The three demigods just stood there looking down at a snoring satyr, shocked to say the least.
"What the Hades?" Luke whispered.
"I just called Bianca," Percy said sharply. "Grover's still with them."
Luke's expression darkened and Annabeth spoke up sharply. "It has to be a monster—a shape-shifter or some kind of illusion projection. An impostor."
"Baa-ah-ah… food," the look-alike Grover said in his sleep.
Percy felt himself pale and looked to see pained expressions on the other two. "A very good impostor."
"You two stand back," Luke said, stepping forward, sword still at the ready.
"Are you going to kill him?" Annabeth asked, voice small.
Luke shot her a troubled look. "Not yet." Focusing back on the body in front of him, he took a breath and nudged him with his foot. It wasn't a kick, but it wasn't soft. Percy and Annabeth backed off, Annabeth probably because she was a twelve-year-old used to taking orders from Luke and didn't see a reason not to, Percy because he wanted to encourage and reinforce positive behavior from the other demigod.
Styx, he was getting manipulative. Was that a god thing? Or an age thing? (Or both?)
Before he could decide, Grover woke up. "Encheladas!" He managed to sit up, but had his hands tied in front of him and likely, his legs too by how he moved them. What?
Percy didn't bite his lip, but he did brace himself for whatever would come next. If this monster was that good at impersonating Grover, this… would not be easy.
The satyr blinked, then looked up in the dim, cabin light. With their back to the door, Percy was pretty sure the impostor couldn't see much. Or, if they did, they realized there were three angry demigods standing above them, because they cringed away from the three of them, holding their hands in front of them and squeezing their eyes shut. "I don't know anything!"
"And if you did?" Percy asked, kicking himself when Luke shot him a look. What? The best way to get the truth out of someone, he'd found, was to go along with the lies until they backed themselves into a corner. Maybe he'd dealt with Hermes' kids a little too often in the future….
The Grover impersonator paused, seemed to think, and took a deep breath. "Then I wouldn't say."
So Grover-like. Should Percy have him swear on the Styx? Most people didn't because invoking the name of the Goddess of Death and Hatred often wasn't a good idea for a mortal. He did it because he had little doubt it would actually kill him or make him hate anyone more. At worst, it would start his ascension… and even then, he doubted it. Honestly, he knew invoking the name of the Styx so often could (likely would) have consequences. Making a potential Grover share in that or bring attention to himself? Yeah, no.
Or, well, at least maybe it should be a final resort.
"What are you doing on our ship?" Luke asked, voice harsh.
The satyr turned, confusion obvious on his face. "I have no idea! You kidnapped…" he paused, eyes going wide in the dim light of the hold as he sniffed obviously. "Wait… Luke?"
"What do you mean we kidnapped you?" Annabeth asked neutrally.
"I… I don't know! I was preparing for the quest with Bianca and… someone hit me over the head. I've been trying to be quiet because I thought someone kidnapped me! And I couldn't smell anything because that sack smelled worse than rotten onions!"
"Why would someone kidnap you?" Luke asked.
"We're still not sure it's actually Grover," Annabeth reminded them. "You said you saw Grover when you Iris Messaged Bianca today?" She glanced at Percy, who nodded.
"Baa-ah-ah! That's an impostor!"
Luke snorted. "How do we know you're not the impostor?"
Even in the dim light, it was easy to see the satyr's face pale. "I…"
"Grover," Percy said, "what's the name of my ex step-father; the one who woke us up the other day at my mom's?" He didn't break his gaze with the boy who looked so much like his best friend. Those brown eyes, worried and upset, seemed to take strength from Percy's stare.
"Gabe."
Percy took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm.
"That's Grover," he said. He could sense the satyr in front of him, but barely, like a whisp. Just what he'd expect given how well he could sense nature spirits inside camp last year… and outside now.
"How did we escape the cyclops before we got to camp," Annabeth asked, apparently wanting her own confirmation.
