(A/N) Here is the much awaited sequel! I am so glad that you wanted this to become a trilogy. Just thank you! A thousand times thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO
Percy POV
"Jason?" I asked and the blonde turned to me, his blue eye shining. Over his left eye a baby blue eye patch encrusted with silver studs concealed the hollow socket where he's gauged his own eye out with a spoon. That had been last summer when he's been infected with a horrible disease; the Shadow's Song.
The Shadow's Song was not something anyone at Camp Half-Blood liked to talk about. It reduced its victims to even less than an animal by dispatching a sort of parasitic manifestation of itself into the victim's minds. There it either asked for control or took it by force, ultimately taking over of the person's body. Piper, Leo, and I had luckily found the cure, but we had almost run out of time. Jason had been left scarred.
He flinched away from everyone's touch and avoided situations that involved confronting other campers. I tried to reach out to him, but I knew that he had to heal on his own time. I would never know what it was like to be so sick you lost your mind…until that evening.
The campfire blazed gold, yellow, and red and its flames leaped over twelve feet high. The Apollo campers joyously led us in a cheesy sing-a-longs and s'mores were passed around. Everyone was so happy; nothing could spoil the mood at the moment. Jason daintily nibbled at his s'more. Luckily, he had gained weight; he didn't eat for the length of the time the Shadow's Song controlled him and he had been a skeleton during the first few weeks of recovery.
He had broken up with Piper, but it wasn't a bad breakup. She understood that he couldn't necessarily love anyone after that scarring experience and she would gladly get back together whenever Jason decided he needed her again. We managed to coax Jason into eating more; graciously giving him second servings that he was expected to finish even if he was full. He was still skinnier than before, though, and he'd never be the same.
He had lost two fingers and his eye, and long scars covered his body. His missing fingers had been replaced by fake ones, but you could hardly tell the difference between his fake and real fingers. His eye patch was a constant reminder of those dark days, but he managed to get over the obstacles. Jason smiled at me and tilted his head slightly to the side.
"Yes, Percy?" he asked and took another delicate nibble of his s'more. I raised my eyebrows at him and he groaned.
"But I'm not hungry." He complained.
"Finish it."
"I don't think your guys' method the healthiest way to gain weight."
"I don't care. Finish it."
Jason groaned again and forced the entire s'more down. He burped and clutched his abdomen, as if it were difficult to even stomach a s'more. I chuckled and Jason shot me a withering look.
"So, as you were saying before you brutally forced me to eat a piece of junk food that I couldn't possible digest?" Jason's voice had a rather irritated tone to it and he was scowling. I had no idea what the fuss was about; the s'mores were delicious and I had no idea why someone wouldn't want to eat them.
"I just wanted to ask how you're doing." I told him sincerely. Jason raised his eyebrows and his scowl turned into a slight downturn of the lips. His scar, which had managed to survive the horrible disease, seemed white in the firelight.
"Good. I guess." He sighed. I chuckled.
"What do you mean by 'I guess'?" I snorted and crossed my arms. Jason only shrugged and that's when Will, who had been handing out the s'mores, saw that Jason had finished his first one. He hurried over with his tray full of treats and offered it to us.
"Want another one?" he asked in a laid-back manner.
"No thanks. I'm full." Jason replied.
"It was a rhetorical question." Will said flatly and placed another s'more into Jason's lap. The son of Jupiter looked up at me, his blue eye distant with concentration as if he were devising some sort of plan.
"I will pay you ten drachmas if you eat this for me." He offered.
"Getting paid to eat food? Awesome." I plucked the s'more out of his hand and wolfed it down in two quick bites. "What if he hands you another one?"
"Ten drachmas for each s'more you eat for me." Jason replied as he placed ten golden Greek coins into my palm. I grinned.
"Deal." I reply. "So, anything going on?" Jason shrugged.
"No, not really. Just normal camp stuff, though climbing the rock wall is hell; the lava keeps raining down on my blind side." The son of Jupiter gestured to the mild burn on his left arm, though it was healing drastically probably due to ambrosia.
"That's gotta hurt." I whistled. I remembered my first days at camp when getting scalded by the climbing-wall lava was a normal occurrence, but I had gotten so well at climbing it I'd forgotten the feeling. God forbid I actually get scorched.
