You can't hear me but I am cackling right now and you guys shall all understand why by the end of the chapter. As always I love you all and please please do read and review because it means the world to me.
As soon as they were out of throwing reach of Polyphemus Percy turned away to look at the others.
Annabeth was crouched next to her, a hand still gripping Percy's arm, though the grip was somewhat lighter than it had been just seconds before, she was pale, her face scratched up and slightly bruised, but she looked okay.
Grover and Luke were both kneeling next to Tyson, panting and pale, and the Cyclops was grinning, "Percy's okay? We got away from our mean big brother?"
"Yeah, yeah we did." and Luke patted Tyson on the shoulder, laughing, "Thanks to you and Sephie."
Then Percy's gaze was drawn to Nico-and he looked unnaturally pale, slumped in a little huddle, she pulled free from Annabeth, scrambling to her baby brothers side, "Nico are you okay?"
"Tired." Nico leaned into her side automatically, eyes fluttering closed, "Wanna sleep-"
"Luke!" Percy's voice was slightly sharp as she wrapped her arms around her baby brother, "I need the Fleece!"
"What? Wh-Styx!" Luke cursed loudly, and she heard him skidding over to them, almost throwing the fleece on top of her and Nico, and Percy wrapped it around them both, because she wasn't willing to let go of the clearly weak ten year old.
"How did he and Tyson even get here?"
"Nico called his daddy to ask if he could get to Percy." Tyson spoke up, and as he did Percy was shifting her grip on Nico, picking him up and staggering to the comfortable chairs arranged around the table, sitting in the bench one with Nico still huddled into her side-though already some color was returning to his drained cheeks, "His daddy said that he should be able to travel through shadows."
"It must drain him." Percy's voice was tight as she brushed her fingers soothingly through Nico's hair, she could feel him settling in her side, drifting off into a peaceful sleep. "I assume he's never done it before. He was lucky he didn't wind up somewhere else."
"I remember how you used to get using your powers when you were little." Luke's brows furrowed, "We'll have to keep a close eye on him."
"He really saved our asses out there." Grover pointed out.
"Well at least the prophecy makes a bit more sense now." Annabeth pointed out softly, "Three heroes leave and six return."
"He'd be so happy if he was awake to hear you call him a hero." Percy gave a small grin and a laugh, and then she turned her gaze to Tyson, "That means you too big guy. You're hero too."
"I am?" Tyson grinned, "I'm a hero like Percy!"
"Oh yeah." Grover nodded, "You and Nico are the heroes of the day-"
"Better heroes than Annabeth, Luke and I." Percy remarked with a playful smile that made Tyson's grin even wider-and she felt her heart flood with warmth as Annabeth laughed and nodded, hugging Tyson tightly.
Even with how she'd been able to stop being terrified of the Cyclops this was the first time she'd actively hugged Tyson-and he returned the hug, squeezing Annabeth, half lifting her off her feet.
"I helped save everyone-"
"You sure did big guy." Luke grinned, and the five who were awake grinned at each other.
It had been a hell of a fight to get away from the Cyclops, but they'd done it and they were sailing to safety now-as long as they were careful they knew of the worst of the dangerous that the Sea of Monsters held.
And sure enough the rest of the journey was fairly smooth sailing.
Percy took Nico back down below deck after a few hours, settling the sleeping boy onto one of the beds with the Fleece wrapped around him like a makeshift blanket.
He woke up in the early hours of the next day, looking healthier than before and full of life-his skin almost seemed to glitter gold, a fact that Percy and the others teased him about relentlessly.
Admittedly the food supplies did start getting low by the time a few days had passed, but they'd have enough to get by until they made it to land if they rationed it out-admittedly that meant that they wouldn't be coming to land at Camp because it was further away and the quickest way for them to reach land would be for them to take a break in Miami to stock up on supplies before they set sail again.
When they did reach land early in the morning a few days after retrieving the Fleece, pulling into the harbor it was agreed that Nico, Grover and Tyson would wait on the Poseidon's Joy with the Fleece while the others went ashore to get them all some supplies.
They had some money from Hermes' duffel bags still, so they could afford to buy some basic things like bread and stuff that would let them make sandwiches, along with some other snacks until they got to camp.
Percy should have known things had gone too well, but none of them suspected that anything was wrong until they reached the docks once more. Percy felt her heart sinking at the sight that met them, and the bags of shopping she'd been carrying fell from her arms as she broke into run, Luke and Annabeth's footsteps pounding beside her.
The Poseidon's joy was already mostly submerged, and Percy screamed as they reached the edge of the dock, dropping to her knees, they thudded against the wood almost painfully, and Percy felt Luke grabbing her arm and hauling to her feet.
"NICO! TYSON! GROVER!" she was screaming as Luke's arms wrapped around her waist, pinning her to his chest as Annabeth caught up with them.
"Oh Gods no." Annabeth's voice shook, "What happened? We weren't even gone an hour!"
Then voice from the other side of the docks called out to them.
"Something wrong princess?" and Percy's head snapped to the side and upwards to look at a huge cruise ship.
Only Luke's grip on her stopped Percy from launching herself forward with a scream of pure fury.
Alabaster was up there leaning over the railings-she couldn't see him clearly from where she was stood but Percy would bet a million Drachma that he had that smug smirk on his lips.
