Chapter 16 I Question My Life Decisions (The Sequel)

Leo was really getting tired of this stupid quest.

Honestly, how many near-death experiences could one have in a week? Leo felt as though he had to have broken the record by now. As he stepped foot onto the sandy beach, he tried to tell himself it was almost over. All they had to do was find the lyre and get it to Apollo.

Because that was soooooo simple.

"The sooner we get out of here, the better, " Jason said from Leo's side, "I'm so done with being powerless."

Leo nodded in agreement. His entire life, all he could feel was the call of the flame, begging him to unleash it. For it to suddenly vanish…

Well, it wasn't exactly comforting.

And Leo counted himself lucky. Leo at least still has some of his ability (albeit extremely weakened) Jason had been flying completely blind (walking blind, since he couldn't fly anymore? Whatever) for days now.

When added to everything else, Leo figured it was safe to say that the sooner they got out of the Sea of Monsters, the better. Unfortunately, that thought brought others to his mind. How exactly were they going to leave the Sea of Monsters? They didn't have a demigod who was suspiciously good at navigating the oceans with them anymore. That was just what they needed. They'd finally find the lyre only to be lost at sea due to the fact that none of them knew where they were.

Leo glanced over at Annabeth. She looked okay, but Leo knew that appearances often spun lies. Annabeth had been a wreck of emotions the entire day. She blamed herself for the whole thing. And while it was partially on her, it wasn't entirely her fault. Percy had still hidden the truth from them. And this was kinda a big thing. There was also no way Annabeth would've been thinking clearly if she'd just nearly drowned anyway.

But still, Leo knew firsthand just how much guilt like that could weigh on a person. He didn't try to think about life before foster care and boarding schools, due to the horrors it brought back. But the memories never really went away.

He still missed his mom. And he still blamed himself, even if it had all been an accident.

A huge, fatal accident. That he'd caused.

Leo shook that away. This was not the time to take a trek down memory lane. He forced himself back to the present, but his mind immediately wandered back to Pietro…er….Percy. He was really going to miss the guy. If only there was a way to find him again. It wasn't like he cared who Percy really was; he was still his friend. Maybe once this quest was done he could set out to find him.

Nico groaned, snapping Leo out of his spiral, "This island is huge. It's gonna take forever to search for a single harp."

Nico was right. It was hard to tell from their current position on the beach, but the island had to be a couple of miles across. A large mass of trees stood before them. The beach continued on either side.

"We'd better start searching then," Hazel said.

Frank looked around, "Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?"

No one said anything. He hadn't realized it at first, but Leo noticed how quiet the island seemed. Even the sound of the waves seemed muted. He didn't know what the others were thinking, but everyone seemed to collectively think "yes".

"We should probably split up," Piper jumped in, steering the conversation away from that point, "Hazel. You, Frank, and Nico should start circling the perimeter. The rest of us will head into the forest."

"Uh, not to be that guy," Nico said, "But what if something goes wrong? If we get attacked it'll be a lot harder to defend ourselves."

"But staying together in one big group could draw more attention," Hazel argued, "Not to mention it would take twice as long to search the island."

Leo cursed Poseidon mentally for draining their abilities (at least, that's what seemed to be happening). If this was any normal day, they could just have Hazel reach out and try to sense any precious metals nearby. They'd locate it and boom! they'd be on their way home.

But no. They couldn't have nice things, could they?

"Hazel's right," Jason added, "I highly doubt Poseidon doesn't know we're here. Especially after the whole thing with Pietro and…" He trailed off, shook his head, then started again, "I think the sooner we find that lyre and get the hell out of here, the better."

"Dang, Jason's using big boy words now," Leo smirked at him. Jason rolled his eyes.

"Alright then," Piper said, "Let's do this! We're wasting daylight."

Leo followed Jason and Piper into the trees, Annabeth tagging along behind. Something was definitely wrong with her. Well, Leo knew that already, but he could tell it was serious. Annabeth didn't just shut up for no reason. And she had been dead silent pretty much since the storm. He couldn't blame her, he supposed. She had almost died, then immediately blew up at the guy who'd saved her.

Not a great way to start a relationship.

Leo almost snorted at that thought. As if he knew the necessities of a healthy romantic relationship.

"You doing okay?" Leo blurted. That had come out of nowhere. What was he doing? He was not the pep talk guy. He was the guy who used dark humor as his only coping mechanism.

Annabeth blinked before looking at him, almost as if she were snapping out of a trance, "Yeah, I guess. I'll get over it eventually."

