Jason had no idea where the hell they were. A pack of empousai had attacked their group as they were attempting to cut through the Bronx, and though they'd managed to finish them off with no casualties, the small skirmish had thrown them off-track and left them hopelessly lost.

It was times like these that Jason regretted not taking Percy up on his offer of a tour of the city. New York was huge, and the further out you got, the less structured it became.

They were going north. He was capable of figuring out that much, at least. And the park they'd camped in last night had had a small map of the immediate area that they'd used to their best advantage. But they were beyond the map's scope now, and Jason wasn't sure how much farther they'd have to walk before they found a bridge or tunnel or something that they could use to get across the river.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, Percy had somehow managed to conjure up a freaking hurricane that had since slammed into the coastline with an almost familiar temper.

Everything was going to shit.

A group of venti swirled around the group, cackling in their high-pitched, breathy voices. They were obviously delighted to have been given free reign of the area during the storm, but Jason was in no mood to deal with them. He lashed out with his powers, cutting a path through the roaring winds and dispersing them with a suddenness that made Piper's ears pop.

Said daughter of Aphrodite looked over at her boyfriend in worry as he muttered angrily to himself under his breath. Jason's eyes were glowing an eerie blue as they always did when he used his powers, and that combined with the expression on his face cut quite the wrathful figure against the roiling storm clouds behind him. Catching her attention, Jason raised his voice slightly to be heard over the winds still pressing in on them, "I swear to the stone! If Percy wasn't my friend, I'd kill him!"

Piper was treated to a momentary flashback of the events in Kansas and blanched, not at all anxious to see a repeat any time soon. "Percy was only doing what he had to to escape", she said, stepping up to his side so that they could speak more normally, "Who knows what the mortals would have done to them if he hadn't."

Jason frowned and turned back to look at their group trudging along behind them. "Horrible things, most likely. Don't get me wrong, it's good they managed to get away, but was the hurricane really necessary? The mortals would have been no less impressed with a few dramatic peals of thunder."

Piper shrugged. "I don't think Percy's powers work that way. And besides, from what Annabeth told us, these guys wouldn't have believed anything but the real deal anyway."

Jason's expression seemed to grow more anxious at the shift in conversation, and he turned to look at her with some combination genuine worry and frustration in his blue eyes. "I don't know what we're going to do about this, Pipes. Reyna says the enchantments around New Rome seem to be holding for now, but it's not like we can just hide there forever. They'll figure out a way in, eventually."

Piper reached out and grabbed his hand, twining their fingers together. "Hey, listen. One step at a time, alright? We'll figure it out. We always do."

The corner of Jason's lips twitched ironically at that, his mind going back to the literal end of the world that had almost happened not even a year ago. She was right. If they could handle an evil primordial goddess, they could handle a couple of trigger-happy mortals.

(Annabeth's scream as Percy was shot echoed in his ears, but he shook it away. He wouldn't have to witness something like that again. He would make sure of it.)

Jason squeezed Piper's hand gratefully and kept hold of it as he focused back in on the problem at hand. "Where do you think we should go?", he asked seriously.

Piper sighed in disappointment as their comfortable bubble popped, but followed his lead nonetheless. "I'm not sure. There's bound to be a bridge or something we can use to cross the river if we just keep walking along the water, but to be honest, I'm not sure if that's the best route."

Jason frowned, squinting into the rain to see if he could spot anything like the bridge they were looking for. "What do you mean?". The general consensus among the different groups had been to get the hell out of New York and across the country to New Rome as fast as possible. To do that, they first had to cross the Hudson and get into New Jersey.

"Well–I mean–These are government agents, right? Like, the U.S. government?", she started uncertainly.

Jason huffed a surprised laugh. "Yeah, so what? We're in the U.S."

She frowned and shoved him with her shoulder slightly. "No! What I mean is that Canada's right there. I don't really know how the jurisdiction works and all that, but it's got to be way more complicated for them to try and follow us through a different country. Why don't we just head North and cut through Canada?"

Jason stopped short and turned to look at her in shock, excitement slowly lighting up his features for the first time in what felt like an age. "That's a great idea! And I'm sure that even if they could follow us across the border, they'd at least have fewer resources in a foreign country! How far away is Canada?"

Piper grinned. "I'm not sure. But I know New York's a bordering state. It can't be that hard to get there."

