A grim silence settled over the Seven as storm clouds loomed ahead in an otherwise clear sky. It was a perfect seam, light blue clashing with murky grey, and the dark smudges that indicated Scylla and Charybdis were beginning to grow ever closer. Aristotle was perched at the prow, his eyes glittering and his feathers standing out like ink against the ocean, which was becoming progressively darker and frothier. Leo manned the steering and all that junk while the rest just stood by and worried like madmen.

Much to Will's anger and protestations, Nico had shadow-travelled them all to the upper keys of Florida so they wouldn't really have to travel far to get to the Sea of Monsters. With Piper's persuasion, they'd convinced a wealthy fisherman to forsake his rather large speedboat to them, and after Leo had made a few major adjustments to the engine, they'd set off at incredible speeds towards where Aristotle was directing them. Jason was getting incredibly seasick, and he leaned back in his seat, trying to take Leo's advice and focusing on a single point in the distance. It did little to calm his nerves or his stomach. He shouldn't be complaining, though, because Hazel had thrown up over the side twice now. Frank had assumed a mouse form to lighten the load, considering all of the armor, weapons, and people the boat was already carrying, and was attempting to console Hazel, though he wasn't having much luck.

"What are we going to do about Scylla and Charybdis?" Jason fretted, chewing his cuticles to the point where blood was dripping down his hands. He pushed his glasses farther up his nose despite the fact that they didn't need to be adjusted, trying to calm his breathing as to make sure he didn't hyperventilate.

"Go for Charybdis," Annabeth replied immediately, white-knuckling the railing as she gazed off into the distance. "Our boat should be strong enough to get through the whirlpool, what with all the adjustments Leo made, but we have no chance against Scylla."

"You sound like you've done this before," Frank squeaked, and Annabeth leveled him with a look that clearly stated that she most certainly had done this before. Nobody asked, the mood seeming too solemn for an action-packed adventure, especially one that would no doubt contain Percy. Percy had become He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, for whenever his name was spoken aloud someone burst into tears. That someone was usually Annabeth.

"Just a note," came a croaking voice, and everyone turned to see Aristotle, hunched on the back of Leo's seat. He certainly hadn't flown there, considering the terrible wind, and he would've most certainly been noticed if he'd walked. He'd just…appeared. That bird freaked Jason out. "Your demigod friend may not be in the best of conditions if we do somehow manage to get past the guards and the giant."

"I understand," Annabeth hissed through clenched teeth.

"I'm simply preparing you," the raven retorted, fluffing his feathers up defensively. "He may cry in his joy at the sight of you. He may be a bit weary. He may balk. He may scream for Polybotes and fight you with everything in him. He may simply do nothing."

"Percy wouldn't break that easy," Leo insisted, his eyes never leaving the approaching monsters that marked the threshold between the mortal world and the supernatural. "He's super powerful and strong." Everyone nodded in agreement, but Aristotle shook his head.

"Ah yes but just a note that he's been with Polybotes for many weeks. Subjected to tortures you wouldn't imagine. It doesn't take long for a prisoner's torturer to constantly tell him he's a dog until the prisoner starts believing it," the raven scoffed. "Percy could be believing that everything is his fault, that Polybotes is right when he inflicts such agony upon him. People who are constantly suffering change. Drastically."

"What are we going to do if we take him back? He's not just going to…to perk up," Hazel murmured, her voice wavering, and Frank nuzzled her hand in attempt to comfort.

"He will be more broken than you could ever imagine," Aristotle warned. "Your children of Dionysus may not be enough. You may need the god himself. A strong-willed demigod is no match for a giant with a thirst for vengeance, infinite time, and infinite patience. He will have reduced Percy to a self-hating and most certainly suicidal being. Anything to make the pain stop." Annabeth's face was cloaked by her hair, but Jason could see the tears streaming down her face. Jason thought he was going to cry, too. It was going to take a few days for them to get through the Sea of Monsters, and by then it might be too late.

"We're approaching Charybdis," Leo announced, fear laced through his voice as he regarded the gaping maw of the monster who swallowed everything that stumbled into the clutches of the whirlpool that revolved around her. Her serrated teeth, looking like the dorsal fins of sharks, were clustering together as they neared the monster and were slowly caught in the pull of the whirlpool. Leo revved the engine, which sounded much more powerful than the normal boat engine should be, and shot through the water like a bullet, steering it like a champion and weaving through the teeth; he made well sure that he stayed as far into the outer reaches of the whirlpool as possible, since once they were caught into the stronger currents they would be past the point of no return. Annabeth seemed to be a bit squeamish as the boat was tossed this way and that, and Jason finally threw up that day's meals over the side.

