PIPER

X

Piper wrapped her arms tightly around Jason's torso, closing her eyes and holding on for dear life. (Well, she wasn't sure how dear it was after just a couple of days back in the realm of the living…)
She pressed her face into his back harder, breathing in his comforting fresh-air-and-soap scent, and tried desperately not to think about her current situation in case her brain exploded.

She was currently sitting behind Jason on a rusty old motorbike Leo had found on the side of the road and "fixed up". They had emerged from the old entrance to the camp – the tunnel surprisingly still mostly intact, if a little muddy and smelly – to a sight that had caused Leo's face to light up.

There had evidently been a massive pile up on the road just before (or after?) the road had been closed, and no one had bothered to clean up the mess. Piper was very glad they didn't find anything more natural left behind. Leo had taken one look at the pile of ancient, rusted, and broken parts before diving in – grateful to get back to his element. No one else looked quite as enthusiastic – it wasn't that they didn't trust Leo, it was just… he might have been a little out of practice after 600 years in an incorporeal state.

But they hadn't died (again) yet, and they were now barrelling down the road much faster than the speed limit. Annabeth and Percy sat on a second fixer-upper motorbike, while Leo hitched a ride on Arion with Hazel (not inspiring much confidence in his handiwork) and Frank soared overhead as an eagle.

'Sorry!' Jason yelled over his shoulder to her as he turned sharply to avoid a massive pothole Piper didn't bother to answer – the wind would have snatched the words from her mouth before she could finish anyway – squeezing him slightly in acceptance of the apology. She was extremely grateful that they appeared to be the only traffic on the road.

When they – finally – slowed to a stop in an out of the way alley in the bay area Piper got off that motorbike as fast as she could, stretching her cramped legs, cursing under her breath, and silently thank Hephaestus for their survival. She turned to see Percy, Annabeth, and Jason doing the same while Leo bustled around looking completely unfazed and pulling stuff out of his tool belt.

Piper stood in a daze as everyone worked to set up camp around her. She was vaguely aware of Percy and Annabeth slipping into one of the buildings leading on to the alley with their weapons out – no doubt to scout for monsters and mortals – while Jason and Frank took in an aerial view of their immediate surroundings. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and went to check on Hazel. The smaller girl was standing too still.

"Hey Hazel, you ok?"

"Yeah Pipes, I'm ok… I just…"

Piper frowned as Hazel trailed off, looking into the distance. "If you're sure… Do you want to come help me prevent Leo killing himself before he can make us something to eat?

Hazel laughed, if it was a little forced, and walked back towards the fire that had sprung up in the middle of the alley.

"So." Percy licked some hot sauce off his fingers. "These buildings-" he paused gesture to the structures towering around them and nearly lost half the filling in his taco "-appear to be completely deserted. I'm not sure what that means but since all of Annabeth's theories are extremely depressing I think we should get all the other depressing stuff out of the way first. Frank – what did the air scouting reveal?"

If Jason was annoyed that Percy hadn't asked him, he hid it well enough that even Piper couldn't tell. The seven of them were sitting on mismatched furniture looted from the houses around a fire Leo had used to cook his famous veggie quest tacos. It felt so familiar, yet so off at the same time.

"Just more of the same. Everything seems to be completely abandoned. And like Annabeth was saying, I doubt that's a good sign. Especially given what Hazel told me."

Percy, Annabeth and Leo immediately turned to look at the girl in question. Piper and Jason took just a second longer, but she knew they were both thinking the same thing. When did their friends turn into this well-oiled war machine?

Hazel swallowed visibly before starting to speak. "I tried to summon the Mist to blanket us, cover the fact that we're here, like I used to but when I reached for it… It just wasn't there. I couldn't summon it, shape it, manipulate it, anything."

"I'm sure you're just a bit out of practise Hazel." Piper jumped in before the conversation shifted yet again. "You'll figure it out." Hazel nodded, but didn't look completely reassured.

"We need a plan for tomorrow." Annabeth stood up and began to pace around the fire in a tight circle as she talked. "We should assume that the base will still be in the garden of Hesperides, so we'll need to get there for dawn. Probably take the motorbikes – we need to have a quick exit strategy." Piper groaned internally at this, but knew her friend was right. There was no point interrupting Annabeth when she got like this anyway. "Once we reach the base, timing will be vital. We need to make it out at sunset if we have hostages with us, so we don't want to storm in too early. Actually, scratch the motorbikes. Leo, do you think you could whip up a couple of cars for us?"

As Annabeth continued to lay out her long, complicated plan Piper felt that sense of offness grow exponentially. She listened as they picked through the plan, refining it and tweaking it, without contributing much, but when they finished finalising the details and fell silent as it started to get properly dark, she spoke up.

"Guys, we need to talk." Everyone immediately turned to look at her, and Piper suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. Get yourself together – these are your friends! Although Annabeth looked a little surprised she nodded, encouraging Piper to keep talking. Piper stood up and started pacing, tracing the path Annabeth had been taking earlier.

"I'm not sure if everyone else can feel it, but there's just something not quite right with us at the moment. Like, in Elysium we never really talked about what we went through in the mortal world, or how we died. We just pretended none of that happened and," she paused, trying to think of the right way to convey what she was feeling, "and it's like we don't know how to act around each other anymore. How to act as a team. If we don't talk about this, it will kill us all eventually."

"You're definitely right Piper. We do need to talk." As Frank spoke, he looked over to Percy. Piper followed his gaze, surprised to see the usually outgoing Percy leaning back in his chair, staring at the ground.

"Definitely." Annabeth agreed, looking worried and weirdly shaken given what piper had been saying. "But not now. We'll just have to do our best tomorrow, and we can talk later. But we should probably go to sleep now – we'll need to get up early tomorrow."

When Annabeth finished talking there was a general noise of agreement before everyone started to get ready to sleep: organising a watch schedule; looking sleeping bags out of rucksacks; picking weapons to keep close at hand.

"Jason, are you ok?" He had been very quiet since they had all talked, and was now sitting beside Piper on her sleeping bag.

"Yeah, I'm fine… It's just…" Piper looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. "Look, I don't want to think about it now. We need some sleep if we're going to pull off Annabeth's insane plan tomorrow." Upon seeing the look on Piper's face he smiled at her. "I promise I will tell you everything if we survive tomorrow."

She smiled at him tightly, and he leaned down to kiss her quickly on the cheek. "Come on, let's get some sleep." He pulled her down, before getting into his own bed. She smiled as she watched Percy and Annabeth sneak into one of the buildings surrounding the alley before she managed to fall asleep, still holding Jason's hand.