Disclaimer: All rights belong to Rick Riordan. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made.
Rating: T for dark themes and violence
Author's Note: So apparently there's something going on with FF and people couldn't read this chapter. I experienced similar problems, except I never saw people's comments/PM. I'm re-uploaded this chapter, so please let me know if you can see it, either by comment or PM!
Chapter 16
Two hours after Sciron mercilessly imprisons Percy and Beckendorf, destroys the Pax, and sets sail again, they arrive back at Messina.
Annabeth spent the entire time relaying the story of how she'd been kidnapped and how Percy had helped her escape Ares. Without mentioning any magic, gods, or monsters, she talked about how she had stayed aboard Percy's ship because he was the only captain she trusted after her kidnapping (so maybe she threw in a few white lies to cover up things she didn't want Luke to know). Then she described their journey and some of the places they'd been - Málaga, Sardinia, Naples, and a small village not far from Messina.
Luke seems to have a bad first impression of Percy that Annabeth can't quite pin down - Sciron must have told him some things - but he grudgingly agrees that the captain did help her and keep her safe.
"I'm just glad you're alright," he keeps repeating. "I was so worried that I would be bringing back a body."
Sciron crosses the deck and informs them that they're to leave his ship in Messina. "Our deal is done," he says, reaching out and shaking Luke's hand. Annabeth is immediately suspicious about what kind of deal they made, but she'll have to ask Luke about it later.
"What now?" Annabeth asks Luke. He gives her a strange look.
"We go back home, of course. There's a cargo ship in Messina that will take us back to England. Then we'll have all this dirty pirate business behind us."
Annabeth frowns at that, but she tries to keep Luke's perspective in her mind. He's a British officer who had no tolerance for pirates even before his fianceé was kidnapped by one. He must have hated working with Sciron and only did so because he thought it was his best chance to find her.
It isn't until Sciron docks at Messina that Annabeth realizes that this is really it. She's headed back to England forever. She's going to marry Luke and they're going to start their family. Her adventures are over.
She'll never see Percy again.
She grabs at Luke's arm. "Wait. I should say goodbye."
"To Sciron?"
"To Per- I mean, Captain Jackson." Probably better to use his formal name. She doesn't need Luke feeling suspicious than he already is. "I never really thanked him for rescuing me."
Luke doesn't look happy, but he doesn't fight her. "Okay. I'll talk to Sciron."
Annabeth tries not to look irritated as he approaches the pirate. It's already happening - she's already being treated like a lady again: unable to speak for herself to anyone except her husband. From now on, Luke is going to be doing nearly everything on her behalf.
Luke returns a minute later. "Sciron said you can have five minutes. Don't push it - he's really eager to be off again, and I don't trust him one bit."
Annabeth nods. One of Sciron's crew members leads her down to the bottom of the ship, where the brig is. Although they're walking fast and don't have much time to look around, Annabeth is shocked to see that the cargo hold is bursting full of treasure. Gold, priceless gems, pearls - you name it, it's there.
The bottom of the ship sloshes with a thin layer of water and it smells like rotting fish. She has to resist the urge to cover her mouth. The crew member hangs a lantern on a hook in the wall and then steps outside into the hallway.
"Five minutes," he reminds her before closing the door.
Annabeth crouches down to the cell. It's not even tall enough for a woman to stand up in, let alone two men. As her eyes adjust to the darkness, she sees the two figures sitting against the opposite wall.
"Annabeth?" Beckendorf lurches forward, his hands wrapping around the bars. "What are you doing here?"
"I convinced Sciron to let me say goodbye." She tries not to look at Percy, still hidden in the shadows. "I have a lot to say, and only a few minutes to say it. First I need to warn you guys. I've been having nightmares for the past few weeks, and so far everything I've seen has come true. Sciron is going to get the pearl. I've seen it several times in my dreams. There's no point in resisting him."
Now Percy leans forward. "What exactly was your dream?"
Annabeth describes the first one she ever had, where she was standing on the beach and out of the storm Sciron's ship came. She told them how every time Sciron rubbed the pearl with his finger, the storm grew more powerful. She told them about seeing Luke with Percy's sword.
She tells them everything except about the funeral pyre. She can't bear to reveal that.
When she finishes, both of them are silent. Annabeth glances at the lantern flickering on the wall and she knows her time is almost up. She has one more thing to say before she leaves forever.
"Percy," she begins, then pauses to take a deep breath. "I'm really sorry. Last night - that's not how I wanted things to end. I never intended to string you along. I feel so terrible. I don't want your last impression of me to be like that."
He doesn't say anything, and Annabeth hangs her head. "I really wanted to finish this quest with you guys. The last few months have been the best of my life. I'll never forget all the memories we had."
The crew member opens the door. "Time's up," he announces.
Annabeth reaches through the bars, grabbing both Percy and Beckendorf's hands. "Promise me you guys will be okay. This is hard enough for me as it is. I wasn't ready to leave yet. The only way I'll ever be at peace is to know you're going to be okay."