"No shiz." Jason snapped. "Also my capture the flag privileges were confiscated. Chiron says that with my fake fingers and eye patch I'll be more vulnerable and could possibly get killed. Even after that my right to bear arms was taken away as well, for fear that I wouldn't be able to hold it properly and something would happen."
"That sucks." I sighed and Jason nodded in agreement. His head was lowered and his eye was misty.
"I hate being helpless. What's the point of being a demigod when you can't fight monsters? I'm just a burden now. A weak link." His voice cracked. I put a hand on his shoulder and stood up, helping Jason up as well. Chiron raised an eyebrow and I excused us from the campfire. The voices faded as we made our way to the Zeus cabin. I closed the door behind me and sat Jason down on the bed. He was crying now, tears streaming down his cheek. He let out a frustrated cry and tore his eye patch off, tossing it to the side. His eyelid was closed, but I knew that there was nothing behind that except an empty socket.
I gathered him into my arms and he clutched my shirt, sobbing into my shoulder. "It's okay. It's okay." I murmured. The door to the cabin created open a bit and Annabeth poked her head in to check on us. I made a gesture that signaled that my girlfriend should leave, and she nodded and closed the door. Jason had stopped crying, but he was trembling so bad my arms were vibrating just by holding him.
"Want me to leave?" I asked him. Jason shook his head vigorously.
"No. Stay." He pleaded and I hugged him closer to me. I held him tightly and eventually he fell into a rather fitful sleep.
Later the next day I found myself as the captain of the blue team for capture the flag. Annabeth was the captain of the red team, of course, which only made it more difficult to win. Besides her brainiac-ness, it didn't help that she was my girlfriend and knew almost all of my weaknesses.
"All right everyone. Settle down! SETTLE DOWN!" It took several tries, but Chiron managed to quiet the mass of whispering campers. "You all know the rules. Jason and I will be the referees and will help with any injuries. Isn't that right, Jason?"
The son of Jupiter looked down and muttered, "That's right." I knew he really wanted to participate in the actual flag-capturing part. I just thought that Chiron was making things better for Jason just in case he got picked last for teams; nobody would want a disabled camper on their team since they would just be a weakness. It sounds horrible, but it was true.
"Just to let you know, we have released a new monster into the woods. It was recommended by Camp Jupiter, and it's like a tapeworm. We have no idea what it does, but all we know is that it's parasitic." Jason flinched at this and warily checked the ground as if one of the monsters was lurking right by his feet. Chiron continued, "Campers from Camp Jupiter usually caught it early before it could grow inside them, so you can't hesitate to ask for help. With that said, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!" The teams hurriedly departed to go find a place to hide their flag.
I ran beside Clarisse who, sadly, was my second-in-command. I really had no choice. Annabeth was able to choose first and she got all the good kids while I got stuck with all newbies except for Clarisse and Drew. Drew wasn't a real help at all, so that left me with Clarisse as the only experienced fighter.
"So where are we gonna hide this flag, punk?" the daughter of Ares snorted. Her face was obscured by her helmet that sprouted blue plumes and her spear was strapped to her back.
"Got any ideas?" I panted. I had to admit, it was difficult to run in armor. The worst part was that Clarisse and I had to slow down in order to allow the newbies, who were having even more trouble running with armor and weapons, to catch up.
"How about Zeus' fist?" a new Iris camper, Agnes, suggested. I shook my head.
"Annabeth will expect me to hide it there. She knows me like the back of her hand, so we have to do something…unexpected." I replied.
"What about the burrows?" Aidan, a Hephaestus camper, asked.
"The burrows?" Clarisse and I questioned in unison. We had never heard of these 'burrows' before. Was he talking about a rodent burrow or something?
"The burrows is the name for all of the unexplored tunnels in Bunker 9, and there are a lot of them. Bunker 9 is fair game, right?" Aidan told us. Clarisse and I exchanged a look.
"It has to be in plain sight." Agnes reminded us and the rest of the team muttered in agreement.
