"Who is it?" the exotic accent surprised Luke, standing at the doorstep of a run-down hut on the highest peak in Catalonya. They'd experienced all forms of rain climbing the mountain, but at the top, the weather was perfect.
"Luke Castellan." he said back, and the woman on the other side of the door laughed, opening it. Luke was met with a face that he knew could do no good. Pitch-black hair that flowed to the croaking wood beneath her, teeth painted completely black, eyes that radiated nothing good. "Are you Juno?" the woman smirked all-black teeth, and nodded.
"I am the Juno you seek, Luke Castellan." she moved out of the way, and Luke entered the hut. One of his men tried to come too, but Juno blocked him.
"Only the man who truly seeks may enter." she said, and Luke waved the Englishman off. Juno closed the door. "Usually, I require payment, but you are too special of a man, Luke Castellan."
"What do you mean?" Juno snapped, and the air went thick.
"Only one question, you may ask, and for the others, you must pay." Luke looked around. Hung from the ceiling were rotting jars full of eyes and small fingers.
"And I pay with my body?" The woman laughed.
"Yes, like all men do." She walked behind a table and sat, a raven flying to her shoulder instantly. "I know what you've been asked to seek." She said simply.
"You do?"
"Yes, but it is not what you want. You've been asked to find out what he is, when in reality, you want to know where he is." Juno's voice soothed Luke, and he took a seat opposite from her.
"The man has been altered by a power higher even than I- a power that cannot step foot in this world." Juno explained slowly, rubbing the raven's head. "You are not the only man in seek of Perseus Jackson."
Luke visibly swallowed, "I know."
"But you don't know the extent… the most sought after man in the world, and to find him, it is so simple." she murmured.
"How-" he caught himself, looking at a jar of fingers next to him. Payment.
Juno raised an eyebrow, "Do you wish to ask your question?"
"Not yet."
Juno huffed, "Perseus Jackson came to me once… asking for a way into the underworld, into the afterlife, and I granted him his wish. He was young back then, so infatuated by the seas, not bothering with what vexes all men at some point."
"What vexes all men?" Luke repeated, and Juno laughed.
"You should know, Luke Castellan. What has vexed him was yours previously."
Luke began to tap his foot quickly, growing nervous.
"Annabeth." Juno laughed louder.
"What all men seek, yet it is always the reason man fail." Juno said, "A woman."
"He fell in love."
"As changing and as harsh, as untamable as the seas. And it took him from the seas, she did. Too afraid to have to watch her be dragged into that endless abyss, that he turned his back on her, and walked away." Juno "He walked away, but he never stopped loving her. They came to him, that night, and asked him if he'd do they bidding, and in return, he could protect her, forever."
"He cut out his heart." Luke continued, and Juno nodded.
"They required proof that he was connected to the mortal world, so he cut out him heart, put it in the chest, an immortal object, only unsealable by the key." Juno sighed, "And he gave it to her."
Luke had thought about it, but hearing it for the first time was something he wasn't ready for.
"The ancient ones… deities so powerful that one foot on this planet would mean extinction for us all, came to him and asked him to do they bidding, they finally wanted a say in the mortal world." Juno said. "And here you are, Luke Castellan, looking for a man as unkillable as they come. So tell me, what is it you truly want?"
"Where's the Chaos's Fury?" Ethan asked. Rain downpoured, they were just outside of King's Head. The Yorkshire anchor set as they stared down a decimated ship no more than a hundred feet in front of them. This is what Juno had told him- seek out the wreckage, only then will you see it. Luke stared down the ship. See what?
"Sail a row over to the wreckage. Check for survivors." Luke commanded, and the crew responded, lowering a rowboat over the side.
"We're here!" Cutler said, stopping the row. William stepped off the rowboat and onto the doused wood of the wreckage. He was merely a deckhand, but what Admiral Castellan said was law, and the law said to sail to the wreckage. There was scattered ruins across the deck- boxes and various corpses. Marks of a skirmish everywhere- the main mast completely sunken, the other two barely hanging on.
"No survivors!" William called, and the English on the other side of the wreckage called back an agreement.
"Beneath us. Beneath us. Beneath us. Beneath us." William noticed a man at the helm of the ship, shaking and staring off of the starboard side. William rushed to his side.
"Sailor!" he yelled, but the man kept repeating, shaking violently.
"Beneath us. Beneath us."
"Sailor, what happened here?"
"Pirates." The ship shook on cue, and just off the starboard side an enormous ship emerged from the waters, flying bow-first out of a tsunami-size wave. William stared in shock, the ship was bigger than the ones he'd seen in London, painted black, but gold-plated, but the entire thing was rotted with moss and weeds, as if herself was a wreckage.
The Chaos's Fury.
William heard bootsteps behind him, turning, to be met with the point of a sword- a man with skin whiter than paper, red bags under his eyes on the other end. William looked to his left, and the rest of the sailors from the English were held too.
