Title: Not Today
Author: vala (valinorean)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Percy knew that someday, there would be a god or a monster that would be too powerful for him to defeat. That someday, he would no longer be the demigod champion of their camp—and the result would be fatal.
Characters: Percy/Jason (pre-SLASH)
Word Count: ~2.8k
Beta: none
A/N: Written pre-MoA. Contains spoilers for SoN.
Not Today
by vala
"They had the same aura of quiet power, plus a kind of sadness,
like they'd seen their destiny and knew it was only a matter of time
before they met a monster they couldn't beat."
– The Son of Neptune
Coming to Greece had been a great idea—for about two seconds until they landed Argo II on the plain of Thessaly, where the first Olympian War had been fought. They should have known it was a trap. Even before the ship's anchor touched the ground, monsters have sprung from beneath the earth. There were dracanaes, manticores, harpies, and even cyclopes, centaurs and satyrs. There was no telling who the good guys are from the bad guys these days.
"Pull up, pull up!" Piper yelled at at Leo. "We need to get out!"
"What does it look like I'm trying to do?" Leo snapped back, as he tried to steer the warship away from the throng of monsters. The ship, however, refused to climb higher and could do nothing but hover twenty feet above the ground. "We're too heavy! You have to get the monsters off the ship!"
About fifty monsters were trying to climb the ship from every side all at once. Percy and Annabeth were at the bow, trying to fend off a horde of dracanaes. From the top of the mast straddling a crosstree, Frank was shooting a barrage of arrows at anything that wasn't wearing an orange or purple shirt.
"Hazel, aim for the eyes!" Jason shouted at Hazel who was manning the Ballista.
They were both trying to stop a drakon from climbing the ship's starboard. Hazel aimed the Ballista at the eye of a drakon and fired the long bolt straight through the monster's head. The bolt pierced the draconic head and the monster dissolved into dust.
"Nice shot," Jason called out as he half-leapt half-flew towards the dusty remains, dispersing it in the wind. Then a large shadow passed over him overhead and he was suddenly knocked to the ground by a manticore. Then the manticore raised its stinger, poised to strike at Jason's prone form.
"Jason, watch out!" Reyna screamed from atop her Pegasus, Scipio.
Reyna dived down, spear raised, intending to deflect the blow. But Percy was already there, slicing the manticore from shoulder to hip with his sword Riptide and turning the monster into dust.
"Thanks," Jason said as he climbed to his feet.
"Okay?" Percy asked, looking over his shoulder at Jason, his sword still raised defensively in front of him.
Jason nodded and stood back to back with Percy, his own gladius at the ready. "This is hopeless. We won't be able to fight them off."
"We don't have to," Percy said tersely.
"What—"
"Leo!" Percy shouted. "When I say go, push the ship forward as fast as she'll go!"
Leo gave a small salute while trying to bat away a harpy with the flat of his sword and trying to steer the ship at the same time.
"Percy, what are you planning to do?" Annabeth shouted as she drove a dagger through a centaur's flank, immediately turning it to dust. "This isn't one of your Capture the Flag games. We don't have time for—"
"Just trust me okay?" Percy shouted back, cutting off her protests. He then grabbed Jason's arm, his eyes grim and his voice low with determination. "It's me the monsters want. You go on with the Quest."
Jason's eyes narrowed. "I know what you're thinking."
"Then you already know what to do."
"It's not going to work, Jackson."
"I have to try."
Percy then threw Riptide straight up in the air and was buried to the hilt on the chest of a gryphon that was trying to topple Frank from his perch. The gryphon crashed to the ground, and both monsters and demigods alike jumped back to avoid getting buried under nearly a ton of dust.
"Now, Leo!"
The ship's engine roared as Leo pushed the ship's power to its maximum speed. Percy ran full tilt to the stern and, without looking back, jumped off the ship with the rest of the monsters following his lead.
"Percy NO!" Annabeth screamed, but her voice was drowned by a surge of bloodthirsty roar from the monsters below that had seen Percy drop down from the ship.
"Idiot," Jason cursed as he ran to stop Annabeth from jumping off the ship as well. But whether the expletive was for Percy or Annabeth, nobody was able to tell.
"Leo, stop! Shop the ship!" Annabeth cried, but it was too late. The ruse worked and Leo already had the Argo II hundreds of feet up in the air.
Jason grabbed Annabeth around the waist and hauled he back from the edge. "It's too late," he said, trying to calm her down.
"Arrgh!" Annabeth cried, her voice torn between anguish and extreme annoyance. She pushed away from Jason and stomped towards the center of the ship. "I'm going to kill him if he isn't already dead!"
