Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome back! Sorry about my brief break from posting, but thanks for being patient with me. Actually, this week – the 21st, specifically – marks the first anniversary of this fic being posted! I meant to get a bonus chapter out this week, but that's not gonna happen. Gonna aim for next week or the week after that for it, though. You guys deserve it. I thank y'all so very much for reading.
Anyways, as always, hope you enjoy. Until next week,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 44: I Go Down With The Ship...Again~
"How has he not run out of rocks?" I wondered out loud.
"Swim for it!" Katie said.
We all plunged into the surf. Annabeth hung onto Clarisse's neck and tried to paddle with one hand, the wet Fleece weighing her down.
But Polyphemus' attention was no longer on the Fleece.
"You, half-brother!" he roared at me. "You are a traitor to our father!"
I almost stopped in my tracks.
Silena grabbed me by the arm, pulling me forwards. "Percy, come on!"
"Traitor to our stepmother!" the Cyclops howled, throwing his first boulder. It went flying past us, crashing into the waves with a giant splash! He obviously wasn't that good of an aim, since his eyesight was so poor. "You disrespect their names!"
This time, I did stop. I planted myself in the sea, my feet digging into the sand and anchoring myself.
Silena looked at me like I was insane. "Percy, don't listen to him!"
But as she continued to pull at my arm, it was like I was a rock. I was in my home turf. My powers were running in my veins, already beginning to pull at my navel.
I looked ahead of us. Clarisse and Katie were making their way towards the ship, they were almost there. Alabaster was a way's behind them, looking at us – no, me, with disbelief. Like he already had an idea of what I was about to do.
I mean, it probably wasn't that hard to figure out. They needed to get the Fleece to the ship. If I could distract Polyphemus for just a little longer...
"Go," I told Silena. "I'll hold him off."
"What? No!" she cried. "I already lost you once, I'm not doing that again! We'll fight him together!"
"No, Silena!" I shot back at her. I ripped my arm from her hold and shoved her towards the ship. "Go! I can handle this myself, but it's going to get ugly. I don't want you to drown."
"Percy – "
"Go!"
The third time seemed to do the trick, or maybe it was the deadly serious look in my eyes. Either way, her bottom lip trembling, Silena turned around and ran to catch up with the others. This allowed me to face Polyphemus as I sucked in a deep breath and drew my sword.
Polyphemus advanced carefully, limping more than ever. But there was nothing wrong with his throwing arm. He chucked his second boulder, and his throw was more true this time. I had to dive to one inside in order to avoid being crushed to death.
When I was in the clear, I focused on that tug of my powers. I'd never done something like the thing I was about to do before. Sure, I had submerged Medusa's head in a sphere of water, and I had used my powers to save Katie and I from the Tunnel of Love ride. But this...this was very much different.
And yet, it wasn't any different at all. It was just as natural as those other two times had been.
Behind me, water began to rise up, forming into a twenty-foot wave. It caught me like I was a surfer and drove me towards the Cyclops, and all because I wanted it to. The entire ocean, the sea, was at my fingertips.
Ἡ μῆνις τῆς θαλάσσης, that voice in the back of my mind whispered, just like it had on the night I went to Camp Half-Blood last summer, when I'd killed the Minotaur.
Except this time, I knew what it meant:
The rage of the sea.
Reaching Polyphemus, I kicked him in the eye and leapt over his head as the water blasted him onto the beach. "I am nota traitor!" I yelled. "I took an oath to do milady's wishes! I could never betray the gods, even if I wanted to!"
He spluttered. "Still fleece stealer! Destroy you!"
"You stole the Fleece first!" I shouted back. "You've been using it for your own gain for millennia!"
"So? It belongs to me! I am a child of the gods!"
"It belongs to all children of the gods!"
Polyphemus said nothing relevant to this as he swiped at me. Thankfully, I sidestepped. "Father Poseidon, curse this thief!"
He was blinking hard now, like he could barely see. I realized that he was targeting me by the sound of my voice.
"Poseidon won't curse me," I said, backing up as he grabbed air. "You know I'm his son, too. He won't play favorites. And if he does, Demeter will step in."
Polyphemus roared. He ripped an olive tree out of the side of the cliff and smashed it where I had been standing the moment before. "Humans not the same! Nasty, tricky, lying!"
Katie was helping Annabeth aboard the ship, with Bianca leaning down the side to pull the daughter of Athena up. Clarisse, Alabaster, and Silena were waving frantically at me, telling me to come on.
But I wasn't done yet.
Polyphemus plucked another tree out of the ground. He "looked" around frantically for me, waving the tree. Unfortunately, it almost caught me, and I stumbled. "Shit!"
The Cyclops reached for me with his other hand. "Stupid, human, half-brother!" he snarled.
I got to my feet instantly. Fortunately for me, this meant I was able to prevent him from grabbing me and picking me up, as my sword accidentally went through the palm of his hand. It was a clean stab, the kind that you see in the movies and wince in pain even for the villain at, because you know that it had to have hurt.