Jason nodded and turned back to the rest of the group who had by now caught up to them and were now huddling together for warmth. "Holly, Laurel", Jason called. The twin daughters of Nike looked up at him with matching pairs of intense brown eyes. "Change of plans", he said, eyes roving around the rest of the group so that he was addressing them, as well, "We're going to cut north into Canada to see if we can lose the agents who are following us at the border."

One of the younger girls, Chloe, daughter of Demeter, whimpered slightly at the news, lips turning almost blue from the combination of rain and December chill. "Can we get new jackets first?", she asked, shivering, "It's f-freezing."

Jason's expression softened immediately. "Of course", he agreed, and the younger kids in the group seemed to collectively breathe a sigh of relief. It was funny, he hadn't even noticed the cold, but it couldn't be more than 50º outside right now, and the rain from the storm was only making it worse.

Better jackets weren't the only necessity they were short on right now, either. Food and water was running low, too, and if they really wanted to get into Canada, they were going to need some form of transportation. He exchanged a glance with Piper, and she nodded, having likely come to the same conclusions he had.

"Alright", she started, "First things first. We need to get somewhere warm and stock up on food and water. Does anybody know this area? Is there a supermarket or a mall or something we can stop in?"

Nobody responded, but Jason didn't think it was likely anyway. The area they were currently walking through seemed pretty run-down, and the only thing he could see in their immediate vicinity that resembled an open business was an old pharmacy with fluorescent lights so dim he couldn't even properly tell if they were on.

"Okay, um… Plan B?"

They didn't have a Plan B. Jason was about to turn back to the group to help brainstorm for more ideas when something caught his eye. "Hey, wait, do you see that?", he asked, squinting through the rain towards where he could've sworn he'd just seen some sort of bright red sign.

"Yeah", Holly agreed uncertainly, joining him in frowning towards what he could now definitely make out as some sort of large building, "Is that a—"

"It's a hospital!", Laurel interrupted triumphantly. Holly scowled.

"We should head there", Piper said as the two descended into familiar bickering, "I bet there's a lot of stores nearby."

Jason shrugged. It was better than nothing. And even if Piper was wrong and there was nothing else over there, the hospital was bound to have some sort of coffee shop that they could hunker down in for a while.

The group continued on, with most of the younger kids trying to stick as close to Sera, their resident daughter of Hephaestus as possible. She didn't have any control over fire like Leo did, but like most of her half-siblings, she always seemed to radiate a fiery heat that the people in the group around her were more than grateful for.

Piper wiped some wet hair out of her face and squinted forward as the road ahead of them came to an intersection. "Look", she said, pointing towards the headlights going back and forth on the road ahead of them, "This must be some sort of main street."

"Whatever it is it's busy as hell! Are these people crazy? They do know we're in the middle of a hurricane right now, right? What are they all doing on the road?!"

Emir, one of the youngest of their group, shook his head and frowned in confusion as he looked around. "And why are there so many pizza places?"

Jason huffed a surprised laugh and ruffled the boy's hair. "I don't know why there are so many pizza places. I think it's a New Yorker thing. And the mortals may be crazy, but right now that craziness works in our favour. The more people that are walking around, the less conspicuous we'll look. C'mon."

Meira frowned, the daughter of Apollo still unhappy with the thought of the mortals' stupidity getting them injured but followed after the rest of the group as they crossed the street nonetheless.

None of them were in the mood to give themselves a headache trying to read street signs, so they followed the bright red of the hospital's helipad lights instead, walking against the wind down a busy main street until they reached another intersection.

"Bingo!", Laurel cried as she turned to her right and caught sight of a small shopping mall, "See? I told you if we kept going this way there'd be some shops or something!"

"No I said that", Holly protested, "You said that we should just go to the hospital."

"That's the same thing!"

"No it's not!", Holly insisted, "The hospital's that way. If we went like you said, we'd be going the wrong way!"

Laurel opened her mouth to continue arguing, but luckily for the rest of the group, Piper stepped between them before she could. "Okay, okay, that's enough. It doesn't matter who suggested what. What matters is that we found what we were looking for. We should hurry. We don't know how far behind those agents are."

That sobered everyone up quite quickly, and for once, the two sisters put their argument on hold. "Piper's right", Jason said, stepping forward, "We need to keep moving. Our priority right now is getting food and water, warmer clothes, and money. If we're going to get up into Canada, we'll probably have to take a train or something. And for that, we need money. Marco, have you got that covered?" The younger son of Hermes grinned wickedly and nodded, cracking his knuckles. "Good. Alright, we should split up. Marco, you take Holley and Chloe and try and get us some money. Don't get caught." Jason levelled the boy with a heavy look, and he nodded seriously in response. The last thing they needed right now was the local police getting involved on top of whichever federal agency was already chasing them.

