The group of demigods trekking through the underbrush had only been walking for a few minutes when the rain started. They'd been lucky so far— with the storm having taken a detour along the coast of New Jersey— but now it was here, and severely limiting their progress.
There was no one else around, so Percy was able to keep them relatively dry with a dome of rainwater hanging over their heads like a massive umbrella, but that didn't stop the fierce wind or the earth-shattering peals of thunder.
"Lord Zeus must be angry about something!", Julia yelled over the wind as they watched yet another fork of lightning carve its way across the darkened sky.
"When is he not angry about something?!" Percy replied.
The next lightning strike was closer and louder in retaliation, and a few of the under-12's screamed in fright.
"Percy, we have to stop. Take a break and come up with a new plan", Annabeth said from where she stood next to him.
She was right. There were only a few hundred more metres left to walk until they reached the other side of the peninsula, but their group was battered, exhausted, and cold. What they needed was to get the kids inside someplace warm, but for now, rest in the sand was going to have to do.
"Alright". He nodded and turned around, calling to Katie where she was walking with the younger ones at the back of the group. "Katie!"
The daughter of Demeter looked up to see him waving her over and traded places with Will. "What's up?"
"We're going to stop and take a break before we try to cross the bay. Do you think you can build a temporary shelter with the dune grass?", he asked, gesturing to the brush all around them. She felt around with her powers for a second before nodding confidently. Percy grinned tightly. "Great. Don't worry about making it water-proof, I can handle that, we just need to get out of the wind for a bit".
"Give me, like, 10 minutes". He nodded, and she walked over towards Zach, tapping him on the shoulder and jerking her head towards the flattened plant-life. The 14-year-old's arm was still in its make-shift sling, but he seemed to agree to help anyway, and the two of them got to work.
Julia and Will settled their small group of four under-12's in the sand under the watchful eye of Marcus, before walking over to join Percy and Annabeth a little ways away. "What are we doing?!" Julia called, having to yell over the wind.
Percy shook his head, running a hand anxiously through his wet hair and making it stick up everywhere. "I don't know. This storm is going to last for at least another few hours. We can't stay here that long".
"First things first", Annabeth said, stepping up and rubbing his arm comfortingly, "We're going to take a break and get everyone warmed up. Whatever we decide to do next is going to be hard. We've got to rest while we can".
He relaxed under her touch, looking at her with a thankful but tired expression on his face. "Yeah, you're right".
She grinned, nudging him playfully to try and get his spirits back up. "Of course I'm right. I'm always right".
Percy tugged her around, hugging her to his chest and breathing in deeply the comforting scent of her lemon shampoo. She hugged him back just as fiercely, revelling in the sound of his still-beating heart beneath her ear.
When things were bad, as they had been for years now, the one thing they'd always had was each other. Annabeth was his rock just as he was hers. Nothing could ever go wrong while she was in his arms.
"We'll figure it out", she said quietly, and he nodded, accepting the statement without question. Annabeth was always right, after all.
Percy pulled away first, looking down at her with a hint of his old mischief in his eyes. "Maybe almost always right, Wise Girl. I seem to remember a certain misstep on a quest with a Sphinx?"
Annabeth frowned and hit him in the chest as he laughed. "Percy! I was 14! And those questions were insulting!".
He chuckled and leaned down to peck her on the lips. "Whatever you say, Wise Girl". When they turned back to face the rest of the group, the stress was gone from his expression, though the exhaustion certainly wasn't. He hid it well, but with his arm slung around her shoulders, she could feel the heaviness of his body leaning down on her.
They needed to rest.
Katie called something to them from where she and Zach were finishing up the temporary shelter, but a sudden gust of wind stole the words away. Annabeth shivered as the wind cut straight through all her layers like a knife, and even Julia had tucked her hands in her armpits as she ran towards them. "Katie says the shelter's almost done", she informed them, sandy brown hair whipping around her head.
Percy nodded and moved to stand on his own power. "Alright. Can you build a small fire? We'll start moving the kids inside", he said, gesturing between himself and Annabeth.
Julia nodded and ran off in search of kindling.
