In which Luke and Percy talk some more, and also, Luke can be kind of merciless when it comes to stopping Percy from doing something reckless and stupid.
Replies:
Undeath9087: Yeah, I'm good at the rough stuff. And yeah the talk will come soon enough. They need to actually discuss boundaries and things.
Guest: I'd say yes in this AU- that or they're connected to other mythologies- but though they're legacies it's very distant, so distant that they're generally considered normal mortals but they do have some godly blood- and very very rarely someone like Sally or Rachel pops up with slightly stronger ties to their distantly Greek sides.
Guest: But that would be too easy!

When Percy came around she was in the little infirmary, she blinked slowly as she looked at the ceiling- her side was aching a little- and she slowly moved her hand towards her side.

She didn't reach the wound before she felt fingers curling around her wrist and a familiar voice said, "Woah- woah Sephie. No touching." and Percy turned her head, a slight frown on her lips as she saw that Luke was there, sat in a chair next to the bed she was led on.

"Luke? Did I pass out?"

"Yes." Luke nodded and he reached with his free hand to brush a stray curl out of Percy's face, "You gave us all a scare." he shook his head. "Octavian must have grabbed one of Rachel's knives, you must have missed one and he grabbed it on his way back to dry land. He got a lucky throw, caught your side."

"I- I know I felt a pain but we were running for our lives." Percy said slowly, "How bad was it."

"The knife was still inside of you when you reached the ship." Luke shook his head, "It was not a nice sight." he squeezed Percy's wrist gently before he released it. "Will's done what he can for you. You should take a dip once you're with it enough to get yourself out of the bed. It was a nasty wound but you're bandaged up and you're going to be okay."

"Right." Percy nodded, "Is everyone else okay?"

"Jason and Thalia blacked out while we were rushing you here." Luke admitted, "They used a lot of power making that storm to fend off the Romans. But that's just exhaustion, they'll be out of commission for a good few hours but they'll recover with a bit of time. There was no risk of either of them dying."

"Thank the gods." Percy pushed herself up slowly, wincing at the pain in her side. "Remind me to pummel Octavian if we run into him again. I kinda regret not just killing him back during War Games."

"Oh?" Luke raised an eyebrow, "Uh- can I have some more context please?" he looked faintly amused though, "I assume you had a perfect chance."

"Well, it was more after War Games." Percy admitted, rolling her shoulders as she slowly swung her legs over the edge of the bed, "Frank, Hazel and I whooped some ass, we turned the tide- and our Cohort was kinda known as the loser Cohorts so we were the one the others all picked on- which by the way, pissed me off like nothing else. Anyway, we won, and then we heard yelling and Gwen- she was a Centurion for the Fifth, she'd been stabbed, in the back.
Most likely just after the games finished."

Luke sucked in a sharp breath at that, clearly realising where Percy was going with the story, "She'd been stabbed with a pilum." she told him, "And Octavian didn't have his." she shook her head. "He- he was pissed off at the Fifth, I humiliated him early in the game, he screamed like a little bitch and then-" Percy shook her head, "And he did that and he didn't even look ashamed or sorry he looked interested. Like- like she was just some science experiment and I got so angry and it felt so good- watching him feel that fear-"

"You used your powers." Luke stared at her with wide eyes, "You used your powers on him,"

"I choked him with the water from his own blood." Percy stated honestly, "Don't please don't look at me like that I- I know how fucked up it is okay." she looked away, "I know my powers are dangerous. I know I- I know what could happen if I lose control." and she'd wanted to. She'd wanted to kill him in that moment. "Bianca stopped me. She snapped me out of it-" her brows furrowed- Alabaster had been there too hadn't he? She shuddered slightly as she remembered that look on his face.

He'd enjoyed seeing her like that, seeing her use her powers to- well, to torture Octavian as a punishment for what he'd done. He'd downright enjoyed it. That thought was like a bucket of- well not ice water because that wouldn't effect Percy, but she imagined that was what it would feel like to anyone else.

"Percy." Luke's voice was soft, "I- what you did- your powers they don't make you evil." he said quietly, "They just- you've been through a lot- and I know I can't understand any of it really. I might have seen you going through some of it but- I'm not the one who experience it and I'm trying to understand that but- it's not- you're not a bad person because you felt like that-"

"I enjoyed torturing him Luke."

"He- from the sounds of it he killed that Gwen girl." Luke pointed out, "He killed someone out of spite and rage- someone who should have been an ally- regardless of the games they were playing." he shook his head, "It- I won't say that it was right, what you did, but I understand why you did it. And I don't think you'd enjoy hurting someone who hadn't done something horribly wrong."

"... Thank you." Percy let out a slow breath that she hadn't realised she'd been holding. "And- he did. She was dead, but of course since Thanatos was chained and all that she came back pretty much right away- stopped Bianca and I mid argument."

