I realized I hadn't put anything up this month. So have this and as it has been months a recap of part one:
Secondary pilot Leo and pilot Beckendorf are flying a spaceship. A sudden asteroid field causes them to go into hyper drive and after Beckwndorf dies they end up in unfamiliar territory and Leo is left to fly a ship meant to be flown by two. The Knight Percy tries to help and burns his hands in the process. They crash.
Percy, Leo Knight Reyna, and the Prince Nico (who was already in bad shape) survive the crash and find out they are on a primitive planet they've never head of. Zoë brings them to a facility where Annabeth, Nyssa, and Will are to try and help them. They also reveal that the Erebans (the aliens) have a thing call Magri in their bodies which gives them power and also Leo thinks about how he can either get home and face execution or if the prince dies he has a chance at life.
Got all that? Good. Now read.
-Jaz
~~~~
The Alien Issue (Part Two)
Percy was feeling restless.
It had been three days since he and the others had landed upon this strange planet. For the past two days the others and their hosts had all managed to keep themselves occupied, Leo was busy taking apart the ship to fix pieces and put it back along with the help of the scientist named Nyssa. The second scientist, Annabeth, meanwhile poured over the ship's initial blueprints trying to make sense of diagrams, so she could help Leo to alter the designs to work with the materials which were available. Reyna busied herself by keeping a careful eye on Will, the medic, as he tried to heal the Prince with his primitive methods.
Though Percy himself could not busy himself with anything. He still didn't have full control of his bandaged hands, so he had no choice, but to simply sit around and watch. It was both boring and nerve wracking.
"I still can't get over the fact that this is actually happening," Nyssa said excitedly from where she stood next to the damaged ship some sort of tool in her hands.
"That makes two of us," Leo muttered. The secondary pilot stood on top of the ship removing damaged panels and tossing them down to the floor.
"It's just so amazing! Traveling between planets and stars so easily! How do you do it? You must have traveled everywhere! What are the craziest places you've been? Wait no, ignore that. Tell how you discovered space travel?" Nyssa questioned. Her eyes went to Leo but the Secondary rolled his eyes and she looked to Percy who shrugged.
"Um... I'm just a Knight. Essentially I'm a glorified bodyguard... Leo would know the most as the Secondary and the mechanic."
Leo sighed. "I don't know how it was discovered, but it's been a couple thousand years at least."
"What does the ship run on?"
"An engine."
"What powers the engine?"
"Fuel and the pilot."
"The pilot?"
"Nyssa, let him work," Annabeth chided. The scientist sat across from Percy at a table papers stacked in front of her.
"Fine," Nyssa sighed setting a box of metal things down. "But tell me something. What's the culture on your planet?"
"Our country is small but there are multiple cultures and there are many other countries," Percy replied.
"What about your government?" Annabeth questioned without looking up from what she was writing. "Well I assume it's monarchy since Will is helping your Prince."
"We have a king," Percy nodded. "But that doesn't mean the Prince will become King."
"He's not next in line?"
"He is. When he and his sister are of proper age their father will choose his successor. Then the public will vote for candidate and then a campaign will happen between each and after an election a King is named. Though authority often remains within the royal family."
Annabeth looked up to him and blinked clearly confused.
"Is it not the same here?"
"Well here in this country specifically we have an election to name a president. But other countries have a king or queen and then the first born becomes the king or queen. Some countries have a mix of both."
"I have another question," Nyssa announced. "We now know more about your planet and country but you haven't told us anything about yourselves. Or where you were flying off to."
"I'm just a Secondary Pilot," Leo called down from the top of the ship. "But Percy is-"
"A Knight," Percy finished for him. "As for where we were flying it's classified to even some of those in the palace. So I can't tell you."
"But please tell me about the pilot powering a spaceship?" Nyssa pleaded.
There was a pause before Leo climbed down off the top of the the ship covered it grease and grime. "A pilot is the ship," he started wiping sweat off his forehead. "The pilot flies so easily because they are one with the ship. I can't really explain it. Think of the ship like a animal. You need to gain its trust before it will listen to you. If it rejects you however..." he trailed off and looked to Percy. After an awkward pause he coughed and continued. "Which is also why when bad damage is sustained to the ship its pilot can suffer if they are too um, connected to the ship. That's what happened to our Primary."
"That sounds... dangerous," Nyssa commented.
"A lot of things are like that back home," Percy told her. "Houses, devices, or my sword."
"I've been meaning to ask," Annabeth started. "If you're so advanced, why do you fight with a sword?"
"The sword has different modes I can access through the connection. I can use my Transmuter through it, so it's basically like my sword itself is water, but it's still very powerful. I can also use it as a Re- wait what's the word you guys have. Um what was that type of weapon you guys have here? You told me it to me yesterday?"
"Gun?"
"Yeah," Percy nodded. "That thing."