"Alabaster." Luke's voice was an angry snarl, "Long time no see-"
"It really has been hasn't it-" then Percy felt it cooling slightly as the sun was blocked, and when she turned her head she found that the reason for that was the fact that four Lastrongian Giants were looming behind them, huge, muscled and covered with tattoos.
Percy turned her gaze back to Alabaster as Luke and Annabeth both tensed and she heard Luke mutter some words that she was sure would have gotten his mouth washed out with soap if their mom had heard-Sally might be willing to cut them both a heck of a lot of slack but Percy was pretty sure he was making up some of those words. "I swear on the Styx Alabaster if Grover and my brothers-"
"Oh calm down Perce." Alabaster cut her off mid sentence, "The Satyr, the brat and the monster are all safely aboard my ship. The Princess Andromeda's a luxury cruise ship, the accommodations are as good as they come Princess."
"Yeah, sure they are." Annabeth snapped the words, "You jumped up piece of-"
"Now now now Annabeth." Alabaster's voice was almost singsong as he leaned further over the railing, "You should keep in mind that this boat has a lot of my allies-many of which are monsters and they'd just love to snack on a Demigod and a Satyr-the Cyclops might not be so easy for them to digest but I knew about him so I prepared a room that could hold him."
"You bastard." Percy snapped the word, a furious look on her face, "Don't you dare hurt any of them."
"I don't want to." Alabaster spread his arms wide, "How about you come up and we can talk properly."
Percy gritted her teeth, eyes narrowing as she glared up at the older teen. "You really have sunken low haven't you?" she managed to squirm out of Luke's grip, and her brother gave a tight little nod.
"We don't have much choice but to go up." He admitted bitterly, "What a fucking-" he shook his head, cutting himself off.
"We should have known they'd had an ambush planned." Annabeth muttered "We were stupid to split up."
"He has the Fleece, why is he even bothering to capture us?" Luke hissed as together they moved towards the cruise ship.
"Isn't it obvious?" Annabeth muttered back, eyes flicking to Percy, who's face flushed a bright shade of red from a mixture of anger and humiliation.
"Because of me. He's bothering to capture us because he wants to see me Luke-"
"I swear to the Gods if he tries to touch you-" Luke's voice was furious at the mere thought of it, "I swear I'll kill him."
"Luke.." Percy shook her head, "Just... try not to lose your temper and be careful please." her voice was incredibly soft. As much as she wanted to strangle Alabaster, their current situation was not good and she didn't want to piss him off, if he wanted her then he might be willing to be somewhat reasonable. "Both of you-" she could see Annabeth trying to mouth to Luke that she'd do it for him, and Annabeth gave Percy a distinctly unapologetic look.
"He has it coming-"
"Annabeth-"
"I'm just saying, if I get the chance-"
"You're both ridiculous." they were herded up the walkway that led up to the ship, and Alabaster was waiting for them on the deck.
There were mortals milling around with vacant empty gazes Percy noticed uneasily-and monsters mingled among them.
Alabaster followed her gaze and waved a hand dismissively, "That's just to help with the cover, they won't be eaten or anything, don't worry Perce." he moved so that he was in front of her, grabbing her arm to steady her as they reached the deck-which made Annabeth and Luke both snarl under their breath-though they cut off their snarling pretty quickly, and Percy glanced back at them quickly, scowling when she saw that the Giants behind them had grabbed her best friend and older brothers shoulders tightly.
"Like I'd trust a word you say." Percy shook her head, glaring at the dark haired boy, who's green eyes were shining with amusement as he tightened his grip on her arm slightly.
"We'll get past that distrust." Alabaster waved a hand dismissively again, "C'mon princess. We'll go to see your brothers and Grover. You'll see that they're just fine."
"Not gonna have one of your Giants manhandle me?"
"I like to think I don't need to." Alabaster's smile was warm- and once upon a time she'd have trusted it. "After all, I have your brothers and your best friend, you won't do anything to jeopardize their safety."
She wished he wasn't right, but he was, which was the only reason she didn't lash out and break that pretty face of his.
They were half lead and half dragged and pushed to the stateroom, Alabaster sliding his grip from Percy's arm to her hand.
The stateroom was beautiful, and it was horrible.
The beautiful part: Huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. Green sea and blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor. Two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room-on which Tyson, Nico and Grover were sat-and Percy couldn't help but notice the red and gold lettermans jacket with the golden omega on the back that Nico was wearing-clearly the Fleece had taken on a more mortal looking form, with a canopied bed in one corner and a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food—pizza boxes, bottles of soda, and a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.
The horrible part: On a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a ten-foot-long golden casket.
A sarcophagus, engraved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths. Despite the sunlight streaming through the windows, the casket made the whole room feel cold.
Percy faltered midway through the door, her eyes glued to the casket.
"A-Alabaster-"
"Hush." his voice was almost soothing as he pulled her into the room. "Persephone, relax. You're safe enough-"
"What is that?" Percy's voice shook, "Alabaster-"
"You know what that is." his voice was kind, "And you know why we're here."
"Kronos." Percy whispered the word, "Kronos is in there. That's what you wanted the Fleece." her eyes flicked towards Nico, who looked terrified, clutching the jacket he was wearing tighter.