"Piper", he continued, satisfied that they would be careful, "Can you take Laurel and Meira and try to find a camping or clothing store of some kind? If something happens while we're in Canada and we're forced to abandon the train idea, the cold will be our biggest enemy. Try and see if you can convince the clerk to give you the stuff for free."

Piper nodded, understanding what he meant by the word 'convince'. She didn't like using her charmspeak to take advantage of innocent people, especially if it might cost them their job, but desperate times called for desperate measures. They needed the supplies or they'd freeze to death before they got anywhere near the border.

"Alright", Jason continued, "I'll take Sera and Ben and head into the grocery store to grab some more food and water. We'll meet right back out here when we're done. If you get caught, just run, and we'll meet up with you later on." He gave the group one last sweeping look before nodding assuredly to himself and straightening back up.

"We'll be alright", Piper said, trying to inject as much comfort into her voice as possible. She could see the fear the younger kids in their group were trying their best to hide and wished she could help them more, but there was nothing any of them could do but keep running.

"It'll be fine".

—

Mrs Khatri was sitting in her kitchen making tea when there was a knock at the door. Her husband was working late today—he'd told her so—and none of her kids would be back from school until later in the afternoon. One of her neighbours then? The knock came again, this time louder and faster. She sighed tiredly and set her mug back down on the kitchen counter before moving to open it.

The door opened to reveal her eldest, Shounak, shivering and soaked to the bone with a group of equally cold and haggard-looking teenagers she'd never met before crowding the hall behind him. Her eyes caught on one boy in particular who looked to be passed out cold, arms slung over the shoulders of two of his friends on either side of him and head hanging limply against his chest. Her eyes had just caught on the alarmingly large blood stain on the front of his hoodie when her son spoke: "Mama, they needed help."

Annabeth held her breath as Shounak and his mother seemed to have some sort of silent conversation. The woman was wearing light blue scrubs, marking her as some sort of medical professional. Hopefully, if nothing else, she'd be willing to at least let them try and heal Percy before sending them on their way.

Annabeth shifted to get a better grip on Percy, and Mrs Khatri's eyes shot to her at the motion. They locked gazes, and whatever the woman saw in her seemed to be enough because a few seconds later she stepped to the side and gestured them in. "Thank you", she breathed, the relief almost enough to make her deflate.

"There's a bathroom down the hallway to the left. There might be some first-aid supplies in the cabinet, but I'm not sure…", Shounak trailed off, his earlier hesitance now returning after his brief stand-off with his mom.

"That's alright", Will said, interjecting quickly and gesturing for Keir and Annabeth to carry Percy into the bathroom, "Do you have any blankets or towels we could use? We wouldn't want to get your furniture all wet."

"Yeah…" Shounak nodded and turned to rifle through a nearby closet, grateful for the task to keep his hands busy.

Will turned and followed after the others into the bathroom. "Alright, see if you can get him in the tub." The bathtub was set into a small alcove in the wall, so it took a bit of awkward manoeuvring, but Annabeth and Keir were able to set the unconscious son of Poseidon down without too much trouble. Will, in the meantime, had set his med bag on the counter and opened it up to begin rifling through his supplies.

"Keir", Annabeth started, doing her best to ignore the still-constant dripping of blood, "Why don't you go back out into the living room and help Katie and Julia. Tell them to get everyone changed into a dry set of clothes. The last thing we need right now is more people getting sick."

Keir nodded and stood silently, shooting Annabeth a shaky smile before leaving to do as she'd asked.

"Will", she said, turning towards the healer, "What do you need me to do?" Annabeth's hands were shaking, whether that be from the cold, the roller coaster of emotions she'd been riding for the past couple of days, or some combination of both she didn't know. It didn't really matter. She had to keep moving, had to keep her hands busy, because if she stopped, she wasn't sure how she was ever going to get started again.

Will seemed to understand that, as his eyes softened slightly and he gestured towards the tub. "Run a warm bath. I'm not sure why he's not shivering, but I'm not willing to find out. And see if you can get his hoodie and shirt off, I want to take another look at those wounds on his chest and back."

Annabeth nodded and turned to do as he'd asked immediately. The tub was pretty big, thankfully, and she quickly took off Percy's socks and shoes before beginning to mess with the water temperature controls. They didn't have a bathtub back at their apartment or at camp, so it took a fair bit longer than it probably should have for her to figure out how it worked and get it running. By the time she turned around to start on her next task, Will had finished retrieving whatever it was he needed from his bag and was able to help her.

