When Percy was back in his body, the scene around him had changed but no one gave any indication that he'd been gone. Annabeth had disappeared somewhere, and now Cressida was making her way towards him as she tightened the straps of her breastplate.
"Again with the staring?" she teased. "Keep it up Captain Nemo, and I'm going to be convinced you're obsessed with me."
"What?"
She furrowed her brows. "Are you ok?"
"Uh, I have something to tell you. It's about your.... your father."
Her eyes widened as he trailed off, gazing at something in the distance behind her. "Percy? Percy, what about my father? Did Papa-"
Percy didn't mean to, but he ignored her as he went bolting down the street.
"Percy!" she called. "What are you doing?!"
And as she chased after him, she realised what happened. He was running towards a Prius with two very familiar people inside.
Paul was passed out in the driver's seat and Sally was unconscious beside him. And Cressida already knew how guilty Percy would feel not having noticed them before now.
"They – they must've seen those blue lights in the sky." He rattled the doors, but they were locked. "I need to get them out."
"Ok," Cressida said. "Ok, just take a deep breath."
"I can't leave them here!" He pounded on the windshield. "I have to move them. I have to-"
"Calm," Cressida ordered as she blew a plume of purple fire towards him and then took his hands. "Look at me. Eyes on me," she said as he reluctantly stared at her, fear and panic shining in his sea-green eyes. "Your parents are ok," she promised, her voice so very soft and gentle. "They're just sleeping, and I don't think Paul will like it if you damage his car trying to get him out. so, here's what we're going to do. I'm gonna grow some vines and we're going to move the car into a side street, away from all the fighting. And then I'm going to block the street. They're going to be perfectly safe. Do you understand?"
He nodded as he processed every individual word that seemed to calm the roaring fear inside his ear. "They'll be safe. We'll make them safe. They'll be ok," he muttered before she pulled him into a hug, letting him take all the comfort he needed as he trembled, the sight of his helpless parents making him want to break down and cry like he was a little boy again.
Chiron then galloped over. "What's - Oh, dear. I see."
"They were coming to find me," Percy cried. "My mom must've sensed something was wrong."
"Most likely," Chiron said. "But, Percy, they will be fine. The best thing we can do for them is stay focused on our job."
Cressida pressed a kiss to his neck before he stood up, his eyes catching the sight of something in the back seat of the Prius. "No way," he muttered.
"What is it?" Cressida asked as she saw the metre-tall black and white Greek jar sitting on the backseat.
"Pandora's Jar. Prometheus gave it to me, but I had Thalia lock it in the vault at the Place," Percy explained vaguely before going into detail for Chiron.
"Then the jar is yours," Chiron said grimly. "It will follow you and tempt you to open it, no matter where you leave it. It will appear when you are weakest."
All Percy could see was Prometheus smiling and telling Percy to give up hope and he drew his sword as he went for the car. Except Cressida got in the way.
She stood between the door and Percy who stood with his sword arched over his head, ready to bring it down.
"Get out of the way Cress," he said but she didn't move. She really was so goddamn stubborn.
"No," she said defiantly. "You're angry you're being manipulated, believe me, I get it, but we're still at war here. You need to calm down and you need to do it without my help. Or else more people are going to get hurt if you make decisions out of rage and spite."
He simply just took a second to stare at her, to search her eyes, to memorise the curve of her lips, the arch of her eyebrows, the column of her nose. Damn, Cress.
And he lowered his sword.
"Good," she said as her shoulders relaxed now that there wasn't a weapon pointed at her even though she knew Percy would never hurt her.
"Then how do you expect to get the jar out?" he asked a little bitterly and Cressida rolled her eyes.
"You're talking to a girl who has lived with her brothers for most of her life. You learn how to hide things. And how to find things," Cressida said as she pulled a bobby pin from her braid, surprised that it hadn't fallen out yet.
"I thought you were the daughter of the wine god, not the god of thieves?" he asked, a little impressed as she began picking the lock on the door handle.
"You learn a thing or two," she said as the door clicked, and she was able to pull it open.