His heart was thundering in his chest, his breath sawing in and out of his lungs as his eyes glued to the jaws of the monster, which were lined with needle-like teeth that didn't look pleasant to fall into. It was his first time in the Sea of Monsters, and from what he was experiencing now, it wasn't going to get much better. He gripped the sides of the boat tightly and prayed that Leo knew what he was doing.

-Ω-

For days, they traveled, following Aristotle's directions as their boat tore through the waves. The gasoline was enchanted to replenish itself, but that didn't make Jason any less fearful that suddenly their propeller was going to stop working and they'd be stranded in the middle of a sea crawling with terrible creatures. Their food supply could only last so long. Every sunset, Percy's time became a little shorter, and everyone was well aware of that as they watched the sun dip below the horizon. Needless to say, the bathroom situation was a little awkward; peeing was fine, even amongst the ladies, but with people too scared to jump into the water and shit directly for fear of attracting monsters, they had to go in a bucket filled with water (dubbed "the dump") and then toss it into the water while everyone's back was respectfully turned. Even though the bucket had been specifically for these purposes and self-cleaned, the mere thought of what went on inside of it made Jason nauseous. It also felt weird to shit in the open with your friends standing only a few feet away.

They encountered many beasts. From a pod of mutant dolphins that spat acid to a group of sirens. They hadn't been prepared for that one, only having a few bits of wax that would've been useful to put in people's ears, so Piper had taken the wax and then charmspoken everyone out of jumping over the side and towards the sirens. She'd out-charmspoken Medea, she later told Hazel, Frank, and Annabeth, who hadn't known about this previously. She'd been closer and more powerful than the siren's songs and therefore had been able to keep them under control. Aristotle hadn't been affected by the sirens, being the freaky bird that he was.

It wasn't long before they started to become weary. They had to sleep in short shifts, and Leo rarely got to sleep at all, considering that he was the only one who could really drive the boat and he didn't trust anyone else to piolet it, considering he simply gave them the simple rundown of the controls before passing out. It was Jason's turn to man the boat while everyone crashed, save Frank who was around to defend while Jason drove. His eyes scanned the horizon warily as they delved deeper into the Sea of Monsters, and the sky seemed to be permanently overcast, the wind always biting and cold.

"We're close," Aristotle rasped, and Jason sat a little straighter in his seat. Aristotle hadn't said a word since they'd passed Charybdis, other than to give them directions like steering clear of Cetus's hunting grounds or if they'd veered off course. Now his head was cocked, his beady black eyes gleaming as they regarded Jason, and then the demigod looked behind the raven and realized why exactly Aristotle was informing them that they were near. There was a large island with a beach of white sand and land crowded with trees, as well as a glimpse of a huge stone brick fortress, but that wasn't what Jason zeroed in on; a huge, scaly body arched out of the water, the white scales dazzling and the spines seeming as sharp as razors, disappearing under the waves as soon as it had come. Jason remembered it all too well, and he pulled the boat to a halt.

"Oceanus," he breathed, and Frank went tense all over as he immediately began shaking the others awake. They grumbled and shifted from their seats, but were wide awake and alert when they saw the deathly pallor on their companions' faces. Annabeth began hyperventilating, her eyes wild as Hazel and Piper rubbed her back, both wearing equal expressions of concern, and Jason's heart jackhammered in his chest as his eyes remained glued to the spot where Oceanus had disappeared beneath the surface.

"What do we do?" Leo squeaked, rubbing the bleariness from his eyes and running his fingers through his already-messy hair. "It's a fucking titan what the everloving fuck are we going to do?"

"Perhaps you should cloak this vessel," Aristotle suggested, but this time it was Poseidon's voice that was coming out of his mouth. It was slightly comforting to know that the god was watching through Aristotle's eyes, listening and looking in on their adventures the entire time. "You did install cloaking shields, did you not?" Leo was immediately up and staggering towards the wheel, practically shoving Jason out of the way as he began pressing all of these buttons and flipping all of these switches, which were a part of a console that was definitely more complicated than when the demigods had first gotten the boat. Immediately, the air around them shimmered, becoming distorted.

"Will this be enough?" Leo inquired, sweating bullets and watching the way the cloaking mechanism shifted and warped the light around them.

"Trust me, it will be." And with that, the boat sped off towards the island.

Jason didn't like the tone of Aristotle's voice, or the fact that he called out once, a harsh, grating croak that sent the hairs on the demigod's spine standing straight up. It sounded like the cry of the raven that sounded right before someone died, and Jason had a pit in his stomach and a voice in his head telling him that he and his friends were going to be the victims. They passed the spot that Oceanus had emerged from without any confrontation from the titan, and everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding in. Relief washed over Jason, his blood still surging, but something in the back of his mind nagged him: This shouldn't be so easy.

