Chapter 10
Travis stared at Percy in shock - he could only guess Katie's reaction was similar to his.
Oh no, not again! Annabeth was already half-shattered when Percy disappeared, now he goes off to lose his memories? Travis half-expected Percy to pull a Leo and laugh, exclaiming that he was merely pulling their legs.
But he did not. He continued to stare blankly at them, while Annabeth slid down to her knees, trying to stifle the sobs coming out from her mouth. "You bastard!" Travis hissed, ready to punch the living daylights out of him for hurting Annabeth like that.
He was swiftly pulled back by Katie, who shook her head. "Don't. It's not his fault for losing his memories."
Annabeth started bawling, though she ran out of the infirmary before she could really begin. Percy looked in her direction and asked, "What's wrong with her?"
Shrugging Katie's hand off of his back collar, Travis grabbed a fistful of Percy's shirt, hauling Percy's face down (Percy was taller than Travis, much to his embarrassment). He whispered darkly in Percy's face, "Look, I don't know what happened to you when you were captured, but if you continue to hurt Annabeth, you're gonna wish you could go back in time and make sure your mother aborted you before you were born." Roughly letting go of Percy's shirt, Travis stomped out of the infirmary, Percy staring after him at what had just happened.
Looking at Katie, Percy asked sarcastically, "Are you going to strangle me too?"
Katie sighed, "As much as I would love to, you obviously have no recollection of who Annabeth is. Do you know who we are?"
"Yes, I know. You're Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter. Travis, the son of Hermes, is the guy who almost strangled me." Percy ran his fingers through his hair, breathing in a ragged breath. "Who's the girl anyways? Is she a new camper? And why did she go out crying?"
"It's not my place to reply, sorry. Why don't you just stay here and rest, while we discuss some important stuff downstairs?"
"Sure, I guess." Percy shrugged, "As much as I would love to be involved in your discussion, I need to rest from using too much power." Percy dove back onto the bed, and within seconds he was sound asleep, snoring away.
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"I managed to save Percy, but he has no memory of me whatsoever, while simultaneously retaining every single piece of information that he could do without. Just fantastic..." Annabeth chuckled bitterly.
"I'm sure Percy'll regain his memories again. It could be just like the time with Hera plucking him from Camp Half-Blood and chucking him into Camp Jupiter." Katie tried to console Annabeth, "Maybe he'll regain his memories pretty soon."
"We all know that's not true, Katie. You don't need to console me." Annabeth sighed, before getting up from her seat. "I just need some time alone," Annabeth muttered dejectedly, exiting the control room.
"I swear, that Kelp Head. I'm going to kill him once he gets back his memories fur hurting Annabeth like that."
"I'm pretty sure the twin sons of Ares do not have the power to remove someone's memories. Someone else must be behind all this. And the Prophecy: Will the mind be strong enough to go against love; and will the love be strong enough to go against the mind. I think this is the first line of this portion coming true. Annabeth needs to be strong enough to pull through this ordeal."
"I think the more important question is whether the quest is complete. Our objective is to save Percy, and technically we haven't saved him, right?"
"I suppose that could be our excuse to Chiron as to why we didn't return to Camp Half-Blood. We also need to find out more about this. Chiron mentioned about an incoming war."
Travis groaned, "Now I know what it feels like to be so important. It's like the weight of the world is on my shoulders - quite literally, in fact."
"Don't worry, we'll be here for each other." Katie smiled at him reassuringly.
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"Our next destination is The Bermuda Triangle, so our likely enemies will be Charybdis and Scylla. Annabeth, do you remember how you guys defeated it?" Katie turned to look at Annabeth.
However, she was interrupted by Percy, "Why are you asking her? I thought I was the one who went on the quest with Tyson?"
"Really? Then who was the 3rd person on your quest?" Annabeth asked spitefully.
"It was... Ummm... I can't remember," Percy stuck our his tongue in embarrassment. "That's strange, I don't normally forget stuff. Maybe I'm getting old."
"Or maybe another God took away your memories," Annabeth retorted, crossing her arms and looking away.
Percy continued, oblivious, "Hmm, that too. I still recall Hera taking all of my memories and dumping me in Camp Jupiter."
Travis and Katie looked at each other, not knowing how to stop the argument, feeling that they should not involve themselves in others' business. Annabeth is becoming a freaking time bomb at this rate. It's only a matter of time before she explodes at Percy, and I'm pretty sure their relationship is gone forever.
