Careless

Luke's bear-man thugs appeared on either of side of them. One grabbed Annabeth and Grover by their T-shirt collars. The other tried to grab Y/N and Tyson, but Tyson knocked him into a pile of luggage and roared at Luke.

"Percy," Luke said calmly, "tell your giant to back down or I'll have Oreius bash your friends' heads together."

Oreius grinned and raised Annabeth and Grover off the ground, kicking and screaming.

"What do you want, Luke?" Percy growled.

He smiled, the scar rippling on the side of his face.

He gestured toward the end of the dock, and they noticed what should've been obvious. The biggest boat in port was the Princess Andromeda.

"Why, Percy," Luke said, "I want to extend my hospitality, of course."

The bear twins herded them aboard the Princess Andromeda. They threw them down on the aft deck in front of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that sprayed into the air. A dozen of Luke's assorted goons-snake people, Laistrygonians, demigods in battle armor-had gathered to watch them get some "hospitality."

"I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise to see demigods joining him," Y/N muttered, trying to recognize some of the faces.

"And so, the Fleece," Luke mused. "Where is it?" He looked them over, prodding Percy's shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover's jeans.

"Hey!" Grover yelled. "That's real goat fur under there!"

"Sorry, old friend." Luke smiled. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest."

"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover protested. "Some old friend!"

"Maybe you didn't hear me." Luke's voice was dangerously calm. "Where-is- the-Fleece?"

"Not here," Percy said, "We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up."

Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have..." His face reddened as a horrible possibility occurred to him. "Clarisse?"

They nodded.

"You trusted... you gave..."

"Yeah."

"Agrius!"

The bear giant flinched. "Y-yes?"

"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast.'"

"But, boss-"

"Do it!" Luke screamed. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!"

The bear-man gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Luke paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.

The rest of Luke's crew looked uneasy. Maybe they'd never seen their boss so unhinged before.

Percy looked at the swimming pool, at the fountains spraying mist into the air, making a rainbow in the sunset. And suddenly he had an idea.

"You've been toying with us all along," he said. "You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it."

Luke scowled. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"

"Traitor!" Percy dug his last gold drachma out of his pocket and threw it at Luke. As expected, he dodged it easily. The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.

Percy hoped his prayer would be accepted in silence. He thought with all his heart: O goddess, accept my offering. "You tricked all of us!" he yelled at Luke. "Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"

Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, but he needed everyone's attention on them, so he uncapped Riptide.

Luke just sneered. "This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later."

"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?"

"I did, of course," he snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."

"Chiron had nothing to do with it?"

"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."

"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"

"Unlike you Luke, Chiron knows better than to do something for his selfish reason." Y/N said. She did notice Percy's little plan and decided to play along. Besides, out of all the elders in the camp, Chiron was the one she trusted and respected the most - ahem, even over Dionysus. Her reaction was natural.

"Can you tell your little girlfriend to shut up?" Luke sneered.

His little jab on her personal feelings did work on her. It hurt to listen, and Luke probably said what he observed the last time he was in the camp. But, she wasn't going to just eat those insults up. She snapped back, "Oh why? Does my attitude remind you of your failed love life with someone?"

Percy's eyes moved towards her. He noticed her trembling lips, and shaking posture. Oh, she was holding herself from saying something worse, wasn't she? "Hey," he called her, "I've got this."

Luke raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it."

That made Percy hesitate. Why would he let him take the Fleece? He must've been lying. But he couldn't afford to lose Luke's attention.

"You were going to heal Kronos," he said.

"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."

"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up-all to help Kronos destroy the gods."

Luke gritted his teeth. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"

"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you."

"What audience?" Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled back.

Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Tantalus, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching them.

"Well," said Dionysus dryly, "some unplanned dinner entertainment."

"Mr. D, you heard him," Percy said. "You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."

Mr. D sighed. "I suppose not."

"The Iris-message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.

"I fear not," Mr. D said, looking with distaste at Tantalus. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."

Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. "I got it!" he cackled.

"We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus," Mr. D announced.

Tantalus looked stunned. "What? But-"

"You may return to the Underworld. You are dismissed."

