The crew woke up, the Heart completely dry. It was the black of night, sea abnormally calm. Percy was the first to the bow of the ship, overlooking the path forward. The water reflected the stars above, as if it was a mirror or transparent.
"How far out are we?" Jason came up behind him.
"Far. We're too closed to the path, we need to be further." Percy muttered.
"What do you mean?"
Percy turned to Jason, "You need to be good and lost to find a place not meant to be found, Jason. We're on the same path I sailed to retrieve the heart." Percy walked past Jason and across the ship, garnering many confused eyes from the female crew, and walked up to the helm. Annabeth had just recovered, Percy grabbed the wheel and spun it hard to starboard.
"Percy, what are you doing?" Annabeth asked.
"We've got to blaze a new path to the desert, one already sailed can't be used again." Percy spoke, holding the wheel as the ship turned. The sails pulled, despite there being no wind.
"We're gaining speed." Thalia noted.
"Aye." Percy responded. A fog started to envelope the ship, making it impossible to see past a hundred feet, and Jason noticed rowboats on the horizon.
"Ahead!" Jason called, and the crew looked over the railing, seeing the same boats. As the Heart gained speed, catching up to the rowboats, Jason saw various people he'd never seen before- pirates, English, commoners. Holding up lanterns or rowing the boat, they all looked ahead towards where the Heart was headed.
"Hey!" Jason called over the deck.
"No! Leave them!" Percy growled, "They cannot hear us or recognize us, otherwise the desert will not allow our entry." Jason swallowed his pride and looked back over the railing. There was dozens of them, maybe hundreds, all carrying at least four sailors, sometimes up to seven.
"The souls. They're being ferried." Annabeth whispered.
"Yes. This is where those lost at sea are carried into the afterlife, hell, heaven, or eternal solitude. The Desert." Jason's heart started beating faster. That's where Piper was being kept. Eternal Solitude.
"Percy." Jason said, walking back up to the helm where Percy gazed over the lost souls, "How will we find her?"
"When we reach the desert, there is no finding on our end. She finds us, if she's ready." Percy's voice was quiet.
"If she's ready?"
"She'll be given an opportunity to come back to us, whether she takes it is her choice, and we cannot influence it. I didn't want to tell you otherwise you wouldn't have made the sail, but this is not a guaranteed trade we're making." Percy watched as a girl, no older than seven, was aboard a ship of dirty pirates, all looking blank-faced ahead of them.
"What are we trading?"
"The desert is like a cursed treasure," Percy glanced over to make eye contact, "you cannot take something without leaving something else in its place." Percy pointed out to sea, one of the many rowboats on the starboard side, and Jason roughly made out Ares, the man they'd sacrificed to open the trench, being rowed forward.
"What did you leave to get the Heart back?" Jason asked.
Percy just shook his head, "It was not I who made the sacrifice. Bianca Di Angelo traded her mother for the ship."
"And she let you captain it?"
"She knew she couldn't gain the respect of any crew she tried to muster. Not pretty enough to seduce them, like Annabeth or Piper, and not ruthless enough to garner their respect. I was a placeholder for her until she went back to England in search of her brother." Percy muttered, sneaking a glance to the blonde-haired captain at the bow, "Are you feeling any form of regret right now, Jason?"
"No. You were right. It was Ares' time, and even if we don't succeed, I will try an infinite amount of times to get her back." Percy clapped a hand on Jason's shoulder.
"You're a good man, Jason. Whatever is coming ahead of us- with the English and all, it will no doubt change both of our lives, forever. I want you to know that, anything I do from here on out, it is either to benefit us, or it is against my will." Percy pulled a flask out of his belt and handed it to Jason, brushing past him, down the helm and to the deck.
"It just appeared?" Bianca asked. She was aboard the damaged Festus's Flame with Leo and Frank, as they recounted the events of Percy's disappearance.
"Aye. They said it shot out of the water, bow-first, the most menacing ship these pirates had ever seen. Leo tried to engage it…" Frank trailed off, and Bianca nodded. The damage the ship had taken on was immense, she was out of commission for over a month more at least.
"Annabeth and Jason went in search of Chiron at Oceanus's Cove to seek information, but they've yet to return a letter. I'm worried the ship got to them." Leo rubbed a hand through his curly hair, hat thrown aside.
