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Chapter 15: Tartarus Sprouts Daisies

The next day, doc droid finally let me out of the medbay after lunchtime. Those bacta patches might not work as fast as nectar and ambrosia, but they did do a better job than most mortal methods. The cut on my back was now just another faint scar, and my ribs felt fine. The droid did say no strenuous physical activity until tomorrow, and I knew Annabeth would enforce that even if she had to drag me back to the medbay herself.

We moved our bags and stuff back to our old sleeping area in the spare equipment room, but our once quiet little sanctuary away from prying Jedi was now crowded with Anakin, Shmi, Padmé, and Jar-Jar. "Hey Percy, glad the med droid released you!" Anakin said happily. He looked pretty busy fiddling with spare parts at the table. Annabeth went over to check it out, and soon, the two of them were deep in genius land. They might as well have been speaking a foreign language. I didn't know what Jar-Jar was doing. But, I was sure that I really didn't want to find out, so I headed over to Shmi and Padmé.

"Hi Percy, it's good to see you up and about again," Padmé greeted. "Hopefully, you're careful to stay that way. I wouldn't recommend doing anything too reckless in the near future. Otherwise, I think Annabeth might be the reason you end up in the medbay next time."

I laughed, "Yeah, she does have a tendency to kick my butt whenever I do something particularly foolish."

"I was just telling Shmi more about life on Naboo," Padmé said. I didn't know if it was just me, but her cheery tone seemed a little flat, and her usually infectious smile was forced. "Maybe you could talk about some of your experiences since you came from off-planet as well."

I shrugged and started telling Shmi how great and accepting the Naboo people were, and how beautiful and peaceful the planet was. As I talked I noticed, Padmé seemed to get sadder, and I realized she must be really worried about all the people left on Naboo. Who knew what the Trade Federation was doing to her home. She must be trying to put on a brave face and distract herself by hanging out with Shmi and Anakin. Clearly, talking about Naboo was not helping. Then I got an idea. "Naboo even has their own written language. It's very elegant, and personally, I like it way better than Aurebesh." I didn't add that this was because Futhork was a lot closer to ancient Greek. "Maybe, Padmé could help teach you how to read it."

Padmé gave me a grateful look. "That's an excellent idea, Percy. I mean if you feel like learning it now?" she asked Shmi. Shmi agreed, probably since there wasn't much else to do for the next four days stuck on a spaceship. Padmé scrounged around until she found some datapads and started enthusiastically showing Shmi the different characters. I stayed and helped for a little bit, but I was having trouble sitting still. After spending almost, a full day lying in a bed, I was extra restless, so I decided to see what Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were up to.

Annabeth joined me as I left the crowded room. "You know you can stay and help Anakin with his project," I told her.

"And let you sneak off and practice sword fighting with the Jedi? I don't think so," she replied.

I don't know how she knew that was what I was going to do, but I tried to look innocent. "I wasn't going to do that. I would never go against a doctor's recommendation." She didn't even bother to comment, just rolled her eyes.

I remembered how sad Padmé was and asked, "Did any word from Naboo come while we were on Tatooine?"

Annabeth nodded, "Yes, apparently our first night there, the ship received a transmission from Governor Bilbo. He said a lot of people were dying."

"Do you think it's true or just a trick from the Trade Federation?"

She sighed. "I'm not completely sure. Most likely it's just a trap to get the Queen to come back to Naboo and sign the treaty. But, nothing about this makes sense, and until we know the true motive behind the Trade Federation's take over, I don't think we can be sure."

I nodded and really hoped the Naboo would be okay. Hopefully, we would get back soon with help. "Speaking about knowing things, have you looked at what we stole from Jabba yet?" I asked.

"Nope, and I'm not going to until Naboo's free. I've got to focus on one planet at a time."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I grinned, "Now I bet that's a phrase you never thought you would have to say. Back home, we had enough trouble saving one planet."

We found Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon in the main hold. Qui-Gon watched Obi-Wan intently as the younger Jedi practiced solo with his lightsaber, but the movement was so graceful and fluid that it looked more like a choreographed dance than fighting practice. The swordsman in me admired how one move seamlessly flowed into another. In my head, I started trying to incorporate some of the moves into my own crazy, chaotic style. I'm not sure how long I stood there hypnotized, but eventually, Obi-Wan shut-off his lightsaber breaking my trance.