To her surprise, both of them squeeze her hand. "We'll get out of here," Beckendorf says, smiling. "We've survived worse."
Percy's eyes gleam in the darkness. "I promise. Annabeth - " He hesitates for a second before the rest of the words come rushing out. "I won't remember you that way. I could never remember you that way."
Annabeth's heart feels like it will burst. The walls feel like they're closing in and if she stays any longer, she'll be trapped forever. She draws her hands back, snatches the lantern off the wall, and steps away.
In the doorway, she turns back briefly. "Goodbye," she says, then steps into the corridor and walks away.
It's the last time she'll ever walk away from Percy and Beckendorf.
All Annabeth can think about as she and Luke stand on the docks of Messina is the brief history lesson that Will gave as they approached it two days ago: "There was a second wave of plague a few years ago. The city was already in decline after some revolutions, and that was all it took."
They have a little bit of free time before their ship heading back to England departs, and Luke suggests going into the city and buying her a new dress. She can see the way he glances at her new outfit out of the corner of his eye, his mouth curving down in disapproval.
Will's words echo in her mind again: "Honestly, I don't want to step foot there. All it takes is one deceased rat or person and our mission is over - forever."
"Let's just stay on the docks," Annabeth says, a chill sweeping through her body. It didn't take a deceased rat or person to end the mission for her forever. All it took was someone from her past.
"You like those clothes," Luke says tentatively, like a child testing the temperature of the water before jumping in.
"They're practical," Annabeth replies evenly, trying to be patient. It's not fair for her to be mad at Luke for being off-put by the way she's changed. She's returning to his world, and so she's the one who should be adjusting. "For a ship."
"At least let me buy you a new dress in Spain. I heard that women in England are tripping over themselves to get their hands on Spanish fashion these days."
Annabeth manages a smile. "I would like that."
They board their cargo ship not too long later. Annabeth catches a lot of sideways glances, and a few outright glares. She doesn't understand it at first.
"Why do I feel like everyone hates me onboard?" she whispers to Luke as they stand at the railing a few hours after they set sail again.
Luke gives her a funny look. "It's a sailor's superstition. Women onboard a ship is bad luck. You've seriously never heard of it?"
Annabeth shakes her head. "Percy mentioned it once, but neither he nor his crew members actually believed in that superstitious nonsense."
"It's not nonsense to them."
"But it is. Just because they believe it doesn't make it true."
"It's true to them."
"Truth is objective, whether you believe it or not. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Fire is hot. The spirits of the sea aren't sexist."
Luke stares at her for a long time. Annabeth can see that he's trying to get a read on her. She realizes how crazy she must sound to him.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I'm just a little frustrated."
His bright blue eyes bore into hers. There was a time when he could see straight to her soul, but now there's a wall between them. He can see it, and she can feel it.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asks.
"Yeah." Annabeth leans into his side. "Just hold me for a while."
In the absence of words, with his arm around her, it almost feels like it used to. Annabeth closes her eyes and for a moment she pretends that they were never separated, that they were never half a world apart.
Truth is, they've never been farther apart than right now. Now a whole world separates them - a world of magic, gods, monsters and a certain demigod.
"Something definitely happened last night between you and Annabeth," Beckendorf says.
Percy wraps his arms around his knees and listens to the faint sloshing sound of water around them. The last thing he wants right now, while sitting in the humid, dark, and smelly underbelly of the ship is to relive another terrible time in his life. But there's nothing else to do, and it's Beckendorf.
"Yeah," he says. "We had a great time last night. I begin to think that maybe - " He shakes his head. "I was so stupid. She's engaged. What was I thinking?"
"You love her."
Percy shrugs, although Beckendorf can't see it in the dark. "I don't know if I'd call it that."
"Close enough, anyway." Beckendorf's long exhale fills the space between them. "That's rough, man."
"Maybe I'm overthinking it, but when Luke first appeared on the deck of Sciron's ship, she looked at me first. And then, when they were reunited, I thought I saw her looking back at me." Percy drops his head. "I had to let her go. Like the rest of the crew. Like the ship. Like I should have left you."
Beckendorf scoffs. "You couldn't get rid of me if you tried."
"I know." Percy grins. "And I've tried."
They fall into a comfortable silence for a while. Percy tries to think through his situation, but he's never been the one with all the brains. That was Frank and Annabeth. Percy can think on his feet when he has to, but sitting back and trying to put the puzzle together? He's no good at that.
If the brig wasn't so small, he'd get up at pace. There's nothing Percy hates more than having to sit still. Even now his knee bounces and his fingers drum on his leg. His mind jumps around from topic to topic, but it always circles back to Annabeth.
He hates how much he thinks of her. Even before last night, before he ruined everything and she left him for good, he thought about her a lot. He'd seen how intelligent she was from the very first time he met her in that tavern. Almost immediately she'd become an advisor, quickly picking up on how his world worked and finding solutions to their problems.