She held the door open for Percy, but he didn't move just yet.
"We push them out of the way, right? And then take the stupid jar to Olympus," Percy said and Cressida nodded.
Chiron said, "A good plan. But, Percy..."
Whatever he was going to say, he faltered. A mechanical drumbeat grew loud in the distance – the chop-chop-chop of a helicopter. It was clearly a mortal helicopter with bright green lettering on the side that said Dare Enterprises.
"How did she get through the barrier?" Cressida asked.
"Who?" Chiron looked confused. "What mortal would be insane enough –"
Suddenly the helicopter pitched forward.
"The Morpheus enchantment!" Chiron said. "The foolish mortal pilot is asleep."
Percy was still paralysed as Cressida let out a taxi-cab whistle and Guido was the one to appear instead of Blackjack who must've been out of earshot. Cressida was going to leave Percy to deal with his parents as she climbed on, but he jumped on at the last minute, wrapping his arms around her waist as Guido took to the sky.
"What do we do?!" Percy shouted over the noise where they could see Rachel screaming inside from where she was wide awake, the pilot asleep at the controls.
"You are going to take Guido and go back to your parents," she said, and he grew nervous.
"What are you going to do?"
She reared Guido back as she exclaimed, "Hyah!" and the pegasus nosedived.
Percy barely hung on before he was screaming, "Cress? You can't fly a helicopter!"
"Yeah, well Annabeth ain't here! And who said anything about flying? I'm gonna crash."
And Percy didn't have time to respond as Cressida pushed his head down, their faces so close to the rotors that you could feel the force ripping at your hair before Cressida grabbed hold of the door.
That's when things went wrong. Guido's wing slammed against the helicopter. He plummeted straight down with Percy on his back, leaving Cressida dangling from the side of the aircraft. At least until Rachel began pulling her inside.
"What the hell are you doing here? We're both going to die!" Rachel panicked as Cressida got to her feet.
"I'm saving you. And so long as we get to Bryant Park, we're not going to die," she said as she pushed the pilot from his seat, and she was instantly overwhelmed by the number of buttons and blinking dials.
And suddenly she was so very grateful that Percy liked making her watch action movies, specifically one about this air force pilot that gave her a single piece of information about helicopters.
And Cressida wrapped her hands around the joystick in front of her and jerked it to the left, away from the empire state building.
"Do you know what you're going?" Rachel asked as she sat in the co-pilot chair.
"Not a clue. But we just have to get to Bryant Park and then we can crash."
"We're gonna crash?!"
"Oh, would you relax?! This is stressful enough as it is, and I think I've saved your life enough to know what I'm doing right now."
"But you don't know how to fly a helicopter!"
"But I know how to get to Bryant Park!"
"What the hell is so important about Bryant Park?"
"It's not covered in concrete."
"So you wanted to see a prettier sight before we die?!"
"We're not going to die!"
"I disagree!"
Cressida just rolled her eyes as the park came into view and she let go of the joystick and Rachel just sank further into her seat.
"Oh we are so going to die," she sighed as Cressida just held her hands out in front of her.
"Rise!"
And thick grapevines burst out from the green grass that spread across the park. They wrapped tightly around the copter, the rotors sparking as they were forcibly stopped, the vines holding them in mid-air.
"That's why I wanted to get to Bryant Park," Cressida explained before her vines began lowering them to the ground.
"That makes sense," Rachel huffed as her adrenaline came crashing down and they were set onto the ground as her vines sank back into the earth and Cressida sank back onto her seat. "Have I mentioned that it's so good to see you again?"
Cressida laughed. "Good to see you too. What the hell are you doing here?"
"Let's find Percy. Saves me from repeating it," Rachel said and Cressida sat up.
"Let's get out of here then."
"Right behind you."
Cressida heaved the door open as Rachel began dragging the pilot out, Cressida grabbing his legs as they carried him out of the chopper and people came running towards them. Cressida had just set the pilot down and turned around when she was slammed into by a wall of muscle.
"That was really scary but really impressive," Percy said as he held her tightly but gently, all the anger gone from his system.