"That was a good combination, mainly Ataru but with some elements of Soresu," Qui-Gon stated with a hint of a smile. "I am glad you were able to keep up with your practice while I was gone. The extra work shows."

"Thank you, Master," Obi-Wan replied.

"Wow, those were some really cool moves!" I exclaimed. Obi-Wan just acknowledged my comment with a nod of his head. He looked at me even more suspiciously than before, so I figured Qui-Gon must have told him about our heritage and how we got here.

"Annabeth, Percy," Qui-Gon greeted us. "It is good to see you both well. Obi-Wan and I were just about to meditate. Perhaps, now would be a good time for your first lesson."

"Umm, tempting, but I'll take a pass on that," I said. "I've had 24 hours for all my hyperactivity to build up since some people made me lie in a bed all day. Sitting still is the last thing I need."

"On the contrary, proper meditation will quell restlessness, so now is when you should meditate," Qui-Gon replied.

"Oh, come on Seaweed Brain, it's not like you can do anything else right now," Annabeth pointed out. "Plus, it will be interesting to learn how the Jedi have developed techniques to gain so much self-control. It might even be a way to help other demigods handle their ADHD better."

As soon as I saw the curiosity sparking through her grey eyes, I knew it would be a losing battle. Trying to keep Annabeth from learning something new was like taking a jar of peanut butter away from Tyson. Since she seemed determined to stay by me today, I would get dragged along for the ride. Rule one of dating the daughter of a battle strategy goddess: pick your battles very carefully. After the stunt I pulled yesterday, I guess I did sort of owe her one. "Oh, fine," I plopped down on the floor.

"You might be surprised. It might actually help you," Annabeth said as she sat down next to me and looked expectantly at Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan sat cross legged on the other side of the room. His eyes were already closed. He was so still that I was tempted to poke him just to make sure he hadn't somehow turned into a garden statue. Qui-Gon also sat down next to his apprentice and closed his eyes.

"Jedi meditate in order to achieve a deeper state of relaxation which increases our emotional control and enhances our connection to the Force, allowing us to gain a greater state of awareness," Qui-Gon lectured in his calm, soothing, mentory voice, reminding me of when Chiron was my Latin teacher. "We focus on achieving inner peace, serenity, and harmony. Now, I would like you to close your eyes and clear your mind. Take deep full breaths and focus on the rhythm of your breathing."

He paused to give us time to do as he said. However, as soon as I tried to clear my mind the repeating thought that this was stupid kept getting in the way. "To truly achieve inner peace," Qui-Gon continued, "You must shed your emotions. Now focus on whatever emotion is most prevalent to you right now whether it is annoyance, worry, confusion, curiosity, or restlessness. Acknowledge the feeling, understand why you feel it and how it affects you. Then, let that emotion go. Become an empty vessel for the Force to fill."

I tried. I really did, if only for Annabeth's sake. But my thoughts kept going in a vicious cycle: I'm bored, because this is stupid; I'm feeling annoyed because this is stupid, etc.

"Percy," Annabeth hissed, "stop fidgeting so much." I hadn't noticed that I was bouncing my crossed legs up and down. I immediately stopped. When Annabeth made another annoyed sound, I realized I was tapping my fingers on the floor.

Finally, I just gave up and opened my eyes. "How are you staying so still? You have ADHD too."

She sighed, "I guess I just have practice because unlike someone I actually wanted to learn something in school and classes for the past twelve years, so I forced myself to concentrate at least for a while." Her tone softened, as she said, "You did well in your classes on Naboo, focus on how you managed that."

I thought back to listening to lectures about the formation of underground oceans, and my fingers instinctively started drumming a rhythm on my knee which I realized was what they did during said lectures about oceans. At this point Obi-Wan muttered something about my Force presence being worse than my noises and that it was easier to meditate in the middle of a storm. I'm not sure if that gave Qui-Gon an idea or if even the Jedi Master was getting annoyed with my inability to stay still because he stood up and moved right across from me, so that when he sat down, I had no choice but to look into those wise, blue eyes.

"Alright, Percy let us try a different approach," Qui-Gon said patiently. "Annabeth you were doing pretty well with the traditional method so keep focusing on letting go of those emotions." He paused and studied me intently before saying, "Close your eyes again Percy and focus on my voice."

"This is not going to work," I grumbled.

"It is nearly impossible to succeed at anything if you do not believe you can. But please try, just to humor an old man's curiosity and love for unorthodox methods."