The rest of their group was sitting in the sand, using a short bush to try and protect them from the worst of the wind. Altogether, their group was one of the bigger ones, with thirteen total demigods. Five of them were under the age of 12, making them also one of the higher risk groups.
These evaluations pressed on Percy's mind as he approached, but he attempted a reassuring smile anyway. "Alright, guys. Katie's built a shelter for us to get out of the wind and rain for a bit. We're going to wait here until we figure out where we're going next."
The kids nodded up at him silently, seeming equal parts scared and exhausted. The youngest member of their group, a 6-year-old daughter of Aphrodite, burst into tears. "I want to go home!" she wailed miserably.
Percy crouched down and looked at her sadly. "I know", he said, "I do, too. But home isn't safe right now. Bad people are chasing us but don't worry, we'll protect you. And you'll be safe once we get to New Rome. I promise."
The kids nodded and stood up to make their way towards the temporary shelter. They still looked disheartened, but there was nothing more he could tell them. No safe place they could stop and rest for more than a few hours. At least, not until they crossed the legion's border.
Percy nodded his thanks as Keir, an older son of Aphrodite gathered his still-sniffling sister in his arms and carried her with the rest of them.
"They can't keep going like this for much longer", Will warned solemnly as the three veterans made to follow them into the shelter. "They're exhausted, and it's only going to get colder. We need to come up with a plan. A plan better than just running towards New Rome and hoping they can help us."
"We know", Annabeth said, speaking for the both of them, "Don't worry, Will. We're not going to let them get away with this." The medic nodded, mouth a thin line, and the three ducked into the shelter, the last of their group to do so.
Even in the midst of an emergency, Annabeth couldn't help but appreciate the small shelter than Katie and Zach had built for them. It was shaped like a large dome. At the centre, holding everything up, was the trunk of a bush. The children of Demeter had used their powers to encourage it to grow much taller and larger than it otherwise might have, and now, though it was the middle of winter, it was large enough to seat all of them within the hollowed-out space of its leaves and branches. The walls were woven tight, the gaps filled in with dune grass. At the far edge of the space, Julia had enlisted a few of the kids to help her finish digging the fire pit, the fuel for which was stacked in a pile next to her.
Upon their arrival, Katie looked up and stared at the entrance behind them in focused concentration. Her eyes seemed to glow a bright shade of spring green, and then the branches that had previously made a door-like gap grew towards one another until they were sealed in.
The relief from the unrelenting wind and rain felt amazing, even as they were all forced to sit in wet sand. Soon, a warm fire was crackling in the pit Julia had dug, and their hodgepodge group of demigods had gathered in a loose circle.
Katie groaned as she settled in the sand next to Zach. "That took a bit out of me. I hope we're planning on resting here for a while because if we built this whole thing for nothing, I'm going to be pissed."
Percy huffed a weak laugh and exchanged a confirming glance with Annabeth. "Hopefully we'll be here for at least a couple of hours. We need to get our strength back before we get into the city. Those agents were government, which means they'll have surveillance everywhere. Once we leave this place, we won't be able to rest again until we cross the river."
Julia warmed her hands by the fire, ratty fingerless gloves not doing much to protect her frozen fingers. "I gotta say, this whole 'being a fugitive from the law thing'? Not as much fun as it's cracked up to be."
A cynical smile curled on Percy's lips, but Annabeth shot him a sharp look before he could offer his reply. He looked towards the younger members of their group, chatting amongst themselves in hushed voices, and rolled his eyes in reluctant agreement. She was right, as always. There was no need to scare them with remarks about how their alternative was likely to be dissection in a lab somewhere.
"Well at least we all know who to blame for the weather", Annabeth said drily.
"Hey!", Percy protested as they all laughed, "It was either this or Zach and I staying captured."
"You didn't have to summon a whole hurricane, though, Seaweed Brain", Annabeth teased, "I think a slightly smaller storm would've been sufficient."
Percy shook his head. "Nah, you didn't see these SHIELD guys. They weren't messing around. They wouldn't have let us go for anything less."
