Hey guys, sorry that the last chapter was just a rant and an excerpt. This is the real thing. Personally, I think this chapter is the best of all so far so please R&R (once again, not rock and roll like I formerly thought. I'm a little slow...) I know this will be rough, my Beta hasn't finished going over it yet. Im not sure if she will... ;) Thanks! Anyhoo, read and enjoy. My shout outs to the readers from India. You guys rock! Also to:
Burnup77, gluxaandpercabethluver and percabeth121196-for being the only readers out of 163 so far that reviewed and critiqued my excerpt and former chapters. You rock even harder!
Without further adieu, my chapter (finally).
Annabeth's POV
By the time I got to the Big house, lazy Seaweed Brain had finally decided to go to his cabin and unpack. That was what led me to have to tell Chiron the prophesy. I had already worked out in my mind though:
'When the time has come again.' More than likely the oracle acting up.
'Children of feuding gods compete.' Most definitely Seaweed Brain and I. It's crazy how gods love messing with us. Especially Aphrodite.
'Only one can take the win.' I will win, no doubt.
'The other must admit defeat.' Seaweed Brain must admit that I am better than him (finally.)
'Many trials; easy and hard.' Lots of tests. This is gonna be a long week.
'But emits a strong demise.' This was definitely bigger than having the other person do whatever you want.
'All's fair in love and war.' Um... I was really hoping Percy wouldn't pay too much attention to this line.
'But only one will win the prize.' Most likely not the one that gets a 'strong demise.'
So I explained my thoughts to Chiron. Before this, he was in a generally good mood now that the Oracle had gone back. Now, the shadow that crossed his face worried even me. He knew something.
"Annabeth. Don't take this all too harshly, alright?" Chiron actually sounded nervous. That was really unlike him. Now I had goose bumps. "The demise part worries me. This is a lot like brother/sister rivalry except if the Oracle is involved...well...it just has to be more than that."
I bet that Athena herself had no clue how this would turn out.
Either way, I half-mindedly walked to my cabin, thinking about Percy and how I had never been able to fight with him recently. Everyone says that he is the best swordfighter since Luke. What's with that? Everyone is treating Luke like he's dead! Luke is not dead, he's just...confused. I mean, if anyone never met their father, was forced to go to a camp to learn how to deal with your life being junk because you have to fight monsters and titans and then you meet your dad one day and he doesn't care, wouldn't anyone be confused?
Percy doesn't think he can be saved. Those words were the ones that cut through my soul and made me have to think about Percy and Luke. Luke used to be so nice, a lot like Percy but, in a way, in everything a notch up. He was a better fighter, comforter, teacher, and most of all, friend. Luke had cared for me and now, he had been taken over by Kronos and was gone. Percy is good at all of those things but, I can't place why, but there was something shielding me from him. But Percy hadn't abandoned me, he was still here.
I finally got to good 'ol cabin 6. I flopped down on my bed and said to myself "Annabeth, I think you are going insane." That made me smile. No matter how great my friends were, I really was the best one to pick myself up when I'm down. I should probably start getting ready for the fight I thought to myself. Percy and I had agreed on it being full armor, like a 1 on 1 battle while playing Capture the Flag: Camp Halfblood Edition. It's already-
Waaauuuuuuump!
Even though it is the sound I had heard for so long—every day even—I can't explain it very well. That was the sound of the conch.
Percy and I had scheduled the fight for 1:30. Right now it was roughly noon. Lunch ended somewhere around 1. That means that I could get some practicing in if I left lunch...about 25 minutes early! And who really needs an hour to eat lunch? I could take the sacrifice. There was nothing special about lunch other than that I was practically alone at my table. People had started filling in recently but most people were scheduled to come today.
I thought at my table alone about...things. Well, maybe that thing was Percy. I couldn't stand having to compete with him just to have this little prophesy come true! And what if one of us gets really badly hurt as part of the demise? I couldn't take it! But with me thinking, I only half mindedly ate my lunch. This stuff was all hard for me. I don't know why I'm picking today to pity out my life but I knew it had something to do with the prophesy and the Oracle.