They all watched her with pity in their eyes. She and Percy had just gotten back not two weeks ago. Well, they weren't technically together. They hadn't had time to actually sort things out between them in between preparations for the Quest and the never-ending line of monsters trying to kill them. And now it seemed that they might never have the chance.
Jason met Reyna's eyes and Reyna bit her lip.
"Quest?" Jason mouthed to Reyna. She nodded minutely, sympathy and understanding was in her eyes. Percy would not stand a chance of surviving down there alone.
Without another word, Jason bent his knees and pushed off to the air, before swooping back down to the horde of monsters below.
-:-
Percy ran as fast as he could, using a small hurricane around him to propel his body forward. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't scared shitless. He was alone, and a horde of monsters that even the eight of them couldn't defeat was on his tail. Riptide hadn't returned to his pocket yet. Still, he pushed forward. He only hoped that everyone had gotten away safely.
He knew he wouldn't be able to defeat all these monsters without a large supply of water. A fast flowing river would be good. An entire ocean would be better. But he knew that would be stretching it. At this point, he'd be thankful for even a small spring. He mentally called out to his dad to help lead him to any nearby source of water.
He could hear the monsters running after him. He could hear the devastation they were leaving in their wake. Percy refused to even look back, afraid that he might lose his momentum if he did. He knew that the monsters were closing in on him. He could see movement from his peripheral vision where a few of the monsters were running nearly parallel to him, trying to overtake him and cut him off from the sides.
He would have to stand and fight. If he didn't, they would just capture him and they'd deliver him to Gaea. If that happened, the Quest would be over. No, he would set his own terms. He'd rather go down fighting than be Gaea's slave.
Percy felt around his pockets to check if Riptide had already returned. His face broke into a small grin as he felt the familiar shape of his pen on the front pocket of his shirt. But just as he was about to pull it out and face the monsters that have already surrounded him, he heard his name being called out.
"Percy!"
Percy looked up just in time to see Jason zooming toward him, arms outstretched and reaching out towards him. Without thinking twice, Percy used the remaining energy from his own personal hurricane to leap thirty feet up into the air to grab Jason's outstretched arms. But as the hurricane dissipated, Percy realized that it wasn't enough and Jason was still too high. For a heart-stopping moment, Percy began to free-fall back towards the ground and to the waiting monsters below.
"Gotcha!"
A hand grabbed Percy's forearm in a firm grip and Percy felt as if his entire arm was nearly pulled out of the socket by the force of contact. But he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jason above him, face drawn in concentration. The added weight had them dipping low and Percy's feet all but grazed the top of one of the ogre's head. He heard Jason grunt as he exerted more effort, and in a few seconds, they were pulling up and away from the throng of monsters.
When at last they were safely away—or at least as safe as they could manage—Percy looked up incredulously at Jason. "What the Hades are you doing here?"
"Saving your sorry ass, that's what," Jason grunted, his eyes still fixed on the horizon.
"I told you to take the lead on the Quest!"
"A thank you would suffice, you know."
"You should have stayed with them," Percy insisted. "Who's going to protect them when we're both down here?"
"Okay first, they're capable of taking care of themselves," Jason snapped. "And second, can you shut up for a sec? I can't concentrate on flying."
And sure enough, they began to dip lower and lower, but still flying at dizzying speeds. Then as if Jason's powers had suddenly given out, they both tumbled to the ground with a sharp cry, rolling over hundreds of yards on the rough terrain, before painfully coming to a halt against the side of a small cliff face.
"Damn," Percy cursed as he slowly rolled to his back and tried to catch his breath. He saw Jason lying face down on the ground several feet away from him and Percy's heart dropped to his stomach. "Jason!" he tried to shout, but all that came out was a hoarse cry.
Percy tried to get up, but as soon as he moved his feet, pain shot through his right leg. He hissed and gritted his teeth, clutching his upper thigh and waiting for the pain to subside. When he felt that he could move again, he half-crawled, half-stumbled to Jason's prone form.
"Jason," Percy said, shaking the blond. "Jason, get up."
Jason groaned and rolled to his side and Percy let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Jason was still alive.
"Alright?" Percy asked worriedly.
"Yeah," Jason replied as he slowly sat up, grabbing the back of his head. Then he noticed Percy's awkward stance. "Shit, what's wrong with you?"
Percy gestured to his right ankle. "Not broken—ouch! Don't touch it! Just a bad sprain, I think."
