So this took a while to get out. Oops. In my defense, this is the longest chapter yet.
kombatwombat14: I'm glad you like it!
SpartanBoi: Circe just told him to leave the island whenever he wanted. She never said he could take one of her ships to do so.
Yesse2362: Another excellent idea. Reyna won't be attending Camp Jupiter (because traveling the country and killing monsters and bad people would be much more entertaining to a daughter of war than boring old camp) but I can include some Roman stuff in between the Greek quests.
I do NOT own Percy Jackson or its universe. Those rights belong to Rick Riordan and his publisher.
ENJOY!
Percy smiled, the sea breeze ruffling his hair. They were ploughing through the waves at about ten knots, which was pretty darn fast for a sailing ship. He let the ship sail itself, for the most part, and sparred with Hylla and Reyna using some Celestial Bronze cutlasses they had found below deck.
They were far from being at his level, but he had practiced with actual soldiers for nearly a year and they were using swords that, well, nobody had used in several decades. The two daughters of Bellona had the potential to be amazing demigods, though, and Percy found himself wanting to be there when they did it.
They sailed through the night.
After a few hours the sparring stopped and Percy watched the horizon. More than once he spotted monsters. A plume of water as tall as a skyscraper spewed into the moonlight. A row of green spines slithered across the waves –– a hundred-foot-long sea serpent of some kind.
Once he saw Nereids, the glowing lady spirits of the sea.
Sometime after midnight, Reyna came up on deck. They were just passing a smoking volcano island. The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore. Percy steered clear of the island, and soon it was just a red patch of haze behind them.
They stood in silence for a few minutes, then Reyna said, "Thank you."
Her voice was so quiet Percy almost didn't hear her over the waves and wind.
"For what?" He glanced at her, but she was looking forward, as if determined not to meet his eyes, for some reason.
"Taking us with you," she said. "Training us. Take your pick."
Percy shrugged. "You wanted to come, why would I stop you?"
She gave him an unreadable look.
"So how does a son of Neptune become Pluto's champion?" she asked.
Percy's expression darkened. "We made a deal."
"A deal with the devil?" Reyna looked amused. "Was that a good idea?"
"Best decision of my life," Percy replied without hesitation.
"Why?"
Percy stayed silent for a long time, debating how to answer, or if he even should. He had never told a living person his story, not even the kids at Camp Half-Blood who knew part of it from last summer, but there was something about Reyna that made Percy feel like he could trust her. All of his instincts had been strengthened over the last few months, and none of them were warning him against telling her.
"Working for Pluto means I can see my mother," he said quietly. "She was killed by Jupiter just over a year ago when he tried killing me and failed."
Reyna gaped at him. She didn't seem to know what to say.
"Children of the Big Three –– Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto –– we aren't supposed to exist, and the thunder lord decided to kill me because of that. It didn't help that he thought I stole his precious master bolt when I hadn't even known the mythological world was real when it was taken."
Reyna held his hand, squeezing it gently. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Percy told her. "It's not your fault, there's nothing for you to be sorry about."
She didn't let go of his hand; he didn't let go of hers.
"You should get some sleep," Percy said after a few minutes. "It'll be a long day tomorrow."
"What about you?" she asked.
"I'm used to staying up all night," he replied vaguely. It was a requirement to be Hades' champion, given that most of his missions took place in the darkness that covered the world once the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.
He saw the Isle of the Sirens several hours later, after the sun had begun to rise –– just a dark spot in the mist –– and made sure to sail well around it, even if it took some extra time to do so. It was much safer, and it took far less time overall to just avoid the place. Reyna and Hylla hadn't known what the island was, but they didn't question his choice.
That had surprised Percy until he remembered that they were Roman, not Greek, and thus had it ingrained in them to do whatever their leader commanded –– and in this case the leader was him, as the most experienced of the trio.
Eventually they emerged into the clear blue afternoon sky. The fog had burned away almost as if it had never been there.
Then he saw another blotch of land –– a saddle-shaped island with forested hills and white beaches and green meadows –– just like in his dreams.
"Here we are," Percy announced to the girls. "The home of the Cyclops."