When I reached down and nothing was left on the plate but a handful of strawberries, my thoughts bated. I finished my lunch quickly and then left for my cabin. I was really hoping that Percy wouldn't pull the whole 'Oh, if she's going I should go with her' thing again. Just in case, when he saw me leaving I shot him a face that was supposed to mean 'don't follow me like normal. It's annoying.' Understanding it or not, thankfully he wanted to finish his lunch so I walked on.
I got back to my cabin to put on my battle armor. I was yapping away with myself in my mind. The curse of Athena: You can never stop thinking.
What even started this fight? I asked myself, preparing for the full on battle. One of my newer siblings I'd never met had come back yesterday and now was helping me with my armor. One minute Percy fainted and then... Oh. That's how it went. I guess this was a slight bit of an overreaction on my part but he had been getting on my nerves so much more recently. I smirked at my evil side—he's still going to die though. No amount of liking him can change that fact at this moment.
"Oh, young love is my favorite!" squealed a certain Greek goddess who had made my love life miserable just so that Percy and I could become her favorite soap opera.
"Oh, hello. Lady. Aphrodite." I said through gritted teeth. Maybe I was supposed to hate Poseidon because of my mother, but I dislike Aphrodite more than him, Ares and Hades combined. She ranked #3 on the list of hate, right under spiders. (AN: #1 comes in later in the story)
"Hi Annabeth!" she said, trying to sound like one of my best friends. Normally a goddess would say something like 'Hello Annabeth, daughter of Athena' but Aphrodite wasn't a normal goddess.
"Now, um, Aphrodite? Why exactly are you here?" I said again. This time I sounded a bit nicer.
She looked at me with warmth and so much anticipation in her eyes. "To help you with Percy of course! I really want to speed some things up."
Oh gods. Not. A-Freaking-Gain.
"What do you mean 'speed things up?' Percy and I are doing just fine thank you. We're best friends even though my mom hates him." I said matter of factly.
"I know! She can be so uptight!" said Aphrodite. I wasn't going to agree with that. Of course I did in my mind but unlike Aphrodite, I am not a goddess so I would probably get cursed on the spot. "She even told me once to stop Percy from liking you!"
Now I'm normally not slow but this made me do a triple-take. Did she just say that Percy likes me? Or maybe, used to like me because of my mom. Why couldn't she mind her own relationships? I was mentally freaking out, in more ways than one. Slow down, Annabeth. Take this one at a time.
"Um...Lady Aphrodite? Did Percy really like me or are you just trying to make us move along?" I asked. This was the nicest way I could put it. I was actually quite proud of myself.
"Annabeth, Annabeth. Being the Ultimate Goddess of Love (her new nickname for herself, it will never catch on.) I know these kinds of things. The main point of having me know this is so that you don't need to! Now I really need to get going, Ares is getting pumped about your guys' fight. All the gods are. It's the biggest thing us gods can find. I guess Zeus being so uptight takes away all the fun in Olympus."
"Wait! Aphrodite? Before you go, can you just tell me if Percy likes someone else?" I practically screamed at the goddess about to turn into her divine form.
"No, but I'll tell you this. Your mom can not control your relationship with Percy okay? She can force me to deter it with some mortal girl but never can she take away all of your feelings for each other."
I shut my eyes just in time for not burning them out of my eye sockets because of her bright divine form. That would more than likely not be pleasant, or so I was told. Gods! I thought, that pretty much puts a bulldozer sized hole in my practicing time. Either way, I was going to get there early. Trekking up the hill and across the river (Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go!) in full battle armor was definitely not my favorite thing but the faster I go, the more practicing I get in.
When I finally got to the stadium, nobody was there. I was expecting as much but not even a camper come early to the lesson was here, beating up inanimate objects for practice. Really makes me think how much I miss Clarisse. I thought, surprising myself.