"Y-you stabbed it in the foot!"
Luke still didn't seem convinced. "Swear it on the Styx."
Well, so much for Percy's last resort.
"I swear on the Styx that I am the satyr Grover Underwood!"
Luke's sword dropped entirely. "Grover?" He finally asked, surprised. "What… how?"
"I told you! I got hit in the back of the head!" Annabeth had already rushed forward, dagger at the ready to cut through the satyr's bonds.
"But why would someone knock you out and put you here?" Luke asked.
"To get him out of the way," Annabeth said grimly.
"Bianca?!" Luke asked, but Percy was already dashing up the stairs. He reached out to the ocean, and it practically exploded in front of the ship. Percy forced it into a mist, already digging for drachma. Shoving whatever he pulled out into the rainbow.
"Oh, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, connect me with Bianca Di Angelo!"
A window opened… to chaos. That was the chimera! And a very large woman in a polka-dotted dress yelling out encouragements in the background. The chimera was spitting fire at a very familiar girl dodging around cars in a parking lot. An upper level parking lot.
"CLARISSE!" Bianca screamed.
"A little busy!" the girl in question called from somewhere out of view.
"Bianca!" Percy yelled.
She jumped and screamed again, whirling around. "What… Percy?" A stream of fire came at her. She managed to duck and crawl away, rushing between cars. "I can't talk!"
He bit his lip. If he said anything, it could cost her the fight. He knew what a moment of distraction could do. They were lucky him just popping up hadn't gotten her killed. It almost had. She rushed and jumped over a car, only to freeze. Straining to look, Percy realized she'd come to the edge of the roof parking lot.
"Duck!" Percy yelled, noting a flash of color and light off to the side.
Bianca jumped down between the car and the cement barrier marking the edge of the roof. Fire flew overhead and she ducked down behind the tire, screaming. He seriously considered jumping into the sea and making his way over to her right then and there, Hades take the consequences.
Eventually, the fire died down. Bianca looked up and met her cousin's gaze. "Percy?" she said, voice shaking as tears streamed down her face. "I… I don't want to get eaten."
Percy took a deep breath and reached for that part of him that would always be head of the demigod camp.
"Bianca, you remember what I said? About leaning into your powers? You have to get out of there. You said the shadows draw you? Ask them to let you through."
She stared at him like he was crazy. "Ask… shadows?"
"Please… trust me."
For several seconds, she continued to stare at him. She must have found whatever she was looking for, because she nodded, albeit shakily, and took a deep breath and putting her hands down.
"Go ahead, Sweetums!" Echidna yelled in the background, the same sickeningly sweet but somehow still rough voice he could still recall even now—he'd definitely avoided her during his time as a god. "Get her! Then we can kill the other two."
Bianca shuddered.
"Don't listen," Percy said, "just focus. Reach out for the shadows, and ask them. They'll respond."
She nodded and closed her eyes, putting her hands on the ground. The shadows rippled. Above her, the chimera jumped onto the car.
"Focus, Bianca!"
"I'm trying!"
The shadows beneath her hands shuddered again, and rose. The chimera opened its mouth and dived for her.
"Bianca!" Percy yelled.
The shadows converged into a dome just as the chimera hit her. The image cut off. Percy cursed in at least four languages. Larger waves rocked the boat and clouds had begun to gather overhead. He took a deep breath. From experience, he knew the image usually cut off when someone shadow traveled away, but also when someone died, so he didn't know which had happened.
"Call her again!" Annabeth said, rushing forward.
"No use," Percy said through gritted teeth. "Either she shadow traveled away and is safe now, or she's…" he faded off, slowly drawing his lips in between his teeth tightly.
