Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews last chapter, even though it was a really sucky chapter. :) Ok, vague responses! I know people were just trying to be nice, but last chapter was a really sucky chapter. I know it was, and I was really disappointed in it. Especially because it was the 20th chapter! But the vacation got away from me, plus I got sick a couple times. I know that's no excuse though, so I'm sorry it was such a bad chapter. I'm glad people saw more about Dave though, even in his death. No saying whether or not it's a fake death. No spoilers! And I don't update at 4 am where I am, so I guess it's just time zones screwing some people over. I update between 9 and 10 pm EST, so you can figure that out. I thought it was sad that Cassidy and Dave never shared their love for each other, so I'm glad other people felt that sadness! As neither Cassidy nor Dave was the main focus, though, it was difficult to really show it. Especially since Perseus is often trapped within his world of self-torment within his own mind and doesn't see the beauty around him. Finally, Perseus IS very close to breaking. And that's going to be so much fun! I, for one, am looking forward to it. Anyways, with that slightly sadistic-sounding statement to end my AN, I own nothing! But please enjoy this chapter. :)
Third Person POV
They nodded quickly, adverting their eyes, and began to float the half bloods down the river. Next stop, the Hoover Dam.
The two wooden canoes floated downstream for a while, the one carrying Cassidy and Amanda drifting just slightly ahead of the one containing the two siblings of Atlas. Cassidy and Amanda were making difficult, awkward conversation. Zoe tried to make conversation at first, but gave up upon realizing that Perseus was too busy sulking. She sat in the front of her canoe, listening to the water lap gently at the sides of the vessel.
"Mom would've loved this," Zoe murmured softly to herself.
Perseus unintentionally picked up on her wistful whispers. Her nostalgic tone caused even his harsh, closed off person to soften a bit, like microwaved butter. "Your mother?" He asked curiously, pretending not to know that she would have loved this. Even if she was an ocean nymph, she found joy in every body of water, no matter how small.
Zoe, however, didn't know that. The small question surprised her, as she was sure the cloaked man sitting behind her hated her. She was sure he hated everyone. That's the odd thing about him, isn't it. He acts like he despises everyone and everything, but there are moments when his gravelly voice can be so soft and reassuring. Like her brother's used to be...
She shook herself out of the thought before a flashback could overcome her. No need to get distracted now. Not when he seems to be opening up slightly.
"Yes," she said, giving a small smile to the blue waters of the river. "My mother was a nymph. She was an Oceanid nymph, but she found any body of water pleasing. Especially if it was running water."
Perseus found himself unable to defend against the small smile that deformed his face. "I once knew someone like that."
Zoe wanted to turn around and face him, but feared that if she did, he would be scared into silence again. She was beginning to figure him out, ever so slightly. Whenever he was scared or upset, he seemed to resort to a mask of angry defiance. Or at least, that's what she was able to piece together with the little she truly knew about him.
Instead of acting on her desires, she said, "Oh, really?" She hoped he would have the guts to continue sharing.
Thankfully, he did. "Two people actually. One was a nymph..." Our mother, he thought. Then his mind went to the other person.
For a moment, he couldn't speak, too caught in memories of that poor demigod. Zoe realized this sudden reluctance to share and said gently, "And the other?"
He took a breath. "The other was a son of Poseidon."
"A son of Poseidon?" Zoe repeated. "Those are certainly rare."
Perseus nodded glumly. "I'm aware. So was my patron, Lady Hestia. That's why she sent me to escort him to Camp Half Blood from Louisiana." The son of Atlas chuckled. "I remember he was so hesitant to leave. He didn't know if he would be able to see the ocean again. He had never left his home before."
"What happened?" Zoe prompted when the words stopped flowing from the cloaked man's mouth.
"He was ten years old, and a son of Poseidon. They have some of the strongest smells, you know, to monsters." Zoe knew where this was going. "He fought hard, using my sword, but... it was all for nothing. There was a pack of hellhounds, at least seven of them. If I had my gun, we would've been fine, but this was in 1824. I didn't get my guns until 2010, nearly 200 years too late to save him. I killed three of the hellhounds with my spare dagger, and he promised me he knew how to fight. He managed to kill another hellhound with the sword, but the others... The kid didn't even see it coming."
Zoe was silent for a moment, the gentle swoosh of the water the only sound. Softly, she asked, "How long did you know him?"
