A/N: I wrote this chapter about a year ago. Updates will be slow, unfortunately. This chapter functions more as a prologue than anything. Enjoy!

The Building of the Argo II

I- Jason

He was in a cramped, dingy room and his hands were tied behind his back and his feet were tied together. He tried to break them free to no avail. Growling, he looked up from his predicament to see Piper and Leo both struggling with their own.

Piper was grimacing as she tried to work the knot while Leo, who had handcuffs on, was trying to break the chain. Each of them had puffy faces and dried blood on their skin and shirts.

"What happened?" he asked the two.

When she noticed him, Piper's expression changed to relief, happiness, and hope. Jason thought it looked sort of weird considering their predicament.

Piper sighed. "We were attacked from behind, none of us expected it. They got you pretty fast"

Jason felt his gut sink. Just like that, he had been out of the count. But he couldn't even remember anything. He was with Piper and Leo for…well he wasn't quite sure why he was with them.

"Hey, don't sweat it man," Leo said, seeing his expression. "They were wicked tough, Piper and I held out for a while, but, well as you can see it didn't work. There's nothing you could have done."

"He's right, Jason," Piper said softly. "But that doesn't mean you can't help us now. Can you move over here?"

Jason nodded and slowly scooted over to Piper. "We're thinking Leo can burn off our ropes," Piper explained. "He can't get out of his own handcuffs or anything, but maybe he can get us out."

"But Piper's stuck over there," Leo said, "so we couldn't try it out. I don't know why you can move, but if you can that's good news for us."

Jason felt his back tingle. Things were never this easy, not if you were a halfblood. But he figured it was as good a plan as any, so he scooted over to Leo. Leo bit his lip in concentration and summoned a flame on his finger.

"Now I can't see where this is, so just scoot over to behind me so our backs are facing each other," Leo said.

Jason did what he was told, and Piper spotted them. "Okay, a bit closer. Now Jason move down just an inch."

Jason did and hissed in pain as his hand was left in the fire. Immediately, the fire went out and Piper grew pale and shaky. "Sorry Jason!"

"No problem," Jason said through gritted teeth. "Let's just get this done, the sooner we get out of this place, the better."

Piper nodded and Leo lit the small flame again. This time, Piper was more cautious giving the instructions, and while Jason was glad that she was being careful so he wouldn't be burned again, he wished she would hurry up a bit.

Slowly, he lowered his hands towards the flame and it was successful. He felt his rope smoldering and knew he would be free in a few more seconds. However, fate seemed to not be on his side today, as he heard footsteps coming from the outside of their room.

Leo extinguished his flame quickly. "Jason," he hissed quietly, "go back to where you were."

"What?" He asked.

"Leo's right," Piper said. "Look, you were out of the count, so they didn't tie you up as well since there was nothing you could do, but they might inspect you if they think that you're awake. So if you're still knocked out, they won't do anything to you. We need you to help us escape."

Jason nodded and quickly went back to the wall where he was, making sure his partially burned rope was concealed between the cement and his back.

Just as he got back into position, with his head down, the door slammed open. A strong voice said, "I have some questions that need answered." Jason resisted the urge to open his eyes to see their captor. He heard the footsteps walking over to him.

"Hey, what are you doing, man?" Leo asked.

Whoever was in the room gave no answer as he walked closer to Jason. Jason willed himself to keep breathing normally and act as if he didn't notice the presence.

Suddenly, a swift kick was delivered to his stomach. He felt as his body fell over but was careful that the rope was not shown openly.

Piper let out a pained gasp as she watched him, he presumed. "What was that for?" she shouted.

The man turned and walked in the opposite direction, toward where Jason remembered Piper to be. Behind his back, he clenched his hands into fists. If these people hurt Piper…

However, Piper was more on the uptake. "Don't you want to let us go?" she asked. "Hostages are such a hassle, wouldn't it be easier if you just set us free?"

The man stopped in his tracks and Jason smiled inwardly. Atta-girl Piper, he thought, way to go.

"Oh, what do we have here?" the man asked. "A daughter of Aphrodite. And a charmspeaker no less. We'll have to take care of this." Jason heard the sound of a finger snapping and smaller feet walking. Then, there was the unmistakable sound of duct tape being ripped off and place somewhere. He could hear Piper shouting, but it was unintelligible.

