Chapter Text
“So, everyone on our side gets a room on the ship.” Luke explained. “Hope you brought your stuff, or else you’ll have to sneak back to camp to get it.”
I pointed to my backpack. “Thought I might need to do that.”
“Ah, good, you’re prepared.” Luke said. “Anyway, your room is going to be right next to mine. We got an opening-someone left on a mission a few months ago and never came back.”
“Sorry.” I said.
“Nah, you’re good. Between us, he was a pain in the ass, anyway.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
We went upstairs (This yacht was seriously big, if I couldn’t easily identify boat types, I’d definitely think they’d splurged and bought a cruise ship) and we arrived at a set of golden doors leading to two separate rooms.
“This is my room?” I asked.
“Yeah. The one on the left is mine, you get the one on the right.” Luke explained.
“How come we get the fancy rooms?” I asked.
“Kronos believes that we’re the most valuable to the cause.” Luke said.
“Huh? I haven’t even been pledged to this side for more than an hour.” I said. “How does he know that I’ll be one of the most valuable to the cause?”
“Percy, you’re a Poseidon demigod. You are, biologically, the son of one of the big three, which means that you have more power than most demigods. You’re like-really important. That’s why Kronos and I tried again to bring you over to our side.”
I smiled. “That’s cool.”
“Yeah. And as for me-I’ve proven myself to be a great right hand man multiple times already. You haven’t seen it yet-you will. And I have a really good feeling that you’ll be one, too. Anyway, let’s get you settled in.”
Luke opened the golden door on the right to reveal the huge room.
I’ve never been offered anything this good before. Was it a trap? Should I be worried?
“Percy, everyone on this boat has been hoping that you’ll join. Most of them won’t admit it, but I will, easily. We probably can’t do this without you. You’re an asset to our side.” Luke said, almost reading what I was thinking. “You might be thinking to yourself ‘why is everyone treating me like this? This can’t be genuine.’ after last year, you probably have trust issues. I’m sorry for that. But Percy, you deserve to be here. You deserve all of this more than anyone else. Even me.”
“Thank you.” I said, entering the room.
It was amazing. It was hard to believe that the room wasn’t some studio apartment or something. There was a huge bed and a closet, a medium sized fridge (which I hoped was filled with snacks because I was pretty hungry. It was like what, 7 am? I wanted some food.)and a mini kitchen, and a private bathroom with a shower and a bathtub.
“This is great.” I said. “I can’t believe you can fit something like this on a boat.”
“Well, most of the rooms are definitely not like this. There’s only three on the boat. One for you, one for me, and then when Kronos takes form, he will get the third.”
I opened the fridge and saw it was full of food and drinks. “Oh, perfect.” I said, taking out a cold waffle.
Luke laughed.
“You want anything?” I asked.
“Nah, I’ve got in my room. I’ll let you get settled in here. Bye, Percy.” Luke said.
“Oh okay, bye.”
Luke left the room and I finished the waffle. Then, I decided to unpack my stuff. I didn’t have much-just a bit of clothes, my minotaur horn (mom said that I was absolutely not keeping that at home, so if I wanted to keep it, it needed to be at camp), and a picture of Annabeth, Grover, and I.
I looked at the photo. What would they think about this? I remembered last year, again, when Annabeth was so betrayed by Luke. Grover thought that Luke was awful.
Would they think of me the same?
If the way Annabeth thought of Luke after last year was the way she’d think of me, I don’t think I could bear it.
I put the picture down. This is my decision. And I made it. It doesn’t matter what they think. Even if they can’t see it, my choice will ultimately benefit them.
All of a sudden, there’s a knock on my door.
“Come in.” I yell.
It’s Luke. “Hey, Scorpio boy! Training time!”
“Stop calling me that!” I yelled back. “Wait, training?”
“Yeah, of course. If we’re going to beat the gods, we’re going to need skill, right?”
“Cool, okay.” I said, getting up.
We ran downstairs and onto the deck of the boat. We’ve left the dock, apparently, because we were in the middle of the ocean. The entire deck was filled with demigods and monsters fighting.
Luke took out Backbiter. “Do you have any weapons on you?”
“Yeah.” I said, pulling out Riptide.
“Hmm.” Luke said. “You can’t use this.” He paused for a minute. “Wait, I think Kronos-follow me.”
We went back to twisting between the halls of the yacht and arrived at the room from earlier.
“Why are we back here?” I asked.
“Kronos came to me in a dream last night. I didn’t sleep much-had to go get you-but I got a little bit of shut eye. Kronos had said something confusing. I believe I know what it means now.” Luke said, opening the doors.
Kronos was right there when the doors opened. He jumpscared me a bit, because I wasn’t expecting him.
“Percy, Luke, I’ve been expecting you two to come back!” Kronos said.
To think this was the guy I was having nightmares about. “Hello, Lord Kronos.” I said.
“Perseus Jackson, I have something for you.” He said.
“Wait, really?” I asked.
“I made this for you last year. Luke and I thought for sure that you were going to join us. Whatever, you’re here now. This-” A sword dropped at my feet. “Is θεριστής μεσάνυχτα.”
“Midnight Reaper.” I said, picking up the sword and examining it.
The sword was beautiful. One side was celestial bronze and the other side was silver. It was like Backbiter-it could harm both mortals and magical creatures. The hilt was pearl and aquamarine.
