Percy carried Arizona on his shoulder, her less broken arm reaching over his back to support her wait.
"I'm sorry…" She cried, barely above a whisper.
"Hey, none of that " Percy insisted, giving a smile she couldn't see but hoped she'd feel. "We're almost there, just a bit further." Fluid ran down Arizona's face. A horrid mixture of blood, oil, hydraulic fluid, and tears. Percy had to force himself from gritting his teeth just from the sight of it.
They'd been on the run for the better part of a week, since Percy had managed to free Arizona from the captivity of the Abyssals at Pearl Harbour. They were nearing the US west coast, but the storm at their back gave Percy the heebie-jeebies.
Arizona's head twitched to the side. "They're back." Percy cursed. He could hear it now too. The low rumble of distant aircraft engines. They'd been going as fast as they could but the Abyssals were still clipping their heels. Percy used his power to propel them with extra current and keep Arizona buoyant and from flooding, but there was still only so fast they could go. It hadn't helped that they had to change course regularly to try to dodge Abyssal scouts from the pursuing fleet.
They'd stopped using torpedoes at least. At the start they'd drop them in a crossing pattern in an attempt to catch the two in a vice. Percy just crushed them like aluminum cans and sailed straight through. Now they mainly just used bombs.
The aircraft came out of the clouds, South-West-by-West of their position. Percy looked back over his shoulder to see them flying out of the thick, rolling dark grey clouds. Percy cursed and with a miner tug in his gut propelled them faster. Arizona stifled a whimper and grit her teeth. Even with his power going this fast in her current condition would hurt. Percy felt a stab of hatred for the monsters who had tortured her so badly.
"Leave me!" Arizona pleaded. "You can get away much faster without me. I'll distract them long enough for you too-"
"No." Percy growled in anger. Comes Hades or High Water he was not leaving Arizona to die or be recaptured.
"Percy!" She implored. "Don't be stupid. They're already gaining on us. I might be injured but I'm still a battleship. It will take time for them to sink me."
"Out of the question." Percy refuted. The bombers behind them changed pitch as they entered their dive. An explosion of water lept from the ocean. Percy curved an arch of water around them like a shield to catch any bombs. Alongside it, geysers punched into the air, aimed at the formations of planes diving down at them. Several exploded when cut apart by the streams of high pressure water but others flew through. His shield caught most of them but a few still slammed into the sea next to them. Fragments and water flying up around them.
The fragments bounced off of Arizona's armour but Percy could feel several cuts work through his already tattered clothes. standing on the ocean they closed almost as fast as they appeared but it still distracted his focus.
The first wave of bombers pulled up and flew off, their formation significantly smaller than before the attack. Percy gave a few parting shots as they flew away but none of them connected. They had minutes until the second wave arrived. Percy cursed. They were so close, changing course would delay them even more. Arizona might have been a Ship-Girl-Spirit-Thing, he hadn't been able to follow the details and metaphors and Arizona admitted she wasn't sure exactly how to explained what she was to someone. But regardless, she was in a bad way and he wasn't sure how much longer she could keep going. She tried to hide it from him, but he could feel her legs trembling in fatigue when he held her.
"Let's turn North-East. If we're lucky we can shake them off." Percy said. Arizona didn't look all the reassured or convinced, but nodded anyway. Percy didn't need a compass or GPS to know exactly where he was on the ocean. Despite the absolute silence from his father, or any spirit that should be in the sea, all of Percy's abilities still worked.
This time it was Percy who heard the aircraft first. Probably because there were a lot of them. He turned to look and felt his heart sink. He could see entire formations flying towards them. In the past they'd send individual raids at them, but someone must have been getting annoyed at their continued escape and evasion. Now, they mustered up everything they had to hit them in one final blow.
"It's bad… isn't it?" Arizona asked in a small, defeated voice. It sounded like she already knew the answer.
"Yeah…" Percy said, not able to lie. "Their little fish monsters are catching up too." Percy could feel them, barreling straight towards them. Looking in their direction they small pinpricks on the horizon, but at the speed they were moving they'd catch up before long.