"Jason told me more, though." Frank said, looking behind him to the door to the captain's quarters, "he said he wanted to enter the desert to find Captain McLean." Bianca shuddered.
"That's impossible. The last and only living person to make that sail was-"
"Percy." Frank finished her sentence, "Bianca, you were there. We know it. Could Jason do it?"
Bianca shook her head, "Unless Percy told him how to get in and out of the desert, it's impossible. You need someone who's done it before."
"Who did Percy have?"
"I don't know. He came to us, the crew, still an ambitious young man at that point, and said he'd been given the map through the Mariana Trench, and into the afterlife. He never told anyone where he'd found it, just that he had it, and if we got there, we'd learn of riches far beyond what we could imagine. We were so infatuated with him and the prospect that we went with it." Bianca's voice was full of shame. "If Jason intends to enter the trench, Percy has to be with him."
"And so does Annabeth." Frank rubbed his chin, "We'd be too thin if we sent another of the seven to go seek them out, but we can give you a ship and a small number of hands for your journey."
The souls were long gone- each with a bright green flash against the still night sky. Percy didn't know how long it'd been, but he knew time moved differently in this world.
"How do you know we're getting to the desert?" Jason asked, who'd become increasingly more anxious every hour they'd spent in limbo.
"We're close." Percy muttered. The sea eventually came to a stop, leading to another drop into the afterlife, but Percy didn't tell Jason or the crew, as they'd likely abort.
"How close?"
"I don't know. Close. We're good and lost now."
"Lost?" Annabeth said beside Percy.
"Aye. I told Jason, but we need to be lost in order to find that which doesn't want to be found. We were on the path I took the first time, but now we've lost the course." Percy said, non-existent wind still pulling the sails forward.
"Is that why nobody's been to the desert but you, Percy? Because everyone tries to take the path you've already sailed?" Jason asked.
"Aye. Everyone who's tried has gone mad sailing straight for months on end, eventually leading to their own deaths, because they did not know." Jason turned to look over the bow, and noticed the sea stopping.
"It stops." he muttered. He looked over a nearby rail, "we're gaining speed…" Jason's eyes widened.
"Stations!" Jason yelled, running down the helm. "All hands to stations! Hard aport!" Jason screamed, and the crew, noticing the same drop Jason had, ran into action.
"Nay! Belay that!" Annabeth's voice dominated the deck, "Let her run!" The crew looked at their captain wide-eyed, some running to the bow.
"Mighty." Thalia whispered.
"She's going to get us killed." Phoebe responded.
"Grab hold! Don't fall victim to the seas!" Percy yelled, as the Heart's bow started to tip over the edge. The crew scattered, grabbing ropes, tying themselves to the ship, anything to remain stable.
"She won't make it through the fall!" Annabeth hissed to Percy.
"The seas won't harm us!" Percy roared back, and the Heart tipped fully bow-first down the drop. The crew braced for impact, but impact never came. They opened their eyes to the blinding sunlight and clear skies. Percy recovered first, again, rising to see the nearby shoreline. No green, just the white of sand begging him to come forward.
"We're here." Percy said, as the rest of the crew rose and untied themselves.
"That's it?" Annabeth asked. "Nothing more?"
"What were you expecting? It's meant to drive people mad. It's called the desert for a reason." Percy said, untying a rowboat from the side of the Heart. Jason joined him, and they lowered it together.
"You two go forward. I'll stay back with my crew." Annabeth said.
"No, you must come. Piper is going to need to see more than just Jason and I for us to convince her." Percy said, and it wasn't a request.
Annabeth glared at him, turning back to Thalia, "Take watch over the ship, make sure there's nothing on the horizon. We'll be back soon."
"Aye, milady." Thalia said, and Annabeth got into the rowboat.
Captain Chase and her escort sails to Oceanus's Cove, but one of the pirate lords tells me they're making a stop at the Mariana Trench to recover Captain McLean from the afterlife. There's been some rumors of Captain Ares' falling somewhere outside of King's Head, but I am yet to confirm. Perseus Jackson seems to be among them. I tricked the foolish captains into giving me resources to make the journey, but it will take them time to escape the afterlife. I suggest you send ships to the marked location as soon as possible. When they escape, they will not be ready for any sort of conflict. I know your experience with these four, and I suggest you don't underestimate them.