Leo winced. He knew his whole "yelling in his face" joke had been too much.

"I wasn't talking about that," Leo said, trying to swerve away from the whole slamming-the-trapdoor-in-the-guy-who-saved-you's-face thing.

Annabeth frowned, "Then what are you talking about?"

Leo faltered. How did he go about this? Everyone handled things differently; Annabeth was one tough cookie, but there was still only so much one could take, and something like nearly drowning to death was kinda a big one. He wanted to help her; not make it worse.

"I mean with the whole overboard thing." Smooth.

Surprisingly, Annabeth seemed to relax a little with that, "Oh. Well, as good as you can be, I guess."

Leo nodded, "Yeah."

"The whole almost-dying thing is pretty normal for demigods, though," Annabeth continued, "I mean, how many times has it happened on this quest alone?"

Wasn't that the truth?

"I'll be fine eventually," Annabeth said, "Might never do underwater basket weaving again, but it's not like that was a passion of mine anyway."

Leo laughed. That sounded more like the Annabeth he knew.

Leo then realized he and Annabeth had fallen behind. Jason and Piper had carried on without them. With all the greenery, he could just barely make out Jason's bright blue shirt ahead of them.

"We should probably catch up to those two," Annabeth said.

Leo agreed and the two moved quickly to match the pace of the other half of their group. Before they could get very far, however, Jason stopped. Leo smacked into him.

"Dude!" Leo yelled, "What was that for?"

"You're not gonna believe this," Jason said. He sidestepped so Leo could get a better view, because he just had to stop growing at a measly 5 foot 6 inches, while Jason was like 6' 1''.

Leo's eyes focused and he found himself staring at a clearing. Nothing seemed special about it until he noticed the golden glow a few feet in front of them.

Immediately, Leo jumped forward and grabbed the glowing object. He squinted and averted his eyes to due its brightness. But the glow quickly faded as he picked it up.

Sure enough, it was a tiny harp.

Leo squealed like a middle school girl, "We found it! Oh my gods we found it!"

Jason frowned, "It almost seems too good to be true. The chances that of all places on the island, it ends up in this giant clearing?"

"Who cares?" Leo retorted, "We found it. Now we can get it back to Apollo before Zeus finds out and everything can go back to how it was." He laughed, then yelled at the sky, "Take that, Poseidon! You thought you could get your crusty barnacle hands on this? Well guess what, you can kiss my-"

"What can my father kiss?" A deep voice asked from the trees beyond. Leo jumped. The others grabbed their weapons.

A tall man with long, inky, silky smooth black hair strode forward. At his side were two Cyclopes. More followed behind the trio.

"Who are you?" Leo asked.

Annabeth's pale face said everything, "You're…Triton, aren't you?"

Triton laughed, "Indeed. At least someone up here recognizes me for the wonder I am."

That was an extremely self-confident thing for someone to say.

"Look man," Leo said, holding up his hands, the lyre still in his left one, "We don't want any trouble. We're just trying to get this little harp thingie back to an…er…acquaintance. We'll take it and get out of your long, beautiful, luscious hair."

Triton laughed, "Unfortunately, your plans appear to involve actions that quite blatantly contradict mine. I can't exactly take that lyre back to my father if you have it, now can I?"

Welp. He tried.

"And, of course," Triton continued, "There's the whole problem with you…living. I was given specific orders to change your status."

So now not only was the guy exceedingly arrogant, he was also a sarcastic little son of a-

"Now," Triton clapped his hands, bringing Leo out of his thoughts. Seriously? The guy wouldn't even let him finish his mental insult!

Jerk.

"Before you start with the whole, 'oh, we'll stop you because we have magical powers and also the magic of friendship' B.S, I'd like you to know you're completely surrounded by a team of the strongest cyclopes in Atlantis," As Triton finished, more of the one-eyed monsters came wandering out from the forest surrounding their little group.

This was not good. This was really not good.

Leo sparked a flame between his fingers. Not that it would do much good, given that cyclopes were immune to fire anyway, but it turned out not to matter. He found he could barely get a spark to form.

"Just one of the joys of being trapped in a domain far from your own, hmm?" Triton asked.

Jason pulled out his sword. Annabeth did the same with her knife, as did Piper with her dagger. Leo reached down before realizing he'd left his magical toolbelt on the ship. He chose some very colorful words for himself for doing something so idiotic.

"You won't get away with this," Jason said, ever the optimist.