"He can also do this cool thing where he merges the modes," Leo put in. "He usually collapses after, but it's still cool."
"And I've pick that thing up and moved it multiple times..." Annabeth said slowly glancing to wear the sword laid on another table off to the side.
"It's fine," Percy promised her. "Every Knight's weapon is bonded to them like a pilot to their ship. Right now it's purely a large, sharp paper weight."
Annabeth nodded slowly still staring at the weapon.
"Isn't Reyna a Knight?" Nyssa questioned. "I didn't see her with a weapon."
"Exactly," Leo nodded. "She always has it on her, but you never want to be the one to see it. If you are, you probably won't live much longer."
Percy opened his mouth when a sharp voice cut in.
"Perseus!"
Eyes turned to Reyna who stood arms crossed by the door to the medical area.
Percy grimaced and stood and made his way over to her. "It was just a compliment if anything."
"I don't care," the girl told him shortly glancing back at the other three as Leo got back to work and waved for Nyssa to help him. "But you shouldn't be giving away all this information."
"They are harmless. I'm pretty sure these are some of the least threatening people on this planet."
Reyna shook her head. "Perhaps they are, but you do not know who they will spread that to. Sometimes I think you forget you're a Knight and no longer a Prince."
Percy gave her a slight glare. "I know that. Watching my father slaughtered when I was twelve was a pretty good indicator. But don't take your anger out on me," he continued noticing the bags which begun to form under her eyes. "You need rest."
"No," she disagreed. "I need to watch over the Prince."
"I can handle that," Percy promised her. "Take a nap."
Reyna opened her mouth then closed it. After a moment she sighed. "I'll sit, no promises on sleeping. But in return you must watch over the Prince as well as preform the funeral rites tonight if the Prince does not wake. We cannot leave a body for another day. A former Prince or not, you have the authority to do it so you will."
Percy tried to think of every way to protest but he finally nodded and walked past her into the next room.
In the next room the medic Will stared down at Prince before he groaned and flopped in a chair.
Percy raised an eyebrow as the door shut behind him. "Problem?"
Will looked to him surprised. "Wait? The translator works in here too?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
"I've been talking to Reyna for three days and she never responded. I just figured..."
Percy shook his head. "That's just how Reyna is." Percy shifted his gaze to the Prince. The Prince's chest was bare and covered in what looked like stitches for clothes. Percy didn't question them assuming it was the only thing Humans had available for when surgery was done. The Prince's skin was nearly paper white, and it was sunken, and he looked so frail that if Percy were to touch him he'd turn to dust.
A strange noise hit Percy's ears and after a moment he realized it was the Prince's breathing. The sounds were small and ragged, and very close together.
"Whatever happened to him is both a blessing and a curse," Will commented and when Percy didn't speak he continued. "Injuries sustained from your crash were already healing I just gave him a nudge, that is the blessing. Though at the same time he is still getting worse, it doesn't make sense. It's as if something is keeping his body from getting better... Does the Prince have a condition or something? Something before the crash?"
Percy tore his gaze away from the Prince and looked to Will. He scanned the blonde medic up and down before he spoke. "I personally trust you. If you were to kill us you would've done so already."
"Uh thanks?"
"But, I- I can't trust those you work for. So I can't tell you more."
Will frowned and he watched Percy for a moment. "You don't need to be specific. Just tell me if there was something that happened before the crash or not- or better yet you don't need to say anything. If there is something more to it do nothing. If there isn't, sit down."
Percy said nothing, but he looked back down the Prince.
"I'll do all I can," Will promised.
~~~~
"The nectar healed his injuries from the crash, but the poison still works it way through the Prince's body making to worse," Percy told Leo when Leo had switched off the translator.
"If we had just made it to the outpost..." Leo sighed as he stared down at the sketch of the repaired ship he had made.
"That's not your fault."
"Isn't it?"
"No it's not."
"I'm the Secondary," Leo told Percy looking up to meet the Knight's eyes. "I-"
"You didn't create those asteroids," Percy told him putting a bandaged hand to his shoulder.
"I didn't create them, no. But it's my job to know if they are there," he responded pushing the hand away. His eyes flickered past Percy toward where the two alien girls sat talking in their strange language, but their eyes kept flickering toward him. Leo took a deep breath and looked back to his work. He needed to focus on getting the ship repaired. Percy just didn't understand, he couldn't. He had lived up in a palace his whole life. He may be a Knight now, but he was still as close to royalty as someone could get from the outside.
"Leo-"
"No," Leo said firmly. "I-I need to get to work."
Percy frowned, but nodded and stepped back.
Leo let out a sigh of relief when he did. Not only because the Knight was getting off his back, but because hearing the Prince's condition slightly pleased him as disgusting as it sounded. He had nothing personal against the Prince, but he did have something against being humiliated and executed in front of his entire race. The public had called for his execution when he was just a child, and that was only for what he had accidentally done to his mother. What would they call for if they learned he was the reason their beloved Prince had died?