"In any case, even if she is out of her shadow traveling, she's probably still fighting. Interrupting her now could kill her. That was the Chimera and Echidna. She'll need all the concentration she can get." He hated to say it like that, but he knew he'd escaped (ha, she'd just thought he'd splat on the ground below the Gateway Arch… a fair assessment) by the skin of his teeth when he'd been attacked by them. Still…
Please let her have made it. He couldn't help but send a prayer to Hades, even if he knew the god couldn't interfere. After another moment of uncomfortable silence, he forced himself to go on. "We should… focus on our own quest. We'll call her when we're done and find out, one way or another.'
"Are we just going to let her and Clarisse run around with an impostor?" Annabeth asked, scandalized.
Percy frowned. She had a point. "We'll try again in a couple of minutes, but we have to give them time."
Annabeth and Luke both looked relieved. Percy didn't think it would work, though, and didn't know why. His demigod sense? (He would never say that phrase aloud) Or something else?
"Grover," he said, deciding to focus on their current circumstances. He turned to the satyr, who had appeared next to the stairs with Luke, eyeing the semi-rotten ship around them nervously. He snapped his attention to Percy at the sound of his name. "Help Luke find and steal a boat, load it, and prepare to run, please." He pulled out the bottle of vitamins again, opening it and handing one to his friend.
"If you get found out, eat this. That goes for everyone. They're only to be used in emergencies." He remembered that warning from Hermes himself too. Funny what details he'd retained.
"Where are we?" Grover asked nervously.
"Circe's island."
"Baa-ah-ah-ah-ah!"
Percy sighed. "Yeah, I know. But I need to talk to some people here. Okay, does everyone understand the plan?" Nods all around, even if some were reluctant. "Is everyone alright with it."
"Define 'alright'," Annabeth muttered.
The time-traveler glanced at her, eyebrows drawn together. Had he pushed too far? Too hard?
"We don't have to do it my way," he finally said. "If you really don't want to—"
"No, I can do it," she said. "It's a good plan."
"What plan?" Grover asked.
Luke folded his arms. "Annabeth acts as a distraction while Percy sneaks onto the island and speaks to these 'people' he keeps talking about, and we find a better boat."
Grover looked at Luke as if expecting him to burst into laughter. Then he turned back to Percy, eyes wide, when Luke continued to glare. "Who do you need to talk to?!"
Percy felt his lips tighten as he looked between the other two. Luke continued to glare at him while Annabeth looked away. They were getting awfully close to the island too…
Almost as if in response to his thoughts, something tingled at the edge of his senses. He blinked and reached out to the mist. They'd just passed through a barrier… a very strong barrier. One that had been in place for decades if not centuries. The gods couldn't see past that without some significant pressing. He almost laughed.
He did grin. "I'm from the future."
Luke's expression changed to surprise while Annabeth whipped her head around to stare at him.
"There's a barrier around the island, probably due to the mistress of the island herself. Means we won't be able to contact each other without her knowing, but it also means there's a barrier the gods can't crack without some serious effort."
"I'm sorry, you're what?" Grover asked, looking like he regretted being woken up.
Percy smiled at him. "From the future. About three hundred years."
Grover didn't bleat that time, but he did kind of whimper and curl in on himself. Percy hurried up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's a long story we kind of don't have time for right now. Luke?"
The older boy sighed. "Yeah, I'll fill him in." Likely with extra commentary, but hey. It was better than nothing.
"We still need to get that food out back if we're going to do this," Annabeth said, annoyed.
"Good point," Percy said. The island was very close and if someone had spotted them, their gig could be up already. "Let's hurry."
"But…" Grover said, not seeming to know what to do beyond that.
"I'll explain it all," Luke promised. Eventually, Grover nodded slowly and followed them down to finish getting all of their supplies ready.
xXx
They tried to reach out to the other quest a couple of minutes later. Neither Bianca or Clarisse answered. Percy had to point out how that could be due to anything from her new powers to Echidna doing something to the island just not allowing communication out. It… didn't sound too reassuring, even to him. And they were running out of time.
