"One of you will die."

Shouts of outrage erupted from all over the hall in reaction to what Kia said. She herself did not react to any of the harsh words directed at her now, only staring vacantly at the wooden table in front of her. None of what was said made her even flinch. Calmly, she went on: "We must prepare for the very real inevitability of the fact that Jason or Leo will die."

A brunette from the left side of the table slammed her fist on the table. "They won't! Neither of them will! We can prepare for it!"

"You can't run from prophecies," Kia continued relentlessly, ignoring the fact that the girl looked like she was about to cry. Percy and Annabeth glared at her, obviously not happy with how she was making the entire table feel. They looked older—around seventeen or eighteen. "Avoiding them only weaves the actions that follow it to the end."

"Kia," Annabeth said, distinct tremors running through the table, "I'll have to remind you that we don't know exactly what the prophecy says. We never do. It might mean something entirely different than what we think."

Kia finally looked up, meeting Annabeth's eyes from across the table with a kind of steeled resolve that made Annabeth's breath hitch. Her hand automatically went to Percy's, holding onto it as Kia spoke to her. "Blind optimism won't save them, but we can cut our losses by discussing it beforehand. You're a daughter of Athena, aren't you? You should know that, by now, accepting reality and planning ahead is best."

The expression of betrayal on Annabeth's face was impossible to miss. Ever since her quest to find the Athena Parthenos, her mother had always been a sore topic for her; Annabeth had told Kia in confidence about how Athena made her feel now, and Kia had accepted it so kindly back then. Just what the hell was wrong with her?

"Kia!" Percy shouted, anger evident in his eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Annabeth was shaking now, both embarrassed and upset by the scene that was being caused. She didn't want to be the loser who cried over her mom, but it was hard to keep together her composure. Her mother, from whom all she had ever wanted was love and respect, had abandoned her and tossed her out without a care into one of the most dangerous quests known to demigod kind, and Kia was using the feelings she had told her about in private against her and exposing them in front of everybody to see.

Kia didn't seem very sorry. "We don't have time for Annabeth's mommy issues now, Percy. Nor do we have time to entertain your protective tendencies. We have to address the problem at hand."

"No, Kia." Percy's eyes started swimming like hurricanes in each eye, darkening in rage. "You've been acting like an asshole ever since we got back. You're not the only one dealing with this prophecy bullshit. I don't know why you're being like this, but we've also got our own shit to deal with. Annabeth is right. We don't have a goddamn fucking clue what the prophecy is actually saying."

Kia calmly placed her elbows on the table, easily ignoring everything Percy said about herself, leaning her chin on her laced fingers and closed her eyes. "I'm just saying, we definitely can't handle what happens if we don't prepare for it. If you all want to be ignorant in favour of protecting your feelings: go ahead. It's not my business, and frankly, I couldn't give a shit. But I'm not going to be the one who ends up crying at one of their funerals."

"Kia..." a voice murmured from beside her. She glanced in the direction, finding an older version of Ethan. He had a look on his face like he didn't know who he was looking at. It sent a pang through Kia's chest, and it felt like something inside her was crumbling into dust.

Dutifully, she ignored it and turned back, meeting everyone else's eyes coldly. Her eyes eventually settled back on Annabeth. "Decidedly, you're the leader of this quest. You make all the major decisions; it's time for you to choose, Annabeth: your feelings, or your quest."

When Kia woke up, she had no memory of what she had dreamt. All she was left with was a feeling of nausea and dread. She woke up in a bed, which was odd, because as far as Kia knew, the labyrinth didn't have any beds.

With a groan, she sat up, hand shooting to her head. Headaches were always a great way to start the day.

She didn't know what was going on. Had she imagined all of that? Had it just been her overactive imagination and paranoia that had made her deluded enough to dream that entire quest up?

There was a knock at the door, and Annabeth came in—with one look at her, Kia knew she hadn't imagined the quest.

Eye-bags the size of golf balls were weighing down Annabeth's eyes, skin pale and grey. Her cheeks looked hollowed in, like she hadn't been eating properly for a while—eyes vacant and almost lifeless.

"Annie?" Kia asked, concerned. "What's wrong? Weren't we in the labyrinth? How are we—aren't we at Camp Half-Blood?"

She nodded, taking a seat on the bed, beside Kia. When Kia looked closer, she noticed Annabeth's hands were shaking as she picked at the cuticles. It looked like they had been bleeding. "You've been out for a while, Ki. Percy's gone."

Kia had to make sure she heard clearly. "Gone? What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"Gone." Annabeth ran a hand down her face, pure exhaustion showing on her features. She seemed like she hadn't had a blink of sleep for the past few weeks. "We don't know where he is, or if he's..."