"Well, that would've ended up a lot worse if you didn't take me to see that action pilot film last year. I knew how to steer, that's it."
"You sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine, Fish Face," she promised as they pulled apart.
"Hey, did I thank you for saving my life yet?" Rachel asked.
"Must've slipped your mind."
"Well, thanks."
"Just don't make a habit of it. I already save this one way too much," she said as she jabbed her thumb in Percy's direction before flexing her bad arm.
"Cress-"
"Shut up," Cressida interrupted, her eyes still on Rachel. "Now that he's here can you explain why you thought it would be smart to fly into the middle of a warzone?"
"I had to be here. I knew Percy was in trouble," she answered, and Cressida scoffed.
"When is he not?"
"Dude!" he exclaimed as she tilted her head back and smiled up at him.
"Still want to date me?"
"Definitely considering the 'no' option, right now," he returned, and she elbowed his stomach. "'So, what's the message you wanted to deliver?'
She frowned. "How did you know about that?"
"A dream."
Rachel didn't look surprised. She tugged at her beach shorts. They were covered in drawings, but of Greek letters, camp bead pictures, monsters and gods.
"I've been seeing things, too," she muttered. "I mean not just through the Mist. This is different. I've been drawing pictures, writing lines –"
"In Ancient Greek," Percy said, and Cressida was confused. "Do you know what they say?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I was hoping ... well, if you had gone with us on vacation, I was hoping you could have helped me figure out what's happening to me."
"Oh, sounds romantic," Cressida teased as Percy hit her shoulder with his.
"Shut up. Your timing sucks."
"Oh because yours is on point?!"
Percy rolled his eyes before looking back at Rachel. "I wish I knew what was going on with you. Maybe we should ask Chiron-"
She flinched like she'd got an electric shock. "Percy, something is about to happen. A trick that ends in death."
"What do you mean? Whose death?" Percy asked as both he and Cressida got anxious.
"I don't know." She looked around nervously. "Don't you feel it?"
"Is that the message you wanted to tell me?"
"No." She hesitated. "I'm sorry. I'm not making sense, but that thought just came to me. The message I wrote on the beach was different. It had your name in it."
"Perseus," he remembered. "In Ancient Greek."
Rachel nodded. "I don't know its meaning. But I know it's important. You have to hear it. It said: Perseus, you are not the hero."
Percy looked as if he'd just been slapped. "You came thousands of miles to tell me I'm not the hero?"
"It's important," she insisted. "It will affect what you do."
"Not the hero of the prophecy?" Percy asked. "Not the hero who defeats Kronos? What do you mean?"
"Clearly if she knew more, she'd tell you," Cressida pointed out before she turned to him. "But Percy if you're not the hero of the prophecy, then that means you don't die."
"If that's what it means."
"Would you stop being so negative for two minutes? What happened to positive thinking?"
"Cress, if I don't die then that means somebody else does."
She sighed. "We're not arguing about another prophecy again. We have bigger things to worry about."
"We don't argue, we bicker," Percy said by force of habit and she rolled her eyes at his timing.
"Then we'll bicker about it later."
"Well!" Chiron cantered over. "This must be Miss Dare."
Percy's emotions were on haywire between standing so close to the girl he liked, not getting to properly hide his parents, Rachel's message; he had no idea what he felt but the only thing he knew what that Cressida was right.
Hero or not, people were depending on him, and he couldn't be having an emotional breakdown no matter how much he wanted to.
"Uh, Miss Lynn, you're needed back at the command tent," Chiron said. "I believe Mr Solace wanted to check your wounds."
"By the gods! I'm fine. If I can take down a Hyperborean giant by myself and crash a helicopter - sorry, land a helicopter - I think I'll be ok," she exclaimed.
"Crazy Girl. Just go. No matter the prophecy, your father will kill me if anything happens to you. "
She pointed a menacing finger at him. "You still owe me an explanation about that."
"Yeah, and I'll give it to you after you go see Will. "
"Fine. But don't go making any more stupid decisions until I get back."
"No promises."
And she glared at him before beginning to jog back to the Empire State Building.