Chapter 14

Percy's POV

I raised the sword to parry a blow from Triton. I still felt clumsy with the sword in my hands, but every time I had moved in training these past few weeks, Poseidon had gasped. At what? I have no clue.

But here I was, trading blows with Poseidon's godly son, Triton. Obviously, Triton was a much better swordsman than I was. We were fighting in waist height water, and even though I should have been slowed down in my footwork, I wasn't.

Triton saw the confusion in my face, and supplied to the answer.

You're a creature of the sea, Percy, sired by Poseidon, the Sea God! Well, only half of you is, so that's why you can't do this!"

"Everything seems to be coming down to the Sea God! I really can't see how I'm part God!"

With that, Triton surged forward in the water, with surprising speed and stabbed towards my stomach. Without any conscious thought, I spun out of the way of his strike and knocked him on the back of his head with the hilt of my sword. Golden blood seeped out of the wound. What was it called again? Igor? Acka? Okra?

"It's Ichor, Percy."

Triton stood up, facing me, but I held up my hand in a claw. The water pulled away from Triton, collecting into a giant wave behind me. I looked down at Triton's skinny legs, as he was in human form, and chuckled a bit. I mean, I might not believe in this God's business, but it was sort of hard no to when water bends to your will.

I rose up on the wave, looking down at Triton, and felt a sense of pride when I saw Triton's face pale at the site before him.

I closed my eyes, allowing the water to splash back into place. But I kept myself in perfect concentration. As the water rushed back, so did I, but I rushed with a purpose. I raised my pearly colored sword and struck out at Triton. I stabbed downward.

Right into his heel.

I was flooded with memories. My memory spasms have been happening the whole time I have been training, and at times, they were annoying, especially if I was in the middle of something that required concentration. Like, oh, I don't know, FIGHTING WITH TRITON! But it was far from normal. My eyes rolled into my head, yet I could see, with perfect clarity, whatever the memory was. I looked down on myself as if having an out of body experience.

When I stabbed through Triton's heel, he let out a yell, and that yell was the trigger that sent me back.

I looked down on myself as I battled with another God. It was a guy, with biker glasses, and a motorcycle. He wore red-lots of it. Hephaestus? Dionysus? Apollo? No, Ares. I watched as I looked down on Ares and I, trading blows that sent shivers into the air. I watched for a bit longer until I recognized the move that I pulled out on Triton just moments before. No sound reached me, but I knew that the other Percy and Ares exchanged a few terse words, and I'm pretty sure they weren't, "Oh good one!" or "Better luck next time!", but I was relieved to see Ares leave.

Then I turned my attention on Grover and …Annabeth.

I had seen Grover so many times in my memory, that I felt as if I had already met him, or rather, reintroduced myself.

But every time I looked on Annabeth, my breath was taken away. I just couldn't get enough of her. Her curly hair, her piercing gray eyes, so full of power, hades, even the tan lines that showed when she moved just right. I couldn't wait to meet her…um, again.

The memory ended, and I was brought back to the present. I was surprised to see that I was floating on top of the water, staring at a very sharp sword, held by a very amused Triton.

"Gods, I love your memory flashes!" He extended his hand and pulled me up. He looked at me for a few seconds. He spoke quietly, "You know, Percy, I know you might not understand everything that's going on…" I rolled my eyes.

"Here we go again."

"But what we're telling you is the truth. YOU truly are the only one that can stop Kronos." He abruptly turned and walked out of the room.

I was left standing there, staring at the rapidly disappearing water. Focusing on my hand and the water all around, I pulled the water to my hand and focused it into an orb. I concentrated and it shaped itself into a watery version of Annabeth's face. I sighed.

"I barely know her…why have I fallen so hard?"

"You do know her." I looked up instantly banishing the Annabeth in my hand to nothing. Poseidon continued.

"You've spent the last four years getting to know her."

"But why don't I feel closer to her then, Poseidon?" I refused to call him father. Not even pops sat well with me

He answered simply, "Luke."

My blood boiled even at the mere memory of him. Of course, I still don't know if the whole thing was real or not, but just that name, angered me. Suddenly I was full of a new energy. Poseidon saw it.

"C'mon. Lets go for a round"

I stared at him. I started to protest.

"Oh, shut up, already! It seems like every other god has had a whack at you, and who says I can't fight with my own son?" He raised his arm, and a twisted metal trident appeared in his hand. I paled. Just one solid strike from that thing, and I'd be fish food.

But I raised my sword, accepting the challenge.

The fight began easily enough. I could tell that Poseidon wasn't really pushing himself. He mad no move to attack, just defend while I exhausted myself.

As he defended, he gave me advice-which I promptly ignored- but the only reward I got was a bruised butt. Each time I ignored a piece of advice, I swung the butt of his trident into my butt, exactly in the same spot, quickly raising a bruise.

Finally he seemed to grow bored. He raised his arm, and water began to bubble up from the floor.

Ankle height; he makes his first strike, straight into my back with the butt of his trident.

Waist height; he pushes me back with a stream of water, knocking the wind out of me.

Armpits height; he abandoned his trident and still proceeded to kick my butt. Literally! I have the shoeprints to prove it!

Now the water is over my head, filling the room with water. I can't even defend any more. So I throw down my sword in an air of defeat. Poseidon sees me and quickly has two points of his trident around my throat, pinning me to the wall.

