For the first time since she'd met Perseus, Annabeth slept without dreams.

Whether this was because her mind had nothing left to show her, or because she was violently woken only an hour or so after she fell asleep, Annabeth would never know.

Annabeth's eyes burst open seconds before she slammed into a storage crate. She tried to sit up, but before she could the ship rocked forcefully in the other direction. Annabeth scrambled upwards, grasping onto anything she could to keep herself steady.

The room was in total chaos. Most of the supplies were tied down or secured with roped netting, but the few that weren't were sliding and rolling with each turn of the ship. The door had swung open, but even though Annabeth knew it must be around the middle of the day there was hardly any natural light streaming in. She could still make out the contents of the room, but only barely. Piper and Leo were attempting to secure one of the sliding crates, Hazel was sitting in the corner clutching her stomach. Fai was next to her, shoving a crate up against the wall with his back.

It was noisy too, not just the scraping of the supply crates against the floor, but a horrible howling wind rattling every loose scrap of wood and rushing through the doorways. There was a rushing sound Annabeth barely recognized, until she realized it must be water battering the sides and deck of the boat.

A bright flash suddenly lit up the room, fading away instantly. Half a second later there was an ear-splitting crash of thunder, so loud it drowned out even the sound of the sea crashing against the walls of the ship.

"Where—" Annabeth shouted, but Piper cut her off before she could even finish asking her question.

"The deck!"

Annabeth clawed her way out of the storage room into the hallway. Piper yelled something else at her, but it was swallowed by the sounds of the storm.

The hallway floor was already slick with water, but the walls were lined with rope, presumably for the exact purpose of clinging onto them when the sea was turbulent. The wind and rain got more intense with every step, but Annabeth was determined. She couldn't exactly pinpoint why she had to go beyond a vague panic, but she had to make sure Jason and Perseus were alright.

However bad it was below deck, it was ten times worse above. Sheets of rain blew from every direction. The sea, once calm and flat as a mirror, was frothing and writhing like a trapped animal. In the vague distance Annabeth could see waves taller than twenty men crawling upwards and crashing down onto themselves. The sky was black; thundering clouds completely obscuring the sun.

Perseus stood at the bow of the ship, his hands raised. A wave built up, so large Annabeth was sure it would demolish them if it hit the deck, but Perseus just made a punching motion with his hand and an enormous mass of water rose up from the sea, smashing into the wave before it could break on the ship.

Annabeth almost didn't notice Jason, but when the sky split open and lighting crackled through the air, he was there to meet it. He absorbed the strike with his sword and channeled the blast back towards the sea. The lightning crackled as it hit the water, lighting up the blackened ocean in a strange blue-green shade before it faded back to darkness.

She had seen Jason fly before, but this was different. He was surrounded by a mass of clouds, and was crouching almost as if he was riding the air around him. Lightning lit up the sky again, and in the brief flash of light Annabeth almost swore she saw the figure of a horse underneath him.

Something tugged on her arm, and Annabeth whipped around. She had gotten so caught up in the fight— and somehow it still felt like a fight, even though they were battling their own domains— that she'd almost forgotten where she was. Piper was pulling at her arm, yelling something at Annabeth that was drowned out by another crash of thunder. The message was clear though— come back below deck.

If she had thought she could do anything to help, she would've stayed. But as it was, the only thing she could do above deck was get herself killed. She followed Piper back to the storage room.

In the meantime Leo and Fai seemed to have secured the last of the crates, but Hazel had unfortunately graduated from just looking extremely nauseous to emptying the contents of her stomach into a bucket. Annabeth couldn't blame her, since the incessant rocking of the ship was starting to make her feel ill too. The only thing that saved her from vomiting was the fact that she'd been too nervous to eat that morning.

It was marginally quieter down below, but still too loud to really speak. Even if they could talk, Annabeth had no idea what they would say. This is terrible? That was really the only thought floating around her mind right at the moment. That, and it was awfully convenient that this storm had appeared out of nowhere right when they had made their plan to get to Athens as quickly as possible.

It was almost like the voice was toying with them, though Annabeth didn't know how that could be possible. The sea and the sky belonged to Jupiter and Neptune. Maybe it was controlling the monsters, keeping them away, but manipulating a storm to overtake them within two powerful gods' domains seemed especially far fetched.

