PERCY

It didn't matter what she was there for, Amphitrite looked like she'd rather be having tea with the sea monster Cetus than talking to Percy.

"Warn me about what?" he said, just as confused as the rest of them. "'Cause if it's about the whole titan trying to destroy the world and merpeople gone mutinous things than you're a little late."

"No, boy, of course you already know that. If you didn't you wouldn't be here, now would you?" She had a point there. Percy didn't answer. "No, I am here to warn you about another threat, one that pains me to even consider."

"Why are you here at all?" Percy said, not exactly trying his hardest to hide his annoyance at his stepmother. "If it's so important why hasn't Poseidon told me himself?"

Amphitrite sighed. "Your father has turned a blind eye to this threat in foolish hopes it is not true. I on the other hand do not, have never, doubted my son's ability to be manipulated by prospects of power."

"Triton? Wait - you can't mean…"

"Oh, I can, and I am afraid that I do. He has left the palace, taken several of Poseidon's guards, in addition to his chariot and hippocampi. He will not be coming back. I also fear that should he find you, he will do everything in his power to hold you back."

"And I take it his power is pretty strong," Percy said, feeling less and less positive about this.

Amphitrite nodded. "Please, if you do meet him," she continued, her silky voice now somewhat pleading, "try to change his mind. Try to convince him to come home."

Well, he already hates me so why not? Pretty positive he wouldn't listen, Amph. "Sure."

The sea goddess bowed her head in thanks and then locked eyes with Percy, something that was pretty up there on his list of terrifying things he never wanted to experience again. "And Percy, good luck."

With that, she sank back beneath the waves and into the black, the image of her ernest, clear eyes stuck in the back of Percy's mind.

He thought at first he was seeing things, as the water suddenly looked a whole lot lighter than a second ago, but then he realized that yes, indeed, the horizon was just starting to be split by a hairline fracture of orange light.

Someone was messing with their sense of time again. They couldn't have been gone that long, could they? The sun was coming up, and there, directly behind where Amphitrite had been floating and a few miles away, was the dark shoreline of an island.

"Hazel," Percy said, a little more than dismally.

"Yep," Hazel whispered. "We missed it." And they watched as within minutes, the island of the titans became nothing more than a foggy patch on the ocean's surface and the water engulfed it once more.

"We should see if there's anywhere to set down. Somewhere close. We can't keep flying around all day," Calypso said, running a hand soothingly along the neck of her Pegasus.

"Yeah," Percy agreed. "Blackjack's tired too. They're not used to flying this much, and besides, we need to conserve their energy. The less we ride the better."

No one argued and they urged the pegasi upwards again. Now that it was lighter, they could easily distinguish the oceans' surface below them. The only problem was that was all they could see. Leo volunteered to fly ahead and scout out their possibilities for landing and soon Festus was just a speck of bronze in the sky.

When he returned, give or take an hour later, he motioned for the others to follow and soon, the pegasi were asleep on a beach of black sand, exhausted after their night of strange ordeals.

Eugene the hippogriff remained with Hazel, much to the dismay of the pegasi who clustered together far away from their rather rude and unwelcome addition.

He was quiet, though no one complained, and as had become the strange norm over the last day, Leo was avoiding Calypso.

"Hey," Percy said, walking over to the rather deflated looking boy who was toying with some gears and wire absentmindedly. "Mind if I join you?"

Leo shrugged. "No," he said without looking up. "You, Percy Jackson, are not allowed to join me, the lowly Leo Valdez."

Percy was taken aback, unsure both how to respond and where the retort came from at all, when he realized Leo was grinning mischievously. "Well excuse me, Admiral," Percy smiled back.

"Oh, 'your Fiery-ness' will do just find," Leo said, returning to his tinkering.

"Mm-hm. I'll remember that. I actually wanted to talk to you, Leo," Percy said, unsure where to go from there.

"About?"

"Has anything happened? With you - you and Calypso, I mean." It sounded stupid coming out of his mouth, but he didn't know how else to say it.

Leo had gone quiet. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean the other day you two were fine around each other. And now -" Percy gestured to Calypso who was currently standing down the opposite end of the beach with the pegasi, looking rather put out herself.

Leo sighed and stared at his shoes. "You know that dream she told everyone about yesterday?" Percy nodded. "That wasn't the first time she had it. Only the first time she heard what the voice said, what Zeus said, and it wasn't good. I promised I wouldn't say anything about it, but the problem is I can't stop thinking about it." He shifted something in his cluster of gears and the delicate little assembly lost its cohesion, spilling apart, cogs and various bolts tumbling into the sand. Stuffing the rest back into his tool belt and scooping up the few that had fallen, Leo stood and ran his hand through his hair. "I can't tell you though, either, so I guess I just have to deal with it." He scrunched up his face in a forced smile and stepped away from Percy, walking across the beach to where Festus lay, a small plume of smoke escaping the dragons' nostrils as he slept - or, recharged rather.

Percy hadn't wanted to get involved at all, but now he felt more helpless than anything. Leo had decided he didn't want anyone interfering and Percy decided the only thing left to do was not bring it up until he needed to. Hopefully, he would never need to.


Eugene approached Hazel near nightfall and suggested they leave again for the island. Taking up the head of the group, he first asked Percy more about this new threat known as Triton.

"You will be prepared to engage in a fight, despite your relation to him, you know what is right."

To this Percy simply nodded, not wanting to get into the details of his less-than-close-knit family situation with the hippogriff. "Yes," he said. "It'll be fine."

Eugene huffed in satisfaction and led them out.

Soon, however, it became clear that Eugene's compass must've been broken.

