Chapter 7 Pietro And I Exchange Death Threats

Nico stood in the doorway of Pietro's room, glaring daggers. Pietro looked at him fearfully. Good. He knew he was about to be interrogated.

"Pietro Mendoza," He said, "We need to talk."

Pietro laughed nervously, "About what?"

Where to start? He needed answers out of this guy. Nico had his suspicion on who he really was, but he couldn't be sure. He did know, however, that Pietro probably wouldn't answer to "Are you secretly working for Poseidon?"

That was his theory, at least. It made sense. The ship's aerial equipment had stopped working as soon as he'd gotten on board. Zeus wouldn't have been too happy with his rival's lackey in his domain. When they'd crash-landed, Nico swore Pietro had remained completely dry for a split-second while the rest of them had gotten splashed. Nico was going to be ringing water out of his aviator jacket for the next week.

Then, of course, the whole thing with Scylla and Charybdis. Apparently it was a "Treasure hunter secret." Bullshit. Pietro had controlled them somehow, he was sure of it, and the only way he could do that was with a connection to the sea god.

"Who were you talking to?" Nico asked, figuring that would be a good first question. As he'd knocked on the door, he'd only heard muffled voices coming from the room, but clearly Pietro had been Iris-Messaging somebody.

"Uhh…" Pietro fidgeted for a minute, though Nico couldn't tell if it was nerves or just ADHD, "My dad."

"Your dad?" Nico raised an eyebrow.

Pietro nodded, "Yeah. He…uh…I told him I was going on a quest before I left real quick, and he wanted to see how it was going."

Sure. Nico thought. Pietro was lying through his teeth.

Nico took two steps forward and slammed the door behind him. Pietro backed up.

"Look," Nico said. He put his hand on his sword, ready to draw it in case things got ugly. He'd made sure to grab it before confronting Pietro, "I don't know who you are, but I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I don't trust you."

"Noted," Pietro said, "Was there a reason you had to come say this to me in the middle of the night?"

"I'm not finished," Nico told him, "I don't think you are who you say you are."

Pietro's eyes widened, "You don't?"

"It's not that hard to figure out. You don't exactly match the description of the guy you're trying to impersonate."

"Well Google isn't always the most accurate-"

Nico cut him off, "I don't care who you are, but I want to make one thing clear: you can betray us or try whatever crazy ideas your ulterior motives may involve, but you are on a ship with seven of the most powerful demigods in the world," Nico grinned, "You aren't gonna get anything past us."

He expected Pietro to back off, or to retaliate in fear, but instead he stood up straighter and pierced through Nico with those sea-green eyes, "Then let me make one thing clear, di Angelo. I've seen things you can't imagine." Nico doubted that but he let Pietro continue, "I'm not threatened by a couple of demigods with pointy sticks and flashy powers. I have learned many things on my adventures. You doubt my identity. Well, I am Pietro Mendoza, in the flesh. But how well do you know Pietro Mendoza? Do you know what he can or can't do? Do you know the power he wields?"

Nico took a step back. For the first time, Pietro had barely hesitated. And for the first time, Nico realized he might be biting off more than he could chew. He immediately had no doubt that the guy in front of him was incredibly powerful. Nico didn't know if he matched his own abilities in terms of strength, but he was not definitely not someone to be taken lightly.

Then Pietro laughed and smiled. It wasn't a friendly one, "Believe whatever you want. I'm here to help you find your way to the lyre and retrieve it. But I won't lie to you and say I don't have my own reasons." He paused, "and I'll do whatever it takes to get what I want."

Nico faltered. He was right. He'd been right the whole time. At best, Pietro was a total loose cannon and a disaster waiting to happen. At worst, he was a total monster who was going to get them all killed and take the lyre for himself.

Pietro's eyes widened, as if he had just realized what he'd said, "You tell anyone what you just heard, and I promise you-"

"Promise me what?" Nico said, then shot a nasty smile right back at him, "You do know who I am, right? Son of Hades and all that. I could snap my fingers and send you to my father before you could blink."

Pietro's eyes started glowing, "You wanna bet?"

Green eyes, He thought absently, another Poseidon trait.

Nico took a deep breath. This was getting them nowhere. As much as he wanted to send Pietro straight to the Underworld, or at least get answers out of him, he knew he was the only way to the lyre. He clearly wasn't going to admit anything about his connections. Also, while Nico didn't doubt himself, he wasn't quite sure what Pietro was capable of. What would a son of the missing object god have in terms of supernatural abilities? That is, of course, if he was actually a son of Pedro and not someone else, which Nico thought was unlikely. In any case, they certainly didn't need to accidentally destroy the ship and leave them all stranded in the ocean. Fighting was definitely not the option here, no matter how much he wanted to.

