PJO Hunger Games au

Together

"I know," Percy murmured, "just to go to sleep now."

He gently rocked Nico until his head slumped to the side, until his grip slackened. Percy swallowed and flipped Nico's eye lids shut. As he stood back up, a strange fire burned inside of him. He was angry. Not at Jason and Thalia, they were just surviving. No, he was angry at the gamemakers, at the capitol, for forcing a twelve year old kid to die. Percy vision was tinged with red.

"Let's end this," he snarled.

Percy, Grover, and Annabeth stood with their backs together as they waited for Jason and Thalia.

It didn't take long. Jason strolled down the ally towards them, his blond hair gleaming and golden sword bloody.

"I was wondering when you three would show up," he called, "you kept us waiting."

Us, Percy thought, but where was Thalia? A horrible thought struck him. Thalia had a bow and arrows.

As soon as he opened his mouth to warn his allies, he heard a hiss-thunk as Grover grunted and collapsed.

"Grover!" Percy cried, turning to his friend. He saw Thalia advancing down the opposite ally, another arrow poised to fly. Percy tackled Annabeth out of the way as the arrow whistled over their heads. Percy twisted around to see Grover with an arrow in his chest, not moving. His cannon fired, and Percy let out a choking sound. But he had no time to grieve. He and Annabeth got to their feet and ran for cover.

"She has one more arrow," gasped Annabeth as they crouched against a building, "as long as she has it, we're dead. But lucky for us, I have a plan. Can you hold Jason off?"

Percy eyed Jason who was still walking towards them, seemingly in no hurry. He was tall and muscular, but not too muscular that he was slow.

"Shouldn't be a problem."

"Great," said Annabeth, "then I'll take down Thalia."

She looked at him, Percy thought she was going to say goodbye. Instead she leaned in and kissed him. "I didn't want to die without doing that."

Then she slipped through the door of the building and was gone. Percy stayed crouched for a moment, completely dumbstruck. He probably could have sat there all day, but Jason was approaching. Percy felt warmth in his chest and decided then that Annabeth was not going to die today. Which meant he had to kill Jason.

Percy stood and charged Jason, his long knife in hand. Jason easily side-stepped and parried Percy's attack. They circled each other carefully. Jason was obviously a better fighter, he was stronger, faster, and had better technique. Percy only had one advantage: he was willing to die. Jason was not. Percy charged again, but instead of striking with his knife, he tackled Jason to the ground. Jason cracked his head on the pavement and was momentarily dazed, giving Percy time to kick his sword away. Percy stabbed downward with knife, but Jason was more alert than he seemed. He twisted out from under Percy and punched him in the face. Percy reeled backwards, tasting blood, before throwing himself at Jason again. This time Jason was ready, he used Percy's forward momentum to step out the way and throw him to the ground. Percy groaned as his ribs crackled with pain from the impact, but he swiveled around and swept Jason's legs out from under him.

As Jason crashed to the ground, Percy caught a glance of Thalia nocking her final arrow. If she fired at Percy, she'd risk hitting Jason, but maybe she didn't care. She raised her bow and pulled back the string, but before she could release it, Annabeth shot out of the building next to Thalia and tackled her to the ground. Percy wanted to make sure Annabeth was ok, but he was forced to focus on Jason again as he growled and launched himself at Percy. Percy went down hard, when his head hit the pavement he had stars in his vision.