Chapter 11: Prelude to Raids and Revolution
I've considered rewriting this whole thing and have Percy hook up with Asterin instead.
"I sure love the sounds of pain." Percy sighed, earning him a weird look from Clarisse.
"Who are you and what happened to the Percy Jackson I used to beat up?" she asked.
"Still here." he said to her, "I just experienced and saw a lot of things: Death, family drama, romance, yadda yadda..."
"You've experienced those before."
"And I have experienced them again...in a different way that changed the way I think about myself..."
"Okay, enough with the wisdom bullcrap. You sound too much like her..." Clarisse spat that last word out with hate.
"Sorry. We should head to Portsmouth now." Percy said.
Elise couldn't believe she was staring at the wife of the one god she totally wanted to murder at that moment. Tyson was still pointing his club at Amphitrite, who did nothing but look down on the road as if she was ashamed of herself. In the cyclops's mind, she should be.
"Why are you here?" Tyson demanded.
"My husband...he casted me out..." Amphitrite groaned, clutching onto her stomach as if she had suffered a wound. "Please...help me..."
Obviously not believing her, Tyson raised the club and was about to smash the nymph to oblivion.
"Wait!" Elise exclaimed, the mysterious faint glow around her hand dissipating. She walked over to Amphitrite and pulled off her cloak in an attempt to see what she had been clutching.
Turns out, she had been wearing badly damaged green battle armor, wore or held no weapons, and she was applying pressure onto what looked like a stab wound, an ACTUAL stab wound. Elise even used her Eagle Vision to scan for any trails of Atlantean patrols. None.
"She's unarmed, she's bleeding, we have to at least help her." Elise told her cyclops uncle, who just grumbled.
"As if. She's one of them! A general of the Atlanteans!" he said.
"If she was, she could've had an entire platoon ambush us by now!" Elise retorted. "She'd be the bait and we're the prey, but that didn't happen. Besides, if she was given an actual wound just to be convincing, they would've already ambushed us so they can heal her quickly. It's not like the Atlanteans to actually stab their own as a diversion."
Tyson blinked a little. "What?" he asked, making Elise groan.
"I'm trying to say here is that what she's saying is the truth," she said, simplifying her explanation. "Poseidon did cast her out, she's not going to hurt us, and she's hurt as hell."
Amphitrite looked at Elise with genuine eyes of despair and remorse, though she seemed unaware she was looking at her (supposedly) deceased stepson's daughter.
"Let's get you in the truck." Elise offered to the sea nymph as she tried to get Amphitrite in the truck. Tyson just stood there, grumbling and not helping in the slightest, but one predatory glare from Elise convinced him. As he hauled the injured Amphitrite in the back of the truck, and as Elise walked back to the driver's seat, Tyson taught to himself,
'Is it just me, or were her eyes glowing red?'
He shrugged off the thought and climbed in the back of the truck with Amphitrite. Elise drove off back to Pike National Forest.
"You love her, don't you?" Artemis sighed. Bran merely nodded as they sat in the cell with practically no one else but each other. If Bran had never met Lianna and made out with her twice, he probably would've gotten attracted to the moon goddess then and there. Instead, Bran was in the same cell as his lover's mother, which was awkward.
"Um...yes, I do love her." he confessed. "Is something wrong?"
"She tried to kill you once." she replied. "And she didn't need to be under that...thing's control to try that."
"I guess that's why I got so interested in her." Bran said sheepishly.
"You're an odd male, Brannon, like your father when I first met him." Artemis sighed. "Speaking of your father, is he really still alive?"
"I...I don't know, but I pray it's true."
"I miss your father. Many of us do."
Bran took her words to heart. Artemis sounded dead serious when she said they missed his father. But, even if he knew the answer to the question whether he was alive or not, he wasn't going to tell anyone about the dream.
"Anything else you want to talk about?" Bran asked.
"I heard Poseidon had divorced Amphitrite and casted her out." Artemis told him, which shocked the golden haired young man. She continued, "Turns out, since you killed Triton, she no longer wanted to be a part of his conquest to rule two worlds."
"...Two worlds? What do you mean he wanted to rule two worlds?" Bran asked.
"He wanted to rule not just Earth, but also your world, Brannon." Artemis answered sadly.
His eyes widened, his fist clenched. His suspicions were true. Now he REALLY needed to stop Poseidon. Before he could say anything, the sound of clanging metal interrupted their conversation. A fully armored Ares opened the cell and threw a chain at Artemis, which wrapped itself around her like a lasso as he dragged the moon goddess out of the cell, leaving Bran alone in the cell, unable to do anything other than hear Artemis scream in pain. At the very same time, a scantily clad Aphrodite grabbed Bran by the neck and dragged him out as well.
