Raven
Raven became who she was because she could read people, and she could tell that her little strawberry friend, Leila, was about to burst. The moment they got out of hearing range of her cabin, Strawberry started in.
"You do realize acting like a witch here will get you killed, right?" She snarled, her over sharpened nails digging into Raven's arm like a warning. It was a pretty weak warning, especially when you knew monsters. She had been scratched by a Sphinx, a weak teenaged girl didn't even phase her.
"I'd like to see you try." Raven snapped, yanking her arm out of Strawberry's death grip. The shorter girl spun and glared with sharp anger. Apparently Raven had struck a cord, oh well.
"I could take you out so easily bookworm. How much actual battle experience do you even have?" She hated that sneer, it was one she knew quite well. She couldn't count the number of times some one thought she didn't have any experience, just because her strength was strategy, not combat. She got plenty of experience when she spent years on the road with only her knife. She got plenty of experience when she fought and trained with Titans. She got plenty of experience fighting the freaking war. She got plenty of experience navigating the labyrinth. But all of this would be lost on the ditz in front of her, so she kept it simple.
"Much more than you Strawberry Shortcake." Her saccharine smile seemed to tip Leila over the edge, and she almost thought the girl was going to go for her throat. She welcomed the small rush of adrenaline at the thought. But unfortunately, Strawberry settled herself, definitely not ready for the fight she would've gotten.
"You do realize you can't get out of this, right? You're stuck here Annabeth-" The tone she hated more than the scorn, made it's appearance in Leila then, she almost sounded pitying, and that was something that Raven couldn't stand for.
"Ra-ven!" Apparently she needed to say it slowly for the message to get across.
"Whatever, alright," Strawberry just shrugged her off, clearly not understanding the impact of ignoring someone's identity, "the war's over, you're the only one still fighting, and it might do you some good to just accept your losses and move on. Starting fresh probably wouldn't be a bad thing, and neither would making friends here." Just like an Aphrodite child, to make that kind of asinine suggestion. Is she going to burst into, "Why Can't We Be Friends?" next.
"I think you've inhaled a bit too much hairspray Ginger Barbie." The words were designed to cut, and she succeeded. Leila flinched, and Raven felt a little bit of happy satisfaction at the realization.
"Whatever, Poodle." Even that attempt at flinging a barb failed, Leila's heart clearly wasn't in it, and Raven could practically taste the victory on her tongue. They were standing facing each other on the porch, both with their arms crossed, when Jackson finally re-emerged, crossing the court yard.
"Are we good, Leila?" Even Raven had to be impressed with how quickly Leila pulled on her mask. She was all unruffled smiles by the time Jackson made it to the porch.
"Of course, she's all set. So go ahead and have fun." Her smirk was sickeningly smug, and Raven almost vomited just watching Leila walk away. Now she was stuck alone with the sea spawn, and just the thought of that fact made her start shaking. Fear wasn't a fun emotion, and she had a sick twist in her gut that told her that she would be experience that particular feeling quite often. If she didn't break first.
…
There was a moment of inherently awkward silence when Raven and Jackson stared each other down across the bedroom. There was something different in Jackson's expression and she couldn't place it, but she knew for sure that she didn't like it. He looked twisted, not like crazy, even though he was, but like he was getting twisted up in his own head. It made him very difficult to read. After a few minutes of hateful glaring, Jackson cleared his throat and announced he was going to take a shower.
The moment Jackson disappeared into the bathroom, she yanked open the zipper on Leila's floral printed duffle bag, and started digging through the contents. At the top, in a bulging black leather travel case, was the extensive amount of makeup they had tested on her face. Shoving that off to the side to never be seen again, she continued digging through the rest of the bag. They had given her a hairbrush, a bottle of shampoo, a tub of conditioner, a package of hair elastics, a toothbrush, and a tube of tooth paste. She paid little attention to the clothes and shoes as she dug out that perplexing bottle of perfume. Some things were too interesting to ignore for any length of time.