"They detached their escorts."
Percy didn't say anything. He took out Riptide from his one remaining pocket and uncapped it. The sword appeared in his hand and he gave it a few warm up twirls. He looked between the massed collection of aircraft and the incoming monsters.
"How fast can you move on your own?" Percy asked.
Arizona pressed her lips together. "Right now? Maybe… 18 knots if I redline my boilers and hope they don't rupture. But I can barely steer and my shafts are likely to fail after a while. Why?"
"I should be able to help you from far enough away that I can delay them."
What? No- damn it, Percy! You're not staying behind for me! If I can't sacrifice myself than neither can you!"
"Hey," Percy gave her his best cocksure grin. "Who said anything about sacrificing myself? I'll be right behind you."
"And the bombers?" Arizona pressed.
"I'll shield you."
"Just like that? Damn it Percy, you're almost as exhausted as I am!"
"No time to argue!" Percy said, dropping Arizona's arm.
"Percy, stop-" She protested, but Percy commanded the water to carry her ahead of him. "Damn it, listen to me you bast-" a shell of water cut Arizona off, sealing her inside a bubble of water. Ordinarily, water was supposed to be incompressable, but Percy had already done lots of things that weren't supposed to be possible and he didn't see a reason to stop now. The water around Arizona hardened around her and began to flow and swirl fast enough that anything that hit it would be thrown off. Percy felt the familiar tug in his stomach ratchet up several times and feel tge energy flow out of him. A week with no food and no sleep had left him feeling run out, even while in the ocean.
Percy turned to face the oncoming horde. He pushed Arizona away, faster and faster. He'd need to deal with this quickly.
"All right you bozos, I'm really starting to get tired of your shit." Percy snarled. Then he dropped underwater. At considerable speed, Percy launched himself towards the little monsters speeding towards Arizona. They looked like weird fish but were almost all mouth in front. Percy swam under one with Riptide raised and cut it in half. He swirled and sprung out of the water, slashing another one.
The two quickly spiraled away from the force of the blows. Percy could feel the water rushing into their insides. The others scattered, ducking and swirving. Several launched torpedoes at Percy. With a wave of his hand he scattered to torpedoes. Several hit others and they promptly disappeared in an explosion of water and shrapnel.
These things were barely even a threat to Percy, more like an annoyance. They were like small dogs yapping and hounding at something a hundred times their size. Only really a threat in that they were a distraction. Percy felt rage bubble up from inside him, easing the ache in his limbs. These things had profained his father's realm long enough. Percy dropped under water and barreled towards the nearest one. It seemed to bulk at his approach, turning hard while trying to turn its gun on to Percy.
Percy swerved and cut through its bow before kicking it over with an ocean powered blow. The thing thrashed and wriggled upside down helplessly as it sunk. Percy was already moving. Arizona was getting farther but he could feel the impacts on the shield protecting her. He had to get back to her.
Percy was too tired to do anything fancy or graceful. He sunk all of the boat monsters with brute force. Cut them with Riptide, swamped them with waves and turned them over, crush their hides with his fists. It was a show of exhausted brutality. It took maybe a few minutes before the dozen or so enemies were scrapped and sunk. He stood on the surface, huffing for breath. He wanted to do nothing more than sink into the depths and let the currents rock him to sleep.
Something landed close to him with the strength of a Titan and he was almost thrown into the air. Percy turned and while he couldn't see them, he could feel the rest of the fleet that was following them, significantly closer than before.
'How did I miss them?' He must have been more tired than he thought. Before they could fire again Percy sunk underwater and shot off back towards Arizona. He could see the aircraft attacking her. Bombs, rockets, and bullets impacted around and on her shield. He reinforced it and had to swirl around her even faster. It felt like someone had put a sharp egg beater into Percy's intestines but he stamped down on the pain. A wave of planes swung down and Percy could feel the torpedoes drop into the water. He had the current scatter them, sending them off in random directions.
