Chapter 17
Jason
Jason couldn’t help but to feel helpless. He had let his girlfriend angrily storm off, was being a stupid gloating Roman, and now stood frozen, staring at the screen to see the Big House catch fire.
And he saw flashes of silver. That could only mean the Hunters were fighting on the Greek side. He even saw those familiar blue eyes, which could only mean Thalia was also fighting. She opened her mouth, probably yelling a command. All the Hunters began to shoot arrows at the oncoming Romans.
Coach Hedge had come into the room, and he looked at the screen, his eyes filled with terror and pain. Leo looked up from the helm and though he couldn’t see the screen he frowned. He met Jason’s eye and looked away immediately. Guilt filled the empty pit in Jason’s stomach.
After a few minutes of watching the battle, helpless, Jason decided to go check on Piper. Usually she never stormed off to her room to sulk. Yet again, he had never really done that to her before. He walked down the passageway and knocked on her door. Behind the door, he could hear… crying.
“Piper, are you okay?” he asked. He wasn’t used to Piper crying in her room like an Aphrodite girl who had misplaced her lipstick.
The door opened. Piper stood in the doorway, her eyes puffy from crying. That wasn’t normal. But when Jason saw Katoptris clenched in her hand, everything snapped into perspective. Piper had received a vision. It had to be bad. She wouldn’t cry over a small vision. This had to be a big deal.
Before he could think straight, Jason pulled Piper into a hug. Whatever she had been holding out was let loose. She sobbed brokenly into his shoulder. He held her wordlessly. He wanted to ask her what had happened, what the vision had been, but something made him just hold her.
Finally with one more shuddering sob, Piper leaned away, her eyes puffy and her cheeks slick with tears. Jason stopped a tear from escaping her eye.
“What did you see?” he asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention from the others. He glanced down the passageway. The others were completely absorbed in watching the screens, watching the Romans attack the Greeks.
“This is a good and a bad thing,” Piper said. Her voice was thick with grief. “It’s great for Percy and Annabeth. It’s really great, in fact. But for me and you…” Her eyes closed and a tear escaped her closed eyelids. “This isn’t good at all.” The horrible feeling inside of her must have completely snapped, because she almost collapsed on the spot. Jason caught her and hugged her tighter than before. Now he was really worried. He hated to think of Piper collapsing from crying so hard.
“Pipes, you can tell me.” Jason could feel her heart pound in her chest. He pulled away slightly and looked at her. Her eyes were red as well as her nose. “It’s bad, isn’t it? I mean, you’re crying.”
“It’s bad.” She held up her knife. “Hopefully Katoptris isn’t being stubborn. I need you to see this.”
Jason looked into the knife. The hilt was cold. As he prayed for the vision Piper saw, the vision came into view.
He instantly knew it was Gaea. She was walking in a trance-like state, a sleepy smile pulled on her full lips. There must have been a soft breeze, because her black hair, as dark and rich as the soil, fluttered in the wind. Her eyes were closed. Thought she was obviously asleep, she was walking and murmuring restlessly to herself. She was waking. She was more awake than Jason ever imagined.
“I have bad news… for you,” Gaea murmured. The smile on her face became more pronounced. “Percy and Annabeth have found a little guardian over them in Tartarus. That good for nothing Ariadne thinks she can protect those two in the presence of my husband? Ha! She’s strong, but not strong enough.”
Chills ran down Jason’s spine. Ariadne was the Greek aspect of Ariana, who was Bacchus’s wife. So why was she helping Percy and Annabeth?
Gaea’s smile became smug. “Since those two are protected, I will need two other demigods. I need their blood to awaken me. I’m going to be looking at you, Piper, dear, and your lovely boyfriend Jason Grace. You will be a help to me, and I will be forever grateful.”
Her eyes opened. They swirled green, greener than grass and tree leaves. They also swirled black, black as the soil. She saw everything. It didn’t matter if they were in the sky on the Argo II. She knew where they were.
The vision in the knife vanished. Usually the knife gave no sound, but he sensed that Gaea had personally sent the warning. He looked over at Piper, who had stiffened when the vision started. He could now see why she was so upset.
And he hugged her. He had no feeling yet, just raw shock. He realized, thankfully, that Percy and Annabeth were slightly safer. But that put him and Piper at risk.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promised her. “And if Gaea wants your blood, I’m going to defend you with my life.”
Even though tears streamed her cheeks, she managed a smile. “I can take care of myself, Jason. But if Gaea wants us, will she get us?” Her smile was wiped clean.
“She won’t get us.” Jason studied Piper. Her eyes were still puffy. “Are you better now?” He put his hand on her cheek. Her cheek was warm.
“I guess,” she muttered. She took her knife and quickly sheathed it. “Sometimes I want to burn Katoptris into a scrap of metal.”
For a moment, Jason just stared at Piper. She was one of the strongest people he had ever met if not the strongest. She was strong physically and mentally. She never threw a giant fit over the smallest visions; she only broke down when she saw horrible visions.
“Hey, Jason, where’d you go?” Leo called from what sounded like the helm. “Come back here so we can talk strategy. Get Piper too!”
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Jason called back. “I’ll be right there.”
“Did I look like I was crying?” Piper asked. She wiped at her eyes. Though her eyes looked a little red, she looked angrier than upset, which was probably her intention.
“You look angry,” Jason noted. When she made a face, he said, “No, you look fine.” He kissed her before towing her off to the mess hall.
If anybody noticed the anxious tension coming from Jason and Piper, nobody pointed it out. Their eyes were glued to the screens that were monitoring Camp Half-Blood like it was an interesting TV show.
“Oh, gods,” Piper said, her face deflating as she saw the attack. “Leo, do you know where Buford is?”
