VI

Percy

Percy was hoping for perhaps a bit of peace and quiet when they were above the clouds.

Nope. It seemed like the fates wanted to throw every bit of irony at him. He pictured them, once again, knitting their stupid socks and laughing, LOL, NOOB! Quite disorienting, considering the fates were usually silent old ladies.

The raindrops he'd been using to hold the ship up had frozen, but as soon as the ship reached the clouds, Percy realized that their troubles weren't over- not by a long shot.

Above the clouds, the clouds above the clouds-cirrus?- were spinning around. Percy realized it wasn't just the cirrus-it was the air. The winds were incredible up here-they were even stronger than the winds down in the lower air. It howled, and it felt like Percy's face was getting ripped off.

"This isn't good." Jason said. "We're going to get pulled apart!"

Percy couldn't answer. He was too busy trying to stay on deck. The wind was pulling floorboards off the deck, exposing piping. It was shattering windows, and suddenly, the mast flew off.

"Whoa!" Percy yelled, as the ten-ton stick flew off the deck. He ducked, and the base flew just inches from his head. He lost his grip, and tumbled into some railing-just as it was ripped off the side. Percy slid across the deck, and managed to grab the doorframe just in time to avoid being blown away. His heart was pounding. He could have gotten thrown off deck. He would have lived the fall, of course-but he was still scared.

Percy was freezing. He was shivering. His teeth chattered. "Why is it so windy here? I thought Chaos only controlled the lower air!"

"No. He does. It's someone else for the upper air." Jason tried to remember.

I AM AETHER.

"Um, did you hear that?" Jason yelled.

"Who's Aether?" Percy asked.

"He's the god of the upper air!" Jason yelled back. He cursed as the sail got ripped from the ropes and were blown away by the wind.

One by one, the right oars snapped off, and were blown away. Suddenly, the Argo II to one side, toppling crates over the edge. Jason just managed to grab Festus before he almost got thrown over the side.

"This isn't good!" Jason yelled over the gale. "We can't go up or down! We can't sail!" From Percy's limited vision, he saw Jason wrestling with the controls (which was virtually impossible given the circumstances), but the ship seemed to be barely responding to his controls. It spun around on an axis, and with the sound of a thousand pieces of wood splintering, the oars on the left side all came off, and tumbled into the clouds.

Immediately, the ship righted itself. Jason managed to get a grip, and tried his hardest to correct the ship. But the ship didn't respond to him, and it immediately started to drop. Jason tried to control the winds, but they didn't work for him.

Percy managed to get a firm grip on the deck. He looked over the edge, the clouds coming closer and closer to the ship.

Suddenly, the sky turned black. Percy hadn't even realized that it had been daybreak when the thing with the winds had started. The entire ship was plunged into darkness.

Percy could just barely make out the clouds they were falling through. The Argo II was rocking violently back and forth, and the moment they broke the clouds, they were once again pounded by the rains and wind. Percy stayed dry, but Jason was bracing himself against the wind, which wasn't supposed to be affecting him that much.

The rain pelted the deck. Jason said, "I can't-"

And the Argo II hit the water. And it exploded.

Water went over the edge. It seeped onto the deck, and poured belowdecks. "Annabeth!" Percy yelled, running into the doorway. He burst into the hallway, only to see all of his friends on the floor, spluttering and spitting water out of their mouths. Hazel was covering the floor in some pretty disgusting things. Seasickness can really get to you in a storm.

"What the heck was that?" Annabeth asked, wringing water out of her hair.

"We've hit water." Percy said, trying to keep calm. "Jason's trying his best up there, but-"

"We've hit water." Piper said. "Like, we fell out of the sky."

"Yeah. We did." Percy said. "And in case you ask, no, I can't control the water. Wind's too strong."

"Oh, no…" Piper said. "We need to get to shore now!"

"Jason's trying his best." Percy said. "What's wrong?"

"We're going to-" Piper started.

Suddenly, another wave of water came down the stairs, engulfing everyone belowdecks.

"Sorry!" Jason called.

But it wasn't over yet. Over the creaking of the wood that made up the hull of the ship, Percy was positive he heard a crack.

"Guys." Percy said. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Piper asked. Even Annabeth looked confused.

Suddenly, the walls gave way. Water started to pour in, like a gushing fountain. Within seconds, the hallway started to fill up. "Get up!" Percy yelled, suddenly aware that the ship was going to sink. "Go!"

Everybody raced up the stairs. When they got on the deck, Jason wasn't even steering anymore. He just sat there. Water had washed onto the deck, leaving his pants wet.

They all sat around in a circle.

"Jason?" Piper asked.

He looked up. "It's over, isn't it?" he sighed. "We're going to drown here. Except for Percy." He looked at Percy, and Percy could almost see a bit of anger in them.

"Look, we're taking on water. Any moment now, the ship's going to get submerged. And we're too far from any shores." Jason sighed. "I never thought it would end like this. I would fly everyone safely, but Percy can't control the water right now, and I can't control the winds."

"So, you're basically saying we're screwed." Annabeth leaned in.

"Yep." Jason replied.

And the ship sank.

Water seeped onto the deck so quickly nobody had time to react. Soon, the crew was already waist deep-and it was getting higher and higher. A wave loomed over them, easily a storey high.

Boards floated off the deck. "Grab something!" Percy yelled. He grabbed a floating plank, and the wave engulfed him.

As always, the water didn't affect him that much. He remained dry, and he could breathe. But he couldn't will the currents to make him travel to other locations, and he had to swim.

Kicking strongly with his legs, he resurfaced. He looked around. Annabeth and the others were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, no." he dived back down. Through the murky water, he could make out the forms of the other six demigods. He kicked as had as he could. He had to get to the others before they drowned!

Swimming took too long. They were roughly ten meters away from him, and he was tired out already.

But he swam to them anyways.

But when he reached them, he didn't have the strength to pull all of them up at once. He kicked with all his might, but even a son of Poseidon couldn't pull up six people at once.

His friends were close to death. Percy knew it by the fact that their lungs were partially filled with water.

No. He thought. Hades, I'm not going to let you take them.

Percy kicked upwards with all his might, but the others were just too heavy combined. He just couldn't get them to the surface.

After another fifteen seconds, Percy knew that the others were practically dead. They'd been underwater for too long.

Percy was about to give up hope. Then he saw the shadowy figure gliding towards him.