her eyes alone made his stomach drop, every muscle in his body tensing.

"Sarah!" Leo stepped forward, not caring if he was too close to the god's desk. "Can you see her real life? Are you sure it's just a dream?"

"It's just a dream," Hypnos echoed, typing in a small combo and clicking something. He waited, sighing. "Stupid ads...no, Ganymede, I can't afford your wine," he muttered. He clicked something again, causing the screens to change back, only this time displaying a hundred different strangers.

Leo tried to calm his racing heart-he hadn't seen her in over a year, but at least she was still out there somewhere, even if her nightmares hadn't gotten better.

"Lord Hypnos," Nico stepped closer. "The dreams are very interesting, but I'm sure you know why we're here?"

Hypnos paused, and the screens went dark again. Leo almost wanted to snap at Nico, but he knew he was right-he imagined that the omnipotent dream magic was meant to be even more tempting than the sleep magic.

"Oh, yes," Hypnos replied. "I know why you're here. To answer Miss McLean's question, I don't really know the details of your quest. I only know that my mother has gotten up in arms about some plan of hers again. I can only assume you're here to save Apollo?"

Leo noticed his two friends had nodded, and he did as well. He was surprised at how nonchalantly this god seemed to handle the situation-Leo could clearly see that he had not been really involved in the plan, and he didn't seem to really care about it.

"Do you," Leo started. "Lord Hypnos, do you mind that we're here to stop your mother's plan?" He asked. He could hear Nico take in an anxious breath beside him, and he felt the need to layer in a little protective language, like when he tried to get out of detention as a kid. "Not that you should-but also not that we're telling you what to do, you're clearly far more competent than us. But I guess I'm just curious. You've got a really cool setup here, by the way."

Hypnos just blinked at him, his glowing eyes looking like strobe lights. "No, I don't mind. I suppose I maintain some semblance of loyalty to her, she has helped me out in a pinch or two, and I still live in her domain...but even I have limits when it comes to her antics. I mean, stealing the sun out of the sky, really? An eternity of night for her and her monsters, which means that I'd work overtime with no overtime pay!"

Leo's brows furrowed; he supposed golden drachmas existed, but he didn't know that the gods received compensation. Either way, Leo imagined sitting in this office chair for eternity, sorting through people's dreams and making new ones day in and day out while the tenant next door hatched an evil plan to take away his full-time benefits. That sounded like it really blew.

"With all due respect, that's ridiculous," Leo replied. "If there's an eternal night you're supposed to just, what, make every mortal dream 24/7 forever?"

"Exactly!" Hypnos banged his fist on the table, which made the whole room shake for a moment like a miniature earthquake. "But, anyways..." he sighed. "She asked me to make things difficult, of course. She said I could kill you if you were particularly annoying. I mean, our defense system here at the Tomb is pretty recent, only five hundred years old, give or take a century. I didn't change a thing. If anything, I made things easier. If she wants to kill you, she can do so herself."

"You made things easier?" Leo asked abruptly. Hypnos's purple gaze sharpened, causing Leo to scramble to bow on one knee and quickly add "With all due respect of course! Your Number One Sleep God mug is very accurate, sir." His face burned as if a joke he'd disrupted class for had flopped-he was making a fool of himself, he knew it.

"Oh, get up, hero, there's no need for all that," Hypnos said with a dismissive wave of his hand, and Leo stood up straight. The god looked at him thoughtfully. "Come closer, Leo Valdez."

Leo felt a hot zap of worry slide down his spine; he didn't like how this god was using his full name like that, especially considering that his last name was his mother's. He looked between his quest mates-Piper's breathing had become shallow, as if afraid to be singled out by making a sound. Nico had frozen in place, though there weren't many shadows to blend into here. No one jumped to contradict the god, so with no other choice, Leo stepped closer.

"I like you," Hypnos said. "A bit of a suck up, but you mean well. There are so few people that take a genuine interest in dreams anymore, besides those money-hungry so-called 'dream interpreters', anyway. Here, I'm going to give you something." The god rummaged through his desk drawer for a moment, and Leo glanced at his friends with worry. Would this be some sort of tricky Monkey's Paw situation? Was this some sort of joke, where he would just kill all of them anyway?

Finally, Hypnos retrieved a small device and handed it to Leo. It was a black, plastic circular device, with an eye encased in a cloud design on the cover. It honestly looked like a compact mirror for doing his makeup, and although Leo felt about seven jokes crowd the tip of his tongue, kept his mouth closed (for once) to save face.

"Thank you!" Leo said. "I really appreciate this...this..."

"Dormio," Hypnos answered. "A really handy device, that. It allows you to see anyone's dreams-mortals and demigods, of course. Immortal beings don't have dreams unless they take my available supplements."

"Your...supplements?" Leo asked.

Hypnos retrieved a bottle from his desk drawer, the label of which read:

Hypnasia!

Live Out Your Wildest Fantasies in the Dream Realm™!

And then smaller text below that:

Not responsible for dream content that may be sexual, violent, or otherwise offensive. All dreams are automatically generated based on subconscious desires. Hypnos will be able to see all dreams. No refunds allowed.

Leo had never had such an easy time reading something in his life, and upon a second glance, he realized the text was in Ancient Greek.

