.||The Curse of the Sea||.

~*Chapter Sixteen*~

- - Piper's POV - -

I woke up to see the swinging lantern of my cabin. "Wake up Pipes. It's go time." said Hazel. I nodded and got up, getting dressed. My other friends had already left, leaving me and Hazel behind. I pulled on my shirt and turned to leave. I walked outside and went toward the deck. The rest of them were already there, gathered around two people. One of them I recognized as Annabeth, daughter of Athena. The other girl was fifteen or so with shoulder length black hair. She had electric blue eyes like Jason, yet she wore punk clothes. Annabeth had her in a tight hug ans was sobbing steadily into her shoulder. I went to join the group around them.

Thalia seemed to be comforting Annabeth who was still crying. "Shh. Annie, it's fine. Let's just go and rescue Percy and then after we can beat him up together for being such a Seaweed Brain, k?" After we had calmed Annabeth down, we turned toward the island looming out of the fog. It was saddle shaped, with a rope bridge hanging from one end of a cliff to another. As we neared it, I felt a wave of dark energy roll over me and I shivered. Festus docked the ship in a quiet cove.

"All right. As you all know, we're here to rescue P-Percy. I know we can do this so let's go." Annabeth disembarked the ship and we followed, weapons in hand. Poseidon brought up the rear, trident raised. We trekked toward the rock face where a large boulder blocked the entrance from the cave. Fifty meters away from the rock, Poseidon slammed into something invisible. We turned to look back at him. He was running a hand through his tired, lined face. Ever since Percy had disappeared again, he had slowly aged until he looked like he was in his seventies. His black hair hung limply and was graying at the roots. He looked surprised and kept trying to come through toward us.

"I can't get through!" He growled angrily. Annabeth came back toward him and whispered something in Greek. They seemed to be arguing about something. After a moment, Annabeth walked back toward us. Poseidon sat down heavily on a nearby rock, leaning on his trident for support. We continued to walk to the cave entrance. We stood in front of the rock and Hazel stepped forward. Concentrating, she held her hands out. A good sized hole appeared. Hazel dropped her hands tiredly.

"Good job." I placed a hand on her shoulder. She glanced gratefully at me, golden eyes flashing. She followed Frank and crawled through the hole. I glanced at my boyfriend, Jason, who gave me an encouraging nod. I crawled through the hole, towards darkness, and Percy.

- - Frank's POV - -

I followed Hazel through the hole, wincing slightly as I grazed my palms on the rough surface. I dropped down onto the cavern floor and brushed the dirt and grime off me. I retied my sneakers as the others crawled through. After we all stood in silence, Hazel closed her eyes and cloaked us in mist. When I looked again we were hideous monsters. I had a sleek seal like body with a dog like head and human hands. I could see that the others were the same as I was.

"Let's go." Annabeth led us toward the right tunnel which led us into more darkness, determination glinting in those grey eyes of hers. As we walked, we passed a couple of other monsters but they didn't spare us a glance. They hurried away, eyes darting behind us. Soon, we could hear echoing screams of pain. We all glanced worriedly at each other and jogged swiftly toward the sound. I know, I know. Usually you wouldn't run straight toward the sounds of pain and obvious torture. But we're demigods. Of course we'll run straight towards trouble.

After following the screaming down the stone passageway, it stopped abruptly. We halted, breathless as the sounds of pattering footsteps reached our ears. Thalia waved us toward a rock where we all stooped down and hid. I peeked over the edge of the rock to see a tall, 20 foot giant with long blue-black dreadlocks. A trident was held in his large, meaty fist. Small snakes kept falling from his long hair and slithered after him. Beside him walked a sandy haired guy with a deep scare across his face. He had pure gold eyes, not unlike Hazel's. Annabeth and Thalia sucked in their breath at the sight of him.

We watched as they walked down the corridor, laughing. We crept out of our hiding spots.

"Polybotes," Thalia's voice wavered a bit, "And Kronos."

Everyone shuddered at their names, remembering all the death and destruction they had caused them. We ran the rest of the way to Percy's cell. The tunnel veered to the left and we followed it. Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Hazel, and Thalia, who were in front o me stopped abruptly. I peeked over Hazel's shoulder to see a body. Percy's body.

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He lay inertly on the floor, blood pouring off in waves. Open wounds were all over him, some so deep that I could see the bone. His right arm was bent and twisted at an unnatural angle and some of his ribs had been punched/kicked in. His left hand hadn't been unmarked either. Three of his fingers were broken too. He was shirtless through the remains of his shirt were strewn around the cave. A large hole in his stomach greeted my eyes. It was ragged as though it had been sliced through again and again. His skin was pale and looked clammy though he was obviously sweating a lot. Cuts and bruises marred his face. His eyes were screwed tightly shut and his face was in an eternal grimace of pain. Then my eyes moved toward his midsection. He had transformed and his beautiful tail had been mutilated to an almost unrecognizable pile of scales and blood. His scales were ripped and hanging off in some places. His finds were almost cut through and again I could see the bones and tendons. Bones were protruding out of the scales showing that it was broken. Worst of all, all of his cuts were tinged a horrible, poisonous green. His beautiful sea green tail was also tinged a poisonous green and looked so painful. I couldn't even imaging the pain Percy was in. A pool of blood surrounded his still form.

Annabeth rushed forward, tears streaming down her face. She was about to kneel down next to Percy but before she could, Percy opened his eyes.

"Annabeth," His voice rasped painfully in his throat. "Don't... Poison." He used his unbroken fingers to gesture to the pool of blood around him. I peered closer to it and saw the tinge of the same, poisonous green. Annabeth fell to her knees, just outside of the blood. She reached toward Percy, crying openly.

I sniffled, wiping my tears away. I needed to focus. Behind me, I could hear and see my friends crying or trying to stop the flow of tears.

Annabeth ran her fingers through Percy's unruly black hair. She whispered a few things into Percy's ear. He paled a bit but nodded. Annabeth waved Jason and Thalia toward her. They walked shakily to her and Percy. She quickly explained the plan to them and then they turned toward Percy, palms raised.

"Sorry about this," Jason said. He and Thalia used their wind powers to control the blood and poison. The toxic liquid floated away, and then destroyed by lightning. Annabeth helped us to lift Percy. Jason and Piper lifted his torso, while Hazel and I lifted his tail and Annabeth held his head and whispered comforting things into his ear. I grimaced as my fingers touched Percy's scaly, wounded tail. In no time, all our fingers were stained red with Percy's blood. Through all this, Percy had kept quiet, not uttering a single sound though by the look on his face, it was hurting quite a lot. We maneuvered Percy through the door, murderous looks on our faces. I shifted my grip on Percy's tail and we continued walking down the corridor. We rounded a corner and unluckily, Hazel tripped on a rock.

Her hands slipped from Percy's tail and it dropped, hitting the ground painfully. Percy tried to stifle the scream but the damage was done. Hazel lost her concentration on the mist and our disguises flickered and died. Ten monsters poked their heads into the corridor to find fourteen demigods staring at them in shock. They roared a battle cry, instantly alerting their comrades. The demigods closed up around us, weapons ready to hack and slice. Hazel picked up Percy again, head down. "I'm sorry!" she cried. Percy nodded at her grimly smiling a little. Then the battle started.