"No! But-Nooooooooooo!"

As he dissolved into mist, his fingers clutched at the cheeseburger, trying to bring it to his mouth. But it was too late. He disappeared and the cheeseburger fell back onto its plate. The campers exploded into cheering.

Luke bellowed with rage. He slashed his sword through the fountain and the Iris-message dissolved, but the deed was done.

Percy was feeling pretty good about himself, until Luke turned and gave him a murderous look, "Kronos was right, Percy. You're an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced."

Percy wasn't sure what he meant, but he didn't have time to think about it. One of his men blew a brass whistle, and the deck doors flew open. A dozen more warriors poured out, making a circle around them, the brass tips of their spears bristling.

Luke smiled at him, "You'll never leave this boat alive."

Although Percy's focus was on him, he could hear a tiny faint voice of Y/N mocking Luke from his right - "YOu WiLL NevER LeAVe ThIS BoAt AliVE."

Cracking a small smile, Percy challenged Luke, "One on one. What are you afraid of?"

[ TIME SKIP ]

Finally, they found themselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting. They were in a centaur camp. In the middle of a duel with Luke, Chiron came to the rescue with his friends from what Percy recalled as "PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER".

"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like: 'Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"

The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!" The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.

Chiron sighed. He set Annabeth and Grover down on a picnic blanket next to Percy as Y/N approached them. "I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."

"Chiron," Percy said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. "You saved us."

He gave him a dry smile and responded, "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."

"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.

"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean ... Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

Percy looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun. He hoped they knew what they were getting into.

"So what now?" He asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."

Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt and started to treat Percy's wounds. Y/N quietly sat down near them and watched him work, fidgeting at moments where she felt it might sting. Well, even though Percy was...kind of used to getting injured, she preferred to use her powers to heal. It would hurt less.

Chiron continued, "I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."

"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

"Annabeth, clearly it doesn't mean he will stop...whatever he's trying to gain," Y/N said, "We just managed to slow him down, like he said back there."

Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. And as soon as we get Percy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."

"You're coming, too?" Percy asked.

"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see... I'm curious about the Fleece."

Percy didn't know exactly what he meant, but it made him worry about what Luke had said: "I was going to let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it." Had he just been lying? He'd learned with Kronos there was usually a plan within a plan. The titan lord wasn't called the Crooked One for nothing. He had ways of getting people to do what he wanted without them ever realizing his true intentions.

Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered against one of the centaurs, hurling him backward into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "perhaps you all would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"

Annabeth met his eyes. Some kind of understanding passed between them. "Sure, Chiron," Annabeth said. "Come on."

"But I don't like paintball," Grover said.

"Yes, you do." She hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off toward the campfire.

Taking it as a cue to leave, Y/N got up and was about to follow them when she felt a tug on her wrist. Looking back, she realized how Percy was looking at her. She glanced towards Chiron, which also made Percy turn towards him as he started stuttering, his ears turning red, "Uh..I think she deserved to know."

"So does Grover," Y/N muttered.

Percy turned his head to look back at her. Chiron noticed the boy's hand still on her wrist, and sighed. He signaled her to sit back down. Y/N nodded her head releasing a tiny smile and obeyed him.

Chiron finished bandaging Percy's leg and said, "I guess you do. She's a part of your the team now, and looks like you need her help with the healing again. Percy, I had a talk with Annabeth on the way here. A talk about the prophecy."

"It wasn't her fault," Percy said. "I made her tell me."

His eyes flickered with irritation. He was sure he was going to chew him out, but then his look turned to weariness. "I suppose I could not expect to keep it secret forever."

"So am I the one in the prophecy?"

Chiron tucked his bandages back into his pouch. "I wish I knew, Percy. You're not yet eighteen. For now we must simply train you as best we can, and leave the future to the Fates."

The Fates. He hadn't thought about those old ladies in a long time, but as soon as Chiron mentioned them, something clicked.

"That's what it meant," he said.

Chiron frowned. "That's what what meant?"

"Last summer. The omen from the Fates, when I saw them snip somebody's life string. I thought it meant I was going to die right away, but it's worse than that. It's got something to do with your prophecy. The death they foretold-it's going to happen when I'm eighteen."