"Look," Nico rubbed his nose, "let's call a truce before we blow something up. We tell no one of what happened here and leave each other alone." He looked up at Pietro, "But Mendoza, I swear on the River Styx that the second you try and take that lyre from us, the safety's off."

Thunder rumbled in the sky above. Pietro looked up. Okay, he definitely knew that promises on the River Styx were a life-binding agreement. Nico didn't like using them, but it seemed necessary for this circumstance.

"Deal," Pietro mumbled, "But I'm gonna hold you to your word as well. You tell anyone what just happened, and I swear on the River Styx all gloves are off."

Thunder rumbled overheard once again,

Nico nodded, "Deal."

"Perfect."

"Glad that's settled. Just remember," Nico turned and made his way to the door, "I'm watching you."

Pietro didn't react, "Likewise."

Nico then left him to his own thoughts while he began sorting through new clues to the Pietro puzzle in his mind.

ooooooooo

Percy collapsed on his bed the second Nico left.

He hated that he'd had to intimidate the kid. He didn't like using his powers in that way. But it had just been a spur of the moment and if he hadn't said something he probably would've caved and told Nico everything.

This was bad. This was very, very, very bad. Nico was already threatening him if he put a foot out of line. Percy hadn't been scared of these demigods, he knew what he was capable of, but suddenly he realized he was in way over his head. At least two other Big Three kids were on the Argo ll, plus a Hepheastaus kid with the power over fire, and who knew what any of the others were capable of? Even if he did make it to Wadelisle without any hiccups, could he get the lyre and get off the island without being killed? He didn't know.

And that was assuming all went well. Percy wasn't stupid. He knew that quests always went wrong in every way possible.

He also knew that he was on a boat. Surrounded by water. Sure, it felt good to be in his element, but one wrong move and he would fall into the water and-

Boom. H2O: Just Add Water moment. Except this one would probably involve a lot more violence.

Wait a second.

Percy thought back to when the boat had crash-landed. He'd been able to stay dry then. Could he do that underwater?

No. That was ridiculous. But…

Was it really that unreasonable? If he could do it on land, why not elsewhere? Why hadn't he thought of that before?

But how to test this new theory? He couldn't just sneak up to the top deck and jump overboard into the ocean and-

-and that's exactly what he ended up doing. He crept out of his cabin and up to the top deck. He knew someone was probably up there on watch, but Percy had snuck around the castle in Atlantis more times than he could count, and that involved a lot more guards at every corner. This would be a cakewalk. He saw who he thought was Frank out of the corner of his eye but made it there without anyone seeing him.

Percy made his way to the edge of the ship and stared down at the dark water. Quietly, checking in all directions for the umpteenth time to make sure no one was looking his way, he took a deep breath and hurled himself over the side of the Argo ll.

The water quickly rushed up to meet him. He landed with a splash and immediately transformed. It was dark, but he felt out with all his senses and found nothing but more water and a couple of fish. He sighed; it felt good to be back.

Percy shook his head. He needed to stay focused. He wasn't worried about the ship leaving him behind -he could easily catch up- but the longer he was gone the more suspicious it became for everyone else.

He closed his eyes and focused on the water around him. How did he keep himself dry on land? It was really more of a subconscious thing. He tried to keep thinking about the water. If he wanted to, he could pick out each individual droplet surrounding him. Instead, he focused more on general direction. He pushed the water slightly away from himself. I'm doing so, he created a tiny air pocket that kept him from getting wet.

And soon after, Percy watched as his tail became legs again.

He yelled out in happiness. It worked. It actually worked! He didn't have to worry about going underwater and revealing his secret!

Then, he thought in excitement, could it work beyond that? If he could pose as human underwater whenever he wanted, could he go back to a normal life above ground? Probably not, but the fact there was even a slight chance of that-

Percy then tried to swim and realized he couldn't. He frowned; could he just propel himself forward using his powers? He thought against that, because that would also reveal himself. He tried to swim again and ended up spinning in a circle. How did anyone swim with two legs? He could just use his arms but that was so slow. On top of that, he already felt fatigued; he had to put most of his energy into maintaining the bubble around him.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't as overpowered of a trick as he'd initially believed, but it was definitely something to work on. Just like with anything else, it would get easier the more he did it.

He then realized he should probably be getting back to the ship, so he let go of the air bubble, which gave him his tail back and swam to the edge of the boat. He willed a wave to rise up beneath him. Seconds after he broke the surface he changed back to a human. Percy continued willing the wave to rise slowly until his eyes were just level with the edge of the top deck. He peeked out to make sure no one was watching and let the wave carry him back on board. Then he shook the water off and began making his way back toward his cabin.