But this was only a brief win. As he screamed in pain, Polyphemus swung the tree at me. It knocked me back, dozens of jagged branches cutting into my skin, even through my shirt. I knew most, if not all of them, drew blood.
I screamed in pain, too. It took everything in my power to will the ocean towards me, at least enough that I could be partially healed and rejuvenated by the waves. Because I had to finish this battle. I was bleeding and bruised and exhausted, but I didn't have a choice.
Polyphemus swung the tree again as I let the ocean recede. Somehow, definitely do to my powers, I grabbed a branch as it passed, ignoring the pain in my hand as I was jerked skywards, the Cyclops lifting me in the air. At the peak of the arc I let go and fell straight onto his face. Both of my feet landed on his already damaged eye.
He yelled in pain, falling to the ground. I landed right next to him – right next to his eye. I didn't want to do it.
Again, I didn't have a choice. I knew that Polyphemus wasn't going to stop unless I stopped him.
Swinging my sword, I plunged it into his eye as gently as possible...if that was such a thing.
Polyphemus let out a gut-wrenching scream, the kind that sends shivers down your spine. As I took out Riptide, which hadn't gone very deep, and stepped away, he clawed at his eye with his hands. "My eye!" he wailed. "My eye! Brother, what have you – what have you done?"
I felt like shit, or the lowest scum on the earth. If Polyphemus hadn't been blind before, I had no doubt that he was going to be now. It didn't matter if his eye healed. He was never going to see his sheep again, green pastures, or the clear blue sky.
Turning around, I ran back into the ocean. My powers instantly went back to healing me, giving me the strength I needed. Just in case, I summoned up a current to carry me towards the ship. Alabaster and Silena were on the deck now. Clarisse was the only one in the water.
I wasn't disillusioned to think that this meant my final getaway. Polyphemus was a monster, but even if he hadn't been, rage and adrenaline were powerful things. He could've easily gotten up and started throwing things just to spite me.
But I was just starting to think that I was maybe in the clear for that when Clarisse cupped her hands to her face and shouted, "Yeah, Jackson! In your face, Cyclops!"
"Clarisse!" I yelled. I wasn't able to say anything else, although a "Shut up!" was just on the tip of my tongue.
"Raaarr!" Polyphemus roared. He picked up a boulder and threw it towards the sound of Clarisse's voice. It fell short, narrowly missing me.
"Yeah, yeah!" Clarisse taunted. "You throw like a wimp! Teach you trying to rape Katie, you idiot!"
"Clarisse, shut the fuck up!" Katie screamed down at her.
She was too late. Polyphemus threw another boulder, and this time I watched helplessly as it sailed over my head and crashed through the hull of the Queen Anne's Revenge.
You wouldn't believe how fast a ship can sink. The Queen Anne's Revenge creaked and groaned and listed forward like it was going down a playground slide.
I cursed, willing my current to push me faster, but the ship's masts were already going under.
There was only one thing I could think to do: as another boulder sailed over my head, I plunged underwater. My friends were sinking fast, including Clarisse, trying to swim without luck in the bubbly trail of the ship's wreckage.
Not many people realize this, but when a ship goes down, it acts like a sinkhole. It pulls down everything around it. Clarisse was a strong swimmer, but even she wasn't making any progress despite the somewhat distance she'd had from the ship than the others. Katie frantically kicked her legs in the water, as did Bianca. Alabaster had one arm wrapped around Silena, his eyes beginning to glow green, but I didn't know if he could cast spells underwater or not – probably not. Annabeth had somehow gotten herself wrapped up in the Fleece, which flashed in the water like a wave of new pennies. She was getting herself unraveled from it with some luck, but that was a battle she had to overcome before she could even think about getting away from the pull of the sinking ship.
I swam towards them. I was going to have to use my powers, because there were pieces of timber swirling around them, and my power with water wouldn't help if I got whacked on the head with a beam. But I wasn't sure if I would be able to save them all in time for them not to drown, or if I wouldn't cause my powers to explode and drown myself. I mean, I knew it wasn't possible, but with my luck, one could never be sure.
Whatever, I thought, gritting my teeth. I was just going to have to be pragmatic about this. There was no option for failure.
Alabaster, Silena, and Bianca were all clustered together, so I focused on them first. I willed a current to take them to the surface. They all looked at me in surprise, but since I was the only one of us who couldn't drown, they couldn't say or tell me to do anything. But I was hoping that, once he could breathe, Alabaster could perform a spell to get this show on the road. That would be nice.
Annabeth was next. She had the Fleece, but she also had head and rib injuries. Without the magic of the golden sheepskin accelerating her healing, she wouldn't be able to swim. I careened her with the current to where Alabaster, Silena, and Bianca were, hoping that the daughter of Hades would be able to keep her afloat while Alabaster did whatever he needed to do. She was just as shocked as they were to be caught in a tide of my own making, and I tried not to be offended by that. Sure, I'd never used my powers to this degree before, but that didn't mean that I couldn't; I was just experienced and had sustained a severe injury preventing me from practicing them.
