Thirty-Eight: Reyna

A Mutually Dysfunctional Couple

(or: I Pin an Unruly Cat)

As Reyna watched, Axel dripped some of the blood from his lip onto his sparked lighter. The room glowed with a turquoise hue. She could feel her ears pop, and the lights in the room dimmed.

Up close, the transformation was horrifying. Already, Axel's Mist mask had dropped. But she could see his ears—previously flattened with shame—twitch with his snarl and an emotion she'd never seen on his face. The fur along his hairline seemed to expand, his fangs lengthened, his eyes dilated to the point of blackness.

"How many of my comrades do you think you've slain in battle? How many lost children that I gave a home did you send to the Fields of Punishment without trial or to the slavery of Ares' undead army, while your dead go to the Elysian Fields?" he growled softly, in a gargled tone that barely sounded his own.

As the Mayan spell set in, Reyna could feel Axel's grip on her sword hand tighten. Axel's claws dug into her skin as he pushed her hand backwards, the tip of her sword slowly withdrawing from his chest.

She'd wanted him to fight back. She'd wanted a reason to hit him and battle him like the warrior he was. When he just took the beating, it was like he'd accepted his shame and wrongdoing as an all consuming fact that could destroy his pride, his intelligence, and his skill. All the things that made Axel someone she could...

She wanted to get angry at the thought, but, now, she found herself trembling at the sight of the monster inside Axel. He gave her a wicked grin. "All the products of godly rapes and murder, wishing there was justice in the world, and learning what they gained from their suffering was an eternity more, unless they begged forgiveness of their tormenters and pretended they were not the ones wronged."

Once the sword tip dislodged from Axel's flesh, the Leonis Caput began to twist her wrist. The blade began to twist with it.

He dropped the lighter and reached for the hand she had in his hair. Reyna went to wrench it away, but he caught it and pressed her fingers to the scars on his face. "Each of these represents someone of yours I've murdered. My helm keeps count of those before I kept track."

Reyna tried not to react. She tried not to think of whom each mark belonged to or how much she had loved his scars and had thought about tracing them. Was this really Axel? Some part of her hadn't believed it until she saw it. [footnote 1]

Rage roared in her ears, warding off the fear. Fear magic, she reminded herself, he has fear magic.

Something snaked around Reyna's ankle. She didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

The Leonis Caput's tail ripped her foot off balance.

At the same time, he snapped her wrist outward to ruin her grip. Her gladius dropped.

Reyna twisted in the direction he forced her wrist, to avoid a broken limb. She lost her footing and tumbled backwards.

Axel lunged after, his movements like the fast flicker of a candle. "Did you have the decency to remember my fallen comrades' faces? Did you give them the honor of at least a number, or have you shamed them to the forgetfulness of nightmares?"

Reyna hooked her ankle around the leg of a chair and snapped it between the two of them. Before Axel could get to her, he would have to smack the piece of furniture out of the way.

It gave her enough time to roll to the side and snatch her fallen knife from the ground. Her breath was tight.

She remembered the months of mandatory therapy Camp Jupiter had forced on her and all the other soldiers who had seen combat. All the questions they'd been asking her, and she could never say that the first person she'd killed was her father.

She thought about how uncomfortable it was—the first time she met Axel and, she felt like he understood everything. All the guilt. The helplessness. Before Nico and Coach Gleeson, she didn't think she could talk to anyone about it.

But she couldn't. She couldn't talk about her father and she couldn't focus on enemy casualties. She had to keep her soldiers alive.

"You already know I tried to forget them," she snapped at him as he kicked the chair away.

The Leonis Caput lunged forward again, lifting one corner of its lion cloak like a shield. This time, she was ready to step around his tail, to accommodate for his heavier weight class.

Reyna stabbed.

Axel deflected her knife jab with his cloak while slashing out with his other hand.

She twisted to avoid the danger of his claws.

Up close, she could still smell him. Under the intermix of sweat and singed flesh, there was a spicy chocolate aroma. His expression became deadpan with that stoicism that made her insides boil. She honed in on her anger, wanting to ignore what was lying under it.

This time, when Reyna sliced forward, the Leonis Caput released the Nemean Lion pelt. He let her knife slash into his arm bracer. While her blade skidded off the leather, he grasped the wrist of her knife hand. He pinched her joint between his claws and wretched wrist outward, away from her body. Reyna hissed at the strain on her ligaments. As he completed the wrist lock—again, she fumed—he stepped forward to grab her face with his other hand.

Using the same move twice? Her feelings must have been distracting her more than she was willing to acknowledge. But she was not going to let him claw at her face.

While twisting her right hand away from them, and while grabbing her face, he stepped a foot forward. She could feel him brace his leg into the back of hers to prepare for a leg sweep.

She scowled, and dropped her weight down, to drive her hip into the side of his knee. Simultaneously, she smashed her free hand into the arm that had clutched her jaw.

