Percy kept them pointed south, close enough that the coast was a speck in the distance. The boat listened to him easily, thrumming beneath his feet. It sent a thrill up his spine; it was like he was the boat. He could feel the water gently sloshing against the sides, the wind in the sails, even the footsteps of Annabeth and Tyson as they explored the main cabin. It was exhilarating.

"There's a ship," Annabeth pointed out when she came on deck.

Percy had sensed it miles before, but had kept quiet. It was still a small spot on the horizon, but it smelled foul.

He verged them away, farther from the coast.

"We don't want to check it out?" Annabeth asked, noting the turn.

"Bad smell," Tyson murmured.

Percy nodded in agreement. "Terrible smell."

"I wish I could smell," Annabeth complained under her breath. Percy looked at her curiously.

"You can't smell?" He asked. "Is that…an owl thing?"

"Owls can't smell," she said, looking put-out. "But I can hear and see very well."

"That's really cool," Percy grinned. "That explains why you're hard to sneak up on."

"Most people are just clumsy," she dryly commented.

The cruise ship disappeared in the distance. Percy watched it fade into the waves, out of sight.

"You guys might as well rest, it's a long trip."

The other two agreed and retreated below deck.

Percy sat where he stood and stared up at the clear blue sky, enjoying the salty breeze and rocking. Somehow, as the sky turned dark and the constellations flitted into view, Percy didn't feel the need to move. Annabeth had joined on deck for a while after exploring, but she soon flitted back down. Tyson had come to show him a few metal pieces and tools that had been on board, and had gone down to start building.

"Percy."

He blinked out of his stupor, eyes first darting to the stairs.

"Over here," his father chuckled.

He turned, looked up and—

"You have to stop with the looming."

Poseidon smiled in a way that said he wouldn't. He was wearing his dark blue chiton again, hair long and dark and much like the kraken on their flag.

In the dark, under only the moonlight and stars and the little lamp by the door, he was terrifying.

"Is everything alright?" Percy asked, shifting to face him. "I thought gods weren't supposed to interfere with quests."

Poseidon hummed thoughtfully, sinking back over the side of the boat. Percy leaned over and, with one last look to the cabin, allowed himself to fall in the water.

He twirled around to orient himself, blinking as his vision shifted to allow him to see better. His father was a glowing beacon, near painful to look at, so he commanded the heat signatures to go away and embraced the dark.

His eyes tinged the water a bioluminescent blue, while the green in his father's eyes helpfully lit up the few feet in front of him.

"Before we get to that, Amphitrite wished me to pass on her thanks," Poseidon said. He joined Percy at his side, nudging him in the right direction, and they followed along the boat.

Percy grinned. "She got my bracelet?"

Poseidon chuckled. "She wanted to come herself, but unfortunately got caught by inner Court matters. I am quite sure it is now one of her most treasured items."

"I'm glad you all are liking the bracelets," Percy murmured.

"They are precious things. As for this journey…Technically, you were not issued a quest, so all of this is considered repayment."

"Repayment?" Percy asked, "for what?"

He reached out and snatched a piece of plastic that had gone by with a frown. Poseidon looked at him fondly.

"You're not going to tell me," Percy said, exasperated. "Fine, you gods and your secrets. I think you just like the entertainment."

"We have to get it from somewhere," he agreed.

Percy rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything, a sticky, braided rope smacked him in the face. He click-whined in surprise, smacking the thing away, only for his webbed hands to get caught. Poseidon's hand closed around his wrists, preventing him from tangling further. There was a nasty frown on his face as he carefully sliced through the netting with his claws.

"Damned ghost nets," the god muttered. "I can never sense them anymore."

"I'm adding the Atlantic to my list," Percy muttered in return, rubbing his now free hands. He carefully folded up the net into a makeshift sack-bag, and put the other trash he'd collected into it.

Poseidon stared at him, his large, near-black eyes glinting. "List?"

"A list of waters to clean," Percy explained, looping the net around his waist so it could flow behind him without dumping. They caught up with the boat. "I already volunteer to clean the rivers around New York. On my quest to Uncle, I found that the Mississippi River needs a good run-through and so does Santa Monica beach. Heck, even the Styx needs to be cleaned. There's probably countless others."