Finally, they all agreed that they'd need to do their best to contact the other demigods as soon as they got away from the island and continued focusing on their part of the plan. It didn't stop them from feeling guilty or worried. Percy didn't need to read them with his domains to know that.
They began to drop their newly resealed supplies into the water after securing them with rope, dragging them along behind for now. Percy made sure to keep them afloat and relatively dry after he got into the water with Luke and Grover, keeping them mainly in a separate bubble.
Eventually, though, the boat approached the dock. As before, a woman (that wasn't anyone he knew, Styx) met Annabeth and asked her questions. Why was she there? Was she alone? What were her allegiances? Etc. Eventually, the woman led a frazzled looking Annabeth away while other women brought the boat in to be anchored. Percy made sure they were all safely under the boat while that happened. He'd expected someone to search the vessel. Circe would be stupid not to, and she may be arrogant, but she wasn't stupid.
No one wanted to talk much, too concentrated on what was happening to think about discussing anything. Eventually, though, Percy sensed the women leave the boat and gestured for a nervous
Grover and grim-faced Luke to head to the surface with the supplies.
"Alright, you guys head out," he said. "I'll be going now."
"This is a bad idea," Grover said.
Percy grinned. "My best kind."
The half-goat sighed in despair as Percy dived under the water again and swam away from the dock, towards a beach he could see in the distance. It looked relatively empty, but he made doubly sure to look around before wading up on the shore, twisting the mist as he did so. Anyone watching should see a girl with Percy's coloring and her relatively short hair in braids walking out of the sea. If they had clear-sighted mortals on the island, he was pretty much doomed, but until he ran into one of them…
He patted the vitamins in his pocket, reassuring himself, and then double-checked his father's horn, on a strap around his shoulder (which he'd made sure to hide). Then, taking a deep breath, he walked out of the waves and onto Circe's island.
xXx
Bianca Di Angelo had never really been scared of dying. Or, more accurately, she'd never been afraid of death. Dying sounded painful and terrifying, but death itself? Meh. For some reason, it had never bothered her, even as it seemed to bother everyone else. She couldn't remember much of her past, but she remembered that. Maybe because it was more esoteric than actual memories?
But that didn't mean she wasn't scared. Everything besides death itself+ seemed to terrify her. Especially in the hotel. The idea of losing Nico back then had almost made her sick. The fact that she couldn't remember having known her mother at all made her knees weak. The thought of making Nico unhappy or letting him down made her want to pee herself. Now, the thought of letting down her father—the god of the underworld— made it hard to breathe when she thought about it… so she tried really hard not to. Letting her fellow questers down. Never getting back to camp to see her brother. Never meeting her father. Percy Jackson in general, even if she looked up to him.
In truth, Bianca had always been, well, scared. It would be different if she had someone she felt she could really trust in her corner, and to be fair she could trust Nico, but he was ten and acted like it. She may be a little jealous of the fact that he could act like that. She couldn't get obsessed with some card game and ignore everything else. What would happen to both them if she did?
She didn't like to think about it.
Ever.
That didn't mean she didn't think about it, because her mind wasn't that kind to her.
Just like it wasn't kind to her now, as a giant half-lion, half-snake monster (with other animals pulled in just for fun) tried to eat her after barbecuing her on the spot. Then Percy had called and she'd somehow ended up between a car and a cement wall stopping her from a four-story drop. She could hear Clarisse fighting the other monsters that had shown up with the Mother of Monsters and the Chimera, and doubted she'd get any help from there. She had no idea where Grover was.
Percy told her to reach out to the shadows. She did, but they were slippery—like that slime Nico had bought that one time in the hotel. She'd hated the feel of it then, and she didn't like the feel of it now, but she refused to let go.
Ask, Percy had said. Percy who had reached out to her just to check up on them. Percy who cared. He scared her, but she trusted him. So she pushed harder and then begged the shadows to… well, do something.