Okay, so the night wasn't all bad. He'd learned a new skill, and hadn't gotten caught on his little escapade. Sure Nico was about an inch and a half from finding out the truth, but he didn't know yet, so that had to count for something. Percy even found himself smiling as he walked down the hallway.

He then noticed a light on in the mess hall, and quickly rushed by it, hoping that whoever was in there hadn't seen him.

"What are you doing?" Percy heard someone ask from behind him. He spun on his heels and saw Annabeth staring at him.

Uh-oh.

oooooooo

Annabeth frowned as she saw Pietro freeze in the hallway. She had been in the mess hall, grabbing some chips. It was the middle of the night. Unless he'd gotten up to go to the bathroom, what the heck was he doing? Did Nico's theories really have merit to them? Was he doing something behind all of their backs?

"Uh…" Pietro said, "I couldn't sleep."

Oh. Annabeth let her guard down a little. Well, that made sense, so long as he was telling the truth. That was why she was up anyway. Instead of sleeping, she'd decided to work more on her design for the new Hermes cabin. She just couldn't get the dimensions quite right.

She raised an eyebrow, "You sure?"

Pietro nodded, "Yep."

He seemed so relaxed and upbeat. She definitely knew something was up with this Pietro guy, but was it really as bad as Nico seemed to think? "Same." She said.

Pietro came into the mess hall, "What are you doing? Besides not sleeping, I mean."

Annabeth shrugged, "I was working on a design for the new Hermes cabin at Camp Half-Blood, but I got hungry."

"Makes sense," Pietro paused, "Jason mentioned Camp Half-Blood earlier. What is that?"

"You don't know?"

Pietro shook his head.

That was surprising. Most demigods who didn't go to either Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter wound up dead by the time they were eighteen. Interesting, "So how did you survive?"

Pietro's eyes widened, "Well…I guess…Pedro is a pretty minor god, so I just played it safe and it was fine."

Why had he hesitated like that? "How did you find out you were a demigod?" Usually if a kid of a minor god went unclaimed like that and survived, they would never learn the truth about who they were.

Pietro laughed, "That is…well…he just showed up one day and told me. That was a crazy day."

That was rare, but not impossible, Annabeth supposed. He was probably being truthful.

"So what is this Camp Half-Blood?"

"Well," Annabeth said, "Camp Half-Blood is a safe haven camp for demigods. Kids are brought there so they don't get attacked by monsters." She smiled, reminiscing the old days of campfires and Capture the Flag, "Now that most of us are older, we don't stay there permanently, but we visit a lot."

Pietro nodded, "How many of you guys are there?"

"Not sure," Annabeth said, "There's been a recent influx of kids since we built cabins for more of the gods, so probably a couple hundred? Then of course there's camp Jupiter, which is just the Roman version of our camp, and they have a lot more people than we do."

"And you guys all just live there? Together?"

Annabeth shrugged, "More or less. Some only stay during the summer. Others stay year-round. For many, it's the only home they have."

Pietro said nothing, but he smiled. Gods, that smile was contagious. It made Annabeth want to melt into a pile of happiness.

What was she thinking? She still didn't have a clue who this guy was. She couldn't be getting all these mushy gushy thoughts about someone who was still practically a stranger!

"…so what are you working on, again?" Pietro asked.

"Hmm?" Annabeth snapped back to the conversation, "Oh. I'm designing the new Hermes cabin — all the cabins are divided up based on who your godly parent is, by the way — because the Hephaestus kids built a flaming catapult and accidentally burned it down."

Pietro winced, "I mean, it's not arson unless it's on purpose."

Annabeth laughed, "Yeah. It's not a huge deal because it needed to be rebuilt anyway. But regardless, Chiron — he's kinda in charge of the camp —- asked if I would help make a new one."

"So you're an architect?"

"It's been my dream since I was a little kid," Annabeth said. She smiled. Most people would lose interest after a few minutes when she was talking about her hobbies, but Pietro seemed intent on listening. For a demigod who most likely had ADHD like the rest of them, that was pretty big. She hadn't know Pietro for very long but it felt as if he'd always been there. It was a feeling she couldn't really describe.

Pietro looked around the room awkwardly. Suddenly Annabeth realized that she didn't want this moment to end. She needed something to keep the conversation going, "I can show you my design if you want."

Gods that sounded stupid. Annabeth wanted to smack herself. She sounded like a little kid asking her parents to watch a new dance she'd made. What was she even doing? Why did she want to keep talking with this guy?

"Sure," Pietro said, "But just so you know, I have no idea about anything when it comes to building stuff."

Annabeth hadn't been expecting him to say yes. She pointed to her cabin down the hallway, "Let me go get my computer and I'll be right back." As much as she wanted to keep talking to Pietro, she still didn't completely trust him, and she sure wasn't going to let some random guy she didn't know into her room alone with her. It never hurt to be careful.