Chiron's tail whisked nervously in the grass. "My boy, you can't be sure of that. We don't even know if the prophecy is about you."

"But there isn't any other half-blood child of the Big Three!"

"That we know of."

"And Kronos is rising. He's going to destroy Mount Olympus!"

"He will try," Chiron agreed. "And Western Civilization along with it, if we don't stop him. But we will stop him. You will not be alone in that fight."

He knew Chiron was trying to make him feel better, but he remembered what Annabeth had told him. It would come down to one hero. One decision that would save or destroy the West. And he felt sure the Fates had been giving him some kind of warning about that. Something terrible was going to happen, either to him or to somebody he was close to.

"I'm just a kid, Chiron," Percy said miserably. "What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?"

Chiron managed a smile. '"What good is one lousy hero'? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War."

He pulled an arrow from his quiver and turned the razor-sharp tip so it glinted in the firelight. "Celestial bronze, Percy. An immortal weapon. What would happen if you shot this at a human?"

"Nothing," he said. "It would pass right through."

"That's right," he said. "Humans don't exist on the same level as the immortals. They can't even be hurt by our weapons. But you, Percy-you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die. They are reborn from the chaos and barbarism that is always bubbling underneath civilization, the very stuff that makes Kronos stronger. They must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes embody that struggle. You fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?"

"I ... I don't know."

"You must try, Percy. Because whether or not you are the child of the prophecy, Kronos thinks you might be. And after today, he will finally despair of turning you to his side. That is the only reason he hasn't killed you yet, you know. As soon as he's sure he can't use you, he will destroy you."

"You talk like you know him."

Chiron pursed his lips. "I do know him."

Percy stared at him. "Is that why Mr. D blamed you when the tree was poisoned? Why you said some people don't trust you?"

"Indeed."

"But, Chiron ... I mean, come on! Why would they think you'd ever betray the camp for Kronos?"

Chiron's eyes were deep brown, full of thousands of years of sadness. He heard a small sigh of irritation passing from Y/N's lips. She didn't want him to poke at his old scars, he guessed. "Percy, remember your training. Remember your study of mythology. What is my connection to the titan lord?"

He tried to think, but he'd always gotten his mythology mixed up. Even now, when it was so real, so important to his own life, he had trouble keeping all the names and facts straight. He shook his head. "You, uh, owe Kronos a favor or something? He spared your life?"

"Percy," Chiron said, his voice impossibly soft. "The titan Kronos is my father."

He observed the silent atmosphere, and decided to give Percy the time to digest the information. "Y/N, you can start healing him."

She bowed her head in agreement and respect, and watched him leave. She waited for him to recover from the shock.

"Can you..believe this? I mean-"

"I didn't believe a lot of things but I do now, so...." she cleared her throat and whispered, "can you release my hand so that I can start working?"

Percy realized how he has been holding onto her wrist throughout the whole conversation. He quickly released her and watched as she rubbed her wrist. Well, he did tighten his fists at moments, and didn't realize that he was still holding her. He watched her place her hand over the bandaged wound and start humming, concentrating on her work.

He felt embarrassed. How did he forget that he was still holding her hand? As if...they did it all the time? Like it was natural? His eyes focused on the wrist that he held moments ago. Hearing a halt on her humming and a blow of air pass from her lips, he looked back at her face. She was struggling to keep her hair off her face while she worked on his wound.

His hands made way to her face, as he tucked her hair at the back of her ears gently. Her humming stopped again and she peeked up at him.

And once again. Her heart did a flip.

Those sea-green eyes of his were so...so focused on her. It made her feel self-conscious. Like he would know what she felt if he looked any longer. A sense of irritation took over her when she recalled her conversation with Annabeth back in the ship.

Annabeth. Ofcourse, she couldn't help but think of her whenever something like this happened... with Percy.

She moved her head away from his hand and muttered, "Don't." Looking straight up at his confused eyes, she said, "You should talk to Annabeth and solve your issues. Don't make her worry for nothing. We've been a lot...careless about her feelings in this whole quest."

For a moment, Percy stopped breathing. Did she...remember what happened near the siren island?