He had started relying on her as much as he did on Beckendorf and Frank. Without even discussing it, she started coming on all his quests. She saved his life when they faced Reyna and Hylla, risking her own in the process. Gods, she was so beautiful during that fight. He felt she was truly growing into herself. There had always been this invisible wall between who she was when he first met her and who she could be, and he felt like that day she smashed right through it.
He should have known it would end this way. As much as she fit into this world, as strong and smart and brave as she was, there was always a tether holding her back. He'll never forget the day he saved her from the Sirens. She'd sobbed on the bottom of the ocean and he had no idea what to do or say to her to make her feel better. All he could think about was that image of her dreams coming true - the one with Luke and her parents.
Percy didn't exist in her ideal future. He was never even an option. He knew that, and he still acted like a fool.
He must be crazy. After all his years of fighting, all his head injuries and all the times the gods messed with his brain, he must finally be losing it. He must have been imagining Annabeth looking at him when she saw her fiancé for the first time in months. He must have somehow warped their conversation last night so that it made it seem like she was just as happy with him as he was with her.
To make matters worse, he'd made a complete idiot of himself when she came to say goodbye. She warned them of Sciron and the visions she'd seen in her dreams, and then she apologized to him for running away last night. But of course it wasn't a "sorry I ran away, I actually do like you back," it was a "sorry I ran away, I led you on with no intentions of anything happening", which was just like a sword in the gut. He should have expected that, but it still hurt like nothing else.
And what had he said? What were his last words to her? "I won't remember you that way. I could never remember you that way." How dumb could he sound?
Percy should have just stayed on Calypso's island when he had the chance. It would have made his life a whole lot easier.
"You know what I find funny?" Beckendorf asks, breaking through Percy's thoughts.
"What?"
"Sciron kept calling the Pax a disgrace, but that's a ship Poseidon himself gifted to you. And then he called himself Poseidon's favorite son, but he had to kill someone else and steal their ship to get his own."
"He was definitely one of Dad's bad-mood children," Percy replies. "Like the one I met in the Labyrinth, who thought Poseidon was honored by the people he killed in his name. And Chrysaor - gah, I don't even want to think about him."
"Medusa does have a thing for men of the sea," Beckendorf teases.
"You should have seen the fountain she had in her garden - actually, no, you're lucky you didn't. You know, I've never seen a naked statue of your dad."
"That's because Hera turns anyone who's ever thought of it into a cow. She's too ashamed of Hephaestus. He's not exactly part of her picture-perfect family."
"Both of her children with Zeus are ugly - no offense to your dad. But all the other gods are attractive - especially Artemis and Apollo, Zeus' children with another woman. Irony doesn't spare the gods."
"Hera's sons are ugly because they were cursed to look like her personality. That's her own fault."
There's something relaxing about being able to trash-talk the gods in prison at the bottom of a boat. What is Zeus going to do, strike them down? That'll start a war with Poseidon while simultaneously ending the threat of Sciron. And Percy's pretty sure that Sciron is going to kill them once he finds the pearl anyway. At least Zeus' bolt would be faster.
"You know, when I sent Medusa's head to the gods, I definitely wasn't thinking that my father might not appreciate seeing his decapitated ex-girlfriend." Percy smiles wryly. "Maybe that's why all this bad stuff is happening. Maybe my father cursed me."
Percy thinks of the story Annabeth had told him under the stars - the story of Cassiopeia, Cetus, and Andromeda. Cassiopeia had simply boasted about her beauty and Poseidon had sent a sea monster her way. Maybe Sciron really is Poseidon's new favorite son. Maybe Poseidon sent him to punish Percy for his insolence.
"I don't think that's it," Beckendorf replies. "Your father usually isn't subtle when he's angry. He probably would have sent a sea monster or sent a huge wave to sink the Pax overnight. I bet he found that stunt amusing. I mean, it's been over three thousand years, and Medusa was just a fling."
"I kind of feel bad for her, though," Percy says. "It's not cool that she kills people, but did she really deserve to be cursed for what she did? Yeah, it was super offensive to Athena, but that still seems unnecessarily cruel. And my father didn't get in trouble for it at all."
"Your father is a god, and an elder god at that. Short of attempting to overthrow Zeus, there's nothing he would get in trouble for. As for Athena...well, she's a proud goddess. If she feels as though she's been snubbed, she's often quite aggressive with her punishments. Remember Arachne?"
"Yeah," Percy says, but really he's thinking of Annabeth again. He remembers her admitting that pride was her fatal flaw. Still, he can't imagine her ever being that harsh.
"You worry too much about things that are out of your control." Beckendorf leans back against the wall. "Right now the only thing we need to be worrying about is Sciron and what happens when he gets his hands on the pearl."
Sitting in the darkness, his hand in a puddle of sludgy brig water, Percy finds himself praying to his father for the first time in years.
Dad, if you ever really cared about me...now's the time to prove it. I need your help.
He isn't surprised when there's no sign that Poseidon was even listening.