Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Percy Jackson or any of his friends?

I believe in you

I'll give up everything just to find you

I have to be with you

To live

To breathe

You're taking over me!

-Taking Over Me, Evanescence

Rrrriiiippp! That was the only sound heard in the Temple of Jupiter as the camp's augur heartlessly took the life of another innocent teddy bear. Thinking this, he murmured to himself, "I should be arrested for my crimes against stuffed-toy kind." The joke against himself should've made him chuckle, but he glanced over his shoulder and his stomach became tied into a knot. He silently cursed himself for even daring to try that joke at a time like this. All it did was bring back painful memories.

Flashback:

"Hey there, Tavvy!" A slightly younger, much more innocent version of Octavian, just as pale and scrawny and still sporting a belt with soon-to-be-mutilated Teddy Bears hanging off of it, turned around and met a happily familiar pair of blue eyes. A teensy smile dared to squeeze itself onto his usually scowling face.

"Hello, Preator. I just finished one of my auguries"

Said preator raised an eyebrow. "And?"

For a split second, Octavian panicked. His visions, though some were convinced were based on his own opinions and beliefs, were completely legitimate. Every night, he would go to sleep, facing nightmares that would even scare the living daylights out of Chuck Norris, and wake up in cold sweat, mind splitting headaches flowing in rapid currents through his head. Most of the time, he couldn't repeat what he saw, especially not this time. Not to Jason. How could he explain to him that he saw his death? That, in a matter of days, he would disappear never to return again. He was the one person at camp that would treat him like an actual person. Not the crazy augur boy or the power-hungry, lying psychopath. No. He treated him like Octavian, and he couldn't risk losing that. He couldn't let that go.

Taking a deep breath, Octavian shook his head. "It's... it's unclear, as usual. Said something along the lines of 'You will lose something of value in weeks to come.'. Either that, or 'Sue will loop Swedish vultures in wolfbane.'. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure the first one is more likely."

"Unless we get a new camper named Sue who has a grudge against Swedish vultures." Jason leaned against the wall and smirked as his taller companion gave a short laugh and turned his back to him to keep examining the poor teddy bear's entrails. The recently named preator took advantage of this lovely new view and eyed him up and down, finally resting his eyes on the augur's nice, round ass. A fact know to nearly nobody other than his closest friends, the son of Jupiter had had his eyes on him for a months now. Jason licked his lips as he pondered whether now was the time to bring that fact into light or if it was a better idea to remain in the dark.

"You know," Octavian said, snapping Jason out of his thoughts, "Sometimes I creep myself out with the whole 'cut-open-stuffed-animals-to-tell-the-future thing'."

"Yeah. You should be arrested for your crimes against stuffed animal kind." Octavian smiled again and it sent little butterflies flying around in his stomach. Octavian just looked so beautiful right then. His blue eyes sparkling from amusement, his shiny golden hair brushing against his strong cheekbones at the front, and his toga hanging off his shoulder just so. It was enough to drive the son of Jupiter mad with want. 'Screw logic,' he thought, "I need this now.' Pushing himself off the wall, Jason advanced towards Octavian who, in return, started backing up.

"Umm... Jason.. What are you... Mmph!" He was cut off as a pair of electrifyingly warm lips covered his own. His eyes widened in shock and his limbs refused to move, like someone had stuck Krazy Glue in them. They stood like that for a short eternity, Octavian's eyes wide open in shock and Jason's lips pressed firmly against his own, until the augur decided that the kiss felt... nice and started kissing back. Rightfully assuming that the augur was succumbing to him, Jason took it a step further and pinned him to a wall by his wrists.

The son of Jupiter bravely traced the bottom of the legacy's lips with his tongue. Octavian gasped at the new sensation, which Jason quickly took advantage of and plunged his tongue into his mouth. He tongued the inside of his mouth profusely, finding all of the spots that made the taller male moan with pleasure. Eventually he pulled away, making the augur release a whine of displeasure. Said displeasure didn't last long, though, as the Preator's buried his face into his neck and latched down where his neck met his collar bone.

The augur threw his head back and moaned, grasping Jason's hair with one hand as he continued to bite, lick, and suck at his neck in what was undoubtedly going to be a series of hickeys tomorrow. There was a part of him, an extremely foggy part in the back of his mind, that asked him why he was acting like this, all vulnerable and powerless. This wasn't like him at all, and he was sure that if he were to tell anybody, they wouldn't believe a word of it. He was usually so forceful, twisting his words to make him get his place on top, and seeing that everything went his way or no way. That was regular Octavian. Then there was the Jason Octavian, the one only the blonde preator got to see. 'That's what it is,' he mentally decided. 'He's the preator. I'm supposed to do what he says.'

