Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry for the cliff-hanger! I hate those, but I had to save what's going to happen for this chapter! Well, you guys are definitely going to like this chapter! This chapter picks up in Percy's POV after the meeting ends. Read the A/N's note at the end, it's VERY IMPORTANT!
Disclaimer: Go back and look at Chapter One.
Chapter Eight: Percy III
When the meeting ended the guys and me went to the Command Center, which is where we control the ship. As the guys and I sat down at the table that was in the center of the room; Leo went to the front of the Command Center and started to man the ship.
"Who wants to play 'Uno'?" I heard one of the Stolls ask.
"Really, guys?" Malcom said while rolling his eyes the same way Annabeth does.
"What? What else can we do? I don't want to talk about the Giants because that will remind me that my life could in in a matter of months or less." Connor said.
After Connor said that there was a deadly silence before we all started to agree with him and tell him to deal the cards. Since there were too many of us, some of us sat out the game; me being one of them. I was leaning back against my chair watching the game when it happened.
The voice of the Queen of the Gods sounded in my head, "Perseus, I think it's time I help restore your full memory. Seeing as Jason has managed to retain all of his memory. Go into the daughter of Athena's room and look under her bed and find a box. Whatever's in the box will help you restore the rest of your memories."
The sound of Malcom's voice pulled me out if my thoughts
"Hey, Percy, do you want to play now? Percy?"
"What? Oh, no. I gotta go. I'll see you later," I said as I stood up and practically ran out of the room leaving my friends (which does not include Dakota) to play Uno by themselves with confused expressions on their faces. No one was on the deck when I raced across it to get to the Girl's bunkers. I ran down the long hallway and stopped in front of Annabeth's room. I hesitated slightly before I pushed open the door. Luckily, Annabeth wasn't in her room. I walked over to her bed and bent down to look underneath it. Sure enough there was a box beneath the bed. After I pulled the box out from under the bed I sat down on the bed.
When I box I found a box of pictures, but before I could pick one up I heard the voice of my father.
"Remember what I told you, Percy. Pictures hold more than an image and no matter what you will always remember your anchor to the world."
I finally knew what he meant when I looked at the pictures in the box. The pictures hold more that images they hold memories and I'm thinking that I will find out what my anchor to the world is with these pictures. I looked at the box and picked up one of the pictures. It was a picture of Annabeth, Grover and I, as soon as I touched the picture the memory came back to me. Every time I picked up one of the pictures from the box I regained the memory that the picture contained. I had regained a lot of my memory already, from my quest to my last one in the labyrinth. I had two more pictures left in the box. The first picture was of me trying to pull a passed out Grover up a hill, looking tiredly, and holding the Minotaur's horn in my hand. I'm assuming that this is how I first came to camp seeing as I don't remember it.
But, as soon as I touched the picture, instead of me getting the memory back, I ended up having a flashback.
*Flashback*
I knew me, my mom, and Grover were running from something, but I didn't know what we were running from.
Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under-wear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've been funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.
I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"
"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they wanted to kill you."
"But he's the Min—"
"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."
The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.
I glanced behind me again.
The bull-man hunched over the car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.
"Food?" Grover moaned.
"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."
As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.
"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way—directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"
"How do you know all of this?"
"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."
"Keeping me near you? But—"
Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping up hill.
He smelled us.
The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.
My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."
I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.
He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.
The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.
The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, towards my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.
We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.
The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back towards the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.
"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"
But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.
"Mom!"
She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"
Then with an angry roar, the monster closed his fist around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply…gone.
"No!"
Anger replaced my fear. New found strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.
The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.
I couldn't allow that.
I stripped off my red rain jacket.
"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"
"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.
I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.
But it didn't happen like that.
The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.
Time slowed down.
My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a spring board, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.
How did I do that? I didn't have the time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.
The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.
The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing only had one gear: forward.
Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.
"Food!" Grover moaned.
The bull-man wheeled toward him pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backwards with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!
The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.
The monster charged.
Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.
The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.
The monster was gone.
The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.
The only thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."
*Flashback ends*
After I got over the flashback, I pulled out the last picture, it was a picture of me and Annabeth coming up from the water kissing. And just like the last one as soon as I touched it I started to have another flash back.
*Flashback*
"Hey." Annabeth slid next to me on the bench. "Happy birthday."
She was holding a huge misshapen cupcake with blue icing.
I stared at her. "What?"
"It's August 18th," she said. "Your birthday, right?"
I was stunned. It hadn't even occurred to me, but she was right. I had turned sixteen this morning–—the same morning I'd made the choice to give Luke the knife. The prophecy had come true right on schedule, and I hadn't even thought about the fact that it was my birthday.
"Make a wish," she said.
"Did you bake this yourself?" I asked.
"Tyson helped."
"That explains why it looks like a chocolate brick," I said. "With extra blue cement."
Annabeth laughed.