The island, despite the late hour, was no where in sight, and Percy felt an odd certainty that it was not going to appear. When he flew up to ask the hippogriff how close they were however, he didn't get much of an answer. "Close, close, demigod boy. Do not distract the driver!"

Hazel gave him an apologetic look and Percy decided the driver was lost.

"Hey, Percy!" Leo called down from Festus up above them, pointing off to the right. "I think I see something over that way!"

As one, they turned, Eugene only following with a little coaxing from Hazel, and headed towards the dark object that had appeared. It was closer than Percy'd realized and it became clear very quickly that it was not the island they were looking for. It was a figure, and it had seen them approaching.

He brought Blackjack to a stop, the others coming up short behind him, and waited for the being to come closer. Unfortunately, it obliged, and Percy wished to the gods they'd kept flying straight.

Out of the darkness, half-submerged under the black waves, was a gold and silver gilded chariot led by two copper and purple scaled hippocampi. Standing straight and confident rode a grim-faced merman. Percy could just make out the darker shapes of two other mer swimming below, flanking the chariot on either side.

Triton's green skin seemed to glow in the moonlight, his dark hair long and suspended over his head in a thick, well-groomed ponytail. He wore a fitted, set of silver armor, studded across the chest plate and along the edges with glossy white, blue, and black pearls.

The hippocampi came to a halt as they neared the pegasi, both parties nickering uncertainly at the new arrivals.

"Percy, that's - " Annabeth whispered at his shoulder.

"I know," he said, doing his best to not sound worried. He wanted to tell her to get the others away from there, but he knew it'd do no good. He didn't want his friends caught in the middle, but after their last incident, he was pretty positive separation wouldn't be seen as an option. "I'll go talk to him," he said instead, biting his lip and urging Blackjack forward before Annabeth could protest.

Percy's half-brother grinned wickedly as Blackjack approached, and Percy was rather surprised to see that Triton had nothing in the chariot with him aside from a huge conch shell hanging at his side, the thick bands of color that wrapped around it much like those that covered over-priced "authentic artifacts" in beach-front gift shops.

"Perseus," the merman said cordially, offering his hand for Percy to shake.

"So I hear you've joined the wrong side," Percy said, ignoring him. Triton's smile broke coldly and he retracted his arm back to his side where he let it rest protectively over the odd shell.

"And I see you've been speaking to my mother," he said steadily. "She has no right to interfere in affairs she knows so little about."

"She can't boss you around, you mean. Sorry to have to break this to you, Tri, but that's kinda what mom's do." Triton smirked and made to speak. "Godly or otherwise," Percy added, cutting him off.

Triton rolled his eyes dramatically. "You, likewise, know nothing of the situation. Do you think you're just going to stroll right up to the titan of the sea and save your pitiful little mortal friends? Use some of your supposed powers on him and send him back to the abyss?"

"Well, first of all, we were planning on flying up to him, but after that, yeah. That's basically the plan. I'm glad to see we're on the same page here."

Triton laughed, and Percy couldn't help but imagine he looked more than a little like a maniacal dolphin. His double tail flashed green beneath the water in irritation and he locked eyes with the mortal son of Poseidon. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that." His voice was deadly quiet and his grey eyes too intense. His hand had locked on the conch and he lifted it from his side, a strange glint in his eye.

"What is that thing? You stop by the Atlantis gift-shop on your way out of the palace?"

Instead of answering however, Triton raised the hollowed end of the shell to his lips, shut his eyes, and blew.

The sound Percy heard next was unlike anything he could ever have imagined. The horrible, piercing noise struck his eardrums and filled his head with what he imagined the pressure at the bottom the Mariana Trench must have felt like. Blackjack reeled, nearly taking a nosedive into the sea before Percy grabbed hold of his mane and yanked him back up and away from Triton.

It was obvious that the others were in an equal amount of distress, every animal, including Eugene the hippogriff, losing control and thrashing around violently. The pegasi all shook their heads violently, searching the dark star-pocked sky for a nonexistent escape route.

The sea roiled beneath them, silent only around Triton's chariot.

Finally, the sound subsided.

Percy's head felt like it was going to explode and he found he couldn't hear whatever stupid thing it was that Triton was saying now.

"…seidon doesn't have any idea what's going on here. If that ancient excuse of a god really understood what Oceanus and the other titans have been trying to accomplish for centuries, he'd support them with no question. But none of the Olympians care about sharing their power. All they care about are the tributes and honor they get from the land-bound mortals. And that's exactly why it has to go - the land, I mean."

"The mortals, you mean," Percy said through gritted teeth. He couldn't believe he was listening to this.

Triton grinned and nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly!" he shouted, throwing his arms over his head, conch still in hand. Blackjack bucked in panic and Percy did his best to hold him still, bending low as not to fall off and whispering softly to him.

"Come with us, Jackson, Brother. Join us." He held out his hand again, an plea for trust, and again, Percy ignored it.

"We aren't brothers. Not if you can think that way about innocent people."

"Innocent is a relative term."

"So is powerful," Percy said quietly. Triton chuckled and waved his hand dismissively.

"Whatever." He dropped his arm again and replaced the conch at his side. He had that weird glint in his eye again and Percy didn't like it. Triton flicked his wrist and Percy got a blast of freezing water to the face. He didn't have time to react and, as consequence, he found himself soaking wet atop a frantic Blackjack now spinning wildly through the air.

Triton broke down in a fit of hysterics, doubling over across the front of the chariot, hitting the side with a fist and startling his hipocampi.

Blackjack.

Yeah, boss.

The pegasus turned and flew back up to where the group had retreated after Titan's first attack, not stopping once he'd reached them but flying past, straight faced, headed back out to sea.