Bianca sealed the letter and handed it to an English informant before making her way to the brigantine that Frank and Leo had given her.
Jason was the first to step foot on land, Percy and Annabeth in no where near the rush that he was.
"I don't see her." Annabeth said, but Percy shook her head.
"She's here. Closer than we think, no doubt." Percy saw Jason point to his right, and saw a woman sprinting as fast as she could down the beach. "There she is." he noted.
Jason ran as fast as he could. It'd been years since she was swallowed by the maelstrom, and he hadn't seen her since. Jason thought she was dead for the first while, but rumors spread of Percy's venture into the afterlife, and he regained hope. Percy watched as the two got closer and closer, before she jumped into his arms.
"Do you think she's insane by now?" Annabeth asked.
"No. The strong-willed can stay sane here, as a year up top feels like a month down here. Time moves different." Piper got out of Jason's grasp, kissing him, and Jason turned, pointing her in the direction of Percy and Annabeth, and Piper visibly gasped, hands to her mouth, and sprinted to them. Percy wasn't expecting her to be this excited to see him- they were never too close, but he knew she and Annabeth were closer than anyone on the council.
"Oh my god!" Piper screamed, pulling Annabeth into a deep hug. "I thought I was going to die here. I never thought I'd see you guys again." her voice was breathless.
"Jason's idea." Annabeth said. Piper's eyes opened in the hug and noticed Percy, and she instantly shot away from Annabeth.
"You." she whispered.
"Captain Piper." he tipped his hat slightly.
"I've had dreams of you." Jason's jaw dropped and Percy frowned.
"Me? Are you sure you weren't dreaming of Grace here?" Percy pointed at Jason.
"For the last few weeks… every time I've slept I've seen you. Let me-" she reached forward, pulling at his shirt. Percy took a step back instinctively, but Piper's grip was strong, and she pulled his shirt open, revealing the scar on his chest. Piper gasped.
"It's true…" her voice was quiet. Percy was quick to rebutton his shirt, closing the scar up.
"What is she talking about Percy?" Jason asked.
"Have you not told them?" Piper asked. Percy bit down his frustration. Now was not the time for Jason to learn anything.
"Not him." he answered simply. Jason's face filled with betrayal. "It wasn't time for him to learn yet, but I feel that time is near. How much did you see?" Percy didn't want to underestimate the power of this place. It was built by the gods for the souls of the dead.
"Everything." Piper whispered, a fear flooding her eyes. "I know what you are."
"Then you'll be thankful to hear I fight for the same side you do. The mortal world has changed, Piper. Jason came here for love, I came here because I knew the type of ally you are."
"What's going on?" She asked.
"We'll have time to discuss on the ship." Percy turned to the Heart.
Annabeth grabbed Piper's shoulder, "Let's get on the row." she said, eyeing Percy and Jason.
"What was she talking about, Jackson? What are you hiding?" Jason's voice was quiet, full of hurt.
"You don't want to know, Jason. But remember what I told you." he brushed past Jason, walking to the rowboat.
"How do we get out of here, then?" Annabeth asked. The Heart was full canvas, turned away from the desert island.
"Last time, we capsized the ship, and that brought us back." Thalia said, looking to Percy, who just shrugged.
"Nobody's said anything about the riddle changing. I don't see why not." he said, and they all looked to Annabeth.
"What?"
"Your ship, milady." Thalia said.
"Are you all asking permission to capsize my ship?" She asked, and Percy nodded. "Release the gundeck cannons! Loosen the barrels!" Annabeth ordered, the Heart's crew doing her bidding. Percy walked to the starboard side, leaning over the railing.
"We're far enough out." he said, looking back to the other side. "Is the crew ready?" he asked Annabeth, who was looking down the gundeck. Once everything was loosened, she nodded. The rest of the crew came topside.
"What are we doing?" Phoebe asked.
"Rocking the ship." Percy said, and Phoebe scoffed at him.
"I'm never going to some ancient, unspoken land ever again, Captain." Phoebe growled, walking to the starboard railing. Everyone lined up, all twenty-five of the crew.
