Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Nine

Halfway Around the World in One Night

"So much for keeping watch," a voice said, waking me out of a dead sleep. When I opened my eyes, I saw Annabeth standing in front me, a mix of a smirk and a disapproving look on her face. When I was finally able to understand what she had said, I cursed and went to sit up but was stopped by a certain human whose arms were wrapped tightly around my torso. Well, at least we weren't spooning this time.

(But that would have also been great.)

"Mmmm, I was using my heightened sense of sound. Seeing if I can fight and take in my surroundings without sight. Very scientific," Andee said, finishing with a yawn and a smile. Annabeth gave her a look. "Percy was injured – much deeper than it looked – so it took a lot of energy so I just fell asleep here." Andee moved around and stretched a little, letting go of me. "Also, Percy is a very comfortable person. Kind of like a water bed." She gasped suddenly. "Did you know Percy has a water bed back at camp?"

"And how did you come about this little tidbit of information?" Annabeth asked suspiciously, looking mostly at me as I followed Andee's lead and stood up.

"Because we're getting married and I had to make sure the marriage bed is up to my standards," Andee said with a goofy smile. Wow, definitely a morning person. Too bad I couldn't say the same about me. "Now, if we're done discussing my future wedding plans with Percy for the day, I need to shower, get dressed and do my daily sun salutations."

"Wait – what about the rest of our stuff?" I asked. "Annabeth said the two of you took care of it."

"Right!" she exclaimed, reaching her arm elbow-deep into her bag and producing three backpacks a few minutes later. "There y'are. Now, my sun salutations are eagerly awaiting me."

Andee skipped away and Annabeth gave me a dirty look. "What?"

"She's been in your cabin?" Annabeth asked, her eyebrows practically disappearing into her hair. "Better yet, she's been on your bed?"

One of the number one rules – if not the number one rule – was that no one was allowed to be alone in a cabin with a member of the opposite sex aside from siblings. Killing and maiming the other campers were probably high up on that list too, but canoodling may be the biggest threat.

"It's not what you think," I told her and she looked at me doubtfully. "Andee was having this…nightmare, I guess you could call it. Although, it was way more realistic than an actual nightmare," I said thoughtfully, thinking back to the deep cuts that appeared on her arms and legs. "Anyways, she had this nightmare-thing and couldn't sleep, and I couldn't sleep, so I invited her to come sleep in my cabin so she wasn't alone."

"And she just so happened to sleep in your bed," Annabeth stated.

"That was all her," I defended.

"You just didn't say anything against it," Annabeth said.

"What are you trying to prove, Annabeth?" I sighed, knowing my question was pointless. I knew exactly what she was trying to prove and I didn't want anything to do with it. "I really like her, alright?"

"Percy, it's just –" Annabeth paused, sighing deeply. "You can't be with her. It would never work."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, starting to feel a little threatened. I had never felt like this in my life. There was this magnetic pull between Andee and I, and I wanted to give in to that. "And why is that?" I never got an answer because it was right at that moment when something collided with the ship, knocking us off our feet.

"What in Olympus was that?" Grover asked, coming up to the deck. He was using his crutches, which meant that he didn't want anyone to see him in satyr-form if we were anywhere near land. It also meant that his balance was even more off than usual.

"No idea," I muttered as it happened again, shaking the whole boat. I uncapped Riptide and stood ready to fight whatever was disturbing us. What I saw next – well, I wasn't really expecting that.

This thing had huge eyes and a sharp snout that jutted out from its face. It looked kind of like a shark but with a spiny back and an undulating (big word, I should get an award!) tail. It had a crooked but thick neck, and it was at least five times the size of our dinky little boat, if not more. It opened its mouth and revealed three very large rows of sharp teeth.

"Di immortales," Annabeth cursed in Ancient Greek, her dagger out and ready.

"Anyone want to take a guess as to what this is?" I asked, holding my sword in front of me.

"Well, it came from the ocean and you're the son of Poseidon, so your guess is probably better than either of ours will be," Grover mentioned, his pipes at the ready. Not sure how much damage they could do in the middle of the ocean. Then again, there were still plants in the ocean, so what did I know?

And hey, maybe this monster would calm down with a pan-pipe rendition of "Under the Sea".

The monster slapped its tail against the surface of the ocean and a huge wave came towards the boat, building momentum the closer it got.

"Hold onto something!" I yelled. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Annabeth and Grover lunge for the sides of the boat. I concentrated all my energy on floating on top of the waves. The water knocked into the boat, but I used every bit of concentration I had to make sure it didn't flip over. None of us had seen Andee since she went below the deck, so I needed to make sure nothing bad happened to her.