"A lot," Poseidon agreed, still looking a bit off-put. "I'm glad to see it."

Percy looked at him with squinted eyes. He was acting…weird.

"Anyways," Percy said, "I was wondering if there was something you could do for me about a ship."

The god perked up. "Your ship? How is it? Does it run perfectly? I can—"

"Not mine," Percy interrupted, smiling. "My ship's perfect, thank you. But there was another we passed a few miles back. A white cruise ship. Annabeth said it had Princess Andromeda on the side. I had us go around it because it smelled terrible, like, monsters-from-the-pit terrible, and Tyson agreed. Would you be able to check it out?"

Poseidon frowned. He drew to his full height of ten feet tall and tilted his head. For a moment, the colour in his eyes dulled. He misted over, like he was somewhere else, and then all at once he snapped back.

"Ah," he said, sounding none-too-happy. "That is certainly…a problem."

Percy snorted. "I'm guessing that means you can't do anything about it?"

"There is some influence around it, one which will require more investigation; should I attack head on…" Poseidon made a noise of consideration.

"It might invite trouble," Percy finished for him. "So don't attack it head on. We're out at sea—bad conditions happen all the time. You could send someone else, let them cause tsunamis or storms…hm. Actually, how about asking Kymopoleia?"

Poseidon jerked.

"How do you…?"

"Mom made sure I knew everyone on the family tree, especially on your side," Percy said. He smiled in remembrance. "We made flashcards and everything. I thought she'd be at the party, but she wasn't…"

"No…" Poseidon said, "I haven't…talked to her in decades. I made…a mistake…many years ago. She is angry with me."

Percy looked at him curiously. "Have you tried to reach out?" He asked. "Maybe apologise? If it happened decades ago…"

Poseidon was incredibly still.

"Gee, I can see the family resemblance to grandma," Percy muttered before saying louder, "she's your daughter. I think you should reach out and check up on her. Who knows, maybe she's the one who thinks you are mad at her."

"Perhaps," Poseidon uttered. Percy huffed in frustration, and swam back to the surface.

When he looked back into the water, his father was gone.

He made a face at the water, then made sure to secure the trash he'd collected to get rid of later.

Hours later, following the weird smell of monster, they found a donut shop and a battle.

"You are in so much trouble," Clarisse said afterwards, sneering. Percy grinned up at her, enjoying the little tic in her forehead.

Her and her crew had swooped in to save them from the hydra Percy had admittedly baited. 'Monster Donut' was just too funny to ignore.

Beneath them, the old boat chugged along. He could feel Ares' influence over it, warring petulantly with his father's. Even Hades had a slight hold on it, thanks to its ghostly crew. It was like a game of tug-of-war, except the dog was really trying and the human was just standing there holding the other end of the rope while another person watched in amusement from the couch.

He wasn't sure Ares would like that comparison, so he made sure to remember it to tell him next time.

They'd just finished the ship tour they hadn't signed up for, through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors. They'd seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute. They'd seen the pilothouse and the powered magazine and gunnery deck (Clarisse's favourite) with two Dahlgren smoothbore cannons on the port and starboard sides and a Brooke nine-inch rifled gun fore and aft—all specially refitted to fire celestial bronze cannon balls.

Everywhere they went, dead Confederate sailors stared at them in disgust, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls.

Percy had fun showing them his very sharp teeth anytime one even considered opening their mouths to comment. Clarisse's glare also helped.

They were escorted to dinner. The CSS Birmingham captain's quarters were about the size of a walk-in closet, but still much bigger than any other room on board. The table was set with white linen and china, and covered in food that smelled spell and curse free.

"Tantalus expelled you for eternity," Clarisse told them. "Mr. D said something along the lines of bottle-nosed dolphins and mischievous, annoying instigators."

Percy shrugged. "This ship…?" He prompted.

Clarisse sneered again. "You think your daddy is the only one with sea power? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"

The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed on Percy with a hungry stare. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."

Clarisse smiled. "Destroy anyone. I like that."

Tyson gulped.

"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "we both want the same thing. We should join forces—"

"No!" Clarisse pounded on the table. "I might not have liked it at first, but this is my quest. I received the Oracle's guidance, so I get to be the hero, and you two will not steal my chance."