Aside from the rope bridge across a chasm, the island looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As they sailed towards the shore, Percy breathed in the sweet air. "The Golden Fleece," he said. He could feel its power, even if he couldn't see it quite yet.
He looked to the meadow at base of the ravine, where several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge –– the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was the massive oak tree Percy had seen in his dreams. The Golden Fleece glittered in its branches.
A deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves.
Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.
A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.
Percy exchanged a look with the daughters of Bellona.
"They're like piranhas," Reyna said nervously.
Percy looked back to the island, and his heart stopped beating when he looked at the beach, where a small boat had been run aground… the lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.
"You both remember the plan?" Percy asked, staring intently at Hylla and Reyna.
"You're going to shadow travel us to the top," Hylla said, "but we can't tell your Greek friends about it because they don't know."
The daughters of Bellona had been rather pleased that they knew a secret his friends didn't, just like any Roman would.
"And we can't let them know we're Roman," Reyna took over for her sister, "because they don't know that Romans still exist. If they ask how we met, you washed up on Circe's Isle, we made a deal that we would help you escape if you brought us with you, and then the three of us escaped while Blackbeard savaged the island."
"Great," Percy said. "Let's do this."
They took one of the Queen Anne's Revenge's lifeboats and rowed to the base of the cliff, where Hylla and Reyna grabbed Percy's hands. He pulled the three of them into the nearest shadow and that familiar frozen rush blasted them until they emerged in the shadow of a tree on top of the cliff, which dropped off immediately on the other side.
Hylla grinned, her eyes wide in exhilaration. "That was awesome."
Reyna looked torn on her opinion; some strange mixture of agreement and a desire to punch her sister. She eventually decided on, "It could've been better."
"Garr!" bellowed a new voice.
Percy whirled around, but couldn't see who had spoken. He looked off the side of the cliff opposite the way the ship and ocean was. The voice was coming from right below them.
"You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed.
"Challenge me!" Clarisse's voice, no doubt about it. "Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"
"Clarisse, shut up!" hissed Annabeth's voice.
The monster roared with laughter.
Percy crept to the edge, the sisters right behind him. They were right above the entrance of the Cyclops' cave. Below them stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse and Annabeth were tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water.
Percy nearly sagged in relief at seeing them alive and unharmed. He hadn't known if they survived the explosion. He had avoided thinking about the worst case scenario; their possible deaths were too painful to imagine. He may have been a little angry with Annabeth at the moment, but that didn't mean he wanted her to get hurt or killed.
"Hmm," Polyphemus pondered. "Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?"
He turned to Grover, who backed up and nearly tripped over his bridal train, which was now fully completed. "Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps ––"
"Did you say bride?" Clarisse demanded. "Who –– Grover?"
"Clarisse!" Annabeth hissed again. "Shut up!"
Polyphemus glowered. "What 'Grover'?"
"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.
Percy groaned.
"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"
Polyphemus narrowed his milky eye, trying to see Clarisse more clearly.
The Cyclops was worse than he had been in Percy's dreams. It probably had something to do with the rancid odor, maybe it was his wedding outfit –– a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedoes –– or it could have been the fact that two of Percy's friends and someone who was becoming… well, not a friend, but a sister in arms, or something like that.
"What satyr?" asked the Cyclops. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"
Percy was really going to make Clarisse regret this when he get her out of here… All he could do was watch as Polyphemus ripped off Grover's wedding veil and revealed the curly hair, scruffy beard, and tiny horns of a growing satyr.
Polyphemus breathed heavily. "I don't see very well," he growled. "Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in the eye. But YOU'RE –– NO –– LADY –– CYCLOPS!"
"Damn you, Clarisse," Percy hissed.
Polyphemus grabbed Grover's dress and tore it away. Underneath, Grover wore normal jeans and a t-shirt. He yelped and ducked as the monster swiped over his head.
"Stop!" Grover pleaded. "Don't eat me raw! I-I have a good recipe!"
Polyphemus hesitated, a boulder in his hand and ready to crush Grover.
"Recipe?" the Cyclops asked.
"Oh y-yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E. coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things. I'll taste much better roasted over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangoes right now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait here."
