Again no time to reply to individual reviews- Christmas is coming so life is getting more and more hectic I fear. I barely have time for writing at the moment- what with family visits and my brother getting engaged and other stuff- mostly good but still. Busy busy busy. But anyway, please keep em coming and enjoy! In which Thalia is officially looped in and is very very relieved.
Percy could see Thalia and Bianca- not far beneath her, Bianca clinging tightly to Thalia's arm, both of the girls screaming. And below them she could see water- a lake- a huge one actually, probably fairly deep, which was just fine by her. She shifted, tilting her body so that she was more streamlined- more streamlined than Thalia and Bianca by far- which meant that she sped up.
Again that was just fine by her, she needed to reach Thalia and Bianca before they hit the water.
"BIANCA!" Percy screamed the name, and Bianca's scream stopped almost instantly, her head turning quickly, and Bianca was yanking Thalia closer with one arm, flinging the other up towards Percy, a terrified look on her face.
And Percy stretched her own arm down- and somehow the next seconds seemed to pass in an instant and yet take hours all at once. They were getting closer and closer to the water- and Percy gritted her teeth. They were so far from the sea. She couldn't summon a hurricane here to slow their fall with winds, not fast enough and Thalia was clearly too petrified to even make an attempt at creating any kind of wind.
For a moment Percy wasn't sure she'd reach them in time. She thought that her dive had been a failed rescue- and then her fingers were brushing against Bianca's, and both of them strained that bit more- and Percy's fingers closed around Bianca's hand and Bianca's fingers curled around Percy's, and gods above but Percy was glad to feel the strength in her cousins hand.
Then Percy grabbed her wrist with her other hand, yanking them both close, letting go of the wrist an instant later and wrapping an arm around Thalia, who'd stopped screaming. There were tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes were blown wide with terror, and Percy tightened her arm. "CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Even screaming the words it felt like they were whipped away before Thalia or Bianca would be able to hear them.
But they must have heard them because Thalia latched onto Percy with her free arm, pressing her face into the older girls shoulder- and Bianca did the same thing and Percy wrapped her arms around them both, hugging her younger cousins close.
"Just hold on." Her voice was still loud but she wasn't screaming. Their heads were so close that she was sure they'd hear.
And then they hit the water, bubbles rushing up around them at their impact, tickling Percy's arms as they dove deep.
As they did Percy focused, summoning up two air bubbles around Thalia and Bianca's heads. Which was a weird feeling, Percy could feel the water all around her except for her shoulders.
There were several long seconds once Percy steadied herself and righted all three of them, stopping their descent.
Seconds of silence, of Thalia and Bianca clinging to her before Bianca managed to lift her head- and while Percy could see well enough she doubted that Thalia and Bianca would be able to. It was getting darker and darker as time wore on and they didn't have Percy's underwater vision.
"You got us." Bianca's voice shook, "I- I was trying to Shadow travel but-"
"It's okay." Percy soothed, "It's okay. Thalia-" and Thalia was slowly lifting her head, and Percy could see her blinking rapidly, feel her shaking. That had to be shock.
"W-wha-" she swallowed hard, "What the fuck? I- how- from that height we should- are we- we're under… I don't-" and it seemed that Thalia was too stunned to process what had just happened.
"Just try and calm down." Percy's voice was gentle, "Focus on breathing Thalia." She loosened her grip slightly. "We're safe-"
"We're underwater and I am breathing!" Thalia's voice was high pitched, and the look on her face made Percy wince. And yeah, okay she could see where the daughter of Zeus was coming from. Could she even swim? She knew that Bianca had only recently started learning how to swim. Nico was more relaxed around water than Bianca was but she was letting Percy teach her.
"There's an air bubble around your head." Percy told her cousin, "That's why you're breathing, as long as you're with me you don't have to fear drowning. You're as safe as you possibly can be."
"How?" Thalia demanded, "I thought you said earlier that you didn't want to risk doing any magic or whatever. I know you did… something to make yourself louder up on the boat but… if you're not supposed to be using magic…" she trailed off- and Percy could see the need to understand in the other girls eyes.
And she thought about that look on Thalia's face when she'd found out Bianca was a daughter of Hades. The hope when she'd thought she might be older. The disappointment, the resignment when that hope had faded away.
Thalia deserved to know the truth.
"I didn't use magic as such." Percy spoke carefully. "Not Egyptian magic anyway."
"What the Hades does that mean?"
"It means that I'm not just Egyptian. I'm also Greek. And uh- I'm your cousin."
"You're-" Thalia stiffened, Percy could feel it, "Water- holy fuck you're Poseidon's daughter?!" and really it was a good thing they were underwater because her yelling might have drawn a lot of attention if they were at the surface.
"She is." Bianca spoke up.
"But- you- I- Holy dad." Thalia was blinking rapidly. "That…" her eyes widened, "The prophecy-"
"Yeah, yeah I know." Percy resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "I'm the oldest. But ignoring that even if I was younger than you I'm willing to bet it would be me."
"Why?"
"Because, I'm the one who's been having demigod dreams connected to Kronos' rise from the start."
"You-" Thalia blinked, "That- I assumed it was your friend-"
"Nope. Nope it was me."
"Holy shit."
"You know she always gets that reaction." Bianca grinned slightly.
"So- so it's not me?"
