Jessica woke up groggily to bright lights and the sound of bustling all around her. Blinking her eyes hard, she examined her surroundings and realized she was laying in a bed in the infirmary. Her body ached and her limbs felt numb. Swallowing hardly, she tried to sit up.

“Easy there,” a light voice spoke to her right. Jessica seized her movements. Standing by the foot of her bed Yoona stood smiling at the injured blonde.

“How long was I out?” Jessica choked up, finally managing to sit up. Her muscles screamed in protest. Yoona walked towards her and handed her a cup of water. Jessica gulped it down greedily, the cool liquid soothing the burning of .

“A week. Taeyeon woke up about two days ago,” Yoona answered, taking back the now empty cup and setting it on the bedside table. “Both of you were pretty banged up.”

Jessica listened to Yoona go on about how worried Chiron was and how hard the Apollo children had worked to fix their injuries as fast as possible. However, she couldn’t help but feel irked. ‘Taeyeon woke up two days before me?’

When she looked up, Yoona was still talking about how the Hunters, specifically Tiffany, was too worried to leave camp while they were unconscious and how even though today was Friday again, the weekly game of Capture the Flag was cancelled.

“We won though, right?” Jessica asked, interrupting Yoona mid sentence and winced at how much her competitive side showed. She remembered hearing the sound of the horn and falling to the ground afterwards, but she wasn’t sure if that meant they had won or not.

Yoona froze, mouth still open, and stared at Jessica. Eventually, she closed and nodded. ‘Yeah. Tiffany and Seohyun brought the flag back for your team.”

Jessica sighed in relief and nodded. Yoona laughed lightly, shaking her head. When Jessica looked at her curiously, Yoona just grinned. “It’s just funny how you almost died, but the first thing you ask is whether or not your team won.” Yoona laughed some more. “Figures. You did almost die protecting that flag.”

Jessica said nothing and just scowled at Yoona who continued to laugh at the blonde’s expense.

“Anyways,” Yoona said, finally finished with her fit of laughter. “You’re free to leave. You should be completely healed, but you’ll probably be sore for a few days. I recommend taking it easy. You were out for a week.”

Jessica nodded and after a couple minutes and a few last second check ups, she was up and walking around the camp. Her first destination was the showers. Once she was showered and clean, she headed back to the cabin. She was pleasantly surprised to find the coffin-shaped bed gone. In its place was an elegant, normal shaped bed. She immediately jumped onto it in happiness, forgetting about her condition causing her legs to twinge in pain. The soft sheets made everything worth it though.

She was barely conscious when she noticed a weird light in her room. Opening one eye in annoyance, Jessica realized what the disturbance was. It was an IM. Fumbling around for some spare coins, Jessica decided to use her last resort when she came up with none. She focused on the ground beneath her and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, there was a small pile of precious metals sitting at her foot. Jessica picked up a golden coin and threw it into the mist, hoping for Iris to accept her offering.

The mist shimmered into the familiar shape of her very worried younger sister.

“Unnie! Thank the gods! You’re alive!” Krystal’s face immediately relaxed, all tension leaving her body. “Where in Pluto have you been?! We’ve been looking all over for you! The entirety of Camp is in disarray because we’re missing a praetor. Irene has been going mad trying to run things by herself!”

“Okay, calm down,” Jessica stopped her sister, feeling overwhelmed. “As you can see, I'm fine. As for where I am, I can't tell you, but I'll be back at Camp soon. Apologize to Irene for me please.” Jessica grimaced. She hated keeping secrets from her sister but she couldn't tell her about Camp Half-blood, not when she still doesn't have a grasp on the whole situation yet. 

“What do you mean you can't tell me?” Krystal demanded, suspicion and betrayal flashing in her amber brown eyes. “Where are you? What are you doing? Why'd you disappear?”

Jessica sighed. She understood Kyrstal was worried for her. If their positions were switched, she would probably be acting exactly like Krystal was right now. But this, whatever this was, was bigger than them, bigger than all of them. “Krys, please. You're just going to have to trust me. I want to tell you, but I can't. Please,” Jessica begged. “Do you trust me?”

Krystal stared at Jesica through the mist. “What is going on? Is everything okay?” she asked weakly.

“Everything is fine,” Jessica promised. “And I promise I'll be at Camp soon. But right now, I have some things to sort out.”

Jessica waited for Krystal to respond. When she saw the subtle drop in her sister’s shoulders, she relaxed.

“Fine,” Krystal stated reluctantly, her jaw still set stubbornly. “I trust you. But what am I supposed to tell the others?”

Jessica smiled in relief. She knew she could always trust on Krystal to pull through. “Just make something up. I'll be back in a week.”

“One week,” Krystal repeated firmly, pinning Jessica to the ground with her stare. “If you're not back by then I'm gonna find you myself and drag you back, quest or no quest. Camp rules be damned.”

“One week,” Jessica promised one last time before cutting the connection.

That night, she dreamt of the Underworld.

In her dream...

Jessica eyed the long line of dead souls waiting to enter the Field of Asphodel. Cerebus, the legendary three headed dog, laid at the entrance watching. By his feet, covered in slobber, was his favorite toy - a red ball. Jessica remembered seeing the red ball for the first time a few years ago and wondering why her Father all of a sudden decided to gift Cerebus with it. It turned out that Pluto did not in fact give Cerberus the ball, but seeing how Cerberus seemed weirdly attached to the toy, he let him keep it.

Jessica walked past the Field into a deeper part of the Underworld, where Pluto’s throne room was located. The River of Styx gushed along beside her to her right, it’s black filthy waters spilling over the banks. Jessica recalled once standing over these same waters and dipping her newly made stygian iron swords into the river. The metal had sizzled satisfyingly.

The sounds of the Underworld calmed Jessica. Maybe it was due to the fact that she was the daughter of the Lord of the Dead, but Jessica sometimes preferred the lull of the Underworld to the fast paced environment above. Lost in her thoughts, Jessica was surprised when she suddenly heard a very loud splash. Jessica whipped her head to the left where the sound came from. 'Did someone just fall into the River of Styx?'

Jessica reacted immediately. Knowing the horrors and consequences of falling into those cursed waters, Jessica immediately rushed forward to help. Bones and broken weapons crunched under the weight of her foot. She peered worriedly into the dark waters. Besides the disturbance in the surface of the water, there was no sign of a person having fallen in. However, as the daughter of Pluto, she could detect the presence of life and death and some