AN: Wow, I haven't updated this since last June. I swear, this is not what I originally planned when I started writing this story. I don't hate fanfiction readers nearly that much.

Honestly, I am very sincerely sorry that it took me this long. I could give excuses, but none of them are really viable. Sure, my laptop died a while back and I lost all of my work due to the actions of a certain person-who-shall-not-be-named, but I've had almost eight months since then. I could say I was swamped with work during my last year of high school, but while that would be very, very true, it would also ignore the breaks and holidays where my teachers weren't allowed to assign homework.

I could say it's completely my fault and that while I'm deeply sorry, I have no truly valid excuses to excuse my going on hiatus for so long, but- actually, no. That's what I'm going with, because it's one hundred percent true. So, at risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm very sincerely sorry that it took me so long to finish this chapter, and that even then, it ended up a thousand words below par.

I would suggest rereading the previous two chapters, honestly, because for most people, it's probably been a couple months at the very least, since you even thought about Faded. Despite my personal shortcomings and the fact that I still haven't managed to finish the Sea of Monsters, I hope this chapter ends up being passable, and that this update ends up being a happy surprise.

Summary: It's nice not being the last demigod anymore. I'm back, better than ever, in my totally unbiased opinion, and ready to shake things up. [Time Travel. Eventual Percy and Artemis. Reasonably powerful Percy.]

Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson series or characters. Sadly, I personally have not yet discovered a method of time travel, so I can't go into the past and steal all of Rick Riordan's ideas before he even has them.

Chapter Eleven: I witness vicious guinea pig murder

"I told you, Percy. I told you that crashing one ship into another was bound to damage both ships to an undesirable degree. It's simple logic, Seaweed Brain. But did you listen?"

"Shut up," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm trying to think."

"Think?" Annabeth said acerbically. "You've chosen now to learn how?"

I ignored her. I wasn't really annoyed; she was thirteen or fourteen and her insults didn't really faze me. Still, I was trying to decide on a course of action, and her sardonic wit wasn't helping.

"Are you listening to me?" she asked heatedly. I ignored that too.

I stood and walked away. I smirked, imagining Annabeth's righteous anger. She was apparently too shocked at my complete lack of manners to chase after me, and I made it to the other end of the ship without being accosted. It was so quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately, that didn't last.

"Seaweed Brain, don't walk away when I'm talking to you."

I groaned. "Yes mother." Then I rolled my eyes, which seemed to only incense her further.

"Don't sass me, Percy," she said. "We need to do something about this, and you sitting around 'thinking' isn't helping."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Okay, look, Annabeth, I'm working on it. I'm thinking, and at the same time I'm holding the ship together. Despite what you may think, it's not the easiest thing in the world. I'm awesome, of course, but you badgering me about something I already know isn't helping."

"Sorry," Annabeth said, not sounding sorry at all. "It's just, I warned you, Percy. I told you this was going to happen."

"Not like I had any other options," I said. Then I asked her rhetorically, "Did you want to just kill Reyna and Hylla?"

"Of course not," she said. "But we could have come up with something else."

"No," I said, shaking my head slowly. "No, we couldn't have. It was either ram them, burn everyone on the ship, including Reyna and Hylla, alive or get rammed and boarded."

Annabeth was usually smart, but her fatal flaw, by her own admission, was hubris; she was inclined to think she could do everything better. From where she stood, our entire problem was my fault because she had been trying to come up with a 'better' solution that I hadn't waited for.

"Well, whoever's fault this is," Annabeth began, glaring at me pointedly, "we really do need to get the ship fixed."

"Believe me, I know," I said, letting out a somewhat shaky breath. I'd been keeping the ship from sinking for going on three hours and it wasn't easy. Adept in the use of my powers I might be, but holding back the sea was difficult. Especially over extended periods of time.

Annabeth seemed to pick up on my fatigue. "You going to be okay, Seaweed Brain?"

