bro i genuinely forgot all of my ideas for the plot. i bs'd this chapter so hard. i also kept typing apollow for some reason.

In his dream, Percy was weaving. It didn't make any sense. He had never woven anything before, he didn't know what the shuttle was. But there his dream-self was, weaving a tapestry. It showed a small sailboat being swallowed by a huge wave, reminiscent of the Japanese prints. The ocean was a beautiful sea-green; the same color as Percy's eyes.

Three old ladies sat next to him. The one on the right was knitting the biggest pair of mittens Percy had ever seen and the one on the left was spooling the yarn into her lap from a basket at her feet. The one in the middle was sharpening a pair of frankly terrifying scissors with a whetstone.

The one knitting suddenly looked up at Percy with an unnerving stare. "Hurry Perseus. You don't have much time yet."

Percy tried to ask what in the world she was talking about, but he found that he couldn't make any sound. He could open his mouth and exhale air and scream in his mind with all his might, but he couldn't seem to make his vocal cords move.

"The Olympians depend on you, Perseus," the one with the yarn said.

"Why would the Olympians depend on me?" Percy tried to ask, but his voice still didn't work. So he said nothing.

The woman with the scissors set the whetstone down. "You need to remember, Perseus. You need to remember everything."

And then she cut the yarn.

And then Percy woke up.

He felt like he had cotton in his mouth and a headache pounded in his temples, but he was also face to face with Apollo, so some things took precedence.

"Were you..." Percy tried to think of a more polite way to say 'what the hell were you doing' to a god. "Were you watching me sleep?"

"Yes." Apollo had a funny look on his face, almost like he was trying to solve a puzzle. "We need to talk."

"Ok," said Percy, "But one, don't ever do that again, and two, why?"

Apollo didn't answer. He just stood there. At least he glanced away when Percy got dressed. When Percy was done, Apollo gestured for Percy to follow and stepped out of the Hermes cabin without a backwards glance.

Percy was right in front of the door when he spun back around. The cabin was empty. Why was it empty? The Hermes cabin was never empty. He glanced at the window, expecting to see the sun streaming through, but it was nearly pitch black outside.

By all accounts the cabin should have been jam-packed with people. It was dark outside, therefore it was nighttime, therefore people should be in the cabin sleeping. Something was wrong.

"Perseus!" Apollo hissed, stepping back into the cabin and grabbing Percy's arm. "We need to hurry!"

Apollo dragged Percy towards the forest. Camp Half-Blood was unnervingly silent; even the harpies were silent. Something was wrong.

Artemis was standing at the edge of the forest, almost looking nervous. She nodded at Apollo as the two of them approached and turned briskly into the forest. Apollo dragged Percy after her, and Percy stumbled along, trying not to trip in the oppressive darkness of the probably-night.

The three of them walked for about 10 minutes until they got to Zeus's Fist. Artemis and Apollo stopped suddenly, and Percy actually did trip. Artemis looked up at the sky above them, visible in the clearing. Apollo watched her.

There was no moon in the sky.

"Now, Perseus," Artemis said, turning to look Percy in the eyes for the first time. "Are you ready?"

Percy tilted his head, not unlike a dog. He didn't say anything, but he glanced warily at Apollo. Apollo didn't look at him. In fact, he turned his face away from Percy and towards the sky. Rude.

When Percy looked back at Artemis, she was right in front of him and he had to suppress a flinch of surprise. She didn't say anything, instead choosing to stare at him with those unnervingly silver eyes. And then she grabbed his arms and forcefully turned him to face Apollo.

Percy could only manage to let out a strangled "What—" before Apollo pressed his palm to Percy's forehead, and he saw white.

Except it wasn't actually white. It was a slideshow of scenes sped up to x100 that mixed horrendously with Percy's headache.

Percy saw darkness and light and color and laughter and sorrow and war. He saw the rise and fall of empires and the joys of childhood. He saw tyranny and poverty. He saw the Earth and the ocean and the sky.

The entire thing took about half a second, but when Percy could finally see his surroundings again, his headache was gone. Percy felt different.

Percy saw Artemis and Apollo standing near Zeus's Fist. They looked over at him, and for a second he saw a young girl and boy, about five, both holding bows in their place. They looked familiar.

Then the vision faded and the twins were running towards him. And Percy suddenly realized that he was on the ground, propped against a tree at the edge of the clearing.

Artemis helped him up as Apollo gave him a clinical once-over. They both looked surprisingly worried.

"How do you feel?" Apollo asked him.

"I... I think I'm fine," Percy said hesitantly. "What happened?"

Apollo ignored him. "I don't think it worked."

Artemis hummed. "Do you think we need mom?"

"Mom?" asked Percy, trying desperately to understand the conversation that was happening two feet away from his face.

Apollo acknowledged him this time. "Leto, our mom."

And all of a sudden Percy recognized those two five-year-olds. They were standing right in front of him. His headache came back with a roaring ferocity.

He remembered.

"Shoot," Percy said, swaying a little.

Then he passed out.

~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~

Yall I'm so sorry. This year's just been really stressful for me :/ But! I wrote nearly 8k of another story (not a fanfic) that I'm either gonna post here or try to self publish (if I can actually muster up the motivation to finish it). 

you know the drill w/ the chapter titles

see ya <3

Published: Mar 17, 2023