Tremors in her voice was unmistakable. Kia pulled her in, wrapping an arm around her, having Annabeth's forehead meeting her shoulder. "Okay, hey, hey, hey. It's okay. It's alright. What happened?"

Annabeth told her everything that had happened. After they were done with Eris, Kia fainted, and Eris disappeared with one last glare before the entire world folded in on itself like a deck of cards. It was like the universe was folding in on itself, like it was being prepared to be thrown away, as Annabeth put it. The next thing she knew, she was near Mount St. Helens with Percy, Grover and Tyson. She didn't know where Kia had gone at the time. Tyson and Grover split off from Percy and herself to follow the trail of Pan, and the monster gathering at Mount St. Helens had forced Percy to create a massive explosion and volcanic eruption to get rid of them. He had locked Annabeth out, and she'd had to find her way back to camp herself.

"When I got back, everyone was telling me they were worried sick. Apparently, you came back to camp, walking right up to the monster barrier—stumbling, actually, people said you were walking like you were drunk—murmuring about how 'one had to die'. They thought you were talking about..." Annabeth's voice caught. "About one of us."

Kia swallowed, trying to push guilt down. She was feeling sick, having made campers think that one of them was dead—for even entertaining such a doubt. She ignored it, and talked about one thing she knew was true. "I don't know what I was talking about, but Percy's not dead. I'm sure of it. One hundred percent."

Annabeth exhaled shakily. "Kia, it's been two weeks. We're burning his shroud today."

Her heart dropped, and she ripped the covers off of herself. "Wait, no! We can't! He's gonna come back. You've gotta believe me, Annabeth! You do, don't you?"

She looked at her desperately, but Annabeth seemed hesitant to meet her eyes. Nausea swelled in Kia's gut as she realised Annabeth didn't have much hope left, either. Kia grabbed Annabeth's hand. "No, no, no, listen, Annabeth. He's not dead. I can feel it. I–I can't—explain it. I just know, okay? Please, we've got to stop the funeral. We can't let them."

"Kia..." she whispered softly. "I don't think—"

Kia nearly screamed in frustration. "Annabeth! You're not listening! You've gotta trust me—he's not dead!"

"Kia!" Annabeth finally shouted. "You weren't here, okay? We looked for him everywhere. I haven't slept for the past two weeks—all just to look at him. If he's anywhere—alive, at least, he's not anywhere we can find."

As soon as Kia realised the argument with Annabeth wasn't going anywhere, Kia jumped off the bed and dashed downstairs. She could faintly make out Annabeth's voice yelling out for her to wait, but Kia didn't listen.

Busting out of the doors of the Big House, she made her way to the amphitheatre, noticing smoke rising from it, Annabeth most definitely hot on her heels.

"—assume he is dead," Chiron was saying. "After so long a silence, it is unlikely our prayers will be answered—"

"Wait!" Kia shouted, and everybody immediately looked to her. The green burial shroud was beautiful, silk with a trident embroidered on it. It would've been perfect for Percy if he was actually dead. "Wait! Listen to me! Percy isn't dead!"

Chiron's face contorted like he had expected this would be Kia's reaction. "My child—"

"No!" Kia all but screamed. "Don't 'my child' me! Percy isn't dead! And I'll—Ill prove it! I can prove it!"

He still didn't look like he believed her, and Annabeth's steps behind her could be heard along with her panting. Kia had never run so fast in her entire life—it was a surprise Annabeth had to try hard to keep up.

Everyone was looking at Kia sadly, like she was some mental patient that had gotten out—like he was grieving. It almost made Kia explode. "No, no, don't look at me like that. I swear! He isn't dead. Just wait, maybe a little bit more than a week and—"

"Hey."

All together, everyone turned with similar expressions of shock as they looked at the person whose funeral it was supposed to be: Percy Jackson, all in good clothes and not a scratch on him.

Kia nearly collapsed in relief. Dashing towards him, she all but jumped on him, hugging him so fiercely she thought he'd suffocate. He chuckled—chuckled, that fucking bastard—and he spun her around as he hugged her back.

"Missed you too, asshole."

"Fuck you."

He let her down, and while everybody was staring at him, it was obvious all he saw was Annabeth. Her eyes were shiny, and she looked like she was angry, happy, and infuriated all at the same time. All hell broke loose.

hi guys!! i was kinda bored wit this fic for a while but today randomly sparked some interest in me so i got this done. if you're interested, there's two other pjo fics on my profile, one for jason grace (where he has a personality) and piper mclean (where she isn't a misogynistic bitch) along with a sirius black fic if you're into that stuff. a little shameless self promo lmfao okay bye love yall.