The bottle was glass, with a small nozzle covered by a circular cap cut to look like a cut gemstone. The liquid inside was perfectly clear. When she opened the bottle and took off the cap to smell it, it may as well have been water. She felt the distinctive itch in her finger tips, as she fought the desire to explore, to look for more knowledge. Her teachers had called her a sponge as she grew up, she always seemed to be searching to absorb more and more information. Unfortunately she hadn't grown out of that habit. Ignoring the danger of playing with enchanted gifts from the gods, she sprayed a little of the perfume on both wrists. If the lover goddess had given it to her children, it couldn't have been too dangerous. After giving it a moment to settle, she took a cautious sniff. Surprisingly, it smelled perfect. The first thing she noticed was how clean it came across, with notes of floral and citrus. When she took a deeper breath, a heavy floral scent came across smelling all at once rich, fresh, calming, and invigorating. When she took one last breath, all the previous scents didn't evaporate, but she did notice a final note of sweet honeydew.
She glanced at the bottle, only partially surprised to note that the liquid inside had transformed to a soft yellow color. Thinking carefully, she was pleased to note that she didn't feel any different. If anything, she was a little more clear headed. That definitely could not be a bad thing in her situation; she needed all the focus that she could muster. She glanced at the door to the bathroom, and when she was certain that the shower was still running, went to work for real.
Percy
He wasn't quite sure what her plan was, but all he knew was that when he walked into his room, in his cabin, he found his lovely little prisoner riffling through his drawers. Literally.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" She tipped over three swim trophies in her haste to turn around, and he cringed as they smashed to the ground. He was amazed when she didn't blush or even lower her eyes; apparently psychopaths like her didn't feel guilt. No, instead she just quirked an eyebrow confrontationally.
"Don't go through my stuff, you know, in fact, don't touch anything without my permission." He felt the chill travel down his spine at the magic he knew was backing up his command. He wished he regretted manipulating her, but frankly he could only shove so much regret into himself. The rest was irrelevant.
"That won't be inconvenient or anything." She sneered, backing herself into a corner, literally, and sitting down without stopping her glare.
"Well, sorry but when a yappy little bitch is unruly, you have to tighten the leash." He snapped back.
"You, despicable bastard," She snarled, her hands clenching with the obvious desire to maim.
"Already heard that one sweet heart, now I have to go check something, so just stay there and don't make trouble until I get back." He spat in reply, ignoring her hateful glare.
"You're repulsive." He let the door slam closed behind him in response, not even hesitating before leaving her behind.
…
It probably should have surprised him more that his father arrived on the beach that afternoon.
He just needed time to think, and lots of it. He had just been in a war, he had just watched friends die, and now he was supposed to own a person. Yeah, that's not going to work very well. He's already messed up enough as it is. He hadn't even processed the fact that he was invulnerable, let alone everything that had gone down, especially with Luke. He just wanted to come to the beach so he didn't have to think, but naturally, his father was invading his space by lounging in his beach chair on the damp sand. He was hesitant as he first approached, not quite sure where they stood, since it was Percy's suggestion that got Poseidon's home destroyed. Thankfully, the god showed that there were no hard feelings when he materialized a similar chair and gestured for him to take it. He eyed it for a moment before slowly sitting down. Poseidon focused his eyes forward, barely looking at his son, but at the same time, the awkward tension pulsing through every muscle in his body made Percy aware that despite appearing relaxed and distracted, the god's focus was on him.
Poseidon looked weighted down, but at least there was a little warmth in his eyes that wasn't there a week ago. You would've thought went six rounds with an elephant, with greying hair, pale skin, and a smattering of wrinkles around his eyes, but there was hope and that's exactly what Percy needed to see, especially then, when the rest of his life was crumbling around him.
"Did you like your surprise?" The man had a wide, I-know-what-you-did kind-of, grin, and Percy felt like something had gotten lost in translation, did he not know that the surprise was a person or... "I mean, personally, blonde is not really my favorite but…"He might have been on the verge of vomiting profusely; talking with his father about his irrelevant preferences was not really at the top of his favorite things to do, no matter what his opinion on blondes was (he preferred brunettes), especially since Annabeth wasn't a girlfriend, she was his "prize." He would've preferred cash, what exactly was the going rate for blonde teenaged girls now a days, anyway?