"How about this? Clarisse, you go hide the flag in a position that may be temporary. I'll go scout these 'burrows' and see if they are fair game, since Bunker 9 has become a part of where you can hide the flag." I suggested. Everyone nodded in agreement and set off, while I picked my way towards Bunker 9. My senses were high on alert for monsters and enemy campers, but I wasn't confronted as I approached the large stone wall.
Leo had made sure that everyone could open the door and not just him and thanks to a special switch it was made possible. The door swung open without even the slightest of sounds, which was strange due to its large size. I crept inside and the door swung closed behind me, momentarily shrouding me in complete darkness. Then the lights flickered on and the gigantic room was illuminated with a white-yellow haze.
Unfinished projects, both new and old, were scattered across the table. Festus lay motionless on his platform, his red eyes dull. Leo had disabled him for some upgrades, but it had been more difficult than usual because Piper had woken him up all those years ago. I almost wished that the bronze dragon was up and running; his company would've blown away the building unease that sat like a lead ball in my stomach. Something bad was going to happen. My senses were tingling, but I didn't sense any monsters around.
It was eerily quiet and only the sounds of my footsteps echoing throughout the complex could be heard. Maps and charts and blueprints of unmade inventions hung on the walls and were scattered across the table. Some of the pages were yellowing from age, but some were fresh and new. I got a glimpse at a walking, talking mechanical dog that Leo planned on making, though I wasn't sure what my opinions were about that. Of course, a mechanical dog was cool, but if this dog was going to be anything like Arum and Argentum and on top of that could talk, then it would be a little creepy, not to mention disturbing.
Ringing began to sound in my ears as the silence covered the room in a thick blanket. I nearly called out just to hear the sound of my own voice, but I decided against it. I turned and saw a tunnel that branched off of the main bunker. It was dark as hell in there and I couldn't see two feet into it. A wooden board with the word 'Unexplored' was nailed over the entrance. It must've been one of the burrows. I gulped. It didn't look all that friendly in there and who knows what could be lurking in the shadows. I calmed myself and steeled my nerves. This was Bunker 9; the impenetrable Bunker 9 that no monster could even dream of getting into.
I grabbed a flashlight that was just sitting around on one of the tables and flicked it on. I braced myself just in case it exploded or something, but it was just a regular flashlight. I waved the yellow beam of light around the walls and floor as I entered the burrow. If we put the flag here, it wasn't necessarily not in plain sight. Anyone would be able to see it, it was just that it would be too dark to do so. Leo should really think of installing some lights in here. This place is freaking me out. I thought. The walls, instead of being concrete like the walls of the main bunker, were earthen. I remembered the roiling earth as Gaea awoke and the muskeg that trapped me. I began to panic, but I told myself that Gaea was asleep once more; that nobody was going to hear from her again, but I couldn't keep away my unease.
The light behind me faded and when I turned around that light from the main bunker was but a yellow square in the wall far behind me. I desperately tried to steady my breathing and my heart rate, but to no prevail. I walked and walked until the main bunker was long gone, the light from the flashlight as my only guide. How far does this place go? I asked myself. Just a few more feet and I'll turn around. I'll report back that this is a legit and valid place to hide the flag. Just as I turned around, the light from my flashlight dimmed. I only was able to run a few feet before it went out.
The darkness consumed me and I nearly cried out, but I had to stay calm. I continued to run, but the main bunker entrance was nowhere in sight. Did I take a wrong turn? Was there more than one tunnel? The panic overwhelmed me and I had to admit; even demigods can be scared of the dark. That's when I tripped and fell. I let out a cry of alarm escape my lips and I outstretched my arms to cushion the fall. That's when I felt something in my lower leg. It was a sort of burning sensation and then I felt something moving, as if my skin was shifting. After a few short minutes the feeling was gone and I was able to get back up again.
What had that been all about? I shook it off and stood up. Once I put my right foot down, a stinging pain raced up my leg. I had no idea why that happened; I wasn't in any overall pain. It was only when I put pressure on it did it hurt. I shrugged it off because after a few steps I was able to walk normally again and I picked my way through the tunnel until the light of the main bunker illuminated my vision.
I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but I ignored it. I probably just imagined that feeling of shifting skin because I was in the dark and panicking. Little did I know that it was actually more than that.