The mood in their little hut sobered significantly at that. "Speaking of the storm", Julia said seriously, "Is there any way you can get rid of it now that you guys are safe. Or–I don't know–redirect it somewhere?"
Percy shook his head and leaned back onto his palms. "If I could do that, I would've done it already." He frowned, trying to think of the best way he could explain his powers to them. "My powers are…difficult to control, especially storms. My father tells me that it's because the sea doesn't like to be restrained. It's like it has a life of its own sometimes. That's why my father's so powerful. Taming the sea, even to the limited extent that he has, requires a lot of power". He splayed his hands and shrugged. "I'm not a god. I just barely had enough juice to summon the thing. Especially off-season like this. The second I stopped feeding energy into it, it became part of my sister's domain."
Katie frowned in thought. "Could we pray to her? Make a sacrifice and ask her to hold it back long enough for us to cross the bay?".
Percy shrugged, not looking all-too-enthused by the idea. "Kym's fickle on a good day. Asking her for a favour like that might very well blow up in our faces in a big way. I don't know if risking it would be worth it."
"Well one thing's for sure", Will said worriedly, "We can't stay in the city for another day. It's too dangerous."
"Agreed", Annabeth said seriously, "We need to get into New Jersey by tonight." The veterans all looked at one another hopelessly, the problem seeming to grow larger every time they thought about it.
"So…we're stuck here?", Marcus asked from where he was seated with the other younger kids of the group.
Annabeth wasn't surprised that her younger brother had been listening in. She knew that, like any other child of Athena, he wanted all the facts and was beginning to grow frustrated with her attempts at shielding him. There was no point in trying to continue keeping things from them. The kids were in the thick of it now, whether they wanted to be or not.
She looked at Percy and found him already looking back, waiting for her decision and giving her the final say in what they revealed. She nodded gratefully and turned back towards her brother. "Yes", she said simply. The kids looked at them in surprise.
Percy followed her lead, continuing with the discussion despite Katie's disapproving glare. "If I was at full strength, I might have been able to calm a small area of the storm and get us across the channel to Brooklyn. But doing that now would require us to stay here and rest for at least another day, and we don't have that time."
Will tilted his head to the side, considering. "We could back-track. Make our way back along the peninsula and cross the Marine Park Bridge and into Queens."
Annabeth nodded with a frown. "We could. But that would eat up a lot of time. We'd have to spend the night in the city."
"Not if we didn't stop for a break", Julia offered.
Annabeth just looked pointedly around the group. "I don't think that's a realistic option right now."
"So what do we do?", Katie asked, "Can we just stay here for the night. We might avoid detection. This shelter is pretty camouflaged."
Keir waved a hand to call attention to himself and signed something almost too fast for Percy to make out. "He says that's not a good idea", he translated, "They'll have started tracking Zach and me almost as soon as we escaped. We should try and get as far away from where we washed up as possible." The son of Poseidon's eyes darkened as he remembered why, exactly, the son of Aphrodite had experience being tracked after escaping from somewhere, but he nodded his agreement nonetheless. "He's right. I banged their ship up pretty bad. But they had some pretty advanced tech on that thing. I wouldn't put it past them to have some sort of scanning software that can find us. We shouldn't stay in one place for too long."
"Gods! This is so frustrating!", Julia exclaimed, "We can practically see the stupid city from where we are now!"
Percy ran an anxious hand through his hair, frowning as some of the wet sand that was stuck to it fell into his eye. "If I was on my own, I would probably just swim across–the water's calmer beneath the waves. But you guys can't breathe underwater, and the cold alone would probably kill most of you before you got halfway across."
Annabeth sighed affectionately, moving to her fiance's side and doing her best to brush off the sand he'd tracked through his hair. She paused suddenly, the seed of an idea appearing in her head as though gifted from her mother herself. Percy felt her tense and turned to look at her in question. "Wait", she said, grey eyes turning distant in that way they always did when she was considering a plan. "Percy, remember in the Sea of Monsters when you saved me from the sirens?".
He smiled softly, remembering the trip with a fondness his younger self never would have imagined, despite the dozens of near-death experiences that had plagued it. "Yeah?"