When the water had settled enough, I tried to get in a shot. Every time I stabbed it, it was like it had no effect at all. Annabeth tried stabbing it with her dagger and still nothing happened. And apparently this monster didn't like The Little Mermaid. It seemed like we had sailed into a losing battle.

The water picked up as the monster willed it to, rocking the boat harder than before. We all had to grab onto something – even me this time – to stop ourselves from falling overboard. It was a lot harder to control the water when someone or something was already doing it. The classing wills usually ended up in some sort of disaster.

"What the Hades is going on up here?" Andee asked, walking on to the deck of the boat and swinging her bag around. When I looked back at her, I saw that she was still wearing a towel turban to keep her wet hair off of her. She looked up and saw the monster. "Oh shit."

Here's the thing about Andee – from what I had seen and heard, she was always on her game. I didn't think there was any kind of monster that could freak her out. But this thing did. She dropped all of her stuff and started at in shock before exclaiming, "Are you kidding me?"

Apparently the monster wasn't kidding, because in one swift motion it picked her up by the foot. She gasped in pain as she hung upside down, trying to desperately to get out of its grip. "It's Ketos, the sea monster!" Andee yelled at us, pulling herself up to try to wrench her foot away. "You need to use arrows, and preferably before it LITERALLY EATS ME."

I ran to Andee's dropped belongings and found her bow and arrows, picking them up and getting into the proper position. I thought back to the day when Andee was helping me during one of the archery lessons and aimed, praying to the gods I wouldn't hit her.

I mean, I know it wouldn't really matter if I hit her because she would just heal afterwards, but it would still hurt and probably wouldn't help free her from its grip any faster. I released the arrow and the monster roared, dropping Andee back onto the ship of the boat. I shot another one for good measure and it exploded into gold dust.

I rushed to where Annabeth was helping Andee and saw that Ketos had bitten right through her ankle, exposing the muscle and even some of the bone that lay underneath. Annabeth fed Andee ambrosia and made her drink nectar to help speed up her healing process, but the weird thing was, they were barely paying attention to the injury. They were talking in quiet voices, occasionally glancing at the progress of her slowly healing ankle.

"How are you feeling?" I interrupted.

"Fine," Andee said shortly, her eyes focused on the muscle and tissue that was regenerating her ankle. She stayed silent after that, limping to the other side of the boat was soon as it was healed enough.

"What's with Andee?" I asked Annabeth.

"That monster just isn't one of her favorites," Annabeth said and I could tell her was holding back. I figured I'd let it slide because she probably had a good reason for it.

"What's the story behind it?"

"Well, Queen Cassiopeia liked to brag that her daughter was the most beautiful women in the world, even more beautiful than the Nereids. That angered your father, so he sent Ketos to destroy her land. Obviously Queen Cassiopeia didn't want this to happen, so she chained her daughter to the rocks as a sacrificial offering to Poseidon and Ketos," Annabeth explained.

"So she died?"

"No, actually, Perseus saved her just in time by turning Ketos to stone with Medusa's head, and then fell in love the princess, so they got married," Annabeth explained. "I'm surprised you don't know the story, it's about your namesake, after all."

"So why does Andee hate Ketos then? Other than the obvious fact that it's a monster," I said.

Annabeth looked a little uncomfortable before saying, "It's not so much the monster as it is the story. She just thinks it's stupid, that's all."

Annabeth went to go join Andee below deck and then eventually at the end of the boat where they talked quietly to themselves until Andee shouted, "Land!" and pointed ahead of us. I looked to the bow and saw a land mass approaching fast. I concentrated on getting the boat there faster and the waves did as I commanded. Once we got to the dock, I jumped out and tied the boat down. It was probably a useless action, though, seeing as how it was Eros' boat and would probably disappear when no one was looking.

Everyone got off the boat and stepped onto the sidewalk, watching as people walked by. "Where – where are we?" Annabeth asked, looking all around as Grover adjusted his crutches.

"Not the faintest idea," Grover said.

"I recognize this place," Andee said softly, turning in circles to look at everything.

"We could get a map," Annabeth suggested.

"Since when have we ever needed a map? We couldn't even read one if we tried!" I exclaimed.

"It was just a suggestion!" Annabeth snapped at me, her cheeks turning red with anger.

"You guys" Andee said, her body quivering with excitement. "I know this place. I haven't been in a long time, but I would recognize it anywhere."

"What are you talking about?" Annabeth asked right before Andee ran into the middle of the street.

"Andee, what are you doing?" I asked.

She was crazy. She was literally out of her mind. She had this huge grin on her face as she spun around a few times, her arms in the air. She then cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed something that sounded like "Yeah Sure!" A bunch of people walked by smiling, laughed and said the same thing back to her.

"You guys! Do you have any idea where we are?" Andee asked excitedly, bouncing up and down. We all just stared at her blankly. "We're in Greece!"