"Are we sure this is going to work?" Piper asked
"You got any better ideas, McLean?" Thalia responded, and ran to the other side. The others followed, and the ship tilted slightly. They stood portside for a breath, before running back to the other side in sync. The crew held onto the railing as the ship tilted further and further with each sprint, before finally, the crew's legs fell out from under them at starboard end, having to grip onto the railing to not fall.
"Hold on!" Annabeth screamed, and the ship capsized over, masts diving into the water. Everyone looked at eachother, submerged and underneath the ship for a moment. Percy let go of the railing to grab Annabeth and squeeze her arm, pointing downwards where two of the crew floated aimlessly down, trying to swim up but to no avail. The ship started to shake slightly, before it shot further down into the water. Percy's back slammed against the deck as the ship sunk further and further. Percy managed to open his eyes through the pressure and saw that they were not infact diving deeper, rather rising. The Heart shot up past waterline, pouring water out of the open holes, deck and crew drenched. Percy coughed up water, barely managing to catch his breath. He felt the sunlight beating down on him.
"Are we back?" Piper asked, standing first. "Is this the mortal world?"
"Yeah." Percy groaned from the ground, "We're back." Percy barely managed to stand and saw the Queen Anne's Revenge about two miles out.
"We've barely moved…" Annabeth said.
"It's a different world down there. Time and space are not the same." Percy said, taking a step to the port side to look for a signal from the Queen, but Jason's sword- not the one Percy had given him, was at his throat.
"You're going to tell me whatever secret you're keeping from me, Percy, or I will cut you down where you stand." Percy looked back at Annabeth, and then to Jason.
"Is this really where you wish to fight me, Jason? On the deck of a ship that I used to captain?" he asked, and Jason scoffed.
"Used to."
Percy frowned, and the whole of the crew drew their swords, encircling Jason. "You forget your place, Jason Grace."
Jason's nostrils flared in anger, and he sheathed his sword. "Whatever it is you're hiding Jackson, I will find out." Percy looked back to the Queen.
"They're signaling to prepare to fight." He muttered.
"Guys!" Thalia said, starboard side. Percy was met with a sight he wasn't ready for- at least six English ships, three of the line and three brigantines, bearing down on them.
"We're a sitting duck." Percy hissed.
"Full canvas! Hard to port!" Annabeth roared, and the crew jumped into action. Percy rushed up the mast, untying the middle canvas. He took one look over his shoulder to the fleet approaching them, and cursed under his breath. He dropped down the mast, running to the helm.
"Annabeth!" He yelled, the captain too busy turning the wheel. "Annabeth, I'll be back."
"What are you doing?"
"I need to even the odds." he said, pulling her into a kiss, "I'll be back. I promise. You need to turn and fight. The Queen will catch you, they're full canvas already."
"Our guns are outnumbered three to one, Percy." She insisted. He shook his head.
"You wanted to know if you could still trust me?" he asked, and she nodded slightly, "This is my opportunity. I need you to turn and fight." he said, not giving her an option to retort, turning and jumping off the side of the ship.
Lord Luke Castellan stood at the bow of his flagship, the Yorkshire, a double-decked ship of the line, at the back of a standard English formation. A gorgeous day in the Caribbean, they'd just managed to make it in time to catch the Athena's Heart, and to his surprise, the Queen Anne's Revenge.
"She didn't lie." he said, closing his telescope. He turned to his first mate, Ethan Nakamura. "Signal the Madrid and Clash to give no quarter. There's four of the seven here, we must not take any chances." Luke said. The two galleons in front of them got the signal, opening their eighty gunports a piece. "Tell the brigantines to curve off. The galleons will deal with this." Luke grabbed a cup of tea off a butler's tray, sipping it. The Yorkshire rocked for a moment, Luke dropping his cup, staring down at it in surprise. He looked back up, and a ship shot up bow-first from the sea, full canvas bearing down on the English fleet. It was not a normal ship- the mold you're used to on the bottom of ships creeping up the entire hull, the sails were rotted with seaweed. Not to mention the triple gundecks, Luke only assumed there was at least one hundred and twenty guns, if not more. The ship mirrored the models of the Royal ships that he'd seen only in London.
"What in the god's name…" Ethan muttered.
