𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝐏𝐉 𝟐

𝟎𝟎𝟔.𝟑

Jason knew there was something deeply wrong with Percy Jackson. At first he had thought Percy had gotten injured during the attack in new Rome, but then Percy had casually stripped off his bandage and started using the sink water to heal the jarring gash on his arm where the spqr had been, and Jason had to stop himself from puking.

"Where's Juli?" Augustus asked lounging in his chair, completely unfazed by Percy.

Apparently during Jason's fainting event, everybody had been divided into trios to go collect material for the Argo, Jason had just woken up with Daphne by his side when Leo and Hazel had stumbled, looking pretty messed up calling a meeting in the cafeteria.

Percy had reluctantly joined them, and the first thing he had done stripping off the bandages which left the romans a little unnerved.

"Sleeping," Percy replied, checking his arm as the gash disappeared, Frank watched on with his jaw slack and a horrified look in his eyes.

Jason was glad he wasn't the only one finding this unhinged. Annabeth stood up from her seat beside Augustus and sighed, "I'll get her, we need everyone for this,"

Percy didn't look like he agreed, but he didn't say anything and let Annabeth go with a reluctant nod and took his seat beside Jason who immediately went on a high alert. Percy casually leaned back in his chair, his arms coming to rest on the table as he spoke, "So what happened with you three?"

He questioned Leo, Augustus having already told Percy his side of the quest. Jason couldn't help the cord of jealousy that strikes in him when he saw Percy taking charge of the crew, he was a natural leader, but so was Jason, and when he couldn't be the one leading, it threw him off.

Leo readily recounted his side of the story. Annabeth joined in later sitting beside Augustus and moments later Juliet emerged, her golden hair slightly messy as she disoriented, moved towards Percy's other side, she paused by Jason and looked him over and held up a thumbs up, "You good?"

Jason nodded remembering Juliet had been his medic, "Yup, fine," 

She nodded before letting Percy pull her to his side.

"So where to now?" Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."

Percy was eating a piece of pie, which for some reason was completely blue—filling, crust, even the whipped cream, he held out a spoonful to Juliet who took a bite. "We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," he said. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."

That didn't improve the mood around the table. Piper didn't want to say anything, but she felt obliged to. "I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe—maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak."

Surprisingly it was Daphne who spoke, her voice was actually calm, "It wasn't your fault. Or Leo's," she added quickly. "Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."

Piper looked uneasy and didn't know how to react, Jason thankfully squeezed Daphne's hand as she gave him a strained smile in return, another thing that had messed up during their time apart. Daphne and him, it had become complicated, and it wasn't just Piper that had become a problem.

 "Maybe if we could explain that, though—" Piper tried again.

"With no proof?" Annabeth asked. "And no idea what really happened? I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."