"Well, I do like doing thing unorthodox."

"That's the spirit. Now focus on my voice. I assume you have been on a beach by an ocean before?" I nodded. "Very well, I want you to picture that beach in your mind and imagine that you are standing on it. Feel the sand on your feet, smell the salt in the air, hear the roar of the waves."

I'm not sure if it was just the soothing tone of Qui-Gon's voice or some Jedi mind trick, but I immediately imagined walking along Montauk. I could practically smell the ocean even in the stale recycled air of the spaceship. "Now, wade into the water," Qui-Gon instructed. "Tell me, how does it feel?"

I imagined wading through the surf, feeling the cool water and the calm and strength I always got from my father's element. Somehow, I matched Qui-Gon's quiet tone, "The water feels refreshing. It's powerful. The waves are relentless, unrestrained, crashing into the shore."

"Good, focus on the rhythm of the waves, feel the swell and release," Qui-Gon said. I imagined feeling the currents, the constant surge of the tide. "Now increase the waves, make them larger, stronger." I applied my will to the water, and it responded. The water got more violent and the waves surged over 10 feet, then 20. "Now, slowly, little by little calm the water until it gently laps along the shore."

With each breath I focused on slowing down the currents a little more. Occasionally, the water slipped from my control and surged faster than I wanted, but slowly I bent the tide to my will. The waves got smaller and smaller settling down. Eventually, there were no more white caps, just the gentle pulse of the water washing on the shore and then returning to the ocean. I felt a strange desire to head away from the shore, so I started walking across the calm waters until when I turned around, I could no longer see the beach. I kept going though. It was like I could hear some distant call, but it wasn't really a sound, more like a feeling.

I'm not sure how long I walked, wherever I was time didn't really have meaning. But, I stopped when I reached an invisible barrier. On the other side, the water was as smooth as glass. It felt different, sort of like how I could instantly tell the difference between freshwater and saltwater. I pushed my hand against the barrier, but it couldn't get through. Struck by a thought, I focused on calming the water around me completely, until it was practically frozen in place and as still as that other water. I stepped forward and passed across the invisible barrier. As soon as I stepped on that strange water, ripples fanned out all around me spreading away from me for as far as I could see.

The next thing, I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder. Instinctively, I lashed out my legs to unbalance my attacker and sprung to my feet, hand flying to my pocket for Riptide as my eyes opened only to see Qui-Gon quickly backing away hands in the air.

"Are you okay, Percy?" Annabeth said softly behind me.

I nodded, feeling a little embarrassed about my reaction. "Sorry about that Qui-Gon, you startled me."

"Something I will do my best to avoid in the future," the Jedi promised. "Annabeth did warn me you might react like that, but I figured you would want to eat dinner."

"Wait, it's dinner time?"

Annabeth nodded, "Percy, you've been meditating for over three hours."

"No way, maybe an hour most."

"I came out like an hour before you, and I started to get worried because you were so still. But, Qui-Gon said you were fine, just in a very deep meditative trance."

"I'm impressed," Qui-Gon stated, "I sensed that both of you managed to at least feel the surrounding Force."

"Oh, that's what that was. It kind of felt, I don't know, foreign." I struggled to describe the feeling. "It reminded me of fresh water, like I could control it if I focused enough, but it's not as nice as salt water."

"Hmm, maybe it feels like that because it is the surrounding Force as opposed to your own power core," Qui-Gon mused. "Or possibly, it is because you are from a different dimension."

I just shrugged, not exactly worried about the details. That was way too much water to figuratively calm and travel across just, so I could move a few things without touching them. I would rather just stick with the powers I was familiar with. I turned too Annabeth. "Well I guess the next time we take a lovely vacation to the Eternal Pit of Damnation, we will have to look for those daisies because they've got to be there if I just meditated for three hours!"

Annabeth just smiled at the comment, and we followed Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to the mess hall. "How do you feel now, Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

It took me a second to gather my thoughts, "I actually feel calmer, more grounded somehow, so maybe these Jedi are onto something."

That night we shared our sleeping area with Shmi and Anakin. Once again, Anakin begged for another story about our stars from home. I figured if I did Hercules I could knock out like half the sky. Annabeth got the laptop ready for the constellation projection show, and I started, "A long time ago, there was this guy Hercules. Many people back home considered him to be the greatest hero of all. Personally, I think he's more of a credit stealing, arrogant douche."

"Percy, the story," Annabeth reminded.

