Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi everyone! Hope you guys are doing well (and warm, if you live in the US)! I'm sorry I don't have the next chapter title decided on yet; I'll come back to edit it in once I do. Been busy this break lol.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 36: We Board The Princess Andromeda~

We sailed for another day and night on the yacht, which in the grand scheme of things didn't mean much with how small it was.

Clarisse didn't talk to me for the entire time. She didn't really talk with Silena, either, beyond the necessities. That was fine with me, although I could tell it hurt Silena's feelings. The two of them were friends; they weren't nearly as close as Silena and I had become, but still, they'd been friends longer than I'd known either of them. It hurt her that Clarisse thought we'd betrayed camp, when in truth it couldn't be further the other way around.

I tried to comfort her the best I could. "Clarisse will eventually come around, Silly," I told her late that morning, when it was just the two of us and the accompanying wind spirit in the kitchen, Clarisse on the deck keeping watch.

My attempts weren't that successful. "Thanks, Percy," she said, reaching over to squeeze my hand. But her eyes were sad, so incredibly sad.

I might have been a demigod and the champion of a goddess, but I couldn't fix everything.

Case in point.

I was standing in the cavern of an enormous pit. I knew the place too well, even though I'd never been up-close to it: this was the entrance to Tartarus. I recognized the cold laugh which echoed from the darkness below easily, too.

"If it isn't the young hero." The voice was like a knife blade scraping across stone. "On his way to another great victory."

I wanted to shout at Kronos to leave me alone, to leave Luke alone and give him back. I wanted to draw Riptide and strike him down, even though I knew he didn't have a physical form after being chopped into so many little pieces by my dad and two uncles. But I couldn't move. I was frozen in place, like I was one of Medusa's statues.

"Don't let me stop you," the titan – my grandfather – said. "Perhaps this time, when you fail, you'll wonder how worthwhile it truly is to keep slaving for the gods. Do you really want to be my daughter's champion, all of your life? Your father's pawn?"

His laughter filled the cavern.

Suddenly, as his voice reverberated inside my mind, the scene changed.

I was back in Katie's cave, her bedroom prison in Polyphemus' lair. She was attending to the loom in her wedding dress, undoing all of the work of the bridal train madly.

"Honeypie!" the Cyclops shouted from behind the boulder.

Cursing under her breath, Katie began weaving the threads back together.

The room shook as the boulder was pushed aside. Standing in the doorway was a Cyclops that was at least fifteen feet tall. He had jagged teeth and gnarled hands that must've been as large as my entire body. He wore a chiton like people did in Ancient Greece, except his was ragged and grey with age, not to mention speckled with dark spots of dirt. But this wasn't nearly as startling as his enormous milky eye, which was scarred and webbed with cataracts – presumably from the time Odysseus rammed a spear into it. If he wasn't completely blind, he was damn near it.

"What are you doing?" Polyphemus demanded.

"Nothing!" Katie exclaimed. "Just weaving my bridal train, as you can see, dear."

Polyphemus reached one hand into the room and pawed around it until he found the loom. His nostrils flared as he felt the cloth. "It hasn't gotten any longer!"

"Oh, yes it has, dearest. See? I've added at least an inch."

"Too many delays!" the monster bellowed. "Why is it taking you so long?"

"I've told you," she said, speaking in a way you would to a toddler as she crossed her wrists. "I'm just not very good at this."

"Then why do it?"

"Because I want our wedding to be very special. Don't you want that?"

Polyphemus visibly pondered her answer. "No more delays," he grunted. "Finish it tomorrow."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly be finished that soon! Ten more days!"

"Five!"

"Seven then, if you must insist."

"Seven! Is that less than five?"

"Yes, my dear."

The Cyclops grumbled, obviously not happy with the deal, but he left Katie to her weaving and rolled the boulder back into place.

As soon as he was gone, Katie closed her eyes and brought her palms to them, inhaling deeply. "Hurry, Percy," she whispered. "Please, please, please hurry!"

"Percy!"

. . .

"Percy!"

. . .

"Percy, wake up!"

Something hit me across the face. Startling, I opened my eyes and sat up, and saw that Silena was standing in front of my bed, holding the offending culprit of the pillow I hadn't been using. "Silly," I groaned, blinking rapidly. "What's going on? What time is it?"

"It's a little after nine in the morning," she informed me. "As for what's going on, well...I think we're approaching that destination Despoina was talking about."

Instantly, I was wide awake. Untangling myself from the covers, I shot upout of my bed, thankful that I had gone to sleep wearing a pair of dark blue denim shorts and a dark grey t-shirt. All I had to do was slip on my shoes, grab my bag, and make sure Riptide was in my pocket before I followed Silena out of my room and towards the deck. We passed the kitchen wind spirit on our way; she – I assumed they were all women, albeit with no way to tell and the fact they didn't talk I knew I could be completely off-base – waved her leaves at us. I imagined the mournful vibe which I got from her was all in my head.

