A/N Hello and welcome to the latest collection of words to escape from my mind! This focuses on OCs, but cannon characters and my oc Bia (from Daughter of Vesta) will be putting in key and frequent appearances.

I value questions, comments, and opinions so please, feel free to take a moment to let me know anything that crossed your mind in regards to this. In particular, I would like opinions on if this beginning chap is a bit too confusing. Intentionally, I'm sort of throwing you right into some of the action of the story, but being as I have a great deal more information about what is and will be going on I'm concerned I may have missed bits that are difficult to follow.

Thank you much for taking the time to check this out!
Miette

PS-for those of you reading VESTA, the next chap is nearly ready for you! M

**Disclaimer PJO plots, references and characters are the intellect property of Rick Riordan**

*-*-*Published 6-22-11 Slight edits made 8-4-11*-*-*

Pearl knew this was a bad plan even as it formed in her mind and she followed through with it, but really? What were her options? Let her big brother and his, well their, friends go through with a quest the goal of which really should have been half her responsibility anyway? No, not an option. Which was why, of course, she'd followed them. Even if this was a quest, that even more so than usual, they were not expected to return from, she couldn't not follow. Up until this moment, however, she'd only had one regret, allowing LB and Neal to follow with her. She'd done that because she knew she couldn't stop them, so why waste precious time and energy arguing with them? It was better to travel together, anyway, than have them following her while she followed Charlie, Ness, and Grant. Now, however, separated, confused, exhausted and surrounded by enemies in the dark, she was having a few more regrets.

"Oh, the shiny, precious, little Pearl looks a bit smudged."

Pearl strained against the Gegenees that held her tightly. "Come over here yourself and see how smudged I am." She spat toward the voice, the owner of which was still standing back in the shadows of the trees.

"Oh, no," the voice laughed, "I'm rather enjoying watching you struggle."

"Ass," the single word came out more quiet and breathless than Pearl would have liked, but she supposed that is to be expected when one is struggling, two feet off the ground in the vice-like bear hug of a six armed giant. She'd already been worse for wear before she was grabbed, now she could feel her strength fading along with her consciousness as the pain became too much and she lost blood.

The man, boy really at the age of 16, she directed her venom toward finally stepped out of the trees and into the moon lit clearing with a chuckle. He reached up and caressed the girl's cheek roughly.

Pearl turned her head in an attempt to bite his fingers, earning another laugh, this one accompanied by a sharp slap to her face.

"We will stop you, Jonathan," She snarled.

"We? Darling, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I really don't think you're in any position to be making threats." He gripped her chin roughly, using it to force her head left then right, "and I don't see your friends anywhere to stage a rescue, do you?"

Pearl's only response was to spit in Jonathan's face, causing him to tighten his grip on her chin till she couldn't hold in her gasp.

"Let her go," Jonathan ordered the giant through gritted teeth.

Pearl tried to muffle her gasp as she fell hard to the solid ground below her at the sudden absence of the giant's arms. She knelt, leaning over, trying to catch her breath. The girl almost wished she were still in the grip of the Gegenees, at least then she wouldn't have to try to force her uncooperative legs to hold her.

"Get up," Jonathan accompanied his words with a kick to her undefended side, leaving her even more breathless, too breathless to even force the taunts forming in her mind past her lips.

She tried to blow the chocolate curls that had come loose from their bun out of her face, but could only gasp as the irritated Jonathan kicked her again, sending her into the shins of the giant who had not moved after releasing her. It was then, as Jonathan was backing up and she was trying to gather what strength she could and stop it from pulling away from her like a receding wave, that she caught a sight to give her a last burst of strength. Where once stood three monsters behind Jonathan now stood her two best friends and three piles of yellow dust.

LB leaned on her spear and put a finger to her lips, warning Pearl to silence, not that she could have or would have called out anyway. Neal, beside LB, had an arrow notched and was taking aim on the giant still standing over her.