"You mean the girl I'm supposed to babysit and convert away from wanting to kill us?" He regretted his tone immediately after the last words slipped out, but thankfully his father didn't take the bait. Maybe the god wasn't as oblivious as he sounded.
"So I take it you've been enjoying yourself?" The eyebrow waggle contradicted that brief hope, and the absolutely failure at fatherhood wasn't even surprising anymore. The person in front of him had no idea just how disgusting the implication was, also how awkward it was to try to explain why he didn't savor the idea of taking what he was given to a god who's hay-day was before slavery was made illegal.
"What? No, absolutely not, I wouldn't do that, I mean, not with her. Not that she's not, and I'm not, but I won't and she definitely won't, and oh gods help me. I'm not, I'm not that guy." Percy stammered and stuttered uncomfortably, and his face burned all the way back to his ears. There were very few things he could deny being, but this was definitely one of them. His father seemed unconvinced.
"Admirable choice, but her services are your reward Percy, don't forget that. The others on the council only require you to direct her to work beneficially towards rebuilding and paying her debt for her crimes." He looks out across the churning waves, a pensive expression on his face.
"So I'm her warden." Percy sighed, and slumped in his chair. Poseidon cleared his throat awkwardly, clearly unsure as to what to do with a angst ridden teenaged boy.
"In a way." Finally the god seemed to get that Percy was not happy about this, and reigned in his gleeful tone, replacing it with a much more reserved one.
"Greeeaaaaaat." He groaned, and let his head drop into his hands, the back of his neck tingled as he considered the vulnerability entailed in this position. It was strange how his reflexes hadn't faded in the slightest, even after the danger had passed. Four years didn't disappear easily, and neither did his discomfort with his father.
"It's more complicated than you believe." Because statements like that were quite comforting, and it was a great example of excellent parenting. "Ares and Aphrodite have a bit of a wager going, and you know that the arrangement was Aphrodite's idea, and Artemis isn't happy at all, of course there isn't much those two agree on…"
"Even better. " The sarcasm was almost a physical thing at this point. He could almost physically feel himself throwing it.
"You know, I remember this one girl. Now, she didn't know who I was at this point, and she might've been there to worship Hera, I'm still not sure about that, we didn't really talk much, and well that wasn't really the goal, …but the point I'm trying to make here Percy, is that you've earned the right to enjoy yourself." His father's expression was a little nauseating, and he seemed to forget that Percy's mother had been one of "those girls." He didn't need any of that imagery, thank you very much.
"Dad… just drop it." Percy felt his faced burn with embarrassment ;this was not how he imagined getting "The Talk" from his dad, he definitely wouldn't have guessed that his personal version of the talk would include a recommendation to "enjoy himself." He cleared his throat and tried desperately to change the subject.
"Why do you care about her in particular? I mean, there were hundreds of demigods of Kronos' side." He ran his hair through his hair, and Poseidon just nodded, his expression darkening as he remembered something. It was hard to believe that less than forty-eight hours ago, Luke was alive and Kronos was encroaching on Manhattan.
"Rehabilitation was her mother's idea, she's a child of Athena, you know." Poseidon gave Percy a look as if this would somehow affect something. "She's incredibly bright, and before Luke turned her, she was looking like she would be a great asset in the future. We don't want to lose that opportunity."
It should probably surprise him more that the gods were trying to rehabilitate a teenage girl to use her as a weapon. It should probably make him angry, or self righteous, or something, but what could he say, everything can become normal if you have to live with it for long enough.
AN: Hey everyone, I hope you're enjoying this story so far. I love writing it and I hope some people out there are enjoying it. I'm reopening my sneak peek offer. Everyone who reviews this story will get a sneak peek of the next chapter. Also I'd really appreciate it if you'd encourage others to take a peek if they're looking for a new fic to read.