What was going on? Where was he? Why was everything so dark?

And then everything came rushing back. Him going to blow up the Princess Andromeda, getting told about Beckendorf's death, telling Luke everything.

No. No no no.

Percy had to get out, he had to get back to camp and warn them all. He struggled against the rope, but it seemed to only get stronger.

He didn't even bother to look up when the door swung open, there was only one person that would visit him. Percy snarled, still struggling against the ropes. "Let me out you sick bastard,"

"Shh, Percy. It's okay. Stop struggling. Just relax," Luke laced his words with a smoothness, and something within Percy made it hard for him to continue struggling.

He slumped against the wall, looking up and locking eyes with the son of Hermes. "Luke, please let me out,"

"We both know I can't do that, Percy. You're still loyal to camp, and as long as you are, you can't be trusted,"

"So what? I'm just going to sit here in this room for the rest of my life? You know they'll come for me,"

"I already told you, they won't," Luke said and came to sit down next to Percy. "Look, I wouldn't lie to you. They don't care about you, they only think of you as a weapon,"

"No. They do care,"

"Did they care before you were the son of Poseidon? Before everyone knew who your father was, you were just the new kid. You were bullied, even. The only people you had them were me and Grover. Even then, Grover was just using you to go look for Pan, he never actually cared about you. But me? I cared, I cared about you before I knew anything about your heritage so why are you still loyal to them?"

Percy didn't say anything for a long moment after that. Finally, he spoke up again. "What did it do? The thing you injected into me?"

"It just made you more persuasive, helped us get the information we needed. Something one of the Hecate kids cooked up, nothing too much," Luke answered.

"You drugged me?"

"I didn't want to, but you didn't tell us what we needed. At least I told you the truth, they never did," Luke moved and untied and grabbed Percys hand. "Look, Percy, your final choice is coming up. The gods know this, and they want to kill you before it happens. Let me help you, let me protect you. I'm trying to open your eyes, but I can't do that if you just keep closing them,"

"And what if I don't want them opened?"

"I'm not going to give up on you, Percy. Somewhere in there, you know I'm right. So just listen to that little voice, no one would blame you for your last years. You're a kid, we all are. We didn't know the difference between right and wrong until now, how could we expect you to be any different?"

Percy looked up again, a wavering uncertainty obvious on his features. His voice cracked as he talked. "Everything I have is at camp. What is there for me here?"

Luke leaned down and softly kissed him before pulling away and taking his hand back in his. "I'm here. A whole world of opportunities is out here for you. Do you really want to close this door when it's brighter than the other?"

"Brightness blinds people," Percy said.

"Darkness does too." Luke got up, not tying Percys hand back behind him. "I know you don't want to leave it all behind, but they are more than willing to leave you. They don't care for you anymore, they never did. What you think you had, the life you think you led, it was all fake. But me? Kronos? This ship? It's full of real people and a real life for you,"

Luke tossed Percy some keys. "Use these to get into the dining hall. I trust you won't swim away, there's no where for you to go. Dinner starts at seven. I'll see you there,"

Percy stared at the keys in his hand and at the closing door, never hearing the lock. He could escape, if he wanted. He could escape and go back to camp.

But he looked to the door, and thoughts of jumping in the ocean made him feel like he was drowning. He couldn't leave. They wouldn't care. Camp wouldn't come.