"It's unimportant," Hypnos added dismissively, putting away the bottle. "You wouldn't want to go poking around a god's dreams, anyways, unless you were looking to make enemies. But I imagine that little device may be of some help to you, at some point. I had a ton of them made in the 80s, birthday presents for the kids, you know? But it turns out my kids can already see people's dreams, so it turned out to be a bit useless, as I was told." He narrowed his eyes. "You're not one of mine, are you?"

Leo shook his head, his stomach coiling slightly with nerves. He imagined being a god was-while it had its perks-overall terrible. Hypnos seemed so all over the place, tracking dreams and making new ones, unable to find any help. He was like Santa, only with no help and no holiday dedicated to him. At least, not nowadays.

"I'm a son of Hephaestus," Leo replied, the word sounding just that in his mouth: a word. Something he learned in class, and maybe even knew the meaning, but it sounded foreign. It was as if at any minute Hypnos would laugh and tell him he didn't know what he was talking about.

Instead, the god smiled with a nod. "Ah, Hephaestus. He's a good one-very down to earth. He actually did a bulk of the work helping me set up this little dream-contraption." He tapped his computer and gestured to the hundred screens. "So it's no surprise that you took an interest in it. But, well," he looked over at the doorway that they would have to enter next. There was no light and no sound, no indication of what was going to happen next. His glowing eyes met Leo's, and if Leo didn't know any better, he'd say they looked pretty dim. "If my mother kills you, I'll have to take back the gift-you won't have much use for it, you know."

Leo felt a jolt of fear at his words, and his legs weakened, but he nodded. "Thank you, Lord Hypnos."

"Thank you for allowing us passage, Lord Hypnos," Nico added, and Leo glanced at him, almost forgetting he was there. Why had it felt like his quest mates were leaving him with Hypnos? He wasn't about to be their god-to-mortal correspondent.

"Nico di Angelo," Hypnos frowned. Nico stepped forward, his face paling, if that were possible. The god didn't seem happy to look at him-Leo wondered if he was unhappy with the connection between sleep and the dead, and what that meant for how he saw Nico.

"I would like to apologize for the dream you had in the tomb," Hypnos said, and Leo's eyes widened a fraction. Several expressions passed across Nico's face-pain, embarrassment, guilt-but they only lasted a moment before he seemed to will himself to remain expressionless. "It was a self-made product of subconscious desire, but it was a quickly made, inconsiderate product at that. Some aspects may have been taken from mere thoughts or even bits of other universes. It's not something that you should think too much into, hero."

Nico nodded, muttering a small thank you, but Leo knew that the sentiment would be easier said than done.

"Other universes?" Leo asked, steering the subject away from whatever Nico's dream must have been. He only knew it had involved his sister, and if he didn't want to discuss it, Leo would try to help with that. The son of Hades had already had his privacy invaded by one deity before.

The hundred screens on the wall suddenly flicked on, uncertain as a glitch at first before all aiding to display one image like a Jumbotron.

Leo could see himself at the helm of a giant ship, and-was that a Wii remote that he was using to man it?

"Stupid rock gods!" Leo could see himself yell, his voice odd to him, as if on recording. "That's the third time I've had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?"

The image then panned to Nico, looking not much different than he did now. Maybe a little smaller, if possible, or more sunken. His eyes were dark, as if he'd seen a few things no one should be subjected to. Still, he raised a brow in that way he did before he had some smart reply. "Masts are from trees," he pointed out.

"That's not the point!" Leo fired back, ducking as another rock flew past the ship. For a moment, Leo noticed a girl racing by that looked familiar-like Hazel. Just as Leo moved his Wii controller around again, though, the image faded.

"Hm," Hypnos frowned, clicking something on his computer. "This system's being all sorts of weird. If my mother's plan with capturing the sun messes with my Dormio, I really will be pissed..."

"You guys knew each other in another universe," Piper pointed out. "I wonder if I was there, too."

Leo couldn't help but smile a little at the thought, that all three of them knew each other in other universes as well. They were on some sort of grand flying boat, and he wondered if he'd helped in building it. However it came to be, he'd been with his friends. In the other universes, he'd gotten out of the system and found a new destiny.

"There is no use in wondering about the metaphysical, Miss McLean," Hypnos pointed out. "But from what I've seen, you've done quite a fine job remaining on task through the tomb. Using your Charmspeak was a clever idea, and don't tell yourself otherwise."

Piper nodded, and only due to the fluorescent lights of the office, Leo could see her eyes were shining. "I'm glad I could use it to do some good, even if it didn't...feel good at all. Though, Lord Hypnos, if I may ask...do you believe our dreams will change after this?"

The god shook his head. "I give demigods dreams that may be...unpleasant, but only because they are important. Those dreams will not stop whenever you are needed to step up as a hero. However," he paused, taking out a pen from another mug, this one reading: Sweet Dreams and Coffee Beans. He then took a sticky note and scribbled a note. "I will not be sending you three any purposefully malicious dreams due to this encounter. I am a professional, after all."

Piper nodded, offering her thanks. The trio paused, unsure of how to continue.

"Well, we're gonna go fight your mom now," Leo said, his voice weak. "Nothing personal, you know how it is."

"Very well," Hypnos sighed. "It's been nice speaking with you, it's so...rare to get surviving visitors. I don't get out of the office enough, but that's an issue for another day. Use your gift wisely, Leo Valdez..."

Leo nodded and turned to the door, hoping for any indication of anything going on in the next room. No roaring monsters, no sharpening blades. Leo slipped his Dormio in his tool belt pocket, and with one last breath of hesitation, he opened the door to a cave of darkness.