He threw a clump of herbs into the water after bruising them slightly with his fingers, and the room quickly filled with a pungent scent that reminded her vaguely of the infirmary. It was comforting, in a subconscious sort of way, and that combined with the heat from the water helped to get her shaking hands under control.

Will set his stethoscope on the ground by his feet and reached over, working with Annabeth to get Percy's now blood-stained hoodie and the shirt he was wearing beneath it over his head. Will frowned as the bruising on Percy's chest and side were revealed, pressing down lightly around the edges.

"What? What is it?", Annabeth asked, watching him intently.

"The swim across the channel should have healed this bruising", he answered distractedly, "And even if it didn't, it's somehow gotten worse than it was the first time I examined it." Annabeth didn't know what conclusion she was supposed to draw from that information, and Will must have sensed her frustration as he quickly continued to explain. "It's called thrombocytopenia. It means his blood's too thin. I'm guessing him overextending his powers is what's caused it, but I'm not sure how. I suspected that that's what was happening but this is worse than I was expecting. He'll be out for at least a day, and I don't want to risk giving him any nectar or ambrosia in case that makes it worse."

Annabeth nodded slowly, absorbing all of that information as quickly as she could. "So is there anything we can do?", she asked eventually.

Will nodded, gesturing to the herbs still floating in the water. "Those promote blood clotting. There's a hymn I can sing to my father that might help if I use them as a focus point. How well it works really depends on how well He's listening, though." There was a dangerous spark in Annabeth's eyes at the mention of the gods, one he unfortunately recognised. "Help me sit him forward?", he asked hurriedly before she could say something they'd both regret.

Annabeth glared at him as though she knew what he was doing but complied anyway, helping him to push Percy forward from where he was slumped against the back of the tub so that Will could examine his back. He'd just started to press lightly against the slightly smaller bruise on one of his shoulder blades when the door opened behind them.

Shounak stood in the doorway, a towel and a set of his old clothes held loosely in his arms. He'd spoken with one of Percy's friends that he didn't recognise from school, Katie, and she'd mentioned that Percy had lost his bag and so didn't have a change of clothes like the rest of them did. Percy was at least a few inches taller than he was, but he figured that some slightly-too-small dry clothes were better than well-sized wet ones and decided to bring them in anyway. 'Maybe, though', he thought from his place frozen in the doorway, 'he should have just left them outside'.

The same blond-haired kid from earlier was helping Annabeth to sit Percy forward in the tub, and despite looking no older than 15, seemed to be the one taking charge of his medical care.

The bathwater had turned a ruddy pink from the blood still dripping from his nose, and Shounak could see from where he was the small traces of blood in his ears as well. But as concerning as all of that was, it wasn't what cause him to freeze.

His back...

He'd seen it from a distance back at the pool, and it had been horrifying enough then, but up close it seemed even worse. The blond kid was poking at a large bruise that radiated out from the middle of his right shoulder blade, and Shounak frowned as he saw it. He'd never seen anything like it before. No fall could have caused that. So what, then? A baseball bat?

Annabeth clearer her throat and he snapped back to reality. He flushed in embarrassment and offered out the contents of his hands. "Sorry... I figured you guys would need some of this, too."

Annabeth nodded in thanks, her expression softening slightly as she stood up and took the offered materials. "Yeah, thanks."

Behind her, the blond kid shifted Percy's torso until his back was resting against the edge of the tub and took the stethoscope from around his neck to begin listening to his heart. Shounak caught sight of an even larger bruise in the center of his chest and turned away.

"What happened to him?", he asked before his brain could catch up to how insensitive a question it was and stop him.

Annabeth barked out a bitter laugh and turned to set the towels and spare set of clothes on the counter behind her. "You'll have to be more specific."

Shounak frowned, and turned as the blond kid stood up from where he'd been crouched on the ground next to the tub, apparently finished with his exam. "Annabeth", he said seriously, before continuing in a language Shounak didn't recognize.

It was annoying that they'd switched languages right in front of him and reminded him a little bit too much of when he'd first learned English back in Elementary school, but he supposed this was a rather touchy subject.

"Do it", she said eventually after what sounded like a short argument, "He was at the pool when they tried to take Percy, so he already knows."

