Changing Tides

When Percy awoke, he did not know who he was.

That seemed odd to him—that he would not know. He felt, at least, that he should know.

He didn't know where he came from, who he was, or anything else about his past.

His knowledge of his own life was now a distant understanding of his name and an acknowledgement of the fact that he was now floating in the sea.

He wondered if he should worry about that—many people have died in the ocean.

But for some reason, it didn't worry him.

He thought that might have been a dangerous thing to think, logically, but he couldn't make himself care.

Instead, he worried about the former, in a distant sort of way. Floating in the water as he was, he was having a hard time worrying about much of anything.

Still he tried—he struggled to worry and to remember.

But the tide within him rose up and swallowed those things.

It didn't have a voice; not one he could hear, at least. But he understood it, nonetheless.

'Do not worry, my son. I have you.'

He had to get out of the water.

He didn't want to leave, but he couldn't think over the crashing of the surf. It was like the water was washing all his thoughts away.

He had to go.

The sea didn't want him too.

'Do not go, my son. I cannot protect you if you walk upon the land.' He imagined it would have said if it could.

He almost shook his head, but stopped, realizing that imagining the voice of the sea was insane enough; he should avoid conversing with it.

So instead, he simply thought the sea was as greedy as it was beautiful, but it could not have all of him.

He made his way to the shore and the sea did not stop him.

He had things he had to do. He was not yet sure what those things were, only that the Sea could not stop him.

He wondered what on Earth could threaten him so much that he should need to be confined and protected in the sea.

XxXXxX

As he stepped up the shore, the Earth rose to answer his question.

Beneath the towering cliffs, beside rotting pieces of wood, he stood between the sand and the water and saw something impossible happen.

A woman appeared before his wide eyes, as though she had always been there and for some reason, Percy felt that maybe she had.

"So you have returned to shore at last, Son of the Sea." She said.

Her eyes were covered by a veil. Even so, she looked at him. Beside her stood a monstrous giant with a smile on his lips. He towered thirty, forty feet, scaled and ugly, his hair braided, his eyes glowing white.

"But you should have stayed in the water, boy. Perhaps you would have lived longer." The Giant continued for her.

He lifted a hand and slowly curled it into a fist.

Pits and trenches opened in the shore as the beach shifted and settled. The scent of the sea disappears. The sound of the tide crashing against the shore is gone. The waves no longer lap at Percy's ankles.

Percy stood amidst it all.

He didn't understand this. He did not know these people. He did not know why or how this was happening.

He wanted to run before this impossible display.

Something in him makes him stand firm.

He wants to tell them he's just a normal person.

Something tells him it's a lie and he holds his tongue.

"Are you afraid, Son of my Enemy?" The Giant asked, approaching. "I want you to be."

Percy blinked, a bit taken aback by the blunt admission.

"I want you to know I am as a God to you." The Giant continued. "I want you to know, I can make you suffer any time I want."

The Giant halted his approach mere feet away from Percy and met his eyes.

"If I have time, maybe I'll kill you."

Something rose within him at the threat and it was not fear.

Percy held his gaze for a long moment. His heart began to pound, but suddenly his fear was gone.

He was chuckling and he didn't know why, but he spoke anyway.

"Go ahead," He said. "Try. I will break you and leave you as dust on this shore."

The Giant narrowed his eyes and Percy felt a challenging smirk tug at his lips.

They acted as one, as if obeying some silent signal.

Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out a…

Pen?

Fortunately, while his mind was boggling at that, his body seemed to know what to do. His other hand grabbed the cap and roughly pulled it off, transforming the pen into a bronze sword.

He was just barely fast enough to block the swing of a truly tremendous spear.

"Erg!" The impact forced out of him as it lifted him off of him. It didn't really hurt, but it had been surprising to find himself suddenly in the air.

And then he slammed into a cliff face.

The wall cracked behind him and he fell back to earth.

Percy frowned at himself.

He still wasn't hurt.

He didn't have much time to contemplate that fact, though, because the Giant covered the distance between them far quicker then something that size had any right too. Before Percy knew it, the spearhead was being thrust towards him.

He quickly rolled out of the way and too his feet. He slashed his sword at the spear itself, trying to sever it right below the point, but whatever substance it was made out of was too hard to cut that easily.

The Giant tore the spear from the cliff and spun, before slamming the side of the spear into Percy's chest before he could react, driving him back into the cliff side. He pinned him there with a single enormous hand. Having the same idea as his opponent, he grabbed Percy's sword arm—and his hand covered Percy's entire arm.

The Giant tried to tighten his grip and Percy had the feeling that if he was anyone else, it would have broken his arm.

The Giant quickly realized his attempts weren't working and changed gears. He twisted his arm, trying to tear the boy's bones from their socket and then started to smash Percy's hand and sword against the rocks of the cliff when that didn't work.

Percy tried to struggle free, but to no avail. He didn't have the strength or leverage he needed to break loose, and worse, he could hold onto his sword with the way his opponent was smashing it against the rocks.

He held for three thunderous blows, but the forth tore his blade from his grasp.