"Right. Though to be fair, his luck was even worse than Perseus'. In fact, whenever I'm feeling bad about my life, I think 'Well at least it's not as bad as Hercules', and I feel much better."

Anakin laughed, "You act like you know this guy! It's just a story that your scientists named the stars after, right?"

"Yeah, silly me, it's just a story. Anyways, Hercules' problems literally started at his birth. . ."

By day three of hurtling through space in a fancy metal box at speeds faster than light, I was starting to get cabin fever. Sure, the meditation worked better than I thought it would, but nothing beats actually getting to swing a sword around. Annabeth agreed to a sparring session since the doc droid had okayed me for physical activity today even though I felt fine yesterday. We headed over to the large hold where we had meditated. It was the only room big enough to really swing swords in except maybe the Queen's throne room. Somehow, I didn't think Panaka would like that too much.

We warmed up with some stretches before drawing our swords and facing off. We started with a few drills and then a controlled spar where we worked on new moves and took the time to improve our technique. I tried to mix in some of the cooler moves I saw the Jedi use. After an hour we switched to a competitive duel. Now when Annabeth and I enter dueling mode, it's a no holding back fight (minus invisibility hats and water powers) until someone wins, filled with every sly trick, crazy idea, or elaborate plan we could think of. I mainly just let my chaotic autopilot take over.

Sword fighting was the one thing that I could consistently beat Annabeth at which drove her nuts because she did not like to lose. So, she would use all sorts of distraction tricks or come up with these ridiculously complex plans that she called 'sequences' which were a super long series of moves that forced me out of position, so she could win. In our last duel on Naboo, I had gotten stuck in one of these sequences and lost. I was determined to not let that happen this time. I whirled and slashed, parried and blocked. The space was a little too small for some of my crazier maneuvers, but I was still having a blast. Even though we knew the other's moves as well as our own, I never got bored of it. There was something so comforting about the familiar rhythm, a constant no matter if we were practicing in the arena at Camp Half-Blood or on a spaceship in a different universe.

I noticed that Annabeth got this sparkle in her eyes which meant I fell right into one of her planned sequences. Now, I don't really play chess, but Annabeth fights like she is playing that ultimate game of strategy. She probably had the next 20 moves planned out, all of them slowly funneling me towards losing this duel. Somehow this time, I needed to break her sequence and mess up the plan. And the best way to mess up a plan was to be unpredictable. I fought back harder, adding extra moves, and spins, but somehow Annabeth must have predicted that because she started smiling which usually meant the trap was about to be sprung.

Finally, I did the stupidest thing I could think of. I had managed to create a little space between us. Normally, I would charge in for an offensive attack, but that's what Annabeth expected me to do, so instead I threw my sword at her head, breaking the first rule of sword fighting: don't lose your sword. I used Annabeth's surprise at my stupidity, and as she deflected Riptide with her own blade, I swept her feet out from under her with my legs and pinned her to the ground. I couldn't help my smirk, "Yield?"

She glared at me, and I felt her try to throw me off with her legs. I quickly pressed my knees into her thighs and used my extra weight to stop her. Then she lifted her head up as if to kiss me. I shook my head, "Oh no, I'm not falling for that one again!"

She grumbled, "Fine, I yield." I got off her and held out a hand to help her up. Next thing I knew, I was on my back, and Annabeth was standing above me.

Really, I should have been expecting that. "Sore, loser," I said with a laugh as I got back up and put Riptide away.

"That's for messing up a sequence that I've been planning for weeks! Next, time I'll have to have a Seaweed Brain contingency for when you come up with an idiotic idea," she huffed.

"But, if an idiotic idea works, is it still idiotic?" I asked grinning.

Before our argument could go any further, we were interrupted by clapping. I looked up and saw Qui-Gon politely clapping by the door with Obi-Wan standing coolly next to him. They must have come in, and we were too immersed in the duel to notice them. "Thank you, Percy and Annabeth, for that impressive display. Clearly, you are both skilled with the sword."

"Thank you, sir," Annabeth responded. "Though I imagine our combat training and styles are quite different from the Jedi."

"Different is sometimes good," Qui-Gon remarked. "As for styles, the Jedi recognize seven different forms of lightsaber combat ranging from defensive to extremely offensive, and most become proficient in at least one. In fact, to mix things up a bit, Percy, would you mind sparring with Obi-Wan if you are not too tired from your previous bout."