"You made that bubble underwater for us so that I couldn't hear their song."
Katie groaned teasingly. "You mean to tell us that that time we threw you both in the lake wasn't your first time hanging out in a bubble underwater? How often do you guys do that?"
Percy grinned, despite the flush staining his neck and the tips of his ears a dark red. "How else are we supposed to get any privacy with you busy-bodies always poking around?"
Annabeth's eyes widened, and she slapped his arm. "Percy!"
"What?", he asked, laughing, "You know it's true. Remember that one time with Frank on the Argo? That could've been a whole lot worse."
Annabeth clapped a hand over his mouth, stopping him before he could say anything else, and the younger kids burst into giggles at his outraged expression. He smirked, and a second later, Annabeth yanked her hand back with a disgusted noise and a glare. "Did you just lick my hand?!"
Percy raised an eyebrow, mischief dancing in his eyes. "If you didn't want me to lick it, you shouldn't have put it in front of my mouth", he said innocently.
Julia choked on air and howled with laughter, the other veterans in the hut sporting similar amused or disgusted reactions. The younger kids looked on obliviously, confused as to what was so funny.
Annabeth's face burned as bright as a tomato, and she turned and punched her fiancé as hard as she could. "Percy!"
"Can you two just not?", Katie begged, watching in horror as the meaning of Percy's innuendo dawned on Zach's face. "You're corrupting their minds!"
Annabeth punched him once more, and Percy rubbed his arm with a wince, still laughing under his breath. "Alright, mom", he joked.
"I'm telling Sally", Annabeth announced, and Percy's eyes widened in panic.
He scrambled in the sand for a few moments until he was in a more upright position and turned to face her. "Wait, Annabeth, please!". She grinned evilly, and he blanched. "You can't tell her. That's my mom. Wise Girl, come on!" He pouted, his infamous baby seal eyes making an appearance, and Annabeth rolled her eyes, a light pink now dusting her cheeks.
Will winced at where this interaction was undoubtedly headed and intervened. "Can we get back on topic, please? Annabeth, the plan?" As sickeningly sweet as Percy and Annabeth were, and as happy for them as he was, he had no wish to see that. Again. Walking in on Percy and Annabeth was practically a right of passage at this point, but Katie was right, there was no need to scar the children quite yet.
The two 'fearless leaders' of their camp stared at one another for another few moments before turning away and getting back to the problem at hand. Percy looked slightly put-out, and Julia snorted.
Annabeth cleared her throat. "Anyway…Do you think you could make a bubble like that for the whole group?"
Percy frowned in concentration, all signs of amusement disappearing from his face in an instant. His powers were down to their last dregs, but…maybe. He nodded slowly. "Probably. The force of the storm will be easier for me to handle if we go down a few feet, though. That way the waves won't accidentally pop the bubble."
Will looked over at him sceptically. "Are you sure? You're still pretty drained from summoning the storm in the first place. If you pass out and we're caught out in open water–"
Percy's gaze sharpened. "I know. I won't let that happen. The seawater will give me the energy I need to get us across."
Will nodded reluctantly. "Alright, but that still only solves the breathing problem. If you put a bubble around our heads so we can breathe, I'm assuming the rest of our bodies will still be in the water. We'll freeze to death before we reach the opposite shore."
The group all looked towards Percy, and he growled in frustration. "Again, under any other circumstances, I would have been able to heat the water around you slightly to stave off hypothermia, but now"–he exposed his palms helplessly–"I can't do both."
"What if you hardened the water beneath our feet?", Julia suggested after a few seconds of thoughtful silence. "That way, we wouldn't be swimming through the water but walking. Instead of one large bubble, you could make twelve smaller ones."
Percy tilted his head, considering. Hardening water wasn't anything he hadn't done a million times before, but it had always been water on the surface. Still, he couldn't imagine it would be all that different. The part of the plan he really wasn't sure about was the individual bubbles. He'd never done anything like that before.
Annabeth nodded to herself and nudged him in the side to get his attention. "Remember what Frank, Hazel, and Leo told us about the ichthyocentaurs? They surrounded them in a bubble of air just like that. They said it was like a second skin."