The Giant kicked it away and made a clawing gesture before the earth opened up beneath it and swallowed it whole.

In a smooth movement, the Giant tore his spear from where he'd planted it in the ground and turned it to face his captive opponent. Percy closed his eyes as he saw the massive spear approach.

It crashed against his forehead with enough force to smash it into—literally into—the cliff face.

Percy felt the spear draw away, but didn't even have time to open his eyes before it smashed into his teeth.

It was uncomfortable—the spear rang like a tuning fork from the impact and it was pressed against his teeth—but it didn't hurt.

So as the spear drew back a second time, Percy opened his eyes and met the Giant's own. They all but burnt with anger and frustration.

And then the titanic spear plowed right into his left eye.

For seconds, Percy's heart pounded, in fear and the anticipation of pain. He was sure that this was it—this was where all the pain would catch up with him and he'd lose an eye.

But he didn't.

His pounding heart began to slow down.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

He didn't know why, but this monster couldn't hurt him.

He smirked.

"You could put someone's eye out with that thing, man. Just not mine."

The Giant growled—well, for him it might have been a growl.

To Percy, it sounded more like a roar, it was so loud.

"It matters not." The Giant spat. "You're dead one way or another, Half-Blood. This just means it'll take a little longer."

He didn't even give Percy a chance to wonder what that meant. The cliff face he was pressed against, which had seemed so solid just moments before, suddenly became nearly liquid. The Giant's might hand pressed him deeper and deeper into the stone.

It didn't take Percy long to understand what he was doing.

He was going to push him into the cliff and leave him there. Percy was willing to bet the nearly liquid state the cliff was in wouldn't last very long once he was inside. And then…

And then what?

Even if he was invulnerable to harm, he still needed to breathe, right?

Was that what would happen? Would he be buried alive in a coffin of stone?

Or worse—what if he didn't need to breathe? What if the need to do so was only in his head? Would he stay there, in the cliff, until he died of old age?

Would he die of old age?

Percy had no idea how his apparent immunity to harm functioned and that honestly terrified him in that moment.

His struggles increased, fueled by his own terror, but try as he might, he couldn't fight against the Giant's strength.

And suddenly, the massive hand that bound him drew away and the cliff solidified around him.

He still tried to struggle, but the prison of stone had been fluid moments before and not it had been shaped to fit him perfectly. There was no space to move in this skin tight prison and he didn't have the strength to so much as shift the rock.

The seconds ticked by as he held his breath.

And it was then that his struggling began to work against him.

He couldn't breathe. He needed to breathe, to pant in exertion, to gasp for air, but he couldn't.

It could have been seconds or minutes, but he already knew he would die if this continued.

Even so, he tried to hold on.

He couldn't die like this, he told himself.

He tried again, throwing the totality of his determination into escaping his prison, but he couldn't so much as make it budge.

He didn't want to die like this—not without having learnt anything.

But it didn't look like he had a choice in the matter.

So for a moment, his struggles halted. He couldn't escape that way, so all he was doing was hastening his own end.

But he couldn't think of anything else he could do.

So instead, he wondered about the past he didn't remember.

Was he leaving anyone behind? Was anyone going to miss him? Would the fact that the only way anyone would ever find a body would be to take dynamite to a cliff cause someone pain because they'll never know the truth?

Did he have any family? He was alive, so he had to have a mother and father, at the very least.

If these were his last moments, then maybe his last thoughts should have been about them, but…

He didn't even remember their names or faces right now.

Why couldn't he remember anything? Why couldn't he at least remember the faces of those he was going to leave behind? Didn't he at least deserve to say he died thinking of the ones he loved, rather than forgetting them?

But as Percy ran out of air, no memories came back to him. No faces came to mind; no names to his lips.

He only had two things in that moment.

A burning in his lungs…

And a tug in his gut.

There was a strange sound, then; it took Percy realize it was being distorted by water.

And then he realized that he was in water.

At that very moment, he couldn't hold his breath any longer. He exhaled in a burst of bubbles and couldn't stop his body from trying to get more air before he inhaled water.

Suddenly the burning in his lungs stopped.

He could breathe just fine in the water.

He gasped out a few more breathes before his breathing began to slow. It was only then that he began to wonder about his situation.

How'd this water get here? It was pretty obvious that it wasn't natural and now that he was calmer, he could see what had happened. Wherever the water had come from, it completely surrounded him. More than that, it had literally pushed back the stone around him.

Oddly, he even knew how that was possible. Water was nigh-incompressible so it was extremely rigid if contained in a solid skin. He knew that because…well, he just knew.

Percy frowned in thought.

A 'suit' of water had been created over his body, somehow. And then, more and more water had been added, somehow. As a result, the cliff rock had literally been pushed back.

That made a certain amount of sense, except for one thing.

Where had the water come from?

Percy took a deep breath of the water and held it. He was better off, now that he could breathe, but he knew that the oxygen within the water wasn't endless. It wasn't even particularly large, all things considered, and he'd already used a lot of it gasping for air.

He needed to figure something out, quickly, and the miraculous appearance of water was his best bet.