With his grip on her face broken and his balance off, the Leonis Caput stumbled to the side. Using the opening, Reyna lunged at him, wrapped her arm around his neck, pinching his blood flow between her forearm and bicep.

"Axel!" she snapped, "Can you even hear me?! You know why I killed them! And you know why I won't dwell on it. I refuse to have another mania—"

Axel growled, digging his claws into the leather notches of her bracers. He sharply yanked her arm down to alleviate the pressure she'd put on his neck. She could feel Axel use what little balance he had to drive his hip backwards into hers, to uproot her balance, onto his back, and take her down with him.

They both crashed onto the floor, their heads almost clocking, and their bodies falling adjacent to one another.

Before the Leonis Caput could recover, she ripped his claws from her bracer. Reyna rolled over, snatching up her knife. She wasn't going to let that wrist lock work a third time.

The handle felt slick with sweat as she rolled to pin him and pressed the blade against his throat.

Most people would have struggled. He should have struggled.

But, when Axel raised his hands, it was to clutch his head, not to strike her. His expression contorted in pain that couldn't have come from any of the wounds she'd given him.

When Reyna hesitated, she had to wonder why she brought her father's mania up. Why would she tell this monster anything about that? None of her friends knew that other than those that were there when she confronted her father.

"We were both defending our ideals andnations the way we knew how," Axel's voice wavered between that monstrous gargle and his usual, calm, low voice. His body shuddered under her, like poison was tearing up his insides. "We both did what we thought we had to do. That's why… why I can't hate you for it."

Axel's breath came out in labored gasps. He let go of his head, leaning back onto the ground with a thump. He let his hands flop onto the ground above his head. The motion felt like a diversion, and Reyna pressed the blade tighter.

Axel blinked, glancing down like he hadn't noticed the knife at his throat until then. More of his golden iris was visible again. His expression smoothed to a wistful frown. He sighed, "By the Titans, it would make our lives so much easier if I could just hate you for it."

Reyna wanted to flick her knife between her fingers, or twist it into the table. Currently, Axel's neck was in the way of either, and she wasn't ready to let him go yet, either to Tartarus or out of the tent. She was still shaking with… with what she decided was rage.

Though, some of her anger crumbled. A part of Reyna realized it was dangerous to stay in here and to keep talking.

"Thank you," he said suddenly. "It's a huge relief to know you can wrestle the Leonis Caput down."

"What was that?" she demanded. When he'd done that Mayan spell in her room, she'd been so enflamed with anger, she didn't register how different he looked, and she didn't remember his voice altering. "That sounded like a different person."

Axel puffed up his cheeks and popped them, debating on something. His eyes looked distant as they stared past her, then slowly returned to her face. Finally, he said, "Alabaster knew I woke up from nightmares about Santiago and about what I was doing for Kronos. So he, Hecate, and Mnemosyne [footnote 2] made the Leonis Caput helm as a gift. A way to sort of…" He shrugged. "Temporarily store and alter my memories until I had time to deal with them. They knew I'd reject something like that; I'm too stubborn, so they gave it to me under the guise of an enchanted magic enhancer…"

He sighed, "I wore mine too often."

Reyna wasn't sure she completely understood. Armies often drugged their troops—both during and after atrocities—to keep them compliant and reliable. This sounded like a more complicated version of that tradition. But that was no excuse.

"Can that thing take over at any moment?" She thought about how much she had trusted him alone with her in New Rome and Camp Jupiter. She wondered what it would have been like if he'd shifted during their walk among the citizens of New Rome.

Axel shook his head, looking exhausted. He pressed against the blade enough to slide his hands behind his hair and prop up his head, leaving him—if possible—more prone. "No. Either I have to give it the reigns, or it needs to… to catch me when I'm weak." He released a shaky breath. "Not that it takes away any of the accountability for my actions—it's still me."

Axel may have accepted that as fact, but, after hearing him say it, something about that felt… wrong. She remembered when Leo had been possessed by the eidolon and fired on her home with the warship, something that still made her furious at him, but something she knew he couldn't control.

They stared at one another. Seeing Axel's tufted ears in that neutral position, instead of down in anger or shame, with his arms tucked back like they were relaxing in her living room… it made her feel warm and calm. A stupid feeling.

"I can help you get rid of that mania, if you would want help," he said.

Reyna was taken aback. She wanted to be surprised Axel caught that comment in his prior state, but—

She remembered his dumb crooked smile when they'd been sitting on the aqueducts, "I'm never going to forget when you have something to say."

"It's taken care of," she snapped. Nico's face flashed through her mind, and she clenched the knife hilt. They had better be able to get that kid back.

"Reyna…" Axel frowned. "What we went through was different, but I know what it's like to lead a group of soldiers, that you've trained and adore, to slaughter. I know how painful it can be to do that and maintain what makes you… you. I've always admired how well you did it. I know how lonely that can feel though, and I don't want you to…"

He trailed off.