In the same instant, Pearl was coated in monster dust and she ripped her whip from around her waist, putting all of her strength into one last crack. The whip wrapped around Jonathan's legs, pulling them out from under him and sending him to the ground where the back of his head slammed onto a conveniently located rock. That was her last moment of consciousness.

LB ran to her friend, dropping her spear. She fell to her knees by Pearl's head and cradled it in her lap, "come on, girlie," she whispered, gently stroking Pearl's hair away from her pale, clammy face.

"Neal!" She yelled at the boy, not turning from Pearl, "he's out cold right now, don't mind him. Grab my bag and get over her and do your son of Apollo mojo!"

Neal didn't move, he was standing over Jonathan, a murderous look on his face, his bow with an arrow readied pointed at the unconscious boys heart, an organ Neal wasn't convinced Jonathan possessed.

"Neal! He's not worth it, Pearl is dying!" That snapped the tanned, golden haired boy into action. He dropped his bow and arrow and ran to grab LB's bag from just inside the trees. Before a minute had passed he was kneeling at Pearl's side.

"Can't you tether her soul to her body?"

"Trying, but she's so close. Work quickly." LB pulled a canteen of nectar from her bag as Neal went to work doing what he could to heal Pearl.

"Ok," Neal said sitting back from Pearl, wiping sweat from his brow to the back of his arm, "you can give her a tiny sip and bite more Nectar and Ambrosia. Then she'll be ok to move. She's still not going to wake up for awhile, though."

LB nodded as she followed Neal's instructions, it had seemed to her the boy had spent an eternity working on their friend. "I know she won't be happy with us when she does wake up, but I think it's time to meet up with the others. No more of this skulking about." LB watched Neal's exhausted face as she spoke, gauging his reaction to her suggestion.

Carefully, Neal picked up the tiny girl, even at 15 she wasn't 5ft if she stood on her tip toes, which made carrying her easy. "You're right," he agreed after considering LB's idea. "We'll deal with it when she wakes up. In the mean time, safety in numbers." He turned back to where they'd left Jonathan laying on the ground, just in time to see his still unconscious form melt into the shadows, "damnit!" Even though he knew it was futile, he hurried to the boy as if there were some way he could halt his disappearance.

LB laid a calming hand on Neal's forearm saying, "save Pearl or kill him while he's unconscious? We will get him."

Neal grumbled but said nothing out loud as he clutched Pearl to his chest, one arm around her shoulders, her head resting between his shoulder and chin, his other arm under her knees. "Which way, L?"

It seemed to Neal they'd walked all night, but he knew it was closer to an hour, when they finally arrived just outside the tiny camp they were seeking. He knew that Charlie, Nessa, and Grant would be standing with weapons readied, having heard their approach, expecting anything and anyone else.

"Only Fools Are Positive!" LB called to her cousin, knowing that with those four words, which spoken to anyone else would earn her only a strange look in this context, would assure her and her companions a much warmer welcome than otherwise.

"LB?" She and Neal only had a moments wait for Charlie's strained sounding response, "Pearl isn't with you, is-Oh gods." He cut himself off when the pair stepped into the small clearing and he caught sight of his sister in Neal's arms. "What happened?" He tightly gripped his sword as though he wanted to use it on Neal.

"Whatever it was," Nessa stepped forward, laying a hand on Charlie's shoulder, "I'm sure Neal isn't to blame."

Grant carefully took the still unconscious Pearl from Neal, "we've got the sleeping bags all set up in the tent already, I'll go lay her down." He glared at his friend as though silently instructing him to be nice.

"Come on," LB urged everyone quietly, "sit."

"I told you," Nessa leaned into her boyfriend playfully, a small smile on her face, "told you there was a reason they didn't put up a fight about us going without them."

"Yea, yea, yea," Charlie replied absentmindedly, still glaring at Neal. "Now, what happened?"

"We-"

"Jonathan happened," LB cut Neal off.

