I threw up after using one of Persephone's pearls. Charming, I know.

To use them, you merely stepped on them and imagined where you wanted to go. We all agreed on Santa Barbara, partially because it was a good place to stay on the way to San Fransisco, and partly because we'd have people to stay with. My parents.

All things considered, I would've much rather taken the bus. 

The pearls nearly sucked the soul out of my body. It felt like my breath was being knocked out of my lungs, thrown back in and sucked back out again as we were consumed in a cloud of green smoke. They traveled at lightning speed before spitting me onto a pile of white sand.

I coughed and sputtered out the sand that had landed in my mouth and looked around for my friends.

    "Percy? Paris? Anyone there?"

Percy groaned, stepping out of a metal trashcan. "I hate those things. They never drop you off exactly where you want to go."

I stifled a laugh as I watched him pick a banana peel off of his shoulder.

"S-s-speak f-for y-y-yourself," Paris's teeth chattered violently. She was soaked in water from head to toe. Before Percy and I could say anything, she lifted a hand. "I don't want to hear it. Let's just go inside."

Nico and Danny were already waiting for us next to the entrance of my home. And they were completely fine. Not a single hair on their heads was out of place.

"What the hell happened to you three?" Danny laughed so hard tears began to form in his eyes.

"How come you guys aren't all...messed up?" Paris pulled a piece of seaweed from her hair and flung it on the floor in disgust.

"We shadow traveled," Nico shrugged. "It takes a while to practice but it comes in handy."

Nico wasn't really all that intimidating up close. He was pretty petite, maybe an inch or two taller than me. His light freckles made him look younger than he really was. Physically, he looked nothing like his father except for the cold expression in his eyes and pasty complexion. If I wouldn't have known Nico, I never would've guessed he was a child of Hades.

"Aren't you going to knock?" Percy asked. Everyone was impatiently waiting on me to make the next move.

"Right. Yeah."

I let out a long anxious breath as I gently knocked on the door to my house. It was well past ten o'clock, meaning my parents were already in bed. My mother was probably on her laptop reading emails while my father read some book on pop culture in the sixties or something.

The door swung open; my heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to burst any second.

"Orion?!" There she was. My beautiful, radiant mother in all her glory. 

Her red hair was in waves, cascading down her slender shoulders. Although she was wearing no makeup and had practically rolled out of bed. she still looked like a real life goddess. My mother immediately embraced me in her warm arms. I tugged at her multicolored silk robe and tried to inhale all of her perfume's rosy scent in one big breath. 

"Oh, honey! I'm so glad you're okay."

"Mom," I croaked, not being able to ignore the massive lump in my throat. Warm tears began to trickle down my face out of nowhere. For a second, I forgot everything; that my friends were standing two feet away, that I had just returned from the depths of the underworld, that I'd met my real father and that my best friend was half goat. I was never getting over that last one. "I've missed you so much."

My mother took my face into her soft hands and brushed away my tears. "I've missed you more, you know I have. But what are you doing here? It's not safe for you outside of camp, you know that."

I nodded. "Yeah, but we need a place to crash for tonight," I gestured to my four friends who all waved at my mother. "We're kind of on a quest."

She turned to look at them for the first time, taken aback by the abundance of teenagers on her porch. "Wow. A quest. So you're all...from camp?"

"Pretty much," Paris breathed out a laugh.

"Mom, this is Percy Jackson, Paris Cantor, and Nico Di Angelo. They're helping me on a quest to help Zeus. And you know Danny."

My mother furrowed her eyebrows at the mention of my father.

"Come on," I slung my arm around her shoulder, "we have a lot to tell you. Starting with Camp Half-Blood."

***

Even though I was home in my own bed, sleep didn't come easy. In fact, it didn't come at all. 

I laid awake for nearly two hours just tossing and turning, but it was no use. I just kept thinking about...everything. My mind was racing and I could only think of one way to slow it down. I had to go to the beach.

