I lent on the huge trunk of a giant tree, waiting for the spinning world to regain focus. After shadow travelling with Nico so many times, I knew exactly what I had to do.

I closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten, feeling the dizziness start to fade.

I reached ten and opened my eyes, watching as the world sharpened up, exposing me to its bright colors.

We seemed to be at the center of a lush green valley. A ginormous reddish colored tree towered over us, shading us from the bright sun. I was no expert on plants, but this had to be the biggest tree I had ever seen, the smallest braches being as long as school buses.

At the base of the tree there was an old stone well, the kind you would only see in Disney movies or picture books.

"That's the well," Magnus said, pointing to it, "good luck with Mr Bubbles."

I nodded and slowly made my way to the well, which was much bigger than I had judged it to be. Up close, I could see that moss was occupying most of the crevices and that vines were creeping their way up the stone walls.

"Hello?" I called, shivering. The seemingly endless drop brought back memories I did not want to remember.

In an instant, I heard the sound of water rushing around and around, kind of like a toilet flushing, but in reverse. The black waters rose and a body less head came into view.

Unkempt red hair waved like pond weed as the waters gradually came to a halt.

I was supposed to drink from that?

The head stared at me with bright blue eyes.

"A god of two pantheons," he said, "that's new."

"I'm Percy," I said, not quite trusting this head.

"I know," he replied, "I met your camp director a few years ago."

"You've met Chiron?"

He hummed.

"Now to get to the point. You're here to drink from my waters and gain the ability to use rune stones, is that right?"

Before I could even answer he started talking again.

"To drink from my waters, I want to see what you're scared of. That will be the price."

"You want me to tell you?" I asked.

"No," Mimir said, decisively, "that would be too vague. I'm going to send you into a vison."

I winced but covered it up quickly.

"It's a deal," I said, before I could change my mind.

"Very well then, young val tivar," he said, before starting to chant in an old, old language. It pricked at the back of my brain and stayed there, swimming around and around and around....

*

I was in a whitewashed room, with nothing else in it except me. The window looked out on the iconic skyline of Manhattan, but some else wasn't quite right.

"Annabeth?" I called out, but there was no reply.

"Nico? Anyone?" I tried again.

Someone was there, I could feel their presence but I couldn't see them. I took out Riptide, hearing the satisfying clink as it turned into a sword.

A sudden sound made me spin around until I came face to face with a guy dressed all in black, with a hood covering his face.

"Who are you?" I asked, my legs moving automatically to a fighting stance.

There was no reply from the figure but he snapped his figure and all at once, Annabeth appeared on the floor, limp and bleeding.

I rushed to her side, and she looked up at me with frightened gray eyes, like how you would expect a mouse to look when it notices that a cat has been stalking it.

"Did you do this?" I screamed at the figure, "how dare you!"

The figure only laughed coldly. He walked over to me and pressed a knife into my hands.

"Kill her," he said, in a voice that made chills run down my spine.

"No," I said, firmly. How could he expect me to kill my girlfriend.

"Do it quickly," Annabeth whispered weakly.

"Never."

"Please," she pleaded, "if you don't he'll do terrible things. You can even imagine the torture he is capable of."

I glanced up a the sound of the figure snapping his fingers. All at once, white hot flames surrounded Annabeth, engulfing her in their torture.

"NO!" I yelled, her screams ringing in my ear, "don't do this! Stop please!"

The figure didn't move, or stop the flames, or do anything.

"Please! I'll do anything!" I pleaded hoarsely, tears streaming down my face.

The figure snapped his fingers and the flames disappeared abruptly.

I lunged at him but he dodged easily, picking me up and setting me down on a chair, tying me down to it.

"Ah, Perseus Jackson, as loyal as ever," he cooed, in a tone that was too sugar filled to trust.

"What do you want from me?" I spat, thrashing against the rope.

"I just wanted to test you," he said, "Annabeth was never actually in danger, in fact, Annabeth was never even actually here."

He snapped his fingers and Annabeth started to shift, her princess curls straightening out and turning black as her eyes turned a bewitching purple. He had possessed this poor girl.

"You tricked me," I said lamely, staring up into the inky void where his face should be.

"You're too predictable," he said, laughing even though there was nothing to laugh about, "oh how I love playing with you."

"Just tell me what you want," I tell him.

"Wouldn't you like to know who I am?" he asked silkily. If cats could talk, they would talk like him.

"I mean, sure," I said, "but what's the catch?"

"There's no catch," he replied in the same silky tone, "but to make this more fun let's play a little guessing game. Guess, little hero."

"Well," I started, not used to playing brainy games, "you're obviously some kind of god."

The figure hummed.

"But not any god I've met before. So you must be either really old or from a different pantheon."

"Try two pantheons," the figure said with an evil smirk as I felt my heart rate quicken.

"No," I said, "no, no, no."

"Yes," the figure said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"No," I said looking around for any means of escape.

"You see, Percy," he said tipping my chin up with a long, slender finger, "we have much, much more in common then you think."

Laughing hysterically, he threw back his hood, letting me have a clear view of the raven hair and sea green eyes I knew so well.

I shuddered. It was like looking into a mirror, but this showed me so much more clearly than any mirror had before.

He laughed yet again.

"Unerving, isn't it?" he said, "oh Percy, you and I are going to have so much fun."

"What are you?" I asked in a much quieter voice. "And what do you want with me?"

"Oh, Percy," he said, "I'm what you could be. Don't you want to be as powerful as me?"

"No!" I screamed. "I will never ever be you!"

But the other me only laughed, a cold, cruel laugh that I knew would haunt my dreams for a very long time...

*

"Percy?"

I blinked and sat up, rubbing my eyes until the colors sharpened up to become shapes, and the shapes into recognisable figures.

Magnus stood over me, raising one eyebrow.

"Dude," he said, "you look like you've been possessed."

"Done that," I said, "definitely don't recommend being possessed by a crazy vulture lady. Or anyone- or thing for that matter."

"Interesting," a voice echoed from the well.

Ah. Mimir. I had forgotten about him.

I stood up and looked into the still black waters of the well.

"You can drink now," Mimir said, so with a slight pause of hesitation, I reached in the well, cupping some water in my hands and sipped it.

I had drunk a lot of different things in my lifetime. Water, sweet water, salt water, ocean water, heck, I had even drunk fire water. But I had never tasted anything quite like the water from Mimir's well.

It tasted like beams of silver starshine, if starshine could be drunk, but it had a hint of something much, much older than the silvery taste it gave off.

And all at once, as clear as if I were seeing it right in front of me, I knew what I had to do.

I looked at my friends with a serious expression on my face and exhaled heavily.

"I know what I have to do," I said, and I could almost see the Fates stopping their knitting and leaning in to what I had to say.

"What?" Annabeth asked, clearly not liking my somber tone.

"I have to do what I have been avoiding all this time."

Annabeth nodded. She knew what I was about to say.

"I have to accept the fact that I am a god."