Chapter 8: We have a staring contest at Aunty Em's

POV: Percy

When we reached the edge of the forest, we saw a familiar sight. I would recognize this place no matter what. A long low warehouse next to an abandoned gas station on an abandoned road, seemingly still in business. Medusa's lair.

The smell of food was trying to lull my mind again, but this time I didn't let it. That was the weak point of most magics. As soon as you were aware, it lost most of its effect on you. Of course, you still had to be careful or you risked falling to its effect again. There were other magics too, the type you couldn't ignore no matter how hard you tried, but most of the time you could block it in some way. Like Medusa's gaze would turn you to stone only if you looked directly into her eyes, but not when looking at her reflection.

"That's what I think it is, right?" Grover whimpered next to me. "Can't we just walk away, please?"

"It's ok," I told him. "You can wait here if you want?"

Of course, I knew that he would never do that. As little self-confidence as he had, he was still the bravest satyr ever.

Grover's eyes went wide. "That's not what I meant at all!" he complained. "I'm not going to wait here in safety while you risk your lives on your own."

"We know, Grover," Annabeth said at my other side. "Percy was just being a Seaweed Brain. Anyway, here's the plan: If we're really lucky and she's asleep, we do it like Perseus. Since she's most likely awake, we follow the way my dream worked. Pretend we're lost and let her lead us in to lower her guard. When she closes the door behind us, Grover and I dodge and hide between the statues, while Percy beheads her. Assume it doesn't work and keep your eyes shut. If it works great, if not we go over to plan B."

"And what's plan B?" Grover asked nervously.

"We use items with a reflective surface and improvise," Annabeth said sounding as if that was some kind of masterful strategy and not an instruction to wing it. I didn't care one way or the other. I was best at thinking on my feet anyway, with my best strategies being improvisations in chaotic situations.

"Reflective surface, like a gazing ball or something?" I asked her jokingly, remembering how that was what she had given me to use the last time.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me.

"You could, you dork," she said. "Or, you stop being a smartass and use one of these."

She pulled three small items out of different pockets of her pants and handed each of us one. They were small disks of polished bronze, showing the reflection of my face almost as clear as a regular mirror. Yeah, those would definitely work better. Leave it to Annabeth to think of taking something like this with us.

"Everything clear?" She asked.

"Clearer than a crystal ball, that's for sure," I said.

She just pretended I hadn't said anything and went on," Good, then let's go."

We crossed the street approaching the building. The front lot was a forest of statues. Knowing that all of these statues had been people was terrible to think of. Worst of all were the children, and of course…

"Bla-ha-ha!" Grover bleated. "That's my Uncle Ferdinand!"

He looked shellshocked.

"I'm sorry, Grover," I told him.

Grover's face hardened. "You were right. She's totally going down!"

I was glad that Grover had found his battle spirit at long last. I just hoped he wouldn't jump her the moment she opened the door.

We stopped at the warehouse door.

"The lights are on, so she mo-"

Annabeth was interrupted by the door opening with a loud creaking sound. In the door stood the form of Medusa just like I remembered her. I didn't dare look directly at her face, but could still see that she was wearing her veil.

She said the same thing as last time, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"

"We were hiking," Annabeth said. "but we got lost and can't find where we were supposed to meet up again."

"We were on the move the whole day," I added. "We're tired and haven't eaten anything for hours. Is that food I smell?"

"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."

She winked us inside and I let the other two past me, stalling behind them, and entered last. I put my hand and grabbed Riptide in its pen form in my pocket. The warehouse was filled with more statues, but I ignored them in favor of keeping an eye on the door behind me. Last time she had locked the door. If she did it again, it would be the perfect opportunity to strike.

The moment the door fell shut with a click and Medusa was reaching for the lock, was the moment I swirled around uncapping Riptide and slashed at her neck.

"Argh!"

Medusa's painfilled scream was enough to tell everyone how the plan had worked out. It would have worked too, had I been in my sixteen-year-old body instead of my tiny twelve-year-old self that is. Medusa must have somehow heard the sound of me swinging the blade because she moved sideways just in time to dodge the brunt of my attack. I had heard my sword cut through the cloth of her veil (which was bad) and I felt a weak resistance proving I had hit her in some way, which was something at least. Sadly, it was not what I had aimed for. I saw two of the snakes that were her hair fall to the ground before they disintegrated.

I kept my eyes on the floor and prepared to strike again, but before I was able to, a tail-like appendage started to move from under her clothes and shot straight at my chest. I had just enough time to close my eyes and cross my arms over my chest to block.

I felt like a car had slammed into me. I flew backward, grazing against a statue and slamming into the ground. I used the momentum of my fall to roll backward and stop in a crouched position, my eyes still tightly shut. Accidently meeting her eyes would have been a pretty ironic way to die.

"You miserable demigod," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection for this!"

Yes, as if that hadn't been her plan since the beginning. But more importantly what had hit me? I fished the mirror out of my pocket trying to find Medusa's position.

"Watch her tail, Percy!" Annabeth shouted from somewhere in the statuary.

Tail? Since when had Medusa a tail I wondered, but I could see what Annabeth meant.

Medusa's looks had changed completely. Where her legs had been, there was now a thick green scaly trunk of a serpent, looking similar to that of a dracaena, but it ended only in a single tail. Her fingers had turned gnarled and warped and her fingernails into sharp bronze talons. Instead of hair, there were little snakes the same color as her tail and they kept on writhing around her head. I was sure that it wasn't just my imagination that they were changing their length. Her face was the worst of all. It was so ugly, it made Gabe look like some kind of supermodel and I didn't even want to describe it. The only thing I would say about it is that Aegis does not even look close to the real deal.

"Silence!" Medusa screamed. "You will wait for your turn. I will have my revenge for what your mother did to me!"

I was frozen, it felt as if Medusa's poisonous-looking yellow-greenish reptile eyes, were drilling right into my soul. I couldn't move, routed in terror. A thought crossed my mind: Was this how I was going to die?

No! No, it wouldn't. I had already killed her once before, I could do it again.

I forcefully pulled my eyes away and with me breaking eye contact, so did the spell. My body reacted and I got back to my feet.

"Don't look her reflection in the eyes!" I warned the others. "It still freezes your body!"

I didn't know where Annabeth and Grover exactly were, but I hoped, they would stay hidden for a while. I tilted the mirror a little so that I would only see everything below her shoulders.

Medusa was slowly slithering straight at me.

"Oh, aren't you a smart one, little Sea Spawn?" she poured praise at me, but her voice had an annoyed tint to it. "It wasn't always like this you know? There was a time that nobody was able to escape my gaze. It is your blood that protects you now, and isn't it delicious blood."

I could feel the magic in her voice. Her words as evil as they were, did not sound as alarming as they should, and fighting off this effect took more concentration than I was happy with. I did my best to ignore what she said, but she was almost upon me now.

"So smart of you for finding out, much smarter than your father even," she went on and her voice sent shivers down my back. "He only realized when it was already too late!"

What she said caught me off guard. The magic behind it did its work, causing me to lose control for a moment. It was only for an instant, a tiny opening, but she used it to launch her attack. I dodged the strike of her left talon and used Riptide to block the right one. Even caught off guard and fighting against her magic, she wouldn't win that easily against me.

I wanted to disengage and get myself in a better position when I felt something sink its teeth into my neck. I hadn't even seen the snakes on her head attack. And they were making so much noise, I couldn't use hearing against them either.

You don't realize how difficult it is to hit something you can only see the reflection of until you tried. If you are in a chaotic battle and you can't even look higher than the shoulder? Forget it. I couldn't look higher either because, even if I froze for only an instant, she would surely kill me. So, I did the only logical thing, I dropped the mirror, grabbed the snake with my hand, and pulled it off.

After that, I immediately jumped backward and disappeared between the statues. My neck burned. Just great, they were venomous too. Her voice slows you, her gaze freezes, her hair is venomous, her tail packs a punch and her talons are deadly. How exactly are you supposed to fight that? It was really a miracle that we had even survived the last time, much more, that it had been so easy back then.

I sneaked between the statues; I could hear the snakes on Medusa's head somewhere close by. Plan A got flushed down the drain, and plan B didn't work either. So how about a plan C?

"Yes," she crooned. "Oh yes, he too refused to look at me, only had eyes for another. But I got what I wanted in the end; I always get what I want."

She was stalking through the hall (can snakes stalk?), getting closer to the kitchen area, so I decided to carefully follow her. Nobody answered her, but she didn't seem to mind and just went on monologing.

"You should have seen his face." Her cackling was echoing from the walls. "The proud Stormbringer, the mighty Earthshaker, frozen under my gaze. So helpless, so vulnerable."

I didn't know if she was lying or not, only that she was trying to get me mad. It was working somewhat, but the disgust I felt was by far greater. It was something I always tried not thinking about, and I knew the same went for the other demigod children too. The immortal side of our family was a mess, and you don't want to know what happened, that we had all these monsters for half-siblings. And you especially didn't want to hear about it, if the other side was looking like… well, like this. That was just disgusting.

"I had a powerful ally, shielding me from their wrath," her voice made a turn from mocking to mad. "But the Gray-Eyed One, that cursed Athena found a way around it. They could not kill me, but she could curse me for desecrating her temple. It is all her fault! Her curse weakened my magic against immortal blood, prevented me from ever being able to hide my true self again. I shall crush the girl's statue to dust for this."

I completely ignored what she was saying, as I had gotten an idea just now. I stopped and concentrated. I could feel the water in the pipes under us, so I started to put it under more pressure. If I could not kill her with my sword, I would do so with my powers. I just wondered what Annabeth and Grover were planning.

"But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer. Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear, they use you for their own gain, only to send their child to kill you when they no longer have any need for you. You would be better off as a statue."

Medusa's annoying monologue was finally interrupted when with a loud groan of the floor the pipes burst under their pressure and started to fill the room with water. I could see the reflection of Medusa in the water, close to the kitchen area. The power her eyes held over me was neutralized by the water's presence.

I commanded the water to collapse over her, to bury her under it. At least, that was what I was trying to do, but the water refused to budge. Or more like something worked against me, fighting over the water's control with me.

Medusa only laughed. "You are not the only child of a sea deity here, little Sea Spawn."

I wasn't able to overpower her right now, but neither was I losing. No matter, I thought. Unlike you, I am not alone. Either she had to give up on control, or she would leave an opening for one of my friends.

I didn't have to wait long for something to happen.

I could hear a buzzing sound echoing from the walls of the warehouse, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover was flying close to the ceiling, in his hands a long, broken metal pipe. His eyes tightly shut.

Thwack!

Medusa roared with rage.

"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"

It was enough for me to regain more control over the water. It was not enough to overpower her completely, but at least the burning feeling in my neck started to lessen. I just wished this would have been seawater. I had realized after coming back that my control was not yet up to my past standards again. There was almost no difference if it was seawater, but fresh water and summoning water from myself would still need a little more time to remaster, something we had not had enough of before this quest started.

Ker-whack!

"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled her snake-hair hissing and spitting.

Almost. Just a little more.

Grover came again, but Medusa was moving sideways, trying to evade his attacks without completely losing her fight against me. I was slowly gaining ground too, but it wasn't enough yet. Medusa was now standing right next to a statue I remembered, it was the girl with the easter basket.

"Roooaaarrr!"

Medusa let out an ear-splitting roar. Something had happened. I could feel Medusa lose control over the water, could see her tail slam backward.

Annabeth appeared behind her, caught between the tail and the statue of the girl. Her cap slipped from her head and she was forced to drop her knife to the ground. Green monster blood splattered over her, flowing from a wound on Medusa's chest under her right arm. Annabeth's eyes were tightly held shut.

Medusa's upper body whirled around.

I had control over the water now, I acted immediately, but I knew I would be too slow, Grover too far away. Medusa grabbed Annabeth's face between her hands, her talons cutting into the skin, forcing Annabeth's eyes open to meet her gaze.

"ANNABETH!"

The water was coiling under me, but it was already too late, their eyes had already met. Annabeth would turn to stone and…

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Medusa screamed in disbelieve.

Annabeth didn't turn to stone. Absolutely nothing had happened.

The water catapulted me forward and when I shot past Medusa, my blade cut off her head. I could hear it drop behind me in the water. I slid a few feet before I finally came to a temporary stop before whirling around again, my eyes falling on Annabeth.

She was still alive, still hadn't turned to stone.

I caught her in a bone-crushing hug. My heart was beating like crazy.

"A-annabeth," a sob escaped my throat.

"I-it's ok, I'm fine … it's ok" she whispered back, returning my hug. "Grover, wrap the head up, please. Carefully! it can still turn you to stone."

I didn't let go. I had truly thought she would die.

"H-how?" I croaked.

"Gorgon blood," she answered. "From the right side. It has strong healing properties. The other side is poisonous though."

It had?

"Well, then we're lucky you stabbed her in the right side," I attempted to joke and slowly let her go.

She just smiled at me and wiped away some water that must have splatter on my face when I landed – and that definitely weren't tears or anything.

"Good thing I'm not stupid enough to stab her in the wrong side you mean, Seaweed Brain," she said returning my joke.

I gave her a kiss.

"You're right, my bad, Wise Girl," I answered softly.

"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "Could the two of you flirt sometimes else? You act so disgustingly cute and sappy and it's giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. Now, what are we going to do with the head? The blood would have been useful too, but I don't think we can easily take it out of the water."

Annabeth and I looked at each other and then started laughing. It was just too funny. Grover had said the same thing the last time when we had started arguing.

Then I looked down and realized he was right. There were blotches of thick green fluid in the water. We couldn't use it, or could we? The two fluids didn't mix together, so maybe I could separate them again. I concentrated and it worked. It was difficult to control, but I could move the blood.

"Bring me a bottle or something," I told him.

After another half an hour or so of hard work, we were finally getting a break in the dining area. We had decided to stay here for the night and I had cleared out the water into the backyard and dried us up. I remembered how miserable our last time spending the night in the woods with damp clothes had been, so I was glad I knew how to do this. Grover wasn't too keen on the idea of sleeping in a place that stunk of Medusa, but Annabeth's argued, that neither would anything else, so it would be the safest.

Right now, I was having what anyone needed after an exhausting day of monster-fighting: A double cheeseburger. We'd figured that it would be a shame to waste the opportunity. Last time we had been too terrified to stay inside any longer than necessary, but I couldn't care any less about something so trivial anymore.

Now that I had calmed down again, was no longer working on adrenaline, and had time to think about it, I couldn't get what Medusa said out of my head. Annabeth must have seen my face because she answered my question before I could even ask it.

"I don't know, Percy," she said. "It is possible, I guess. The oldest depictions of her all show her as a monster, only younger sources treat her as a beautiful maiden. And she is the daughter of Phorcys and Keto, and they aren't called the parents of Sea Monsters for nothing. The Furies can change their appearance how they please, so it wouldn't be farfetched to assume that she had always looked like this and was able to hide it until my mother cursed her."

Annabeth had her brows furrowed seemingly deep in thought.

"Her power might work for a short time on your father, but I don't think she would be able to hold him if he was trying to break free, but…" she said. "Medusa said something of having somebody help her and that she was protected from being killed. Within my mother's temple and with these restrictions it might be - maybe mind you - possible that he would have been helpless to do anything against her. Maybe…"

Our eyes met and Annabeth gave a short glance to Grover, telling me that she didn't want to tell me more as long as we weren't alone. Grover hadn't said anything yet, but he was listening to our conversation.

I nodded and stood up. Annabeth was telling me some other god was most likely involved in it. They were so annoying. Why did we help them again? Ah right, because the other option we had was even worse.

I picked a box and filled out the delivery slip just as I had done the last time.

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."

„I am impertinent, " I said, but before I could pour some drachmas in the pouch to finish the delivery someone took it out of my hands.

"You're sending a package, that holds Medusas head to the gods, knowing completely well that it will piss them off royally, right?" Annabeth asked.

She looked exasperated and criticizing at me. Huh? I thought she had agreed that I could do that again? Had I been mistaken?

Then she took the pen. "And you're not even letting me sign too?"

I blinked and then started chuckling.

"Right, how stupid of me," I said.

When she was finished she looked questioning at Grover, but he only looked at her with wide-open eyes and shook his head, so she gave it back to me.

"Go ahead."

I looked at the delivery slip one last time:

The Gods

Mount Olympus

600th Floor,

Empire State Building

New York, NY

With best wishes,

PERCY JACKSON

and

ANNABETH CHASE

I poured in the drachmas and closed it. After a sound like a cash register, the package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!

"I think I have a bad influence on you, Wise Girl," I told her.

"I know you have a bad influence on me, Seaweed Brain," she answered. "And I couldn't be happier about it."

With these words, our first day was over and we went to what we hoped to be a night of recovering sleep.