Hey guys! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, we got some badass Percy coming up in the next few chapters so look forward to that. I think you'll enjoy how I deal with certain situations.

The three demigods were fairly sombre when Percy led them out of the infirmary and, holding onto both of them tightly, used the currents of the ocean around them to propel them upwards towards the surface, and she didn't allow herself to look back- she couldn't. That way lay madness, she knew if she looked back, if she saw the battles, she knew she wouldn't even want to leave.

So she propelled them onwards and upwards, and once they breached the surface it was easy enough for her to will the currents to take them towards Long Island- admittedly it took a while but Percy was holding up better than she'd expected, though she was kind of drained.

By the time they arrived on the beach at camp it was the afternoon, and Percy kept an arm tight around Beckendorf as they approached the shore, though when they were close enough she let go of Luke- he was a very skilled swimmer- they'd spent half of their childhoods playing in the sea and in pools because of Percy's love of them, so he'd learned to swim and to swim well- and even then he'd never been able to keep up, not even when Percy had been just a little toddler.

Still, it meant that Percy was willing to let go of him so that she could focus on towing Beckendorf to the shore- he wasn't a bad swimmer usually but, well, he only had one arm now, it would take a long time for him to get used to it and he sure as Hades wouldn't be swimming to the shore on his own.

As they reached the shore Percy found herself laughing brightly- Connor was on watch it seemed and he was sat in one of the trees- at the sight of the trio emerging from the water he let out an excited cry and literally toppled out of the tree- and Beckendorf and Luke both laughed with Percy at the sight of it as he scrambled for the conch horn, which he'd dropped in his excited fall.

By the time they reached him he was pressing the horn to his lips blowing loudly to alert everyone to their return.

Then he was dropping the horn again and launching himself forward, hugging Luke first.

"Luke! Dude you guys were supposed to be back hours ago what happened?" his eyes flicked to Beckendorf, who was leaning slightly against Percy who had an arm wrapped around him, focusing on the very visibly missing left arm, and he sucked in a sharp breath, "The plan went wrong."

"Yeah." Percy nodded, "Yep, it went wrong, but on the plus side we made it out alive and the Princess Andromeda went boom."

"That's great then." Connor grinned, "C'mon, we should let everyone know what happened and get Beckendorf to the infirmary." as he spoke Luke slung an arm over Connors
shoulder.

Together they climbed the sand dunes. A few hundred yards away, people were already streaming toward them, smiling and excited.

Percy doubted that they'd be so happy when they saw Beckendorf- but honestly they were lucky to get out alive.

They stopped at the dining pavilion, Luke and Connor grabbing some chairs so that Beckendorf and Percy could sit down- Luke insisted on that, since she'd taken them all the way from Atlantis.

Percy did have to admit that once she was sat she was grateful, she did feel tired easier lately- it was to do with the curse of Achilles she was pretty sure.

Once she was sat Percy let out a breath, staring across camp.

She did so love her second home. It was as beautiful as they came.

Then Chiron galloped into the pavilion- it was easy for him to outpace the others, and Percy grinned when she saw him, his beard had grown wilder over the summer. He wore a green T-shirt that said MY OTHER CAR IS A CENTAUR and a bow slung over his back.

"Percy! Luke! Charles, thank the gods!" he looked incredibly relieved before his smile faltered when he spotted Beckendorf's missing arm "What happened?"

"Ambush." Percy grimaced, "It's a long story-"

"They have to have known we were coming-" Luke said suddenly, "I've been thinking about it-"

"You mean they were expecting you?" Chiron looked startled, "Does that mean-"

"We'll discuss that later." Percy cut them both off quickly, earning her some narrowed eyes.

"Percy-"

"Not now." Percy shook her head. The last thing they needed were the others tearing each other apart for fear of a spy- and she just knew some people would blame Drew even if it hadn't been her fault.

"Very well." Chiron didn't look pleased exactly but he nodded, "But I expect answers later."

"Sephie-" Luke's brows were furrowed, "It was an am-"

"You heard her Luke." Beckendorf said quickly, "I trust her judgement."