He sunk under water before rising up beside beside Arizona. Inside the swirling ball of water the impacts were muted but still clearly audible.
"Percy, is that you?"
"Yeah." He grit out. He tried to stand before doubling over in pain. Holding the shield up was starting to take just about everything he had left. The fight must have taken out more than he had thought. "I'll try to keep us moving… but the shield is taking a lot of what I have." A sharp burning was starting to radiate out from the egg beating in his stomach and his head was starting to feel like Hephestus was hammering on it.
"Here, let me help." Arizona said, lifting him up.
"You're arm!-" Percy tried to protest.
"Will be fine. Us battleship girls are a tough bunch, don't you know?"
"Y-yeah…"
They stayed like that for however long it was, Percy couldn't tell. Leaned against each other, they could only listen as the Abyss hamnered its fury against their shield. Percy kept it up and helped kept them moving with the help of Arizona's engines. Eventually, Percy had to save his energy and stopped the swirling effect. They had slown down, and the first long range shots from the main fleet landed some distance out.
"At least… they miss." Percy tried to joke.
"Bracketing shots." Arizona said. "They'all work their way onto us slowly."
"Oh…" Percy said. It was hard to speak through the pain, each word had to work its way past gritted teeth. Slow minutes passed as the shots slowly grew closer and closer. Percy didn't try to maneuver, just kept them moving. It was all he could do.
"I'm sorry." Arizona whispered.
"Huh?" Percy asked, or grunted, before he felt Arizona's engines sputter out.
"I'm out, this is as far as I go." She said.
"No!" Percy protested. He tried to kick up their speed, something fast enough to outrun the fleet that had crept closer, but a lance of pain ran through his head and he shut his eyes and almost dry heaved from the pain.
"I'm sorry." Arizona repeated. "If it wasn't for me you would have made it days ago. Now you're going to die here with me."
"We're not going-"
"God damn it, Percy! I'm not stupid!" Arizona shouted. "I can feel you weakening almost as fast as me. The fleets closing in, and their airplanes will have finished rearming soon!" Percy hadn't even noticed that the planes had left. "It won't be long until they catch us, and even you can't stop a whole fleet." She shuddered and gave a sniffle. "It looks like all I'm good for is getting people killed with me."
Percy wanted to protest, but the pain was too much. He thought he couldn't see out of one eye though he wasn't sure which one. "Worst places to die." He grunted out. "Worse people too."
Arizona gave a sobbing hiccup before letting out a bittersweet laugh. "Thank you."
"So, one last hurrah then? Like Spartans?"
She nodded. "Yes, I suppose. At least this time I won't go down without a fight, though I don't think my aim will be all that."
"Heh. Then let's give it to them." Percy said. The latest salvo landed around them and his shield collapsed.
'I wish I could have seen you again, Annabeth. I'm sorry.'
Drawing Riptide, Percy turned to the fleet. They were close enough now that he could see the ghostly figures of the Abyssals. The 'Princess' As she titled herself was at the the head of the fleet. Her tripple turrets pointed right at them. She swung so her aft turrets could target them.
"Rounds loaded. I think I see their leader. It's all fuzzy though."
"Yeah, right in front." Arizona fired off all of her guns. Percy could watch the shells fly through the air before diving down into the ocean.
"Fell short and to the left." Percy gave her. He wasn't sure how to give much more detailed information than that. He wish he had some ambrosia. Even if he took enough to combust, it would have given him enough energy to take some of the fleet with him. Looking up, Percy could see the aircraft flying towards them from behind the fleet. With the same effort he had once used to hold up the sky, Percy managed to force himself to his feet.
The Princess' turrets had finished turning and were aimed at them. Percy could see the bombers angling for an attack run. 'One last blow from the hammer for the anvil' he thought. The Princess fired, as did the other ships on range, and the bombers dived. Percy threw up a shield of water, but it was weak. Under the fire, it would break.
And then from above them, a set of blurs fired off into the bombers formation. They let their bombs go and pulled away to dodge but they were still high and they all missed. The shells plunged down and his shield broke. A shell exploded near him and it was only being partially submerged that kept him from beimg sent flying. 'When had that happened?'