"We need to get to a safe place before the monsters find us," Jason said, his eyes quickly scanning their surrounding. "There, I think I see a cave up ahead."
Sure enough, Percy saw a small opening on the side of the cliff where Jason was pointing. Jason stood up and, without so much as a by your leave, he took Percy's arm and slung it over his shoulder. Percy's protests of I'm fine, I can walk were ignored and the arm around his waist tightened as they hobbled to safely.
"Jeez, you're not unlike your sister, you know that?" Percy complained, which only earned him a glare.
When they reached the cave, they immediately collapsed on the dirt floor. The cave was shallow, but it was partly hidden by dense foliage creeping up the side of the hill.
"What do we do now?" Jason asked wearily.
"I don't know," Percy said, shaking his head. "I still have a drachma. We can try to IM them or use Fleecy's direct number, but we'll need a rainbow."
"I think I saw a stream a couple of miles south of here when we were flying," Jason said.
"Yeah, that'll work," Percy nodded. "And I'll be able to heal my ankle too."
Jason frowned. "You need to rest before we can travel. I don't think I can fly us anymore."
Percy didn't argue. Without the Curse of Achilles, his endurance for battle had been drastically reduced. He missed those days when he could go on fighting for days on end without tiring. He even missed those days when he'd sleep the entire day on the shore of the lake in Camp-Halfblood, just to replenish his energy. But he didn't regret giving it up. It was for the best, after all.
In a couple of minutes, Percy was already fast asleep.
-:-
"Percy," Jason's voice ghosted by his ear. "You need to get up. Now."
Percy blearily opened his eyes and slowly sat up. "What's wrong?" he asked when he saw Jason's grim expression.
"Listen."
And Percy did. He could hear soft rustling outside, like something large was sniffing near where they were hiding. From further away, he could hear a sort of jumbled noise of raucous laughter and shrill banshee-like cries. It was the monster army and they'd already caught up to where they were.
"Laistrygonians," Jason said, gesturing to the noise outside. "They've been trying to sniff us out, but they're too big and stupid to notice this cave. It won't last long, though."
"Then we'll have to run," Percy decided.
"With that leg?" Jason eyed his leg doubtfully. "I doubt we'd make it to the stream."
"Fine, you have a better plan?" Percy asked, irritated.
Jason didn't answer for a long time. When he spoke again, there was a dreamlike quality to his voice, as if he was far away.
"Back when I was in Camp Jupiter, I used to think that there was no monster I couldn't beat," Jason began. "But that was before I fought Krios. Now, everytime I see a powerful monster I couldn't help but think, 'Is he the one? Will he be the one to finally kill me?'"
Percy turned away. He couldn't bear to see the emotion on Jason's face. There was a certain sadness about him, as if he already knew his destiny and was only waiting for the monster that would do him in to come. Percy knew the feeling well. He'd felt that way ever since his defeat of Kronos.
"I thought that maybe one day it would be nice to live in New Rome," Percy said quietly. "You know, go to college, start a life."
Jason gave him a half smile. "Well, you'd have to get out of here first before you can go back there."
"You too," Percy reminded him.
"Right," Jason said, yet it seemed to Percy that returning to Camp Jupiter was the farthest thing from his mind at that moment. Then after a long stretch of silence, Jason turned to look directly at Percy, electric blue eyes meeting deep green ones. "How does this go again? Hero gets a kiss, right?"
"Only after the battle's been won," Percy said, grinning halfheartedly as he remembered a different time. A different war.
"Fair enough," Jason said. Then there was a weird look in his eyes and Percy realized that Jason was about to do something crazy and stupid.
Before Percy could open his mouth to stop him, Jason had cut him off.
"I want mine underwater too," Jason said with a wink. And with that, he dashed out of the cave, capturing the Laistrygonians' attention, and inevitably, the rest of the monsters beyond.
"Jason, no!"
But it was too late. Just as he had done earlier aboard Argo II, Jason was now trying to lure the monster so that he could get away. He could hear the fading sound of combat at they moved further and further away from the cave. Percy let out a frustrated growl. He knew couldn't waste the opportunity Jason created for him. He'd have to run to the stream as fast as he could and hopefully return with twice as much power.
He knew that someday, there would be a god or a monster that would be too powerful for them to defeat. That someday, they would no longer be the demigod champions of their respective camps—and the result would be fatal.
But not today.
"You better survive until I come and rescue you Jason Grace," Percy called softly after him. "Because I'm the hero in this story, and I want that kiss in the air. Right in Zeus's immortal face."
In the distance, a low rumble of thunder from the sky was heard.
End