Speaking of which, I needed to practice them after all of this was over. I had no excuse now.
But, that's not the point.
Clarisse and Katie presented me my hardest task. They were on opposite sides of the wreckage. Clarisse was still kicking ferociously, but she was further down. Katie's movements were becoming sluggish, meaning she was close to passing out. And if she passed out, she was going to drown. I had to decide which one I was going to go after first, because I'd have to get closer to them to use my powers.
I went with Katie. Propelling myself towards her, I did the same thing I had with Annabeth. I wanted to form a bubble of air around her mouth so she would be able to breathe, but I didn't have time for that. I could only watch long enough to make sure she broke the surface before I swam towards Clarisse.
With Clarisse, I didn't bother trying to pull her up with solely a current. I'd already used up so much of my powers, there was no point in pulling her up and then myself when I could kill two birds with one stone.
Her movements were slowing down too by the time that I got to her. Wrapping an arm around her waist, I began to pull her up. Which, can I just say, she was heavy. Clarisse was buffer than I was, the same height as I currently was, and the pull of the sinking ship did little to help. I grunted from the exertion.
Slower than I had with everybody else, I got us to the surface. I was worried that that wouldn't mean anything good for Clarisse, but I needn't have been concerned. She gasped as soon as we broke past the water, her face quickly turning red as she heaved in her breaths. "Jackson," she said. "You – "
"I know."
I was definitely going to pass out as soon as I left the water.
"Percy! Clarisse!"
Alabaster had done what I'd wanted him to. He and the rest of our friends were sitting in a yellow lifeboat like the one we'd escaped from the Princess Andromeda in. He and Silena were practically leaning over the side, already holding out their arms to us.
Behind us, back on the beach, I could hear Polyphemus roaring in triumph in spite of his pain, "Ha! I did it! I finally sank Nobody!"
Even while being in the sea, I was exhausted. I'd worn myself out too much. With half-lidded eyes, I looked at my companion. "Clarisse – "
She didn't need me to finish my sentence. "You saved us," she breathed, and now it was her turn to grab me by the waist. "You're fucking reckless, but you saved us."
I snorted tiredly. "You're one to talk."
We reached the lifeboat that Alabaster had conjured slowly. Clarisse tried to push me up first, but I refused. "You go first," I said. "You can drown, I can't."
Alabaster and Silena pulled her into the boat. Then they reached for me.
As soon as I left the water, I felt woozy. Black spots danced in my vision. I have no idea how I didn't pass out immediately, since that was what had happened with Medusa. Maybe it was the extra boost of having been in or near the water pretty much the entire time I'd used my powers for this one.
"Ugh," I groaned pathetically, right as my eyes slipped shut.
"He's going to pass out," I heard Katie say. "We need to get him under the Fleece with Annabeth."
Multiple sets of hands pushed and pulled me towards the Fleece. It was wet, which made it feel heavier, but the combination of its healing powers and water for me was a good thing. It made me able to open my eyes and blearily see Annabeth laying next to me, out cold. There was a trickle of water coming from her mouth, and I had no idea if it was saltwater or drool. Either way, I reminded myself to not let her live it down anytime soon, once we were back at camp and had saved the day.
On the other side of Annabeth was Katie, having repositioned herself there. It was hard for me to look up at her because my entire body felt like molasses, but I did. She gave me a watery smile. "Hey, Percy," she said.
I smiled lazily back. "Hi, Katie."
"You did it. You saved us," she informed me. "Thank you."
"I saved you twice," I corrected her.
She laughed wetly and wiped at her cheeks, like they weren't already damp from the saltwater. "Yeah, you did," she agreed. "You saved me from a fate worse than death."
I didn't – couldn't – think about that. Instead, I shifted myself around to look at the rest of the lifeboat. Bianca looked just about as exhausted and ragged as I felt, while Alabaster had his hands placed in front of him and was muttering Ancient Greek under his breath as a start to some sort of spell – presumably one to get the lifeboat moving and away from Polyphemus' island. Silena's bottom lip was trembling again as she looked at me. I had no doubt I was going to get an earful about all of this once I was coherent enough to listen.
Clarisse was glaring at me, but it was because of a gruff understanding. "You did a good job, Percy," she said. "But now you need to sleep. You exhausted yourself."
I yawned. "Sleep...does sound nice."
"Then go to sleep, Percy," Katie added. "We'll take care of everything until you wake up."
A part of me thought it wasn't the best thing to do, all things considered. We had no idea where we were, in the sense of how far we were to some place outside of the Sea of Monsters. We had no idea even of how to get out of the Sea of Monsters, not without my powers, unless Alabaster had some more tricks up his sleeve.
But, I was too tired to commit to the idea of staying awake. My eyelids drifting back shut, I fell asleep just like Annabeth.
Word Count: 3,070
Next Chapter Title: We Get A Surprise On Miami Beach