Suddenly, the door creaked open. "Hey, Octavian? Have you seen Jason? He was supposed to meet Reyna at the...oh!"

In such synchronization that it was scary, both boys looked at the door to see a short blonde girl dressed in a standard purple tee and a dove tattooed onto her arm with 9 (soon to be ten. Yay!) stripes underneath it. It was the Fifth Cohort Centurion, and personal friend of Jason's, Gwendolyn. Her vivid blue eyes were bugged and her mouth was in a little 'O' shape. Jason slowly let go of Octavian's wrists and they both dropped their arms to their sides. The silent staring showdown that followed took all of eternity before the 'O' on Gwen's face stretched out into a 'U' and she started cracking up laughing.

"Ha! You.. you two are hilarious! Aw, man, you should've seen your faces! Hahaha! Oh, Jupiter, that was priceless! Hahaha!" Both boys looked at each other and blushed madly. Come on, of course your going to get embarrassed if you get caught making out with someone. It had nothing to do with Jason or the fact that Gwen was laughing. At least that was what Octavian told himself.

After her laughter died down enough for her to calmly speak again, even though the smile that was on her face was waaaay too big to be humanly possible, her eyes jumped back and forth between the boys. "So, are you two together now or something? Should I let Reyna know you're off the market, Jason?"

"No!" he yelled, making the others' hearts stop. Seeing the effect his outburst had on his friends, he quickly added in a softer tone "I... I mean, not now. I'm not sure yet." Taking a deep breath, he turned toward the door. "You said Reyna was waiting for me? Fine. Let's go." With that, he began to walk out the door, leaving a confused Gwen and a flustered Octavian behind. After a momentary shock, he noticed that Gwen was looking at him, studying him like some sort of complicated blueprint or, since she was a daughter of Venus, like a new clothing line. Having her look at him in such an arcane manner made him extremely uncomfortable and he shifted back and forth on his feet nervously. Eventually, Gwen pursed her lips and nodded, like she had come to a disappointing conclusion, and held out her hand.

"Come on, Octavian. You gotta give me my next stripe. This is my 10th year in the legion, after all." He hesitantly took her outstretched hand and she gripped it hard, yanking him along until he was able to catch up with her. It may have been his imagination, but he could've sworn that she whispered to him "I am so sorry."

That night, when he went to sleep, Octavian decided that he would confront Jason tomorrow, this time with more power and no surrendering. Little did he know that when he awoke, it would be too late. Jason would already be gone, vanished off the face of the earth.

End Flashback.

Octavian had thought he would never see Jason again, and it infuriated him. It infuriated him that he left him. It infuriated him that he never got to set things straight. But what infuriated him most was that, even though he infuriated him so much, he was in love with the son of Jupiter, hopelessly at that. In order to try and settle his inner turmoil, the augur had begun to heartlessly covet after the open preator position and replace his lover's power in cold blood, like he had never even come around. That just made him hurt more, though, especially when that annoying little bitch Reyna turned down his each and every request and suggestion with an offhand wave. That didn't make someone as determined as him stop, though, and he continued to pester her about the preatorship, making her job harder and harder until she was going to collapse if she didn't have a partner. Unfortunately, just when he was about to step up and nobly volunteer to fill the position, that Percy came along. He went on his silly little quest and conveniently came back in time to save the camp, stealing his position and the hearts of the Roman people from him at the same time. The worst part was that he wasn't even a Roman! His job had been stolen by a greacus! A Greek! Jason, he assured himself, would've been ashamed at the sheer stupidity of his people.

He was destined to be severely disappointed, though. Just that morning, a gigantic bronze warship carrying four demigods had parked itself right above New Rome. One of those demigods was Jason. When he saw him, his heart did a little happy dance, much to his embarrassment, broke a little, and was immediately overrun by a dark shroud of anger and self doubt. He had been wrong. Jason had not died and he did return. Had the gods lied to him? Had he read the message wrong? Or was all of this tragedy sure to come in the near future? At the moment he didn't care. Jason was back, and that was all that mattered to him right then. That and keeping the greeks in order and out of the camp. That was important, too.

If his heart had broken a little when Jason came back, it was going to shatter momentarily. After being abused by Reyna and her colleague, Percy, he had basically been told to scram and 'burn his bears'. He looked back once and saw the greek girl, (Piper, was it?), grasp onto his hand and kiss him quickly on the cheek. He quickly looked away and ran the rest of the way to the temple where nobody could see him cry if he ended up needing to.

Breathing heavily, Octavian yanked a bear off of his belt and ripped it open viciously. "I should be arrested for my crimes against stuffed-animal kind." he tried to joke. His stomach twisted into a knot in response and he could feel his heart begin to bleed. He tightened his grip on the knife in his hand and threw the mangled carcass on the ground. It just wasn't fair! The one person he could trust to treat him like a person, the one person he knew he actually cared about, chose the enemy's side. Betrayed them all. It wasn't fair.