Polyphemus was silent, thinking.
"Roasted satyr with mango chutney," he mused. He looked back a Clarisse and Annabeth, still hanging over the pot of boiling water. "You are satyrs, too?"
"No, you overgrown pile of dung!" Clarisse yelled. "We're girls! I am a daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!"
"Clarisse," Annabeth groaned.
"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus repeated.
"And stuff them down your throat!" Clarisse added with a snarl.
"You got spunk."
"Let us down!"
Polyphemus snatched up Grover as if he weighed nothing. "Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"
"But… you're still getting married?" Grover sounded hurt, although Percy had no idea why he would be upset about that. "Who's the bride?"
Polyphemus looked towards Clarisse, who made a strangled sound.
"Oh, no!" she said, shaking her head for a moment before stopping. She looked nauseous. "You can't be serious. I'm not ––"
Polyphemus plucked her and Annabeth off their ropes and tossed the three hostages deep into the cave. "Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for big event!"
The Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep –– each one smaller than the carnivorous sheep that had eaten the deer –– flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted some on the back and called them by name.
When the last sheep had left the cave, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway, shutting off the sound of Annabeth, Clarisse, and Grover screaming inside.
"Mangoes," Polyphemus grumbled to himself. "What are mangoes?"
He strolled off down the mountain.
Percy turned to the daughters of Bellona. "Right," he said. "I'm going after the Cyclops. I need you two to get to the Golden Fleece before those man-eating sheep return, all right?" He pointed across the chasm, where the glittering Golden Fleece hung from the tree. None of the carnivorous sheep were there right now, which meant it was Hylla and Reyna's best chance.
Reyna eyed Polyphemus warily. "Are you sure you can handle him alone?"
"Nope," Percy said with a lopsided grin. "But that just means you need to hurry."
"Great."
"We'll meet here after," Percy told them. "I can handle the boulder easily enough –– I just don't want to have to worry about the Cyclops coming back before we can get out of here."
"Let's do this," Hylla said, grinning wickedly with an anticipatory gleam in her eyes.
Percy dropped into a shadow and appeared at the base of a tree behind Polyphemus. He used the darkness to make himself invisible.
"Hey, ugly!"
Polyphemus whirled around. "Who said that?"
"Nobody!"
The monster's face turned red with rage.
"Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!"
"How can you remember Nobody when you can't remember anybody?"
Polyphemus bellowed furiously and grabbed the nearest boulder. He threw it in the direction of Percy's voice but missed by several feet. Percy heard the rock smash into a thousand pieces.
"You missed!" Percy sang. "Surely you can do better than that pathetic excuse of a throw?"
Polyphemus howled. "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!"
Percy let the shadows drop, revealing where he stood roughly twenty feet in front of the raging Cyclops. He held Revenant in his hand –– Percy wanted to absorb Polyphemus' essence so the monster could never harm someone else ever again.
"I'm right here, Boulder-Brain," Percy taunted.
"RAAAR!"
Polyphemus barreled towards Percy.
Percy rolled to the side and slashed the Cyclops' ankle. Polyphemus roared and swung a hand backwards, forcing Percy to duck and roll to avoid the following swing from the other hand. Percy stabbed Polyphemus in the thigh and leapt backwards.
"You're getting slow in your old age!" Percy chirped. "You'll never kill Nobody, now!"
Polyphemus roared again, loud enough to shake the ground.
Percy charged the Cyclops again and again. Polyphemus pounded the ground, stomped at him, grabbed at him, but Percy was too quick. He stabbed the monster in the toe or ankle or hand or wherever else he could with each dodge.
"Time to end this," Percy growled.
He raised his sword and attacked. He jabbed Polyphemus in the belly. When the Cyclops doubled over Percy punched him in the nose. He slashed and kicked and bashed until, at last, he stood above the fallen Polyphemus. The Cyclops was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and Percy had the tip of his sword hovering over the monster's single eye.
"Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.
"Percy," said an awed voice. Percy looked over his shoulder and saw Hylla and Reyna close by, the Golden Fleece in their grasp. It was Reyna who had spoken. "How did you ––?"