Out on the deck, Clarisse was standing, her spear at the ready. The reason why was obvious: a way's in front of our yacht, much closer than the horizon, was a cruise ship. It was huge. Like, even with the distance, I felt as if we were looking up at a building in Manhattan. The white hull was at least ten stories tall, topped with another dozen levels of decks with balconies and portholes. We were facing its stern right now, so we couldn't see its name or the front of it, but even so, a weird inkling thrummed in my mind. I felt like I should know it.

"Do you think that's our stop?" I asked Clarisse, stepping over to her side.

The daughter of Ares grimaced. "Has to be," she grunted.

A wind spirit fluttered out onto the deck with us. Without being able to see her body, it seemed a miracle that her leaves remained with her and didn't billow away with the ocean breeze. "Is that what Despoina was talking about?" I asked.

I didn't dare point to the ship. We didn't know what could possibly be on it.

The leaves of the wind spirit moved up and down, in what I assumed was a nod.

"Is this as far as you're taking us?"

Another nod.

"How are we going to get up there?" Silena wondered out loud.

I was concerned with the more pressing matters. "Do you think they've spotted us?"

"What would they do if they did?" Clarisse shot back. "They're a cruise ship."

Tell that to the feeling in my stomach.

All of a sudden, our small ship sped up. It didn't make any noise or further interruption of the waves, but the abrupt change in speed was fast enough I fell backwards, flat on my ass. Silena and Clarisse fared better, causing me to scowl. "What? Really?"

The wind spirit's leaves quickly lifted up and down, like laughter.

We careened towards the front of the cruise ship, moving so close to it that it was a wonder we didn't get sucked under it. The cruise ship's name was painted just above the bowline in black letters, bold and clear. Still, it took me a few seconds to decipher it:

PRINCESS ANDROMEDA

Attached to the bow was a huge masthead: a three-story tall woman wearing a white Ancient Greek chiton, sculpted to look as if she was chained to the front of the ship. She was young and beautiful, with curly black hair done up in an elaborate bun, gold eyes, and almond-colored skin (it must've costed a fortune to paint her skin, with how giant she was), but her expression was one of abject terror. Why anybody would want a screaming princess on the front of their vacation ship, I had no idea.

In any event, it confirmed my worst suspicions: something was up with this boat. Mortals naming their ship after Andromeda I could kind of understand, even though it was weird. She'd been chained to a giant rock by her own parents to be sacrificed to Poseidon, which didn't exactly make a good track record for trying to ward off against bad things. Then again, she had been recused by my namesake, the original Perseus, when he used the head of Medusa on the sea monster just in time and turning it into stone, so maybe it was smarter than I'd originally thought, in a poetic sort of way.

I digress. Naming a ship after Andromeda was kinda weird. Putting a giant, terrified statue of her at the front of the ship to boot? Too weird by mortal standards.

The yacht went round the other side of the cruise ship in an impressive feat of turning (and magic), before it finally came towards a service ladder. There was no time for judgment: we were going to have to get up and go. Thankfully, like me, both Clarisse and Silena had their bags strapped along their shoulders.

The daughter of Ares went first. Once she was a few rungs up, Silena followed after her, making me last.

I waved to the wind spirit on the deck after I'd jumped onto the ladder. "Thank you!" I said. "Thanks a lot!"

The wind spirit waved back with her leaves, then there was a strong gust of wind that made me instinctively close my eyes.

When I opened them again, the yacht was gone, as if it had never existed in the first place.

We climbed up the ladder, to where it led to a maintenance deck stacked with yellow lifeboats. Silena used her dagger to pry open a set of locked double doors with a fair amount of cursing in Ancient Greek.

Since it was during the day, I was instantly alert, thinking we would have to somehow devise a way of sneaking around, being stowaways. Yet, to my surprise, there was nobody in the corridor we entered. It was only after some walking around, peering out onto a balcony which showed a huge central promenade with closed shops, that we saw a small crowd of people. Even then, the people didn't move...right. they walked stiffly, as if they had brooms up their asses. The small children included.

"What's going on with them?" Silena whispered, frowning.

There were a few exceptions to the rule. Kids our age, wearing what was obviously a light form of Ancient Greek, celestial bronze armor over their clothing. For a second, I thought I saw three familiar heads of hair: one straight and black, one the same color but curly, and one brown.

I swallowed. "I don't know, but I don't think we should be sticking up here too long to find out."

We went through some more corridors. There was a swimming pool level that one of them led to, but there were no people there despite the time of day. Only rows of empty deck chairs and a bar closed off with a chain curtain. The water in the pool somehow reflected the sun eerily, sloshing back and forth from the movement of the ship.

There was a family of mortals walking towards us as we closed the doors to the swimming pool. Like a bunch of idiots, we all froze, thinking we would give ourselves away immediately. The mortals, however, acted like we weren't even there as they walked past us, in spite of them wearing the appropriate attire for water activities. "We are on a cruise. We are having fun," the dad said blandly.

"Yes," his three kids said in unison, their expressions and tons blank. "We are having a blast. We will swim in the pool."

All of their eyes were glazed over with misty green film.

"I don't like this," Clarisse muttered. "It's like they're in a trance. Their eyes..."

