Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter, certain lines from the prophecy are going to become very very clear in this, and Percy can, if her family needs her to be, be manipulative. Also, protective family for the win! I love Nico, he's a good little brother, and Alabaster knows how to manipulate Percy too.
Percy wanted to scream, wanted to run away, but Alabaster's grip on her was too tight and he dragged her forward, towards the casket.
"No-Alabaster no- no stop it-"
"He won't harm you. He wants you on our side as much as I do-"
"Stop it!" that was Nico, his voice barely shaking despite his obvious fear as he lurched to his feet, "You're scaring her! Stop it! Leave Percy alone-"
"Shut it brat." Alabaster rolled his eyes, waving a hand, and two large figures who had been stood behind Nico, Grover and Tyson stepped forward.
They looked like twins, but they weren't human. They stood about eight feet tall, for one thing, and wore only blue jeans, probably because their enormous chests were already shag-carpeted with thick brown fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws. Their noses were snoutlike, and their teeth were all pointed canines.
One of them reached out, grabbing Nico's shoulder and yanking him down, though Grover and Tyson grabbed at the smallest member of the group, steadying his fall.
"Don't treat him like that." Percy's voice was shaky as she tried to tug her hand free from Albaster's grip. "And let go of me-"
"No."
"Let go of her!" that was Luke, and Percy glanced backwards, wincing at the sight of two giants grabbing Luke's arms, physically holding back her big brother as he snarled furiously and tried to launch himself at Alabaster.
Annabeth wasn't too much better, struggling in the grip of the Giants holding her looking furious as they were both tossed onto the free sofa.
"Stop it you two!" Percy ordered quickly. She didn't want them to get hurt. The thought of that terrified her. "What do you want Alabaster?"
"The Fleece your brother is wearing for one-could have just killed him and taken it-" she saw Nico tense and pale in panic at that, and Grover wrapped his arms around the son of Hades protectively, as did Tyson.
"No hurting Nico." Tyson growled the words.
"Shut up." Alabaster rolled his eyes, "Before I make you. The only one I want to hear speak is Perce." his gaze focused on her, "I chose not to Percy. Because I know you care about him. So I'll let him live-all you have to do is convince the brat to give up the Fleece." he grabbed her other hand, holding them both up and giving her an imploring look, "Percy please. I know you've said no before but think about it. Please you can join me, I'll make sure the people you love are safe I promise you."
"I.." Percy's mind was racing. They had to find a way out of this they had to-she just wasn't sure how yet. "Alabaster.." her voice cracked slightly, "Please Albaster..." her eyes flicked towards the casket, "What happens when... when the Fleece-" Gods but the cold, the closeness made it hard to focus. It reminded her of the cavern, of the bone chilling terror she'd felt when she realized what was going on.
She was shaking slightly she realized, and Alabaster's brows furrowed in concern "Perce-I'm sorry... you're scared..." his eyes flicked to the casket,
"I know that things were difficult last time-in the Cavern-I didn't handle it well-"
"You'll let them go?" Percy knew she was making it up as she was going along, "You use the Fleece to speed up Kronos' healing and you'll let them go? You'll let the others go-"
"If you stay with me-"
"Percy-" Annabeth's voice was panicked, "You can't-"
"What about the Fleece-"
"They can take it with them for all I care." Alabaster shrugged, "It would be useful to eliminate Camp of course, it would mean I get more Demigods flocking to me for the sake of safety and joining our war but this stage it's not too important. If it makes you happy I will gladly give you the Fleece."
Percy's tongue darted out, dampening her lips, "Can I talk to Nico first. He's terrified." it was a very very dangerous plan-and it was more likely to backfire than not-but she had to try.
"Of course." Alabster let go of her hands and he turned his head to look at the twins, "Let him up-" before he'd even finished speaking Nico was almost flying towards Percy, smashing into her, arms wrapping around her tightly as he shook his head.
"Percy! Percy please you can't I don't want to give it to him please don't make me."
"C'mere." Percy hugged Nico very tightly, pressing her face into the top of his soft dark hair, "Bas-" she ignored the sharp gasps from Grover and Annabeth and the low growl from Luke at that, "I'm gonna take him to the corner, I wanna talk to him without Annbeth, Luke and Grover judging me."
"Percy-"
"Shut up Chase." Alabaster snarled the words, "Or I'll have one of them gag you-of course you can Perce."
The smile he gave her was sickening-she hated the fact that he clearly still felt something for her-though that would morph into anger very quickly she was sure.
She pulled Nico to the corner of the room, trying to keep her hands from shaking as she prayed that no one caught onto what she was planning and gave it away.
But it did make sense. The Prophecy was all making sense to her now-most of it anyway.
Alone one must take it and acceptance earn, despite a parentage not often admired. It was Nico. Nico had to take the Fleece back to Camp on his own, and he'd earn their acceptance by saving the Camp.
Once they were in the corner-and conveniently for Percy it was in the shade of the bed, she ducked down, lips brushing against Nico's ear, "Get out of here. Don't worry 'bout us we'll figure something out, get home and get Clarisse to escort you to camp right away-and do not take the Fleece off do you hear me. You wear it until you can place it on Thalia's tree." she whispered the words as low as she could-and she felt Nico stiffen, saw his eyes widen in surprise as he twisted his face to look at Percy.
"But-"
"You heard me Nico." her voice was slightly louder as she released his shoulders and stepped back.
