Chapter 32

Natalie's P.O.V.

"C'mon Piper, let's do some sparring," Natalie said, in a desperate attempt to take Piper's mind off Jason. After he'd unexpectedly collapsed after she and Annabeth returned, she had been growing sick with worry.

Fortunately, this worked. Piper had somehow grown more and more lenient towards fighting ever since they had left for Rome from Camp Jupiter.

She picked up one of the swords from the deck and readied herself. Natalie stood up and willed her sword into her hand. The imperial gold blade appeared, its hilt perfectly balanced in her hand. She loved it.

She stood in front of Piper. Leo leaned on the deck railing, watching them. Percy, Annabeth, Jason were resting from the last night, and Frank and Hazel were in the stables, though no one literally cared whatever they were doing. At least Nike would have company. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she didn't really like keeping victory chained up down in the stables.

As a Roman, they had been taught to respect her, not well, chain and gag her, but anyways, it wasn't exactly as bad as what would happen if Gaea rose. At least they were giving her a free ride 'round the Aegean Sea.

"Come on, ladies. I'd love some fighting," Leo cheered.

"You sound like Coach Hedge," Natalie told him.

She kept a foot back, maintaining a stance. Piper tensed, ready for the fight. She and Piper maintained eye contact for about ten seconds, and then she charged.

Fighting with Piper was not as easy as it had once probably been, but she was still not very good at it. Sure, she'd improved a lot, but well, Natalie had been training with not just a sword, but also with a bow and pilum for ten years.

She was already good at fighting with all these weapons, but Piper was now getting better too.

She tried to jab and strike at many weak points, but Natalie just laid back. She just defended the strikes. Sure, she never hesitated to defeat anybody, but right now, she wanted to get Piper's mood up. If she got defeated easily, she would skulk even more.

Piper slashed fiercely, Natalie just kept parrying all her strikes. She had almost let Piper disarm her before Piper pulled back.

She stared at her. "What? You were winning. Why'd you pull back?"

"You're not this sloppy. You're letting me win," she said.

"Of course I'm not."

"Yeah you are," Leo said, and Natalie gave him a death glare. He was so not helping her.

Piper took a deep breath. "Look, I know you're trying to get my mood up, and I appreciate it, but I want honest play. In a few days maybe there'll be a time I'll have to fight for my life and this world, so I want to get as good as I can. I'm dead serious about sword fighting. Okay, maybe not dead, but definitely serious."

Natalie sighed. "Okay, fine. C'mon then, McLean. Let's have a real match."

Piper grinned. "That's what I want. You're so going to lose."

Okay, at least she was smiling now. Mission accomplished. She readied herself. Three seconds of eye contact, and then charge. This time, she didn't hold back a bit.

She wasn't going to play on the defensive. She jabbed at Piper's knee, but she deflected it, slashing near her torso. Natalie jumped as Piper aimed a slash at her legs. She attacked even more fiercely, not giving a chance to let Piper get on the offensive.

Hacking and slashing, Piper soon began to go backwards. She aimed a blow on Piper's left. Just as she was about to deflect it, she pulled back and twisted her sword against Piper's. It fell down to the ground with a clatter.

Piper stood there, Natalie's sword near her chin, disarmed. She lowered her sword.

"Now that," Piper told her. "Was fun."

"You've improved a lot," Natalie smiled, complimenting her. "That slash was just amazing. I bet you're better than three fourth the legionnaires at Camp Jupiter already."

"Thanks."

Somehow, even after losing, Piper seemed happy. Natalie admired her for it. Because for a Roman, defeat was never the option. Aut vincere aut mori, she remembered. Either die or conquer. Nothing between that.

"You know what," Piper said. "Let's just use the Odontotyrranos horn. Jason's asleep. We'll just shove some of it down his throat because he won't take it when he's awake."

"I was thinking the same. Let's go talk to Anna–whoa!"

The Argo II gave a mighty lurch as it was struck by a huge wave. Suddenly, the weather seemed to darken. Storm clouds started gathering around.

"Oh that can't be good," Leo said, running towards them.

"How come there's suddenly a storm?" Piper asked. "The sky was clear just a minute ago."

Yeah, she was right. It had been perfect weather before the wave had struck. And since it was a wave, it meant there was something wrong in the sea. She was on guard duty, so she did the natural thing.

"Be right back," she yelled to Leo and Piper, and then jumped off the railing and plunged into the cold sea waters. Now, any other person might have had difficulties seeing inside the water, but she had perfect senses.

A great white shark zipped past her, in a hurry to get away. Okay, something was definitely wrong.

"Hey," she called to the shark. "What's wrong?"

The shark looked at her, then ran off. She squinted ahead. Around her were ruins, and something was glowing. However, before she could figure out anything, a massive wave crashed into the hull of Argo II. The ship tilted, and she heard a scream. Piper.