"Thank you." Percy let out a breath before she was distracted- because three figures had tore away from the rest of the crowds moving towards them and Percy was on her feet as Thalia, Silena and Annabeth came sprinting towards them, and Percy was knocked to the ground, back hitting it hard, knocking the wind out of her at the force of
Annabeth colliding with her, then Annabeth was yanking her so that they were sat up and Annabeth's lips were on hers and Percy instantly wrapped her arms around Annabeth, curling her fingers into her girlfriends hair, kissing back, letting the relief flood through her.

Then Annabeth pulled back and smacked Percy's arm, "What the Hades Seaweed brain?" She demanded, "You were supposed to get back last night!"

"Hey!" Percy let out a laugh, raising her hands to defend herself, a wide smile spreading across her lips, "We had some minor issues but I mean, we did blow up the ship."

"You did?" Annabeth beamed, "That's amazing. That'll set them back."

"Damn straight it will." that was Thalia's voice, and Percy turned her head to look at the others again.

Chiron was watching looking faintly amused, and Percy smiled as she focused on the others.

Thalia was tucked into Luke's side, on arm wrapped around him tightly and Luke's arm was slung over her shoulder, and Percy couldn't help but notice that the camp tee Thalia was wearing was that bit too big on her, and the jacket was definitely one of Luke's.

And then there were Silena and Beckendorf, Silena was shaking, her arms wrapped tightly around her boyfriend, who'd stood up to greet her. Her face was pressed into his shoulder his face was pressed into her hair and his arm was wrapped around her.

Then the others were reaching them, Nico and Leo leading the way, though Will was only a few steps behind, and he made a beeline for Beckendorf, speaking quietly to the couple while Leo dove top of Percy, Annabeth barely had enough time to dive out of the way.

Percy laughed, wrapping her arms around Leo as he asked, "Did it go boom? Please tell me it went boom. I can't believe I wasn't allowed to go and blow up the Princesss Andromeda I am literally fireproof-"

"Uh huh." Percy laughed, "It went boom." she focused on the others, who all looked pleased at that.

"That'll stop 'em in their tracks." Travis declared, "Knew you guys could do it-"

"Good to see you guys didn't completely blow it." Clarisse's voice was teasing- at least for her, though she was refusing to look at anyone else.

"It is indeed very good news." Chiron spoke loudly, "It means that we've brought ourselves more time. Will, take Charles to the infirmary and see what you can do.
Persephone, Luke. I'll want to hear your story of what happened. Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Leo, you can stay, the rest of you all have jobs to do. Get to it." his voice was stern, and the crowds dispersed quickly, leaving Percy still sat on the floor with Leo sprawled on top of her, Annabeth sat a few foot away.

They all got to their feet and Percy glanced at Luke, who gave a small nod.

"Right. You want the debrief." he shoved his free hand into his pocket, the other absently curling Thalia's short straight hair around his finger absent mindedly. "The first part of the plan went perfectly, we picked Percy up, we found the ship, got on it and down to the engine room easily enough." Luke explained, "We were setting up the explosives when we heard monsters coming down. We knew we wouldn't have time so Percy decided to distract them and buy Beckendorf and I time to do it and she told us to meet on the prearranged rendezvous point."

"Unfortunate but probably your best option." Chiron's voice was calm as he nodded, "I assume that didn't go as planned."

"Beckendorf and I set them up and we managed to sneak out to the helipad." Luke's voice was tight, "I'm not sure what happened leading up to that with Percy so she should probably step in now."

And Percy swallowed hard, "Right, well, uh, I got up to the main deck, fought my way past some monsters and a couple of demigods, and Kronos was waiting for me. He... uh, like Luke said before everyone else arrived, he was expecting us, he'd planned for it and he sprung an ambush."

"We have a spy then?" Annabeth's voice was stunned, betrayed- but Percy shook her head quickly.

"No, no it's not-" she groaned, running her fingers through her hair. "He found it amusing, he told me how they knew... he doesn't have spies here, not exactly. She didn't know she was being used as a spy-"

"What?" Chiron frowned, "What do you mean?"

