Chapter 36: No, no more talking about ships today!

______________________________

Not much to say, I hope you guys like it.

The quest is now over, of course there will be a few chapters left for this book.

______________________________

...

(Percy POV)

...

I leaned on the railing, lost in my thoughts, staring at the horizon. A lot of questions raised through my mind, every single one of them asked for my attention, would Thera be alright? My rational side said she would easily survive the blast, I mean it's a volcano, one of her domains. The other side of my brain was still worried.

Did we win? Nero mentions Triumvirate always had a backup plan and it seemed like we defeated Nero but what about the other Emperors? I got the fleece but I had the feeling we did something wrong and we would find out later.

More questions raced through my mind, would Meg be okay? Would we make it in time? Would camp still be there or was it already over run by monsters?

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the positive things, how Tyson came back.

Tyson had told me his story, he fell out of the boat and Rainbow had followed him like last time and saved him. He planned on looking for me but he couldn't find me anywhere at sea, probably because I was in Jotünheimr sea.

When he couldn't sense me Rainbow brought him to my father's palace where Poseidon took care of him.

When I was back at the sea of monsters Tyson wanted to go back but Poseidon told him it was to dangerous for him, so he stayed at his palace.

Later Thera showed up and apparently Mnemosyne had done something wrong because when Poseidon saw Thera all the memories flew back.

According to Tyson Poseidon cried even though he was underwater, Poseidon wanted to confront Zeus but Thera convinced him not too or at least wait till the war is over.

Thera and Tyson stayed at Poseidon's palace but when Thera and Poseidon saw what happened to us she begged Poseidon to interfere.

Poseidon said he couldn't or Zeus would have his head, Thera convinced him to send her and Tyson so they could help me and Poseidon would stay out of shot.

Poseidon protested, saying that Thera would attract Zeus's attention and that he would not be able to help her, but Thera kept on arguing and saying that we needed help.

In the end Poseidon agreed and Thera bored a tunnel to Polyphemus's island and was just in time to prevent Nero from blasting us to pieces.

"Where are we going?" Katie suddenly asked, apperently I was so lost in my thoughts I hadn't noticed that she was standing next to me.

"Miami beach." I answered, that's where Luke would be.

"So how did they take the news?" I asked Katie.

Katie sighted, "Nyx and I explained everything we made them swear on the Styx not to talk about the Romans or Triumvirate holdings."

"Great, we don't want another civil war." I joked.

(Linebreak)

....

"Please take us to the docks, I don't want to swim." Nyx complained when the ship stopped in front of the docs but not close enough we could jump.

Anne was toying with us.

The sun was setting behind the skyline of Miami and I saw a beachside highway with palm trees ,store's with their neon signs, a harbor filled with cruise ships and sailboats. None of them looked at the old pirate ship.

The ship cracked loudly and we all looked at Katie for a translation.

"What did she say?" Clarisse asked, she was still skeptical about a ship that could speak.

"She wants Nyx to beg." Katie answered.

"Oh, Hell no!" Nyx shouted, "I'm not gonna beg a ship to sail."

'You better do it, it's getting darker.' Hemera said.

'So what?' Nyx asked.

'Some of us don't have night vision.' I said.

"Then we're not getting of the ship." Grover cried out.

"I don't want to be stuck on a ship forever." Tyson said, almost breaking down.

"You know what?" Nyx said as her eyes lit up, or atleast I assumed they did, it was hard to say since her eyes were two glowing white.

"Hold hands!" she demanded.

"Why?" Grover asked, looking scared at Tyson.

"Just do it." Nyx said and she held my hand and I held Tyson's hand, knowing what would Nyx was up too.

Tyson took Grover's hand, albeit without much joy, Grover took Clarrise's hand.

"Suck on this!" Nyx yelled and suddenly shadows engulfed us.

A second later we appeared on the dock, looking at the ship that refused to let us go to the dock.

Nyx, Katie and I were fine but the others looked like they had to puke, they were not used to shadow traveling.

I looked at Anne, wondering what she would do after this insult from Nyx.

Anne did nothing, she just acted like a normal ship would do.

"Ha! I outsmarted you!" Nyx yelled happily.

Suddenly shadows engulfed the ship, it took at least 4 seconds before the entire ship went dark and then it disappeared.

Nyx paled, "Did she just…"

"Shadow traveled, yes she did." I finished her sentence.

"She could do that all along?" I asked Katie but she was surprised too.

"Where's the ship?" Tyson asked, blinking and waving his hand in front of his eye to test if there was something wrong with it.

(Linebreak)

We wandered around the cruise line docks and I took the fleece out of my backpack and handed it to Clarisse.

"Percy, what are you doing?" Clarisse asked suspiciously.

"It's for you, you should take it to the camp as fast as possible. Take a plane, I can't travel through the sky." I explained.

Clarisse blinked, "But...you retrieved it." she muttered.

"It was a team effort." Katie said casually.