"Leo?" Percy asked after a few moments of silence.
"What?" Leo snapped.
"I-I'm doing the funeral rites for Beckendorf tonight."
Leo nodded slowly. "Good."
"I'll need you to you use your Transmuter."
"Alright."
Hours later when the sun had set, Leo burned a large fire ring into the grass. He then lowered the flames as Reyna walked forward Beckendorf's body in her hands and stepping over the fire. She laid his body in the center and quickly exited he circle.
Percy walked up to the circle and took a deep breath.
"I thought they said royalty did this ceremony?" Nyssa whispered to the other aliens.
"Percy is the Ex-Prince," Leo told her not looking away from Percy. "When his father was murdered the newest king- who is Percy's uncle actually- was elected, and Percy became the Prince's Knight to remain in the palace. That way his uncle could raise him."
In front of him Percy bent down to the fire and spoke into the burning flames rapidly in whispers. Though after a moment he raised his voice to a normal volume. "First Pilot Charles Beckendorf. He died protecting the royalty, he died being the best he could be. Erebus thanks you for your service and life brave one. This is why I, on behalf of our country honor you for all you've done. I shall not tie your soul here any longer, you must go to someplace to be stronger. Now we return you the flames of once you came, but I promise you no one shall ever forget your name."
When Percy finished he sat back as Leo stepped forward and raised his hands as the flames burst inward and consumed the body.
The awful smell which went along with funeral rites rose into the air. The flames burned for a minute or two before Percy stood and raised a bandaged hand. In response Leo caused the flames to die out leaving only a charred circle full of ash. Leo wasn't sure where the water came from, but Percy was controlling it as the water crashed down onto the ashes and then rose up into the air with them. Leo watched, waiting for Percy to disperse the water and ashes with it, but Percy froze.
"Reyna?" He called.
"Yes?" She asked confused.
"Grab the Prince."
Reyna opened her mouth to protest when her eyes widened and she dashed inside. Leo stared at Percy confused as to what he was planning as Reyna came back cradling the limp Prince in her arms.
"He should really just be laying down," Will called to her.
Reyna ignored the alien and hurried forward and laid down the Prince in the charred circle beside Percy's water.
"That's not what I meant," Will muttered.
Reyna touched Percy's shoulder and said something into his ear before moving away. Leo saw Percy take a deep breath before thrusting the water and ashes in the air- no just the water. The ashes instead fell down and landed upon the Prince.
Leo sucked in breath quickly and his eyes widened in understanding. Leo bit his tongue wondering if he should interrupt what was happening, how was he to save his own skin with the Prince alive?
Leo racked his brain trying to come up with ideas as when the Prince's dark eyes flickered open.
"Nico!" Percy smiled dropping down beside him. Reyna ran up and Leo slowly found himself moving forward as well.
The Prince groaned. "What the hell happened?"
"You've been unconscious for days," Reyna told him kneeling by his side as Leo came close enough. "Perseus was preforming the funeral rites of Beckendrof when he had the idea of bringing you out here."
Feeling the need to say something Leo spoke, "You're covered in his ashes."
"Lovely," the Prince muttered attempting to sit up but Reyna pushed him back down. He coughed a few times. "Where are we?"
"A planet called Earth," Percy answered. "They are so far off grid they didn't know there was other life out there."
"Primitive?" Nico questioned closing his eyes.
Percy's eyes flickered to the aliens behind him. "Not to their faces."
Nico was quiet for a moment before he opened his eyes and looked at Leo. "Thank you."
Leo's eyes widened. "Why? I'm the reason everything went-"
"We crashed yet were all currently alive no? I'm sure it's due to some sort of fancy flying."
Leo opened and closed his mouth soundlessly.
"Let's move you inside," Reyna suggested scooping him up.
Leo watched as everyone moved inside including the aliens, and he looked to the sky with its stars up far above. "He thanked me..."
~~~~
"I'm very confused," Will commented as he put a piece of round metal to Nico's chest.
"The Prince's Magri and Transmuter manifest itself as shadows and death," Reyna responded. "Sprinkling ashes on top of him gave his body a bit of Magri. Our bodies can't survive without it."
"Had you spoken to me before I would've covered the room in shadows," Will muttered before he motioned to the other two aliens, and Percy watched as they placed things in front of the lights.
"So you're not a total Kelp Head?" Nico wheezed out.
Percy rolled his eyes, but a smile was on his face. "Stop talking. We don't need you using extra energy. You need to focus on getting well."
"How?" Nico choked out. "We can do nothing without the aid of the medics in the outpost. That's why we were going there in the first place."
