Chapter 1 -

"Where am I?"

It was the first thought that occurred to Annabeth as she slowly awoke. Her body was sore from sleeping on the moist, hard floor. The strong smell of salt was present in the air, and the dark wooden surroundings slightly moved from right to left in a regular pattern.

"It seems I am on a ship, but how did I even get here?" wondered Annabeth, as she touched her skull through the blond mass of hair. As her hand brushed the sore spot, a wave of memories rushed through her brain. "Oh, yeah," the blonde teenager remembered, "I was on my way to Mount Olympus, but my battalion was attacked by barbarians in the service of Kronos... And I must have been captured, but does that means they already know who I am? "

The thought immediately panicked her. "Mother must be furious! Unless she doesn't know yet ..."

Because, you see, Annabeth was no average girl. She was the daughter of King Frederick of Athens, and of the goddess Athena, master in the strategy of war, and godness of wisdom. Due to her demigod blood and relation to one of the main allies of the gods, Annabeth was gifted with amazing fighting skills and an incredible talent for strategy. She also had an extraordinary sense of survival. It made her an outstanding warrior even if she was only 17 years old. But it also made her a more valuable prisoner if the enemies of the gods come to kidnap her.

In ancient Greece, if you were taken as a prisoner of war by your opponent, you could be use as soldier and be forced to fight against your will, and if they'd heard of her reputation, they would put Annabeth on the battle field with no hesitation.

"I need to get out of here the more quickly possible!" Our young heroine told herself while fighting against her bonds only to realize they were made out of Celestial Bronze. "So they know who I am, because otherwise why put a 'simple prisoner of war' in chains made out of such rare metal? "

As the Greek princess finished her thought, the wooden trap above her was opened, letting in bright rays of sun. Her eyes, not prepared to receive such amount of light, automatically closed. Annabeth felt herself being seized by the collar of her armour and pulled upward on the deck. As her eyesight slowly adapted, she started to distinguish the shadowy forms of people in front of her.

"So, slept well, sleeping beauty?" Said a grossly familiar voice that Annabeth could recognized anywhere. It belonged to the King Gabe of Thebes, a disgusting man who used to be ally with her father before betrayed him and joined Kronos. To her eyes, he was the worst kind of person.

"King Gabe" dryly acknowledged Annabeth as her sight completely returned. Her storm grey eyes shot daggers towards the fat and nearly bald man, lazily lying on his golden throne. He was vulgarly dress in ancient Greek robes and wore more jewellery than Aphrodite would (and Annabeth could tell you that Aphrodite LOVES to wear jewellery). To his right and left stood two colossal men which Annabeth guessed were his bodyguards and the sides of the deck were aligned with soldiers in full armours.

In the back was a tall young man who looked her age. Annabeth couldn't help to just contemplate for a second his well out cut body, at the same time muscular but lean and his perfectly sun kissed skin. His short dark hair was in a mess and his fascinating sea green eyes stared intensely at her. Their eyes connected and Annabeth shortly lost herself in his those eyes before she broke the contact to bring back her attention on the corpulent character in front of her.

"Oh, my dear Annabeth, is this how your father taught you how to great an old friend?" pronounced the King with an amused smile on his lips.

"You are no friend of mine or my father. You are just a gross coward who only knows how to hide behind his bodyguards!" Annabeth said aggressively, before splitting at the king's feet.

The action angered King Gabe who stood up. "Don't you dare speak to me this way, you whore! You are my prisoner of war and I can do whatever I want to with you! I own your existence, so behave if you don't want to immediately die!" screamed the fat man.

But his words did not scare Annabeth a bit, who stubbornly answered. "I will never bow to you, traitor." before hitting him in the jaw with her head. King Gabe stumbled a few metres back before looking up. His mouth was full of blood and it seemed that the obstinate warrior had broken a few of his teeth. Gabe put his hand to his jaw before smiling mischievously.

"Bring me the whip!" He ordered. Annabeth's grey eyes widened as one of King Gabe's bodyguard gripped her firmly and pushed her against the boat's mast.

He fiercely shoved her to her knees and aggressively opened the part of Annabeth's amour which protected her back, exposing it. It was only covered by a thin white tunic of Lin. One of Gabe's soldier brought him his whip.

You see, this whip was his favourite by far due to it having its chord made of both iron and Celestial Bronze. To normal humans, they will only feel the grey metal part of the whip while the monsters will only feel the Celestial Bronze, but due to her mixed blood the punishment would be twice as bad. Both the iron and Celestial Bronze would enter her skin and rip her back's muscles. Annabeth had never been whipped, but she knew well enough how it worked to know how it could destructive on someone's body and that it could inflict a lot of pain.

Fear started to invade her, but Annabeth refused to allow herself to show it, or to scream. She shut her eyes and contracted her jaw, waiting for the pain to come. But it never came. As the sound of the whip cut through the air, a loud "Stop" was heard.

Annabeth's eyes sprung open and she quickly turned her head around to see the young man with green sea eyes standing protectively in front her. His left arm was raised above him and the whip was wrapped around it. Scarlet drops of blood slowly fell to the floor. The world seemed to stop as Annabeth once more connected her eyes with his. She could distinguish worry and something else but she didn't know what it was.

She was brought back to reality when King Gabe furiously shouted. "Percy, move out of the way now!"

But the young man simply answered "No". A heavy silence followed on the deck, just the sound of the waves breaking against the hull of the ship could be heard. The teenager which seems to be called Percy broke again the stillness. "King Gabe, let me be in charge of her."