I'm a Mermaid (a PJO / H2O crossover) - Complete

Chapter 13

Rikki's POV

After I help Zane in the cafe, I walk to the beach, I don't know why- maybe because I can think easier there. Suddenly, Will comes running up to me, looking really panicked.

"Rikki!" He says, "There's something I need to tell you!"

"What is it? Have you talked to Bella about it?" I ask, wondering what he seems so worried about.

"Do you remember when me and Percy were diving around Mako, and you were there, so I tried to get him going the other way, but he spoke?" He has his memories back! But how? Percy took them away, didn't he?

"Yes, I remember that." I say, egging him on to tell me more.

"Yes, well, Percy took my memories away! It was like he hypnotised me to forget I saw him speak! And then we pranked the guys! How did he do that? Why?" Will asks, more confused than when he found out about mermaids for the first time.

"I don't know Will, but we've been trying to figure out what Percy's hiding from us. We still haven't found out though."

"Do you think that he actually meant everything he said, I mean, all the nice things? He doesn't seem like the kind of person to do something like that."

"I don't know. I hope he meant it, but I just have this feeling. This feeling that there's something off about him, that we shouldn't trust him. Cleo doesn't agree with me though. Neither does Bella, now that I think about it. Have you told Bella this? That you have your memories back?"

"No, I really don't want to worry her. Can this just be a secret between us? Please, it might even help is find out Percy's secret- I can just pretend I still have the fake memories he gave me."

"I think that'll be for the best. Anyway, I have to go and see Cleo, we're all meeting at her house tonight to talk over everything. I'll see you soon." I say and walk off, heading to Cleo's house. Bella's already there, and she said Percy isn't home, so we should be good to discuss everything without him knowing. We may even figure out his secret. I have a plan in mind for that...

Cleo's POV

"Guys, we need to talk. Well, actually, I have something to tell you all, and you're probably not going to like it," I say, ready to tell them all about Percy finding out. I can't tell them the whole truth though, so I'm going to tell them that he knows only about me, and he thinks that no one else knows the secret.

"What is it? Is it about Percy?" Emma asks, already starting to get worried.

"You told him about all of us, didn't you?" Rikki says, jumping to a quick conclusion.

"Don't jump to conclusions Rikki. She won't have told him about all of us, right Cleo?" Bella says, defending me.

"Kind of-" I say. Rikki opens her mouth to say something but I quickly finish my sentence, "He found out about me, and I told him, but he doesn't know about any of you, and he thinks that he's the only one who knows my secret. He was shocked that I hadn't told my family. I was kind of hoping that he would open up and tell me his secret, but he didn't."

"How could you be so careless, Cleo?" Rikki says, well ill-temperedly shouts.

"Rikki, she said she didn't expose all of us, calm down. Don't be so angry." Emma says.

"He'll figure it out eventually." Rikki states.

"Yes, but by then we'll know his secret. And I've talked to him, he won't say anything about me, not even to his friends." Well, that last part was kind of a lie, but it was partly truthful. He made an eternal oath to keep our secret, so I think he'll stick to that.

"So, what do you guys think we should do to find out? and are you sure you're alright with us prying into Percy's business Cleo?" Bella asks me.

"It's fine, we need to find out what he's keeping from us."

"So, first we could do a quick internet search on him. You never know what we could find." Emma suggests, and we all agree that it's a good idea.

I search the name, Perseus Jackson into the computer and don't find much, except a series of newspaper articles about Percy kidnapping his mum? What? "Guys, look at this." I say to everyone. We all have the same shocked expression while scrolling through the articles, and find the last one about him getting into a gun fight with an unknown man who apparently kidnapped him. I then notice that this was all when Percy was 12? But something seems off about the image.

"Why does it say he's in a gun fight? Those are clearly swords, not guns!" Rikki asks, speaking my thoughts aloud. "Wait, that's the sword he had on the island when he was prancing the guys."

"Who are those people with him?" Bella asks.

"It said in a previous article that their names are Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase. Oh, they're two of the friends that came to surprise Percy." Emma says.

"Well, Percy and Annabeth are definately more than friends. But this is pre-Percabeth." I say. They all look at me weirdly. "What? It's their ship name! You can't expect me not to ship them even more now I know they've known each other for a third of their lives."

"Stay on task Cleo." Rikki says.

"Sorry." I timidly say. Hey, who can't ship Percabeth?

"Well, from this, we've found out that he was a suspected criminal for a while and that he has a sword. What can we do to find out more, because I doubt that's his secret."

"Wait- this have you seen this? He got his stepdad fired from his job, and then his stepdad went missing and still hasn't been found. Do you think Percy killed him?"

"No, and if he did, he probably had a reason to do so. I'm not proud of this, but I once walked in on Sally in the bathroom, and she had scars on her body. It looked like someone had hit her. And I've seen how Percy acts with his mum, he would never hurt her, so I'm guessing that this Gabe guy did that." I say, using my best powers of deduction.

"Wow, I'm impressed Cleo." Emma says, but she doesn't sound surprised, "So now we know that Percy had an abusive stepdad that mysteriously went 'missing'. What can we do next, I think we've exhausted the Internet to its full potential. There really isn't much about him online, usually there's much more about people."

"We could always search his room." I quietly suggest. Everyone looks surprised at my suggestion. I shrug my shoulders, but I know why they're surprised. I would usually be averse to that idea, let alone to be the one to come up with it.

"Are you sure you want to do that? Invade his privacy like that?" Bella asks.

"We've already done that by searching him on the Internet." Emma says. "Searching his room isn't that much worse."

We go to the door of Percy's room and try to open it, but it was rammed shut. "Why won't it open? Do you have locks on these things?" Emma asks.

"No! We only have locks on the bathroom doors! Why won't it open?" I say.

"Cleo? Girls? Are you trying to find Percy?" I turn around to see Sally behind us.

"Um, yes. We are. We were knocking on his door to see if he's in, but it doesn't seem like he's in, so we'll be going now." Emma says.

"If you're looking for him, he told me he went to Mako. I think he went exploring or something. Oh, and I know you were trying to get into his room, only certain people can enter. I guess he hasn't given you permission to go in. I hope that helps." She says before walking off.

"Well, that went well." Bella says, very sarcastically, I might add.

"At least we know where he is- Mako. Do you think he's gone to find the moon pool?"

"You never know. Let's go to find him." I say.