Katie tried to diffuse the tension in the room. "Anyways, back to the question. How did you guys defeat it?"
"We didn't exactly defeat it," Percy replied, "We just kind of barrelled straight into Charybdis, and we were fortunate enough to escape relatively unscathed, thanks to Tyson. Clarisse blasted several cannons into its mouth, and it spat everything right back out of its mouth. Quite disgusting, really."
"Honestly, I don't think that will work a second time. Fortunately, I have another plan." Annabeth had that familiar twinkle in her eyes. "Ghost Captain, how many jars of Greek fire do you have?"
The ghost scratched its imaginary beard, "I believe we have plenty of jars safely tucked away in the bunkers below, next to the boiler room."
"Good, ask all of your crew to tie a jar of Greek fire to themselves. When Scylla picks them into the sky, ask them to grab that jar of Greek fire and throw it into Scylla's mouth."
Percy frowned, "I suppose that will work, but what about the person that gets picked up?"
"You know what happens. They die. Their souls get returned to Tartarus, and they'll be judged by Hades and Thanatos."
Percy scowled, "I don't like where this plan is going. We can't just let them die!"
Annabeth sighed, knowing that this side of Percy would come up. "I'm sure none of us wants to be killed, but if it's for the better of the quest, we have to sacrifice ourselves. Otherwise, the entire fate of Olympus is at risk, and we can't screw that up."
Travis scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion. "I love the plan and all, but isn't Scylla immortal and can't be killed?"
"According to the legends, yes. But no one has ever tried it yet, so it is possible. I mean, the Titans are also somewhat the same as Scylla, and their essence can be sent back to Tartarus, so why can't Scylla's essence be sent to Tartarus? Well even if she can't be killed, Greek fire can't be put out, so Scylla will just keep burning forever. She'll be pissed."
Katie giggled, "I'll definitely want a memory of that!"
Annabeth turned to the ghost captain. "Strap 1 jar of Greek fire each to each of your crew. Tell them that if they are wrapped by Scylla's tentacle, throw the Greek fire at Scylla." The ghost captain nodded.
Turning to the other three demigods, she announced confidently, "Let's go get some Greek fire."
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Plenty was an understatement. There were so many jars of Greek fire, that after strapping jars of Greek fire to the entire ghost crew, jars were strapped onto each cannon, with plentiful to spare. (Annabeth had mentioned something about Scylla taking out our defences first.)
"Well, now we're all ready to fight Scylla. Steer the ship as far away as Charybdis, and as close as possible to Scylla. The ghost captain could only nod, as he tried not to loosen the strap holding the jar of Greek fire to his arm.
Beside Travis, Percy stiffened slightly. "We've entered the Bermuda Triangle."
"How do you know?"
"Son of Poseidon over here! I have perfect bearings on the ocean. Wait, isn't the Arctic Circle and the Bermuda Triangle halfway across the world?" Percy turned to the ghost captain.
"The WSP is special, sir." The ghost captain puffed out his chest with pride, showing off his hideous ribcages. "It is able to time-warp when travelling long distances across the sea, making it extremely efficient."
"Sir!" One of the ghost crew came panting down the staircase, not without holding on to his jar of Greek fire. "Scylla. We're here."
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"Gods..." Travis muttered as he saw Scylla. She was definitely a hideous sight to see, not that you would survive to tell the tale. You probably won't even be able to see Scylla, being a mortal and all, but that was not the point.
"I don't think Charybdis was this ugly. I do recall Scylla sounding like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed though," Percy mumbled.
Out of the blue, the ship lurched dangerously to its side. Travis managed to cling onto something. Katie and Percy did too, but Annabeth fell towards the side and almost went overboard. The only thing that was preventing her from entering the sea was a rope that definitely did not look like it could support her weight. "Travis!" Katie screamed in horror.
The danger had just begun.
"Travis, hang on!" Katie yelled as she inched closer to Travis, not releasing the handle that she was clinging on to. "Grab my hand!"
He did, but the handle creaked dangerously. Thankfully, the ship righted itself in time, before the demigods fell into the sea. A ghost came running to Percy. "Sir! The hull's damaged and there is water lea-" All of a sudden, a tentacle suddenly grabbed him and lifted him up. He screamed as the tentacle pulled him towards its mouth, leaving only his leather boots.
"Throw the jar at Scylla!" Annabeth yelled while righting herself with the help of Percy. "It may help you!" she whipped out her sword and started dicing at the other tentacles slithering around, wanting to grab anyone within their reach.
