Children of The Big Three Book 2: The Sea of Monsters

Chapter Fourteen: An Escalation

It was like Luke was trying to make himself look as evil as possible.

His long, friendly hair had been cut to a more militaristic cut. His clothes had gone from Camp Half-Blood orange to a red Nike shirt, with its signature logo and: 'Just Do It.' adorned in big lettering in the middle. Luke wore the most villainous of pants, khakis. The monster was eating when they entered, a most heinous food; Cookies and Cream Pop-tarts.

Okay so, maybe Percy had to admit that he didn't look like the evil mastermind he envisioned. He just looked like a normal guy, a normal guy who had spent some time in juvie, but a normal dude nonetheless. Hades, even Annabeth seemed a bit more chipper in his presence, her eyes a brighter shade of Grey then they had been at that little pow-wow that their troops had. But Percy also knew that appearances could be deceiving. That was the man who had poisoned his life long friend because she had refused to join him. Just thinking of the event, how Thalia looked when Percy handled her wounds; it made his blood boil. He could only imagine how betrayed and hurt she must have felt. Annabeth, in the meantime, had gone and sat next to Luke, and asked for one of the two Pop-tarts that came in the wrapper, which he happily handed over.

"You guys gonna stand there like statues? You must be hungry. Come, sit down. Have a bite, they were pretty cheap at Walmart." The traitor spoke.

There was a moment of tense silence, before Thalia walked over. The guards at the doors gripped their spears tighter, but she merely pulled out a chair; angrily to say the least, and took a seat opposite of Luke. Percy was next to follow suit, and he sat off to the left, followed by Nico, who sat across from Annabeth, to the right. Castellan tossed them each a package, which remained unopened for the duration of their time here. It seemed neither side was quite sure how to start this little chat, so Nico took the initiative; not something often seen. For the first time in a nice, long while, serious Nico showed himself. His voice was a deadly calm, for this wasn't just their run of the mill life or death situations; the fate of the entire camp relied on their ability to get out of this; and get the Golden Fleece.

"Why haven't you killed us yet?"

Annabeth looked confused. Not a: 'Why would he say that.' kind of confused, more of a, 'Isn't it obvious?' Kind of confused. Then, after a moment it hit her. She whispered something in Luke's ear, which got a toothless smile out of him.

"That's cause, we want you on our side. Duh." Luke said, cockiness clear in his voice.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me, there's no way-" Percy was then interrupted by Luke, who was rather sharp in his reply.

"Not you, Jackson. You're too content, you haven't been scorned like we have." He continued, and made a gesture towards Thalia and Nico. Now, one may read that as him transitioning to a speech about joining him while also alienating Percy, divide and conquer. But, Percy saw it as him not having any leverage on him, to anger him into taking up arms against the Gods. While he did have his own grievances, he couldn't exactly say he hated them. He thought his friends were the same, but Nico looked slightly curious about what Luke had to say, and Thalia.. Percy couldn't even tell what emotion that was on her face.

"Nico," Luke continued, "When Kronos reigns, Hades, and even Death himself will be overthrown as well. We will reclaim thousands of unjustly lost souls, and they can live again. Whether that includes your mother and sister waits to be seen, of course."

The Son of Hades' face flushed with anger, "how did you-"

Luke held out his arm, and a bracelet dangled off of it. A scythe figurine on it. "Eyes and ears everywhere, my friend." Annabeth reassuringly nodded her head at Nico. He continued, his head shifted towards Thalia. "Thals, this is all their fault."

"Don't try to shift the blame, Castellan."

"Not even gonna use my name, Thals? Harsh. But anyway. Don't you get it? It is their fault. If they had better prepared themselves for your arrival, we wouldn't have been caught off guard. If they'd taken better care of us, Grover would still be-"

"Don't you dare say his name, traitor! You've lost all the right." Percy could better make out her emotions now. Her voice spat venom and contempt, but her face said hurt. She was doing her best to appear strong, for herself or for them, he couldn't tell; but it was definitely taking a toll on her. It made Percy a lot more mad then it probably should have, he was itching to punch this looser. Thalia's voice died down to a whisper, which showed much of her pain. Thalia was never quiet, especially not in front of an enemy.

"He died for us. Grover died for all of us, Annabeth, Luke. So we could have a chance at a life. A real one. So we could know what it was like to have a family; to belong. This isn't just wrong, it's disrespectful. To Grover, to me. To everything that we were and stood for. To yourselves. He believed you were better then this, we were better then this." Annabeths face softened a small bit, as if she was fully digesting the weight of what Thalia said, and saw that it did have some validity. She looked to Luke, who held a stoic expression. Luke raised his hand, and his guards reacted, seeming to get battle ready.

"I can see this is not getting us anywhere-"

People were making a real habit of interrupting Luke today, as Thalia asked, "Tell me that you didn't do it."

"What?"

"Tell me that you didn't give the order to poison his tree."

He didn't answer for a moment. He knew she'd see through him if he lied on this, so he told the truth. "I.. Did it myself. I wouldn't let anyone else touch him."

Thalia's face shifted over a dozen emotions, and settled on shocked. She was about to say more, if she could even find the words, when whatever thought process she was going through was interrupted by Percy; who decked Luke Castellan across the face, who subsequently fell backwards on his chair.

"Come on, move it!" Percy yelled, which grabbed his friends attention and they got to their feet. The guards did their best to stop them, but were foiled by a Pop-tart package to the eyes. They bursted through the doors, which got Tyson's attention, but that's as far as Percy had thought this. His punching of someone's face was just a reflex. He contemplated a moment, then snapped his fingers. "A boat this big must have life rafts. We cut them down and I Poseidon us outta here!" The problem was, monsters were beginning to close in on their location, they had made a bit of a racket. There were to many, they'd never make it, unless..

"Guys, get ready for some weird business!" Nico yelled, and grabbed ahold of his group. For a moment, there was nothing but darkness. It felt as if they had no physical form, and were nothing but nerves traveling down a road at night. Weird business indeed. Then suddenly, all at once: They were on an escape raft that dangled on the side of the ship, Nico passed out, and the raft started swaying uncontrollably. Percy took out his pen and uncapped it, and Riptide took shape. He took out one of the strings keeping the raft on the ship, which caused more rockage, and Thalia accidentally looked down off the side of it, to see they were decently high up. Out of instinct she clung onto Percy, and dug her face onto his chest.

"What are you doing?!"

"Shut up and do your job, kelp head!"

Percy shrugged and cut the other string. Thalia screamed her lungs off as they drifted downward, and Tyson hung onto Nico so he didn't fall off. Once they landed in the water, Percy used most of his left over energy to push the raft away from the boat, and towards where Tyson said he could smell the Golden Fleece. After a little while, Percy too had to stop, for he was incredibly tired. It was then that he noticed that Thalia had never dislodged herself from him. For a moment, he thought it was because she didn't want him to see her look so weak, but it was clear after a moment, that she'd fallen asleep. It made sense, they didn't exactly get a full eight hours, and it had been a busy morning.. Yes, a nap sounded great right about now.

He wrapped an arm around her, and let himself drift to sleep.