All playfulness is gone from his face.

"Never, EVER do that again! That's the sort of attitude that will get you killed Seaweed brain!"

Instantly, I was thrown into a memory spasm. Filled with Annabeth. Images flashed in front of my eyes, all with Annabeth staring at me in the face. I only caught a little bit of what she was saying in every image, but it sounded like "Seaweed Brain as a whole.

I was bombarded with memories.

Fighting the minotaur.

Looking into her gray eyes as I tasted nectar for the first time.

Blasting her with water from the bathrooms.

And then came sad memories.

Watching Annabeth get kidnapped.

Seeing Annabeth in my dreams, holding up the sky.

Watching Annabeth weep as she told her secret, the last line of her prophecy.

I shut my eyes, but opened them a second later, one memory refusing to fade. My kiss with Annabeth on Mount St. Helens, right before I made the mountain explode.

I came back to myself in real time, in a state of shock as I realized Poseidon had me pinned against the wall. I didn't wait for an explanation. I did what only came natural. I kicked the wall with the flat of my foot.

The tremors came weak at first. But they grew stronger until even Poseidon was scared. He released me from the wall and moved back, the scared look still on his face.

I moved the water in the room to push my sword back into my hand, I caught it, twirling it form side to side as if I had been doing it for years. Of course, I had been. I just hadn't remembered it. Until now.

I didn't feel clumsy with sword anymore. Far from it.

The tremors shook at my bones and finally opened up a deep hole in the ground. Instantly, water surged into that hole, draining like a bathtub would.

The water slowly drained out of the room, pulling Poseidon down to the floor by sheer pressure. I followed just as quickly, sword pointed downwards.

Slice. I felt the sword stick into the floor beside Poseidon's neck, sinking deep into the floor as if it were butter, and my sword a hot knife. Well, good to know my new muscles are good for something. He looked at me with a mix of terror and pride in his eyes.

I closed my eyes briefly, and opened them once again, my head full of memories that had been locked away. "How could I have forgotten all that? And then refused to believe it?"

I chuckled a little bit as I opened my mouth to deliver my line.

"I'm baaaaacckk." The singsong tone was the cake topper. "Now when do I get to see Annabeth?"

Poseidon's POV

"Wow…he's ready."

Annabeth's POV

I cradled my bottle of sea water as I lay on my cot at night. That's the one good thing that had come out of Percy being the son of the Sea God. Whenever I felt that I was losing him, I could go straight to the beach. The feel of the water on my skin, warm like his embrace, the warmth of the sand on my bare feet, smelling so much of Percy, not Percy smelling like the sand. Lying on the beach, I could almost fall asleep.

-*-

I awoke in the Athena cabin that morning, my chest covered with red and white petals, mostly withered. Unity. I remembered that day, the day of the most extreme joy, turning into the stuff of my nightmares. The night that had left me a bitter shell of my once vibrant self.

I remembered the run through Atlantis, awing at all the colors. That room where Percy had given me the red and white entwined flowers, it was so simple, yet so meaningful.

I jerked out of my reverie, and picked up the petals lying on my chest. I collected each one and gently laid them under my pillow, careful so they aren't crushed. Each petal I pick up reminds me more and more of that bittersweet night.

I threw open the cabin door and raced to the water's edge at the beach. I collapse to my knees as the water meets my skin, no longer warm but cold. There. Now there's no telling which is the water on my face. Ocean and tears blend together.

I spent the whole day at the beach, walking up and down the coast, just talking. Percy is all around me. I rage and storm at him, but embrace him all the same. I wander close to the water's edge in my embrace, but keep away when storming and yelling.

I come back that night, close to dinnertime, expecting the bell to ring soon.

But I am greeted with a cold silence. I walk through camp, calling out for Chiron. But he doesn't respond. Finally I venture to the Big House, only to see my fellow campers tied up and gagged.

I run towards my fellow brothers and sisters, all tied up together. I go up to Malcolm, and he looks at me with wide eyes. I pull the gag out of his mouth and furiously whispers, "NO! Run! It's a tr-!" But I don't hear him.

I feel a sharp pain in my back, and I know that it is that damned scythe. My only redeeming thought is, "Percy…here I come."

-*-

I wake up with a scream, my jar of salt water empty, its contents all over my bed. Its in between my sheets and on my body, making it slippery. My first thoughts are, "Percy! Naughty!" and I surprised myself. I can't believe that I actually thought of something truly funny, despite the circumstances, or rather major circumstance. Percy was still dead. Did I have any right to laugh? "Of course. Percy wouldn't have wanted me to waste away."

A hand on my arm shook me out of my trance. My cabin mates, free of rope and gags, were concerned.

On a whim, I felt underneath my pillow. The petals were not there. But I felt something round in their place. Pulled it out and looked at it in the light. There, in the center of my hand, rested a pearl. A sea-green pearl. Funny, I thought pearls were cream-colored. But more importantly, there were words etched onto the pearl. Actually, one word.

Unity

I smiled, knowing that the time to watch the ocean had come. "Yes, I'm alright. Probably better than alright actually."

A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. The angst really appeals to me. Tell me what you think. R&R

Ps. I'm getting tired of not seeing true Percabeth. Maybe I'll put it in next chapter…nudge nudge wink wink