My being friends with Percy for years has really helped me in this fight. I know how he fights. Lunge, parry, roll, lunge, roll, parry, lunge, parry, roll. It depends what the opponent does though is what makes him react. I came up with a plan to catch him off guard. He always started with a lunge. If I started with a sidestep, but didn't quite roll, he would come forward. I would fake attack him so that he would roll and then while he was on the ground from my low attack I can do my real intention which was getting close and stabbing down instead of lunging at him. (I think I got special help from my mother on that one because of its brilliance, confusion and also because she wanted Percy to die, thinking 'Hey! Why not by her favorite daughter! It'll also get her to stop liking him!') She wanted me to stop liking him so bad that she would make me kill him...
Good plan though!
I had only gotten in about 7 minutes of practice when, people started slowly filing into the room. Many were being forced here to take their lessons on fighting but tons had just come for fun. It made me happy to see that Silena was in the front row, beaming me a big smile. The person next to her was...Beckendorf! He must have just come back today! That made me feel good. At least, until Dionysus walked into the room.
Dionysus has never been a happy man at this camp, ever since he was forced to drink Coke, But today he thought he would get some free entertainment, so he came, fairly amused.
"Where is this Porky? I have better things to do than wait around here all day, just watching for him." I knew the truth was that he really didn't have anything better to do but I wasn't going to say that. I looked at my watch. It was only 1:26. He still had time. Just like Seaweed Brain to get clueless. I thought to myself.
If you've noticed by now, I like talking to myself; it's like the only person I can really trust. I guess it really kicked off after Lu-
BANG!
Percy no less than forced himself through the doors.
"Trying to give yourself a concussion before the battle, Jellyfish?" I belted in his direction. But he wouldn't look at my face. His face was flushed pure white.
"There you are Porky! Finally! What took you so long? I might as well add another week of dishes for wasting my time!" I bet you'll never guess who said that.
"Um...unexpected visitor." Was all he would say. Oh no. did the same thing that happened to me happen to him? Either way, we had made a deal.
"Hey, Percy," I said running up to him. He looked like he had seen a ghost, which I guess isn't saying much because of the whole ghost army we saw last year. But when I came over to him, it added color in just the right places to show that it did have something to do with me. "We had a deal. And in that deal, I, or was it you, said that we won't let a distraction win the battle for either of us. From the looks of it, you're distracted." I said. It would be breaking my deal if he couldn't look at me at all. Plus, it'd be too easy.
"No. We should get this over with today or else they'd be mad." He said. I knew exactly who he was talking about. Not the people in the stands but up on Olympus. Aphro- freaking- dite! What use does she have rummaging around in our business? But now it'd be too easy to win.
"Look at me Percy. I want a real fight. I won't stop killing you because of your inner Jellyfish-for-brains, alright?" I said. That cheered him up and put some color to his face. "Now come on, we've got a lesson to teach!"
"Ha! If it lasts 5 minutes before I beat your sorry face!" He gloated.
Yep. He's back. Although I was kind of hoping to win. I had a few things up my sleeve. Oh well, hope my mom's plan doesn't fail me now!
Chiron started off the battle by explaining why we were all here. That was mainly for the people who were forced to come, but more power to the ones who came at their own will! Nothing else to do really. Then he explained the rules. Dionysus almost left after he said 'No limb loss' but then he realized the boringness would start to get at him if he did.
And with that, Chiron let us say, just in case it came to it, any last battle words that we had for each other.
"Percy?" I asked, hoping to throw him off guard. It worked. He lowered his weapon a little bit. Anyone could tell that he was surprised that I would actually say something and thought it would be important.
"What?" he asked concerned. Thanks for the advice Aphrodite!
"You're going to die." I said in my sweetest voice. I had totally caught him off guard and lunged before he could. That confused him. He almost always lunged first. Just like chess! I noticed, once someone has had their strategy messed up, they have to think every step through carefully. I modified my plan. I had to keep him off step of what he normally did. If he got back into the 'lunge, parry, roll' sequence again, he would think faster.
Chlink!
Oh how I love that sound. Normally, when you read about sword fights the sword makes a clash sound. Those are only in good sword fights. Chlink is when they get their sword out just barely fast enough to save themselves.
