𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀, percy jackson!

𝐕. it was momentary

Act two : Chapter five!

༄.°

"Jackson!" Adira's voice echoed over the windswept beach. Annabeth was close behind, while Tyson's lumbering form trailed them.

When Adira woke with a start, the lingering shadows of the horrendous dream still clung to her mind. But it wasn't just the nightmare that had jolted her awake—Percy's scream for help had cut through the quiet. She found Annabeth already standing outside Cabin Eleven, looking as shaken as she felt.

Percy stood alone, silhouetted against the rolling waves and then turned toward them. His eyes shifted to Adira and – wow, did she look pretty in the moonlight– with a momentary confusion.

"Are you okay?" Adira asked.

Percy blinked, "I am. Wh-why are you guys here?"

"We heard you calling for help!" Annabeth explained as she exchanged a glance with Adira who nodded.

"Me, too!" Tyson added. "Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!'"

Percy's brow creased in puzzlement, his lips pulling into a frown. "I didn't call you guys," he said, his voice almost too casual. "I'm fine. Really."

Adira's face contorted, her eyebrows knitting together. "Then who..." Her gaze drifted across the sand, when she noticed four yellow duffel bags, then a thermos and a bottle of vitamins Percy was holding.

"What—" Annabeth started.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Adira cut her off.

Percy held up a hand, his expression steeling as he looked over his shoulder, back toward the ocean. "Just listen," he said, voice dropping low. "We don't have much time."

He told them about his conversation with Hermes, Luke's dad.

By the time he was finished, a distant, bone-chilling screech pierced the air. The sound of the patrol harpies.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "we have to do the quest."

Right, the quest. The quest Adira so desperately wanted to be a part of, driven by the need to do this for Thalia.

But would going on this quest mean she'd see Kian again? The question lodged itself in her chest, stirring both longing and dread. She didn't want to find out, not really—because she feared that the second she saw him, all her carefully buried feelings would come spilling out. She'd want to beg him to come back, to somehow erase the rift between them, to feel whole again. It terrified her.

When they'd asked Tantalus for the quest, she'd been all in, maybe because she hadn't actually thought everything through that could happen. She was so focused on the fleece and getting Thalia back, that she hadn't even considered facing Luke and Kian.

Now... now, after that nightmare, a deep fear had crept into her thoughts. She was afraid to leave the safety of camp, afraid of Kronos, and perhaps most of all, afraid of making wrong decisions. Every choice felt like a trap, a single misstep that could unravel into the horrors she'd witnessed in her dream.

She felt her hands shaking and hid them in her black hoodie, so no one would notice.

Percy scoffed, "We'll get expelled, you know. Trust me, I'm an expert at getting expelled."

"So? If we fail, there won't be any camp to come back to."

"Yeah, but you guys promised Chiron-"

"We promised to keep you from danger. The only way to do that is by coming with you! Right, Dira?"