Chapter Text
Perseus spun to face her, guard up, but she made no move to grab him.
“You should bow to me boy. After all, soon I will be queen.”
“You should know I have issues with authority.”
Something struck her right in the eye and Triton was baffled to realise it was a paperclip.
A whole paperclip, not the twisted one his brother had used to free himself.
“I will deliver your broken body to Atlantis myself, you insolent...”
Another paperclip bounced off her forehead.
His brother was clearly delirious with dehydration.
And he was going to die.
There was nothing he could do.
Anaklusmos appeared in his brother’s hand, glowing faintly.
Perseus’s face was hardened with anger.
Several streams of water flew towards Perseus, who batted them aside and charged forwards, only to stumble and fall clutching his head.
“You can’t fight me child. I am a daughter of the Ancient Oceans, you cannot face me.”
He yanked at his chains harder than before, desperate to be able to do something, anything, as she stalked towards his brother.
Spiderweb cracks snaked out from where his chains attached to the ceiling. Where the streams of water had been redirected.
Ignoring the way the chains bit into his skin he pulled harder.
He had to get free.
She was cupping Percy’s face now, tilting it up by his chin.
“I wasn’t planning on sending your broken body back to Atlantis until tomorrow, but you had to be a pest, didn’t you.”
The cracks widened, but he couldn’t get free, he couldn’t...
Percy sliced upwards with Anaklusmos, and the motion broke her spell.
Ichor and seawater dripped to the floor where the sword made contact, their aunt screamed with pain and rage.
He struggled utterly helpless as his brother dodged attacks and landed several strikes. Unfortunately, his brother was forced backwards, until he was practically against Triton’s tail.
In an ideal world he’d bring his brother behind him and strike true.
Anaklusmos went flying from Percy’s hands, and her hand clasped around his throat, lifting him from the ground.
Choked sounds escaped his brother as he clawed at the hands around his throat, his thrashing legs kicked into air, catching against his tail and her legs with minimal effect.
The kicks slowed, the gasping quietened, and Triton felt the force of a thousand hurricanes restrained by the chains alone. His fangs were bared, he’d rip out her throat if she was foolish enough to come even a step closer.
“Don’t worry, Triton dear, he won’t die just yet. I'll let them find him alive, after all, it’ll be all the more tragic if the bomb goes off so soon after the poor prince is found barely alive, so soon after getting him back. His presence is all it needs to break the spirit of Atlantis.”
He had wondered why the palace. He'd assumed it symbolic.
But she was right, if Perseus was found wounded, he’d be brought home, and his care would come to him. For security reasons he’d stay in the royal wing, in his own bed, and the healers would come to them. Mother and Father would stay close to him, Tyson would rush to him, Kym and Rhode would rush to him, and they’d all be vulnerable to the attack.
She was evil.
She didn’t just want power, she wanted to tear their family apart to do it, she wanted to...
Ione choked, and stumbled back, releasing her hold on Percy.
He collapsed into a crumpled heap in front of Triton, each rasping ragged breath was a stab to Triton’s chest.
His brother's fist was clenched.
“How are you doing this?”
“You think... I crawled my way through hell... without learning... a few things!”
She twitched like she was trying to move, like she couldn’t move. He had no idea how Perseus was managing it, especially barely conscious as he was, but he wasn’t going to question it now.
The entire cave trembled, and Triton finally, finally, yanked his chains free of the cavern ceiling.
He almost screamed as his weight shifted onto one arm, wrenching his shoulders and dragging his already itching tail across the cavern floor.
He didn’t scream, he whipped the chains forwards instead, the lump of rock attached to golden chains going flying over his brother’s head towards his aunt.
It didn’t have the power or aim he would have liked, but the crack of her arm was satisfying.
In the corner of his eye, Perseus slumped limp, fist going lax.
Ione relaxed with him, rolling her shoulders and smiling.
“Well, that was a cute attempt from you both, but it’s time to deal with my sister and brother in law.”
She stalked towards Percy, and he lashed out with the chain again, his power screaming to be released from the chains.
She batted it aside and turned her glare on him.
Immediately his stomach turned, his vision blurred, it felt like someone had stuffed sponges in his head. the cavern was spinning and he couldn’t shake it off, he couldn’t pull himself together, he couldn’t even keep himself sitting upright.
Despite all of this, he could see the swirling bubbling glow.