It couldn't be natural. Then, could he have done it? Creating water was a bit strange, but no more so then apparent invincibility.

In which case, how did he do it again?

He remembered the tug in his gut before the water appeared. Was it that simple?

He exhaled and took another breath.

He wasn't sure how much water he needed. Just enough to break out of the cliff. He didn't think he was that deep inside it; it should require that much. The stone would start to crack and break before long.

But could he actually do it in the first place?

Only one way to find out.

He closed his eyes in concentration.

As if it had been waiting for him all along, the feeling returned.

The Ocean answered his call and the water came pouring out.

For a moment, Percy felt something like resistance. Like the Earth was trying to tightened around him and crush him. It was the Giant, probably, or maybe even that woman.

It didn't matter, either way.

He didn't even bother trying to resist it. It tried to compress the water around him and quite simply failed. He just added more water and the Earth was pushed back.

And then the side of the cliff shattered, torn open by the sea.

Percy literally fell out as the water forward. He didn't know why, but he was remarkably tired. Creating all that water had exhausted him more than the entire fight against the Giant.

But even so, he looked up. He'd escaped from his own death, but if he just sat here, then the Giant would just put him right back. Even if he could probably escape again, he'd just get more and more tired until he couldn't fight anymore and then he'd die.

This was the best chance he was going to get.

So he forced himself to his feet and faced the Giant again.

He stood beside the woman again, one arm outstretched towards him. He'd tried to keep Percy trapped and had failed utterly.

Was it any wonder that his eyes were now weary?

Even so, he glanced at the woman and lifted his Spear again.

"I can at least give credit where credit is due; you are an enemy worth crushing, Perseus Jackson." He said.

Percy stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders. Having all his movements bound had been unpleasant, even putting aside the possibility of death.

"You too, I guess, whoever you are."

The Giant bared his teeth in what Percy supposed passed as a smile.

"I am Polybotes of the Gigante."

Percy assumed that was supposed to tell him something, but it didn't, so he wasn't particularly impressed.

"Good for you. Now are we gonna fight or not?" He asked.

The Giant's smile vanished.

"I suppose I shouldn't expect patience from a child. Even so, I did not think you would be so quick to rush towards your death."

Percy lifted an eyebrow at him before looking down at himself.

He lifted his eyes to meet the Giant's.

"You seem pretty confident for someone who hasn't even managed to even hurt me, yet."

The Giant laughed, making Percy wince. It was a rough, ugly sound.

"And you have yet to wound me, either, boy. Yet, I know how to kill you, now, Demigod. I can see that summoning the sea is not an easy task for you. I need only drag you into the Earth until you are exhausted and leave you there to die."

Damn, Percy thought, he'd noticed that.

He really needed to end this fight.

And he'd already lost his pen-sword, too.

He was going to have to take on this Giant with his bare hands?

He looked carefully at Polybotes.

He was more than five times his size and probably weighed multiple tons.

Percy sighed.

This was gonna suck.

Oh well.

"Are you done talking, yet? I have things to do, so I'd like to make this quick." Percy said with a confidence he didn't feel.

Polybotes snorted before jumping high into the air. He covered the entire distance between them with that single bound.

Percy had enough time to make a wry thought about leaping tall buildings in a single bound before he crossed his arms over his head to catch the descending spear.

He wasn't sure why he was invincible, but he'd have to thank whoever was responsible, because he'd have a consistency similar to chunky salsa if not for it; that spear was many, many times bigger than he was.

But instead of smearing him across the sand, it just made the spear rattle.

Still, even if he couldn't be hurt by the spear, he couldn't win just by blocking. Polybotes had already proven that he could still be lifted and pushed, despite his durability. All he had to do was get him with his back to a cliff and he'd lose.

At that thought, the tug in his gut returned and the water that had spilled out of the cliff responded.

Most of it had been soaked into the sand, but he tore it straight out…somehow.

He flung the salt water straight into the Giant's eyes with the force of a fire hose.

The Giant screamed, though probably more in surprise than anything else, and the force he was putting Percy lessened for an instant.

Percy quickly ducked out from under it and charged the off balance Giant. He drew upon his new found ability to control water and summoned what was left in the sand beneath his feet. He gathered it around his feet and he felt stronger the moment he did. He'd felt that way in the Ocean and inside the cliff.

But he'd never been in a situation to really use it until now.

He flung himself at Polybotes and hit him in the shin with a football players tackle.

It felt like trying to push down a brick wall, but the Giant must have felt something because he grunted and stumbled back a step.

Percy tried to attack again, wishing all the while he still had his sword.

And then, suddenly, the Giant laughed, before lashing out with one hand.

Percy quickly jumped back—

Only to find that he suddenly wasn't fast enough when the water around his feet suddenly fell away.

The blow caught his and threw him away, though thankfully not towards the cliff.

He quickly rolled back to his feet, but he needn't have worried. Polybotes just watched him with amused eyes.

"I was born to defeat and replace Poseidon, little boy." He said, when he noticed he had Percy's attention. "You are not the only one who can command water. Where I do not wish it, the sea is not."

Oh, Percy thought.

Well, shit.