°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ ENDGAME} act ii. . .
. . .as deep as the seafloor
CHAPTER SIX°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
— 'a happy family reunion..?'
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Rayn °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Annabeth insisted on going first but Percy wouldn't let her, since it was too dangerous.
"We all go or nobody does," he whispered.
"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?"
In the end we all went together, Tyson nervously chewed his fingernails the whole time.
We were able to stop at our rooms and grab all of our stuff. Whatever happened, we would not be stayed ngl on this cruise ship.
I made sure my keychain was in my pocket, I had found a pack of vitamins in my bag but the others had one to share so I didn't tell them.
Tyson wanted to carry everything so he was walking around with four duffel bags effortlessly.
We snuck through the hallways. Annabeth walked ahead invisibly.
Whenever someone passed by we'd jump out of the way and hide, most of the time it was a glassy-eyed zombie passenger.
We made it up to deck thirteen. Annabeth hissed, "hide!" And shoved us into a supply closet.
I heard a couple of guys walking down the hall.
"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" One of them said.
"Yeah, it's awesome." The other laughed.
I knew that voice, I squeezed Percy's arm to try signify that I knew him.
"I heard they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh man—no contest!"
The voice faded down the corridor.
"That was Chris Rodriguez!" I told them once I was sure we couldn't be heard, "you remember—from Cabin Eleven."
"What's another half-blood doing here?" Percy questioned.
I shrugged my shoulders, and we headed back down the corridor. I'm the corridor I felt something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil.
"Percy." Annabeth suddenly stopped. "Look."
She looked out a window and a group of monsters were forming. There was around a dozen Laistrygonians giants like the ones from Percy's school, two hellhounds, a few stranger creatures like women with two serpent tails for legs.
"Scythian Dracaenae," Annabeth whispered. "Dragon women."
The monsters had grouped in front of a young guy in Greek armour. A lump formed in my throat when I realised he was in an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.
I stepped away from the window.
"Come on," Percy told me, "the sooner we find Luke the better."
At the end of the hallway were double oak doors, they seemed pretty important.
We were around thirty feet away when Tyson stopped, "voices inside."
"You can hear that far away?" Percy asked.
Tyson closed his eye like her was concentrating hard. His voice changed, it started to sound a bit like Luke. "—the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."
Before I could react, his voice changed again, it became like the boy Luke was talking to outside of the cafeteria. "You really think the horseman is gone for good?"
Tyson laughed like Luke and I felt my body tense up, "they can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."
"Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy." I shivered after hearing Luke's voice.
He opened his eye and looked puzzled, "just listening."
"Keep going." Percy said. "What else are they saying?"
He closed his eye again.
He started to talk in a rough man's voice: "quiet!" Then Luke's voice, whispering: "are you sure?"
"Yes," Tyson said in the rough voice. "Right outside."
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
I realised what was happening too late. Everyone had started to run off but Rayn was frozen in place.
"Come on," I gently grabbed her wrist and pulled her beside me.
The double doors burst open and Luke stood with two hairy giants with javelins pointing at us.
"Well," Luke said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my favourite cousins. Come right in."
The stateroom was beautiful and horrible at the same time.
The beautiful part was that it was decorated like they spent all their money on this room.
The horrible part was a ten foot long golden casket. Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths decorated the sides. The sunlight didn't do much to make the room feel cozy.
"Well," Luke said, spreading his arms proudly. "A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?"
He changed since last summer. Instead of summery clothes, messy hair and a relaxed expression, he looked like an evil male model.
"Sit." He told us. He gestured to a sofa but nobody sat down.
His giant hairy friends were still pointing the javelins at us.
"Where are my manners?" Luke said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Argius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."
Nobody moved and despite the javelins pointed at us, it wasn't the bear twins that scared me.
"You don't know their story?" Luke asked. He explained the story of a young maiden that was cursed to fall in love with a bear.
The bears started giggling about eating us.
Luke acted like this was completely normal. "Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How's your mom? How's school?"
"You poisoned Thalias tree."
Luke sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"
"How could you!?" Rayn yelled angrily, I realised we were still holding hands when she squeezed my hand so hard I thought all of my bones would break. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonour her—"
"I didn't dishonor her!" Luke snapped. "The gods dishonoured her, Rayn! If Thalia were alive, she'd be on my side."
"Liar! Thalias spirit was alive, until you poisoned her."
Luke stared at her angrily. "If you knew what was coming, you'd join me aswell—"
"I understand you want to destroy the camp!" She yelled. "You're a monster!"
Luke shook his head. "The gods have blinded you, Rayn. Cant you imagine a world without them? We can destroy them, join me! We could use your powers, powers you don't even understand yet! I figured, Persephone's powers changed so why cant yours—"
"Shut up, just shut up!" She looked like she was about to cry and I wasn't sure how to comfort her.
