Disclaimer: All rights belong to Rick Riordan. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made.
Rating: T for dark themes and violence
Chapter 25
"What do you know about the legend of Achilles?" Annabeth asks Will the next day.
"He was one of the greatest mortal heroes ever," he replies. "He famously fought Prince Hector of Troy and defeated him in front of the city before the whole Trojan horse trick. They sacked the city and he was killed by Hector's younger brother Paris."
"But he was invincible, right?"
"Almost. He had one weakness."
"His heel. But how did he get that invincibility if he was mortal?"
"The story says that his mother dipped him in the River Styx when he was a baby. She held onto his heel, which was the only part of his body that remained vulnerable."
"Where is the River Styx?"
"It's in the Underworld."
Annabeth feels the blood drain out of her face. She stumbles back a few steps. Will frowns at her.
"Are you okay? You look sick." He takes a step forward. "Here, let me - "
"I'm fine," she says, pushing his hand away. "I just - " She stops short, not able to make up an excuse.
Will doesn't look convinced. "Why are you asking about this?"
She waves him off, slowly recovering. "I'm just trying to learn more Greek mythology, that's all. Thanks for your help."
She exits the infirmary, heading through the corridors of the second level, but Will follows her.
"You were asking about where Nico went yesterday," he accuses. "You said you had a theory. You promised you'd tell me when you were sure."
Annabeth halts and turns to face him. She did promise him, and she knows he won't leave her alone until she fesses up.
"Percy was trapped in the Underworld for four weeks. Nico disappeared the day before Sciron attacked and he returned the same day Percy did. Percy told me he went to see someone in the Underworld."
"So? Nico helped Percy get back out."
"But that's not all he did." Annabeth glances around to make sure no one's listening. "Will, you have to promise to keep this a secret."
He looks at her strangely. "Okay. I promise."
"Swear it on the River Styx."
"I swear it on the River Styx." Thunder rumbles overhead. Annabeth ignores it.
"The spirit Percy went to see was Achilles. Percy knew he couldn't defeat Sciron without help, so he bathed himself in the River Styx to gain invulnerability. Nico helped him."
Will stares at her with wide eyes. Around them the boat rocks, the seas getting choppy, but they both ignore it.
"How sure are you?" he asks.
"I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure."
"So what do we do? Protect his heel?"
Annabeth has another theory about that. "Actually, I'm not sure - "
The alarm suddenly wails. Sailors begin rushing past them and shouting to each other. Annabeth sees a lot of weapons and a few jars of Greek fire.
"I better go," she says, pushing past Will and heading for the ladder to the top deck.
Annabeth pokes her head up and is instantly assailed by heavy winds and rain. The Argo II pitches from side to side. Festus shakes his neck and roars, spitting out flames ahead. The sky is dark, heavy clouds surrounding them.
Percy stands at the front of the ship, his hands out and his face scrunched up in concentration.
Annabeth grabs Frank's arm as he runs by. "What's going on?" she yells over the storm.
"We're getting close to Sciron!" Frank replies. "Get ready for battle!"
A large wave rises up and washes over the deck. Leo yells in frustration and begins shouting orders to passing sailors.
Annabeth grabs the mast as another large wave buffers the ship to the side. One sailor pitches over the railing, but a stream of water controlled by Percy brings him back over.
In the distance, Annabeth can see Sciron's dark ship sailing towards them through the storm. Above his black sails whip his flags, the skeletal mermaid and one with a trident on it. Annabeth wonders how Sciron can still be deluded enough to think that Poseidon's on his side.
He's definitely about to get the shock of his life.
The closer his ship gets, the worse the storm around them becomes. Most of Percy's crew is crawling along the deck, the winds strong enough to whip a grown man away. Only Percy remains standing as he faces his half-brother.
Sciron's ship pulls up next to theirs. Annabeth can see dozens, maybe even hundreds, of monsters standing on the deck across from them. She sees telkhines and half-man half-dolphin creatures and evil naiads and nereids. There are a few pirates thrown in between the monsters, glaring at them and cocking pistols or holding swords. They're all waiting impatiently for the battle to start.
Sciron himself stands at the front of the army. He's holding the pearl in one hand. When he sees Percy, he sneers.
"So you did survive. Ran away to hide behind daddy?"
Percy's fist clenches at his side. "News flash, brother," he calls out. "You're not dad's favorite anymore. Actually, you never were."
"That's fine with me," Sciron spits. "With the pearl, I'm more powerful than him anyways. After I beat you and your pathetic excuse for a crew, I'll take over the oceans. And when the oceans are under my control, I'll take his throne on Olympus."
