Fog gloomed for miles, encompassing the port of Tortuga and further beyond. The entire Pirate fleet- every ship that Jason and the council could muster, sat, waiting for anything to appear on the horizon. The Eyes of Olympus at the helm of the force, Jason was ready and waiting when the bell rang. Jason sprung the telescope from his side- and just as their spies had informed them, and Kronos had told him, English ships started to break the fog a few miles from where the pirate fleet was stationed. As the ships grew closer- the English armada grew, and grew, and grew. Jason saw two ships emerge from the Armada, carrying noticeably more speed.

An invitation.

"Signal the heart and tell her to set the canvas." he said, and the signal went up. "Full Canvas!" his voice rang over the deck, and the ship below him started to lurch forward with the movement of the crew.

Annabeth stood at the helm of her ship, staring down the endless English armada. She wasn't stupid, but confident nonetheless. If anyone could win this fight, they could. She reached through her coat and found the locket tied around her neck, bringing it out and opening it. The tune played, like it did a thousand times since she'd received it, and she hoped- at least this time, maybe he'd show up.

—-

"Ah. They've caught on." Kronos put a cup of tea on a nearby platter, servants coming to clear the table he was sat on, "Send signals to the Kinesis to give no quarter."

"Aye sir."
Kronos sat in admiration at the Eyes of Olympus and the Athena's Heart, two of the most legendary ships to sail these seas, knowing that they will inevitably be in his possession at nightfall.

—-

The fog quickly faded, and it turned into a storm. Water barreled down on the seas, on the wooden decks of the four ships fast approaching one another. Annabeth looked up at the thunderous clouds ahead, letting the rain touch her skin for potentially the last time. She embraced the wet, before lowering her gaze to the English ships in a rage.

"Open the ports! Prep the guns! Keep that powder dry! Main battery at the ready!" Bianca yelled from behind her. "Madam, we are a minute out!"

"Aye we are!" Annabeth said back, "The gods favor us! We will not lose today! We will show these English scum how we fight in the Caribbean!" she roared, and the crew reciprocated her cry with cheers.

The gunports on the Heart and the Olympus hastily opened, soon mirrored by the Kinesis and King George. The Heart's speed made contact first, the first shell being fired off the deck of the pirate ship, soon returned by the Kinesis. The two traded blows, as the George sought out the Olympus. The Heart was outgunned, but the Kinesis made the mistake of getting within boarding range of the lethal huntresses, landing on the deck of the English ship. The clash of metal on metal rang through the rainy seas, only interrupted by the bass of a cannon firing, or a soul entering the afterlife. Annabeth stayed on the deck, locking arms with the various Englishmen that had made their way onto her ship. She parried and parried, overpowered by strength but faster than any man could've dreamed of. She cut through the knees of one redcoat, and stabbed another right through the throat.

"Incoming!" Thalia roared, as more landed on the deck. Annabeth worked her way to the helm, helping Phoebe defend the wheel from three English swordsmen. She spun out of a parry with the first, slicing the side of his torso open, before fooling the other one by pulling out the pistol at her hip and shooting him. More landed at the helm. Annabeth parried two strikes from an englishman, but was overpowered and kicked, tumbling down the helm's stairs. She got up in rage, sprinting up the steps and cutting through the man's defense like butter. The helm clear, she walked back down the stairs slowly, cutting down another attacker, the deck of her ship in complete chaos. Wood flying, cannons being launched, sailors hanging on for dear life.

—-

Hyperion cut through a woman from the Athena's Heart, eyes locked on the closed door of the captain's quarters. He noticed her- the every legendary and gorgeous Annabeth Chase at the helm, effortlessly fighting through his soldiers, but decided that Kronos's favor was worth more than the glory. He stormed to the door, kicking it open. The boat rocked with impact from cannon fire, but the goal was laid perfectly in front of him.

A chest, unlike one he'd ever seen before. Metal engravings of a monster-like squid surrounded a keyhole that went unoccupied. Hyperion laughed to himself, and sheathed his sword, placing one hand on the chest. His entire body reverberated at the impact, feeling the otherworldly power running off it like a tsunami. He smiled, grabbing it, and turned, right into the point of a sword.

"Admiral Hyperion." the legendary blonde hair was matted down with water.

"Captain Chase." he replied. Her sword did not move from his throat.

"If you knew what was best for you, you would leave the chest."

Hyperion laughed, "What is best for me is the chest."

"Do you know what's inside?"

"I do."

"Then you'll know if he finds out I no longer control the chest, or worse, something's happened to me, your head will be severed by the time you get back to your ship." The ship rocked, and Hyperion took the opportunity to draw his sword, locking blades.

"He cannot defeat us all alone. Once we have the chest, we have him." he swung twice, both parried by Annabeth. They circled one another.