"Yeah," I said, this time more firmly. "I can hold it. It's just a bit tiring."

"Good," Annabeth said, before frowning. "Still, we need a plan."

"I . . . know a place," I said reluctantly. It wasn't ideal, but it seemed like our only option at the moment. I didn't think I had the willpower to hold the ship together for a week straight.

"Know a place?" Annabeth repeated. "You saw it in a vision?"

"Yeah," I said, "something like that. It's an island, around here somewhere."

"Somewhere?" Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. "So basically, you have no idea where it is."

"Not yet," I admitted.

"So you don't know yet," Annabeth deduced, "but you have a surefire method of finding out?"

"Well, I wouldn't say the method is surefire," I said. "But it works most of the time. And, uh, there it is now."

"There it is- shark!" Annabeth yelled as she followed my gaze.

"He's friendly," I assured her. "There's no need to worry."

He was friendly as long as I was around at least. Even if they couldn't actually 'speak' to me like Pegasi, sea animals seemed to gain more intelligence, or at least more empathy when they were around me.

"That's a shark, Percy," she hissed.

"And my dad's a god of the sea," I reminded her. "Sea animals can be pretty awesome scouts."

Dad used them for just that purpose, actually, which I'd seen for myself right after Beckendorf had died.

"But a shark?" she asked. "Were there any other options?"

"Don't be mean to Bob," I told her. "He's been very helpful; he was the one who found Chrysaor's ship, you know."

Okay, so I was only partly kidding. Bob had been very helpful, but I could still understand Annabeth's fear. In a fight between her and Bob, it was very likely that Bob would come out on top, considering that her dagger wouldn't work on him. Despite Bob's very sharp teeth, he didn't classify as a monster, and consequently couldn't be hurt by celestial bronze.

"Bob," she repeated dully. "You named it?"

"Him," I said, crossing my arms. "Don't be rude, Annabeth."

Again, only partly kidding. While Bob wasn't exactly human, he was aware enough to at least deserve a name- and certainly a gender pronoun.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Seaweed Brain. So you had him scouting?"

"Sharks have great eyesight," I informed her. "Ten times better than humans, I think."

I'd read it somewhere, I think. It wasn't part of my inherent knowledge about the sea.

"I know," Annabeth said, frowning. "I'm just shocked that you know that."

"How could I not know such an important fact about my new best friend?" I asked her cheerfully, brushing off the insult.

"New best friend-" Annabeth cut herself off. "No, I don't even care. What did he find?"

It was my last chance to back out, to decide that it was too much of a risk. Discounting the danger inherent in confronting Circe, it just didn't feel right bringing Reyna and Hylla to the island.

Aside from my simple distaste, there was another reason. I didn't know why exactly they hadn't just been there this time around, but the fact remained that they were still scared and hunted girls who might actually want to become Circe's disciples, for the safety, if nothing else.

But still, we needed to complete the quest on time. Weighing the risk of Reyna and Hylla being traumatized or turning on us versus the low likelihood of that happening and the benefits of getting back to camp with the fleece quickly, I decided to risk it. Really, it was probably our best chance of figuring out where exactly we were in relation to Polyphemus' island, and consequently the fleece.

"An island," I said finally. "It's a risk, but it could have the answer to all of our problems- or at least most of them."

"Percy, what is this place?" Annabeth whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

"An island," I said. She gave me a dirty look, but I really wasn't in the mood to play tour guide.

"Welcome!" Speak of the devil. The woman was wearing an outfit that seemed similar to what I could recall Hylla wearing the first time around, with immaculate makeup and her hair drawn up in a ponytail.

It was obvious that it wasn't Hylla, however. For one thing, this woman was bleached blonde and had blue eyes, whereas I knew for a fact that Hylla had black hair and eyes. This woman had a similar skin tone, but her facial structure was noticeably different.

"Is this your first time with us?" she asked, holding up her clipboard and pulling a pen out of one of her business suit's pockets.