Elise parked the truck at the edge of the forest. She helped Amphitrite get out of the truck while Tyson passed the rations and carcasses to the freed prisoners, Chuck, and Cherry. She set the nymph down on a rock and pulled water out of one of the canteens from the supply boxes. Elise poured water all over Amphitrite's wound, which healed it somehow.
"Ngh...thank you." Amphitrite groaned. Elise nodded and put the canteen away. She sat next to the supposed Queen of the Seas.
"So, why did Poseidon cast you out?" Elise asked her. "You're his wife, his queen."
"I didn't want to take part in all this any further." Amphitrite answered as she began her explanation. "Poseidon's ambition had cost me my son, Triton. I didn't want to be involved any further so he can let others I care bout die for this whole...intergalactic conquest he's been planning for years."
"Intergalactic?" Elise noted. "He wants to take over worlds other than Earth?"
"I don't know how, but there's this...golden metal sphere. He's using it as an energy source."
Elise cursed. "The Apple of Eden. Of course that metal ball will give him whatever the hell he wants."
"Who are you anyway?" Amphitrite asked this time.
"I'm Elise, the leader of that rowdy band of misfists." she replied, pointing at Tyson feeding Maxwell the drakon, who happily ate some flesh while Chuck was telling stories around a campfire, with Cherry, Ssssam, the Germani, the cyclopes, and all the other old prisoners who escaped Kansas. From the way he was acting, and how much everyone was laughing, it was probably stories about his dad.
"Hmmm. How'd you meet Tyson?"
"He was one of the prisoners I helped in Kansas." Elise said, as-a-matter-of-factly as she looked up at the darkening blue sky. "He's your stepson, right?" she added to the conversation.
"Yes, how did you know that?" Amphitrite's words now carried a tone of suspicion towards the mysterious black haired woman who helped her despite the world's current view on Atlanteans like her. The queen's own black hair billowed in the fresh yet somewhat sinister breeze.
Elise spoke as the her mood began to darken, "I do not like how the wind is blowing suspiciously right now. Makes innocent places such as this seem unsafe. Are you sure you're not working for the Atlanteans anymore?"
"N...No..." Amphitrite's rosy lips quivered like she had been lying. The youngest Jackson child's hands balled into fists again, but before she could even try to strangle the nereid, the latter spoke hastily, "I...I swear on the River Styx I'm not working for the Atlanteans anymore."
Elise heard the sounds of thunder blast through the air, sealing the deal...One...two...three...four...five...nothing happened to Amphitrite. She had been telling the truth, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Amphitrite was being used without knowing it.
"Stay here." Elise suddenly told Amphitrite, who merely gave a curt nod before the twenty one year old princess took off on her own away from the forest.
Percy noticed that Kestrel didn't exactly like the sound of wheels rolling through a cracked road for far too long, which would explain why she had ear muffs on ten minutes into the trip to Portsmouth. The young clone had her head on his lap as she slept soundly, her brown and white hair flowing down in front of him with a Dragunov sniper rifle in her hands. Meanwhile, Percy noticed Katrina had her pretty, pretty head on Grady's shoulder as they both took a nap like Kestrel. He smiled at the sexual tension between the vampire-like son of Thanatos and the impressive daughter of Morpheus. It reminded him of that day,
22 years ago...(AN: I'm officially confused at the timeline now)
Perseus Jackson woke up with the feeling of eternal bliss. He let his muscular, well built body rise from the bed as he saw what's essentially a pile of his and Aelin's clothes at the foot of the bed. Percy ruffled his hair, made a goofy grin, and turned his head around to see his beautiful wife still asleep, completely bare underneath the green and silver sheets. He yawned as loud as he could like he was trying to break a workd record for loudest yawn, but all he got was a "Keep it down, you animal." from the still drowsy Aelin.
"Admit it, Aelin, you love how much of an animal I am in bed." Percy said with glee.
Aelin just groaned and went back to sleep, making the raven haired man laugh a little. That's when he heard a loud knock on the door and an obviously annoyed Lysandra's voice,
"Hey, lovebirds, keep your noise down next time, or at least soundproof your room! I can hear you two doing it in my sleep!"
Those were two things he enjoyed doing during those years: doing romantic things with Aelin, and annoy Lysandra as much as possible no matter how many times Aedion objects.