"He hasn't betrayed anyone yet, Octavian. And you don't know that they're enemies. They just showed up, for goodness sake!" He jumped and whirled around to see a familiar ex-centurion, Gwendolyn the Zombie Girl. A pang of guilt rushed through him as he thought of her new nickname, knowing that it was truly was his fault, having stabbed her with a pilum out of anger and frustration a day before the quest. On a normal day, he would've scowled at her and told her to leave him be, but today he felt like he needed someone, anyone, there since he obviously did not have anyone anymore.

He opened his mouth to say something, but she put a finger to his lips and looked into his eyes, the same studious way she had long ago, like she was looking into his very soul and picking apart his entire being. "It's Jason, isn't it? Jason and that girl, his girlfriend. Not to mention he was chumming around with the greeks on the warship. You feel that he has betrayed someone, Octavian. That is obvious. But, you have to realize that he hasn't betrayed anyone yet. Anyone but you."

Octavian's eyes began to sting and he looked away. She was right. Jason hadn't betrayed anyone yet, except for him. He was friendly with the greeks, didn't defend him while he was being verbally attacked by that Jackson boy, and he was obviously going out with that Piper girl who had given him a kiss earlier. He may not be dead, but he wasn't Jason. The prophecy had come true after all. The Jason he loved had disappeared that afternoon and had never come back. He felt a single rebellious drop of warm, salty water drip from his eye and run halfway down his face before he brushed it off.

"I know," he choked. "I know." Gwen's eyes widened and she came up behind him, wrapping her arms around him. So out of character, Octavian choked and let a few more tears fall until he was flat out sobbing into the ex-centurion's arms. All of the stress, pressure, and agony he had contained since his disappearance was all let out at that moment. The prayers he had sent to the gods he reclaimed, every biting word he had ever spoken to Reyna he took back, and every second he used thinking of ways to become preator turned back because it all had not been worth it if his heart was destined to shatter anyways.

After a few minutes, his stream of tears had come to an end and he pushed away from Gwen. Embarrassed, he looked at the ground. "T... Thanks."

Gwen smiled. "No problem." She stood up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his forehead. Taking advantage of his surprised state, she wiped away the streaks on his face and handed him his teddy bear. "Now, I would suggest you burn this baby quick and catch up with the others."

"Alright"

Gwen smiled and turned to leave before hesitating and turning back to the augur. "There are people who care about you, Octavian. Never forget that, alright?"

He looked curiously at Gwen, then at the teddy bear in his hand. Slowly, a smile began to form on his face and stretched to an almost inhuman size, like the one Gwen had given him so long ago. "Alright." On that happy note, Gwen turned back around and skipped away, leaving Octavian alone in the temple once again.

He turned his attention back to the bear and threw it into a fire, sat down on the floor, and watched it burn. While watching it, he couldn't help feeling... drawn to the fire. That bear had been so innocent before it had been cut open and torn apart beyond fixing. Now there was only one use for it, and that was for it to burn. It was just like him in that way. He used to be so innocent before he had been chewed up and ripped apart so viciously. Now, what else was there for him to do but burn like this bear?

He reached for the fire and just when his fingertips were about to be scorched by the flame, something stopped him. At first he thought it was fear, but then he realized that it was his fate. Perhaps he was not quite as hopelessly broken as he had originally thought. Perhaps, against all odds, Gwen had been able to fix him enough to keep him useful. Perhaps there was something else he needed to do, something different he was destined to become. Or, perhaps, he was simply afraid. The Prophecy of Seven was unraveling, wasn't it? He pondered this for a moment, the heat from the flames licking at his fingertips, until the bear was nothing but a pile of smoldering ashes. Taking a deep breath, Octavian stood and walked out the door to join Reyna and the Greeks in the forum and discuss the quest. The quest he was sure would end a disaster.

Ok, so, I've realized 3 things lately.
1) Everyone seems to hate Octavian with a passion
2) There isn't a lot of Jason/Octavian slash
3) I don't have a third thing
So, I decided to do something about them. At least the first two. Still not so sure about the third.
I happen to love Octavian with the passion most people despise him with, so he probably will be a little (or a lot) OOC. On second thought, almost everyone is the slightest bit OOC. Oh well.

This is my very first fanfiction (legitly!), so please don't be too hard on me if you don't like it. If you do like it, you rock and are my new best friend! Yayz! Either way, I encourage you to leave a review.

Feel free to leave suggestions about which couple to ship next! I will do all types of couples (slash,femslash,and regular couples as well). Try to be original, though. I always love a challenge. Thank you!
-jumpingjaxx13