The Cyclops moaned again.
"Oh, shut up," Percy grumbled. He thrust Revenant forward into Polyphemus' face and left it there until the Cyclops' entire essence had been absorbed by the blade.
Revenant returned to its ring form and Percy turned around.
"Let's go rescue my friends."
They made their way back to the boulder that blocked the cave.
Percy looked up at the boulder and snorted. He focused on his geokinesis –– powers over the earth, given to him by both his father and Hades. The boulder lifted into the air and floated to the edge of the cliff, where Percy let it fall into the ocean below.
The three of them walked into the main room, but there was no sign of Percy's friends. They pushed through to the back of the cave. They walked through corridors littered with bones, past rooms full of sheepskin rugs and life-size cement sheep that looked like Medusa's statues (which made Percy wonder how they had gotten here, of all places). Finally, they found the spinning room, where Grover was huddled in the corner, trying to cut Annabeth's ropes with a pair of safety scissors.
"It's no good," Annabeth grumbled. "The rope is too thick."
"How about you try this?" Percy asked, raising a newly-uncapped Riptide. Its bronze blade cast a glow across the dark cave, and he was surprised they hadn't noticed it sooner.
"Percy?" Clarisse said incredulously. "You're supposed to be blown up!"
"Blown up and dead are two different things," Percy responded casually.
"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated and tackled Percy with a goat-hug. "You heard me! You came!"
"Of course I came." He raised Riptide. "Now hold still so I don't take off your hands."
He sliced off their ropes. Annabeth and Clarisse stood up, rubbing their wrists. That was when they noticed Hylla and Reyna standing behind him with the Golden Fleece.
"Who are they?" Annabeth asked suspiciously. Clarisse looked as if she was itching to pull out a weapon she didn't have.
"Friends," Percy said. When it looked like she was going to continue, Percy added, "We'll talk on the boat. For now, we should really get the Fleece back to camp."
The reminder of the condition Thalia's pine tree was in was enough to distract Annabeth.
"Let's go."
Back on the Queen Anne's Revenge, Percy caught Annabeth, Clarisse, and Grover up with everything that had happened since they were separated –– heavily edited, of course –– and they shared their own story. Percy was surprised to hear that his winding up on Circe's Isle was a much more entertaining story than just sailing around the Sea of Monsters on a row boat for almost two days before ending up on Polyphemus' island.
After that they all napped until morning.
On deck, Percy could see a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red-and-blue neon, and a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.
"Miami, I think," Annabeth said, standing next to him.
Percy steered the ship into the harbor.
"What are you doing?" Clarisse demanded. "We need to get back to camp!"
"And this ship will have us there too late," Percy replied calmly. "Remember your prophecy, Clarisse. It said you would fly home."
Clarisse's eyes widened.
Percy docked the ship. They wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish –– nothing nice, if Hylla's and Reyna's expressions were any indicator –– and tried to cut in line for customers. None of them paid any attention to the pirate ship docked in the harbor, which only proved to Percy that this was Florida.
Clarisse was wearing the Golden Fleece, which had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.
Annabeth ran to nearest newspaper stand and cursed. "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp for ten days!"
"That's impossible!" Clarisse said.
"Not when we've been in the Sea of Monsters," Percy told her. "Time travels differently in magical places."
Reyna and Hylla exchanged worried looks at that. They had been on Circe's Isle for what had seemed like a few years, to them, but how long had it really been since they left Puerto Rico?
"How am I getting back to camp?" Clarisse asked.
Percy smirked and let out a piercing whistle. Several of the taxi drivers pulled over, but Percy ignored them, instead watching the skies. When he saw what he was waiting for, he grinned.
Hey, boss! said a voice in his head.
"Hey, Blackjack," Percy said to the all-black pegasus that had just landed next to them. "I need you to do me a favor, all right?"
You got it, boss.
Percy looked at Clarisse, who grinned.
"Nice one, Jackson," she said. "See you at camp!"
Clarisse hopped on Blackjack and they took off to the skies. It wasn't long before they were nothing more than a speck in the distance.
"When did you get a pegasus?" Annabeth asked, staring at Percy.
