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Good news, Clarisse was going to be able to get the Golden Fleece back to Camp hopefully before Thalia's tree was completely dead, and the barrier around camp was likely going with it.
Bad news, Luke and the Princess Andromeda were also in Miami. And boy did he not look happy to see them, least of all Percy.
Needless to say, they took a little unplanned trip back onto the Princess Andromeda. And Percy had a tiny feeling that their escape this time wouldn't be as easy as it had been a few days ago. As soon as they were boarded, forcefully, onto the Princess Andromeda by Luke and his creatures, after exchanging a few barbs with Percy, which did include getting Luke to admit what he'd done to Thalia's tree to Mr. D back at Camp Half-Blood via Iris message, and realizing that he wouldn't be able to catch Clarisse and the Golden Fleece at that point, Luke's approach shifted drastically.
And, he'd been right about one thing all along. Percy hadn't been able to goad him into a fight.
Long enough to distract and delay Luke from catching up with Clarisse? Yes. But get him to actually fight Percy? No.
In fact, rather than talk things over with Percy, as he'd been mostly doing in their last two interactions, instead Luke focused in on Annabeth. "Oh, Annie." Luke cooed, ignoring her hiss back at the nickname, "I thought I'd told you earlier not to associate with beasts like that." He pointed his sword at Tyson, "And look where that got you."
"That's bold coming from you," Annabeth replied. Honestly, the sheer amount of anger in her voice was quite a bit intimidating to Percy. And he wasn't even the subject to it. "You have them working with you, of all beings, but you are judging me for the, for Tyson?"
"Play nice Annabeth, it was just a question." Just the way that Luke was speaking to Annabeth, talking down to her like she was still just a little kid that had run away from home far too young, was grating on Percy's nerves. "You know, my offer still stands for you, Annie. You can come join us, join me, and we'll change the world. And you, Annabeth, you could get to redesign it all. Make everything just how you want it to be."
Knowing how badly Annabeth wanted to be an architect, and remembering the dreamy looks she'd had on Circe's island when the sorceress was giving her empty promises, not that he would ever say as much out loud, but Percy was a bit worried that Luke might actually convince Annabeth to abandon Camp Half-Blood and join his growing army. "You are actually insane if you think I will ever betray Camp like you did." Or, maybe he didn't have anything to worry about after all. At least for now he didn't.
When his first approach turned up no results, and his pressing wouldn't get him any further. Everyone was well aware of how stubborn and closed-off Annabeth could be when pushed about something that she didn't want to talk or think about. And again, thankfully, the thought of joining Luke's army seemed to be on that list of things she wouldn't even consider. So, after she made it quite clear that her stance on that matter wasn't going to be changing anytime soon, Luke decided to try another approach.
"Alright Annie, let's talk about something else then. Something a bit more personal, how about?" Luke calmly made his way behind Annabeth, pulling her from Oreius's grasp and dragging her to be standing in front of Percy, with about six feet or so between them. "Let's talk about Perseus here, instead. Is that a better topic?" She didn't answer. She wouldn't even look at him. "You know Annabeth, if you really had wanted to replace me so soon, you could've gotten literally anyone else."
"Shut up." Annabeth hissed at him, not looking at Percy or Luke, rather she just glared down at the wooden deck they were standing on, "You don't know what you're talking about Luke."
With one hand, Luke grabbed Annabeth's chin and pulled it so that she would face Percy, even if her eyes still tried to be looking at the floor, "Look at him Annabeth," Luke started. Between the just upset look on Annabeth's face and the smirk on Luke's, it was just about impossible for Percy to resist the urge to whip out Riptide and fight Luke then and there. "He may be a son of the Sea God," Luke was very careful to not actually say Percy's father's name, "but we both know that with him as the prophecy child, the Gods are going to fall and Olympus will be destroyed. Percy will never be even measurable to the power of Lord Kronos. He and the Gods will fail."
Before Percy could even process the array of insults that Luke had thrown at him, "Do you even hear how insane you sound?!" Annabeth just about shrieked at Luke, "Not only do you think that I'd ever side with Him, but that I would be a traitor like you are! It's, it's like I, I don't-"
"You don't what Annabeth?" Luke asked, his voice sounding more and more like a growl as he went on, "You think that I don't know you Annabeth? Know how you think? Why you act the way that you do?" If the way that Luke was talking about him or how Luke was talking to her hadn't been enough to aggravate Percy enough, but watching as Luke's thumb gently stroked Annabeth's cheek, drawing her gaze from the floor to him in a blink, that would do it. And seeing Annabeth's glare soften up as she looked at Luke certainly didn't help. Just as Percy's fingers twitched again, but much closer this time, Luke shifted his gaze to bore right into him. "What about him? Do you think that he knows you like I do, Annabeth?" Annabeth's wide-eyed gaze turned to him as Luke looked back at her, "How many of your secrets have you told him? How much does he really know about you, Annie?" Then they were both looking at him, looking through him. "Did you even tell him the entire prophecy, Annie, or are you still trying to protect him?"
The entire prophecy? Was there more to the prophecy than Annabeth had told him earlier? Or was this just more of Luke playing mind games with them?
"Shut up, Luke." Annabeth hissed at him again, but she sounded different. Then Percy saw a pair of tear droplets slip off Annabeth's cheeks and splatter onto the ship's deck.
As Percy saw them, Luke did too. "Come on, Annabeth." Luke groaned, "I thought you were tougher than that. You're really going to let a few words get to you? What would Thalia think of you now?"
"Back off Luke!" Percy snapped, wrenching his arms from the monsters that had been holding him, unleashing Riptide and pointing his blade at Luke.
For a second, Percy had forgotten the important fact that Luke had years more of sword training than Percy did. And it was in that second of time that Luke whipped Backbiter out and easily knocked Riptide from his hand, leaving a nasty scrape on Percy's hand as he did. "Didn't your mother ever tell you to mind your business, Jackson?" Luke hissed. Even with Riptide, Percy's chances of winning a fight against Luke were slim, add in the fact they were on his ship, surrounded by monsters and half-bloods that would back him up, and weaponless, and those chances were just about zero.
"You know, Jackson," Luke continued, "if you want to play a hero," Luke's hand that had been on Annabeth's face reached around to the back of her head, wrapped his fingers around a good amount of her hair, and yanked it hard, causing Annabeth to cry out in pain and completely opened up her neck for Backbiter's blade to rest against it, "then don't drag other people into it." The wild look that had been in Luke's eyes before returned, looking outright insane as he looked at Percy, Backbiter pressed into Annabeth's neck, "Wouldn't it be such a shame if, after everything you've done Percy, saving Camp, twice," Riptide reappeared in Percy's pocket, "only to lose someone so important? Despite every single thing you do, you still can't keep her safe."
Between the implications that Luke was presenting him and seeing the fear in Annabeth's eyes as Backbiter cut through the first few layers of skin on her neck, drawing a bit of blood to the surface, with having Riptide back in his pocket, Percy didn't bother trying to restrain himself any longer. He needed to get Annabeth away from Luke before he hurt her any more than he already had. Just as Luke had done to Percy mere moments earlier, Percy pulled out Riptide and slashed at Luke's wrist, getting him to drop Backbiter. After dropping Backbiter, Luke yanked his other hand from Annabeth's hair, sending her sprawling onto the deck as he grabbed his now bleeding hand in pain. "You're going to regret that, Jackson." Luke growled, picking Backbiter back up, readying himself to strike Percy back.
Before it got too far, Chiron and 'the Party Ponies' showed up and saved their butts.