We went to another level and came across our first monster. In one of the cafeterias was a hellhound, a black mastiff with its front paws up on the buffet line and its muzzle buried in scrambled eggs. It must've been young, because at the size of a grizzly bear it was smaller than most. But it still made my blood turn cold. It was only last summer I'd almost gotten killed by one of its brethren.

Because of Luke.

There was a middle-aged couple behind the hellhound, patiently waiting in line for their turn at the eggs. They seemed to be completely oblivious to what was going on around them, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Which, granted, if the hellhound had been a humanoid monster, I would've understood. The Mist was good at hiding things.

But it wasn't that good.

As we silently debated whether to go through the cafeteria or head further down the corridor we were in with looks, way behind us, a voice hissed out like a reptile, "Ssix more joined yesssterday."

Hurriedly, we all darted into the nearest hideaway, which happened to be the women's restroom. I was so worried we would be found out anyways I didn't have it in me to be embarrassed.

Something – no, more like two somethings – slithered past the restroom door. Their sounds were like sandpaper on carpet.

"Yesss," said a second voice, as reptilian as the first. "He drawsss them. Sssoon we will be ssstrong."

The things slithered into the cafeteria with cold hissing that might have been snake laughter.

When they were gone, Silena eyed me worriedly. "Percy, we have to get out of here."

"You think I want to be in the girls' restroom?"

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant. We have to get off of this ship."

"Too many monsters," Clarisse agreed. "If we get found out, we're outnumbered by a lot. We'll be killed."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," I wanted to say.

Silena moved to open the door. But before she could even open it, we heard another voice outside.

" – know what I'm doing, Mia."

The air was knocked from my lungs.

Luke.

I hadn't heard his voice since last summer except in my dreams. It chilled me to the bone in a way that was worse than any monster could. He'd almost killed me last summer and here he was, behind the door. If he knew we were here, would he do it again? Would he actually succeed this time?

At the same time, I felt my knees grow weak. Luke was here. All this time, I'd wondered about him, if he was really safe and what he was doing. I hadn't really had many demigod dreams over the school year. I wasn't really sure if he was safe now, on a ship full of monsters, but – he had to be, right? This was probably Kronos' ship, and if it was, the monsters wouldn't kill him because –

"I didn't say you didn't," a feminine voice replied to him. It was high – but not in a bad way – but lilting with an accent I recognized as French, but not the kind you would hear in France. Maybe Canadian? "I was just saying, I know your history. I know how you feel for him."

I was warring with myself. Half of me wanted to run and hide away like a little kid, because that was Luke, and he'd tried to kill me. The other half of me wanted to open the door without a moment's more of thought, wrap my hands around Luke's neck and plant a kiss on his lips like we were in some kind of movie and If I Can't Have You by Yvonne Elliman was playing in the background, because, well...it was also him.

And in the end, I'm pretty sure you can figure out which side of me won.

Before I was even aware of what I was doing, I was walking towards the restroom door. It was only at the last second that Clarisse was able to grab me, one arm wrapping around my torso, and clamping the hand of the other to my mouth. Which was some good intuition, as I made a noise of protest, muffled as it was, because her palm was kind of sweaty and it was gross.

Luke, who had been just in the middle of saying, "Do you really think that?" or something like it, stopped.

There was a long, tense moment of silence.

Silena was looking at me with a pale, horrified face, as if she thought I was crazy or something.

Perhaps I was.

"Did you hear that?" Luke finally asked.

"Hear what?" the girl, Mia, returned.

"...Nothing," he returned reluctantly. "I thought I just – never mind. Come on, we've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on the casket."

Their voices receded down the corridor.

"What was that?" Clarisse hissed as soon as they were out of hearing range, letting go of me.

"I agree," Silena whispered furiously. "Percy, what the fuck?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I apologized. "I just – "

Silena was grim. "We have to get out of here."

"Huh?" I protested. I kept my voice in a hushed tone, even though it was hard to do. "But Silly, this is his ship! There's monsters here, other demigods! Do you know what we could do if – ?"

"We know." Clarisse was scowling. "But you've also proven yourself to be too much of a liability, Jackson."

"I am not! I want the same thing that you do: to beat Luke up, bind him in chains, and drag him to Mount Olympus!"

"No," Silena shot back. "We don't want that right now, it's not our priority. Our priority is finding the Golden Fleece, andsaving Katie. You know that."

I did.

But –

"I swear to God, Jackson," Clarisse growled, which was strange, because usually us demigods swore in ancient Greek and to multiple deities without even realizing it. She must've done it for emphasis. "I will drag you off this ship to fulfill our quest, even if I have to do it with you kicking and screaming. 'But you shall find what you seek and make it your own, / And fail without each other, yet depart alone.' Remember that?"

I tried to find some room for argument in there.

Unfortunately, I didn't do it fast enough. Silena grabbed me by the hand and pulled me out the restroom door, Clarisse following up behind us.

And then, just like that –

"Well, look what we have here."

Luke.

Word Count: 3,196

Next Chapter Title: The Worst "Take Me Back" Speech Ever