Chapter 2: PERCY

During the Titan War, the Twelfth Legion had been without one Praetor.

Julian, one of the Legion's Praetors (the other being Helen) had died during an earlier battle leading up to the finale of the war. He'd been a brave Praetor and leader; losing him had been tough for the entire legion. It had even been a shock for holier-than-thou Octavian. Julian had been that good; the guy could get along with, and calm down, anyone. Replacing him hadn't been on anyone's mind, at least not until the Titan threat was over. No one had even mentioned elections. Well, except Octavian, but Helen had decided that it was time to focus on the war effort and not on silly politics (man, Percy was going to miss her as Praetor. She was really level headed.)

Anyway, the final battle involved Jason killing Krios, whilst Percy intercepted Kronos (who was on his way to New York, strangely enough). After destroying Kronos Percy and his team had joined Jason to help topple Kronos's black throne.

Camp Jupiter had celebrated and cheered like crazy when it was all over and done, right there in the ruins of Kronos's palace. Jason and Percy had looked at each other. Jason had looked tired, relieved and in awe of what they'd just survived. Percy had felt all these things too, but he'd also felt uneasy. The shields, the atmosphere… and Julian's needed replacement. Percy knew that either he or Jason was about to be raised up as Praetor. The crowd was eyeing them, eager and fiercely proud and happy. When Percy saw Dakota and a few others, from a bunch of different cohorts, move towards him and Jason, shields raised, he knew he'd have to act fast. Only one of them would be made Praetor.

Quick as a flash, Percy had picked up a shield that lay between him and Jason and had raised the other boy up, before Jason knew what had hit him. There was a millisecond of surprise, before the other legionaries had joined in, helping Percy hold Jason up, all yelling 'Praetor Praetor'. Percy's voice had been one of the loudest.

Percy was proud of Jason and honestly felt he deserved the title (the guy was a natural leader), but in that moment he had mainly acted out of fear. He and Jason both had one big thing in common; they chafed under the rules set by the Romans. Jason was still able to reign himself in, but Percy… well, Percy was impulsive, as Octavian loved to remind everyone.

That day had been a tough day for Percy (wars inevitably involved the loss of too many demigod lives and Percy had real difficulty dealing with it), but it was an overall triumph for Camp Jupiter, demigods and the obligatorily mentioned gods, or so Helen had said in her speech later that day. Percy, however, had felt uneasy rather than triumphant. He'd felt this little bit of self doubt, that he wasn't a real Roman or truly invested in Camp Jupiter. Which was crazy, because he loved his home. And yet, he couldn't help thinking that real Romans stepped up to lead, like Jason, who always put his duty first…

But the truth was, Percy wasn't that scared of leading. He was more scared of being responsible for the Romans and then somehow betraying them. It was an irrational fear-as if he'd ever be a traitor to his friends! (Yet, he couldn't ignore, that his actions and attitude always made the Romans cringe. He felt fundamentally different from them.)

As Percy lowered Riptide, squared his shoulders and stared at Annabeth, the same uneasiness that had filled him that day bubbled inside him now. He felt he was doing something completely un-Roman by essentially surrendering.

Annabeth looked surprised.

"I don't know you; you don't know me." Percy cringed inwardly. Gods, kill me now, he thought. What a stupidly obvious thing to say. "But I do know Grover. We were friends once. Look, we have to get out of here." Percy searched this girl's face, looking for something, but he couldn't say what. "Now."

"We?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes. Man, Percy couldn't believe a dumb blonde stereotype even existed. This girl looked intelligent, powerful and deadly.

Annabeth grimaced. Her eyes looked apologetic. She raised her dagger. Percy raised an eyebrow, giving her his best Really? You're still gonna try kill me? expression (sadly he'd used this expression a lot in his life).

"THERE YOU ARE!" Keto's voice thundered around them. The angry goddess appeared in the tunnel and spread her hands. "NOW YOU'LL GET IT! FACE MY BUBBLE OF DOOM!"

To give Keto credit, the bubble of doom was a lot scarier than it sounded.

As Percy watched, a giant globe of water, big enough to fit two dozen evil piranhas the size of flat screen tvs, formed, and was thrust towards them.

"Shi-"

"Fuc-"

"Language," Grover reprimanded weakly.

This time it was Percy's turn to tackle Annabeth; he pulled her down, while swiping the flat edge of riptide at Grover's feet, ultimately causing all three of them to rapidly fall on the ground; at the last second, they all managed to duck underneath the water bubble of death. Just his luck, Annabeth's arm flailed and her dagger cut his left bicep in the process. Blood dripped, warm and slippery, down his arm. "Ouch," Percy flinched. "You know, normal people just say thanks when their life is saved."

Annabeth huffed. "Just get off me." But she did look a little sorry.

Percy scrambled up and focused his energy on pushing the giant water globe ahead of them. He felt Keto's will power battling his, but he needed to control that water bubble. "Follow me," he muttered. He grabbed Annabeth's hand in his own, grabbed Grover's arm with his other hand and tugged them along. Soon they were sprinting away from Keto as fast as they could.

