Fate Series Extras

Lottie Tries to Swim Home

Hello! As everyone probably already guessed, this is an alternative version to the Siren scene in Sea of Monsters. There are some spoilers in it, like what Lottie's fatal flaw is, so read at your own risk!

Percy tried hard not to look at Annabeth or Lottie. He managed it for about five minutes.

That was his big mistake.

When he couldn't stand it any longer, he looked back and found... a heap of cut ropes. An empty mast and surprisingly Annabeth was crumpled on the ground, unmoving with her bronze knife laying next to her on the deck. Somehow, she'd managed to wriggle it into her hand and cut her ropes. Lottie had somehow managed to subdue her.

What really worried him was his missing best friend. The lumps of white wax on the deck of the ship had a sinking feeling settling in his chest.

He rushed to the side of the boat and saw her, paddling madly for the island, the waves carrying her straight toward the jagged rocks.

He screamed her name, but if she heard him, it didn't do any good. She was entranced, swimming toward her death.

He looked back at the pilot's wheel and yelled, "Stay!"

Then he jumped over the side.

He sliced into the water and willed the currents to bend around him, making a jet stream that shot him forward.

He came to the surface and spotted Lottie, but a wave caught her, sweeping her between two razor-sharp fangs of a rock.

He had no choice. He plunged after her.

He dove under the wrecked hull of a yacht, wove through a collection of floating metal balls on chains that he realized afterward were mines. He had to use all his power over water to avoid getting smashed against the rocks or tangled in the nets of barbed wire strung just below the surface.

Percy jetted between two rocks fangs and found himself in a half-moon-shaped bay. The water was choked with more rocks and ship wreckage and floating mines. The beach was black volcanic sand.

He looked around desperately for Lottie.

There she was.

Luckily or unluckily, she was a strong swimmer. She'd made it past the mines and the rocks. She was almost to the black beach.

Then the mist cleared and he saw them-the Sirens.

They looked like a flock of vultures the size of people-with dirty black plumage, gray talons, and wrinkled pink necks. But they had human heads on top of those necks, but the human heads kept changing.

Percy couldn't hear them, but he could see they were singing. As their mouths moved, their faces morphed into people he knew-his mom, Poseidon, Grover, Tyson, Chiron. Even Lottie. They smiled reassuringly, inviting him forward. But no matter what shape they took, their mouths were greasy and caked with the remnants of old meals. Like vultures, they'd been eating with their faces, and it didn't look like they'd been feasting on Monster Donuts.

Lottie swam toward them.

He knew he couldn't let her get out of the water. The sea was his only advantage. It had always protected him one way or another. He propelled himself forward and grabbed her ankle.

The moment he touched her, a shock went through his boy, and he saw the Sirens the way Lottie must've been seeing them.

Five people sat on a picnic blanket in Central Park. A feast was spread out before them. He didn't recognize any of the women, he had never seen any photos of them, but he knew who they were. Lottie's Grandmothers. One had the same auburn hair just like her. Next to her, a woman with dark hair poked at her side, drawing out a laugh that sound just like Lottie's. Another woman with black hair wore a leather jacket hand her arm the blonde next to her.