"Not for me," I said shortly. "It's been a while though. These two-" I gestured to Tyson and Annabeth behind me "- haven't."

Would it have been easier to just say that we were all new to the island? Yes, definitely. I didn't feel like pretending, though. All I was there for was to get directions and to kill Circe. Whether because I was a male new to the island, or a male who claimed to have been there before- and one who wasn't a hamster- I would be escorted to her all the same.

"I see," the woman said under her breath, jotting it down on her clipboard before giving me a strange look. "It's not often that we get cyclopses here. And you say you've been here before? How . . . peculiar. As a returning guest, you really should stop by and greet C.C. Bring your cyclops friend as well; we rarely cater to monsters here, but I'm sure that arrangements can be made. Follow me."

She turned and began striding towards the center of the island. I once again silently cursed my current physical age as I had to walk quickly in order to keep up. We passed by the various attractions and Annabeth and Tyson oohed and ahed, while I stared stonily ahead. There was no point in losing focus now. I fingered the vitamin in my pocket, ready to draw it out in an instant.

We eventually arrived at the main building and headed up the steps. The same song as last time drifted out of Circe's room- or at least I thought it was the same song as last time, since it's kind of hard to perfectly remember a melody I heard once almost a decade before. Point is, it was probably the same song as last time, but I had no way of being sure. But I digress.

I felt my attention drifting as I listened to the song, and I grimaced, digging my nails into my hands. While the pain brought me some clarity, I realized that it wasn't enough to completely break the spell. I brought my left hand to my mouth as we reached the top, pretending to scratch my nose.

Of course, that wasn't what I was really doing, but since our guide was looking forward and Annabeth and Tyson were distracted, no one noticed as I slipped the vitamin into my mouth. I chewed slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible.

No one seemed to hear it, though, as we reached the top of the steps. The door to Circe's room was open already, and I wondered if she just kept it like that or she had some way of knowing that we were coming.

We walked in and the conversation seemed to go roughly the same as the last time. This, at least, I remembered somewhat more distinctly than Circe's song, since it preceded one of my most embarrassing memories. Annabeth called Circe's weaving beautiful and ended up almost telling the witch her mother's name.

The guinea pigs started squealing, and I made a note to make sure they weren't released. While Circe, and maybe a few of her attendants, were evil enough to warrant being killed in revenge by pirates, the rest of the people on the island weren't. Also, the pirates could prove to be enemies down the road. I never did find out what happened to them last time, but it was a miracle that letting them go hadn't come back to bite me in the ass.

I absentmindedly introduced myself when the others did, giving only my first name. It was more inherent caution than anything else; I didn't have any particular reason not to tell Circe my last name. I'd just had it drilled into me over my years on the run that the less information the enemy had, the better, whether it was just your last name or every single one of your powers and abilities.

Circe sent Annabeth off with the attendant, whose name I didn't bother paying attention to, leaving me and Tyson alone with her.

She inspected us with narrowed eyes. Then she tried to gently grab my arm, probably to lead me over to the mirror, but I shrugged it off.

"Don't drink anything she gives you, Tyson," I said.

"Oh?" Circe said, sounding amused. "What would lead you to take such a precaution? This is a resort, in case you weren't aware. Naturally, there are drinks for the guests."

"But we're not guests, are we?" I countered. "Or not of the resort, at least. You were planning on sticking us with those guinea pigs."

"A son of Apollo?" Circe said, abandoning her pretense, what little of it she had been maintaining. "No, with those features, Poseidon is more likely . . . but I'd heard there was a vow . . ."

"Yeah, the Big Three haven't had any kids with mortals in almost seventy years now," I agreed. "What's it to you?"

"You're lying," she hissed. "You smell of the sea, boy."

"You're smelling the salt water," I said calmly. No way a witch was going to scare me after all I'd seen. "This is an island, in case you weren't aware. Naturally, it smells like the ocean."