Percy shrugged. "I could give it a shot, but I'm warning you, I've never done it before. Theoretically, the smaller bubbles would take less out of me, and they'd also be less likely to pop. Practically…I have no idea."
Katie frowned. "So then the question becomes 'Do we risk it?'"
The group exchanged glances, and Annabeth sighed, "I don't think we have any other choice." The silence stretched on, and when no one offered an alternative plan, Annabeth nodded. "Alright. I guess that's what we're doing. If all goes well, we'll end up in Manhattan Beach. From there, we can catch the subway into Manhattan and take the PATH into Jersey City. We'll find somewhere to camp out for the night once we cross the Hudson."
"Sounds good, Wise Girl", Percy said, "Except for one thing. I went to a school in this part of Brooklyn once. The subway doesn't start until Sheepshead Bay. We'll have to take the bus or something from the beach."
Annabeth nodded, adjusting her plan slightly, and looked towards Julia and the backpack she had dumped on the sand next to her. "Do we still have some funds left over?"
The daughter of Hermes grinned wickedly. "Yep. That old guy had a lot of cash on him. Rookie mistake."
"Good", Annabeth said, satisfied, "We'll have to buy tickets for the bus, but we should be able to jump the turnstiles in the subway. Especially with this storm. It will be a bit more crowded than usual. And if we play our cards right, the guards will let us go, even if they notice."
Katie frowned down at herself as if just now realising the grimy state they were all in. "We'll have to find a YMCA or something tomorrow, and maybe a change of clothes. A large group of homeless-looking kids will probably attract more notice than we need right now."
Annabeth nodded in agreement, adding the suggestion into her developing plan. "Alright. Everyone should get some rest. It's going to be a long day."
—
A couple of hours later, Percy groaned as Annabeth shook him awake from where he'd been dozing on her shoulder. He blinked against the flickering light from the fire to find her looking down at him in amusement. "You drool when you sleep, Seaweed Brain."
Percy shook himself the rest of the way awake and wiped at his mouth. "You could have moved me."
Annabeth just shook her head. "I didn't want to wake you up. You were sleeping so peacefully."
Percy sighed as he sat up and ran a hand over his face. He knew it was only due to pure exhaustion that he hadn't dreamt, but he was grateful for it all the same. It had been a long time since he'd slept for so long without waking drenched in sweat or with a scream on his lips. He eyed the redness of his fiancée's eyes and knew she hadn't been as lucky. His gaze softened, and he opened his mouth to ask her about it, but she shot him a look that told him to leave it for now, so he did.
All around them, the rest of their group was readying to leave, standing up and brushing off the sand, shaking out stiff muscles and burying what remained of their small fire. Percy clambered to his feet as well, holding out a hand and hoisting Annabeth to her feet beside him. The stiffness in his chest and back from the ICER wounds had abated slightly, and Percy gratefully rolled his shoulders.
Once everyone was on their feet and seemed ready to go, Katie looked over at them in question. Annabeth nodded, and a second later, a door-like hole had opened in the walls of their hut.
Outside, the storm was still going as strong as ever. Despite it being almost noon, the sky was completely dark with angry-looking clouds, and the wind was blowing hard enough to make the icy rain look like it was falling sideways.
"Well this is just great", Julia remarked drily as she stepped outside, "Gods, I hate the North. Why couldn't camp be in Texas or something?"
Percy waved a hand, and a water umbrella, similar to the one they'd been using earlier that morning, appeared over their heads. "If the camp were in Texas, I would be dead", he said bluntly, "C'mon, the water's this way."
The group followed him as he trudged onwards, and, lo and behold, a dozen metres and a sand dune later, the stormy channel was laid out for them in all its glory. Percy pointed straight out across the water. "Manhattan Beach is 600 ft in that direction." No one asked how he knew, and Annabeth arched a brow in question, "It should take us about ten minutes if everything goes well", he answered, and she nodded.
They started down the dune and towards the water, the majority of the group halting at the edge of the waterline as Percy continued on without them. He waded in up to his waist, allowing himself and his clothes to get wet to take full advantage of being surrounded by his element. He'd need every last drop of the boost of energy being in the sea provided him if he was going to pull this off.