"You can do nothing without the key." She said, swinging for his legs, but Hyperion caught it with his own blade and sent a jab which Annabeth side-stepped.

"And the key will be ours, miss Chase. You have been such a great pawn, you see. Doing everything perfect for us. I bet when you were sailing into battle, you consulted that locket of yours, did you not?" Hyperion asked, and her face paled. The English Admiral laughed at her, his back to the door now, and he turned his heel, walking out. She gave chase, Hyperion turning back once he was out of the quarters, the rain once again soaking him, catching every one of her strikes. Annabeth was quick, but Hyperion was an amazing swordsman. The two exchanged swing after swing, until Hyperion realized the swordfighting around them had stopped- the only sound was their blades clashing, and the rain hitting the deck. He slowly stopped, looking around. Some people looked at the two captains locked in arms, the others looked towards the George and the Olympus. Hyperion, eye locked on Annabeth, took a step back, a quick glance showing him the two ships still locked in arms, but behind the two was-

"Mighty." Hyperion whispered, "He actually came."

"Maelstrom!" rang over the deck of the Olympus as Jason watched his ship rock as it exchanged cannonfire with the King George. He looked to starboard, opposite of where the english ship was, but saw nothing. He turned back to the opponent, and just past it, sure enough, a maelstrom was forming. Just large enough for a single ship-

And it came.

The Chaos's Fury arose from the maelstrom, instantly board-in-board, gunports open, barreling down the King George. The myth of a ship opened fire, the King George rocking with every hit.

"Fire!" Jason screamed over the deck, and the crew of the Olympus grew out of their shock and started to add on to the damage the George was taking. Jason heard a footstep behind him.

"Where is she?" he asked. Jason turned, the face of Percy Jackson, still as tan and sharp as ever, stared back at him.

"She's on board her ship, locked with the Kinesis." Jason said, and Percy nodded, holding his hand out. Jason shook it.

"I told you I'd fight for you." Percy said, turning his back to the captain and disappearing in the smallest pool of shadow.

Hyperion was rocked from his gaze by the booming gunfire of the Fury. Nothing rang louder. The silence on deck was broken by a fight- a crewmate of the Heart cutting open an english swordsman, and the chaos resumed. Hyperion parried Annabeth's first two swings, but the third barely grazed his arm, and the admiral cried out in pain. He regained his composure, seeing the blood on his hand.

"You'll see no mercy from me!" He screamed. Annabeth wasn't ready for the full-force offensive that Hyperion gave her, swings and strikes faster than he'd thrown previously, everything with the intent to kill. She managed to dodge and parry most, but missed Hyperion swinging the chest towards her, and it caught her right on the chin, sending her sword flying out of her hand, and her to the deck. The captain loomed over her, a wicked smirk on his face.

"I thought I'd have to choose between you or the chest, I never thought I'd get both." he said, "Such a shame that the legendary Annabeth Chase finally meets her end on such a fruitless day." he pulled his sword back, thrusting it forwards. Hyperion's body stopped mid-jab, frozen cold, but Annabeth let out a pained groan, her breath becoming unstable.

"No!" someone screamed from her right. She noticed Thalia cutting her way through various swordsmen, her vision becoming black. Hyperion was still frozen in place, but his sword had done the damage. It pierced Annabeth's chest, the tip entering her heart. Her head fell back onto the damp wood.

"Annabeth-" she heard. Her world was fading. "Annabeth."

"She needs the sea!" a much huskier voice, and the face of Percy Jackson appeared above her. She regained slight amounts of consciousness at the sight of the man she loved, but not enough to save her. His hand was held over her wound- Hyperion's sword still very much inside of her heart, but the admiral gone.

"Annabeth, you're going to stay with us, okay?" Percy spoke.

"You said." she tried, but her body was weak. "You said you'd protect me."

Percy's entire body froze, a tear brimming from his eye, "I tried. I tried so hard, but I was too late."

"Will I…" her breathing became slower, "where am I going?"

"I'll come find you, Annabeth." his voice became more and more quiet, "I'll come find you."

Her vision went dark, only for a second, and she woke up on a beach. To her right, a blockade of sand dunes, to her left, the ocean, and right in front of her, an old woman sat, wrinkled face frowning at her hands, where she was carving something out of wood. Annabeth grabbed at her chest, where the sword once was, but there as nothing there- no pain, no sword. She got up, a bit embarrassed, turning away from the woman, checking her breast, only to find there was no scar. She turned around, and the woman was now staring directly at her.

"Hello?" Annabeth called. The woman waved her forward. Annabeth walked down the beach, still in the same coat and shirt, long pants she'd worn during the skirmish, but her boots were gone. The sand felt nice- refreshing under her feet. The woman waved for Annabeth to sit next to her in the empty hand-crafted chair. The small waves splashed against the beach as the woman just sat and carved.