Percy whispered to himself with worry, "I wonder how Aelin's doing now? Hope she didn't remarry...or maybe she should..."
"Hey, we're here." Percy heard Clarisse's voice as he felt the truck come to a stop. He made a silent thanks that he didn't have to worry about his wife right now.
"Are you okay?" he heard Kestrel ask as they all clambered out to observe the base where they'd (theoretically) make more spaceships like their golden X-wings. She looked concerned at Percy, who suddenly became somewhat agitated and a little paranoid.
"A little peachy, but I'll be fine." he assured her as they walked to where Clarisse, Grady, and Katrina were: observing the Atlantean base.
It was much like the prison in Winchester, but more organized. There was one circular metal building right in the center, surrounded by smaller metal buildings that were made for different purposes, from barracks to weapons storage. The whole base was a fortress: one way in, one way out. Thick metal walls surrounded the whole place like a perfect circle, barbed wire strung at the top and several watchtowers dotted the walls every forty fifth degree, so around eight watchtowers with heavy duty weaponry and spotlights, each placed at certain parts of the wall while having equal amounts of space from one another. Behind those walls was a small Atlantean force, heavily armed, backed up by automatons and cyclopes.
This was going to be tricky.
Elise waited along the side of the road for what felt like hours, but in reality, a mere seven minutes. She had set up an attack plan for pretty much anything the Atlanteans could possibly throw at a wandering platoon of misfits: infantry squads, trucks, even if they sent tanks, Elise knew what to do.
But there was absolutely no sign of any of those threats. Even if they sent aircraft, they weren't stealthy enough, seeing as how their engines roar, as well as the bright gold color on their chassis, an obvious sign that they were coming, and an obvious sign it was yet another work of the Apple of Eden. Just thinking about that godlike hunk of metal made Elise mad, for multiple reasons.
One, it had the power to take away free will like it had done to Lianna. Two, it gave the Atlanteans what they needed to conquer the world. And three, it got her brother captured.
"How can an Apple of Eden end up in the hands of the least favorable option?" Elise grunted and asked herself as she prepared her crossbow.
Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound of footsteps. Elise scrambled into the nearby thicket, crossbow in hand and aimed at the source of the sound.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. They were getting louder, making Elise shake and sweat with nervousness as she steadied her weapon, but seeing the three shadows of her would be victims made her even more tense. She kept her finger on the trigger, preparing to take the shot if need be. The shadows grew bigger, and bigger, until their shape became human...humans holding tridents.
Atlantean soldiers.
Elise pulled the trigger and her bolt cut through the air, striking one soldier in the throat. With the other figures distracted, Elise put away her crossbow and brought out her tomahawk, running towards her targets. Elise swung once she was close enough, slashing one soldier across the neck, letting his blood fly and plunging her hidden blade into the last one.
That was three dead Atlantean soldiers.
BOOM!
Elise felt immense pain from the right half of her body as she tumbled into the air, back down to the dirt, and into the bushes, her tomahawk parted from her fingers mid flight. She groaned in pain while she laid in the grass, feeling the ground shake to the sound of a large vehicle rolling its wheels on the road.
It was a tank. An actual, German Tiger tank was rolling towards the direction of the forest.
Elise felt something burn in her spine...it was heat...
and she felt that heat become something...sinister.
Percy was used to what he was going to do next: donning an Atlantean officer's outfit. As usual, it fit him, and while he put his helmet on, he heard Kestrel grumbling something along the lines of "Why this again?". He turned around and saw her toss away the Atlantean soldier's outfit she was given. Percy asked her,
"Are you okay?"
Kestrel turned to him with her heterochromatic eyes blazing with worry. "I should be asking you that." she spoke nonchalantly as she continued to speak. "Back when we were in the truck, you were shaking about something, like you were afraid."
Percy sighed at her curiosity but gave in anyway and, in a sad tone, began to explain.
"I've always dreamed of coming back home to Terrasen, to be with my wife and my kids. With what I've become for the sake of surviving my supposed death, I feel like a monster, something less than human. What if I come back...and she sees what I've become...?"
She tilted her head to the side, letting her brown and white hair flow to that same side, speaking, "I've only heard this once but...isn't love the most powerful force?"
He sighed again, his tone shifting to utter annoyance. "Have you been listening to Aphrodite?"
Kestrel's face morphed into that of an embarrassed little kid with stage fright as she answered with a mere "Yes."
Percy shook his head, arms on his waist like a disappointed parent. He instead told her, "We'll talk about this later. We have spaceships to steal."