JASON
"Now," Jason told Leo, "Why do you say that Percy and Annabeth falling into the endless pit of doom your fault?" Now, I wasn't mad, just curios.
Leo shook his head, downy.
For reasons Jason did not understand, Leo blamed himself just as much as all the other seven-now-six. Whenever Jason asked Leo about it, he mumbled things about eyes and food.
Frank and Hazel blamed themselves, as Hazel might've been able to control the rocks and Frank to fly down, and they were both friends with Percy and Annabeth. Jason and Leo were both friends with them both, Jason blamed himself for not flying down, and Leo blamed himself because _. Piper was better friends with Annabeth then any of them, and Nico had a past stretched out farther than anyone on this ship with them.
"Come on," I told Leo. "We're not going to kick you out, it's your ship."
So he reluctantly told Jason how he broke open the fortune cookie, saved Hazel and Frank, and almost killed Percy and Annabeth.
He was ready to spontaneously combust, Jason could feel it.
"Come on. You had no cho – " I was interrupted by screams.
Cursing, me and Leo headed out to the ship deck and saw….
Nothing.
Yep, you all heard me right, everyone was screaming their heads off for no apparent reason.
"Um, guys?" Asked Leo.
No answer. Only screaming.
"UMMM…" I announced, failing to get their attention. I face palmed. "Any ideas?" I asked Leo.
"That was what I was about to say." He admitted.
"Great, so, why don't we push them over?" I suggested.
"Good idea." He complimented.
Suddenly, they stopped screaming.
" – of Death by dawn." Nico finished.
"But we always 'have something happen.'" Hazel complained, then looked at us. "Why are you suddenly here?" She asked, confused.
They all looked puzzled, like when I sprang at Hera and time stopped, like the expression Chiron had.
"Uhh…" I grasped for anything. "We're testing Leo's new teleporting machine!" I blurted. "It only works for short distances!" I added, just in case someone suggested we go to the doors using it.
"Oh. 'Kay." Nico went back to the conversation.
"I'm gonna try something." Leo turned and headed away.
I decided to eavesdrop.
"You sure Annabeth and Percy are alive?" Asked Frank. The big guy was on his way to tears, Jason could sense it.
"Positive." Retorted Nico.
"Check again." Said Hazel hastily.
Nico closed his eyes and concentrated. "Yep, alive."
"Good." Piper sat up, pleased.
Suddenly, an idea struck him in the eyes. "Why doesn't Nico shadow travel us to around the location of the doors? Hazel can help!" I blurted, thanks to my ADHD.
"I was thinking about that," Nico admitted, "but Hazel needs practice before she can shadow travel herself, much less another person."
"So practice!" Frank exclaimed.
"If everyone here agrees." Nico shrugged.
"Sure." Said Piper.
"Why not?" Asked Hazel, though she sounded worried.
"Okay…" Nico led Hazel to another room.
Jason had nothing to do, so he went to his room and thought.
He thought about the scene when Percy and Annabeth fell.
"Her ankle! Cut it!" Yelled Hazel.
I go to Tartarus, you do too! Hissed a hissy (ha, ha, get it?) voice.
I saw what she meant, and I froze in fear.
But Percy didn't know what she meant.
They were both dangling from the cliff, like from one of those dramatic movies.
"Percy!" Annabeth pleaded. "Let go!"
"I'm not leaving you again!" He screamed back, and looked down at her.
All the other people were getting ready to move out and help, but Jason knew they would be too late. Move, move, you stupid… he thought. But he couldn't.
"Nico!" Percy shouted. "Meet us there, promise me!"
Then Percy and Annabeth plummeted to the pit below, into Tartarus, into the endless pit of doom. I, then and there, decreed that I would never, ever, say 'Tartarus' again. I would say, 'the endless pit of doom.'
He didn't know why he did it. It seemed whenever he thought about it, the scene would wipe reality into a smudge and replace it with that part of his life, playing it over, and over, and over. The scene never left him. Like a tapeworm inside a dog, or a flea in a cat, or a liking for enchiladas in a satyr, faun, whatever. It always did that, just to torture him, to tell him his flaw of freezing right then, when he could have prevented almost-deaths.
He almost wished he could be at home in Camp Jupiter. But then he remembered the attack. He had horrible visions of Camp Jupiter murdering Camp Half-Blood in cold blood.
He had to stop them, as well as close the doors.
Sorry. Forgot the disclaimer on the last one. Here it is:
Me: I own nothing. Rick Riordian does.
Leo: I don't want to be owned.
Percy: I don't either.
Me: Hey, I thought you were in the endless pit of doom.
Percy: This is disclaimer! Anyone can be anywhere in disclaimer!
Me: I wish you didn't say that.
Gaea: You are my pawns…
Percy and Leo: Pink bunny slippers?
Annabeth: *cracks up.*
Gaea: Uhh… *Blush.* IGNNORE THOSE!
Aneatus: I WILL RIP YOUR BONES INTO BREAD, YOUR FLESH INTO SOUP!
Percy: You can't kill in disclaimer. *sticks out tongue* And by the way, you sound like the giant in the magic bean nursery tale thing... Pack and the seedstalk?
Leo: No, Sack and the lean stalk!
Jason: You're both wrong! Hack and the bean talk!
Frank: All of you are wrong! Lack and the seen stalk!
Annabeth: You guys are hopeless. Its Jack and the beanstalk, for gods sake!
Percy: This is a very long disclaimer, I think she should say it again, everyone probably forgot why we're doing this.
Annabeth: Oh my gods! Is Percy thinking?!
Percy: Shut up!
Me: AHH! SHUT UP! I DON'T OWN ANYONE HERE, RIORDIAN DOES!
Leo: Pleased.
Me: Shut up.