"That's fine," Percy interrupted before they could get into it. "We're not on a quest anyways, just a trip."

She scoffed. Percy shrugged.

"We just happen to be going in the same direction. You're towing my boat, so if you could allow us to leave, we'll be out of your hair."

Clarisse stared at him. For a split second, Percy could have sworn she had boar's ears, twitching in her hair.

"No," she finally said slowly. "No, you're hiding something, Jackson. And you're not leaving until I find out what."

"So we're prisoners?" Annabeth asked.

"Guests. For now." Clarisse proper her feet up on the white linen tablecloth and opened another Dr Pepper. "Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies."

The dream came as soon as he was asleep.

Instead of having to endure Kronos' taunting, he was at a table.

A plate of cookies was plopped down in front of him.

"Now, what do we have here?" Ares' fire-eyes bore down on him from across the table. "Brat."

"Dog."

Someone chortled. On his left, Dionysus melted out of the shadows, sprawled out in his chair. He was swirling a goblet of wine, eyes downcast. On his wrist, he wore a beaded bracelet with a grape bunch charm, a leopard charm, and a pinecone charm. The beads followed a purple to red ombre, with the last few beads being white, brown, and then green.

"Be nice," Hermes scolded, taking the seat on his right. He scrolled through his phone.

"I'll be nice when the brat shows some respect," Ares growled.

Percy raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. "I'll show some respect when you show some humility."

"So never," Dionysus muttered over Ares' growling and Hermes' laughter.

There was a harsh sound from behind him, like a snarl, but deeper and darker. Percy turned his head to look—

Smash!

He snapped back towards Ares. The god was dusting his hands off.

"My bad," he said, "there was a bug."

"Did you get it?" Dionysus asked disinterestedly.

The sound slipped away.

"Why am I here?" Percy asked. "Wherever 'here' is?"

Dionysus helpfully shrugged.

"Eh, we were wondering that," Hermes said, smiling. "You pulled us here, lil cuz."

"…What?"

They, all three of them, shrugged.

"You are all so helpful," Percy groaned.

"Are we meant to be?"

Percy tensed. Next to him, between him and Hermes, the shadows moved back, revealing—

"Uncle!" Hermes greeted. "Hello! Long time no see!"

Hades stared at them in bemusement.

On Percy's other side, between him and Dionysus, Poseidon chuckled.

"A family meeting," his father said, "how lovely. What's the topic?"

They all shrugged.

Hades shooed something in the darkness away.

"If one more of you shrugs I don't know what I'll do but it won't be pretty," Percy threatened.

Poseidon patted him on the head.

Behind him, something attempted to croon enticingly. He would've turned to look, except his father's hand settled on the back of his neck, knuckles pressing gently against the back of his head.

In front of him, Ares leaned forward. He deliberately flicked his sunglasses up, met his eyes head-on, grinned, and shrugged.

Percy lunged across the table.

Ares jerked back in surprise, chair tipping back as Percy crashed into him with a war cry.

"Motherfu—!"

The scene shifted. The gods disappeared and Percy was back with Grover in the cave.

He had gotten caught unraveling his dress. The Cyclops, a fifteen foot tall beast with jagged yellow teeth, gnarled hands bigger than Percy's body, and an eye scarred and webbed with cataracts, dragged him outside to a hilltop overlooking the most beautiful island Percy had ever seen.

It was shaped kind of like a saddle cut in half by an ax. There were lush green hills on either side and a wide valley in the middle, split by a deep chasm that was spanned by a rope bridge. Beautiful streams rolled to the edge of the canyon and dropped off in rainbow-coloured waterfalls. Parrots fluttered in the trees. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the bushes. Hundreds of sheep grazed in the meadows, their wool glinting strangely like copper and silver coins, smelling like monsters despite their docile appearance.

And at the center of the island, right next to the rope bridge, was an enormous twisted oak tree with something glittering in its lowest bough.

The Golden Fleece.

Even in the dream, Percy could feel its power radiating across the island, making the grass greener, the flowers more beautiful. The smell of nature was overwhelming, wild, but warm.

It smelled a little like Hermes.

Grover whimpered.