That begged the question of whether those gods were angry at them, though Annabeth couldn't make out a reason for that either. The gods had dictated this quest. The entire purpose was to save one of their own. Why would they intentionally slow them down?

They wouldn't. It made no sense. There was no logical reason for either of them to have anything to do with the storm, and yet there it was, battering the ship on all sides. But there was no reason for it to be outside of their control either, unless…

Annabeth's initial theory about the gods' capture tingled in the back of her mind. It was a random guess, but she had suspected that tying their essence down in one place might weaken their domain, or their control over it in any case. If she had been right about that…

But that didn't seem quite right either. If Poseidon or Neptune or whoever he was had lost control of the sea, why would Perseus retain it, when he had only a fraction of his father's powers? The same went for Jason, though admittedly his powers had been a little unpredictable as of late. But they still worked, his performance on deck right at this moment proved that well enough.

Besides, if the king of the gods went missing, Annabeth was fairly sure there'd be a bit more of a to-do about it. Neptune maybe not so much, but Annabeth thought Perseus probably would have said something if he suspected his father was the one that was captured.

She was missing something, some crucial piece of information. She was almost irritated that she hadn't had a dream for that short time that she'd slept, because maybe then she'd be able to figure this out. As it was, she could only sit in the cargo hold, hope that they wouldn't all die, and wait for the storm to pass.

It did eventually, though Annabeth couldn't tell if it had been half an hour or six between when she'd woken up and when the ship stopped shaking like it was about to fall apart. Eventually the wind and waves died down too, leaving them in a tentative calm.

Annabeth, Piper and Leo were the first to brave the upper deck. Fai stayed behind with Hazel, who— very fairly— still looked awful.

It was like there hadn't been a storm at all. The sky was bright blue, clear and beautiful. The sea was smooth as glass as far as Annabeth could see. It was like the storm had been a dream, except for the fact that Annabeth still felt a bit dizzy from all the violent movement.

As soon as their feet hit the upper deck, Leo swore and ran towards the stern of the ship. Annabeth's heart nearly stopped, but he was just focused on the lower mast, which had cracked significantly. The sail looked singed as well, but as soon as Annabeth realized he was running towards broken pieces of the ship and not Perseus she turned back around.

Piper caught sight of them before Annabeth did, and rushed over. They were both sitting at the bow of the ship, looking exhausted. Annabeth followed Piper, trying not to appear as frantic as she was feeling at the sight of them looking like they were about to keel over. She was already kneeling by Jason when Annabeth reached them. Annabeth crouched down next to Perseus. Both of them looked as sick as Hazel.

"Are you alright?" Piper asked worriedly. Jason closed his eyes, leaning his head backwards against the railing.

"Just about. Once the world stops spinning, anyways."

"Looks a bit yellow," Perseus added. He himself looked a bit green, and Annabeth couldn't help but put a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"You overexerted yourselves," Annabeth said, swallowing down how nervous that made her. At least they were both still conscious, but if that storm had gone on for any longer… well, it probably wouldn't have been just the mast that was broken. Not that it would have mattered, since they probably all would have drowned.

"You know, when it doesn't make you pass out, that lightning is impressive," Perseus said to Jason, feebly punching him on the shoulder.

Jason laughed, though midway through it turned into a groan. It didn't stop him from replying in kind, though.

"You aren't so bad with those waves yourself. I mean, they're a bit crude, but I suppose you're doing your best."

Perseus doubled over laughing at that, and half a second later Jason was joining him, though the edges of it sounded delirious to Annabeth. She and Piper exchanged a worried glance.

"You should drink something," Piper said, coaxing a pouch of water into Jason's hands. He took it, but didn't drink from it.

"You both should," Annabeth said, unfastening her own water pouch from her belt. Unlike Jason, Perseus actually drank from hers, but he only took a small amount. Some of the usual color returned to his face, though he still looked sick.

Leo was walking towards them, carrying a bucket. Annabeth was about to ask what it was for when he dumped it unceremoniously on Perseus's head.

"Hey!" Annabeth protested, scrambling backwards to avoid the splash. From the smell it seemed like the bucket had been full of seawater, which seemed redundant considering Perseus and Jason were both soaked from the rain.

It seemed to help though, or maybe it was just the shock of it that made Perseus sit up a little straighter. He coughed a few times, wiping his wet hair from his eyes. They looked alert and focused again, instead of dazed.