Because of my normal fighting with a dagger, but having this be a sword fighting lesson for the campers, I was allowed two weapons. The sword for the lesson and the dagger for the win. But if he had unarmed me, I couldn't pull out the dagger, he would have won.
But he hadn't yet. His sword touched mine with our faces next to our blades, so close that I could... no. This wasn't right. He was trying to do that.
"What are you pulling Seaweed Brain?" I yelled through the clinking of the swords. That smirk on his face made me think twice about every move that I made. But thinking is too slow! I had just been subjected to a major backfire. Now I was mad.
"Oh, nothing that a wonderful daughter of Athena wouldn't know." He belted back. Did he just call me...no. He must have been being sarcastic.
"As a matter of fact, I do, Jellyfish, and it might be the only smart thing you've ever done in your life." I screamed, "Congrats on thinking for once!"
He was just recovering from his side-step and going into a lunge when I saw a chink in his armor. Right there, between the shoulder plate and the arm armor. There was a small spot in the armor that he hadn't attached right. Perfect to chop of- never mind. That's not allowed. But perhaps...
"Please mother, help me now." I said as a silent prayer to myself. "Help this work."
Percy lunged. I did something like catching on part of his blade and swinging it towards mine until the flats of the blades were right next to each other. Riptide was being held against my chest and my blade was on the other side of it, pinning Riptide. Percy was still holding onto it but backed up quite a bit from his and my blade. I leaned in. In this position, Percy couldn't pull any fast ones on me without me noticing. He seemed to notice and came up to his blade too, his breath on my face. The blades were making no sound, neither was the crowd. It was just me and Percy fighting in this little bubble. I was so close to him that I could whisper in his ear.
"Hey, Seaweed Brain. You know I just came up with a great plan to win right?"
"Just remember that we're being teachers." Said Percy seriously, "And that I'm gonna kick your butt into Hades." He smiled.
"Oh really?" I argued.
"Yes, now can we get back to fighting?" He said, a bit annoyed.
Perfect, that takes some of his attention from himself and onto waiting for me. "I'm parrying you aren't I? You're kind of helpless right now." I said to his eyes (which I was slightly lost in) more than to him.
Then he pulled his blade out with the scraping sound of metal and tried to jab it at my throat for a win. I ducked, which he wasn't expecting. Then, when he was drawing the blade back, I shoved the dagger into the chink in the armor so that it separated the pieces but didn't get Percy. His right arm couldn't move much anymore. He switched his fighting hand to his left, but considering he wasn't ambidextrous, he would be constantly paralyzed in the battle.
While he was doing this, just to tick him off, I yelled to the crowd "And that is one way to affirm a win. Paralyze as much of your opponent as possible, whether it be a leg or an arm, it will constantly help you!"
"Yeah, make fun of the cripple." He said, not to the crowd, just to me. "You always do." But he was smiling at me big. He was trying to distract me from winning so that he had time to take the dagger out. But it wasn't going to. All I had to do now was...
"Ahg!" I heard myself scream as I was rocketed backwards. I looked at my chest plate. There was a large gash in it from where Riptide had hit me. While I was falling through the air, I thought I heard Percy mumble "Yep, I think the left hand will work for me nicely." I hit the floor. Percy was actually gaining. But I stood up. "Ehhhgg..." I said; I was hurt all over. Percy was already over me. Giving up trying to stand up, I fell back down to the floor and rolled. Then, when Percy was right over me, I jabbed up. It hit his chest plate but he was unphased. He brought Riptide over my throat and said "Trial one, point Percy." With just a huge...Percy smile on his face. He had a laughing tone in his voice that made me think he would break out in some victory dance sooner or later. But instead he helped me up.
"Don't get used to it, Seaweed Brain." I said, with a gruff tone in my voice. He just smiled again.
"Just easy tohard trials." He said. Oh crap! I thought. I didn't think of that. Does that mean that this was an easy trial? If it does...then I don't think I'm going to win.
"Do you want your dagger back?" He asked. It was still in his shoulder plate.
"Um...yeah? That's kinda my weapon!" Was all I said. He proceeded in taking off the top part of his armor. It's not supposed to be awkward, like just taking off a coat or something, but there was still a crowd. Watching.