Perseus sighed. "We left his home in Dulac, LA to reach Long Island, NY. When the hellhounds attacked, we were in what became the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. We had been traveling for two weeks." He sighed. "The kid didn't want to teleport there. He wanted to see everything there was to see." His voice broke as he said, "He trusted me to get him there safely."
Zoe felt her heart break a little more at his words. How could she be so hard on him? This man needed healing. He needed comfort. He needed-
"We're here," Perseus said behind Zoe, shaking her from her sympathies. His voice had reverted to its cold, customary, gravelly state. All emotion was gone.
Sighing internally, the huntress stepped out of the wooden canoe. She hadn't even realized they'd arrived at their destination, too busy with the sob story being spun on the river. But now, she wished they had more time. Before this quest started, Hestia told Zoe to make friends with her mysterious cloaked champion. The lieutenant of Artemis scoffed at that earlier. Her, friends with a man? Especially this man? But now she's starting to see that maybe she can help him. Maybe...
Using all her hunter's grace, Zoe leaped out of the canoe and onto the dry bank of the river. The naiads waved farewell to the half bloods before slipping back under the river's waters, guiding the canoes back to wherever they came from. Zoe watched them go before turning to the other questers.
"Shall we continue on?"
Amanda's stomach growled in reply. The redheaded huntress's face colored until it matched her hair. "Could we stop for food first? I'm starving."
Hesitant to stop when they were getting so close to their goal, Zoe looked around at the others. Cassidy nodded as enthusiastically as a shy, heartbroken daughter of Demeter could. Hestia's champion shrugged noncommittally.
"Sure," the daughter of Atlas conceded. "Let's go to the dam snack bar."
The group had started to walk when Zoe added that last part. Amanda turned to her superior officer with bemusement on her face. "What did you just say?"
"Let's go to the dam snack bar?" Zoe repeated, finding nothing wrong with her statement.
Amanda's jaw dropped as she looked at Zoe incredulously. "Do you have any idea what you're saying?" Cassidy, through the depression, managed a weak chuckle.
"I'm saying that we should get some dam food!" Zoe exclaimed, beginning to get frustrated. Amanda said nothing, staring at her friend with amusement. Cassidy managed some more giggles.
Perseus, though an air of mirth radiated off his cloaked being, said, "Just stop saying the word dam before everything, and they'll leave you alone."
Zoe frowned. "Are we not going to the dam snack bar?"
Perseus tried to stop himself from laughing at her confused face. She looked just like she did when she was little. Always so curious, but never accepting of his explanations. "We are," he confirmed. "But don't call it that."
"Why not?" she challenged.
He rolled his eyes. "Because I said so."
Zoe scowled but followed after Amanda and Cassidy as they walked away. The redheaded huntress laughed all the way to the snack bar, muttering about dam snack bars and dam bathrooms and dam food. Perseus took up the rear of the group, keeping an eye out for any kind of danger. He refused to let another person die on this quest because of his carelessness.
Zoe dropped back to walk beside her long-lost brother as a sudden thought occurred to her. "Atlas, your sword!" She exclaimed, looking up at him. "You dropped it in the Junkyard, didn't you? When we were fighting Talos?"
It sounded familiar to the son of Atlas. He nodded warily, wondering why she was bringing this up. "Yes..."
"You never picked it up! You lost your sword!" She cried, worried. He might have preferred his guns, but not every battle could be fought with firearms. He would be defenseless should another battle arise.
As she was worrying, Perseus chuckled. "No I didn't. You think I would be foolish enough to forget my own sword in a junkyard?"
Zoe stopped. "I did, but now that you say that..."
Perseus rolled his eyes and pulled a pen out of his pocket. "I never lose my sword."
Zoe admired it in awe. "This is your sword?" she asked.
Perseus nodded.
A look of pondering crossed the lieutenant's face. "I knew a sword like this, a long time ago. Where did you get this?" She asked suspiciously.
"Hestia gave it to me a few years ago, after my old sword broke. This one's lasted long, longer than any others."
Zoe wanted to get a closer look, but worried about crossing an invisible boundary. Still, there was something about the pen-sword that seemed to familiar to her. But it couldn't be the same thing. That was still in the hands of Heracles.
"Zoe, Atlas, get your asses over here!" Amanda called from a table near the snack bar. She and Cassidy were sitting with a giant tray of nachos in the midst of the faded plastic. A chip was in Amanda's hand; another one was in Cassidy's mouth. Without looking at Perseus, Zoe hurried over to the table, her stomach rumbling. Perseus followed slowly, wondering why Zoe had such an attachment to his bronze sword.