Perhaps she had been looking for her from the railing when the ship might have tilted. Then she remembered, in a fraction of a second, that Piper would probably break all her bones if she crashed into the water. And the ship would probably capsize at the rate those waves were striking it. Immediately, she willed the water around her to shoot up. She shot above the surface just as Piper was about to hit it, grabbed her by the waist, and they both rose on a column of water, landing gracefully on the deck.

"Thanks," Piper panted.

"Nah, don't mention it," she said. Dark clouds swirled above, the storm growing fiercer. Frank and Hazel were already trying to keep the mast intact. Percy and Annabeth appeared, but the ship immediately lurched and they all were thrown off balance. Objects were clattering here and there. Leo rushed off to the engine room, trying to control the ship. Frank Hazel, Annabeth and Piper desperately tried to keep the situation under control.

Meanwhile, she and Percy tried to keep the ship from capsizing, fighting against the waves. Well, that storm was really strong.

"There's something down there," she yelled at Percy, hoping her voice would reach her in spite of the winds."In the Ocean!"

She didn't know if Percy heard it or not, but he seemed to have gotten the gist of it. Just then, Jason stumbled on the deck, looking at their desperate condition, clutching his wound.

"Jason!" she yelled angrily. "Go back! You're injured!"

Jason didn't seem to hear her. He kept advancing somehow.

"Let him come!" Percy yelled at her.

"Are you crazy?"

"Can you hold the ship?" he asked her.

"Well what else have I been doing till now?," she retorted. "Of course I can!"

Percy gave her a thumbs up. Then he looked at Jason and signed him. Bottom. Ocean. Come with me.

And before she could protest that Jason was injured, they both jumped downwards, Percy shielding Jason from the impact of the water. How he would breathe down there, she didn't know. So, she kept her mind steady to keep the ship from capsizing.

The waves smashed against the ship, drenching all of them. Even Natalie was drenched with icy cold water. It's kind of hard to focus on not getting wet when you're trying to keep a massive storm from smashing your ship to bits.

She remembered the time they had saved Frank from the gorgons. She and Percy had made giant…fists. Yes, she thought, willing great fists out of the water. She spread her hands, and the fists materialized, smashing the waves. Another wave was punched back by the fists, but they were so huge that in the third one, they both collided so massively that gallons of water shot towards the Argo II. All that water would have right away flooded the ship and thrown them off the deck, but she immediately put up her hands and shielded the ship and her friends.

She pushed back the water.

Okay, she had controlled liquids. She could control any liquid, even blood(though that didn't exactly make her feel good). But not just controlling water in such a large quantity, but also fighting back against a power of the ocean at the same time, that definitely took its toll. For the next half an hour, she somehow managed to keep the ship from capsizing. She kept destroying the waves by willing the waves into different structures. It looked as if the ocean were at war with itself.

What, she thought, in the name of Hades were Jason and Percy doing down there. Then, just as a huge wave was about to crash into the Argo II, the water suddenly splashed back into the ocean. The weather cleared, sunny and bright again as though there never had been a storm.

Good, they managed to set it right then, she thought. Then she slumped on the railing, all the energy drained out of her. Everything seemed blurry. She could feel the blood signatures of her crewmates around her, their voices muffled and heavy. Someone kept a hand on her shoulder and another hand fed her ambrosia. Her vision cleared. The world came into a sharper focus. It was Hazel who had fed her ambrosia. Frank had one hand on her shoulder, as Annabeth, Piper and Leo looked at her concernedly.

"I'm fine," she said coarsely. "Just got a bit drained out. Need to catch my breath."

Annabeth looked at her. "Are you okay? You were almost glowing or smoking or something…"

She nodded. "I'm fine. Help me up."

Frank gave her his other hand and pulled her up. She stumbled, but the ambrosia had helped. She was quickly gaining all her energy back.

"Seriously guys, I'm fine now," she insisted. "It's just controlling so much water for such a long time isn't exactly a piece of cake."

"You were amazing," Frank grinned, his eyes glinting. "Those fist things were really cool to watch even though the storm would probably have destroyed us."

She smiled. "Where are Percy and Jason?"

"They haven't returned yet," Annabeth told her.

Had something happened to them in the ocean? Jason had already been in a sickly condition. What if they needed help?

"I should go down and check," she said, moving towards the edge just when Percy and Jason shot out of the water. And the surprise? Jason was fully healed. In fact, he looked as if he had never even been hurt. Piper rushed forward and tackled him with a hug.

"Your wound," she said, keeping a hand on the place where he had been stabbed. "It's healed…how?"

"That's a long story," Percy grinned. "C'mon, we'll tell you down at the mess hall. I'm hungry."