Percy shrugged. "Found him in the wilderness a couple months back. I saved him from some mortals who thought he was a normal horse. He was tied down with no way out, so I distracted the captors and cut him free. Blackjack decided to be my personal steed after that."
Not exactly the truth –– he had killed the mortals as part of one of his missions. They were animal traffickers like the Human Zoo Transport that had owned the truck Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had taken to Las Vegas last year. Percy had no idea how they had managed to sneak up on a pegasus the way they had, but he didn't regret it.
"Come on," Percy told the others. "Let's get to the ship and head home."
That's when he turned and found a sword's point at his throat.
"Hey, cuz," Luke said. "Welcome back to the States."
Percy cursed. There were so many shadows around them he hadn't realized that any of them were dangerous. He would have to train a bit more on detecting demigods.
On either side of Luke were seven-foot-tall monsters that looked like bears that could walk on their hind legs. They only wore blue jeans because their enormous chests were covered with thick fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws, snout-like noses, and pointed teeth.
One grabbed Annabeth and Grover by their t-shirt collars. The other grabbed Hylla and Reyna the same way.
"Where are my manners?" Luke said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."
"What do you want Luke?" Percy growled, changing the topic.
"Where are your manners, Percy?" Luke said. "I suggest you be careful, otherwise I'll have my friends here bash your friends' heads together."
He smiled, the scar rippling on the side of his face.
He gestured towards the end of the dock where a massive cruise ship was docked. It was at least ten stories tall, topped with another dozen levels of decks with brightly lit balconies and portholes. The ship's name was painted just above the bow line in black letters:
PRINCESS ANDROMEDA
Attached to the bow was a huge masthead –– a three-story tall woman wearing a white Greek chiton, sculpted to look as if she were chained to the front of the ship. She was young and beautiful, with flowing black hair, but her expression was one of absolute terror.
"And now," Luke said, "I want to extend my hospitality."
The bear-man twins herded them aboard the Princess Andromeda. They threw them down on the aft deck in front of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that sprayed into the air –– Percy bit back a grin; sometimes monsters were just so impossibly stupid it made him wonder how they hadn't learned anything over the millennia. A dozen of Luke's assorted supporters (Laistrygonian giants, demigods in battle armor, Scythian dracaenae and more) gathered to watch Percy and his friends receive Luke's 'hospitality.'
"And so, the Fleece," Luke mused. "Where is it?"
He looked them over, prodding Percy's shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover's jeans.
"Hey!" Grover yelled. "That's real goat fur under there!"
"Sorry, old friend." Luke smiled. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest."
"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover protested. "Some old friend!"
"Maybe you didn't hear me." Luke's voice was dangerously calm. "Where – is – the – Fleece?"
Percy smirked. "I'd say about a thousand feet up and several miles north."
Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have…" His face reddened as a horrible possibility occurred to him. "Clarisse?"
Percy's smirk grew.
"You trusted… you gave…"
"Yep." Percy popped the 'p,' now grinning.
"Agrius!"
The bear-man flinched. "Y-yes?"
"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to Miami Airport, fast!"
Percy's grin grew a little more. Luke didn't know that Clarisse was moving much faster than an airplane, flying on a pegasus. He would be too late.
"But boss ––"
"Do it!" Luke screamed. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!"
Percy filed that bit of information for later…
Agrius gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Luke paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.
The rest of Luke's crew looked uneasy.
Percy thought quickly. He could attack Luke now –– or, instead, he could try and trick Luke into revealing his plans… His eyes fell on the swimming pool, at the fountains spraying mist into the air, making a rainbow in the sunset…
He had an idea.
"So you wanted the Golden Fleece for yourself," Percy said conversationally, as if they were discussing weekend plans over dinner and not surrounded by enemies. "You used us so you could save yourself the trouble. What use could you have for it?"
Luke scowled. "Of course I wanted it, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"
Percy inwardly cursed that Luke didn't answer the second part.
Okay, Percy thought. New plan.
"Traitor!" Percy dug a gold drachma out of his pocket and threw it at Luke. As expected, he dodged it easily and the coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-water.
Percy silently prayed to Iris: O goddess, accept my offering.
