•as the world caves in•

•we visit the spa•

Annabeth and I found Percy floating around in the water. We pulled him aboard and we used our makeshift sailboat to continue on in the Sea of Monsters.

When Percy woke up, he tried to sit up but immediately fell back down. I ruffled his hair, glad he was okay. "Rest, you're going to need it."

He smiled, but it instantly fell. "Tyson?"

I shook my head. "Percy, I'm so sorry." We sat in silence. "He may have survived, I mean, fire can't kill him."

He nodded, but he didn't look like he believed it. I showed him the stuff we were able to salvage, even if it wasn't much. We sailed for hours and took turns drinking from the Dr Pepper we were able to get, but it was horrible.

By Annabeth's estimate, we had less than twenty four hours to find Grover, assuming the dream Percy had was accurate and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn't change his mind.

Eventually, Annabeth laid down to try and get some sleep, leaving Percy and I to do whatever.

"Cor, what's Chiron's prophecy?" He asked.

I sighed. "I shouldn't..."

"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me, but you didn't promise, did you?"

I smiled. "Knowledge isn't always good for you."

"Annabeth's mom is the wisdom goddess! And Annabeth always talks about how shocked she was that you weren't also a daughter of Athena!"

"I know!" I couldn't stop myself from laughing, until I turned serious again. "But every time a hero learns the future, they try to change it and it never works."

"The gods are worried about something I'll do when I get older, something when I turn sixteen."

I messed around with my camp necklace. "Percy, I don't know the full prophecy and neither does Annabeth, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three, the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That's the real reason Zeus, Poseidon and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three will be a dangerous weapon."

"Why?"

"Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it."

Percy looked sick. "That's why Kronos didn't kill me last summer."

I nodded. "You could be very useful to him. If he can get you on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble."

"But it's me in the prophecy..."

"We'll only know that if you survive three more years, that can be a long time for a half-blood. When Chiron first learned about Thalia, he assumed she was the one in the prophecy. That's why he was so desperate to get her safely to camp. Then she went down fighting and got turned into a pine tree and none of us knew what to think. Until you came along."

He was in silence. "That kid in the prophecy? They couldn't be like, a Cyclops? The Big Three have a lot of monster children."

I shook my head. "The Oracle said 'halfblood'. That always means half human, half god, there's really nobody alive who it could be except you."

"Then why do the gods even let me live?" It would be safer to kill me."

I smiled. "You're right."

He scoffed. "Thanks a lot."

I nudged him. "Percy, I dunno. I guess some of the gods would like to kill you, but they're probably scared of offending your dad. Other gods, maybe they're still watching you, trying to decide what hero you're going to be. You could be a weapon for their survival after all, the real question is, what will you do in three years? What decisions will you make?"