"Something tells me the other gods won't agree to that." Percy unsheathes Riptide. "But it won't be an issue, because you won't win."
He summons up a wave to carry him over to Sciron. Sciron whips out his pistols and fires off multiple rounds. All the bullets glance off of Percy's skin. He continues sailing through the air towards the pirate, and Sciron's eyes narrow. He drops his pistols right before Percy barrels into him. The two fly over the deck of his ship and crash into the choppy waves on the other side.
The monsters take that as their cue to attack. The storm around the ships lessens as Sciron focuses his power on his fight with Percy, and the Argo II's crew jumps to their feet and meets the challenge. Fighting breaks out on the deck of the Argo II as the monsters surge forward.
Leo spins a dial on one of his Archimedes spheres and all of them light up and spin, electricity shooting out and zapping monsters into dust. He also lifts his palms and shoots fire at any that come too close. Another dial on the Archimedes spheres controls the canons and some of his other weapons.
Frank uses his bow and arrows at first, but when the monsters get too close he drops them and pulls out his spear. No monster is able to get within three feet of him as he expertly whirls it around, pushing them back and finding chinks in their armor.
Nico summons up the skeletons of dead sailors from the shipwrecks below them. They emerge from the sea and climb up the side of the ship, joining in the fray with rusted antique weapons. He also pulls out his black sword and stabs any monsters that venture in his vicinity.
Annabeth's fighting skills are really put to the test. She has the disadvantage of not having a lot of range, but she can also weave between monsters, slicing at them and retreating again. She uses all the skills that Percy and Luke taught her as she fights for her life.
The real battle is the one above the surface of the water, though. Percy and Sciron are fighting with swords, floating above the ocean on streams of water. Sciron stabs and slashes at Percy, but even the hits that get through his defenses are useless against Percy's impenetrable skin.
Annabeth fights her way through the monster horde to Frank. "We need to organize the crew!" she shouts over the din of battle. "Otherwise we'll all die!"
Frank nods. He speeds up and decimates the monsters around him before cupping his hands over his mouth. "Form a line!" he bellows, his voice carrying.
The crew members adjust their fighting, working their way from random spots across the deck to each other. A loose line begins to form on the main deck. Frank and Annabeth jump down from the top deck and join them.
"Get the shields," Frank instructs Annabeth. "And find Will."
Will is huddled over a patient, but even as she reaches him he rocks back on his heels, a crushed look on his face. Annabeth rushes past him and stabs a monster that's about to take a bite out of him.
"Will!" She shakes his shoulder. "I need your help!"
She pulls him back behind the rough line. "We need to take the shields from the sides and give them to the fighters! Then they can push back the monsters!"
She and Will leap into action, ripping the Celestial Bronze shields from the railing and waiting for opportunities to give them to the crew. The rough line begins to harden up and they start pushing the monsters back, leaving less room on the deck of the Argo II for more monsters to come over. Frank stands behind the line and shouts orders in between using his bow to shoot down the few flying monsters.
Nico stumbles back behind the line, looking even pastier than normal. Will catches him as he collapses.
"He can't summon any more skeletons," Will says as he digs out a canteen of nectar and forces the mouth between Nico's white lips.
"Keep watch over him. He's too powerful to lose." Annabeth tightens her grip on her knife. "I'm going back in."
"Be careful," Will says, but she's already gone.
Leo is still running around in a panic. Festus is blow-torching as many monsters as he can, but they're starting to crawl over his neck. Leo sends a small fleet of Archimedes spheres to electrocute them while he attempts to keep the ship stabilized among the chaos.
Out on the ocean, Percy has worn Sciron out. He ducks a slow swing and smashes the hilt of his blade into Sciron's forehead. The pirate collapses into the water. Percy follows him, but he's gone, along with the pearl. Percy blasts back up to the surface, his frustration pouring over. He shoots up and lands on the deck of the Argo II and starts helping his friends out.
His crew has formed a defensive line under Frank's control and have just pushed away the tide of monsters when a loud roar breaks through the diminishing storm. Everyone turns around to see a massive sea turtle breaking the surface, it's sharp mouth headed straight for the Argo II. Percy curses under his breath and leaps off the ship, his sword raised as he meets the large monster in battle.
The monsters take advantage of the Argo II crew's surprise and hit them hard with another wave, pushing back the defensive line all the way to the railings. It splits apart and leaves everyone fending for themselves in another chaotic skirmish. Only this time, everyone is already tired while the monsters are fresh and chomping at the bit for tasty demigod flesh.
Annabeth peeks at Percy's battle between monsters. He's flying around the turtle using a jet stream of water, stabbing at it but not doing too much damage on the whole. Mostly he's just irritating it and keeping it from destroying the Argo II.
