Sailing Solo

10

Previously:
Percy entered his cabin, assured Will that he wouldn't do any training for the rest of the day, and shut the door. He waited by the door to hear Will's footsteps walk away before dashing to his closet. He flung the doors open as silently as he could in case anyone was nearby. He rummaged through the piles of clothes before he finally found what he was looking for. A crumpled piece of receipt paper from McDonalds.

Written in bronze ink on the back, was the prophecy they were living that moment.

"One sacrifice to share." He muttered under his breath. "Styx."

This raid was different. Percy could feel it. There wasn't anything obviously different. It started just the same as every other raid. Monsters would rise from the sea, the horn would sound—alerting everyone—and the monsters would make the sand sparkle as they burst into golden dust from the retaliation the demigods gave. Then, when Annabeth deemed they'd done enough damage to the camp, she would call a retreat.

It was routine at this point.

But this time was going to be different because Percy had to get a message to Annabeth. He had to tell her something. Something that would change the course of the war.

And Jason grounded him.

It was going to be difficult, that was for sure. Getting from the forest to the sea, where Annabeth was sure to be without Frank and Butch stopping him was going to be hard enough. But figuring out how to tell Annabeth his message so she would accept it was going to be a whole other problem.

He just hoped she still knew him enough that she would understand what he was trying to say.

Percy was slowly edging out of Frank's and Butch's field of vision as the raid drew on. If he left slowly but suddenly enough, maybe he could get to Annabeth before they noticed and before she left. His two babysitters were each fighting a cyclopes and Percy himself was just finishing off a sea dog. Now was the time to go; Frank and Butch both outmatched their opponents, but were still distracted.

A lull in the fighting after Frank and Butch defeated their cyclopes brought their attention to Percy.

Or the lack thereof.

"Percy?" Butch called, slightly panicked. He didn't know if he should be searching the ground for his fallen body or towards the sea.

Frank had taken to the skies as an eagle the instant he noticed his friend was missing. His screech let Butch know he'd seen him.

"Lead the way, Frank!" Butch started running, keeping an eye on the bird as he did. "That dude is going to be the death of me." He muttered under his breath.

By the time Frank and Butch made it out of the forest, Percy had reached the beach and was staring down Annabeth.

"Percy, no!" Butch shouted once he caught sight of him. They were too far away from each other for the son of Iris to do more than yell. Percy either didn't hear or was ignoring, Butch didn't know. All he did know was that Percy's gaze never faltered in his path to face down Annabeth...again.

"Annabeth." Percy said in a steady voice. "I know you're angry. I know you're tired, and I know you want to stop fighting. But don't you remember what we decided? The gods are way better than whatever came before them. I thought we were on the same page on that front."

"The 'same page?'" Annabeth said, almost skeptically. "Does this look like the 'same page' to you?" She gestured with her sword around them, her eyes narrowed critically. "We've got different ideas of what that means."

"I don't think so." Percy pushed, taking a step forward. There was a roaring in his ears but he ignored it. "You are continuously loosing more of your numbers than we are in these raids. Look around." It was his turn to gesture with his sword. "You made a sacrifice. Was it worth it?"

"It will be." She said lowly, raising her sword and making a go for his head.

"No! Percy!" Frank's voice came from farther in the battle field. "Get away from him, Chase!"

Percy had raised Riptide to meet her drakon bone sword and with the force behind Annabeth's attack, his back foot slipped in the sand. They stood nose to nose, ignoring Frank's attempts to stop the fight from wherever he was.

"When do you think that will be?" Percy asked in a challenging voice.

Annabeth didn't answer right away. They exchanged a few more blows, each of them working on getting past the other's defenses.

Their sword dance was interrupted with an arrow flying towards Annabeth. It only barely missed, scratching at the side of her arm. Her free hand automatically reached over to grab onto the bleeding wound while her other arm never dropped the sword.

She and Percy's heads whipped over to look in the direction it came from only to see Piper, Frank, and Butch at the edge of a storm that surrounded the two. It was too violent to step into; monsters were lifted up in the air and going around them in circles. Percy hardly noticed it getting that bad, he was too focused on Annabeth and the two of them were in the center of it. The calm eye.

"Percy Jackson, you back down or so help me, I'll—" Piper's furious rant stopped when a monster came out of nowhere to attack the three spectating demigods.

Percy and Annabeth turned back to each other. "Not today." Annabeth said just barely loud enough for him to hear. She swung at his head with the flat of her blade and he fell to the side.

He struggled to sit up a few seconds later but she was already gone and the storm had all but disappeared. Stumbling to his feet, he watched as the monsters retreated after Annabeth. Some demigods took down as much as they could if they got in reach but most just stood watching them leave.

Piper ran up to him, grabbed his arm, and started pulling him away from the beach. "Of all the stubborn—" she was stopped again as she went to slay a passing empousa without loosing her grip on Percy "—pigheaded—" now it was a small hellhound "—moronic—" Percy stumbled and almost fell on his face. Only Piper's death grip on his arm prevented another nosebleed.

"Maybe another time, Piper?" Frank said. "Let's get this idiot to Will first."

"Right. Then I can kill him."

"That seems counter intuitive." Butch said.

Percy wanted to protest but he was too busy trying not to trip again. Besides, he only really had the energy to just barely keep up with the daughter of Aphrodite and glance over his shoulder at the beach. He was right; this time was different. There was some hope.