They rippled. She could feel it. She didn't even think she could describe it except for both strange and welcoming.
"Focus, Bianca!" Percy yelled, panic edging his voice.
"I'm trying!" she shouted back, pushing more of herself down into the shadows, desperate to escape the monster she could hear overhead.
Please, she begged the shadows. PLEASE! She didn't want to die like this! Then, the shadows beneath her hands seemed to agree and understand and they rose around her, rising in arcs. It felt as if an entire other world had opened up to her and she gasped.
"Bianca!" Percy yelled.
The shadows shot higher, gaining speed. She felt them closing overhead, not slowly, but not fast enough. She couldn't help but peek up to see the monster diving for her, mouth open wide, gullet already glowing with light of a fire that would destroy her—
And then she was falling.
Oh look, something else terrifying.
She screamed words she would not let Nico say before landing with a painful (but survivable) oof on pavement. The world faded back into color and she lay there, below the parking garage, just staring up at the ceiling above her in shock. Distantly, she recognized Clarisse screaming her name.
The parking garage had been adjacent to a store they'd decided to try and get some food from when their train had stopped in Kansas City, Missouri. They'd wanted something to eat before trying to get back onto another train, but a bunch of dog-headed people, Echidna, and her son had ambushed them on their way.
Speaking of…
"Sonny?! Where is she?! Where is she?!" That last one was more of a roar and Bianca felt fear zing through her. But more, she'd almost been killed. By that… that… monster!
She shifted to roll over and found herself gagging, suddenly nauseous. She didn't know whether that was because of how tired she felt, or the sensation of actually traveling through the shadows themselves. Both? (It wasn't from her near-death… huh.)
Her whole life, Bianca had known fear. She'd practically been born afraid. After Nico had been born, her mother had been so happy, but then people were acting strangely and there had been people yelling in the streets all the time and…
Wait…
Why… why could she remember that? She hadn't been able to before, but…
She remembered the house in Italy she and her mother and brother used to live in. But then it had started to go downhill and everyone had either been angry or scared. Eventually, they'd had to run, because the war was coming to their town. They hadn't been the only ones chased away, but she remembered there was something different…
"If anything happens to you, take care of Nico," her mother had said, in Italian. "Promise me you'll take care of your brother!"
She'd nodded and taken Nico's hand. That had been the first time she'd really had to fight her otherwise crippling fear. Because Nico was there and depending on her and more important than fear and…
And then there had been a man there. Tall and dark, with worried, black eyes. Bianca hadn't known him then, but her mother had said to go with him. Then she'd run back into the building and… and a lightning bolt.
She remembered screaming. She remembered not being able to see, or hear… then nothing.
It was still vague after that, and everything up until that point was still full of holes, but the hotel… and then the boarding school that suddenly seemed so new and different and…
Why did she remember?
She didn't know.
What she did know was that Grover and Clarisse needed her.
She didn't want to get up and find them. She really, really didn't. The idea to just walk away crossed her mind but… Then what? And could she face the guilt of just leaving them?
It was honestly one of the hardest things she'd ever done to get up and take a step back inside the parking garage. She had four floors to climb… and two people to save.
And then she'd run away. With the others. Yeah. That sounded good.
She took another step.
xXx
AN: So, we get very little from Bianca from the books, and so this just kind of... happened. I figure she got scared of her future and that's why she left Nico in canon. But I also think she can overcome her fears, or Telos wouldn't have happened (arguments could be made, but yeah).
Anyway, I hope this isn't too bad. I'm about dead (tired), but wanted to get this up tonight.
A special thanks to my beta readers, discord helpers, and tier 3 and 4 readers: Berix, The Shadow Slayer, Asterius Daemon, Quathis, Harlequin, Speedster, Snow, Starlightlluv, Squirps, and The Chronomancer! Also, all of my discord peeps and my readers here! Thank you! (If I've missed anyone, PLEASE let me know!
Discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy