Greeks Bearing Gifts 3

The trireme turned northeast traveling along the edge of the Sound and away from the New York skyline. Percy noticed that this seemed an obvious relief to their newly acquired God of Mischief. He figured he didn't want to be reminded of his absolute failure there. In this, Percy had no sympathy for him!

He had meant the punch he'd given the god. He'd been livid when he'd been told that they were going to go capture the destructive god, that Athena wanted him for a reason. But, as Annabeth had pain-stakingly gone over the plan to capture the allusive god, especially the god's surprisingly complicated psychology; he had to admit to feeling some sympathy.

He knew what it was like to not fit in, all the demi-gods did. How to have your own family look at you like you were a walking disaster in the waiting. How all the demi-gods tended to be diagnosed with ADHD, because their senses were set up t o watch out for the danger of a world that the rest couldn't see. Yeah, he definitely knew what it was like to not fit in.

That didn't mean he would trust the Trickster God!

Percy strolled over to his girlfriend, as he kept his eyes on the god's stiff back. The god seemed to be deep in thought, his eyes watching the disappearing skyline.

"Hey, what is the plan for him?" he asked his girlfriend.

Annabeth grimaced, "Redemption!"

"Redemption?" the god spun around, and gave the young woman an incredulous look. "Why would I want that?" He paused to look her up and down and then turn to look and the other demi-gods around him. "Why would I care for that from lowly creatures as you?"

He walked around, the deck, lifting his head, and glared down at them. "Why would I care?" His lips curled back as he turned on Annabeth, and sneered, "I was a king, before you mortals, yes, strong mortals, yet mortals, came along. I have no need for redemption from you."

"No," Annabeth smugly answered, "you were a pretense of a king. You could never come out and actually be a king on your own. You had to hide behind another's face. The very face, you claim to hate."

Loki snarled and moved forward to glare down at the small blond. Everyone, including Percy moved forward to intercede, but Annabeth held her ground and motioned with a hand for them to go back to what they were doing.

She smiled, her eyes narrowing in challenge, "You can't do anything! My mother's earring won't let you! And she is the one, who wishes to give you redemption! To see if a change of venue," Annabeth swept her hands around her, "might help you find your place. Be more useful!"

"More useful!" he yelled in her face. "Why would I care to be more useful to insects under my boots?"

"We may be insects to you," Annabeth countered, "but, you are an insect to my mother and her kin." She stepped forward, her face inches from the surprised god, "You can die. They cannot! They can be imprisoned, even cut up and they won't die! As long as man remembers them, they will continue to live on!"

Percy's watched the argument dissolve as the god turned and huffed away, to the farthest part of the ship and stares over the rail. He watched the god take deep breaths, his shoulders tense with repressed anger. He couldn't help feeling sympathy once more for the god. He'd been on the other end of arguments with his girlfriend, and they could be frustrating. And he suspected even more so to someone who treasured control and had now been thrown into events out of his control.

Percy once more walked up to his girlfriend. "Well, that went well!" he deadpanned in a whisper.

"He's going to have to learn his place," she snapped at him.

"What is his place?" he sighed, looking her in the eye.

Her shoulders slump and she sighed back, "I don't know."

"Then how are you going to teach it to him."

Annabeth stared out into space a moment and Percy let her. He knew as a daughter of Athena she had her moments of contemplation and it was just better to allow her the moment.

He felt the mild jerk as the ship began descending towards the beach of Camp Half-Blood. The motion seemed to bring Annabeth out of her reflection. She spun and walked to the middle of the deck.

"Everyone, "she yelled to the group, and those who could, moved, surrounding her. Loki chose to continue to ignore them as he stood looking over the rail of the ship.

"We are here, because my mother, Athena: Goddess of Wisdom and Battle, requested that we take on a task of acquiring one misbehaving God of Mischief from the realm of Asgard." Annabeth rotated to look at all her friends, "Her reasons are two-fold. One, she wanted us to capture him before he caused other problems, like he did in New York. Two, she believes that he can be redeemed and proven useful if placed in a different environment."

She paused, taking a breath, "Many of the different pantheons of gods tend to overlap, tend to take other gods and make them their own. This is the attempt now!"

Annabeth turned to Loki, who had turned to watch the speech, his chest heaving heavily as he watched with outrage at Annabeth's speech.

"You have a choice. You can go back and be imprisoned or killed for your attack on Odin. Or," she paused, "you can try your luck with us. Mother thinks you'll find us more suited to being what you are. And you may find yourself of more use with us."

"Really!" Loki snarled, fists clenched at his side as he glared at her again. "I was useful in Asgard. I don't know how many times I saved my buffoon of a brother. How many times I saved his worthless friends. Yet, they mocked me for it; they made me a villain in all the stories that came down to this realm. Even before I had ever done anything wrong!"

"But, we're not Asgardian," Percy interrupted. "We're Greek! Have you read our stories, our hero's tales? They're all tricksters! They all at some point had to talk their way out, trick their way out, or just deceive their way."

"Not all of us are Greek, Percy," Jason interrupted. "Some of us are Roman; we're probably closer to the Asgardians in our view of honorable combat. But," he paused to look the trickster in the eye, "we never turn down a good deception in battle that could save the empire."

"Sounds like you got smothered," Leo piped in. His hands came to life, fire dancing across his palms. "Sounds like they tried to control you too much and smothered the fire beyond usefulness." He closed his hands and the fire extinguished.

Percy, smiled at his friends, and paused to give an affectionate smile to his girlfriend, and turned to the suddenly quiet trickster, "Our goal here is to let you do what you're good at, while keeping you from causing any massive destruction."

"We just want Loki to be Loki!"