"Where am I?" Annabeth asked. The woman gave her a glance, her eyes completely black, before going back to carving. "Okay, sorry, who are you?"

The woman gave an impressed face, shrugging, and went back to carving.

"You don't know?" the woman shook her head, and waved around them, then pointed at herself, and went back to carving.

"What does-" Annabeth mocked the movement, "what does this mean?"

"It means she's the reason you're here." a man said behind her. Annabeth turned around in her chair.

The man was shirtless, chiseled like a greek god, the most gorgeous face Annabeth had ever seen, or will ever see. "Oh, stop it. You flatter me." the man waved his hand, and a chair rose up from the sand, exactly like hers, and the woman's next to her. "You must forgive mother's silence, young Perseus is currently containing his rage instead of letting it flow, like we always tell him, and it makes her quite frustrated." the man spoke.

"Who are you?" Annabeth asked again.

"Ah, forgive me." he grabbed Annabeth's hand, kissing it, "I am Eros."

Annabeth was still confused, "am I supposed to…" she wandered off, but Eros waved his hand.

"No, no, you're not. We might be the ones responsible for every little fabric of your mortal world, but we do not get the credit for it. That belongs to those religious figures you mortals like to conjure up… my favorite was always Aphrodite of the Greeks. Me and her would've gotten along… so similar." the man wandered off, before realizing Annabeth was still there, "Sorry, I am the Ancient God of Love and Creation, or at least that's my official title. Mother gets angry when I don't use those." He nodded to the elderly woman.

"Where am I?"

"You are in our realm, the outer-world, the only place people like me and her can actually conjure representations of ourselves without your entire existence being ripped apart molecule from molecule." he said. "Again, sorry. We brought you here because Perseus has been such a good artist for us that we decided that it would not be right to let his beloved just fall to the sword of such a lowly being. We're waiting for him to transport your body into the afterlife."

"He said he would protect me." Annabeth muttered. "He said he'd fight for us."
"And he will, my love, but this was fated to happen. He may be free from fate's control, as we are, but you, sweet princess, are not." Eros sighed, "I love this about you two. The unbreakable bond you two have, love that will last a millenia. He can control every speck of his life but he can't control yours, the life he wants to control the most." Eros giggled. Annabeth was growing sick of the god, turning back to the old woman.

"Is he really your son?" she asked, and the old woman gave her a smile, nodding, as if to say, 'unfortunately, yes.' "You were the ones to give Percy his powers." she said, connecting the dots.

"Yes we were." the woman finally spoke, "we wanted someone fighting for our side, as much as divine intervention is bad, we couldn't sit by and let your peoples destroy each other. Perseus… helps us with that."

"He had to earn his rights, though." Eros added on.

"He cut out his heart." Annabeth said.

"Not just that, but he had to feel every lick, every little bit of pain that came with it."

"Why him?"

Eros smiled at her, "Because he was the only mortal with a pure enough heart and someone to attach them to the mortal realm enough for them not to succumb to madness."

"Are you,"

"Yes." Eros nodded, "He cut out his heart, and the entire time, he was thinking about you! Such a chivalrous act… until he was too slow, and let you die…" Eros trailed off.

"Besides the point." the elderly woman interrupted, and the the stick she was carving was suddenly a perfect sculpture of an owl, and the woman held it out, inspecting it, "we waited a thousand years for a mortal to come along with a bond strong enough to the mortal realm that we were able to fully bless them and have them under our control."

"That Alexander of Macedon…" Eros sighed, "I thought he was the one…"

"Eros, just because you loved him does not mean he was the one." The woman hissed.

"I'm sorry- you said you cannot represent yourselves in… the mortal world? How can you love someone then?" Annabeth asked.

Eros smiled sadly, "It is the curse of infinite power, darling. I can manipulate entire dynasties… destroy lives, countries, whatever I feel, and I grow attached to these mortals. I am jealous of your finite lives, how much you cherish everything. That attachment turns into love, turns into something I cannot act on." He sighed.

"Oh. I'm…" Annabeth didn't know what to say. The woman offered the owl to her, and Annabeth took it. The wood was carved perfectly- better than any craftsman she'd seen back home.

Home.

Annabeth rocketed out of the chair, "My gods, I must find a way-"

"No, Annabeth Chase." the woman's hand held hers, and Annabeth could feel the power rolling off of it, "you must stay."

"But the armada… my ship,"

The woman just shook her head, and Annabeth suddenly felt complied to sit, "This place you cannot leave until your body reaches the afterlife. See, this-" she tapped Annabeth's hand, "is not your physical form. You are simply a soul right now."

"How long will that take?"

The woman shrugged, "The sun never sets here."

Annabeth sat back in the chair, letting the sound of the sea occupy her mind.