Reincarnation in the PJO verse: Volume 1

『Pissing some people off to sign death warrants』

Annabeth volunteered to go alone since she had the cap of invisibility, but Diedre convinced her it was too dangerous. Either they all went together, or nobody went.

"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?"

But in the end, he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. They stopped at our cabin long enough to gather our stuff. They had figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo. Percy made sure Riptide was in my pocket and the vitamins and thermos from Hermes were at the top of his bag. Diedre didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Annabeth told them not to worry about it. Tyson could carry three full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as they could carry a backpack.

They sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. They hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved us into a supply closet.

Diedre heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.

"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."

Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed Percy's arm hard. I

"I hear they got two more comings," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man-no contest!"

The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember from Cabin Eleven."

Percy turned to look at Diedre who looked slightly ill at the sight in front of him. Diedre was always friendlier than him so perhaps he remembered him.

"What's another half-blood doing here?"

Annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled.

They kept going down the corridor. Diedre didn't need maps anymore to know he was getting close to Luke

"Percy, Diedre." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look."

She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade-a mall full of shops- but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked me with dodge balls, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures-humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.

"Scythian Dracaenae," Annabeth whispered. "Dragon women."

Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen.

"Come on," Diedre told her, trying to sound braver than he felt. "The sooner we find Luke the better."

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When we were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."

"You can hear that far?" Percy asked.

Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's. "-the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."