'Even though we did most of it.' Nyx complained mentally but she gave Clarisse a smile, or at least I thought it was a smile.

"Just make sure to get it to camp as fast as possible, if you heal Thalia's tree Meg should be healed too." I explained.

Clarisse nodded, "Okay, but what about the cost of the ticket?"

I took out my last Lotus cash card and gave it to Clarisse.

"What is this?" She asked.

"A Lotus cash card, it has unlimited amount of money on it. You can use it everywhere, use it to take a Taxi and buy a ticket."

Clarisse looked with awe at the cash card, "Just make sure you return it when we are back." I said and Clarisse nodded.

"I'll make sure I save the camp and Meg!" Clarisse said determined and she ran away, entered a cab.

The cab drove away leaving us in the dust, the camp was save.

"Percy why did you do that?" Grover asked.

"Because Percy is a good brother!" Tyson exclaimed and he swung his arm around my shoulder.

"Percy is to nice." Nyx complained.

"Come on, let's get something to eat before we head home." I said.

That's when I turned around and found a sword's point at my throat.

"Percy, you are still alive?" Luke asked.

I swallowed, "Yes, of course."

Three Germani appeared on his sides, guess Nero had loaned them to Luke.

One of them grabbed Grover by the collar while another on had his sword against Katie's throat, who was gasped in surprise.

The last one tried to grab Nyx but she dug under his hand and had stabbed him in his tight.

The Germani disappeared and Nyx smiled smugly.

"Luke?" Katie asked but Luke ignored her, "Who are you?" Luke asked looking at Nyx.

"Nyx Shader." Nyx lied, or at least the last part, "A new camper."

'Shader?' I snickered.

'Shut up or I let him pierce your throat.' Nyx grumbled.

"What do you want?" I asked Luke, distracting his attention from Nyx.

He smiled hesitantly, "The Golden Fleece, we need it."

"It's gone!" Katie said, "Luke we don't have it. Clarisse took it to camp."

Luke scowled, "You gave it to Clarisse?" He asked surprised.

"Let us go Luke." Grover said.

Luke took out a walkie talkie while still pointing his sword at me, "Prepare my steed, I need to go to Miami Airport." Luke said and he put it back.

"Follow me to the Princess Andromeda."

"Andromeda?" Katie asked confused.

"My ship, I know you four have been on my ship." Luke admitted.

"You mean the Titanic?" Katie asked.

"Titanic?" Grover asked confused.

"Titanic." Tyson confirmed.

"Our ship is not called the Titanic." Luke scowled.

"Just check out what is written on the side of the ship." I said chuckling.

"Stop it!" Luke shouted, "Follow me to the...ship." Luke said and he gestured me to move.

'Shall I kill him?' Nyx asked.

'No, we follow him for now.'

The Germani and Luke herded us towards the docks, where we saw the Titanic in the distance.

'Now!' I mentally yelled and gave Katie a wink.

Luckily she understood it and she took out her dagger and attacked the Germani.

Grover jumped and kicked the Germani in the chest and Tyson finished him with a quick punch in the face that threw him into the water.

I summoned Frost silver and attacked Luke who I caught by surprise.

He was managed to block my slash but was almost to late.

I threw up FostSilver to Luke's surprise who followed it with his eyes, took out Riptide and uncapped it and aimed it at Luke's throat, who was still distracted.

FrostSilver fell useless next to me on the ground and I made it scather.

Luke looked at me in surprise and swallowed, "How?"

"theatricality and deception." I said smiling and then I turned serious.

I slowly moved forward forcing Luke to take steps back, closer to the water.

"Luke shut up for once and listen, your side is losing and the ideals you fight for may be great ideals but you achieve nothing this way."

Luke opened his mouth to protest but I cut him of, "Seriously, your allies chained someone to a burning hearth, she is eight years old for Zeus's sake. You failed Luke. Switch side now you can and I can protect you."

"It's too late." Luke protested but I shook my head.

"No it's not, spy for me luke, become my spy. It's the only way you can do something good and I can make sure the gods won't kill you after Kronos loses this war."

Luke opened his mouth but I focused on the water behind him, 'Chaos a little help please.'

Behind Luke the water stirred up and extended into two separate arms. They grabbed Luke from behind and lifted him into the air.

"Iris message me before the end of summer, it's the only way." I said and I forced the water to throw him far away into the sea.

I turned around to see my friends had finished the Germani.

"Great job team!" I shouted cheerfully.

"Where's Luke?" Katie asked.

"He escaped." I lied, Katie raised a brow but knew I had my reasons to lie.

"We better leave now, big boat is coming our way!" Tyson said and he pointed at the Titanic who was sailing towards us.

"So how do we get home?" Grover asked.

Nyx smiled, "Shade, Shadow!" She called out and shadows from all the nearby objects made their way towards her.

"Blaa-ahh!" Grover shrieked.

They solidified into a chariot and two horse who looked curiously at Grover.

'New meat?' Shade asked.

.