Feel alone.

Reyna wanted to crack his skull against the ground. She felt like Coach Gleeson had decided to use her chest plate for batting practice. What Kahale had said was wrong. Before, this was something she could shut out, and exploit Axel as a useful resource. Now, he was too prominent in her mind. The worst part: she didn't have a plan, or an instinct on how to act. Reyna thought about how she betrayed the legion to save the others last summer, but this was different. There weren't dozens of campers' lives at stake. Just Axel's life and her emotions. And she'd learned to disregard her personal feelings for her duty.

Maybe Axel could feel how violently she was shaking—he forced a crooked smile and said, "But our sabotage unit was always way better than yours."

Reyna felt her voice crack with her laugh. "You wish," she choked out.

The comment shattered the violent atmosphere. It was like they'd just finished a playful session of training.

He glanced over the technique she used to pin him and how effective it was. "Zero to three. I'm going to be paying for you and your friends' hot chocolate until Zeus decides to end the current age of man."

Reyna followed his gaze and became painfully aware she was straddling him. She regretted the glance. His rapid transformation was infuriating: a minute ago, he was a snarling monster, now he was an eighteen year old boy, flexing his arms behind his head with a shirt too shredded to hide the body of an acrobat. And a forming blush when he noticed her noticing him.

"You act like you've never been threatened by a woman with a knife before," she said, trying to keep her tone even.

Axel laughed airily. He glanced over her again and swallowed. "This is completely unprecedented."

With someone like Axel, she doubted that, though his blush said otherwise. Reyna leaned closer, earning a sharp inhale from him. "Axel, do you remember when I told you that I'd kill you if you slipped up once?"

"I've been waiting to see you fulfill that promise," he said. [footnote 3]

"Are you going to help save Nico and protect this camp?" she asked. Although her mind and heart were reeling from everything, the world grounded back into focus when she remembered what was going on outside the tent.

That wistful frown returned to his face. "I'll do whatever it takes to protect the people you love. I'll even give Frank a free swipe at my face, as long as he promises to be a human when he hits me. I… I do feel bad about his ear."

Reyna glared at Axel. An oath on the River Styx wouldn't give any assurance for a heathen like him. But they could use all the help they could get, and Alabaster had just saved Clovis and bought them some time. They needed to use them. As maddening as it was, she wanted Axel around.

She withdrew her knife and stood up. "Frank still throws a mean punch as a human. Now, we need to plan out our next move, since we have more than one person who can go into the camp and Phobetor is temporarily out of commission."

Axel stood up beside her, pulled his shoulders back, and straightened his back. She forgot how much he towered over her when his Mist mask was down. He adjusted the Nemean Lion cloak to cover more of his skin, looking like a cat shaking off water.

Something dripped off her face onto her breastplate. She glanced down to find a red splatter. Until then, she hadn't registered the blood from where the Leonis Caput had grabbed her.

Axel reached over hesitantly and touched her cheek with one hand. The contrast of this gentle caress versus the snarl of claws from earlier was stark. His ears stooped down. "I'm sorry circumstances couldn't be better for us."

There was only one response to that: Reyna hit him in the face again.

This time, Axel paused. He closed his eyes, made a face, and looked playfully annoyed when he opened them.

He released her cheek. "So, Phobetor?" he asked, like they had never paused to brawl.

Reyna released a tense breath that she didn't realize she'd been holding. "Let's go to the war table—" She glanced over to the upturned chairs, knocked over sword rack, and skewed papers. She wondered what Calex and Kahale would think of this. "Let's clean up the war table and get back to strategizing before he depigafies and strikes again."

They separated, Axel going to fix the sword rack while she flipped over the chairs. She kept catching him glancing at her. Something felt tight in her chest. As she tossed some of the papers onto the table, she sighed. "Axel," she said.

He paused.

Without making eye contact with him, she said, "I'm sorry too."

So… the author desperately wants these two to *ehem* get together and make sure Axel can never join the huntresses of Artemis (for the good of humanity and prosperity). AND THEY KEEP REJECTING ALL THE SCENES I PLAN IT! *hisses* I hate dealing with rebellious characters…

Regardless, thanks for the read! I hope you enjoyed and are as frustrated as I am *glares at Reyna and Axel who scowl back at me as a reminder that they can kick my ass* *Author crawls under writing desk in fear of characters that may one day come to life*

Footnotes:

1: I wrote Mel an AU beach episode for her birthday that had Axel and Reyna as a side couple. (I'll eventually post it on here.)Her betacomment here was, "WHERE'S THE HOPE OF MY BEAUITFUL BEACH EPISODE?"

2: Titaness of memories.

3: Mel Betacomment: Is this their weird flirting or an actual threat?! I'm as confused as Pax!