Hopefully the Fleece would keep him from being quite so weak as he had been originally when he'd first used his Shadow Traveling.
Nico stared at her for several long seconds, and then he grabbed the zipper of the jacket and tugged it up further, a determined gleam in his eyes as Alabaster spoke.
"What's he do-" and then Nico was fading into the shadows, becoming one with them, and Percy had Riptide out and uncapped, slashing the head off of the giant that had lunged towards them.
And then chaos broke out.
Luke had his sword out, and Annabeth was slashing at monsters with her dagger as Tyson got to his feet and charged one of the twins.
Even Grover started to fight against the monsters keeping them captive.
It was as she was ducking under the fist of one of the giants that Alabster surged towards her, golden sword in hand.
Their blades clashed as he pressed her towards the door on the other side of the room, furious look of betrayal on his face-and Gods but she could appreciate the irony there even as they fought.
"What's wrong Alabaster? Does being betrayed hurt?" her voice was mocking, and Alabaster snarled.
It had probably been somewhat stupid to taunt him, a fact that Percy was willing to admit when his blade caught her arm and her grip on Riptide loosened.
Alabaster pressed his advantage, managing to drive her through the door even as Percy fought to regain the upper hand, twisting to avoid another blow and tightening her grip on Riptide.
She ignored the pain it her arm as the door was slammed shut behind Alabaster-she also had to ignore the slowly rising panic when she realized that she was trapped in a room with the Demigod who had tried to toss her into Tartarus a year earlier.
Their last confrontation had been over and done with so quickly that she hadn't had much time to let the fear rise-whereas right now she was trapped alone in a room with a very very pissed off Alabaster.
Sure she was in better physical condition than she had been when they last fought properly, but she'd never felt so alone as she did now with him pressing her further and further back even as she fought with all of her strength against him. "It didn't have to be like this." Albaster snarled the words, his eyes gleaming with righteous fury. "Where did he go? Tell me and I won't hurt you. How did he do that?"
"I'd rather die than hand my baby brother over to you." Percy snapped, side stepping and backing away to avoid a blow, reaching up to flick open her locket-armour forming around her-blocking his next blow, which would have sliced her stomach open if he'd managed to actually catch her.
"Oh you won't die." Alabaster snapped, "No, no I can think of far better ways to hurt you for this Perce. How about I make you watch everyone in there die? Or your precious mommy, I know where you live Persephone-" that made her falter. Just slight hesitation but it was too much, she was distracted, wasn't paying enough attention to her surroundings and as she stepped back again her leg caught a low table and she stumbled backwards, crying out in shock and pain as she fell backwards, back hitting and shattering the table-which apparently was made of glass.
She should probably be incredibly grateful for the fact that she'd flicked open her locket in time because if she hadn't her back would be shredded up.
The moment of shock at her fall was enough, Alabster's foot was suddenly on her wrist, heel grinding against the bones, and she let out a pained gasp, sword slipping from her grip onto the floor, and Alabaster was kicking it away quickly, putting all of his weight onto her wrist as he did.
Percy screamed in pain, she was sure she could feel the bones in her wrist shattering at the weight pressing down on them and she desperately tried to wrench herself free.
"Get off! Get off it hurts!"
"Hurts does it?" Alabaster pushed down harder and Percy screamed louder, swinging her free hand to try and knock his foot away only for him to kick out with the foot that wasn't currently grinding her wrist bones into the floor.
He caught her face and her head snapped to the side.
Then his foot was gone but before she had time to do more than try and roll to the side Alabaster was grabbing her by her hair, hauling her to her feet-and it was like the Underworld all over again for just a second.
Then he was shoving her hard and her back smashed against the wall and he was right in front of her, pressing her into it, hand around her throat, squeezing hard as she tried to blink the blood out of her eyes, her head throbbing.
And really, it just wasn't fair, she seemed to get head injuries every time she was around Alabaster for a prolonged length of time.
She could feel his grip cutting off her air-and she really needed to get out of this-she could hear fighting from the other room, they needed her and she was stuck here, trapped with Alabaster, her vision going blurry from lack of oxygen as she frantically tried to pry his hand from her neck.
She was going to die. She was going to die here. Alabaster would keep her alive just long enough to see her brothers and friends die.
She felt her eyes filling with tears as she felt her arms going weak.
Then she heard it.
It was Luke's voice, loud and terrified, "SEPHIE! SEPHIE!" she heard a bang against the door-and then she could hear all of them, Annabeth's frantic;
"PERCY!"
Grovers terrified, "Percy!"
And she could hear Tyson's heartbreakingly frightened, "Big sister!"
They were all alive-they were all fighting.
They were fighting for her, fighting to get to her. She couldn't give up, she couldn't give up on fighting back because they were there, they were trying to get to her, to save her.
Suddenly she was wide awake, as strong as she'd ever felt as she lifted her knee between his legs just as Alabaster leaned in to brush his lips over her her cheek.
The noise he made was intensely satisfying, a pained sharp gasp and a groan as his grip on her throat loosened enough that she could suck in a desperately needed lungful of air as he doubled over.
She pushed him backwards with her uninjured hand and he staggered backwards, clearly winded. "You play dirty then I'll play dirty too." and Percy was curling the fingers of her injured hand into a fist, ignoring the pain as she swung, hitting him with all of her strength and sending his head snapping to the side even as he lifted it to try and straighten up. "Luke always told me when I was little, if you can't do anything else, if your opponent's guy you can always knee 'em in the balls."
