Bonds

Jack Loses His Claws

"I need communications fifteen minutes ago!"

"Where the hell are the diamond dogs?!"

"Check the integrity of those anchor points! We don't need Tartarus coming down on us!"

"Is anybody willing to split a pizza?!"

"We're missing crate of Gun- Gungneers? Gungors? Gungni- We're missing a crate of magic spears!"

"ETA of the package is now fifteen minutes! Get that landing zone finished!"

"Whose package?"

"I didn't even order the pizza yet!"

Jack sat unseen in the shadow of the Mansion of Night, watching the ever-growing number of monsters run about erecting a base of operations, setting up multiple doorways, and unpacking a seemingly endless supply of weapons. The sight of so many in the realm of eternal night brought to mind the days after he and his family had bound the primordial's avatar, when an untold number of creatures gathered near the mansion to wonder what came next. But while hope for the future came out of that first gathering, all he could feel now was an impending sense of dread.

"Percy..." The son of Kronos growled, digging the tips of the Nemean lion claws into his palms. "Nico..."

He didn't understand why the son of Poseidon had continued to be aggressive after he saved him from Porphyrion and offered to take him back to Annabeth. Surely if Percy was as good and great as Bob said he was then he would have realized that they were on the same side.

"...Right?"

But that didn't happen. Not even close. Percy had yelled and screamed at him until he could no longer speak, and his attempts to sign proved useless and only made the demigod angrier. Percy had tried to engage him in a physical fight -and had even managed to land a devastating blow to his nether region- but he refused to treat Percy as an enemy. Instead, he tried to subdue the son of Poseidon using Babylon and slowing the flow of time. Intending to throw him on Chewie's back and take him to Annabeth who would explain everything.

Jack lightly touched his throat and took a shaky breath. Salty tears welling up and threatening to roll down his pale cheeks.

He should have knocked Percy out, but he had hoped that the demigod would have calmed down once he knew he was captured.

"I'm an idiot..." The blond whispered, burying his head against his knees.

Before he could register what had happened, Percy had encased him in a ball of water. The son of Poseidon showing a cruel side that had been absent in Bob's tales.

Even if he was as good with words as Dr. Thorn, Queen, and Knight, he doubted he could express how terrifying it was to drown. To feel Percy -one of his idols- force water into his lungs. The inability to move through the rushing waters. For his own powers to only solidify the trap. And how his vision began to be overtaken by a hungering darkness. He truly believed that Percy meant to kill him.

"But I couldn't..." He muttered as several telekhines barked and yelped in surprise.

As he struggled to escape his watery prison, he had willed the copy of Babylon wrapped around Percy to constrict. Hoping that the tightening chain would either encourage the green-eyed demigod to stop or render him unconscious. Truthfully, he could have crushed Percy's chest at any moment with a simple mental command, as he had done with so many monsters before.

But Percy wasn't a monster.

Percy was from Gaea.

"Like Grandma May..."