"I know you, Rayn. You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest the save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun by monsters within the month. The heroes remaining will have no choice but to join us or die. You really want your be on a losing team... with company like this?" Luke pointed at Tyson.
"Hey!" I said.
"Travelling with a cyclops," Luke chided. "Talk about dishonouring Thalias memory! I'm surprised at you, Rayn. You of all people—"
"Stop it!" She shouted.
She hung her head low like she was about burst out into tears at any moment.
"Leave her alone." I said. "And leave Tyson out of this."
Luke laughed. "Yeah, your brother."
I must've looked surprised, because Luke smiled. "Yes Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates again, 30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp that keep me updated."
"Spies, you mean."
Luke chuckled, "the gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"
I was confused for a minute, "I know what I need to know," I managed. "Like, who my enemies are."
"Then you're a fool."
Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. "Percy is not a fool!"
Before I could stop him, he charged Luke. Before he punched Luke in the head the two bear twins stopped him. They slammed him into the floor.
"Too bad, cyclops." Luke said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them—"
"Luke," I cut in. "Listen to me. Your father sent us."
His face turned blood red and I remembered when I mentioned his father last summer. "Don't —even— mention him."
"He told us to take this boat. I thought it was just for a ride, but he sent us here to find you. He told me he won't give up on you, no matter how angry you are."
"Angry?" Luke roared. "Give up on me!? He abandoned me, Percy! I want Olympus destroyed! It will be as soon as he grows stronger." He pointed to the sarcophagus.
"So..?" Then it hit me. "Whoa, you don't mean—"
"That's disgusting!" Annabeth said.
Luke sneered at her. "Your mother was born from Zeus's split skull, don't even talk." He looked over at the golden sarcophagus. "We will piece together a new body for him."
"You're insane." Rayn muttered.
"Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends. All your dreams will come true, Percy you could buy your mother a mansion, Annabeth you could become an architect and Rayn. When Artemis is gone, you could lead the hunt, guide the hunters, lead them to endless victories!"
I was confused at what he said but I didn't think about it for too long, we wouldn't let him take over Olympus.
"Go to Tartarus." She said.
"A shame." He sighed.
He pressed a button on a remote that made what seemed like security barged in.
"Security. I'm afraid we have some stowaways." Luke said.
"Yes sir," they said dreamily.
Luke turned to Oreius, "time to feed the Aethiopian Drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it's done."
Oreius grinned stupidly. "Hehe! Hehe!"
"Let me go too!" Agrius grumbled. "My brother is worthless. That cyclops-"
"Is no threat." Luke said. He glanced at the golden casket like something was troubling him. "Argius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss."
"But—"
"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the gold to make sure the drakon is properly fed."
Oreius prodded is with his javelin and herded us out of the stateroom, followed by the two human security guards.
As we walked down the corridor with Oreius's javelin poking me in the back, I thought about what Luke had said. The bear twins together were a match for Tyson's strength, but maybe separate...
We exited the corridor amidships and walked across the open deck lined with lifeboats. I knew the ship well enough to realise this would be our last look at sunlight. Once we got to the other side, we'd take the elevator down into the gold, and that would be it.
I looked at Tyson, "now."
Thank the gods, he understood. He turned and smacked Oreius thirty feet backward into the swimming pool. Right into the middle of the zombie swimming pool family.
"Ah!" The kids yelled in unison. "We are not having a blast in the pool!"
One of the security guards drew his nightstick but Annabeth knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box.
"Stop him!" Annabeth yelled but it was too late.
Just before I threw a deck chair at his head, he hit the alarm.
Red light and sirens went off.
"Lifeboat!" I yelled.
We ran to the nearest one and by the time we got the cover off, monsters were swarming the deck. A bunch of archers readied their arrows.
"How do you launch this thing?" Screamed Annabeth.
A hell hound launched at Rayn and me. I pulled Rayn infront of me and got ready for the attack but Tyson had slammed it aside with a fire extinguisher.
"Get in!" I yelled, I helped Rayn into the lifeboat and she looked down at her hand that was still interlocked with mine.
I stared down and felt my face go red.
I uncapped riptide and slashed the first volley of arrows from the air. Any second we'd be overwhelmed.
The lifeboat was hanging over the side of the boat, high above the water. The others had no luck with the release pulley.
I jumped in beside them.
"Hold on!" I yelled, and cut the ropes.
A shower of arrows whistled over our heads as we free fell towards the ocean.
This took so long to write and idk why.
The updates will be less frequent bc I'm back to school 😔
Anyway, thanks for reading LOVE YOU ALL BYEEE<3
(also I'm so excited for the guts setlist reveal)
@gracexeo, 2024