They were talking about him, obviously. Trying to decide what they should and shouldn't tell him. He knew they had a lot of secrets and that they kept those secrets for their own safety, but he was putting he and his family in harm's way to help them. The least they could do was tell him even the bare minimum of what was going on.

"Fine", the blond kid shrugged and crouched back down next to Percy.

Annabeth explained before he'd even had a change to question the encounter. "Will has healing powers", she said, gesturing towards where the newly-named Will was now hovering over Percy, "He's going to try to use them on Percy to see if it helps. We were just discussing whether we should try and get you out of the room first." She looked over at him then, and Shounak was momentarily shocked by the piercing intensity of her gaze before she looked away again. "There's no point in trying to hide it from you. Percy seemed to like you, and you've only helped us so far. You didn't have to do that."

Her tone was grateful, and Shounak nodded in acceptance of the unspoken thanks. "The Avengers are my heroes but… they're hunting you. I didn't think that was right." He looked down in curiosity as Will started to hum something under his breath, the palms of his hands glowing with a faint golden light.

Annabeth was watching the proceedings carefully, scanning her fiance's face for any sign of change, but she was still aware enough to give an undignified snort at his words. "You're right, it's not, but that's just the way that it is. People like us are hunted from the day we're born until the day we die."

Will was still singing, or chanting, or whatever it was he was doing, but the monotone of it was washed to the background. The more of their story he heard, the more heartsick he felt. What kind of life was that? Always prepared for the worst, looking over your shoulder in case someone tried to kill you for something you had absolutely no control over. Shounak took another look at the scarred skin of Percy's chest and felt like he was going to be sick. "Is that who did that to him? Hunters? Have you all been hurt like that?"

"Monsters", Annabeth answered shortly and hesitated for a careful second before nodding slowly, "And yes. Percy's had it worse than most, but none of us have had easy lives." She rolled up the sleeves of her jacket and the shirt beneath it to reveal forearms scarred with what looked like hundreds of tiny little cuts. Shounak once again found himself at a loss as to how one could even get an injury like that. Maybe she'd tried to army crawl through a pile of broken glass? That was the only possibility he could come up with.

"I'm sorry", he said simply, and the inadequacy of the statement tasted like ash on his tongue.

She just shrugged sadly and rolled her sleeves back down. "It's not your fault."

Beneath them, Will stopped his chanting, and Annabeth's attention immediately snapped back to him. "Did it work?", she asked seriously, crouching down next to the tub beside him.

Will heaved a tired-sounding sigh and let himself drop so that he was sitting on the ground with his back against the tub. "Yeah, I think so. His nose has stopped bleeding, and the bruises around the gunshot wounds have gotten smaller. He needs to rest, but I think he'll be fine."

Annabeth let out a sigh of relief and slumped down until she was sitting on the edge of the tub. "Thanks, Will", she said gratefully, reaching over to brush some of the wet hair out of Percy's face.

"Of course", he replied simply, "I never should have let him push himself that far. You know, your fiance is concerningly good at hiding when he's in pain."

Annabeth sighed tiredly and nodded in agreement. "I know… we're working on it."

The bathroom descended into a tired silence, and Shounak felt even more than before that he was intruding on something private. He hadn't missed the earlier mention of a gunshot wound, but the two others in front of him seemed completely exhausted and likely weren't in the mood for anymore questions. Besides, he had to go back inside and convince his mother to let the group stay for at least a night. They looked like they could use the rest.

A/N:

H-Hey guys! How's it going? How've you been? It's been a while, hasn't it? Yeah… sorry about that. All my ND people out there know how it is, though. The hyperfixation goes where it wants to, and I'm just the poor sucker forced to follow it.

I'm back now, though! I'd like to say better than ever, but considering I haven't done very much writing lately, that would probably be a lie. I've graduated out of the hell that is high school, so I should be able to start updating more often again! Freedom!

Anyway… onto the chapter. What do you guys think? It took me absolute ages to write the beginning scene with Jason and Piper and I'm still not really happy with it. I never clicked as well with them as characters as I did with Percy and Annabeth (probably because I didn't get to grow up with them. Rick really did all of the Seven dirty with that short-ass exposition, but whatever). So… yeah. I am definitely open to some constructive feedback on that front.

Also! I don't know if I've said this before, but if you have any demigod OC's you want me to include I am open to suggestions. I need to bulk up some of the groups and I've thrown a few of my own in there already, but I'm always open to more. Just thought I'd put that out there.

Next up, we'll have Percy's confrontation with the gods and a switch back to the Avengers' POV!

See you soon! Goodbye, my lovelies! :3