“Do you like it?” Kronos asked.
“I love it.” I said. I felt like my eyes were popping out of my head. It was amazing. “Thank you so much.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Kronos said. “Backbiter and Midnight Reaper are sister blades. Which I feel is fitting for you and Luke.”
Then Kronos evaporated again.
“Woah, this is really cool.” Luke said, looking at Midnight Reaper.
“I know, right? This is just-wow. I thought Riptide was cool.” I said.
“Are you ready to use it?” Luke asked.
My face lit up. “Yes.”
We went back out onto the deck. Luke and I went to the corner (somewhat corner, the boat had a rounded edge) and Luke dropped his sword.
“Huh?” I asked. “I thought we were going to train. I wanted to use Midnight Reaper.”
“We are.” Luke said. Everyone around me stopped what they were doing.
“What is this?” I asked, gripping onto my new sword tightly.
“Every time someone new joins our cause, we give them a little test.” Luke explained.
There was cheering from amongst the deck.
“What is the, uhm, test?” I asked.
Someone brought out a hostage. Human, I’m sure of it.
“Percy, to prove that you can easily help us and do whatever’s needed for the cause,” Luke paused. I knew exactly where this was going. I didn’t like it. “You must kill this mortal.”
Another roar from the crowd.
“B-but-” I paused. “Is he innocent?”
“It doesn’t really matter much.” Luke said. “But no, he was trying to help the opposite side. As a mortal, too.”
Luke threw the mortal a sword. Steel.
“I don’t want to-”
“What? Harm someone mortal? See, that’s what Camp Half-Blood does to you, Percy, you’ve got to grow out of it. That’s what you’ll need to do to survive out here.” Luke explained. “And in this situation, it’s gonna be either killed or get killed.”
I sighed. I didn’t really want to do this. At all. But what Luke said made sense. And besides, the mortal wasn’t innocent.
“A-are you sure he’s not innocent…?” I asked.
“He’d die, anyway. And this way, you can prove your worth to the rest of our people.” Luke exclaimed.
Another cheer.
“Okay…” I said. If everyone else did this, I didn’t want to be the only one to stand out. The guy would be killed anyway, right?
I approached the mortal with my sword glistening. He swung first, before me. He cut my arm.
“Hah! I’ve got more of a chance than you sickos want me to believe!!” He yelled.
My arm seared with pain. No more.
I swung my sword and knocked away his. “Oh sh*t.” He said.
The crowd of monsters and demigods and all between were cheering. They were interested in what I could do.
I sliced Midnight Reaper into his side. Blood trickled down his torso.
I smiled in satisfaction.
The man fell back. His breath was shaky. Blood glistened on my blade. I cut into his face. “That’s for my arm.” I said.
Then, I sliced my blade into his neck. I wasn’t aware of how powerful this sword was-his head came clean off.
Cheers erupted throughout the deck.
Oh no, what have I just done?
I tortured and killed a mortal. And what did this mortal do? What was so bad to our cause that he did that he deserved this? And the worst part was that I had fun while doing so. It was like killing a monster. That satisfaction that he died.
sh*t, what did I do?
I walked through the crowd and bounded upstairs to my room with Midnight Reaper and I were still covered with blood.
I went onto my bed, probably staining the sheets by accident. I stared at the ceiling.
I heard a knock on the door.
“Go away.” I said.
“Percy, it’s me, please just let me talk to you?” Luke said.
“Fine.” I said
The door opened and closed and I heard footsteps, and then I felt Luke sprawl on the bed next to me. I looked over, and he was also looking up at the ceiling.
“I know how you feel.” Luke said. “You never forget your first.”
“That wasn’t my first. I’ve killed monsters before.” I said. “I don’t know why I feel-”
“Monsters are different. They will absolutely kill you. You’re a half-blood. Their goal is to kill you or eat you. If you kill them, they’ll go to the underworld, and respawn.” Luke said. “This was a mortal.”
“Then why did you make me do it?” I asked.
“Because if we’re going to do this, you’ll need to understand that innocents and mortals and people who have done horrible things and people in between will die. Some, at your hand. We need to make sure you won’t hesitate.” Luke explained.
“I killed him.” I said. “And I tortured him. And I felt good while doing it. It was-”
“Fun? A game?” Luke asked.
“Exactly.”
“Percy, this is how this will go. It’s good that your first felt that way. Mine did, too. The crowd of demigods and monsters watching that cheered? It felt amazing. But then you realize what you did after the fact. That’s exactly what the test wants to happen. Percy, you did great.”
“Doesn’t feel that way.” I said.
“I know. But Percy, it will feel better.” Luke said. “Believe me, I know. With this war that we’re planning, that our side is fitting to start, there will be casualties. You can’t have your first mortal that dies at your hand cloud your judgment during the war. It’s supposed to now.”
“Thanks.” I said.
“Now, get some sleep. You didn’t sleep last night. That’s also part of it.” He said, getting up. “I’ll see you later, Scorpio boy.”
“Stop with that!” I yelled, laughing.
“Yeah, that’s a really bad nickname. We’ll find a better one as you’re here. See you.”
The door latched closed.
I still killed someone. There’s no denying that.
But now I feel better doing it. Because Luke’s right. I will need to do it again. And next time it could be a halfblood. Or a mortal. Or a monster. But it won’t matter.
I’ll be ready.