He eventually draws it around to the front of the ship, taunting it and bringing it closer to Festus. When it's in range he jumps out of the way and Festus opens his jaws with a whirl of gears, sending a concentrated line of flames straight at the turtle's face. The sea turtle's body disintegrates, leaving behind a massive shell that floats on the waves.
Percy returns to the ship. Annabeth makes her way over to him until they're fighting back to back. It feels natural to be fighting with him after all their practice skirmishes. They know each other and their fighting styles so well that they're like one well-oiled machine.
Annabeth slices through a telkhine only to face a pirate. She dislikes fighting humans, but when they're trying to kill her, she has no qualms about destroying them. It's like the pirate she fought on Reyna and Hylla's ship. He would have killed her, so she has to kill him first.
The pirate stabs around her, and Annabeth realizes after a moment that he's just playing with her. He draws her out from around Percy, leaving his back wide open. Annabeth gets a bad feeling in her gut, and without thinking twice backs up to him again, even though it leaves her wide open to attack by the pirate.
There's a loud crack of a pistol and Annabeth feels a sharp pain in her side. A cry escapes her lips as she drops her knife and presses her hand to her side, feeling warm blood rush up and spill out. She looks up in shock, seeing Sciron still pointing the end of his pistol at Percy's back in the exact spot where she had just moved to.
Percy whirls around, taking in the situation in seconds. Annabeth stumbles back and collapses, curling up on the deck as the pain consumes her. She watches through a haze as Percy stands over her and starts swinging his sword wildly.
"Get back!" he screams. "Nobody touches her!"
Streams of water slide up the side of the ship and surround him, spinning until he's surrounded by his own personal hurricane. He begins moving around the deck, slicing and stabbing and vaporizing monsters left and right. As the hurricane winds around him blow stronger, even Sciron takes the hint and jumps off the deck of the Argo II, heading back for his own ship.
Once all the monsters aboard the Argo II have been destroyed, Percy stands at the railing and raises his arms. A huge wave rises up between the two ships, winds from his personal hurricane blowing them apart. Within minutes they're so far away from each other that the sky clears up again and the waves quiet down.
Annabeth barely notices, though. She feels hands rolling her over and hears Will's soothing voice, but she doesn't understand what he's saying. She feels the mouth of a canteen against her lips and tastes the magical nectar washing down her throat. She remembers when he told her that more than a mouthful could incinerate a mortal.
As the pain from her side continues to consume her, she wonders if she's dying from a bullet wound or from drinking too much nectar. She definitely feels like she's on fire.
Her vision blurs out completely until she slips into the darkness.
"Put her down gently."
Percy sets Annabeth's body down on one of the cots in the infirmary. Around him, other crew members are escorting other injured men into the room, but right now Percy has his eyes for only one patient.
Annabeth stirs as Will pushes up her shirt and begins cleaning out the area around the wound. He grimaces before turning and grabbing his bag.
"I'm going to have to dig the bullet out," he says, fixing his sky blue eyes on Percy.
Percy nods. "Okay."
Annabeth reaches out, her eyes still half-closed, and grasps weakly at Percy's arm. It takes him a moment to realize that she's searching for his hand. He intertwines his fingers with hers.
"Annabeth," he says, leaning down. "Can you hear me?"
"Pretty stupid of me, huh?" she whispers back, her breathing labored. "Taking a bullet for an invincible man."
Percy can't tell her now, but what she did was the opposite of stupid. He doesn't know if it was on purpose or on accident, but if she hadn't taken that bullet, it would have hit his Achilles spot. A small patch on his back that he should have covered with armor - not that his armor would have stopped a Celestial Bronze bullet.
How did you know? he wants to ask, but there will be time for that later.
Will holds up a knife, the canteen of nectar next to him. "Here goes," he warns. Annabeth clenches her eyes shut and tightens her grip on his hand. Percy has to look away as Will cuts the bullet out of her skin. Seeing her injured is bad enough.
She doesn't make a sound, although he nearly whimpers at how tightly she's gripping his hand. He'll be lucky if he can use it to fight again. When did she become so strong?
Suddenly he's angry at himself about all the time they missed together. He'd been so hurt by her rejection that he'd kept her at a distance, even after she came back from England alone for him. Now he wishes he could go back in time and do it all over again. He wouldn't push her away. He would enjoy every second that he had with her, because who knows when it could be their last?
Will digs the bullet out. He drops it in a metal tray with a sharp ping and then washes out the wound with nectar. He roots for his bag for a silvery paste, which he smears on the wound as he mutters in Ancient Greek. Will rarely resorts to using magical healing, so Percy knows her injury is serious - or maybe Will just cares about her enough to ensure that she survives.