-Ω-

This was how it was going to end.

This was always how it was going to end.

Percy felt like he was floating, not really connected to his body as he seemed to watch the events unfolding from the view of an outsider. He felt oddly at peace, strangely calm, and he was only partially aware of Kathy's soft, muffled crying and Polybotes's arms around him as the giant carried him into the woods. The basilisks withdrew reverently as he ventured deeper and deeper into the dense boughs, with the nereid trailing behind him like a shadow. It as hot, like most days, but there was a cool breeze to the south that soothed Percy's sweaty skin and made the leaves in the trees rustle. Aside from the rustling foliage, the snap and crackle of leaves and twigs underfoot, Polybotes's breathing, and Kathy's soft weeping, there was silence. Complete and utter silence.

Then a raven called in the distance, a single harsh cry that fell silent afterwards.

That was odd; Percy had never heard birds on this island before, but he disregarded it, as did Polybotes and Kathy, though he did feel the giant tense slightly. Percy didn't have it in him to care. He drifted along in his dream world, a world where Polybotes couldn't hurt him and where he was lying on a picnic blanket with Annabeth, watching the stars. In this world he wasn't a dog, forced to bow to a master who beat him into the ground whenever he tried to rise, and he wasn't the one to blame for all of his torture. He wasn't the one who'd refused to break and had to suffer the consequences.

The trees began to thin out, growing skinnier and shorter until the wooded area gave way to a large clearing. The sky was a never-ending expanse of clouded grey, with barely any gaps of blue peeking out from behind the darkness, and Percy was struck with how much he missed the sky. He missed food, too, but he didn't really care as his stomach growled slightly. Polybotes hadn't fed him breakfast or lunch that morning. The demigod, vaguely, wondered why, but those thoughts were scattered to the wind as he regarded the clearing with a sort of detached interest. It was pretty, a nice place to seek refuge tucked away from the world, and Percy would've really liked to come here. Grass, which was soft rather than coarse when it brushed against Percy's legs, swayed in the breeze, rustling slightly, and Percy wished that there was grass like this in his enclosure. It would've made it all much more pleasant.

Polybotes continued towards the center of the clearing, and Percy was, dully surprised to see a circular raised dais that was just large enough to fit a grown man. The demigod felt so far away from his body as he was placed onto the pedestal, and even though he was uncomfortable, he couldn't really find the will to mind much. He continued to frolic in his mind, picking the small flowers and tearing out grass stems with one hand as he held Annabeth's hand with the other. She was pointing out so many stars to him. He never thought he'd remember them all, but he had to admit that he wasn't really listening, simply staring at Annabeth's face as she talked animatedly about huge balls of gas that were glowing millions of light years away. She was so beautiful.

Polybotes pulled a handgun from his belt, slowly, as Percy ran his hands through Annabeth's long blond hair, feeling it in his fingers. His hands in the real world, however, remained limp. The giant switched off the safety and loaded a single bullet into the chamber. Percy kissed Annabeth on the cheek and told her how much he missed her, and she gave him a funny look.

I'm right here, Seaweed Brain, she snorted, rolling her eyes. Her face was blurry around the edges. Oh yeah. Right. He was with Annabeth now. How come there was a hole in his heart that ached with longing for his girlfriend when she was right here with him? It was odd. The giant leveled the gun at Percy's head. The demigod looked past him to see a huge black raven sitting hunched on a nearby branch. It was a pretty bird.

"Last chance, buddy," Polybotes murmured. Percy didn't understand what he meant. Last chance to do what? He saw Kathy crying. Why was she crying? He didn't want her to cry. She was nice to him. The giant brought the barrel of the gun closer to Percy's forehead.

You're such a dork, Annabeth chuckled, shoving him lightly. She was smiling, her grey eyes crinkling at the corners as her sides heaved with laughter. He'd just told her a joke. What was that joke again? Percy didn't remember, but it must've been funny since Annabeth was laughing. In the real world, the demigod smiled ever so softly to himself, so slight that the people with him almost didn't notice it.

He pushed his head against the gun barrel, feeling the cold of it against his skin.

There was the sound of people crashing through the trees and then everything went black.

-Ω-

(A/N) Sorry about the long update, I had a lot of schoolwork to complete.

Disclaimer: ThE cHaRaCtErS aRe RiCk'S, tHe PlOt Is ChRiStMaScOoKiE26's.