Arizona screamed and Percy looked to see an explosion. Wash over her. "Just HE." She gasped. "I'm fine!" Percy wasn't convinced but he didn't have time to say anything because just then something flew over them. Percy looked and he could have wooped with joy. He wasn't familiar with history stuff, that had always been Annabeth, but even he could guess what the stars painted on those airplanes meant. They banked and the chased after the intercepted bombers. The neat formations devolved into a ball of dogfights above them. Percy had never been so happy to see an airplane in his life.
"What?" Arizona asked, not able to see.
"Friends" Percy laughed. "Cavalry's here."
He could see the Princess reset her guns and aim at them. Percy sent a rogue current to throw off her aim. He wanted to charge in, take the fight to them, but he couldn't leave Arizona. He tightened his grip on Riptide and did his best to shield her.
How long it went Percy wasn't sure. Arizona would fire and he'd give corrections. She'd load and fire again. They might've gotten a few hits in but Percy couldn't tell and Arizona took several more. Percy would put out her fires and keep the water from flooding inside her, but sooner or later the enemy would hit something vital. The Princess turned to circle them and the rest of her fleet followed in line. Then, Percy heard more aircraft from behind them.
Coming out of the clouds, They dived low until they were just above the water. He almost blast them with water, but they lacked the monsterousness of the Abyssals. It took a moment for him to realize that they were gunning for the enemy fleet and not him or Arizona.
The planes were still fighting above them. A few tried to pull away to target the new arrivals but any that tried were targeted and shot down. The Abyssals began firing on the torpedo bombers and turned away to spoil their aim. It was the reprieve he and Arizona needed. Percy grabbed Arizona around her waist and with all of the life left in his body started pulling her away in the direction of where the friendly aircraft had come from.
Maybe they weren't dead after all.
Without all of his focus on keeping them alive, Percy felt his awareness expand and felt the presence of another fleet moving through the ocean. Percy wasn't sure if it was safe enough to hope just yet, but surly he'd had enough bad luck to get a break now, right?
Well, between certain death and not-so-certain he would just have to take his chances.
The Abyssals turned to pursue them, but now they were the ones constantly being slowed by dodging attacks. Successive waves of American, Percy was sure after seeing the star so prominently painted on every single one, attacked the fleet. Bombers rained down from the sky while torpedo bombers ran attack run after attack run. All the while the fighters intercepted any attempt at abyssal aircraft to disrupt the attacks. Slowly, the gap between the fleet and him and Arizona began to grow.
Clearly frustrated, the Princess drove straight at them. Ignoring the bombs around her, she barreled straight for them, forward turrets aimed squarely at Arizona's back.
'No!' Percy shot forward, water geysering him forward. Riptide swung down and the Princess moved to block. Celestial bronze met whatever-in-Hades the Abyssals were made of in a ringing crash. Riptide bit into the forearm she had used to block but not nearly enough to cut through. Percy followed through with a left hook straight at her face. The blow connected, a mix of pain and disbelief flashed through her features. She tried to grab onto him but he twisted back. Percy fainted a slash before ducking behind her. She made to turn but slowly. It was clear she wasn't used to a melee fight. Percy dropped under water, rolled, and cut at her heels. Whatever magical bullshit made them ships-but-also-people seemed to work on some sort of logic and as Percy cut into her Achilles tendon she screamed and dropped to her knees, immediately loosing speed.
Percy disengaged, guard up in case she tried to attack him. The Princess looked at him with a look of unbridaled betrayal.
"Why?" she demanded. "Why try to rescue that human loving whore? Why do you abandon your own kind for the sake of them?" She spat. For a moment, Percy froze. He wasn't even sure how to even begin to answer those questions. One of them? Human loving? Did the monster think he was one of them? That had never happened to him, or any demigod Percy had ever known. It should have been impossible.
"Tell me, brother! What drove you to betray us?" The Princess demanded when Percy didn't say anything.