"Yes," Polyphemus said proudly. "See over there? Fleece is the prize of my collection! Stole it from heroes long ago, and ever since—free food! Satyrs come from all over the world, like moths to flame. Satyrs good eating! And now—"

Polyphemus scooped up a wicked set of bronze shears.

Grover yelped, but Polyphemus just picked up the nearest sheep like it was a stuffed animal and shaved off its wool. He handed a fluffy mass of it to Grover.

"Put that on the spinning wheel!" He said proudly. "Magic. Cannot be unraveled."

Grover looked aghast.

"Poor Honeypie!" Polyphemus grinned. "Bad weaver. Ha-ha! Not to worry. That thread will solve problems. Finish wedding train by tomorrow!"

"Thoughtful," Grover managed to choke out. "But—but dear, what if someone were to…attack this island?"

He looked straight at Percy, who nodded, gesturing him on.

"What would keep them from marching right up here to your cave?"

"Wifey-scared! So cute! Not to worry. Polyphemus has state-of-the-art security system. Have to get through my pets."

"Pets?"

Grover looked across the island, but there was nothing to see except sheep grazing peacefully in the meadows.

Percy grimaced. He had a good feeling he knew what Polyphemus meant.

Grover was ushered back to his prison.

Percy was awake before the boulder closed fully, but the sound of it followed him to consciousness.

Alarm bells were ringing throughout the ship.

The captain's gravel voice: "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"

Then his ghostly face appeared above Percy. "Get up, Yankee. Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance."

He knew—

He could feel it—

Percy made sure to collect all their belongings. He was on his way upstairs when the sensation hit him.

The smell of boar and blood, thick with anger and frustration.

He changed directions, dropping their things and charging downstairs. As he entered the boiler deck, he could just make out Ares' words.

"…dangerous. I should've let one of my sons…"

Oh by the gods no—

He darted in front of the steam. "Protector!" He snapped, "Bellum!"

The god's eyes widened in shock—Ares' form rippled, but before it could cement, Percy cut through the steam with his hand and destroyed the image.

They were quiet, neither saying a word until Percy sighed.

"We've arrived at the Sea of Monsters," Percy said. "From here on out, we need to keep our eyes on the water."

Clarisse said nothing. She sniffed, then spun on her heel and headed up the stairs. Percy followed when he was sure she was out of sight.

On deck, the sky was overcast. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. Even Percy had trouble seeing out into the distance.

But he didn't need to see to know.

"Charybdis," Percy stated, "and Scylla."

Annabeth paled. Clarisse swung by with binoculars in her hand, and she confirmed. They avoided each other's eyes.

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister." Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, where Percy had already locked on to the shadow.

"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth asked. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."

"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand…"

"You are crazy," Annabeth decided.

"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"

"Aye, m'lady."

The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.

"Clarisse," Percy said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah."

"And Scylla lives up in a cave up the cliffs, if we get too close, her snake heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."

"That's about right."

"Can we stay in the middle?" Percy asked. "I can keep us from going too far near one or the other."

"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla senses us and doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. Charybdis is the better option anyways, she just sits there at the center of her whirlpool. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

Percy shook his head, his voice caught in his throat.

Below them, the water whipped against the ship dangerously, a warning in the waves. The waters he found here would offer him little comfort—his father would not interfere here. Even now, he could hear the whispers—

Little brother, little brother, tiny brother, little half-mortal half-brother—

Are you there? Are you there? Are you there?—

For a moment, he wished he could answer, but the low croon that escaped his mouth wasn't enough. He could not speak at the frequencies they did, in the languages they did.

Poor little brother, unable to reply, poor little brother, should not have come here—

Are you there? Are you there? Are you there?—

"Tyson," Percy forced through gritted teeth. "I want you to get on our boat and go below deck."

"Brother?" Tyson whispered, looking scared.

Percy eased his shoulders back down, smoothing out the expression on his face. "I'm okay," he assured, "please, I don't want you hurt. The ship will protect you."

Tyson stared at him a moment, his one eye fluttering like he couldn't make out what he was looking at. Even though he was staring at Percy, he looked like he was seeing something else. The wind was picking up, the ship was still making its way towards Charybdis.

Little brother, little brother?—

Are you there?—

"Please," Percy pleaded.