"You tricked all of us!" he yelled at Luke. "Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"
Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, but Percy needed to keep their attention, so he uncapped Riptide.
Luke just sneered. "This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later."
"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?"
"I did, of course," Luke snarled. "I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."
Annabeth gasped, horrorstruck. Grover looked stricken.
"Chiron had nothing to do with it?" Percy continued.
"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."
"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering countless lives?"
Luke raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece… once I was done with it."
"Why do you need it?"
"To heal Kronos, of course," Luke sneered. "The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."
"And so you poisoned Thalia's tree –– betrayed your friend who sacrificed her life for yours on that hill –– set us all up, all to help Kronos destroy the gods."
Luke gritted his teeth. "They deserve to be destroyed."
"I'm glad you've been so honest with me," Percy grinned. "It makes it much more entertaining for our audience."
"What audience?"
Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled back.
Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Ganymede, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching it all.
"Well," Dionysus said drily, "some unplanned dinner entertainment."
"You heard him," Percy told Dionysus. "You all heard him. It wasn't Chiron's fault."
Dionysus sighed. "I suppose not." He looked at Ganymede. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."
Ganymede looked depressed. "I understand…"
"We are no longer in need of your services, Ganymede," Dionysus announced.
Ganymede sighed and began to glow. Everyone looked away as he took his divine form and vanished from Camp Half-Blood. The campers all breathed a collective sigh of relief; Percy figured the god of desire hadn't given up his… pursuits…
Luke bellowed with rage. He slashed his sword through the fountain and the Iris-message dissolved, but the deed was done.
Percy grinned in spite of the murderous glare Luke was giving him.
"Kronos was right, Percy. You're an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced."
Percy wasn't sure what that meant, but it sounded pretty good to him. He didn't like being anyone's weapon –– ironic, given his job for Hades, but at least he was compensated nicely for that.
One of Luke's men blew a brass whistle, and the deck doors flew open. A dozen more warriors poured out, making a circle around Percy and his friends, the brass tips of their spears bristling.
Luke smiled viciously. "You'll never leave this boat alive."
Percy raised his sword. "For old times' sake?"
Luke curled his lip. The soldiers hesitated, waiting for his order.
Before he could say anything, Agrius burst onto the deck leading a pegasus. It had a coat the same color as peanut butter. The pegasus bucked and whinnied. He was calling Agrius and Luke some names that thoroughly impressed Percy and he decided to share them with Persephone the first chance he found.
"Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready."
Luke kept his eyes on Percy.
"I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."
"Yet you keep avoiding one," Percy pointed out. "What's wrong, Luke, scared your army will see you get whipped by a thirteen-year-old?"
Luke glanced at his men and realized he was trapped. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If he chose to fight, he would lose time he didn't know was already gone chasing after Clarisse.
"I'll kill you quickly," Luke decided, raising his sword. Backbiter was a foot longer than Riptide. Its blade glinted with an evil grey-and-gold light where the mortal steel melded with the Celestial bronze. Percy could almost sense the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound together. He didn't know how, but Percy could feel that someone had died to make that blade. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.
He grinned at Percy wickedly.
"Luke," Annabeth said, "at least give him a shield."
"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."
"Luke's just scared," Percy said, smirking. "He'll need every advantage he can get, especially with the circumstances."
"What are you talking about?" Luke looked baffled.
Percy grinned nastily.
"You chose to fight a son of Poseidon at sea, you fucking idiot."
The swimming pool exploded.
Two tendrils of water wrapped around the necks of Agrius and Oreius, snapping them and killing the monsters immediately. Grover and the three girls leapt into action, drawing swords from wherever they could find them and attacking the nearest captors. Another tendril of water wrapped around Luke's leg and yanked him back into the pool.
Percy held Luke under the water while he launched on the offensive, slicing apart any monsters stupid enough to challenge him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw Reyna mounting the pegasus and taking to the skies, dive-bombing enemy demigods and monsters alike with an excited expression. She was clearly enjoying herself.
Percy was brought out of his distraction by a sword slicing at his face and he returned to the battle going on around him.