"How can someone not know they're a spy." Thalia's voice was incredulous. "That makes like, no sense Percy."

"He fucked with her memories." Percy's voice was angry, "It's Drew's necklace, Alabaster cast some sort of spell on it so that it could be used to listen in on us. He captured her, enchanted her necklace and then wiped her memories of it and let her escape because he knew she'd come to me."

"Shit." Nico whistled lowly, "That- that's bad."

"Yeah, yeah it is. Especially since I was the one who found the necklace and gave it back to her after she lost it-"

"Percy-" Annabeth's voice was worried, "Percy that doesn't make it- you couldn't have known-"

"If I hadn't given it back to her they wouldn't have known any of our plans."

"Annabeth is right." Chiron's voice was firm, "It wasn't your fault, the only one to blame here is Kronos." he sighed heavily, "I assume there's more to the story?"

"Uh..." Percy hesitated, face flushing. This was the part that she'd probably get yelled at for, "In my defence I needed to buy Luke and Beckendorf time-"

"She was fighting Kronos." Luke cut across her, "When we got to the helipad she was in the middle of fighting Kronos-"

"What?" Annabeth almost shrieked the word, "You fought him?" She started tugging at Percy's clothes, "Did- oh gods are you okay-"

"Annabeth I'm fine-"

"Yes, she is." Luke was giving Percy a searching look, "Which is real crazy-"

"I got lucky." Percy said quickly-"

"Percy when we got there you were- I mean you were struggling but you were literally holding your own just about. It was one on one and somehow you were managing to just about keep up."

"What?" Chiron's eyes widened, "How? He's the Titan of time- as skilled as you are Persephone... to hold up against him-"

"Oh it gets better." Luke was staring at Percy with narrowed eyes. "When he spotted us he ordered the monsters to get us. And Percy used him as a spring board, jumped over the monsters, landed between them and us and then took out at least a hundred of them in less than two minutes-"

"What?" Nico blinked, "That- I know you're good Percy but that... that... no offence but I have never seen you do anything like that." and Percy could feel everyone's eyes on her, and she could see suspicion in Chiron's eyes. And... he'd trained Achilles hadn't he? If anyone was likely to figure it out it would be him.

"I was just desperate." Percy tried weakly, "It wasn't anything that-"

"And then Kronos got to her again and they were fighting and Beckendorf and I had to fend off the monsters and he got hurt, and I yelled and she turned to look-" Luke's voice was shaky as he met Percy's gaze, and Percy shook her head frantically- she knew she'd need to tell everyone eventually but... she was too drained to deal with the questions at this stage- and the day wasn't even nearly over yet.

After a long moment Luke sighed, "And- Kronos nearly got her." he finished, "She was lucky to dodge. And Kronos thought he managed to catch her, he thought he killed her- I thought he killed her. When she used her powers to smash him with water he was shocked enough that she managed to tell at me to get myself and Beckendorf off and I prayed to Lord Poseidon and jumped. The last thing I remember before blacking out was pressing the watch."

And Chiron was watching Percy, his eyes very slightly narrowed "And how did you get away?"

"I knocked him off balance with water, dropped Riptide and ran- he wasn't expecting me to rush him unarmed, it's the only reason I managed to jump away. I got as far away as I could before the explosion and it knocked me out. Then... I woke up in Atlantis. Dad heard Luke's prayer and mine and he sent Triton to rescue us."

"Thank the gods for your dad." Thalia was gripping Luke tightly, and Annabeth nodded.

"You guys were lucky to get out alive."

"And I can make my bro a new arm." Leo piped up quickly, "It's not good that he lost it but... I can fix it."

"Yes, yes I'm sure you can." Chiron let out a breath, "You will need to speak to Drew about her necklace Percy. And we'll need to call a war council to discus what comes next-"

"Not yet." Percy met Chiron's gaze. "I spoke to my father. He told me that it's time. I need to learn the Great Prophecy."