I thought for a second, then blew out the candle.
We cut it in half and shared, eating with our fingers. Annabeth sat next to me, and we watched the ocean. Crickets and monsters were making noise in the woods but otherwise it was quiet.
"You saved the world," she said.
"We saved the world,"
"And Rachel is the new Oracle, which means she won't be dating anybody."
"You don't sound disappointed," I noticed.
Annabeth shrugged. "Oh, I don't care."
"Uh-huh."
She raised an eyebrow. "You got something to say to me, Seaweed Brain?"
"You'd probably kick my butt."
"You know I'd kick your butt."
I brushed the cake off my hands. "When I was in the River Styx, turning invulnerable…Nico said I had to concentrate on one thing that kept me anchored to the world that made me want to stay mortal."
Annabeth kept her eyes on the horizon. "Yeah?"
"Then up on Olympus," I said, "when they wanted to make me a god and stuff, I kept thing—"
"Oh, you so wanted to."
"Well, maybe a little. But I didn't, because I thought things could always get better. And I was thinking…" My throat felt really dry.
"Anyone in particular?" Annabeth asked, her voice soft. I looked over and saw that she was trying not to smile.
"You're laughing at me," I complained.
"I am not!"
"You are so not making this easy."
Then she laughed for real, and she put her hands around my neck. "I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it."
When she kissed me, I had the feeling my brain was melting right through my body.
I could've stayed that way forever, except a voice behind us growled, "Well, it's about time!"
Suddenly the pavilion was filled with torchlight and campers. Clarisse led the way as the eavesdroppers charged and hoisted us both onto their shoulders.
"Oh, come on!" I complained. "Is there no privacy?"
"The lovebirds need to cool off!" Clarisse said with glee.
"The canoe lake!" Connor Stoll shouted. With a huge cheer, they carried us down the hill, but they kept us close enough to hold hands. Annabeth was laughing, and I couldn't help laughing too, even though my face was completely red. We held hands right up to the moment they dumped us in the water.
Afterward, I had the last laugh. I made an air bubble at the bottom of the lake. Our friends kept waiting for us to come up, but hey—when you're the son of Poseidon, you don't have to hurry. And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.
*Flashback ends*
When the flashback ended I stuffed the pictures back I the box and stuffed it back under the bed. I shot to my feet and ran out of Annabeth's door and ran down the hallway towards the deck. I ran straight towards the Command Center when I got back on deck. When I got there I pushed open the door walked inside.
"Hey, Percy! Where have you been? You missed lunch!" Grover said when he saw me.
I ignored his question and asked, "Where's Annabeth?"
"She's in the library. Why?" Malcom answered leaning forward in his chair.
"I remember everything, that's why." I told them as I ran from the room.
When I got to the library I opened to doors and called out, "Annabeth?"
"In the back," I heard her voice call out from somewhere to my right.
I found her sitting in the same chair we had sat in this morning.
"Annabeth, I remember, everything," I told her before I pulled her up from her chair and kissed her. I felt her arms slowly wrap themselves around my neck; one of her hand tangled itself in my hair while the other one stayed firmly on the back of my neck, and I wrapped my arms around her waist while one of my arms slid up her back to the back of her neck.
We pulled away about a minute later, gasping.
"I missed you, Seaweed Brain….you don't know how hard it was for me to sit there and watch you be with Gwen." She said while looking down at her shoes.
"I'm so sorry, Wise Girl. Gwen means nothing to me. I knew I was missing something very important to me and I knew that it was a mistake to be going out with Gwen, but you know I'm stubborn." I told her while lifting up her chin with my finger to look her in the eyes.
When she looked up I noticed she had tears in her eyes. I gave her another kiss on the lips before I hugged her to my chest. That's when she lost it; she started sobbing. She let go of everything she had kept bottled up when I went missing. I sat down on the chair and pulled her onto my lap. When she finally stopped crying she looked up and asked, "How did you get the rest of your memories back?"
I told her how Hera had given me the instructions and about how her picture box helped me.
"I'm sorry, Wise Girl. I can't imagine what it was like for you, me being with Gwen, I just want you to know that that will never happen again. I swear on the River of Styx that I will never intentionally hurt you." I promised her. We could hear the thunder in the distance.
"It's ok, Percy. It wasn't your fault. It was Hera's, she took your memories. But, just make sure you dating another girl won't happen again." Annabeth told me as she looked me in the eyes. We locked eyes for and we both leaned in subconsciously. We didn't even notice when the library doors opened and footsteps walking in our direction. We broke apart gasping when we heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. We looked in the direction of the noise to see Dakota standing there with no emotion on his face.
"Chiron told me to come and get you two. It's time for us to look at the video shield." Dakota said with no emotion in his tone.
"Ok, thanks Dakota," Annabeth said as she stood up pulling me with her.
"Hey, go ahead and go. I'll catch up with you later." I told her.