She was going to take Percy and leave him here.
She was going to strike the heart of Atlantis.
The cavern shook again, much more violently, there was a whistling sound, a cry, a figure in the entranceway...
Father.
They'd been found, they’d been found.
Atlantis had found them.
He pressed his eyes together against the fuzz, and when he opened them again father was knelt besides Perseus, worry painted on his face, and it was mother who stood against Ione.
It had been a long time since she had reminded people why she was Queen of the Ocean, and what that entailed.
Even in this enclosed space, power swirled around her, and no move Ione made could match her.
It was a sight to behold, Ione leant against the wall, bleeding seawater and ichor, powers failing and fear growing as she looked upon his mother, surrounded by a whirlwind of water, hair whipping in wind generated by her own power, glowing with trident in hand.
His mother outmatched her sister in every way.
The fight was over in mere seconds, far faster than he could process.
And then she was before him, cupping his face and asking him to respond, easing the fuzziness with nothing but a touch.
“Perseus?”
“Your father has him, he’s alive, he’ll be ok. I need to know if you’re ok?”
“I am... well enough.”
She began untwisting the chains around his arms, wincing at the deep wounds and dripping ichor equally wrapped around his arms and across his shoulders, before moving onto the left cuff.
Behind her, father and Percy vanished.
“Wait!”
“They’ve just gone back to Atlantis, to get your brother medical help, he’ll be fine.”
It wouldn't be fine.
“It’s a trap. Ione planted a bomb in his room, it’s a trap.”
Her fingers crunched through the metal around his right wrist, and his power flooded back to him, free once more.
He did not bother to take one last look around this dismal cave, they were dissolving into bubbles and light before he’d finished his sentence.
Perseus’ room was bright, marble walls and teal accents, open plan and well lit, the lights of the city out the windows and balcony, curtains still pulled open. A messy desk, a wardrobe with the door open and his crown hanging off of said open door, pictures of his friends and family everywhere.
The healer was beside the bed, Perseus had been laid on top of the covers, father by his side, but where was the bomb.
He felt it before he saw it, the flash of light, the wall of bubbles ripping out.
Had they been unaware, it would have been catastrophic.
They were not unaware.
The water hardened solid between them and it, and the force reflected backwards.
The wall behind it shattered outwards, spraying marble and brick out into the open sea.
He lowered his hands, mother doing the same almost in tandem beside him, as father reacted in horror and the healer continued to shield Perseus with his own body.
“What was that!”
“One last gift from our aunt.”
.
Triton examined the scars on his arms. They were faint, but still visible, despite the healers best efforts.
They were almost pretty, the way they spiralled around. They reminded him of the kelp fronds his friend Captain Noami had wrapping around her left arm, just without the blades or pnematocysts.
The healers had fussed for longer than he’d have liked, but their focus had been his brother. Simple exposure to seawater had removed the bruising from his throat along with his battle wounds, and a little ambrosia had done the rest. Percy had slept for a day, but once he’d awoken, he’d been fine. Despite the healers' best efforts, he too hard light scars where his cuffs had been, an unfortunate result of the enchanted chains.
Insisting he’d worried his mother enough already, he’d run off to the surface only a few hours after he’d awoken, and then ditched his guards and run to camp a few hours after.
Triton didn’t mind.
If ditching his bodyguards to spend time with his friends was how he wished to spend his 17 th birthday, then so be it.
“We have postponed the celebrations until your brother is well enough to return. The people understand.”
Mother and Father were a little more annoyed by his absconding the second he had the chance.
“I believe we should remove Perseus from the guest list.”
“You said you were getting on better.”
His mother’s tone was more disappointed than he had expected.
“We are, and we talked. He does not wish to come. I think we should respect that.”
“Why wouldn’t he want to come?”
“He is struggling with what he has been through, as should be expected in a warrior any age, let alone as young as he. He is worried about the large social gathering with the focus on the battles, that they will expect tales of heroics he is not yet ready to speak of. To that point, I think we need to find trauma specialists for him and the other children.”
“They haven’t been seeing anyone?”
“There is no one.”
“It’s been a year and they’ve had no support. And the second war only a month ago...”
“I believe they have leant upon one another, that is the gist of what he has said. It is why they planned to spend the anniversary together, because they had all been there together.”
“We will have to fix that.”
“Indeed we will.”