"Never mind that," Circe said, waving a hand, smile painted on her face as if it had never left. "What do you want, demigod? If you knew this was my island, why are you here?"

"A map," I answered. "We just need the way to Polyphemus' island and we'll be on our way."

"And in return?" Circe asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You live," I said flatly. "As a hero, I'd be well within my rights to take down a witch who quite literally turns men into guinea pigs."

"Ah," Circe said, rolling her eyes. "Of course. Like men throughout history, you ask for favors without promising anything in return."

"And will you do it?" I asked. "You don't have any other options."

"A valid point," she admitted. "But perhaps, instead . . ."

I tensed as blue fire curled from her fingers, twirling around me. Had something like this happened last time? All I really remembered was that she'd made me drink a potion; could she transform people without one? I relaxed as I realized it didn't matter.

She couldn't do anything to me unless the effects of Hermes' multivitamin wore off, which wouldn't be for hours, until it had fully made its way through my system.

Then I was hit from behind. I felt a searing pain, even through the leather armor I had on over my clothes and I gasped as I was slammed into the wall. Despite the pain, I managed to roll away from the second swipe, which I saw out of the corner of my eye.

I straightened up, turning around in time to stumble back as I saw what was attacking me: some kind of tiger. This was possibly the worst opponent for a demigod like me. While I'd faced bigger monsters like the Minotaur or Drakons or even Giants, I'd been able to harm all of them with my celestial bronze weapons. My sword and arrows just plain wouldn't work on a non mythological creature like a tiger.

The tiger was a very light orange, almost pink, and had gray stripes. It wasn't something you would mistake for a naturally occurring wild animal, and I wondered why Circe hadn't just created a normal tiger.

"Shit," I said out loud.

"Indeed," Circe said, and I could practically hear the smirk in her voice. "What will you do now, demigod? I may not have been able to harm you, but the cyclops is another matter."

"Shit," I repeated. The tiger was Tyson! I looked around wildly for something, anything that would hold him at bay without harming him too much. Then I remembered the vitamins. I pulled them out of my pocket, only to yelp in pain as they were swatted out of my hand by a furry paw.

"Did you really think that would work, Boy?" Circe asked rhetorically. "I know those accursed vitamins well."

I ignored her, scrambling after the vitamins. It was only after I managed to pick them up again that I realized the tiger wasn't attacking me. In fact, it was on the other side of the room.

"What are you doing, you foolish beast?!" Circe screamed at it. "Get the boy!"

The tiger ignored her, focused completely on the rodents it was eating. Apparently, it had decided that they were easier prey. Despite the hilarity of the situation, this did give me an opening. I waited until the tiger had finished the last guinea pig- because while I wasn't prepared to take responsibility for murdering the pirates, they were bad enough people that I was completely fine with them dying. As soon as he was done eating though, I took my chance.

"Hey, Tyson!" I yelled at the tiger. "Catch!"

It turned towards me, mouth open in the beginning of a roar, and I felt a distinct sense of deja vu. I ignored it, tossing one of the vitamins I'd managed to grab straight into its mouth. Thankfully, it didn't choke on the small vitamin, and a second later it began to grow.

"Percy?" he asked, looking very confused. "I was-"

"Yeah," I said. "It wasn't your fault, Tyson. But we need to get out of here."

"What about the bad lady?" he asked, obviously talking about Circe.

"Good point," I said, uncapping my pen as I turned towards her.

"No, please!" Circe shouted, back against the wall. "I'll give you directions!"

"Really," I said flatly. "Why would you attack us if you had the information we wanted all along?"

Her pleading expression disappeared, becoming much more deadpan. "You think I want to help you? You offered nothing in return for the information."

"I'm still not offering anything," I reminded her.

"I am out of options," she admitted.

"Right," I said doubtfully. "Tyson, stay here and make sure she doesn't move from that spot. I'll go make sure Annabeth is immune to her spells as well."

