A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
"Percy?"
Jason, the man whom Percy had pointed his sword at, took no hesitation of Percy's distraction towards Annabeth's voice and flew upwards using his wind magic. He landed softly by the unknown pregnant woman being helped by Annabeth.
"What is going on?" Annabeth crossed her arms and looked at everyone.
Percy sheathed his sword and hurried to Annabeth's side, subconsciously slightly putting himself between Annabeth and Jason.
"A misunderstanding," Jason said, raising his hands to show he meant no harm.
"Jason," the strange woman said worriedly, tugging at his arm.
Her eyes darted between the two, trying to gauge the situation.
"It's all right, dear," the wind mage soothed the woman Percy assumed to be his lover. Then he noticed his lover's ankle injury. "What happened?"
His eyes glanced up at Annabeth wonderingly. Percy's grip tightened on his sword in case things went south.
"My ankle sprained during the crowd trampling. Miss Anna here was helping me get back home," Jason's lover explained.
Jason's face relaxed a little, though he was still concerned about her injury.
Percy looked at Annabeth as she mouthed 'pseudonym.' But unfortunately, Jason already knew who he was.
"Ah, then I must thank you, miss, for helping my wife. I am Jason." He bowed his head slightly.
Annabeth nodded back. "Nice to meet you, Jason."
The other woman introduced herself as Piper, Jason's wife. As Jason introduced Percy to her, Piper's eyes widened a fraction. Jason must have told her about him, Percy surmised, as well as his "special" abilities.
"And I apologize, Sir Percy," Jason bowed slightly. "It was not my intention to harm you in any way. I was just surprised."
"You said I was supposed to be dead. What the hell does that mean?" He growled.
"About a week ago, Prince Octavian sent out an official statement that you were...deceased. Quite a few of us knights didn't believe it, but when you didn't appear for duty, those of us thought Prince Octavian's words might be true. Rumors between the commanders of each battalion were that should you be alive, we were to kill on sight. But I assure you, I am truly glad that you are alive and well," Jason reassured him. "I thought I had been seeing things when I saw you. But there is no way I could forget my savior's face."
"Hold on, am I the only one who's lost here?" Annabeth frowned.
"I, too, would like an explanation," the other woman said.
Jason looked over his shoulder at the mouth of the alleyway.
"It's not safe here. Let's head back to our place so we can explain more."
Jason and Piper lead them stealthily through the alleyway to a quieter part of the town before ushering them quietly into their house. As Piper closed the curtains and lit candles for light, Jason explained how he had met Percy.
Jason was the Commander of the Third Battalion while Percy had been under the First Battalion. The Third Battalion was composed of commoners who were able to join the army through swordsmanship or magic abilities, while the First and Second were usually children of nobles. The Third Battalion was often looked down upon for their commoner blood, but Jason had admired Percy for treating all knights the same, regardless of their origin. Perhaps it was because Percy was born with half royal blood and half commoner blood.
Both battalions had been sent to subjugate invaders from a neighboring kingdom. Jason had heard rumors about the "Beast of Galvador," but it was only until Jason was fighting alongside Percy when the wind mage realized the true extent of the "Beast's" power. Now Jason was taking a vacation in his hometown of Hedgewood.
"Sir Percy disobeyed orders from Prince Octavian and froze an entire troop of invaders in place, saving half of my Third Battalion who were intentionally lured into being human shields. You should have seen him. He was absolutely brilliant," Jason admired.
Annabeth piped up. "Oh yeah, we fought off that crazy prince's men. I knew Percy was a knight, but I hadn't seen his true skills at that point."
Annabeth sent Percy a smile to his relief. It was strange to him that there was now an addition of another person who didn't totally view him as a monster.
"Indeed. My men are like my family. What Sir Percy did was essentially saving my family members. I will always consider Sir Percy my savior." Jason added.
"Hold on back to what you said, Annabeth. You fought off Octavian's men?" Piper asked.
Annabeth looked at Percy. A glance of understanding passed through them. Annabeth began telling Jason and Piper the story of how she met Percy.
"You said Octavian was planting explosives, not caring that he was going to have the blood of civilians on his hands?" Jason furrowed his brows.
Piper and Jason looked at each other. Slowly, Piper turned around and began pulling something from underneath her dress. When Piper turned back around, she was no longer pregnant, her tummy much flatter than it had been before.
Instead, Piper had pulled out something bulky and wrapped in white cloth that she had been using to masquerade as as a pregnant woman. Curiously, Percy and Annabeth leaned forward as the object was unraveled.
Annabeth let out a gasp of surprise and Percy's chair scraped harshly on the floor as he stood up. It was a bomb.
"How did you get this?" Percy demanded.
"Relax, it's defunct." Piper assuaged them. "I managed to defuse this one before I took it. "
Percy studied the explosive device with its wires. It looked to be the same make and type of bomb that Percy had destroyed before Octavian had sent out the command to kill Percy. He noted a red triangle as if the maker had left his or her trademark.
Annabeth frowned. "Then the strange sounds we heard were different than that of the fireworks?"
Jason nodded. "You're correct. The horses were spooked not by the fireworks but by the bombs exploding underneath the bridge that's in the central part of the town square. Many people could have been hurt. I managed to contain most of the explosion using my wind magic, but I'm sure that Octavian's men will be looking into seeing who is capable of stopping the planned explosion. We planted some false evidence that the bombs accidentally fell into the river, instead of destroying the bridge, but whether Octavian's men will believe it is another story."
"Why would they plant bombs here?" Percy asked.