Luke crawled out of the pool, coughing up chlorine-water, just as Percy knocked out the demigod he had been fighting. Percy would have preferred to kill the demigod traitor, but he couldn't do that with Annabeth and Grover right there –– they would cause problems for him back at Camp Half-Blood if they told people that the only living child of the Big Three (that they knew of, at least) was willing to kill demigods who got in his way.
"You'll regret that, Percy," Luke said, gasping for breath.
"Bring it."
Luke lunged with Backbiter. Percy stepped back with one foot and bat Luke's sword aside before launching a thrust of his own that sliced open Luke's side, a steady stream of blood appearing along the cut on his ribs.
"Gotta be quicker than that," Percy taunted.
When Luke lunged again, Percy rolled under him so that he was in the deep end of the pool and felt a surge of strength. Percy spun, creating a funnel cloud, and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke's face.
The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. Percy brought his sword down at Luke's arm, but Luke rolled aside and got quickly to his feet.
Luke looked furious.
Percy attacked and sliced off the edge of Luke's shield, but it didn't faze the older boy. He dropped to a crouch and jabbed at Percy's legs, but the blade was smacked aside at the same time a fist of water lurched out of the pool and slammed Luke in the face, knocking him down on his butt.
"Wow, you're weak," Percy said, twisting Riptide in his palm.
"At least I don't have to rely on my daddy's domain," Luke snarled.
Clearly he had forgotten that Hermes was the god of sports, and swordsmanship was included with that…
Percy knew that Luke was baiting him, but Luke didn't know that he had spent the last ten months training with ancient Greek warriors on a level that Camp Half-Blood hadn't cared for in centuries; learning techniques that were long forgotten.
"You want to dance, let's dance."
Percy flicked his empty hand, returning the water to the pool and completely drying the deck. All of the fighting around them seemed to pause, every eye turning to watch.
Percy and Luke leapt at each other at the same time, their blades colliding in a shower of sparks.
Luke seemed taken aback by Percy's strength, and the son of Poseidon used that to his advantage, pressing the attack. Luke was forced on the defensive, his eyes wide in astonishment, and maybe a little fear, but Percy was relentless.
The fight ended when Percy spun beneath Luke's lunge and kicked him in the back. Luke was thrown forward into the pool again, but he dropped his sword on the deck.
He emerged from the water gasping for breath.
"It's over, Luke," Percy said quietly. "You lost."
A Laistrygonian giant lost his patience and charged Percy with a roar.
That's when all Hades broke loose.
Whish!
A red-feathered arrow sprouted from the giant's mouth. With a surprised look on its face, the monster crumpled to the deck.
For a split second, the enemy was too stunned to do anything except watch.
Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.
Percy saw Chiron amongst the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored t-shirts with Day-Glo letters declaring PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER. They were armed with the strangest variety of weapons Percy had ever seen –– bows, baseball bats, paintball guns, Nerf guns; there was even one with only a Styrofoam hand.
They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that everyone else was too stunned to do anything.
As Luke was climbing out of the pool to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and toppled him into the pool for the third time.
Enemy warriors scattered.
"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies.
They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.
Chiron galloped towards Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back. Hylla leapt up behind her sister on the pegasus.
Luke was crawling out of the pool.
"Attack, you ––"
He was cut off as Percy used the water to pull him back under again.
"Withdraw, brethren!" Chiron said as more warriors came up the stairs.
Percy went to kill Luke, but a palomino center snatched him and lifted him up onto its back with a party cry.
Luke's warriors were organizing themselves into a phalanx, but by the time they were ready to advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and jumped the guardrail. They fell towards the docks, and the centaurs hit the tarmac with hardly a jolt, galloping off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as they raced into the streets of downtown Miami.
Percy was just mad they left his new pirate ship behind.
AN: Sea of Monsters will end next chapter.
Percy in canon only beat up Polyphemus when angered. This Percy toyed with him.
The difference a year of actual training makes.
And then there's the fight with Luke. I've always been curious why canon Percy didn't bother using his powers beyond some basic stuff. It's probably because he's too honorable for something like that.
This Percy isn't.
THANKS FOR READING!