"Gather them!" a voice called, and William, at swordpoint, walked to the stern mast. One of the English tried to fight back, landing a swing that should've cut his captor in half, but the pasty man just laughed at him, drawing his sword and stabbing the English sailor in the heart. The corpse fell into the sea. William was pushed to a kneel, sword still at his side, but he now knew that useless. A man walked in front of them- skin white aswell, but his pitch-black eyes scared William half to death. He smirked as he looked at the sailors. The only noise was the torrential downpour of rain, but even that was deafened by the boots against wood. Each step was like an announcement. William looked to his left and only saw the man's legs, afraid to look up.
"Eleven alive, one fought back." the black-eyed man said. There were english sailors shaking. William looked to where the Yorkshire should've been, but they'd doused lamps, and were difficult to see.
Traitors.
The long-coated man paced in front of the English sailors, before kneeling two men to William's left and examining the coat that Cutler had on.
"English." he spoke softly. "What are you doing so far from your home, boy?"
Cutler's jaw was jittering- fear or cold, William didn't know, "I wanted to serve… his majesty, sir." Cutler replied surprisingly steadily.
"Loyalty." He got up again, pacing once more, before stopping just in front of William. William didn't look up, but the man knelt, raising William's chin to meet him in the eye. The green-blue that William stared into was unlike anything he'd ever seen- radiating power, inciting fear.
"Who sent you here?" the man asked.
William wasn't jittering, but he was just as scared as Cutler had been, "Nobody, sir."
The man smirked, and looked over to one of his men, and nodded. William stared into the man's eyes as an English sailor was killed and thrown overboard.
"Every time you lie to me, I'll kill one of your men, all up until it's just you." The man spoke slowly. "Who sent you here?"
"Admiral Luke Castellan!" a voice rang down the line, and William looked over in shock. A new sailor- no older than sixteen, was leaning forward. "Admiral Luke Castellan sent us. They're just there!" a shaky finger rose slowly, pointing to where the Yorkshire sat dark. The man rose, following where the sailor was pointing, looking directly at the English ship.
Luke lowered the telescope, and in front of him stood Percy Jackson.
"Luke Castellan." the man said. Luke took him in up close, the sea rotting his coat, but his skin looked tan like a native, his hair completely dry.
"Perseus Jackson." Luke responded simply, closing his telescope and putting it at his side. He noticed the swords drawn around him. "Lower your swords men." and the crew complied.
"I've been hidden for a year, Castellan, but now you've come to find me. I've got your stupid attempt at an infiltrator in my brig already, what says you don't join him?"
"I do not act as the leader of the India Trading Company, Perseus. I act as a captain of a ship, a man in love with the seas, coming to you for help." Percy laughed.
"You've sought me out for help?"
"I went to the witch Juno just to find you, Perseus."
Percy seemed to hesitate at her name, grabbing his hands instantly, the cold skin making Luke hiss. Percy inspected his hand- no, his fingers. "She didn't make you pay." He seemed to accept that fact, and rubbed a hand on the stubble on his chin. "Before we negotiate, what is it you think I can do for you?"
"I have been usurped from my position as the Lord of the Company, by Kronos, and I wish for you to assist me in regaining that position."
"Oh? And why should I do that?"
"I'll win the favor. In a game." Percy laughed.
"What game do you think you can best me at, Englishman?"
Luke sucked his teeth for a second, "I'll beat you at your own. Liar's dice." Percy broke into an uproar of laughter, almost toppling over at Luke's comment.
"Y-you think you can beat me? At Liar's Dice?" he sounded so astounded. He stopped laughing, placing a hand on Luke's shoulder. In an instant- he saw nothing, then he wasn't on the Yorkshire. He looked around- the faces of hungry pirates all stared him down, yellow eyes, dirty teeth, some of them looked less alive than others.
He was on the deck of the Chaos's Fury.
Percy snapped his fingers, snapping Luke out of his stupor, but also signaling for the deckhands. A table and two chairs were brought forward instantly, two cups, and two sets of five dice. Percy sat, and motioned for Luke to copy him.
"What are the stakes of this game, Luke Castellan?" Percy asked. Luke suddenly felt colder, less confident than he was on his own deck.
"If I win, you will hunt down the King George and the Kinesis of the English armada, and once they've both tasted clay, you are no longer in my debt."
Percy's smile just grew more and more wicked. "And I wager everything I own, if I lose." Luke finished, and the crew around him all laughed, every one less comforting than the last.
"That's not good enough from your side, Luke Castellan." Percy said, "I only gamble with what is dearest to a man's heart."
"And what would that be?"
"Your soul. A hundred years on my deck if you lose, that is an equal term." Percy's voice was slow. Luke's stomach churned, but he grabbed the cup before him anyways, shaking it, and slamming it to the table. Percy did the same, not bothering to lift his own cup. Luke checked.
"Two threes." Luke said.