"You let Jonathan get her!" Charlie was on his feet again, grabbing the younger boy by the collar before either girl could react.

"I didn't let Jonathan anything!" Neal wrenched himself out of Charlie's grasp, shooting a glare at LB that clearly told her to stay out of this, "I care about your sister, too, and you know that." He shoved Charlie back from him. "We got separated. Yes, Jonathan and a couple of his monsters got Pearl, but you know her, she put up a fight. We managed to find them, kill the monsters and get Pearl."

"Jonathan got away. Also, I think Pearl would be kinda pissed if she wakes up to find either of her two favorite guys dead," LB said quietly, breaking the glaring match that had gone on between the two boys during Neal's recitation.

"She'd probably kill the survivor," Nessa added.

"Fine," Charlie muttered quietly, running a hand absently through his black hair, as he returned to his seat beside Nessa.

Grant stepped out of the tent where he'd laid Pearl, taking in the tension surrounding the group sitting outside, "Oookkk…" he dragged out the word, looking to Nessa for some sort of explanation, she gave a small shake of her head, "Well," Grant continued, "Pearl seems to be sleeping soundly, think she'll be up to moving tomorrow morning?"

"She should be." A touch of the tension of the last few moments still colored Neal's voice as he answered.

"Great, then you three can head back tomorrow," Charlie said without shifting his eyes from the small fire.

"Stupid doesn't suite you, Charlie," LB muttered darkly, rising to her feet. Her patience ran deep, but when it did run out she had an attitude, temper and mouth to rival some of the most notorious. At this moment in time, she was well beyond her wits end, this evenings events had simply been the last thing to overload her. LB stalked past her dumbfounded cousin and a smirking Ness toward the tent in which Pearl was laying. "Here," she tossed her bag at a grinning Neal, he wasn't even bothering to hide his amusement at LB's telling off of Charlie, "set up our bed rolls while I sit with Pearl for a bit."

"Here you are, milady," Grant held open the tent flap for the ill-tempered girl, bowing as she swept past him, a small grin spreading his lips as well.

"You sound like your mom when you sing," Charlie said quietly, he stood just inside the dimly lit tent, about half an hour had passed since LB had retreated within.

The girl didn't turn around, but continued stroking her unconscious cousin's hand, "remember when she used to sing us that song?" Pearl referred to the song she'd been singing when Charlie walked in, "when Daddy and your parents and the others were away?"

"I remember. I also remember her making me swear to protect you two," he replied to the girl who was really more of a second baby sister to him than anything else.

"You can't protect people who don't want your protection, and you can't lock us up to try to keep us safe. If you try to take away our ability to fight, or help, or protect ourselves, you're just going to make us vulnerable."

"I know,"

"You're just going to- wait, you know?"

"I know, Bianca," Charlie's voice was firm but kind, not harsh, as he spoke her rarely used given name, "I know you're right. I know you guys aren't going back. I'm not even sure you could at this point anyway. I even know that Neal cares about you both and would do anything to protect you two."

"You still don't like him, though," a small smile played across LB's lips as she finally turned to Charlie.

"Neal is a good guy, for a son of Apollo," Charlie said with a shrug, and a tone of voice that ended that line of conversation.

"At least that's a concession." LB said as she turned back to Pearl.

"Go get some sleep, LB, I'll sit with her, you look dead on your feet."

"I think I would know if that were the case," LB replied, but she pressed her lips to Pearl's cheek and rose to her feet with no other resistance, "just don't yell at her if she wakes up." She stretched to her tip toes to hug Charlie and give him peek to match his sisters before exiting the tent, "Goodnight Ness. Grant." She said with a small smile as she walked past the two to the second tent Neal had set up.

A/N There you be. Questions, comments, opinions, anything you feel so moved as to share with me. I love discussing stories, be they mine or others (I'm a total book club girl), so heck, review, PM anything you feel compelled.

Thank you for your time and interest. I hope you enjoyed!
Miette