She made it back to the mess hall and found Pietro still waiting, staring off into space. He tuned back in when she entered the room. She sat down at the table next to him and opened her computer.

"That's a pretty cool laptop," Pietro noted.

Annabeth looked at him as it booted up. She told her brain to shut up as it commented on his pretty sea-green eyes, "Yeah. I got it from Daedalus when he visited camp."

Pietro blinked, "You mean like the Daedalus?"

"Yeah." Annabeth said, "It can do just about anything."

"That's cool."

Annabeth thought it deserved more than a "that's cool" but she let it drop. She opened the 3-D model of the new cabin.

Pietro whistled, "You designed that?"

Annabeth nodded, "Yep. Figured out the dimensions of everything too. But-"

"What?"

She zoomed in on the small front porch of the cabin, where the entrance appeared disproportionate to the rest of the wall, "I can't figure out this stupid doorway. It just doesn't look right."

"Well I'm certainly not the person to ask." Pietro said, "Isn't Leo like a mechanic? Wouldn't he know more than me?"

Annabeth sighed, "I know. But…I've already shown him and he's trying to come up with ideas, but in the meantime he agreed that we should get an outsiders opinion on the rest of it. Someone with no knowledge of what it should look like. So what do you think? Ignoring the doorway, of course."

"I think it's insane," Pietro said, "Honestly. I don't know how you do stuff like that. Even with the funky door."

"You think so?"

Pietro nodded, "Definitely."

Annabeth smiled, "Thanks."

"Anytime." He gave her a thumbs up.

They didn't say anything to each other for a moment. Then Annabeth side-eyed the Wii. She got an idea.

"Pietro?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna learn how to actually play smash bros?"

The two sat down on the couch and Annabeth handed Pietro a controller. She then explained a couple of the easier characters like Kirby and what each button did. She told him about some basic power ups and the Smash Ball, then helped him put it all into practice.

She went really easy on him at first, but after a few rounds he started getting the hang of it. He was nowhere close to beating her yet, but maybe someday the two would be competitive.

They continued like that for a while. Pietro would get excited every time he hit Annabeth off the screen. He even killed her a couple times when she was actually trying (she would come back and win in the end though).

After one specific match, Annabeth closed her eyes and smiled. Something about this just felt right. She then realized how tired she was. How late was it? She didn't know.

She looked over to see Pietro's eyes fluttering as well. They were both exhausted.

"I think we should be done," She said with a yawn, leaning back against the couch. She didn't really feel like getting up and going back to bed. Here was nice. She could fall asleep right here.

"Good idea." Pietro said, nodding. Annabeth expected him to get up and leave, but he didn't budge. Annabeth didn't want to admit it, but she was happy he'd stayed.

She drifted off to sleep within seconds.

oooooooo

Leo dragged himself to the mess hall for breakfast only to find Pietro and Annabeth passed out on the couch and the Smash Bros character select still on the TV. Annabeth's head rested on Pietro's shoulder. Leo grinned. He mentally patted himself on the back for his matchmaker skills. Now, the only question was if he should leave them or wake them up.

Obviously it was the latter.

Leo pumped his arm up and down like he was pulling a whistle and made an obnoxiously loud sound like a boat horn, "The ship had set sail. I repeat the ship has set sail!"

He watched as Annabeth groggily opened her eyes and realized what she was doing. She immediately scrambled off the couch and stood up. Pietro didn't move.

"Leo, what are you doing?"

"Getting breakfast, duh." He said, then gave her a smug look, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" She yelled, her face red as a tomato.

Leo folded his arms and looked at Pietro, "Uh-huh."

Pietro finally groaned and sat up, "What's going on?"

Leo giggled like a middle-school girl, "Oh, nothing." Annabeth glared at him. Pietro just looked confused but didn't press the issue farther.

After that, the morning continued smoothly. Well, until Hazel came in begging that they stop somewhere and just take a break because she was tired of being seasick. Leo, luckily enough, found an island nearby and steered the ship toward it.

As soon as they got off, Leo noticed how pretty the beach was. If not for the fact that it was in the Sea of Monsters, it would be a really pretty vacation spot. Then Jason told him to look up. Leo gasped in awe. In front of them stood a huge mansion resort. White marble columns stood everywhere. Fountains with little statues littered the ground. It looked like something straight out of Elysium.

Only Nico seemed less than impressed, "I've got a bad feeling about this place."

Leo ignored him as he noticed a large sign greeting them to the island.

"Hmm," He said, reading it, "CC's Spa & Resort." He waved for everyone else to follow him, "Let's go check it out!"