"Thanks," he said to Leo, somehow not sarcastically, "How badly is the ship damaged?"

"Bad," Leo said, his expression uncharacteristically grim, "It'll take at least a day to fix, and that's if we can salvage the sail."

Perseus leaned back, swearing under his breath.

"That's not so bad?" Piper said, looking around nervously, "I mean, we have two days of extra time. We can still be early."

"But we'll have to be anchored while I make the repairs. I don't like how vulnerable that makes us," Leo said, shaking his head.

"Right after we figured that we would have an easy time getting there too," Perseus said. The seawater had helped a little, but he still looked drained.

"It's playing with us," Jason said. He had closed his eyes when Annabeth hadn't been looking, and he didn't bother to open them now, even when he was speaking. "Letting us know that it's still in control."

Nobody asked what "it" Jason was referring to. They all knew he meant the voice.

"But how could it have created that storm?" Annabeth asked. Everyone's eyes turned towards hers, but she sought out Perseus's, "Your father— both your fathers control things like that."

Annabeth didn't voice her other worries, but from the way Perseus was looking at her she could swear he could read her mind anyways.

"That wasn't my father's doing, and I doubt it was Jason's either. We'd probably all be dead right now if it was," he said, his eyes not leaving Annabeth's.

"Venti," Jason grunted. Everyone stared at him. At first Annabeth thought he was speaking gibberish, but he must have sensed everyone's attention on him even with his eyes closed, because he continued.

"Wind spirits. That's what was making the storm in the sky. Not as powerful as my father, but if you get enough of them together— ow."

Jason had finally pried his eyes open, but apparently the sunlight was not agreeing with him. He squinted, rubbing his face with his hands.

Venti. Annabeth couldn't remember ever encountering those before, but she'd heard of them in passing. Nobody had seen one in a long time, as far as she knew, but their appearance now was only proof that things really were stirring. With a start, Annabeth realized that the strange horse-like figure Jason had been riding must have been one of the storm spirits.

"What about the sea?" Piper pressed, finally drawing her gaze away from Jason to look pointedly at Perseus, "What could have caused that?"

Perseus just shrugged.

"Not sure."

That wasn't exactly helpful, but at the moment Annabeth didn't much care. They had more pressing issues to worry about. Namely making sure Jason and Perseus didn't pass out on the deck.

"You need to rest. Both of you."

"Resting. That would be good." Perseus agreed, leaning back against the railing. Jason already looked half-way asleep.

Leo had already started on the repairs, which left Annabeth to help Perseus back to his room. He didn't need as much support as Jason, but Annabeth still suspected that he wouldn't be able to walk on his own. Either way she didn't mind his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Even if he smelled like seawater— though he always had a faint smell of the sea about him anyways.

He practically collapsed on his bed as soon as they reached it. Annabeth stood to leave, but he caught her hand before she could.

"Wait," he said. She obliged, kneeling back down beside his bed.

She hadn't meant to get so close, but as it were their faces were barely an inch apart. She could see every line of exhaustion in his face, but especially under his eyes.

"Do you need something?"

He smiled weakly at that, but it did nothing to offset how tired he looked.

"No. You just looked worried, earlier."

"I'm worried about you," Annabeth said, truthfully, "And Jason."

"It wasn't just that, though."

He had noticed, then.

"I just don't like not having all the information," Annabeth admitted. There was more to it, but even if she wanted to unload her considerations on him right now she wasn't sure he would be awake to hear it. Even now his eyelids were fluttering like they wanted to close.

"Maybe I'll have a dream. Get that information for you," he said, stifling a yawn. Annabeth smiled, suppressing a laugh.

"You do that," she said, standing to leave again. He let her go this time, his breathing evening out to sleep before she even shut the door behind her.

"I want to help."

Leo looked up from his work, eyebrows pulled up skeptically. Whatever he was doing to the broken mast looked complicated, given the scraps of metal, wood and tools laid out before him. His hands were already covered in grease, though Annabeth couldn't tell where it had come from.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked.

Annabeth at least appreciated that he hadn't flat out said she wasn't capable of it, even if the implication was still bubbling under the surface of his words. In fairness, maybe she wasn't; she had no formal training in building or mechanics, especially not when it had to do with ships of all things. Still, she was probably able to do something, even if it was small and insignificant.

"If I have to sit another minute with my hands idle, I think I might explode."

Leo's expression reset itself to a more familiar unruly grin.

"I know the feeling," he said, setting down his hammer.

It turned out to not be as intricate as Annabeth had feared. She mostly just picked out tools for him, sometimes held something together as he stabilized it, or else chipped away splintered and cracked wood from the mast at his instruction.

Whatever Leo was doing was certainly more complex than the tasks he gave Annabeth, but she didn't mind. She just needed a distraction, and this was proving to be a good one.

It didn't take long for Annabeth to notice there was something strange about the way Leo worked. His hands moved so fast she almost didn't realize at first, but he was somehow attaching scraps of metal to the mast without any fixant, and sometimes when he dropped tools the handles would be red-hot and glowing.

"How are you doing that?" Annabeth finally asked, after probably an hour of working.

"Hm?" Leo said, barely looking up from what he was doing. His expression was one of scrunched concentration, his eyes narrowed and focused on his task.

"Oh, that," he said, noticing Annabeth's pointing finger, which was gesturing towards the hammer he'd just set down. It was currently creating a small scorch mark on the wood of the deck.

"Yes, that. How are you doing it?" Annabeth asked. She nudged the hammer with her nail, and even then she could feel the heat radiating off of it, though it was already cooling down some.

"Well, my father didn't just give me my good looks," Leo said, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Before Annabeth could ask what he meant, he held out his hand, and it burst into flame.

Annabeth's first instinct was to scramble backwards, but she managed to suppress it as fast as it had come. Instead she just stared wide-eyed as fire licked over Leo's hand in a small, controlled blaze.

His father. Vulcan. God of fire and blacksmiths. Naturally he could control flames as easily as Perseus controlled the sea.

He closed his fist, and the fire extinguished itself.

"Most people scream when I do that," he said, sounding vaguely disappointed. He needn't have been since Annabeth's heart was just about pounding out of her chest, but she wasn't telling him that.

"Somehow it's not the strangest thing I've seen this week," Annabeth admitted. That particular honor went to watching Perseus have a conversation with a horse for the first time.

Leo snorted.

"I believe that."

They worked quietly for a while longer, Annabeth careful to avoid touching anything Leo set down in case it was hot. Eventually Leo sat back, wiping sweat from his forehead.

"Is it done?" Annabeth asked. Where a large crack had formed at the base of the mast was now a patchwork of metal and wood. It looked more secure, but it also wasn't the only part of the mast that was broken.

"For now. It needs to set," Leo said. He was examining his handiwork, probably on the lookout for any flaws. Annabeth knew that's what she'd be doing, if the mast was hers to fix.

"Oh," Annabeth said. She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but she was sure it was written all over her face regardless.

"Don't worry, there'll be plenty more to do later," Leo said. He was smiling, but it wasn't quite meeting his eyes. Annabeth remembered what he'd said earlier about not liking how vulnerable making repairs made them, and she felt inclined to agree. The lack of movement was nerve-wracking.

"Thank you," Annabeth said, "For letting me join you. I'm sure I hindered more than I helped."

"Not at all. You're good with your hands."

Annabeth glanced over at him, sure that he was joking, but his expression was uncharacteristically sincere.

"Really?" she asked, still uncertain.

"Really. You've got a knack for structure."

Annabeth wasn't sure how to respond to that, but it turned out she didn't need to. Leo's attention was drawn to something over her shoulder, and a second later—

"Having fun?"

Annabeth turned around, though she already knew who she was going to see.

"You're supposed to be asleep," Annabeth said.

"I slept, don't worry," Perseus said, smiling. He did look better. His skin was back to its usual tanned shade instead of an unhealthy looking pallor, and the bags under his eyes had faded. Still though, with the sun just starting to set on the horizon he had only been asleep for half a day at most.

"Lucky you," Leo said dryly. Perseus winced.

"Sorry. I should have kept a better eye on the mast."

Leo just rolled his eyes and waved his hand in annoyance.

"I suppose you did your best," The comment seemed a little biting to Annabeth, but considering Perseus just grinned she supposed it must be a familiar rapport. "Now if you all don't mind, there's a bed downstairs calling my name."

He stood, stretching, and walked off, leaving Perseus and Annabeth alone on the deck.