Tyson hugged him. "I will go," he said, "be careful."

"I will," Percy said. "Annabeth—"

She immediately protested. "I'm not going to leave."

"Annie."

Maybe it was his voice, or something in his eyes, but Annabeth paused. She looked at him like Tyson did, the wind blowing her hair in every direction.

She gave in.

"What about Clarisse?"

"I'll get her," Percy said. "Go."

He knew the moment they were off the CSS Birmingham and on his own ship.

He couldn't fight Charybdis for control of the water, not now, but ships were not under Charybdis' control.

Clarisse was screaming orders at her crew—they had gotten too close, sucked into the whirlpool. The sea churned around them, waves crashing over the deck. The ship fired its pitiful little cannonballs and Charybdis spit them right back. They were being toyed with, pushed back towards Scylla.

"Clarisse!" He cried when something below blew, "come on!"

The girl growled in frustration. "Abandon ship!" She cried, "to the lifeboats!"

Percy planted his feet on deck. He focused on the feeling of Ares, of Hades, of his own father. Their conflicting ownerships still circled each other, unable to meld together.

He imagined himself like water, something fluid and graceful, but small, unthreatening until stirred. Like gentle waves lapping up a shore, he slipped between them, searching, searching—

There.

It was control, though Percy wasn't sure how he knew that.

It was control of the ship, control of the sea, control of the dead. Something he shouldn't be able to see, shouldn't be able to even witness.

He was never good at doing what he was told.

He didn't need the sea, though, not this dark, deep ocean that wasn't his, nor did he need the dead soldiers. They wouldn't have heeded him anyways. He imagined his water circling the ship, and—

Tugged it straight from War's hands.

Percy's heart twisted; he nearly screamed, knees buckling underneath him, but he forced himself up. He forced the ship forward. It was falling apart beneath him, disintegrating from the inside out now, but he kept it together just long enough to push past his half-sibling and her counterpart.

They made it past the strait, out of Charybdis' and Scylla's reach.

Behind him, he could hear their crooning.

Little brother, little half-brother, look at what you did, look how strong you are—

Are you there? Are you there? Are you there?—

A shudder wracked his shoulders. The metal beneath him grew hot. With the little strength he had left, he lunged for the edge of the ship and threw himself into the burning sea.

Moving on, we've now reached the Sea of Monsters! Sorry about glossing over the Monster Donuts thing. I actually kinda forgot it existed until I got to the section in my reread.

That table scene came out of nowhere! I just followed the flow of writing and there it came. I was tempted to put it in Extras, but I honestly really like it? It's some hilarity that hides the darkness underneath. Something was definitely hovering behind Percy and it's pretty easy to guess who. Did anyone catch why I pulled these certain gods? It's a bit obvious (to me, at least), but I'd love to read what others are picking up.

The scene with Charybdis and Scylla also went differently, but I ended up liking what I had. I'm really focusing on Percy stretching out what he can do; I've got an idea for the next part of the series where, if this part focuses on how wild the ocean can be in terms of power, the next shows just how restrained (though not for long). Think like, all over the place, uncontrollable, then compacted, extremely controlled.

Also! The reason there's so much "godly interference" here is because of circumstances and, of course, gods not following rules. Circumstances because if the barrier at camp falls and the camp is overrun, the gods lose a huge portion of their believers. The nicer ones also don't want to lose their children. Also, as Percy has pointed out to Clarisse, they're not on a quest. They're on a trip and just happen to be going in the same direction. And, as Poseidon pointed out earlier to Percy, this is all in trade. Can you guess for what?

For the table scene, Hermes wasn't lying about Percy bringing them there, even subconsciously. Aside from that, well, the gods don't like rules. I've already shown that Poseidon will just flat out go against any rule made, especially for his child; Hermes is also known for being mischievous, and with Luke involved, he's going to stick his nose in it. Ares is involved because his daughter prayed to him and he wanted glory (also, as some of you might have seen me in the comments, that god is literally in a relationship with Aphrodite and he's sexist? Ain't no way I'm not going to kick that out of him in this series. If Percy gets to be the one to do it, so be it.). Hades and Dionysus are just there vibing because somehow this little demigod managed to summon them into his dream.

Anyways, I think that's all for now. See y'all next time!