"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked me with worry in her eyes. But I knew she wasn't worried about me but about what I'm going to I do.
"Yeah," I told her. But before she walked off I gave her a soft kiss.
As soon as Annabeth left the library I rounded on Dakota, who was leaning on one of the bookcases.
"So, Percy what are you going to do? Rub it that you got the girl? Or what?" Dakota asked me.
"No, I'm not going to rub it in because I got the girl. I already had her. But, I'm just going to warn you. Keep your hands off of my girlfriend. If not, you will regret it." I threatened and left him standing in the library. When I walked out of the library I saw that everyone was crowded around the campfire site, waiting with Benkendorf's shield in the middle. Everybody was crowding around the shield and I was sitting next to Annabeth with our fingers intertwined. Dakota finally came and joined us and he sat down next to Bobby.
Chiron stood up and turned to the three Athena children signaling for them to stand up. I let go of Annabeth's hand when she stood up and walked over to the shield with her siblings behind her.
"Go ahead and start," Chiron said. Annabeth nodded her head and turned her attention towards the shield.
Hazel turned on the video shield and looked at it and said, "Mount Ossa,"
The video shield zoomed over water and land as if it was actually passing the objects up. After a few more seconds of silence the video shield finally focused on a mountain, which I assumed was Mount Ossa. Annabeth did a 360 view of the mountain and making sure she looked at every part of the mountain before saying, "There not on Mount Ossa, so they must be on Mount Pelion."
"Mount Pelion," Hazel said and at the video shield's image shifted quickly. This time when Annabeth did a 360 view she found something. It was pretty much a huge crater on the side of the mountain with a lot of 30 to 40 ft. tall Giants.
"I guess we know where to when we arrive to Greece." Piper muttered.
"Yup, just look for the mountain with a giant crater on the side of it with 30 to 40 ft. tall Giants living in it." Leo mumbled.
"Annabeth, zoom in on the middle of the crater," I said. She did what I told her to do and they all saw what I saw.
"Are they planning to raise using the mountain?" Jason asked. In the middle of the crater was the dirt-lady's, as Leo like to call her, head sticking out and from the looks of it the rest was slowly sinking. It was like quick sand except that instead of Gaea sinking, the sand was.
"Ohhh, Gods it's worse than we thought. The seven of you that are going to Greece might have to leave at least two days earlier." Chiron said as he studied the image.
After about an hour of observing possible ways to get onto Mount Pelion without being spotted, since the Giants have a clear view of all of their sides, we called it a quits and decided to come back to look at it later. It was just in time for dinner, too.
"Gods, I'm starving." I said as I sat down next to Annabeth after I gave my offering to the gods.
"I bet you are, since you didn't eat lunch," Annabeth said as she took the hand I wasn't using in hers and intertwined our fingers together. I grinned at her before I started eating.
"So, I'm guessing, Kelp Head, over here, remembered." Thalia said as she sat next Annabeth.
"Yup, my memory is completely restored! Thank the gods!" I said while looking up at the sky. For rest of dinner we just talked about the past. When we were about to leave to go to the camp fire Chiron stopped us.
"Campers from Camp SPQR welcome to our camp and we hope that you can think of it as your own camp. Campers from Camp-Half Blood…..we are home!" Chiron announced. All of the campers from Camp Half-Blood, including Jason, cheered.
I was finally home...
So sorry if the ending was suckish! But I hope you liked it! I have an announcement; The Journey of Memories is coming to an end in FOUR more chapters! I'm going to put a poll on my profile for you to vote for the next story I should start or you can vote using your reviews!. The choices are:
1. Making the Best of It- Percy and Annabeth were dating but Annabeth moves to San Francisco but they didn't breakup. One year later Annabeth moves back to New York. Will they stay together or will they go their separate ways? AU
2. Secrets- Annabeth Chase is dating her bestfriend's, Cassandra, brother, Percy Jackson. Only Percy's cousin, Thalia Grace knows, what will happen when Cassandra finds out? Will she try to end the realationship or will she end up saving it? AU
3. Crumbling- Annabeth Chase has become a mute after being abused for years by her step-mother. The only people that know about her past is her two closet friends, Thalia Grace and Luke Castellan. But, what will happen when Thalia's cousin, Percy Jackson moves to New York. Will he be able to break through Annabeth's defensive walls and get to know her or will he be the cause of her to make her defensive walls as thick as ever? AU
4. What Your Made Of- 17-year old Annabeth Chase is an amazing ballet dancer but the only problem is she doesn't want to be a ballet dancer. How does 17-year old Percy Jackson help her? Along the way to helping her does he fall for her or does she fall for him? Did they both fall for each other? If so, whats standing in their way? AU
Don't know when I'll update again, but if you REVIEW I'll update 't forget to vote, you can vote for two of the stories!
REVIEW and I'll update
Until Next Time,
~booklover484