Leo wished he had that enthusiasm. But, looking around, he knew the situation was hopeless. They couldn't go up against a battalion of Cyclopes even with their abilities at full strength. And without them at all…

Leo just prayed he'd be able to see his mom again once he reached the Underworld.

He supposed Nico, Frank, and Hazel could find them and act as backup, but what could they do? It wasn't like they had their powers either.

No, now they were all just a bunch of kids in wayyyy over their heads, about to be brutally murdered by a son of the angry sea god.

At least they wouldn't have to be around when Poseidon tried to take over the Earth. That was one battle they'd get to sit out.

Even if it meant they'd no longer be a part of the living population.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Percy slammed his head into the cold metal bars of his cell.

It hurt. A lot.

But, he had nothing better to do, so he did it again. He deserved it anyway. After the amount of times he'd screwed up, it could probably be seen as mercy.

He did this a few times until he was concerned he'd caused permanent brain damage. Then he took to simply resting his head on the cell bars, staring out at the hallway.

How? How had everything turned out this badly? After everything he'd done to fix things, to make what he'd thought was the right decision, things still had to go so catastrophically wrong?

Percy recalled the conversation he'd had with Triton before he'd left for Wadelisle. The guy apparently just couldn't leave him alone, because the second Percy had been locked up, Triton had decided to pay him a visit.

"Enjoying the view?" Triton sneered.

"What are you doing here?" Percy dead-panned.

Triton shrugged, "What? Can I not say hello to my own brother? Can I not miss my own kin?"

"You literally tried to kill me less than an hour ago."

"Details, details."

Percy rolled his eyes. Seriously, he got sent to prison by his father and now he couldn't even catch a break because Triton decided to be petty.

"Look, if you came to insult me, then just leave." Percy raised his arms up in the air, "I get it. I lost. You and dad got your way. Gods, it's like dealing with little kids. Can't just be happy with what you got, you gotta rub it in everyone else's faces too."

"Well that's one way to put it." Triton said, "And no, I didn't come to insult you. That's just a nice bonus. Brontes!"

A cyclops came lumbering down the hallway.

"Yes, sir?" Brontes said, saluting.

"I'm taking only the best troops with me to Wadelisle," Triton explained, "Someone else will be here to cover Brontes's shift shortly."

Percy said nothing. He wanted to yell something like, "You can't do this!" or "We'll stop you!" but he didn't. It felt futile.

As Triton and Brontes had left the hallway, a different guard had shown up. He was a lot smaller than Brontes,, probably still quite young by cyclops standards.

But Percy didn't really care. He'd sat back down on the cold stone floor and stared at the dark walls.

Returning to reality, Percy glanced back at the new guard. Something about him seemed familiar. Percy frowned. Who was that?

His breath caught in his throat.

It was Tyson.

Gods, how could he have forgotten about Tyson? He'd made all those plans on the Argo ll to leave (granted, they were useless now, but still) and never return to Atlantis. But he'd completely forgotten about Tyson!

That made Percy feel even worse. Percy had never been treated great by most of the citizens of Atlantis, but they'd always had some respect for him because of his position (of course, until he'd betrayed all of them).

But Tyson didn't have that luxury. He was still Poseidon's son, yes, but Cyclopes were often seen as mistakes. Even then, the poor guy didn't exactly fit in there either. He was strong, yes, and really good in the forge, but even among his own species Tyson had always been…different. Percy's heart went out to him.

Tyson seemed completely unaware that Percy was in the closest cell to him. Percy called his name quietly. He didn't seem to hear. He said it again, louder.

This time Tyson noticed. He turned his head toward Percy's direction. His one eye widened with recognition.

"Brother?" Tyson asked, "Is that you?"

"Hey big guy!" Percy asked, slightly relieved. It felt good talking to someone who didn't hate him, "What are you doing down here?"

"I got told to come down here and stand on guard because all the other Cyclopes were running off on some mission," He looked at the ground, "They only took the biggest, strongest ones. Then they decided that since nobody wanted to do guard duty, they gave it to me. Nothing new."

"You can stand up to them, you know," Percy said, "I could help you. Bullies need to be put in their place."

Tyson shrugged, "It's not so bad. I've got you, right?" When Percy agreed he continued and shook his head, "But what are you doing here?"

Percy laughed bitterly, "Long story."

Tyson looked around, "I've got time. It's not like anyone's going anywhere, right?"

Percy smiled at that. He then recounted the tale of his recent adventures. He told Tyson everything, from meeting the crew of the Argo ll to the monsters they ran into to the Smash Bros tournament and the karaoke night. He was just getting to the part where everything, frankly, went to shit, when Tyson interrupted.