He hesitated again. What should he say? What could he say? 'Oh, I saw you torturing Arizona in a dream and you all seemed like monsters to me so I just assumed you were all irredeemably evil.' Somehow he didn't think that would work out well.
Unfortunately the sound of dive bombers descending above them forced Percy to back off. The Princess was clearly hobbled and couldn't maneuver effectively. Percy lunged back several dozen feet through the water as the bombs descended on her. Explosions rang out and Percy could hear a scream. A smaller, younger looking Abyssal came racing up from behind the Princess and interposed herself between her and Percy.
"Get away from her!" The newcomer screamed, firing what must have been every single gun she had at Percy. He dropped into the water fully but even with it shielding him he could feel her fury impacting the surface.
Percy fell back. Reaching Arizona, whom he'd kept moving despite her lack of fuel, he surfaced beside her. "Where are they? What are they doing?" She demanded, blindly looking around. Percy looked to the Abyssal fleet where were now circling around their injured Princess. The larger ones stood between the Princess and Percy. They aimed their canons but held their fire.
"They're… pulling back." Percy said. And it was true! Slowly, the Abyssals edged back. Their Princess taken under tow by the others. Percy held his guard up incase things escalated but for several long minutes the two sides edged away from each other. Finally, the last of the Abyssals turned away, and a shroud of fog fell where they had been.
It… it was over. More than a week of constant movement, sleepless nights, endless vigilance, random attacks, and no food; ended, just like that. He couldn't believe it. The other fleet was close now.
"I… I think we did it, Ari. We made it out." Percy smiled. Reliefe flooding him as the strength of the adrenaline left him. "I can't-" and Percy fell to his knees and collapsed. Riptide fell from his grip and descended into the waves. The last thing he heard was Arizona calling his name before the black washed over him.
*****
"Percy?" Arizona asked, wondering if she heard right. Her bridge was pretty much destroyed and she could barely see, more blurry shades of colors than anything with detail. Her few lookouts were doing their best but it wasn't enough.
There was a splash and Arizona realized that he hadn't responded. "Percy!" She shouted in panic. Reaching out, she patted until she found him lying down in the water.
"No! No, no, no, no!" She said, turning him over. Kneeling was agonizing, something sharp was tearing inside of her, but she held him to her body. Bending her head down onto his chest she tried to listen as hard as she could. Holding her breath she could just barely hear his heart beating. It was weak, but it was there. But for how long?
She'd spent so long a prisoner; mocked, beaten, tortured, and impounded. Her crew had been confined and under guard. She'd given up hope of escape long ago and had simply resolved to die with honor and discipline. Her engineers had almost finished settling up the scuttling charges, the work of weeks if not months of theft and hidden jurry rigging. The Abys might have captured her but they would not have her hull. And then…
And then… he appeared. Percy had come from seemingly nowhere, broke her bonds, and set her free. She'd thought he was… well, she still wasn't sure what she thought he was. An Admiral? A ship…boy? Something else? He gave of a constant aura of power and authority, more assured and unquestionable than even any number of admirals she'd ever seen. It was like the awful presence the Abyssal Princesses gave off but… different.
He'd saved her. From capture, death, or worse. They'd kept each other going. She knew that her compartments should have flooded much more than they had. That she shoukd have barely been able to move if at all. He'd buoyHe'her, in more ways than one. He'd told her stories; classical legends and supposed adventures he'd had. None of which she believed but he enjoyed telling them and she enjoyed listening so why stop them? He'd told her about his mother, growing up in New York City, and hoped that she could meet her when they got back. She told him about her memories she had from before. Duty stations, training exercises, and patrols she'd been on. She told him stories about the other girls in the fleet. He told her about his favorite foods and she had talked about wanting to try them. They'd talked-
… They talked a lot. And the fear of never hearing him talk again siezed her like nothing she'd ever felt. She'd never been a wartime ship. Some of the other girls had talked about their tine in the last war, but by the time that the US had entered the Great War, the German fleet was effectively hemmed in at dock between the blockade and the lack of fuel. It hadn't been anything like this… this gauntlet.