"I mean, technically it possibly could be but I doubt it." Percy shrugged. "Listen. As much as I'm sure you'd love to hear more we should probably get out of this lake and get onto dry land so that we can figure out where we are and move from there." She'd take the lead. She was used to it- and in a physical and emotional sense she was the eldest of the three cousins.
"Right. Right of course." Thalia nodded, "Uh- is not a good time to say that I can't swim well."
"Neither can I." Bianca piped up. "But you don't need to worry about that sort of thing with Percy around."
"Very true." Percy grabbed both of the younger girls hands, closing her eyes as she felt out the shape of the water, feeling where it ended, the shape of the lake. She quickly figured out where the nearest land was and she used her powers to push them through the water at speed, Thalia letting out a startled yelp and Bianca whooping at the rush as the bubbles streamed past them, churned up by the speed. And within a few minutes Percy came to a halt, she could sense something in the water- metal supports, a lot of them, and when she pushed the three of them to the surface, breaking it easily she saw a large pier. It was quiet- which made sense. It was winter so it was cold, and it was getting darker by the minute.
The three demigods managed to climb onto the pier, Percy taking pity on Bianca and Thalia and using her powers to dry the two girls before looking around.
She tilted her head slightly when she spotted some kind of monument or something, and she moved towards it.
It looked like an anchor- a memorial of some kind she realised. She could feel Thalia and Bianca behind her as she reached it and peered at the writing.
The Chicago Anchor memorial. And that took her a few moments to work out- the dark did not make it any easier on her dyslexia.
"Okay." She clapped her hands together, "So, uh, not great news but not the worst news possible. We're in Chicago. Which… which I can admit is not close to San Francisco but I mean, we'll work this out."
"Great." Thalia grimaced, "Any chance of them turning around and coming back for us."
"I doubt it. Freak was panicking, and he looked injured and they need to get away from the last of those stupid birds."
"I definitely can't see them at all." Bianca added, peering up into the night sky, "And my night visions always been pretty good so if they were up there I should be able to see them."
"What do we do then?" Thalia raised an eyebrow, "Travelling that far is not going to be easy."
"Well." Percy moved over to one of the benches, dropping down onto it. "First of all, we take stock of what we have. Then we find a way to top up on any supplies we need- food and stuff. Which may be tricky. I have zero money and no phone on me. I didn't exactly plan on leaving the boat like that."
"I have my backpack." Thalia shrugged her shoulders as if to show exhibit A- the backpack strapped over her shoulders.
"I have some cash in there that I won in a bet with the Stoll brothers…" She paused, "If it's not been destroyed by the lake water. If this is Chicago is that-" she glanced towards the lake, "Did we fall into Lake Michigan."
"Yeah, yeah I think we did." Percy snorted, "And the money should be fine. I drew all of the water out of the bag when I dried you off."
"Cool trick-"
"If you think that's cool you should see when Percy controls water." Bianca grinned, "It can be really cool- I'm talking literal water slides made out of water."
"… Okay I admit that does sound cool."
And she sat down next to Percy, Bianca sitting on Percy's other side, and the three of them poured over the contents of Thalia's backpack. Which wasn't much. There was nectar and Ambrosia- some basic supplies like some snack bars, a spare tee and other basic supplies- ropes, and such.
"Any chance there's a hat in there?" Percy asked as they rummaged through it.
"Why do you want a hat?"
"You've never been out with her." Bianca's lips twitched, "Percy's the most famous teenager in America. And she stands out like a sore thumb."
"I can see that." Thalia conceded, "Why do you even have your hair like that? I mean, no offence but it does-"
"It's not dyed." Percy shook her head, "It's.. well I won't use the word natural because it was magic but it's just my hair and I am not covering it up. I'm proud of what it stands for now. I'm proud of being different."
"I can respect that." Thalia frowned, "But to answer the question, no there is not a hat… lemme see… there's a scarf-"
"What type of scarf-"
"Looks like a fashion one. I think Silena's gotten to the Questing backpacks or something-"
"A fashion scarf might do." Percy plucked the pink silk square from Thalia's hand, carefully folding it so that she could wrap it around her hair, tucking the white curls into it as best as she could to hide them from sight. "Better?"
"I mean, your genius disguise won't hold up if anyone spends more than ten seconds looking at you but it should just about work." Thalia rolled her eyes, but there was amusement in them. "Okay. So what now."
"Well I don't know about you but I'm feeling the cold." She glanced at the sky, "I don't know if any clothes shops will be open at this time of day but I'm pretty sure we can find some all night diner or a 7-Eleven where we can get some hot food and maybe some coffee." Percy's tastes usually ran more to hot cocoa but right now she felt an intense need for caffeine. "Somewhere we can sit down and actually figure out how we're getting to San Francisco within the deadline."
"If you need it-"
"I know Bia." Percy gave the younger girl a gentle look, "I know you're willing to Shadow travel us. But let's make sure that's the safest option before we do that. I don't want you tired when we get to Mount Tam. You're powerful, your skills will be essential during the battle I have no doubt." Her gaze flicked to Thalia, "The three of us? We need to be ready. And we need to stick together. Big three kids. Cousins."
"Cousins." Bianca bumped her fist against Percy's, and both girls turned to Thalia, who stared at them both for a long moment before she bumped her fist against theirs.
"Cousins."