Keto was right behind them this time, though. "YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY!"

"Percy!" Grover yelled, "What are we going to do about this piranhas death trap?"

"Don't worry. I have an idea," Percy lied. In actuality, he just wanted to prevent Keto from sending the death trap back their way; this time she'd anticipate clusmy ducking. The end of the tunnel was in sight. Sweat dripped down Percy's back. "Her power is too strong - I can't -"

Annabeth cut him off. "Quit your complaining. I'm on it, seaweed brain." Her voice revealed just how close behind him she was.

But Percy couldn't afford to turn around and ask her what she meant. "Don't do anything risky," was all he had the energy to mutter. Keto's willpower was slowly overcoming his… any second now Percy would actually be a fish face, true to Annabeth's earlier insult.

Then Keto yelped, Percy heard a crash and just like that, things changed. Keto's willpower crumbled to nothing and now Percy had full control. He grinned, and probably looked like a maniac, but he didn't care.

He'd take this opportunity. He grabbed Hazel's device out of his pocket, a square metallic object the size of a cell phone, and activated it. He threw it at the tunnel wall; it instantly blasted an opening and light filtered in.

Then Percy skidded to a halt and yelled, "Duck!"

He fell to the ground and heard thumps, so he assumed that Grover and Annabeth had followed suit (and hoped desperately that Keto hadn't!) He then caused the water bubble of doom to move back, above him and his "friends". He scrambled onto his back just in time to see it envelope Keto.

"No!" Keto gasped.

"Whoo hoo!" Grover yelled. "Wait, Annabeth?"

"No way…" Percy couldn't believe his eyes. Annabeth wasn't anywhere near him and Grover, but it looked like Keto was struggling with some invisible force. That would explain why her concentration had faltered. She was trying to escape, move out of the bubble's way, but that invisible force held her in place. Keto was surrounded and eaten by her own water bubble of doom. Submerged in water, she mumbled something unintelligible as she was devoured (it was a horribly gruesome sight).

Then, Percy blinked, and Annabeth was running halfway toward him and Grover, scratched and bruised and carrying a baseball cap. Where had she come from? "She said she'd curse us! We're going to drown!" Annabeth yelled. "Run guys!"

Percy scrambled up; so did Grover. Annabeth stumbled, so Percy ran back, grabbed her and ran as fast as he could to catch up with Grover, who was already near the exit. Grover looked back; Percy signalled for him to keep moving.

At the same time that Grover made it out, and Percy and Annabeth were almost at the exit, Keto uttered her last water garbled scream and exploded. Before Percy knew it, a huge tidal wave of water, impossibly large, had surrounded him. He was washed away, momentarily blacking out…

What the hell? Percy opened his eyes. It was so dark he could barely see. He was being shoved by the current. But this is Atlanta. How crazy was this? He was surrounded by fresh water in Atlanta?

Oh, he realized. I'm not in Atlanta anymore…

At least he couldn't die this way. He was the son of Neptune. He could breathe and find his way out of this.

Keto's voice echoed in the water. I'll regenerate one day! She whined. But with the last of my strength I will make sure that, you, Annabeth Chase, will not.

Percy looked in the weirdly murky water. He saw Annabeth a short distance away, her blond hair wafting in the current, floundering and drowning. I have to do something, Percy thought.

Are you sure? Keto's voice whispered in his mind. Her words were faint, she was almost gone. I'm doing you a favour. This Greek will destroy your Camp, your family and you yourself!

Percy didn't waste his energy answering dying Keto. He just swam towards Annabeth. He grabbed her and was about to drag her to the surface (although he wasn't sure how deep down they actually were), when he realized there were dark shapes surrounding him. Dark, shrimpzilla like shapes…

At that instant, he felt Keto's presence vanish.

So. The good news: it seemed like the goddess was finally dead.

The bad news: it looked like she'd essentially used the last of her energy to transport anyone left in that aquarium tunnel to some random sea, surrounding by her 'babies'. On top of that, the girl called Annabeth was already turning blue, and Percy was low on energy. Normally the sea revived him, but this water was sapping his strength instead. Plus, he couldn't see very far, when typically his underwater vision was excellent.

Percy squinted at the shadowy outlines of the monsters and noticed they were secreting an inky substance. Probably some sort of poison...

Well Jackson, he thought, gritting his teeth. You're out of luck.

Hey hope you enjoyed that! Just a few things I want to say:

1. I gotta stop ending on cliff hangers (goal for next chapter; let's not end on a cliff hanger.)

2. Plz feel free to lemme know if you're enjoying the story. Also, I'm always willing to listen to suggestions too ; )

3. I think i'll try update weekly from now on. Is that fast enough for you guys?

Lastly, thanks for reading & Cheers guys!

Disclaimer/Note: I don't own any of this Percy Jackson stuff. It's all Rick's.