After eating lunch, the four continued on. There were no obstacles awaiting them at the Hoover Dam, much to all their surprise. Maybe things were finally looking up. Perseus hotwired a car, a black mini van to carry all four in relative comfort. They stopped once on their way to California, and that was to refill the gas tank. Finally, after nearly ten hours on the road, the quest reached San Francisco.
From the backseat of the car, Zoe called to Perseus, "Do you even know where we're going now?"
Perseus growled lowly, so she wouldn't hear. "Yes."
In part, it was the truth. He knew that Nereus would lurk near the ocean, so all they had to do was find a beach in San Francisco where the vile man would be sunbathing. The more important question was how they would capture him. They would have to figure that out when they got there, he supposed.
Just as Perseus was debating whether to turn left or right, a little voice in the back of his head told him to turn left. He obeyed, albeit cautiously. When his gut told him to trust that the little voice would guide him to the Old Man of the Sea, he listened to it.
Shortly, the black mini van pulled up in front of a widespread beach. Shutting off the engine, Perseus said smugly, "See? I told you I knew where I was going." As Zoe grumbled about men and their refusal to ask for directions, Perseus silently thanked the deity that helped guide him to their goal.
With a slamming of car doors, the four half bloods exited the van and stepped onto the sand. Perseus, the tallest of them all, looked left and right, up and down the beach. He received a lot of weird looks, being a tall man on a California beach draped in so much black fabric that the only visible skin was that on his chin. Perseus ignored each strange glance, eyes locked on a fat figure sunbathing a little ways away.
He looked like a walrus, only dirtier. Flies clustered above the man's naked stomach, some nestled in the hairs growing from his chest and spilling out of his belly button. The stench surrounding the man was so vile and pungent, the half bloods could practically see green vapor wafting off his skin. They were assaulted by the odor before they could get within even five yards of the dirty being.
As Amanda choked on the odor that threatened to render her unconscious, the man bolted upright. His wide eyes were a dull, misty green, like a dying leaf or sickly algae on lake rocks. He had a long white beard, the end of which had been tucked behind his head like a poor replacement for a pillow. All matter of debris was locked in the encrusted beard, from shells to uneaten French fries to living crabs.
When he saw the half bloods, Nereus squealed, "Demigods!" He jumped up, faster than any thought the elderly-looking man could move. Before they could make a move to stop him, he dived into the ocean and disappeared.
The four startled half bloods stared after the man, gazing into the waves. He left a large indent in the sand dune he had been laying in, the stench that clung to his body lingering on in the sand. For a moment, none of them did anything.
"Sorry," Amanda finally managed to squeak out, eyes still watering from the horrific smell. She looked embarrassed, face as red as her locks of hair. The other three glanced at her.
"It's not your fault, Amanda," Zoe said. "He's a slippery old man. We might not have been able to pin him down anyways. To get a question answered, you have to capture him."
Amanda shrugged, still looking guilty. "Yeah, but still. We could have used it."
"We could have, sure, but we don't need it. We can figure things out ourselves."
Perseus ignored the conversation, staring into the waves. For once, none of his powers would help them. Hestia had no power over water. Hades was forbidden from entering Poseidon's domain. And even though Perseus's mother Pleione was an Oceanid nymph, he inherited none of her powers that would give him aid in the ocean. They were out of options.
Next to Perseus, Cassidy too was gazing into the water. They came so close, only to allow a selfish old man to take away that chance. No, she wouldn't allow this. There had to be something they could do.
Perseus was too lost in his own mind, and Zoe and Amanda were too busy debating whose fault it was to see the might of the youngest member of their quest. The injustice of their current situation was finally catching up to the normally reserved daughter of Demeter. Eyes glowing a forest green and her face set in a deep frown, her narrowed eyes gazed into the water.
With a sound of cascading water, as if a waterfall appeared from the sea, a filthy old man was lifted above the waves. The noise startled the three half bloods, who all turned and stared at the immortal suspended above the ocean. "Is that seaweed?" Amanda muttered, confused, voicing the thoughts of the two siblings of Atlas.
Stumbling across a sudden thought, Perseus turned to Cassidy to see her glowing eyes glaring at the Old Man of the Sea. He nudged Zoe, who nudged Amanda, who poked the lieutenant back before realizing what was going on. The three openly stared at the youngest quester.