“I don’t know,” Leo said. “I sent him with the spheres. I’ll have Nyssa and the others set up the spheres so we can stop the fight.” He grinned.
“Since the spheres are gone, when are you going to tell us what they do?” Hazel asked, resting her head on her arms.
“I guess.” Leo’s smug smile turned wistful. “Well, I made a few weapons that are awesome! Electric spears, steel bows, exploding arrows, super light swords and more. And my real masterpiece…” His smile got huge. “The spheres will spring to small screens. It’s like Iris-messaging, except I have something we can talk into. If the Romans don’t behave, an electric shock goes out to everyone within a hundred feet of the screen. In the scrolls, it was incomplete. I kinda finished it.”
Everyone was silent until Nico said plainly, “That’s pretty cool. The electric shock will affect the Greeks too though?”
“Yeah,” Leo said, frowning a little. “But it’ll stop the fights breaking out nonetheless.” He pulled out a small little remote the size of a chocolate bar. “I can control the screens and electric shocks through here.” He pointed to a few buttons. “And this…” He tapped a dark screen. “Once I turn it on, we’ll see the scene here, as well as on the screens above. And we can talk to them into this microphone…” He pointed to a small microphone on the remote. “I have some cameras set up where we can talk into so they’ll see us.”
“That’s amazing,” Hazel said, lifting up her head. “Is that why you were being all secretive and smug?”
“Exactly,” Leo said, beaming. “This is my biggest achievement yet! I couldn’t be distracted by you guys. I had to keep it secret.”
“We wouldn’t distract you,” Frank said, no bitterness in his voice at all. He was too amazed to remember his grudge with Leo.
“Sometimes the smallest things distract me, Zhang,” Leo said. He pocketed the remote and looked at the fight at Camp Half-Blood. “Is it just me, or are the Greeks getting pounded?”
Jason looked at the screen. Leo was right. The Greeks were getting ‘pounded’. Many of the Greeks looked injured and sluggish compared to the legion. It was hard, seeing both wonderful camps collide.
“Leo!” Piper said in horror. Her eyes flitted to the screen before she glared at Leo. “Shut up, please.”
“Look,” Hazel hissed suddenly. “I see Octavian.” She pointed to the screen. “What is he doing?”
Octavian was gripping a spear, his mouth moving rapidly. He attacked the Greek who was closest to him. It was Lacey, daughter of Aphrodite, and Piper’s half sister.
“Lacey!” Piper screamed. Lacey obviously didn’t turn around; she quickly skittered away from one Roman only to be stabbed by Octavian. “No!”
Lacey collapsed, clutching her wound. Octavian smiled coldly and marched off. An Apollo camper, Will Solace, caught sight of Lacey. His eyes widened and he ran through the fighting demigods to get to her. He picked her up and ran toward the Big House, her head lolling in unconsciousness.
“Oh my gods,” Piper said. She turned to Jason, her eyes filled with worry. “I need a drachma. I need to check on her!”
“Calm down, cupcake,” Coach Hedge said, squinting his eyes at Piper. He threw her a drachma which she caught. Without another glace she ran down the passageway to the galley.
“I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder. “I just want to check on Lacey.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Piper didn’t come back.
Everyone had been completely absorbed in the screen, watching the fight. Leo often commented on how Buford would be there soon so they can do something, but that didn’t reassure anyone. Sometimes Hazel would slam her hand on the quivering silverware so it wouldn’t tremble. Coach Hedge watched from the helm and sometimes yelled out advice as if the Greeks could hear him. Frank was frowning deeply. Nico watched the scene as if fascinated.
Finally the worry got the best of Jason. “I’m going to go check on her,” he said. He stood.
“Are you sure?” Leo asked. “Piper made it perfectly clear that she wanted to check on Lacey by herself.”
“I’m positive.” Jason walked down the passageway. He waited by the entrance to the galley, actually a little nervous. He didn’t know what was in the galley.
What he found was Piper with a discouraged look on her face, her eyebrows pulled together, and she was staring at the wall.
“Everything okay?” he asked. She jumped and looked at him. Her eyes didn’t look puffy. There was no trace of tears on her face. She just looked discouraged.
She sighed. “I guess. Lacey’s hurt all right. She won’t be able to fight any time soon. Nobody else is critically injured. A bunch of the Greeks already have minor injuries. The Romans are going to retreat soon.”
“That’s good.” Jason watched as Piper looked back at the wall, her discouraged look etching upon her features again.
There was something else. Something else was bothering her, something else was wrong. She was distant, not really there.
“Pipes, is something else bothering you?”
She was back, her eyes not so far away. Her discouraged face softened and she nodded. “I’ll tell you later, Jason. Right now I just need to think. I need to be alone. I… I have to be distant from you.”
He watched her face, seeing if she would change her mind. Right now she looked more upset than she had before, even more upset than when she had received the vision. She had given him something he never wanted to hear. I… I have to be distant from you.
“Okay.” His mouth had a mind of its own. He wanted to tell her that he didn’t want to be distant. She managed a smile, though it looked out of place. She leaned over and kissed him.
The bell rang for lunch.
“Go,” she said, her eyes unfocused. “I’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded. He wanted to hold her hand, be simple again. Instead he began to walk out of the galley.
Something shiny caught his eye.
Piper was pocketing a drachma, the drachma Coach Hedge had given her to Iris-message Lacey.
Dun dun dun... If Piper didn't use the drachma, how in the world did she know how Lacey was hurt and how the Romans were going to retreat?
Yeah, I know I was gone for a trillion years... but no matter! I updated for you!
This chapter is mysterious, isn't it? That was my intention.
This chapter is dedicated to Calypso_17.
Question: In Hazel's flashback, what was the bully's name who backed Hazel up against a wall?
Thanks for still reading :D next chapter is... HAZEL.