After he bandages it up, he looks pale and shaken, more like Nico than himself. He staggers grabbing the side of the cot for support.
"That should do it," he says. "She should make it."
If it were anyone else, Percy would have hounded them for more information. Should? he'd ask. Is that the best you can do? But he knows Will, and there's no one else he trusts more.
Annabeth's eyes have drifted closed again. Percy glances around the infirmary, seeing for the first time how many patients Will has ahead of it.
"Can she be moved?" he asks. "I'll take her somewhere more private. Then you'll have the cot, as well."
"As long as you're careful." Will places his hand on her forehead one last time, frowning slightly, before turning around and moving on to his next patient.
Percy lifts her up again and takes her up to his cabin. It's the only other cabin on the ship with an actual bed instead of a hammock. He lays her down gently and drapes a blanket over her, hiding the injury. If it weren't for the beads of sweat on her forehead, he could pretend she was just sleeping.
Her eyes blink open again. Percy instantly kneels down by her side. "Annabeth? Do you need something? Water?"
She nods, and he grabs a canteen and helps her sit up just enough to drink from it. Then she collapses back down against the pillow, the small action having drained her energy.
Percy reaches out and brushes a stray piece of hair off her forehead. He wouldn't be so confident if she hadn't almost died today, but he's sick of walking on his tiptoes around her. Either she's changed her mind about being with him since she broke off her engagement or not; he's not going to dance around the subject forever. She already knows how he feels about her, anyway.
"Why did you take that bullet for me?" he asks, leaving his hand around her face.
"You would have done the same for me," she responds, focusing her eyes on his. He can see how much effort it's taking her, and he knows he needs to let her rest, but he can't wait to talk to her. He has to know.
"How did you know?" he asks, lowering his voice.
"I had a dream," she replies. "About Achilles. And I know you were down in the Underworld…"
Percy laughs lightly and ducks his head. "I could never keep anything a secret from you, Wise Girl." His smile fades. "But how did you know I was in danger?"
"I had a feeling." She reaches her hand out and touches his face. "I couldn't have another funeral for you. I already used up my good speech."
"So I heard. Are you ever going to tell me what you said?"
A ghost of a smile appears on her face. "Maybe if we survive Sciron."
Percy moves his hand back and takes the one she has stretched out. He squeezes it gently. "Get some rest. I need my smartest advisor if I have any hope of doing that."
Her eyes close and she drifts off. Percy sits there holding her hand for a while. When he finally leaves, he heads back out on deck.
Frank and Leo are working together to keep the ship sailing. There was substantial damage that will have to be repaired before they do any more serious sailing, but Percy's first priority is to defeat Sciron. If they can't stop him, there won't be any serious sailing in the future. In fact, there won't be a future at all for them.
Both guys turn as soon as he steps out.
"Percy!" Frank jogs over. "How is everyone? I haven't been down to the infirmary, but I know there were a lot of guys down there."
Percy nods. "Will is going to need a raise. And maybe an assistant, if we survive this."
"What about Annabeth?" Leo asks.
"Will said she'd survive." Percy exhales deeply. It's been a stressful day for him as well. If his nerves weren't so shot, he'd try to sleep, but right now he knows he'll just have nightmares or worse, he'll lie awake and overthink everything.
Frank sets his hand on his shoulder. "And how are you doing?"
"Honestly?" Percy rubs his eyes. "Not well. More than half my crew is seriously injured or dead. My half-brother escaped and is probably gathering even more forces as we speak. My ship itself is badly damaged."
"You don't have to do this alone," Frank says, his eyes softening. "Percy, let us help you. Let us help take on Sciron."
"You can't. He's too dangerous." Percy paces the deck, too agitated to stand still. "This is my battle. It's my brother, and it's my element."
"You don't have to be the hero," Frank insists. "Let us share the burden."
Percy takes a deep breath. "Okay. If you want to help, can you check on the men in the infirmary for me? And prepare the ones who died for their funeral? I'm not sure how far away I pushed our ship from Sciron's, so we need to be ready for another fight any day." He turns to Leo. "How much of the ship can you repair without stopping at a port?"
Leo glances around and counts things off on his fingers. "Quite a bit. I may have to salvage some Celestial Bronze weapons to melt down, though."
"Take them from the fallen." Percy pauses and looks around for another moment. Sudden exhaustion hits him, and he realizes how tired he is. Maybe even tired enough to sleep. He has to rest, even if he doesn't want to. "I'm going to try to sleep. Wake me up if you need anything."
Percy isn't confident about many things, but at least he knows the Argo II and her crew are in good hands.