Cassidy, however, had eyes only for Nereus. The seaweed carried him over to the sand, back in front of the assembled travelers, and into the pit he had made with his fat body. She dropped him harshly, the seaweed continuing to cling to his soaked form.
The immortal struggled against the binds, wiggling in every attempt to escape. But Cassidy would not allow such a thing. If anything, the aquatic plants tightened around the squirming form. Finally, after what felt like an hour, Nereus cried, "Fine! Fine, you've captured me! You win."
Still, the seaweed didn't ease its hold. The three half bloods turned back to Cassidy, who continued to glare at the man with glowing green eyes. Amanda stepped around the siblings of Atlas and placed a hand on Cassidy's shoulder. "He surrendered, Cassidy. You can let him go now."
The brown haired girl blinked once upon hearing the words. When she opened her eyes again, they were her normal shade of green, obscured by her chocolate locks. She frowned in confusion at Amanda, but said nothing. The seaweed clenched around the oceanic being wilted, slumping off of him like drunkards losing their balance.
Nereus sat up slowly, causing Perseus to growl out, "Take one move to leave and I'm putting a bullet through your skull." His black pistol slipped into the palm of his hand, like it was made to be held by the son of Atlas and he alone.
The Old Man of the Sea raised two hands with yellowing nails in surrender. "You captured me. I won't leave until I've answered your question. And only one question. But let's get on with this, shall we? I have some flies to catch." He pouted, crossing his grubby arms and exposing a few long hairs sprouting from his armpit like Rapunzel's hair from her tower.
"Yes, let's get on with this," Perseus agreed. He stalked forwards, out of the group, towards the beached-whale of a man. He opened his mouth to speak and ask his question, but was stopped when an arm pulled him backwards.
Perseus frowned down at Zoe as she released his black shirt sleeve. "Why'd you do that?" He hissed. "I was about to ask my question!"
Zoe narrowed her eyes. "Exactly! What question were you going to ask?"
"I was going to ask who captured Artemis and is behind all these attacks on demigods," He said, voice challenging her. "Why, what would you ask?"
The snide rhetorical question struck Zoe by surprise. What would she ask? She knew the answer immediately. "I'd ask him about my brother."
Perseus felt his breath catch in his lungs, but forced a scowl towards her. "Why would you possibly ask about him? I already told you, Artemis killed him! Your brother isn't coming back, Zoe."
Only partly a lie. Percy, the Guardian of the Garden of the Hesperides, is gone. He died as soon as Zeus asked him that lethal question. His soul was warped, leaving this mess of a person in his wake. No, her brother isn't coming back. That doesn't mean Perseus isn't standing right in front of her, though.
Zoe's lip pulled back in disgust at the statement from the idiotic man. "He might be dead, sure, but how do I know you're not lying? Maybe I want to know why he left in the first place. Why he truly left. Or maybe I want to know if he even loved us at all, to leave us the way he did."
Her words cut Perseus like a hot knife through butter. Did she really think he didn't love her? For Hades's sake, he spent millennia trying to get back home! Why would she think that he didn't love her so much he would give up his own life?
It might have something to do with him lying and claiming to leave his six sisters for a mortal woman he had seen from afar.
But that was a lie!
But she doesn't know that.
Fuck. Why does everything have to such so much in the life of Perseus, son of Atlas?
He gave a frustrated sigh that he hoped she took personally. Hopefully she thought he was frustrated with her and not simply himself. "I don't think information on your long-dead brother is crucial to this quest," he tried. He was desperate for her not to ask the question about him. How would he explain to her why he did the things he did, acted the way he did?
Zoe stopped to consider this. Then she sighed in resignation. "Artemis is more important," she conceded. She gestured towards the impatient fat man, who continued to pout at the four half bloods. "Ask away." Was it just the vile man before them, or did her tone reek of defeat? Maybe he was just imagining things. They need to know who took Artemis and who was planning all these attacks.
With a slight air of uncertainty, Perseus stepped forwards. Nereus looked at him expectantly. "Well? Are we finally going to be done here?"
Perseus nodded solemnly. "Yes." He cleared his throat, thinking over how best to word the question. Hoping against hope that Nereus wouldn't name his father, Perseus asked, "Who kidnapped Artemis?"
Hey guys! I think this chapter was better. It was longer, but only by a couple words. Sorry for forgetting to say when the update was last time! Next update is on Monday, January 15. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, if you celebrate that. I get the day off! But anyways, hope you liked this better. Thanks! :)