There were fewer and fewer people on the ship's upper deck now if you even considered the ghost crew people. Things were not going as well as planned as more tentacles reached out from Scylla to envelop and squeeze the living hell out of us. Aroudnd the demigods, the sounds of battle raged on, as metal clashed against monster flesh.
A yell emanated from Annabeth. Percy swiftly turned towards the sound, using all his strength to slice the tentacle that was slithering around him into 2 pieces. He could only stare helplessly as Annabeth was grabbed by one of Scylla's tentacle by the ankle.
"It always has to be the ankle, doesn't it?" Percy cursed, a faint memory of something to do with Arachne entering his mind, but he pushed the thoughts away. Now's not the time to think about the past, but rather to act in the present!
Travis tried to jump into the air with his increased dexterity, only to miss Annabeth's outreached hand but a few millimetres, falling back down into the sea.
Percy felt the familiar tug in the sea as he willed the ocean around him to bend to his will. He stretched out his hand to grab Travis from breaking his neck from the fall into the sea, and the sea imitated his hand, delivering Travis to safety.
Percy flew to the sky, using the sea to project himself up, leaving a mini upside-down whirlpool with Percy on top.
Annabeth, on the other hand, was freaking out, all thoughts of her mind being thrown out of the window. She was dangling 10 feet in the air dangerously above the water, staring straight into Scylla's ugly beaded eyes.
Around her, ghosts were also being pulled towards Scylla. They started unbuckling their jars of Greek fire and threw it wildly at Scylla. Though the jars did break, the Greek fire rolled harmlessly off Scylla's body, not affecting it at all. All it did, however, was annoy Scylla even more.
Annabeth realised that their sole chance of destroying Scylla was to aim for her mouth. It was actually relatively easy, considering how big her mouth was, and Annabeth knew how good she was with archery, nearly on par with the Apollo demigods. Of course, she had never tried to throw one upside down while dangling from Scylla's tentacle, but that was a thought for another time.
Calculating the angle of trajectory that the jar was supposed to travel, Annabeth felt her left foot go numb from due to the tentacle tightly constricting against it. Come one, I just need to counter-act against my current motion and acceleration towards her mouth, together with the gravitational field in the Bermuda Triangle...
And she threw it.
Annabeth thanked every God possible, even the cow-goddess herself when the jar of Greek fire streaked through the air and landed right smack into Scylla's mouth.
Scylla let out a roar as the glass jar broke upon hitting one of Scylla's jagged teeth. The green flames frolicked down into Scylla's mouth as she howled in pain.
However, the tentacle refused to let go, and in fact continued to drag her into Scylla's mouth. It seemed to think, If I'm going down, I'm going down with you! Annabeth started to panic when she could feel the heat emanate from the Greek fire, growing closer and closer to Scylla's mouth.
No! Percy's eyes widened as Annabeth inched closer and closer to Scylla's mouth, in danger of getting swallowed by an eternal monster or charred to death by Greek fire. His vision tunnelled, only focusing on Annabeth, as all other noise droned out. (Which was quite an impressive feat - did he ever mention about just how loud Charybdis was, busy gurgling away at being left out of the action?)
Percy let out a yell as he went berserk. He shot right at Charybdis and landed on the tentacle Annabeth was stuck on. With sudden superhuman strength, Percy yanked the tentacle off of Annabeth, who promptly fell into one of the the sea's waiting arms, delivering her back onto the ship safely.
Percy was so relieved, that he failed to notice another tentacle creeping towards him. Charybdis let out a howl of anguish as her tentacle sliced towards Percy at breakneck speed, leaving no time for even the Hero of Olympus to react.
Travis and Katie, who had finally successfully fought off the last of the tentacles on the ship, looked up at that exact moment to their leader of Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth yelled a warning at Percy as she was brought back to the ship by the 'wave-hand'.
But it was too late.
The three demigods could only stare in horror as Percy's right arm was sliced cleanly through skin, flesh and bone, leavning nothing in its wake.
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A/N
Bet you didn't see that coming, huh? xD
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. You'll realise that I did take some of my old writing from the previous fanfic (some parts in there were still worth salvaging). Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
Honestly, I wanted to include more, but I figured if I wrote any more it would be around 3000 words long, and I didn't realy want a chapter to have that many words.
One last thing: 10 Chapter anniversary, anyone? WOOP!
R&Rs