"For you to seek out Juno, all in search of me, it shows how desperate you really are, Luke." Percy chided, "I wonder, what's the cause of this desperation? You claim it is the Lord Kronos taking your chair, but rage like this cannot be drawn from something so simple."
His cup still unchecked, Percy shook his head slightly, "three threes."
"We hold our honor in higher regard than you do, Perseus."
The captain across from him chuckled a bit, "Four threes."
"Ah, I see it now. You're a man driven by nothing but power. You think that killing the Lord Kronos and whatever Admiral they've slaved to the Kinesis will restore your life, will restore your regard as the Lord of the Company, but what you don't know is that you'll sail these seas, always in fear. If I kill those men for you, your fate will be darker than the winter nights." Percy spoke slowly, "Four fours."
Luke shook his head. "I choose my own fate."
"I've met the gods that string your poor mortal souls along day by day, and I can assure you, everything you've done since the day you were born, was all apart of the plan." Percy said.
"And you abide by them too?"
Percy laughed, slowly reaching up to his chest, pulling his shirt open just to the left- a wicked scar went from his collarbone all the way to his stomach, covering the entirety of his pectoral muscle.
"I am the only one walking this world unbound by fate, Luke. You've already figured that out."
"Then you know they'll be gunning for the chest, even more reason to help me." Luke tried to barter, but Percy had none of it.
"The chest cannot be opened without the key, it is bound by the Ancient God Gaia herself to be unbreakable by anything built by a mortal. You need the key."
Luke's heartrate grew, "but it is not the chest you need to protect. It is who guards it."
Percy stiffened, and Luke knew he had the upper hand, "who guards it guards it with her life, and I am not bound to her."
"But you are." Luke said, "You are bound by love."
"Raise the bet, Luke." Percy's voice was stiff.
"I've loved Annabeth Chase before too, Perseus. She is untamable, unpredictable. Just like the sea." he checked his dice one more time- "Five fours."
Percy remained stiff. "I parleyed with her, had her surrounded by a dozen ships, and she pulled the locket from her chest and opened it, and you never came. Why didn't you come?" Luke asked.
Percy shook his head, "You are smarter than people let on, Luke, I'll give you that. I knew she wasn't in danger, so I didn't come."
"But what if one day, she's surrounded by another dozen ships of the line, all barreling down on the Heart, and she can't open the locket. How will you know then?" Percy laughed.
"I don't need the locket to understand when she's in danger." he stood, "Five fives. Walk with me, Luke." he stood, and Luke stood aswell. He led him to the port side, staring down the wreckage that Luke had seen him on.
"Just because she can't open the locket does not mean I am unaware, Luke." he struck a hand out, and tentacles of water started to rise slowly from around the wreckage, "These sailors are bound to death, it is my duty to deliver them." he closed his fist, and the tentacles slapped down, the noise of water clapping against water and wood louder than anything Luke had heard- except for the broadside of the Fury, exploding wood flying through the air, the sea swallowing the ship.
Luke wasn't breathing, "I don't need the locket because I see everything, Luke. I knew you were coming to find me, I knew you went and sought out Juno, and I let it happen, because I knew you'd come to me asking to kill Kronos and Hyperion."
Percy grabbed Luke's chin and forced him to look him in the eye. "There's five fives under those two cups, nothing more, nothing less. You can call me a liar, or raise the bet, but either way, you've lost, Luke Castellan." he let go of Luke's face.
Luke was stone-locked on where the wreckage had just been- but it was no longer there. The seas were calm, and he couldn't see it under the water. He barely made out the Yorkshire signaling something- but it didn't matter.
"You talk about fate, but I've seen it all along. Your fate is to be married to my ship, Luke Castellan." The crew again, laughed around them. Luke ran through his brain- something, anything to get him out of this.
"They're going to assault Tortuga." He spoke loudly, and the laughing stopped.
"What did you say?"
"They're going to assault Tortuga- the English Armada. This week, sometime, I cannot remember the exact plans, but they're going to target the Athena's Heart. They don't want her, Perseus. They want you." Luke turned to the captain, who clenched his jaw. "You are the only person who can prevent them from taking her, or worse, killing her. Demigod, I ask you to, as a man with nothing else to give, to sail to Tortuga and prevent your love's end."
Percy's eyes glossed over for a moment, and he came back to reality.
"You see it, don't you?" Luke asked, and Percy didn't respond, he just nodded slightly. "You see the hundred ships barreling down on Tortuga as we speak."
"Honorable, Captain Castellan." Percy said, "I can respect a man who has the dignity to know he has nothing to barter, instead begging someone else to help. To the brig with him." Percy finished, and Luke grew wide-eyed, starting to protest, but it was useless. Two men larger than any he'd seen before stepped forward, taking Luke's arms and dragging him below deck.
wanted to push this out.
i've got a mortal AU coming soon that should be pretty cool & it's taken some time away from this project(sorry)