So I left through the door, prepared to hurry down the steps. Luckily, I didn't need to go that far. Annabeth was almost at the top, apparently returning in order to talk with 'C.C.'

"Eat this," I said, pressing a vitamin into her hand. "No time to explain."

Luckily, she didn't waste time questioning me, immediately tossing the vitamin into her mouth. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright," I said. "Good. Now, we need to grab them and take them up to Circe's room, so we can make sure they don't do anything like gathering all of the resort's residents to stop us from leaving." I pointed at the two attendants, who had started creeping away.

"Fine," Annabeth said, even as we each grabbed one of the two women and started dragging them up the steps. "But you owe me an explanation when this is over, Seaweed Brain."

"Fair enough," I said, shrugging as well as I could while pulling someone along. I knocked the celestial bronze dagger out of my prisoner's hand almost absentmindedly, not letting it slow me down. She cursed in Ancient Greek, and I rolled my eyes.

When we entered Circe's room again, I saw her still standing where she had been before. Likely, she'd realized that without her magic or human source material, she had no way of beating a Cyclops, even a young one.

"Good job, Tyson," I said, and he grinned proudly. I turned to Circe. "Alright, draw us a map and we'll be on our way."

"Hand me a pen," she ordered her attendants, and one stepped forward to do so a moment later. It took her only a few minutes to draw a rough map to Polyphemus' island, and I decided that was probably the best we were going to get from her. It wasn't like she'd know the exact coordinates, down to minutes and seconds.

"Pleasure doing business with you," I said, smirking at the grimace on her face as we left.

"What are we going to do now?" Annabeth asked, seemingly eager to leave the island as she led the way back to the dock. "We can't use the ship we came here with. It's likely to sink."

"That's fine," I said, waving a hand to acknowledge her point. "There are a couple ships down there that I could probably pilot."

"We can't just steal a ship," she hissed at me.

"Do you have a better option?" I asked her. After a moment, she humphed, crossing her arms. I took that as a no.

"What about Reyna and Hylla?" Annabeth asked. I froze.

"Right," I said sheepishly. "Yeah, we should probably go get them."

"You forgot about them, didn't you?" she asked drily.

We went and collected them from our former ship and I- through great willpower- managed to ignore Annabeth's knowing looks.

Soon, we were underway, on to the last stage of the quest.

A/N: First things first, yes, Percy absolutely could have offered her Chrysaor's ship, uncountable riches and all. He'll beat himself up about it later, when he doesn't have a ton of things on his mind. It didn't even come up in his thought processes, because he just didn't really consider making an honest trade with someone who'd turned him into a guinea pig. So yeah, he was kind of a dick. Oh well; I've never claimed that any of my characters are anything resembling perfect. That would just be boring, honestly, and would relegate this fic to a guilty pleasure, at best.

Was Annabeth being a bit cold and annoying to Percy? Absolutely. She still remembers him lying to her earlier, even if he's put it out of his mind for now. She's reacting like someone whose friend just blatantly lied to her for no apparent reason, so cut her some slack. I had someone review and add as an afterthought that they didn't like Annabeth. When I followed it up, I found that they meant in general, and not that mine was a terrible caricature of her canon self. Still, please try to see through past biases, and that Annabeth is twelve years old, was caught completely off guard by the quest, wasn't given much information to work with, had a friend lie to her, and isn't having the best time.

So . . . Tyson was turned into a tiger . . . yeah. That's got to be traumatizing, something I'll have Percy at least try to address when he realizes that his eight year old "little" brother is a bit troubled by the experience. He's not exactly a psychiatrist, but he'll notice Tyson's moping and do his best to help. I'm still trying to figure out how to write that conversation, because I'm really not exactly an expert when it comes to writing Tyson, especially his dialogue.

I think that's all I need to address here. I'll try to get the next chapter out in the near future, but as has been the case, no promises.

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