"Bow Cannons!" Percy roared, his crew no longer consisted of shadows, rather undead pirates given the chance to escape the torture of the afterlife by Tartarus himself.
Sworn to your servitude. Your word is law to them. He'd said. The Chaos's Fury opened the gunports on the front of the ship, demon-faced cannons emerging, firing the first shots of the skirmish.
"Full canvas into the wind! We give no quarter!"
The Queen Anne's Revenge had made it side-by-side with the Heart once she'd turned around. The crew was astonished at the command, but obeyed Annabeth nonetheless.
"Are you mad?" Jason screamed at Annabeth's orders. Annabeth looked at him, fearful.
"You wanted to know Percy's secret, Jason?" Annabeth hissed at the blonde boy threatening to take control of her ship. She turned away from him, looking towards the English fleet.
In front of both the Heart and Queen, the same ship that they'd spotted at Tortuga rose from the depths, rotted much further with the effects of the sea. No longer manned by shadows, sailors ran through the decks as the triple-decker opened each gunport it had.
"Oh my god." Jason muttered "Is that?"
"Aye." Annabeth called. "More speed! The sea favors us!" she roared.
Luke stared wide-eyed at the unnamed ship.
"Hard to port! Retreat!" he screamed, all three ships of the line instantly veering to port. "Prepare for fire from the starboard side!" The ship continued to fire the bow cannons. The three just managed to veer into a retreat before coming to a full-broadside with the mystery ship. Luke ran to the wheel of the Yorkshire, pulling it further into the wind as the sails caught full-speed forward.
"The Clash is falling behind!" Luke's helmsman Christopher yelled. Luke looked over the stern railing, and the Clash hadn't caught the full wind, and the ship was gaining on it.
"We cannot fight those three, we're outgunned! Leave them, they die to their own mistakes!" Luke yelled. Some of the crew looked up at him in shock, but obeyed anyways.
"He's going to catch that ship!" Jason said from the bow of the Heart, as the Chaos's Fury caught up to the now-named English double-decker, Clash. The English ship fired some cannons, but once the Fury had fallen board-in-board with the English ship, the sixty-gun broadside rang out louder than anything Jason had ever heard, destroying the English ship in an instant.
"Why would he keep this from me?" Jason whispered, the reflection of a burning ship in his eyes. "I thought he trusted me."
"And he does, Jason, but he hadn't told anyone except for me until now." Annabeth came up behind them, watching the Fury start to veer to port, turning around. The ship's broadside was gorgeous. Sails were square-rigged, but the masts rose over a hundred feet in the air, staysails and the driver sail catching every lick of wind there was.
"What in the gods' name was that?" Ethan hissed. Luke watched the Clash sink and burn through his telescope, stood on the helm.
"I told you when we set for the Caribbean, Ethan, the only thing that could stop us from asserting control is something we don't know about. These pirates do not deal in law and justice, as we do." Luke snapped his telescope shut, tucking it into his coat. He turned on his heel and walked the length of the deck, inspecting the minor damage they'd taken on.
"How long do we have until the rest of the armada arrives?"
"Two weeks at the earliest, but even then with the plan we have set, we'd be spread too thin to fight the assumed pirate armada." Ethan said.
"If that thing protects them, we must catch one of the seven alone." Luke mused.
"The legend said that a ship rose from the depths, covered in moss and-" a crewmate was saying, noticing Luke standing over them, and shut up.
"Continue…"
"Xavier, sir. I'm a deckhand." the man stood, saluting Luke.
"What was the tale you were telling?"
"My father, who sailed for the company in the east, said that a ship would haunt sailors… he said it'd shoot up from the seas bow-first, like how that one did, but the one my father told me of was nowhere near as armed, Lord."
"Does the legend say who commanded it?" Xavier's face grew white.
"They said a heartless Captain, resurrected from the dead. No blow to his body could kill him, you needed to stab the heart." Luke let out a 'hm,' and nodded.
"Thank you for sharing, Xavier." he said, turning and walking back to the helm. "Set course to loop around back to Oceanus's Cove, Christopher." Luke said.
"Lord, we'll run into that ship again."
"Then we will run. That ship is too heavy to get anywhere near us in a chase, so we can take the risk."
it's been hard to find time to write with the start of the semester, but i swear after this week i'll be back in business