Percy looked at Annabeth and Travis who looked back at him. "We're so dead," the girl whispered solemnly. Percy nodded his head as the two of them walked around the ghost ship. If it came down to it, Percy could always blame Hermes.
But the god was only doing a delivery. How he was suppose to know that the Fates were sending him on a quest?
"We should have brought one of the cyclops," Travis signed in that complicated language that his sister taught them. "They can mimic voices." Annabeth shivered and flinched, "I'm good."
Oh yeah, two of them did use their voice mimics on her and her younger brothers when they had attacked. She had broken one of her father's aeroplanes toys by throwing it at a cyclops' eye when it had grabbed onto Bobby.
"Come on," he told them. "The quicker we get to Clarisse the better."
Percy stared at Ariadne who was staring out the windows of the castle. Her eyes were firmly on the kids that were training under Clarisse and Hector. Hermes and Apollon were curled around the thrones. Annabeth was cuddled into his side as the parents looked at them in worry. "They'll be okay. We survived didn't we?"
His sister scoffed as she turned to give him a look of disbelief, "Survive, sure. It's not like I didn't burn myself from the inside out and had to have Apollon break through my rib cage and the muscles around to infuse his divinity into my body. It's not like you weren't on an island with killer sheep and that Annabeth didn't piss off our other brother who apparently let himself go over the years. 'Risse was locked up in a cave being prepped for a wedding service. Then Thalia's tree was poisoned, Chiron was gone so Tantalus was brought to 'train' us, and oh yeah! Luke tried to kill us too."
Chris snorted, "Gee, don't forget to mention about me being on the other side and Sils' telling us about the quest in the first place." She shot him a look and rolled her eyes.
"I thought you liked it when I touched you," Apollo whined. Ariadne choked, spinning towards him with wide eyes. The two gods burst into laughter at the look on her face. "You," she started, eyes avoiding the parents in the room. "Be quiet."
Annabeth sat up straight, "Well since, we're talking about touching. I have some news." All eyes turned her before she looked up at him, "I'm pregnant."
This time it was Percy that choked.
Ariadne's face twitched between horror, disgust, and amusement. She also carefully avoided looking at Apollon. She's still pretty sure she somehow got tricked into raising kids, but she draws the line at actually being pregnant.
(Besides, she was lucky with Leo and Drew. How would she be able to raise a baby? She had been on her own for years and she's made peace with that but still—how come her mother didn't love her?)
"Ariadne," Sally Jackson started and his sister turned to look at the gods. Percy shook his head at her. No need to beat at a dead bush. His sister was happy now. Sally twisted her hands together nervously, "But it made you stronger."
A part of Percy wondered if this was what his mother thought as she raised them alongside Gabe.
Percy frowned as he looked, "We were children. We didn't need to be stronger. We needed to be safe."
Ariadne shook her head. "We are getting off topic. Though I don't know how we ended up here. We're getting a new family member. Who cares about a forgotten timeline?"
His sister smiled at them as congratulations rang out through the room, "We could technically hold off the pregnancy by sending you to the sea but we also cannot afford to send you away." Percy grimaced and agreed. Not only that while Annbaeth may be marrying into the sea… she wasn't from the sea. The pregnancy would be extended but not at the same length of time. And he doubted she would want to spend so much time pregnant. (Pregnant. He was going to be a dad!) Ariadne then smiled sharply at him, "That also makes your child a prince of Atlantis, Olympus, and Castellan. And even better, as Percy is technically my heir to Castellan… that makes your child next in line."
Helen floated through the floor to stand at his sister's side who was still laughing teasingly at him. The ghost princess leaned over to whisper something in her ear that wiped the smile completely from her face. She turned slowly back to the windows and Percy could feel the pressure in the room increase.
"Ari," he questioned. She was silent for a moment and the gods shifted to move to her sides. "Drew has decided to run away also. She charmspoke three naiads, two guards, Schmidt and one of the pegasi. She's on her way to the sea of monsters."
"Grounded," Hermes stated.
"Deeper than a tree," Ariadne replied. She turned to Percy, "Should we go pick up the wayward kids? Kind of want to see if they managed to find my Ennea."
Annabeth shook her head in exasperation, "You already have one pet hydra." His sister gasped dramatically, "How dare you! Schmidt is my bond mate. Our souls are connected through the power of the sea."
Percy pursed his lips, "Speaking of connecting souls, we need to get ours split again." Ariadne raised a brow, "I wasn't the one to get them re intertwined." He snickered just a smidge before shrugging, "It was needed then. But it isn't needed now. I'm not interested in being able to feel how overcome your body gets with pleasure whenever you and Apollon decide to–"
He swiped his hand through the air, pushing the water she threw at him away. Her cheeks were cherry red in embarrassment as she turned to leave. "Let's go save the delinquents."
When they were trying to escape the ship of monsters, Percy was not expecting the sight of Drew flying down on a pegasus and directing it to clove Alabaster in the head. The boy went down with a yelp and Percy doved for the black pegasus that was still rearing its head.
He drew riptide swiping at the ropes holding it down, mentally yelling for it to escape. Drew stood on top of her silvery pegasus, cherry red dyed bow and arrow in her hands as she shot at the monsters. She locked eyes with Agrius and Oreus; power dripping from her tongue, "Defend the demigods." She said it with so much force that he could feel it resonating in his own soul. Drew turned to them, eyes dark with a protective fury, "Go." That's when he noticed the ship coming up alongside them.
Travis was already fighting away through the masses to get there. The bear twins roared as they ripped through monsters to help them; eyes clouded over as Drew's charmspeak took hold. He was kind of surprised that she was helping them. She wasn't fond of anything that could make her break a nail and she hated quests.