Growing up with the ocean in my backyard never stopped me from being afraid of it. And now it all made sense. I always knew I wasn't welcome in the water. There was no doubt in my mind Poseidon wouldn't hesitate to kill me, like my father had tried to do to Percy countless times.

Being outside soothed my nerves right away. I missed the feeling of sand beneath the bare soles of my feet. I rubbed my toes together, trying to bury them as deep into the sand as they could go before I sat down right in front of the water. The navy blue ocean fought itself for a moment, then lurched up to kiss the tips of my toes.

"You too, huh?" Percy sat down next to me, taking in the view of the Pacific Ocean stretched out in front of us. The pale moonlight was enough to highlight the peaks of the waves perfectly.

"Yeah, I didn't want to risk having another nightmare."

"I used to get them too, especially when I got my first quest." Percy shook his head like he was remembering something intense.

"That bad?"

"Worse. Dreams have a way of really messing with you and getting to your head. They can really drive you crazy if you let them, but Hades is right. They're there to help you more than harm you."

I turned to look at Percy. The look on his face was difficult to read. His eyes mirrored the color of the dark ocean ahead. It was so weird how his eyes could look as blue as a crystal clear lagoon one minute, then dark and stormy the next. They were kind of...beautiful.

'Did I just call Percy's eyes...beautiful? Gross,' the voice in my head spat.

"Hades mentioned something about fatal flaws. That makes no sense. I have flaws, but I wouldn't say they're fatal. That's a little dramatic."

Percy pressed his lips into a thin line. His hand was buried in a pile of wet sand. As he lifted it, water from the sand followed suit. It was attracted to him like a magnet. Percy flicked his wrist and the water droplets turned into a clear orb which he began to toss back and forth between his hands.

"A long time ago, Annabeth told me every hero had a fatal flaw...she said if you didn't find it and learn how to control it, the flaw would kill you."

"Do you mind if I ask what it is?" I asked.

 "Loyalty. I'm too damn loyal to everyone. It's nice sometimes, but I don't know. Loyalty has a funny way of clouding your mind. It makes everything kind of foggy sometimes, it's hard for me to know who to trust."

I studied the look on his face as he recalled his old friend. His eyes lit up a little every time he said her name. "Annabeth was special to you, wasn't she? You really cared about her."

Percy just nodded, but he didn't speak for a long time. "Yeah, I did."

I focused on the sea breeze, trying my hardest to bend it to my will. I wiggled my fingers and pried the water orb out of Percy's grip. His lips curled into a slight smile as he watched me take control of what was once his.

"Anyway, your parents are pretty cool. Your step-dad and I talked about Guns 'N' Roses for a good half hour." He changed the subject.

"He's not my step-dad. He's just as much a father to me as Zeus is, if not more. I used to go by his last name, you know. Now everyone just keeps calling me Orion Vera. That's not my name. I'm not this...person everyone wants me to be."

I launched the orb into the ocean out of frustration. The chaotic waves absorbed the ball like a grain of sugar dissolving into water.

"Gods this sucks."

"You're not seriously complaining, are you?" Percy scoffed.

"I had a life before all of this. A pretty great one."

"You still do. You grew up with a mom and a dad. A real one, you just said it yourself! Most of us are lucky to grow up with one decent parent, Orion. You lived the life you had for seventeen years because of your dad. He knew you were a demigod and stuck around. He knew his mortal scent was the only thing stopping monsters from killing you. I had to leave home when I was twelve. Annabeth left when she was seven. Hell, even your sister Thalia was younger than you were when she had to leave home. You should never take that for granted."

I was left speechless. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right.

"Percy...I-"

"Forget it."

My chest felt heavy as Percy shook his head in awe. "I'm going for a swim. I'll be back by sunrise. You should get some rest while we're still here."

He waded into the chaotic waters in front of him, going deeper and deeper into the watery abyss with each step he took. Then he was gone.

That night I dreamt of a Pegasus, an Eagle and the deafening screams of the dead.