Percy frowned and stared at Nico who watched him tiredly. "Exerting yourself will only make things worse. So rest for now."
"But-"
"Shut up and close your eyes before I knock you out," Percy told him. "My hands are clubs now, but I can still use them for a few things."
Nico let out a laugh which caused him to tighten his eyes in pain. "Fine."
Percy smiled slightly and turned around to leave. He motioned for Reyna to follow him out the room. When she did he spoke quietly, "If death restores his Magri... what exactly counts as death? The death of what?"
Reyna paused thinking. "I think anything would work, but I assume the larger it is the better. As well as how fresh it is."
Percy nodded. "We've seen a lot of animals the past couple days. Think we should go hunting? But don't kill it until we bring it back?"
Reyna nodded. "It might work. I'm sure their leader will return now that the Prince is awake. We can talk to her then. But for now I'm going to go watch over the Prince."
Percy didn't ague as she went back in the room and the two alien women and Leo left it. The two women spoke to each other rapidly in low voices, but Percy focused on Leo. The pilot twisted his hands uncomfortably and he appeared deep in thought.
"Something wrong?" Percy questioned.
Leo quickly shook his head, "No. I uh just gotta get back to work on the ship."
Percy nodded once and watched him ago.
~~~~
Leo didn't sleep.
He worked on the ship for hours before deciding he would wake everyone with the sound. He sat outside leaning against the building, wishing for some alcohol to numb his mind and brain.
He stared at fire as it danced in between his fingers. The act of conjuring it drained him mentally and physically, but it kept his mind on other things, or at least he liked to pretend. He extinguished the fire and his hand slowly curled into a fist, his nails digging in his palm so much tears came to his eyes, or perhaps he had finally just had enough. But it didn't matter anymore, he was going to die.
If he even managed to make the ship fly, or if someone to came to get him, he'd be arrested, and killed for his crimes against the crown. The prince was currently recovering, an absolute worst case scenario. Leo's head fell into his hands and a sob wracked his body before he even knew it. Tears began to follow freely as he finally accepted he had no other choice than to face execution.
Leo jerked suddenly when a hand touched his shoulder. He fell back and conjured fire to his hands, and barely stopped himself from throwing fire in the face of the Prince.
"Sorry," the Prince said quietly.
Leo let the fire die and he turned away wiping his face. "You should be sleeping, my Prince."
"Just call me Nico. And that moon casts many shadows, it gives me enough strength to walk. And from my understanding I've done enough sleeping," he responded sitting.
"You should be saving up your strength then."
"Why?"
Leo turned to the Prince to see he was staring up at starry sky above. "What do you mean why? So you can get better."
"I'm not going to."
Leo's breath hitched, his mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.
"It's a miracle I lasted this long with the poison in my system," Nico clarified. "Especially in addition to the extra injuries I received, if Percy hadn't done what he had I probably would be dead by morning. Now I probably have a week or less even with their extra efforts in which my Knights to plan to kill animals for me. I doubt an animal will work as well as our own species though."
Leo seemed to remember how to breathe, and he gulped down air and tried to begin to breathe normally once more. "How- how are you so calm?" He demanded. "You're talking about your life!
Nico turned to face him with a small smile, "Who said I was calm? I feel the way you look." Leo looked away and Nico continued, "You're worried that my father will have you executed even though you don't deserve it," he stated. "You've already had one pardon in your life which I gave you. This is was the second chance you and I fought for, and even with my help my father won't give you a third. So now your hope is my father will be too rattled by my death." When Leo opened his mouth to argue Nico cut him off. "I'm dying, not stupid Leo."
Leo sighed and hung his head, "Our country is in turmoil as it is, if you die then-" he was cut off suddenly as Nico began to cough violently.
"You should go back in side," Leo told him.
"Poison is painful," Nico coughed out.
"One would assume."
"I think other methods of death would be less torturous," Nico said taking a deep breath when his coughing had stopped.
"Someone used poison for a reason. Have you remembered anything about that night? Or anyone suspicious?"
Nico shook his head, "No, Beckendorf told me before we left that he heard overheard something but he wanted to wait until we were alone to say it. We won't know now."
"He may have told his wife," Leo suggested.
"Doubt it, he wouldn't put her in unnecessary danger."
"Maybe he put something in the ship's computer?"
"That's for you discover," Nico told him looking up the stars. "What's the name of this planet again?"
"Earth," Leo responded. "Their primary resource is a star called the sun."
Nico shook his head and stood. "Never heard of either. I should probably go inside now."
Leo nodded and watched as Nico used to wall to hold on to as he walked to the door. "And Leo," he called softly once he opened it.
"Hm?"
"Thank you, for everything."
"No, thank you my Prince."
Nico nodded once and walked inside as Leo turned his eyes to the stars wondering how far away from home he truly was. Because at the time he didn't realize he had just had his final conversation with the Prince.