She held him close to her chest and sobbed at the sudden fear of isolation. Without him she'd be alone. Again. Like she had been at Pearl since she was overpowered and captured.
"Please." She begged. To God, the universe, to ocean itself. "Please. I need him. I can't… I can't be alone. Not again." Her shoulders shook as she threatened to unravel. Then she heard it. The sputtering engine and splash of a landing boat plane.
She turned, loading the last if her secondary ammunition. Her magazines were just about empty and her crew was burning everything they could find to keep her boilers lit.
"Hey!" A small, high pitched voice shouted out. And she understood it!
"Y-you're a scout? From the fleet?" Arizona asked, not really believing it. She siezed on the information. "How far? What's their ETA?" She demanded. 'Please be close. Please, please, please.'
"Hey!" The pilot answered. Relief poured over Arizona and she could have weeped for joy. They would have already been within sight had she been able to see properly. So near…
"Do you have a radio? They need to prep for a casualty!"
"Hey!" He confirmed, and began relaying information from Arizona as to their condition. It was all second hand, but it was friendly contact and she'd take what she could get.
Eventually, Arizona heard the wake of an approaching ship. "Hey there!" a voice called out. "I hear you're-oh shit!" The voice swore when Arizona turned to look at its source. "Uhm… I mean…"
"Help." Arizona said, not sure if it was a demand or a plead.
The shipgirl, it must've been, cane alongside Arizona. "Permission to send over DamCon teams?"
"Do it!" Arizona snapped. With help at hand she was getting frustrated with this dawdling. "And I need someone to get Percy. He needs help!"
"Oh, uh, they've got a conventional destroyer preping a helicopter to transport him to the ship for medical. It should be here soon. It was on the radio."
"How soon? I don't have a working radio." Arizona snarled. She was lashing out and sge knew it. The light cruiser? Destroyer? She wasn't sure, said. She wasn't sure what a "conventional desroyer" would be compared to an assumed "unconventional destroyer" but she'd sort that out later. She could feel firgien damage control teams start transferring over and working with her crew to reinforce bulkheads and minimize flooding. The benifit of being so low on… everything was that she was sitting high enough in the water that the hull breeches weren't as bad as they could have been.
"Fifteen minutes!" The light cruiser yelped. Arizona nodded and stayed silent. The damage control teams started sending reports back to their ship. "Holly hell. What happened to you?"
"A lot." Arizona said. She didn't feel like talking about it. Bybthe tike pumps were set up to deal with most of the flooding Arizona could hear the helicopter. There was a splash and soon there was a male voice talking from next to her.
"It's okay ma'am. I'm here to help. We'll get him out of here at to the help he needs. I promise you." Arizona felt someone float next to Percy and try to gently take him from her. She kept her death grip on him, worried that if she let go he'd simply sink below that water and never surface again.
"You promise?" She asked.
"I promise you, ma'am. I will save him." With that reassurance, she let go of him. A part if her screamed to snatch him back but she fought it down. She couldn't help him now no matter what her desperation said. The rescue swimmer took Percy and she could hear the winch raise him out of the water. By that time, Arizona could hear other ships approaching near her.
"USS Arizona?" Someone asked. She nodded. "This is USS North Carolina. Acting-Commander. We need to get you under tow and back to San Fran. The Admiral would like a report and… and we Need to get you fixed up.
"Do you have any fuel?" Arizona asked. With her panic gone and someone with clear authority in front of her, she realized the empty void clawing at her fuel bunkers. "I'm out."
North Carolina didn't say anything for a moment before saying "Yes, of course. We'll set up a line to get you some."
Arizona gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you." The rest was a blur, with Arizona dipping in and out of awareness. The fuel helped, but her crew had been standing a minimum of double watches for a week while severely under strength. Arizoba was exhausted. By the time the tow was fully set up and secure and they were ubderway she was loosing the fight to stay awake.
"Permiss…" Arizona didn't finish, falling asleep before she could finish her request.