To his knowledge, Octavian had planted bombs to flush out bandits. But Hedgewood had nothing of that sort to offer. It was just a small town.
"Probably because of my father," Piper said sadly. "He's the chief who overlooks the town, Baron McLean. My father disagreed with some of King Polybotes' policies, so I'm sure Prince Octavian and his men have trying to show that my father is incompetent at governing his land. They are hoping that the people living in our land will overthrow my father so the king can take the land legally."
"There are more explosives like this, I'm sure." Jason added. "We think we found out the location of the warehouse, but it's heavily guarded. And my men in the Third Battalion are not all here. We're hoping to draw the men out with more explosives tomorrow with tonight's failure. The festival continues for another two days, so I'm sure those bastards will try another opportunity to hurt as many people as they can."
Jason's eyes looked at Percy meaningfully.
"You want our help," Percy surmised.
"We would be grateful," Jason admitted. "We could use someone with your expertise. But I know you have your own troubles to deal with."
"Well, I'm in," Annabeth chimed. "And so is Mrs. O' Leary. I think both of us are itching for another crack at those bastards."
The black cat twitched her whiskers in reply as her claws extended and retracted.
Percy looked at Annabeth. What Jason was describing was dangerous, and he didn't want Annabeth to be hurt or get involved in any way. But he could already see the stubbornness in Annabeth's eyes.
Percy sighed. "All right, tomorrow night it is."
He, too, could not get over the fact that his father and half-brother were willing to sacrifice their own citizens in order to keep their control over Galvador. Percy narrowed his eyes. He would not let them get away without punishment.
"This house is a bit on the small side since this is a safehouse," Piper explained, a little embarrassed. "But I placed fresh bedding in the extra room and had Jason pump hot water for a bath should you like it."
Annabeth hid a small smile. Perhaps it was a small hint that she and Percy did not smell their best after sleeping a few days out in the forest. Already, she was impressed with Piper, who was descended from nobility but was not afraid to get her hands dirty to protect her people. Piper must have had a great relationship with her father. Annabeth caught herself feeling the inklings of jealousy.
Piper led them to a small but clean room where a bed was set up and a wooden bathtub was full of steaming water behind a partition.
"I'm sorry, we only have the one extra bed, but I'm sure you two would be okay with it! Please let me know if there's anything amiss."
Annabeth stared at the one single bed in the room and felt her cheeks flame up. Piper had probably mistaken that Annabeth and Percy were…
"Piper?" Jason called from the bottom of the stairs.
"Coming!" Piper turned towards the frozen pair. "I'll go see what Jason needs. In the meantime, please freshen up and let me know if you need anything."
Before either Annabeth or Percy could resolve the misunderstanding, Piper had left them standing awkwardly in the room with one bed.
Percy coughed. "I'll go see what I can help Jason with. You...can take a bath first," he muttered before quickly leaving before she could protest.
Meanwhile, Piper had only been talking with Jason about tomorrow's plan when Percy came back downstairs, face a little red. She surmised in her head that no matter how strong Percy's abilities as a mage were, as a man, he was a little...well, fast.
Annabeth washed up quickly, her mind a little flustered. She made up her mind to convince Percy to take the bed, as he was still recovering from his wounds. Percy would have none of this, having secured a few extra blankets to bank down on the floor. And so, Annabeth curled herself deep in the blankets, falling asleep to Percy's steady breathing.
Uncle Randolph was chasing her down the tower stairs. But she stumbled over something as her feet hit against an object.
As Annabeth picked herself up, she realized what the "object" was. Her father, Frederick Aislin, stared back at her with empty eyes.
Then her body could no longer move as though she was frozen in place. Randolph's earth magic was causing mounds of earth to harden around her hands and feet.
Wake up, Annabeth told herself. She felt instinctively that what she was experiencing was merely a dream, but she could not force her body to listen to what she wanted to do. Grimacing, Annabeth tried to force her dreams to travel into the direction that she wanted. But her own fears and nightmare were too strong.
Malcolm appeared, his face gaunt and tired. Suddenly, she was pushed by Malcolm. She was falling from the magic tower again, like she had been falling when she threw herself out the window to escape from her uncle. The wind whistled past her ears and the ground was coming up-
Annabeth woke up, her throat dry.
"Careful there," a soothing voice said.
Percy's face appeared above her. A cup of cool water was pressed against her lips. Gratefully, Annabeth sipped the refreshing water that slid against her dry throat.
"Did I wake you up?" She asked. "I'm sorry."
Once again, Percy had to rouse her from her nightmares. Annabeth chastised herself for being so soft. So weak. Those were insults her father used on her and her brother most often.
"It's all right," Percy said, softly. "I can go down and see if there's any lavender tea to help with your rest."
As he moved to get off the bed, Annabeth found her hand reaching out to tug on Percy's shirt. Both of them looked down at the slim fingers grasping the white cloth.
"I don't want to disturb Jason or Piper," Annabeth said, half embarrassed at her emboldened action.
She scooted a little over the bed so there was some space on the bed.
"And...I don't want to be alone right now. Could...could you stay?"
A/N: Lmao, the PJO characters in this story are so OOC compared to other stories. I guess that's what happens when they're original characters and you have to squish them to fit the PJO universe.
Anyways, I was thinking of releasing my new PJO story in the next couple weeks. I'm hoping to store enough chapters during this summer so I can release a chapter once a week and just focus on my studies. Maybe Sunday for Taming of a Beast and Wednesday for the new story (Monday/Thursday depending on where you live)? Let me know if that update schedule works or if there are days that are better because that's when you have more time to read stories.
As always, stay safe and healthy, and see you all next chapter!