"Oh gods." I mumbled, to myself. I tried not to look at the audience and just look at Percy, but he was having problems getting the neck strap off.
"Hey, Annabeth," He cajoled, "Can you please help me. I can't get it off and I think it's starting to cut off circulation to my head." He said more than hurriedly.
"Why? Not like you can go through any more brain damage." I said, but I helped it off of him anyways. I could just hear Silena's squeal inside my head.
We finally got it off of him and got my dagger back. But he had it in his hands, not me. That's when I remembered the prize for the winner. Oh gods, what is he going to have me do now? Well, it's good for any time so he may not even cash it in soon! I tried to cheer myself up. It was no good. He decided to rub in his victory. He got down on his knees, kneeled his head and presented me the knife like a servant.
"To Grand Loser Annabeth." He said. Geez Percy can be so annoying. He stood up with all but his shoulder armor on. It looked odd. But just as he started teasing me some more, there was a new kid that I didn't recognize who came up to me and Percy went away.
"Annabeth, I'm guessing?" He said.
A million things were running through my mind right now. But the most prominent one was 'Oh my gods, he looks like Percy!' It was true. Percy had grown and was now a little taller than me where this guy was my same height. He had black hair, grown out like Percy's but not quite as messy and green eyes. But Percy's eyes were a deep, sea green. His were a lighter, more foresty color. I had always thought that Percy was cute but this just carries on the tradition. The little thought screaming in the back of my head was 'Annabeth, he's talking to you. You can talk back already!'
"Um...yeah?"I asked.
"Good, so that is your name. I only guessed because of all the nicknames," he jerked his thumb toward Seaweed Brain who couldn't hear our conversation because he was speaking with his own friends. And getting...drachmas? He bet on himself winning? More importantly, he bet against me? What would make him so sure about that? Travis and Conner had bet on me though. His talking interrupted my train of thinking. "I'm new here and I am definitely going to need some extra help with my sword fighting. You are the teacher, right?"
"Yeah, um, me and Percy teach the class." Oh no. Did I just say me and Percy instead of Percy and I? I only ever make these mistakes around Seaweed Brain himself. I can't...
"Yeah. No offence to him or anything but he doesn't seem like the nice teacher type, if you know what I mean. Does he always act this serious about it?" He asked.
"No. Just around me. He always just has to beat me." I said. It was true though, he just did.
"Yeah, so when can I get some special help? I've only been here for about a week and I think I'm going to need big-time extra training. You in?" He asked. But the tone of voice made it sound like he was making a date or something.
"Sure. When do you want to start? I can go from well, now pretty much to a long time this week." I sounded nervous and I knew it I don't think he noticed though.
"Just as soon as this um...Percy gets off your back." He said. He already didn't like him and I think I knew why. I almost smiled. But I had business to take care of.
"Ok, bye um..."
"Riku." He said. That actually was a nice name. Riku and Percy. Judging from the looks, more than likely a son of Caerus. But that didn't matter right now. I just ran over to yell at Percy.
"PERCY! YOU BET ON YOURSELF?" I screamed at him.
"Yep. And I won so I guess it was a good bet." He said. He sounded so 'matter of fact, I'm right, you're wrong' that I just threw my head back in frustration. I mumbled something that not even I could hear.
"Annabeth," he said, slightly concealing a smirk, "I think it's time to talk prizes."
Oh no! What will Annabeth have to do? And what's with this Riku dude? Does he like Annabeth? Will Annabeth like him back? Is there more to the prophesy that Percy and Annabeth didn't hear? Answers in: the next chapter! It will be shorter than this, I promise. By the way, I know this was rough; my Beta hasn't gotten back to me yet. If you don't understand something, don't fear, I'm revising it as soon as she gets back to me! Still, I think this chapter was my best so far so I expect a TON of reviews! I really don't care about flames. Some people say they can make pudding. I DON'T GET THAT! Maybe only that Jello pudding that stays in the cup even after you turn it upside down and shake it. (Please don't ask how I figured that out. Trial, error and Milano cookies. Yum.)