(But love knew no bounds and she was protective over her family.)
Percy concentrated, shifting his feet like the twins taught him. The water in the air solidified until he could shift them into bullets then he let them pierce the others. He could tell that they weren't as strong as his namesake. His older brother's water bullets were strong enough to put holes into celestial bronze. His version was strong enough to knock them back enough for them to jump onto the other ship.
He spotted a few hydras pulling the ship further away. He spotted Schmidt pulling them away and he knew that he was dead. No way was he not telling Ariadne on them. Drew landed on the ship, a bag strapped around her as she sent her pegasus onwards. "Kaa-chan, is going to kill you," was the first thing she stated as she looked over at them. She opened her bags and passed over some ambro-pops. "And by the seas, I just risked her wrath by coming to help you idiots."
"How can you help them," Percy heard from behind the four of them. "When you cannot help yourselves?" They turned around to see the captain and crew pointing their swords at them with what looked like wax pouring out of their ears.
"Oh come on," Travis bemoaned as he drew his sword. Annabeth pulled out his dagger as he summoned Riptide. Drew hefted her bow and pointed it at them.
It was almost embarrassing how quick the ensuing fight ended. The crew had immediately surged forward attacking on all fronts. He remembered the feeling of someone's foot hitting his hand as Riptide went flying into the sea. He heard Drew curse as she ran out of arrows before crying in outrage when her bow broke. He hadn't seen Annabeth or Travis since they had gotten split up earlier on.
Yet as soon as they were all down for the count, they had been quickly tied up together as the ship was turned back towards the Andromeda.
Annabeth turned to Percy, "Come on, Seaweed Brain. Do your little prince commands."
Percy scowled at her, "Ariadne told you to not call me that." Annabeth rolled her eyes, jerking her head to the people in front of them. He looked towards the crew, looking for any details that point out what battalion that they belonged to. The one who could only be the captain seemed to realize what he was looking for. "It matters not, son of sea. Your father is not the one in control of us."
A chilling laugh rang out over the mast. All of them tensed as the spot in front of them swirled like the eye of a hurricane. Percy felt a chill run down his spine when he realized that it was the twins, Krokus, and Lady Beth that stood before them. "Your father is not the one in control of us," his brother mocked, fangs glinting sharply under the sunlight. His twin stood menacingly at his side as Lady Beth and Krokus fell back. He rarely ever saw this kind of protective rage from his brother.
Krokus held his hand out to the sea until riptide flew from the water. Ariadne moved forward as she scowled; eyes flickering over them all. "Tell me, commander, do the tides control this ship," she quoted. Her twin snorted from his spot at the mast. Krokus looked between them in confusion as the woman shook her head, "No, Princess."
"If I were to have you thrown overboard, would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore?"
The woman swallowed and shook her head, "No, Princess."
Her smile was shark-like as she continued, "Well, then, maybe you should worry less about the tides who've already made up their mind about killing you and worry more about me, who's still mulling it over."
"I—"
The ocean swirled under the ship, accepting her command as she walked forward. "Release my daughter. Release my kids. Release your prince." The twins flew forward, swords swinging through the air as they attacked as one. Percy watched in awe as the two seemingly danced through the air. Their weapons soared between the two as they ducked and rolled over their attackers.
He watched as Ariadne waved a strip of the water through the air and his brother slid down it like a slide knocking five warriors over like bowling pins.
He hoped to be as graceful as them one day. They made sword fighting look like an artform. (Nevermind that Ariadne always claimed that he would be the best swordsman ever as if it were a statement and not her opinion.)
"Krokus," he called to his brother who was rubbing a sea salve onto Annabeth's arms where the ropes dug in. "Who are these people? What battalion did they come from?" His brother spared a glance to the people still getting pummeled by the twins before turning back to wrap Drew's ankle in a kelp bandage.
"A rogue faction of the Shisui clan," he told them. Travis tilted his head. "The Shisui clan?" Krokus nodded, "Think about the pregnant women that were either thrown overboard or jumped into the ocean to prevent being enslaved. They were practicing magick the mortal world has long forgotten about and have now deemed evil. But is it really evil? Even with the Crone being against the gods… magick is not evil. Their christian god saw those people suffering and did nothing for them. Who knows what spells and prayers were said before they went under but those babies were born in that water and if they never took a breath of oxygen they didn't need it… we are already in water inside the womb."
He checked Travis over for injuries, "The Moirai did not allow the gods to interfere but the sea could not stand idly as people ventured into its water and angering its gods. Father and the council transformed them as they drowned until they were another form of Haliae that were born from both death and water. They mostly stay near the sea of japan as trauma keeps them away from the atlantic."
Krokus hadnt had the chance to say more before Ariadne kicked one of them in the head before turning towards them. His other brother snickered as he came up beside them, wrapping an arm around Lady Beth's waist.
"Drew Palphian Tanaka, Perseus Hector Jackson, Travis Simon Stoll, Annabeth Kore Chase… how dare you sneak out of Castellan to go on a quest that you know absolutely nothing about without any supplies? And before you start, Drew, how dare you charmspeak my Schmidt and break your curfew?"
It was quiet for a moment as they all looked down in shame before Lady Beth started laughing, "You cannot pretend to be stern for a moment." Ariadne sighed before nodding her head, "You could've let me pretend for a little longer." Her twin snickered once more, "We got into worse stuff when we were their age. Need I remind you one how you found Ennea?"
Ariadne perked up, "You're all grounded when we get back home."
"You're coming with us," Travis questioned. "I thought there was no direct involvement."
His namesake shook his head, "That's for gods only. And despite our immortality, we are not gods."
"Thank the gods for that," Ariadne muttered.