"They seem like such nice people, not like the crazy monsters the other cyclopes in the forges say they are." He commented.

Percy, grateful for the temporary detour to avoid reliving the last few days, nodded, "Yeah. They were."

"And Annabeth. You mentioned her more than others. Is there a reason?" He asked, smirking.

Percy could feel his face turning red. He hadn't done that intentionally, "Well…"

Tyson gasped, "You like her!"

Percy couldn't help but smile, "Yeah, I do…er…did."

"Oooooooh!" Tyson squealed.

"She's got these intimidating gray eyes," Percy said, "and, I'm not gonna lie, she can be extremely scary. But…she's really sweet once she trusts you," Wow. That hurt to say out loud. Percy swallowed, hard, but continued, "And she's so pretty, and sooo smart, and such a good leader, and she's got this whole 'take nothing from nobody' attitude and just…" Percy frowned, "But it doesn't really matter. It's not like she felt the same way or anything," Percy paused again, recalling what Annabeth had almost said on the deck. Maybe there had been something there at some point, but he was probably just overthinking it, "Even if she did, it's not like I'm ever going to see each other again."

"Why not?" Tyson asked.

Percy sighed, "There was a storm and…Annabeth fell overboard. I saved her but…" Percy gestured toward his tail, "She saw, flipped out on me because I lied to her, and I left."

Tyson looked at Percy thoughtfully, "Time heals wounds, though. You never know."

Percy didn't want to crush Tyson's hopes. The guy always looked on the positive side and put on a happy face despite how sucky his life often was. He also knew Tyson deserved to know the truth.

"Maybe," He said, "But it won't matter. Poseidon ordered Triton to take the lyre and kill the crew of the Argo ll. That's why he was gathering Cyclopes. I failed to get the lyre, so Daddio decided he'd send someone else. Then he was pissed because I talked back and told him this whole world domination thing was a bad idea, and he locked me up."

"Do you regret it?" Tyson asked abruptly.

Percy looked up, "What?"

"Do you regret telling him off?" Tyson asked, "That's what got you into this whole mess, right?"

Percy shook his head, "I wish things could've turned out differently. I wish my actions could've actually meant something. But I wouldn't change it."

No matter how much they hated him, Percy wouldn't turn his back on his friends. He'd rather be cast into Tartarus than see the look of betrayal in Annabeth's eyes, or any of the others', again.

Tyson nodded, then frowned, thinking.

"What is it, Big Guy?" Percy asked.

"Your actions weren't for nothing." Tyson said, as if that explained everything.

"Hate to break it to you, but I don't think much can be done…" Percy trailed off as the realization dawned on him.

Tyson was currently the only person on guard duty. He was the only person keeping an eye on Percy to make sure he didn't escape.

Meaning Tyson could help him get out.

The two half-brothers exchanged a knowing glance. They were thinking the same thing.

But then what? It wasn't like Percy could just go against Triton. Last time was a total crapshoot.

Then Percy had a thought. Triton was a god, yes, but he was also a sea god. Percy was only half god, true, but he also had something Triton didn't.

He had a connection to the land. If he could keep Triton out of the water…

It was a really, really stupid idea. With a really small chance of success. And if he failed, he'd probably end up dead.

He could stay here. Yeah, being in prison wasn't exciting or fun, but it was only for a little while. He'd be let out eventually and could lead a normal life. People would still probably hate him, but it would be the safer option.

That's when the second realization hit.

The prophecy hadn't been warning him about revealing his secrets.

This was the choice it had warned about. A choice that would determine the fate of the world.

A decision to make, to the hero's plight.

He could play it safe and let everyone else do the work, or he could risk everything.

Not just to save Annabeth, like he'd initially thought, but to save them all.

To save the world.

If he stood by and did nothing, Poseidon won. His friends, strong as they were, were completely powerless in the heart of Poseidon's domain. It was game over. The world would be flooded, Olympus overthrown, and billions dead.

Percy was tired. Tired of being a pawn, tired of being played and used. He couldn't lie, there was definitely some appeal to just laying down on the ground and pretending the world's problems didn't exist.

But, like he'd said before, he'd rather die than betray those he cared about.

He had to do this.

"I can get you out of here," Tyson said, barely more than a whisper, inches from Percy's ear, in case anyone was listening, confirming what Percy had already known.

He nodded.

His dad may have been a crazed, egotistical god, who was used to getting everything he wanted. But Percy wouldn't let him have this.

It was time to end this once and for all.