Percy stopped when the water was almost up to his chest, taking a deep breath and calming his mind. Then, he pulled at something deep within him, and his powers responded as they had hundreds of times before. The tugging in his gut was almost painful this time, but he gritted his teeth and dealt with it. He needed to do this. There was no other way.
Annabeth watched carefully as Percy waded into the surf. The waves strong enough to knock anyone else flat on their ass seemed to have no effect on him. He stopped only when he reached the point where he would normally dive in, and she frowned as he seemed to take a moment to collect himself. She was worried about him, despite the mask of calm she'd put on for the benefit of the others when they had made the plan. He was already so drained…She didn't want to know what would happen if he pushed himself too far.
Beside her, Will seemed to have similar concerns, his blue eyes vigilant as he observed Percy's every move. If he gave any sign that he was too drained, Annabeth knew the healer would drag him out by the ear. She didn't doubt that he could do it, either. This was Will Solace. He was an expert at chastising stubborn demigods—especially children of the Big Three.
After a few seconds, both Percy and the water in his immediate vicinity seemed to still. Then, as though he could sense them even on the beach, the water parted at their feet, forming a dry pathway leading all the way to where he stood in the surf.
His eyes glowed slightly as he looked back at them and gestured for them to follow. They were darker now, closer to blue than green because of the storm. Annabeth found it slightly unnerving, as she always did whenever his eyes changed when he was using his powers. But nothing could be worse than that day down in the pit when they turned that strange combination of grey and too-bright, poison green. That day, she'd watched the boy she loved break a little, but it was the look in those poisonous eyes that still haunted her nightmares.
The movement of the others around her shook her out of her dark thoughts, and Annabeth followed after them, walking down and down until the water rose up on either side of them like the walls of some restless cage. Behind them, Percy allowed the water to collapse back into place, washing away any trace of them.
It didn't take long for the walls of water to reach over their heads. Annabeth took in her environment warily, and when she faced forward again, she was startled to find Percy just in front of her at the head of the group. He had apparently decided to stay completely submerged and was now grinning at her from where he swam in the dark waters ahead of them. The reassurance put the rest of the group at ease, but she saw through it to the discomfort that lay underneath. It was obvious the strain on his powers was already affecting him. They had to move fast.
Percy's expression grew more serious, and Annabeth realised that they'd reached about ten feet below sea level. Percy spoke, and his voice seemed to echo out of the water all around them. The eerie, layered sound of it made the hairs on the back of her neck rise, and with a start, Annabeth realised that this was likely how everyone sounded in Atlantis. Sound travelled differently through water, after all. "I'm going to collapse the walls now", he said, "I'll preserve an air bubble around each of you, so don't panic, and don't thrash. The last thing we need is to attract the attention of some sea monster." Everybody nodded, and Annabeth locked stares with her fiancé in determination, attempting to convey her confidence in him as best she could without words. He seemed to get the message, as his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. "I'm going to harden the water in front of you as you go, so just walk straight ahead, and don't stop. You need to keep moving to keep warm." Another round of silent nods and Percy smiled tightly. "Alright. Buckle up."
With that, the water rushed in.
A/N:
Hey guys! Sorry, I know it's been a while since my last update, but I've had a lot of stuff on my plate recently that's gotten in the way. I had a few PM's about this, so I just wanted to assure everybody that I am not putting this story on hiatus, nor do I think I ever will. This story is pretty unusual for me in that I have pretty much the whole plot planned out already. Since not knowing where I'm taking the story is usually the cause of any hiatus I've had, I highly doubt that that'll ever be an issue here.
Now, back to the story... I snuck in a little cliffhanger there for you (*laughs evilly). Luckily for you lot, I've already started on the next chapter, so I doubt you'll be left in suspense for long.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me or leave a review. I promise I'll get to them with a bit more haste this time (I had a glitch in my inbox or something and accidentally left a few people on 'read' for like two months. Sorry, again). Let me know what you think! I'm anxious for feedback.
Goodbye, my lovelies! :3