Jason felt the rage inside him growing. These people had the nerve to kidnap him and his friends and to duct tape Piper's mouth. There was no way that these sick people were going to get through any confrontation alive, not if Jason had his say.

"Dude! " Leo shouted, "not cool."

He heard the sound of a boot hit flesh and a grunt of pain from Leo. However, he also felt heat emitting and bit back a cry that burned in his throat of 'no you idiot.'

But Leo not reacting instantly with fire was like Jason not blushing when he accidentally caught Piper's eye. The person in the room apparently didn't like being shot at with flames and before Jason knew it, he heard something hard hitting something else hard, with a muffled cry from Piper.

Jason knew he shouldn't have, but he had to look to see what was happening. A figure stood with his back to Jason and a child stood by the figure (or at least something that was child sized). He could vaguely make out Leo's prone form lying a few feet in front of them, and the large figure softly kicked Leo, making the body roll over onto its back.

The small figure looked up at the first and the first nodded to it. The small figure bent down and picked Leo up.

Piper screamed loudly, her eyes flashing. Jason didn't know it was possible to be that loud while your mouth was duct taped. The figure turned to her and spoke in a deep voice. "We have some questions to ask your little group. He just volunteered himself."

Piper let out another muffled yell and their two captors walked out of the room, with Leo's head bobbing like a bobble head.

As soon as the door slammed, Piper looked over at Jason. Their eyes met (Jason didn't blush much this time. It must have been the gravity of the situation). "I think Leo burned enough of the rope off so that I can break through it now," Jason said.

Piper nodded her approval. He grit his teeth and pulled against the rope. He could feel it fraying more and starting to break. Finally, the rope came undone. Smiling triumphantly, he rubbed his wrists and untied his feet, which took a few minutes.

Once he was fully untied, he ran over to Piper. Gently, he removed the tape from over her mouth. "I think I've seen this movie," she said and sent him a strained smile.

He gave her an equally strained laugh and started untying her hands. As soon as her arms were untied, she went at her leg bindings and as soon as her legs were untied, she turned around and gave him a giant hug.

"What's our plan?" she asked once they separated.

"We have to wait for Leo to get back," Jason said. "And then when they come to drop him off, if they go for one of us, we attack. If they don't go for one of us, I say we wait."

Piper nodded and started fiddling with her hair. "How long do you think it'll take?" she asked. "You know, for them to be done with Leo. What do you think they're doing to him?"

Jason shook his head. "I don't know, but it probably won't be that long and I'm sure he's fine. Leo's a big boy; he can handle himself and take care of things. As for now, I say we should lie down and get some rest."

Piper nodded but neither of them went to sleep. Jason kept thinking about what was happening. When the man burst into the room and mentioned questioning someone, it had sounded like a bad thing.

This, Leo being taken, seemed like his worst nightmare, but what had he expected? This, a voice in his head said. You knew it would be something like this. So what was he feeling now? Relieved? Of course he wasn't. He would never wish something like this on Leo, not on anyone.

But maybe he was thankful that it wasn't him. Of course he was glad it wasn't himself. And he had definitely been afraid that it would have been Piper. So was Leo being taken the best case scenario of all the worst case scenarios? The lesser evil?

He didn't know, and he felt awful about it.

Thoughts like this haunted his time, and he was sure that they were haunting Piper's thoughts too. But this wasn't one of those things he wanted to talk about it.

It doesn't matter, he told himself. Because Leo will be fine, a little worse for wear, but fine.

The time Leo was gone went by gruelingly slow. Finally, they heard footsteps coming from it. Piper gently put the duct tape across her mouth so that it appeared to be still shut and Jason leaned back against his wall. He shut his eyes, as did Piper since they both wanted to look asleep. Jason hoped they wouldn't try to test it again; he really didn't want to be kicked.

There was a small grunt and something hit the floor. The door closed again and the footsteps got more and more quiet. Once he couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, he slowly opened his eyes to make sure no one had stuck around inside the room.

What he saw was much worse, and as her eyes opened, he heard Piper gasp. Numbly, he stumbled towards a motionless body on the floor.

It was Leo.

His eyes were open and Jason couldn't tell if he looked brave or scared or hurt. Because he only knew one thing in that moment.

Leo Valdez was dead.