Project Percy (Kotlc Meets Percy Jackson)

Chapter 43

Acting normal at school the next day was easier than Percy thought it would be. Piper and Leo weren't speaking to him. Travis and Connor were relatively oblivious, and Annabeth already knew. He got a little choked up when Annabeth hugged him and told him things would be ok, and Thalia made a few jokes about that. He made sure to skip Hydrokinesis. Otherwise, it was an ordinary day.

Until Jason cornered him after school.

"Why are you mad at Piper?" he asked. "And Leo, too, now that I think of it."

"Nothing," Percy muttered. "It's fine."

"It's not fine," Annabeth said, as she and Thalia stepped out from the other corridor, blocking his exit. "Please, Percy. Is there anything we can do?"

"Leo was being a jerk," Percy said harshly. "And Piper was never really my friend."

Annabeth, Jason, and Thalia all exchanged a look.

"What did Piper tell you?" Jason asked.

"So you knew."

"We do," Thalia said.

"I was the one that talked them into it," Annabeth said.

Percy's brain momentarily shorted out. He looked from Jason to Thalia to Annabeth. "All of you? Seriously? Oh, and for your information, since none of you had the decency telling me, I had to hear about it from Clarisse."

"Athena wanted an eye on you too," Thalia defended. "Aphrodite suggested it to Piper, and then Athena told us that she wanted you to come over as much as possible."

Everything was falling into place. The chilliness in Athena's eyes that didn't match her smile. Annabeth insisting he come over.

"I don't believe it," Percy said. "I seriously don't believe it." He laughed and shook his head. "And here I was, thinking you guys actually cared."

"We do, we just-" Thalia protested, but Annabeth clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Better to leave him alone."

Percy shook his head again, pulled out his home crystal, and leaped back to Cerulean Stables.

"What happened?" Kym asked when she spotted him, but he didn't acknowledge her. He threw his satchel on the ground and ran straight for the caves.

"Percy, wait!" she called.

Percy kept going, but Kym was fast, and in a minute she caught up with him. She offered him a ball of water with Davy Jones floating inside. "In case you need a friend."

Davy Jones purred as Percy took control of the water orb. "Thanks."

Kym nodded. "Be careful down there. Looks like a storm's coming."

Percy hadn't noticed the gray sky, but it seemed appropriate given his mood. He climbed down the cliff and wandered deep into the cave, reveling in the thick, gloomy darkness. He noticed a shard of rock on the ground and hurtled it at the wall. The clatter as it shattered into smaller bits was oddly soothing.

He threw another stone, relishing the clang of each as they were pulverized to smithereens. When there were no rocks left, he kicked the edge of the nearest boulder until his foot throbbed. Dirty, panting, and in more than a little pain, he collapsed to the ground, feeling the tears he'd been holding back bubble over. He buried his face in his hands and gave into them, letting the violent sobs shake his body. He felt Davy Jones trembling next to him, frightened by his irrational behavior, but he didn't care.

His life had officially fallen apart.

He had no friends. No family. Facing exile and expulsion.

He was totally and completely alone.

It was at that moment, when he thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, that they did.

A pair of arms pulled him to his feet and smothered his scream with a meaty hand. He tried to fight back, but a cloaked figure swooped out of the shadows and shoved a cloth over his mouth and nose. Something sickeningly sweet burned his throat and nostrils and his head instantly clouded.

A sedative.

He held his breath and kicked with all his might, but he couldn't escape the iron grasp, and he couldn't hold his breath much longer.

"Percy?" Annabeth called, her voice echoing against the walls. "Are you in here? Kym told me I should come find you."

The figure holding him cursed and momentarily the hand slipped.

"Run!" Percy screamed.

He was too late.

He heard the scuffle, but his head was swirling too much from the drug to make sense of it. Then the arms holding him jerked away, and he crumpled to the ground as someone yelped. A ball of fur scuttled away.

Davy Jones!

He must have bit the captor.

Go get help,  he transmitted hoping he understood what he meant, and then floated the ball out the cave, and then, with all his strength, sensed for the nearest presence and shoved the water toward them.

He tried to get up,  but he was too weak. One of the figures grabbed his arm, squeezing it so hard it cut off his circulation. "Let go," he rasped, surprised at how the drug affected his voice. Annabeth groaned behind him and he turned toward the sound.

A third figure had Annabeth in a viselike grip, and clearly no amount of struggling and fighting would help her escape. He held Annabeth's panicked stare as his captor pulled him to his feet and covered his mouth with his hand. "Drug them now!" she ordered in a harsh, high voice.

"Both of them?" the figure holding Annabeth asked. "I thought we only wanted the boy."

"We can't leave any evidence." She turned to the second figure, who was already soaking the cloth with a small vial. "You said he only comes here alone!"

"He does!"

They'd been watching him.

He watched in horror as the figure covered Annabeth's mouth and nose with the drugged cloth. Her eyes held his as she struggled against the sedative, but after a minute her head lolled and her body fell limp.

"Get her pendant," the one holding him ordered.

There was an ominous snap as Annabeth's registry necklace came free in his hand. Then he returned to Percy, holding the cloth over his face. "Let's try this again."

His nose burned and his head spun, and the last thing he felt was a tug on his neck as his pendant, his only hope of being tracked down and rescued, was ripped off his neck.