"Argument-"

"Well it was barely an argument- I was annoyed that she stopped me 'cause I was still pissed with-" the ship lurched suddenly and Percy yelled as she was almost launched off the bed from the force of it- if Luke hadn't lunged and caught her she'd have ended up hitting the floor very very hard- as it was Luke cushioned the blow, his arms wrapping tightly around her- though even with Luke cushioning her it was painful- her side felt like it was on fire.

"What the fuck was that?" Luke gasped the words and Percy shook her head.

"I don't know-"

"You're bleeding again." Luke's hand pressed against Percy's side- and Percy glanced down- sure enough blood was seeping through the fabric of the shirt
she'd put on that morning.

"Oh great." she grumbled the words, "That's probably not a good sign-" and the ship lurched again- and again- as if something was shaking it.

Percy paled as she remembered something. "Oh gods- the nereids- they warned me that Keto could send sea monsters after us- so much happened and I
blacked out before I could tell you guys."

"Oh no." Luke looked horrified, "Oh that is not good." he managed to drag them both to their feet- and when Percy cast a glance towards the other beds she saw that sets of rails had popped up- they probably responded automatically when it was rough sailing- which had stopped Jason and Thalia from being thrown around like Percy had been- hers probably hadn't activated because she'd been sat up and about to stand.

"We need to get you back on the bed and stop the bleeding-"

"But Luke-" Percy's eyes widened, "What about the others-"

"Percy you're bleeding a lot you can't help like this-"

"I don't care!" Percy snapped the words, "I have to-"

"You could bleed out Percy look at yourself you can't even stand up straight!"

"You say that as if it would be a bad thing-"

Luke's fist slammed into Percy's side- he didn't hit the wound but given the fact that her whole side was hurting- well it was bad enough, and she let out a shriek of pain, doubling over- which let Luke scoop her up and drop her onto the nearest bed. "You are bleeding." his voice was almost a snarl, "If we don't stop it you could bleed out! I am not letting that happen no matter how suicidally reckless you're being!" he screamed the words- and Percy reeled back as though they were physical blows, her mouth snapping shut as she stared at her big brother- who was pale, almost shaking with fury. The white scar on his face seemed even more vivid than it usually did, stark against the tanned skin, which was tight with fear, worry and anger.

Percy felt almost guilty- there was pain in those eyes too- and she was in too much pain to struggle as Luke staggered over to the supplies and pulled out
some fresh dressings and bandages.

It didn't take him long to cut away the bloody dressings- and they really were soaked- and Percy shifted onto her side so that he could clean and dress the wound- she couldn't see it herself but- she was willing to admit that there was a lot of blood- and she was feeling a teensy bit light headed by the time Luke was pressing the dressings hard against the wound to try and stem the bleeding- and then he got to work re bandaging the wound, a grim silence falling between them- at some point there was another much harsher lurch- but Luke had braced himself for that and he surged forward, using his own body to pin Percy to the bed so that she didn't go flying again.

The silence between them was icy as the chaos stopped and Luke was able to finish his bandaging.

It was maybe ten minutes after that final lurch that Will and Nico came rushing down to the infirmary, both of them looking incredibly stressed out.

"What happened?" Luke didn't even give them time to speak before he was gasping the question-and Will and Nico exchanged worried looks.

"Some sort of sea monster." Will said, looking tense, "It's gone now, Leo managed to throw some Greek fire down it's throat but-"

"But what?" Percy frowned, pressing her hand to her side- which was a special new kind of agony. "What happened you two why do you look so worried?"

"Frank, Hazel and Leo are gone." Nico spoke up, his voice strained, "Not dead but- they fell into the water and we don't know where they are now."

"Oh gods." Percy felt like she was about to throw up. "Oh gods. I have to look for them-"

"Wait!" Luke shook his head, "Just- let Will check you over first. Please-"

"What-" Will frowned, noticing the way Percy was clutching her side, "What happened? Did you reopen the wound?"

"I didn't mean to- I was sat up and the ship jolted and I went flying."

"It was bleeding a lot." Luke spoke up "I had to stop her from running up to the deck to find out what was going on-"

"Ugh." Will shook his head, "You Jacksons are going to be the death of me you know that." he moved to Percy's side, pulling up her shirt, "You did a good job with the bandages at least Luke."

"Should I go get some nectar?" Nico eyed Percy worriedly, "I know we want to ration it but-"

"Oh come on." Percy rolled her eyes, "Just get me up on deck and toss me into the water and I'll be fine. Honestly you guys worry far too much-"

"Percy you were at risk of bleeding out before." Will looked like he was contemplating strangling her. "And if you die then think about those idiots." he pointed
towards Nico and Luke, which made Percy wince.

"Alright alright I get the point. I will let you fix me up. You have ten minutes, if you're not done by then then I'm going up and diving in anyway. I need to find my baby brother and my friends-"

"They're alive." Nico repeated. "I can feel it Percy. They're definitely not dead."

"Yeah, but how long do they have before they are?"